Author Interview with Eloisa James
Q: When did you write your first book?
I was around 7 or 8 years old. I still remember the first line (though not the name of my heroine): “Eloisa was incorrigible.” I had just learned that word. I wrote my first romance just after graduating from college. It still exists in a drawer: it’s about 500 pages long and involved epic love along with the heroine’s near-blinding from being spit in the eye by a camel. It was destined not to sell as a load of publishers kindly informed me.
Q: Which of your books was the easiest to create?
When Beauty Tamed the Beast was one of those rare books that simply jumps onto the page.
Q: Tell us about your latest book, My Last Duchess.
My Last Duchess is a prequel to my current series, The Wildes of Lindow Castle. So many readers wrote to ask for Hugo and Ophelia’s romance that I decided to write it. Because readers knew them as a married couple, I had to add a major twist–Hugo’s betrothal to another woman. It was great fun to write!
I’m glad this book came out just now, when so many of us are stressed out by the world. My hope is that a reader will drop onto a couch and escape to a snowy, sexy world in which a duke puts his heart at the feet of a very ordinary widow — who turns him down. Fun!
Q: Do you have any future writing projects coming out soon?
Wilde Child, my next Lindow Castle, book, will come out on March 30, 2021. It’s the story of Joan, a very wild daughter of the Duke of Lindow. Joan longs to perform Hamlet in breeches and talks her father (Hugo) into letting her do it—much to the disapproval of a very upright young duke visiting the castle.
Q: Describe your writing style using only three words.
Witty. Sensual. Historical.
Q: Which protagonist did you have more fun creating? The Duke, or his Duchess?
The duchess!
Q: What led you to creating historical romance novels?
I’ve always wrote romance, even when I was very young (back to the 8-year-old me) and writing plays for my siblings to perform. What got me to take it up again after the epic failure of my first novel was my student loans. I needed to pay them off, so I resolved to write a publishable book. That book, Potent Pleasures, sold at auction for slightly over my student loans, and started my career.
Q: What was the journey like for you, as a writer, in writing My Last Duchess?
It was pure pleasure. The snow scene is one of my favorite romantic scenes, and given that I’ve written over 30 novels, that’s saying a lot. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota, so I was describing walks through snow-laden woods that I keenly remember.
Q: Where can readers find you and your work online?
Pretty much anywhere you might look. For a list with links, and to buy, for example, an autographed book (always a a great holiday present!), you can look on my website, eloisajames.com.
Thanks very much for your questions — and let me add that I’d be delighted to hear from readers; my email is eloisa@eloisajames.com
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