MJP: I’m happy to introduce Candice Hern, our very first guest author here on Word Wenches! Like several of us Wenches, Candice started her writing career in traditional Regency and has since moved to historical romance. Two of her books have been named to Library Journal listings of the top five romances of the year (The Bride Sale and Once a Gentleman), and one of her books tied for #1 in RWA's Top Ten Favorite Books of the Year. (Once a Scoundrel)
My personal memories of Candice include the time when our mutual editor at NAL was taking a group of her authors out to dinner at a conference in New York City. It was raining, and Candice found a most ingenious way to conjure an umbrella. <g>
Candice has an August release from NAL, Just One of Those Flings, the second in her Merry Widows trilogy. Even as a kid reading my first Georgette Heyer books, I tended to prefer the older heroines who had more mileage on them, so I adore the premise of this series, which features a group of wealthy, aristocratic widows who decided that they don’t want to remarry, ever, but they would certainly like to take lovers. Candice, what inspired you to create this series?
CH: When I first developed the idea for In the Thrill of the Night, it was a standalone story about a respectable widow who decides to take a lover. But I wanted to write another trilogy, so I began to think of ways to spin off a second and third story. So many historical series are based on men - brothers, soldiers, spies, etc. I decided I wanted to base the stories around women, and because there were so many family-based historical series already out there, I decided to make the women friends rather than family.
A story of friendship among women was a very appealing theme to thread through the trilogy. I kept thinking about the four friends in Sex and the City. No matter how many men came into and dropped out of their lives, they still had one another. I suddenly had visions of Marianne (the heroine of Thrill) talking with her friends about wanting to take a lover, in just as frank a manner as Carrie Bradshaw and her friends. Then I thought: what if all of the women decided to take lovers? And the Merry Widows were born.
Lampooning the Regency cliché of Almack's and its formidable patronesses, I created a group of wealthy, respectable widows who sponsor charity balls. In private, however, they speak frankly about men and sex and love. I like to think of the trilogy as Sex and the City meets Almack's.
MJP: While Just One of Those Flings is in some ways a very classical Regency, set 
in London during the social season, in other ways it’s quite different, even a little subversive. Naturally, I loved that. <G> Could you tell us a bit about the story?
CH: Subversive, huh? Well, it does have an older woman/younger man romance, so maybe that makes it slightly different. Beatrice, Lady Somerfield, is too busy acting as chaperone for her headstrong niece, Emily, and overseeing her own young daughters to take her friends' advice to find a lover. Maybe next year, she thinks. Until one night at a masquerade ball when a rather surprising, and anonymous, encounter with a dark stranger changes her mind.
When she finally discovers her secret lover's identity as the Marquess of Thayne - the very man she has practically been pushing into her niece's arms as the Catch of the Season - Beatrice is horrified and realizes an affair would be awkward at best, if not impossible. But Thayne is thoroughly captivated by Beatrice, and as he searches for a bride among the Season's young ladies, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the beautiful, sensual, more mature and sophisticated Lady Somerfield. Of course, a love affair ensues, scandal erupts, lives are turned upside down, etc etc.
MJP: I love the combination of witty title and the lush, historical cover that is both classy and sexy. Can you tell us how this great look for the series came about?
CH: It started with the titles. When I proposed the series, I used twisted Cole Porter song titles and the publisher liked them. My editor suggested "upscale artwork" combined with the twisted song titles would best represent my voice, which she called "elegant but fun." As you all know, body parts (ie partially seen bodies, not gruesome severed limbs) are very popular cover images these days, so my editor suggested details of real paintings might be used, focusing on specific body parts. So I went to work rounding up lots of portraits and cropped them down to highlight certain areas. I put together a very long web page 
showing hands and necks and feet and shoulders, etc from a host of portraits, mostly from the Regency period or thereabouts. I am fortunate that the art department liked some of my suggestions. The covers of both In the Thrill of the Night and Just One of Those Flings are based on images I included on that web page. You can see the real paintings used for each cover on my website, on the Behind the Scenes page for each book.
And by the way, for the third book, we couldn't agree on another Cole Porter title and finally decided on twisting an old Gershwin song instead: Lady Be Bad.
MJP: Candice is known among Regency writers for her Regency knowledge, and also for her wonderful collections of Regency objects, some of which are displayed on her website. http://candicehern.com/collections/index.htm She 
once pointed me at e-bay so I could buy an 18th Century perfume bottle. Candice, how do you learn about this wonderful things? And how do you find them?
CH: I've been collecting this stuff for years and years. It always goes something like this: An interesting, intriguing, or unusual item catches my eye and I buy it. Sometime later, maybe even years later, I find another one that I like and buy it, too. Now I figure with two items, I have the start of a collection, so I need more. And then I make myself nuts tracking down lots more of whatever it is. Regency fashion prints were the first thing to inspire my collector's passion, and I now have over 500 of them. Vinaigrettes were also an early collection, as were shoe buckles. Then came scent bottles and reticules and quizzing glasses and s
ilhouettes on and on.
As for where I find my antiques? Everywhere. :-) In the days before the internet, I haunted antique shows and auctions and developed good relationships with various dealers. I still have those relationships and still go to antique shows and auctions, but I have the internet now as well, which is both a curse (because a dealer's access to more collectors drives the prices up) and a blessing (because I can now develop relationships with dealers around the world). I do buy things on eBay, but I am very careful about it and very selective. There, too, I have found specific dealers I trust. Plus, I travel to the UK about once a year and do lots of shopping there, again working with the same dealers year after year. Those dealer relationships are essential, because they know what I collect and will look for things to tempt me on their buying trips.
And speaking of my collections, I'm currently offering to share a teeny bit of it with one lucky winner in my current website contest. I'm giving away an authentic Regency period fashion print -- a Morning Dress from the May 1813 issue of Ackermann's Repository. It's actually a duplicate from my collection, so I figured I could part with it. :-) You can see it on the contest page on my website.
MJP: I believe that all of your books have been set in the Regency. Do you have any secret yearnings to try other periods? If so, which times attract you?
CH: I love the 18th century and I'd love to write a Georgian book. Perhaps one day I will, but I have at least 6 Regency stories dying to be written first! Also, I have a story that's been buzzing around in my head for years that would be set in 1850s San Francisco, right after the Gold Rush. It would be based on a real woman who was the daughter of a minister in Baltimore and who ended up as one of the most famous madams in San Francisco. A very bawdy and colorful time. It is not, unfortunately, a popular time period with editors so I doubt I'll be writing it anytime soon. But I would dearly love to write a book about my adopted city one day.
MJP: What got you started writing romance? Are there any mistakes you made then that you’d like to warn aspiring writers about?
CH: I was a voracious reader first. I stumbled upon the great Georgette Heyer rather late in life, and when I'd finished all her books and discovered that similar books were still being written ... well, I was in hog heaven. I would go to used book stores and carry away huge shopping bags full of Regencies, many of them 
by the Wenches on this blog. By that time in my life I had already been collecting Regency antiques for years and had done a lot of research on the period, so I knew it pretty well. But I never dreamed of writing a book until one day the man I live with saw me haul in yet another bag full of Regencies and said, "You know this period as well as anyone. Why don't YOU write a book?" It was like a light went on in my brain, and all at once a dozen stories popped into my head. I started to write one of them down, joined RWA, entered some contests, and won a few. I got my first contract from an editor who'd read one of my contest entries. And I haven't looked back since!
Yes, I've made mistakes. Plenty of them. To be honest, I wish I had jumped right into Regency historicals rather than traditional Regencies. My career might be further along if I'd done that. But I loved writing those books and I still mourn the demise of the traditional Regency. Some of my all-time favorite books were trads: Jo's Emily and the Dark Angel; Loretta's The Sandalwood Princess; Edith's The Duke's Wager; Mary Jo's The Would-Be Widow. What a shame that those short, sweet, witty, thoroughly character-driven stories are no longer being published.
My advice to aspiring writers is to keep a keen eye on the market. Look at the new deals listed in places like Publishers Lunch and look at what types of books (and settings) hit the bestseller lists. You can sometimes spot trends and, if you're quick, take advantage of them. But you might also note a subgenre that is becoming over-saturated (like Chick Lit), and it would behoove you to give serious consideration to writing something else. Get your foot in the door with something very commercial. That book-of-the-heart set in 5th century Constantinople may have to wait.
MJP: You’ve been writing for some years now. Do you feel your work has changed in that time? If so, how?
CH: I think, I hope, my writing has matured, but I know my voice has stayed the same. I don't think I could change it if I tried. I still write long and detailed outlines for each book, but I no longer do formal character histories or charts like I did with my early books while I was learning my craft. I still spend way too much time on research, but I'm putting less of it on the page. It's all just a matter of getting more and more comfortable with the writing process and more confident in my voice. I don't struggle as much or polish as hard, but I still write very slowly. Some things never change!
MJP: While reading Just One of Those Flings, I got a pretty good idea who the next book would be about! Would you like to tell us a bit about the third book in the series?
CH: No! :-) Oh, okay, but just a little. The teaser in the back of Flings reveals who the hero and heroine are. It's a classic bad boy meets good girl story. And the last scene was inspired by a popular Tom Cruise movie. And that's all I want to say about it.
MJP: What do you think about the state of the historical romance market and where it might be going?
CH: I am nothing but optimistic. The historical romance is not dead or dying but is here to stay. For many years I have advised aspiring writers to write to the market, to stick with the Regency and Victorian settings because anything else was a hard sell. But things seem to be opening up a bit. NAL is publishing Restoration romances. My friend (and fellow Fog City Diva) Monica McCarty has a debut trilogy coming out next year from Ballantine that is set in the early 17th century. And I heard of several Western/Americana sales at the recent RWA conference. So things are looking up. I am hopeful that an infusion of long-needed diversity will have a positive effect on the genre.
Candice Hern will be donating a signed copy of her first Merry Widows book, In the Thrill of the Night, to one of the commenters on her interview. Eligible will be anyone who comments between now and midnight of Sunday, August 20th.
Candice, thanks so much for joining us! I look forward to the next Merry Widow.
Mary Jo, who took these lovely images from Candice's Collections