I’m so pleased to have fellow Kensington author Meredith Bond visiting the blog today. Meredith writes my first love – Regency Romance – as well as YA Fantasy and Regency-set paranormal romance. She’s a very interesting person as well as an accomplished writer and teacher. I’m eager to find out more!
I see that you’re a writing teacher. Do you teach fiction or non-fiction, and how does that affect your own writing life?
I teach fiction writing – I take my students, through a series of courses, from how to organize yourself to write and start a novel in a class called “Start Write”, through the bigger concepts in fiction writing (developing characters, setting, story structure, etc.) in “Chapter One”, to the narrower aspects (POV, dialogue, show and tell, etc.) in “Craft of Writing”, to editing, right on through to publishing. I’ve even got a book out so that others can “take” two of my writing courses (Chapter One and Craft of Writing) called Chapter One.
Teaching is fantastic because as I teach each a class, I go through my own writing to make sure I’m applying the lesson I’m teaching. It really keeps me on my toes!
Tell us about your series, The Merry Men Quartet. Which book is up first, and what’s it about?
The Merry Men Quartet is a really fun series of Regency romances about four friends and how each find love. They were first published by Kensington Publishers, but now I’ve gotten the rights back to two of them, and in another few years I’ll get the rights back to the other two. They were published out of order to begin with, and unfortunately will be again just because of the way I’m getting them back (so disappointed!).
The first book to be re-published will actually be the first book chronologically – An Exotic Heir (originally published as Love of My Life). It’s the story of a sweet English girl, Cassandra Renwick, who flees to her parents in Calcutta, India, when she is treated badly by a member of the ton. She soon finds herself fascinated by the city – and her guide, the dark and mysterious Julian Ritchie. Julian has always faced discrimination for being only half-English, especially from Lady Renwick. When he meets Cassandra, he sees her as the perfect opportunity to get back at her mother – by making Cassandra fall in love with him. He soon finds that payback can be painful when you get caught in your own trap.
We all have different reasons for loving the Georgian and Regency periods. What are some of yours?
I love the juxtaposition of strict rules and the amount of flouting of those rules that goes on in Regency novels – it creates so many opportunities for some great stories.
What’s up next in your writing life?
I’m actually working hard on three projects, if you can believe it! I’m desperately trying to finish a short story (the third story of my Storm series), which I’m going to submit to the next WG2E anthology. (I published a short story in their last one, Tales From The Mist.) I’m editing the next book in the Merry Men Quartet, A Dandy in Disguise, which I hope to publish in April. And I’m working on a New Adult Paranormal trilogy (two books are done, but for some editing and the third is half written) – it’s a medieval tied to the Arthurian myths and loads of fun! If I can get those done, I’ll be the happiest person because I’ve been working on them for about four years now!
Thanks so much for that great interview! Readers, Meredith is giving away a copy of Book One in her quartet, An Exotic Heir. Since Meredith’s book is a historical not set in England, let’s talk about that. What other countries would you like to see a historical romance take place in? One person who comments will win a copy of An Exotic Heir.