Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

2. What was the experience like of being judged so publicly for your writing, and seeing comments appear so quickly after you posted your first chapter?

It was fantastic, and also bewildering. Fantastic, in the sense that writing can be so solitary, and suddenly here I had a whole crowd of people clamoring not only to read my work, but also to give me feedback! And in terms of support and encouragement, it was amazing: right from the start, I got some incredibly lovely messages from total strangers -- people who were worried that because I wasn't "campaigning," my chapters would be overlooked. This leads me to the bewildering part -- because I hadn't been a member of Gather before the contest started, it took me a while to figure out the hows and wherefores of networking on the website. I never did effectively get the word out about my chapters, and as a result, I lost valuable opportunities to solicit critiques from a wider range of people.

3. Why Delhi, India, as a setting? Not too many romances are set in India, though those that are ( i.e. Kinsale's book and others) are stellar examples of the strength of the genre.

Ah, Kinsale. Le sigh. She and Judith Ivory are the twin pinnacles of excellence to which I aspire as a writer. And I'm in the minority, apparently, in considering My Sweet Folly to be one of her most interesting books. That's the one to which you're referring, yes?

As for why India -- the short version of this answer is, why aren't there *more* historicals set in India? I, like a lot of romance fans, am simply obsessed with British history, and in the 19th century, India was a HUGE part of British life: highly visible in its popular culture, and intricately involved in its social and political and economic affairs. Going to India was not an exotic undertaking; it was a viable career option for many, many people. In fact, I would speculate that India didn't feel nearly as "far away" to Victorians as it does to many Brits today. I remain puzzled as to why historical romance has such a blind spot to British life in India back then.

The longer version of my answer is anecdotal. I should say, this anecdote has nothing to do with the actual plot of my novel, but I think it illustrates how many stories are waiting to be told about the British in India. A couple of summers ago, while studying Urdu in Lucknow, I visited the Residency, a complex of buildings, now mostly in ruins, where hundreds of women, children, and soldiers -- British and Indian alike -- were holed up for 87 days during the Siege of Lucknow in 1857. The conditions were miserable, and a lot of Britons and Indians died there in terrible ways. After the uprising was over, the British put a great deal of effort into constructing a rather spectacular graveyard on the Residency grounds to commemorate those who died during the Siege. The graveyard is now completely overgrown, weeds and creepers everywhere, but for the most part, the tombstones -- these incredibly detailed, beautifully sculpted tombstones -- remain perfectly intact. I've attached a photo of one of them; once you've read what's printed on it, you cannot tell me that British India does not suggest a thousand stories for novels.

The tombstone reads (handkerchief warning; this is VERY sad):

"Sacred to the memory of Frances Ellen Hale, beloved wife of George Herbert Hale, Lieutt. Adl. 2nd, who died in Lucknow Garrison on the morning of the battle of Chinhutt, 1857 [my note: that would be on June 30, 1857], aged 20 years. Sacred also in memory of Kate Caroline Sophia, eldest child of the above, who died in Lucknow Garrison on the XXIII of September 1857. Sacred also in memory of Henrietta Georgina Frances, her infant child, who died at Secrora Dudh on the XVIII of April 1857."

I think of the man who survived them -- who first buried his infant child, and then his wife, and then his eldest daughter -- and I wonder what happened to him. There is immense poignancy when reading these notes from the past about forgotten sorrows, and there is also something strange and uncanny about the silence that surrounds the graveyard. The Residency is a huge green complex of long lawns and buildings pockmarked by cannonball fire, now falling into pieces; Lucknowi lovers now use the park grounds to meet in secret, away from censorious eyes. But no one seems to go into the graveyard. I visited several times, and was always the only one who entered the gates and wandered among the tombstones. It's a place that commands a certain gravity. It's haunting.

4. PhD in what? And are you telling your classmates?

Ph.D. in anthropology. I'm lucky; my discipline recognizes the importance and significance of popular narratives and genres, and friends in the program whom I've told are very excited for me. In fact, I think they're more impressed than my friends outside academia, some of whom continue to ask me why I would want to write romance rather than "regular fiction." Grr.

5. Is it difficult to switch from writing evocative fiction to writing academic prose? I have to go back and forth periodically and it's a challenge - unless your PhD is also in writing romance? And if so, where?!

LOL, a Ph.D. in writing romance -- wouldn't that be fantastic!

Academic writing certainly has a different tenor to it, but I think good writing is good writing, no matter the genre. It's an understanding of the importance of rhythm to a sentence; it's a feel for how words fit together and create a certain musicality which lures the reader onward. My diction is certainly different when writing an academic paper, but I think my fiction writing has served me in very good stead in academia. Academics do appreciate good writing. If more of them read popular fiction, perhaps more of them would be able to produce it as well.

6. Let's talk about your favorite romances - which ones will be pried from your cold fingers before you let them go?

Ah, what an easy question!

1) To Have and to Hold - Patricia Gaffney
2) The Shadow and the Star - Laura Kinsale
3) Bliss - Judith Ivory
4) Miss Wonderful - Loretta Chase
5) As You Desire - Connie Brockway
6) Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett

And in terms of authors, my auto-buys also include Meljean Brook, Anne Stuart, and Linnea Sinclair.

7. Your favorite romance plot cliche: confess!

Argh, this is embarrassing. I suppose my guilty pleasure is the plot contrivance where, for some reason or another, the immensely self-assured hero is compelled to be deliberately cruel to the heroine whom he secretly feels increasingly drawn to. I credit this to an unhealthy adolescent obsession with the movie Dangerous Liaisons. Looking at my top six books, I see that at least half of the six qualify as instantiations of this cliche -- definitely Checkmate and To Have and To Hold, and perhaps also Bliss: Nardi isn't exactly Prince Charming to Hannah.

8. If you could cook dinner for one author, who would it be, and what would you make?

Oh, Laura Kinsale, no doubt. And my motives are purely nefarious. I would serve extremely light food (perhaps a salad and chowder?) in conjunction with a GREAT deal of wine (nice wine, because it's Laura fracking Kinsale!) in the hopes that I could intoxicate her sufficiently to convince her to give me a copy of that completed manuscript which she apparently has not yet found the right publisher for.

Okay, now the disclaimer: I'd probably serve her a main course as well. After all... she's Laura Kinsale!!