| I would like to welcome Gaelen Foley back to The Romance Readers Connection as our May Author Of The Month. This is the second time Ms. Foley has taken the time to answer our questions, although this time we've tried to focus more on her character Jack Knight’s story, the last of the Knight Miscellany. As mentioned below, HIS WICKED KISS, is set to be released this month.
Val: For those readers who aren't familiar with you and your work could you please explain a little about yourself?
Gaelen: Hello to everyone at The Romance Readers Connection! Thanks for your interest in my books. My name is Gaelen Foley, and I write sensual, emotionally intense Regency Historicals for Ballantine. My tenth book, HIS WICKED KISS, is a May 2006 release. Hm, what else can I tell you about me? My educational background is in English Literature and philosophy. I live in the rolling green hill country of Western PA with my own real-life hero, Eric, and my "writing assistant," Bubble, a little white fluff of a bichon frise. I'll be signing books at the RWA National Conference at Atlanta (where I used to live!) so I hope to be able to meet some of you there.
Val: What does your typical writing day consist of? Do you have a strict 9-5 writing schedule or just run with it when it strikes you?
Gaelen: Writing is the biggest part of my life, and all told, takes up about 70 hours a week including research and promotion. A normal day starts with me grabbing a cup of good strong coffee (I'm a coffee fiend) and sitting down at my computer at 8:00 A.M. Morning is my most creative time of the day. I write as many pages as I can till about 3:00 and then try to get a little exercise (theoretically!). Then I do whatever household chores I've got to take care of. I hope ya didn't have any illusions about a romance writer's glamorous life? LOL! Nope, I still clean my own house and do my own laundry. One of these years, I'm hoping to hire a house-boy that looks like John DeSalvo, but till then ... :P
Later in the day, I read research materials, take care of author business such as interviews like this one, write articles for my website (which, by the way, is at
www.gaelenfoley.com Come visit anytime!) or I'll handle other promotional projects like having bookmarks made up, etc. At the end of my workday, in the evening, I try to spend about an hour reading fiction. I often will get a second wind of creativity later at night. If I'm not too tired, I'll either write some more pages, or use that energy to develop future story ideas.
Val: Will we ever see a non-historical romance novel from you?
Gaelen: It's possible, someday. Never say never, right? But for now, I am very focused on Regency historicals. This sub-genre is definitely my top favorite.
Val: Were you ever rejected when you first started out? If so, how did you move on from that?
Gaelen: Oh, Lord, yes. I was rejected 28 times. What helped me to move past the rejection was that instead of getting discouraged, I got just mad enough to redouble my efforts. Every time someone turned me down or said they didn't like my work, it only made me all the more productive and all the more intensely determined to succeed.
Val: When you started writing the Knight Miscellany did you already have all of their stories mapped out in your head?
Gaelen: No, I just had the main characters of the Knight family sketched out clearly in my mind: Robert, Jack, Damien, Lucien, Alec, Jacinda and Lizzie.
Val: Do you have a favorite Knight story?
Gaelen: Right now I would say my favorite is the new one, Jack's story, HIS WICKED KISS. I'm also having a great time working on next one, to be released in early 2007 (it's going to be called Her Only Desire). But it's really hard to be objective. I love each of them for different reasons. They are very different books. That's actually something that I did on purpose, exploring a range of tones within the series. For example, The Duke has a highly emotional, more realistic, three-hanky read type of tone (don't worry, it has a happy ending--of course!) whereas in Lord of Fire, I went with more of a Gothic feel. I invite your readers to check them out for themselves and see what they think. I will say that His Wicked Kiss has the most "swashbuckling adventure" type of tone out of the whole Knight series. I think that's one of the reasons why it's so much fun.
Val: Why leave Jack’s story till the last?
Gaelen: I once received a very wise bit of advice from one of the top "big name" authors in this genre, who was something of a mentor to me when I was just starting out. She said: If you're doing a series, leave the most tortured hero for last. That's why I left Jack for last. :)
Val: What do you enjoy the most about being a writer? The least?
Gaelen: I would be writing the exact same stories even if no one was publishing them or reading them, because that is just what I LOVE to do! The fact that they pay me for this and that some readers out there are as eager to get their hands on my next book as I am to write it is just pure gravy. I really don't believe how lucky I am. Waitressing--now that was work. With writing, it's true, I put a lot of hours in and truly give every book my all, but it never feels like "work."
The thing I least enjoy about being a writer is having to defend the romance genre against literary snobs who have never read a romance novel and don't know what they're talking about--but think they do. There's no way to change a closed mind, so--(shrug)--what can you do? Their loss.
Val: Your website is full of history tidbits, is that something you’ve always been interested in?
Gaelen: Oh, yes, I've always been a history buff. History fascinates me--not as so many dates and facts and figures, but because it illuminates the full scope of human nature at its very best and at its worst. Human nature is at the core of every story worth the paper it's written on.
Val: What made you decide to become a writer?
Gaelen: I believe in having a fun life, first of all--doing what you love--otherwise, what's the point? When I was a kid, I saw my father, a true free spirit, suffering his way through the corporate rat race and he made me promise that when I grew up, I would do what I love for my career. He had no choice because he had a wife and four daughters to feed by his mid-twenties, but because of his influence, I learned from a very early age the importance of figuring out my calling in life. There was never a doubt that writing was it for me. I had always had a love of stories and words, and an overactive imagination. I learned from him that it's better to be true to yourself and "fail" than it is to achieve external success in an inauthentic life. If you're doing what you love, then you're using your time on this earth wisely, so external material success becomes a lot less important. But then again, when you do what you love, there's a good chance that you're playing to your strengths--most people love a particular activity because they have a natural talent for it. With natural talent in your corner, you have much greater chances of success. So, in reality, following your bliss, as they say, is actually a viable career plan, provided you stick with it and don't give up. At any rate, I'm happy to say my dad was able to take the early retirement package from his job, and has spent the past few years on his sailboat or riding across the country on his bicycle. He's making up for lost time.
Val: Thanks so much for your time!
Gaelen: It's been a pleasure. Thank you for your interest and I hope that you enjoy His Wicked Kiss!
TRRC’s previous interview with Ms. Foley can be found in our
archive.
(Click here for a review of
HIS WICKED KISS)
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