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JR: We
would like to welcome renown and much loved author, Lorraine Heath, to
The Romance Reader's Connection as our Author of the Month.
Welcome to The Romance Reader's Connection, Ms. Heath. Some of
Ms. Heath’s acknowledgements include: USA Today Bestselling Author
1999 Affaire de Coeur Top
Ten Favorite Author Award
1995-96 Romantic Times
Career Achievement Award for Americana Historicals
The RITA
5 Texas Golds
2
All About Romance's annual reader awards - Favorite American
Historical Romance.
Amazon.com
10 Best Sleepers
Rising
Star Award, Historical Category
Golden
Quill Award
Cameo
Award
Best
Romance of 1996 as determined by Painted Rock Reviewer’s Board
Reader’s
Voice Best Historical Romance of 1996
HOLT
(Honoring Outstanding Literary Talent) Medallion for short historical
Affaire
de Coeur Reader’s Poll Best Overall Historical
“A
Little Romance” ROMY Award for Best Americana Historical
RT
Booklovers Award for Best-selling Americana for 1994
Favorite First Book Award from
Puget Sound Romance Readers
JR: First, I just want to say that you are
one of my favorite authors. It
is a real honor to have you here talking about your books that I have
enjoyed for so long!
LH: Jennifer, first of all, thank you so
much for the interview and for asking such insightful questions.
I've had to put my thinking cap on here.
JR: I'm going to start of with one of your
earlier books, ALWAYS TO REMEMBER.
Usually in romance groups, when asked to name their favorites,
this title usually comes up somewhere.
Clay Holland, the hero, stands by his convictions, even to the
point of being shunned and ridiculed.
He's not your typical hero found in romance books, but actually
he is quite a hero. What
do you think it is about this book that touches so many people?
LH: ALWAYS TO REMEMBER's endurance always
surprises me because it had such a small print run and sold so few
copies--and yet it does seem to be the book that everyone remembers
the most. I think Clay
touched so many people. He
was such a strong hero--and yet, by all accounts, he shouldn't have
been. I know when I first
pitched the story, there was some skepticism: a coward who everyone
hates? But I had an
editor who believed I could pull it off.
(Melinda Metz who went on to later write the Roswell High
series). I think Clay
represented what we see in ourselves: strong convictions and an
unwillingness to falter. I
have to admit that I was obsessed with this story, especially after I
read an account about a soldier who was tortured for not carrying a
gun, taken before the firing squad, and not shot after he said a
prayer. That account as
you know became the opening to ALWAYS--only that soldier died from the
wounds he received. So I
was determined to give Clay a happy ending.
I also grew up during the Vietnam War when we were struggling
to understand our role in the world, and I was able to infuse the
confusion of that time into my story.
JR: Also on that favorites list is PARTING
GIFTS, an emotional story. Charles,
the husband is dying. A
decision to marry Maddie is for his children, but also for his
brother. The book is
about the gifts he leaves behind for those he loves.
Was it hard for you to write such a heart wrenching story?
LH: Oh, yes. PARTING GIFTS was actually a
catharsis for me. I'd
lost a friend to breast cancer and another to a heart attack, both in
their 40's--so young. So
I think the heartache that I was feeling at that time made its way
into the story. I wanted
to write a hopeful story, even though I knew it would contain a great
deal of sadness. Charles
with his son--I think represented my friend saying good-bye to her
son. It just wrenched my
heart and I needed someplace to put that emotion.
Hence, PARTING GIFTS.
JR: I love all your books, but my favorite
has to be TEXAS DESTINY. This
is the first of the "Texas Trilogy" as it is called - TEXAS
GLORY and TEXAS SPLENDOR follow.
The hero is Houston, physically scarred by the Civil War, he is
sent to retrieve his brother Dallas' mail order bride.
Along the way back home, Houston and Amelia Carson get to know
each other and fall in love. What
made you decide to come up with the idea for a physically scarred
hero?
LH: TEXAS DESTINY came about as a result
of research I did for PARTING GIFTS.
I read about how during the Civil War so many men were
disfigured and often committed suicide or lived lives of solitude
rather than let the world see how they looked.
I could well imagine this and started envisioning a man forced
into the company of a woman.
JR: TEXAS SPLENDOR features Austin. He's
the baby brother, accused of murder in the end of TEXAS GLORY. I hated
seeing him go from this fun loving young man to a hardened man in his
own book. Did you ever have any different plans for Austin, or was he
always going to be this hardened man?
LH: Actually, Austin came to me first.
I saw him sitting at a table, apologizing for his lack of
manners, having just been released from prison.
I wanted readers to know him as a young man so I gave him two
brothers and the trilogy was born.
In retrospect, I maybe should have given him a different story
because everyone loved him as he was in DESTINY, and his story was so
different from what people were expecting.
I'm experiencing the same problem with Rawley Cooper -- the
little boy that Dallas adopted in TEXAS GLORY.
The majority of my e-mail from readers centers on Rawley and
when I'll write his story. Expectations
for his story are so high now that I'm concerned that what I
originally envisioned for him will not satisfy readers.
So I'm not sure when I'll write his story--or what it will
be--but I do hope to someday.
JR: Your next trilogy, the Englishmen in
Texas as I call them, includes the titles A ROGUE IN TEXAS, NEVER LOVE
A COWBOY and NEVER MARRY A COWBOY.
Again, there are heart-wrenching plots, scenes that will make
you bawl like a baby. NEVER
MARRY A COWBOY [Link
to review] features Christian "Kit"
Montgomery, who has become Marshall in the town of Fortune, Texas.
Given a chance to marry a young, but dying sister of one of his
friends, Kit at first balks. His
first love died in his arms and he vowed never to go through that kind
of pain again. However,
seeing Ashton is enough to make him change his mind. Kit tries to
atone for past sins (his love was his twin brother's wife) by bringing
happiness to another's. The
story can be sad, funny and beautiful all at the same time.
One feels the power of life, living each day to the fullest,
when reading this book. Do
you find that telling a story, evoking heart-tugging scenes out of
your characters, endears the stories to readers more than others?
LH: My introduction to romance was LaVyrle
Spencer's MORNING GLORY. I
so loved that book and everything else Ms. Spencer wrote.
Her heart-wrenching stories touched me and so that's what I
strive to write because I want to touch readers.
Do heart-tugging scenes endear the readers more?
I think any sort of emotion does.
I believe readers want to "feel" something when they
read a book whether it's laughter, sitting on the edge of their seats,
or a tightening in their chest. I
grew up watching movies with my British mother who would always say of
her favorites, "It won't half make you cry."
As a result, I've always favored stories that made me cry and
they're usually the ones I remember--which is a round about way of
saying that I think my heart-tugging scenes endear my characters to
those readers who enjoy sitting down to read a book with a box of
tissue nearby. And I
happen to be one of those who likes reaching for a tissue.
I do try to ensure that the stories aren't depressing.
I want readers to come away happy and feeling glad that they
spent time with my characters.
JR: In a follow up book, THE OUTLAW AND
THE LADY finds Harrison's (NEVER MARRY A COWBOY) daughter Angela
kidnapped by the outlaw Lee Raven.
She happens upon a bank robbery, and not wanting her to
identify him, Lee kidnaps her, only to realize later that she never
could have because she is blind.
We get to see Kit again, this time as a Texas Ranger. Kit and
Ashton lost his son Damon many years ago.
Because Angela doesn't use her eyes to see people, she gets to
know Lee in a different way than her eyes might have let her.
What writing aspects did you have to change when you were
telling the story from the point of view from a blind heroine?
LH: I actually spent a lot of time with my
eyes closed, feeling things, trying to imagine what it would be like
if I couldn't rely on sight to process so much.
Of course, there is no way that I could truly understand what a
person without sight would experience because when I open my eyes, I
can see, but I had to really get into Angela's point of view and write
using her other senses. Authors
are always told to bring in all five senses.
Angela made me very much aware of how important this advice is.
And by the way, I never planned to write a blind heroine but as
I began envisioning Lee Raven's story (because he came to me first), I
realized that in order for the story to work, my heroine would have to
be blind.
JR: That brings us up to your current
release, TO MARRY AN HEIRESS, [Link
to review] which is a continuation of sorts from the
Englishmen in Texas series. The
story is of Georgina, a Texan, who travels to London to see her best
friend, Lauren. Her
father, a gambler, is intent on seeing her married and offers his
wealth to an impoverished nobleman Devon Sheridan, the Earl of
Huntingdon in exchange for marrying Georgina.
However, when Gina’s father dies unexpectedly, they discover
there is no wealth to restore Huntingdon’s coffers.
So begins a romance born out of necessity that turns into a
story of real wealth. Did
you have some fun with Georgina and the rules of London Society?
What made you decide to connect this series with your previous
one?
LH: Oh, yes, Georgina and the rules of
London Society was fun. Georgina
represented me in a way--and my initial frustrations with striving to
understand all the rules of London Society.
They're quite overwhelming and I'm sure she--and I--made a few
mistakes. This era of the
1870's - 1880's fascinates me because you had such different
societies. Texas really
was still a frontier in so many ways.
New York was so much more polished, but trying to imitate the
English aristocracy and forming class distinctions.
Then you had London with its obvious class distinctions.
And of course, marrying American girls was so the way to go in
the '80's and '90's until the aristocratic men did begin working at
the turn of the century, at which point, the American girls decided if
the husband was going to work, might as well go back home and marry an
American. It was an
interesting time. TO
MARRY AN ENGLISH LORD by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace is a
fascinating read for anyone interested in that time period.
As for connecting the stories, I thought it might
make my readers who only read Westerns more comfortable if they found
an element of the story with which they were familiar.
At some point, I'd like to write a story in which the hero and
the heroine are both British, but I had such fun girls in the
Englishmen in Texas books -- and they're such strong characters --
that I thought I should use them to begin with.
The next story, coming in June 2003, LOVE WITH AN IMPROPER
LORD, features Lydia Westland from A ROGUE IN TEXAS.
Unlike Georgina, Lydia loves all the rules and the properness
of British society.
JR: You've also written a Young Adult
book, SAMANTHA AND THE COWBOY [Link
to Review] and the next book in the Young Adult line is
AMELIA AND THE OUTLAW. In
SAMANTHA AND THE COWBOY, set during a cattle drive, young Samantha
takes it upon herself to earn her family some money to get out of
debt. She cuts her hair,
puts on some pants and heads out for a job as a young cowboy.
Other than the hero and heroine being in their teens and
nothing in the way of love scenes, this book reads similar to other
romances out there. Do
you think Avon has done a good job of trying to target young adults
with historicals in this setting?
LH: Yes, I do think Avon has done a good
job. They wanted to fill
a niche, to provide historical romances for the younger readers.
I get e-mail from 12-year-olds who read my adult romances and I
have to refrain from asking, "Does your mother know you you're
reading this?" So I
was very pleased to have the opportunity to write a book with teen
characters and no love scenes because I think there are girls out
there who want to read historical romances.
These books aren't quite as sophisticated as an adult romance
and I'm comfortable sending them to my nieces.
JR: I know you are continuing the
"From Texas to London" series, but I also understand that
your first contemporary is coming out sometime soon.
This is a real surprise, but one I'm looking forward to.
What is this new book going to be about and why did you decide
on a contemporary setting?
LH: The new book is about forgiveness, I
think. I'm finishing it
up now and it suddenly took an unexpected twist this week so I won't
say too much about it. Basically,
the hero and heroine had a brief relationship ten years ago--and now
their paths have crossed again. They
have some unresolved issues and some new problems.
I've wanted to write contemporary for some time.
As a matter of fact, back in the early '90's when I started
writing, I was writing contemporary and historical.
The historical sold, the contemporary was rejected so I settled
in to write historicals. Now
Pocket Books has given me the opportunity to write contemporaries, and
I've very excited about it. I
hope to bring to my contemporaries what readers enjoy in my
historicals: strong characterization and emotion.
JR: I noticed there are several writing
tips on your homepage under Articles - http://www.lorraineheath.com/articles.htm
to help would be writers out there.
Being an aspiring writer myself, it is extremely helpful and
nice to know that there are authors out there willing to help.
Do you have any other practical advice to give writers in
trying to get their novel published?
LH: Write what you love to read.
Write what you want to write.
I so often hear from writers who are striving to write to the
market--and while I realize that the goal is publication and that not
everything is marketable--I really believe that if we believe in our
story and write it with our heart in it that it has a much better
chance of selling than if we write something simply because we think
it's what an editor is looking for.
And READ. Read
once for enjoyment. If
you enjoyed the book, read it again as a writer and pay attention to
all the nuances in the book--the sentence structure, the way the story
developed, the characterization, the descriptions, the dialogue.
I think reading a good novel closely is as educational as
reading a book on writing. The
novel has put into practice what needs to be done in order to get
published. Read new
authors. Read the authors
who are popping. Read
every book that was a finalist for the RITA.
If you don't have time to do that, at least read every book
that received a RITA. Something
about the book was extraordinary or it would not have been recognized
as it was. And last, but
not least, drop me an e-mail when your first book comes out. I'm
always looking for new authors to read.
JR: Thank you so much for your time, and
as usual, will be looking for the next book with Lorraine Heath’s
name on it.
LH: Thank you, Jennifer. I enjoyed the
interview. ~ Lorraine
Reviews at TRRC
Never Marry A Cowboy
Samantha And The Cowboy
The Outlaw
and the Lady
To Marry An Heiress
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