1. Hi Jillian!Can you tell everyone a little about yourself?
In 2010, my manuscript for An Affair with Mr. Kennedy won the RWA Golden Heart and I went from no agent or publisher to signing with Richard Curtis and being offered a three book contract by Pocket Books. That summer, The Seduction of Phaeton Black also won the erotica category of the 2010 Romance Through the Ages contest for and was offered a three book contract by Kensington Brava. Needless to say I have been busy writing books this past year and a half! I live in Southern California and I am currently working on a special Pocket Star e-novella for The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series.
2. Can you share with us a little background on your upcoming book?
I’m excited to share my latest release from The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series. A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis is a fast paced road trip adventure, with the hero and heroine on the run from Edinburgh to London by train, velocipede, landship and submersible!
As a film student, I studied all of Alfred Hitchcock’s work and I particularly admire the romantic suspense films: Rear Window, North by Northwest, and To Catch a Thief. Thrills, chills, adventure––perhaps there’s a mystery to uncover, or a villain to capture, but at the story’s core, there is a love story.
I had an idea that was based on a villain and his small private army of minions who are essentially anti-progressives. In 1887 England, that meant that they were anti-industry, anti-machinery, anti-invention. Today they would be anti-technology. I then came up with a string of grisly murders and a beautiful industrial heiress whose father has just been killed by one of his one machines––accident or murder? Scotland Yard suspects the darker of the two and sends a detective up to guard the young heiress. Then I added a complication for the romance––Rafe and Fanny have a past.
Here’s the blurb:When Fanny Greyville-Nugent’s father suffers a gruesome death in the clutches of his own machine, mourning his loss is not the beautiful heiress’s only heartbreak. Scotland Yard is convinced he was targeted in a plot to halt the rise of industry, and Fanny’s former fiancé, dashing and dubious detective Raphael “Rafe” Lewis, has been assigned to the case.
For the estranged ex-lovers, bringing the notorious assassins to justice proves as tumultuous as quelling pent-up desires. Fighting peril and passion at every turn of a dangerous journey from Edinburgh to London, they are pursued by an anarchist group hell-bent on destroying her father’s mysterious entry into the London Industrial Exposition.
When an astonishing discovery about the couple’s failed engagement surfaces, the sleuthing duo realize they can trust no one. Rafe confesses new details about his infidelity and Fanny risks all to avenge her father’s murder. But will Rafe and Fanny triumph over the pain of their past?
3. What is one thing you have learned along the way that you wished you had known from the beginning about writing and publishing?
Writing to contract deadlines can be gruelling, so get your chops up now! I’m a slow writer so if I have a 2,500 to 3,000 word day, that is smokin’ hot for me, but other writers, particularly multiple contract writers can go 6,000 words a day.
Cultivate the biggest name authors you can. (It’s all about who you know.) You will need their blurb endorsement for your covers. I was shocked to discover that publishers/editors don’t necessarily get involved in acquiring endorsement blurbs for debut authors.
4. If you could pick the cast for your current book, who would play the main characters?
When my editor asked me for input for the cover art of A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis I emailed her two pictures, one of a young Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and a young Helen Bonham Carter (Room with a View).
5. Can you share with us what you are working on next?
I am currently working on the synopses for three new Gentlemen of Scotland Yard books for Pocket and another sequel in the Phaeton Black, Paranormal Investigator series for Kensington Brava, The Miss Education of Doctor Exeter.
Thanks for the interview!
Jillian
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