An Interview with Sherry Thomas

by Mary Jo

MJP:  As a romance writer, I get all kinds of romance promo thingies in e-mail.  If I’m busy, I delete them unopened.  Sometimes, if I’m not busy or the promo is for an author I like, I’ll take a look.  The very first time I ever went out and bought a book by an unknown author because of the cyber-promo piece was Sherry Thomas’s Private Arrangements.  ( http://sherrythomas.com/  )

Quite simply, her prose was ravishing—the kind of wit that is associated with the very best of Regencies, though Sherry’s books are set in late Victorian times.  Try a sample: http://sherrythomas.com/arrangements.html#bookexcerpt 

Her wordcraft would be impressive with any new author.  What makes it extraordinary is that Sherry is a first generation Chinese American who didn’t come to this country until she was 13.  According to her website, a year later she was reading big fat historical romances with her trusty Chinese American dictionary by her side.  Not only is English not her first language, but unlike, say, German and English, Chinese and English are totally different in structure and usage.

Sherry, could you tell us how went from that dictionary to becoming a published writer, and an instant hit with your first book? 

ST: LOL, I'm not so sure about the instant hit part, but I will say it has been a long way from that English-Chinese dictionary, which I still have, though I haven't cracked it open in years.

It helps that I've always been a fan of words and language.  For my tenth birthday, my great aunt gave me a brick of a Chinese dictionary, and I used to read it for fun and—this went into true word geek territory—copy down interesting idiomatic expressions in a notebook. 

And it helps that I've always been a huge reader.  After I arrived in the States, I very quickly ran through all the Chinese-language books there were to be had among the Chinese student population (my mom was a grad student then at LSU).  So I was more or less forced to read beyond my English level in order to read anything at all.  I read tons of historical romance and science fiction, destroyed the spine of my poor dictionary, and emerged at eighteen with the vocabulary of a Victorian old lady. :-)

I think this answers about half of your question, on how I acquired proficiency in English.  My road to publication is a different story altogether.  I came from a family of scientists and engineers.  While I enjoyed my writing assignments as a child, I can honestly say I'd never seriously considered writing as a career.  Partly because we knew of no writers, partly because I already understood even then that crafting stories was hard, since with the stories I made up to entertain myself and my friends, I could never go beyond a wildly scintillating beginning to any sort of plausible plot development.

But sometimes life throws curveballs at you.  And so it was that I found myself in my early twenties not studying for a grad degree as had been my plan all along, but raising an infant as a stay-at-home mom.  After reading a particularly silly romance one day, I said, hmm, perhaps I could do better.  And perhaps I could make a little money from it.

That was the beginning.  After that came eight years of the usual writer's slog.  Manuscript.  Rejection.  Manuscript.  Rejection.  More manuscripts.  More rejections.  Until one day the stars aligned.  People said yes all the way up the chain of command and I found myself with a book contract.

MJP:  What particularly draws you to writing romance?  Why historical novels?  And why the late Victorian era?

ST: I've always been drawn to love stories.  But I am not a romantic in the traditional sense.  I don't think romantic love is sufficient at all for happiness, but must be accompanied by wisdom, courage, kindness, generosity, patience, commitment...and the list goes on and on.  So my stories aren't exactly about people falling in love--they are already desperately in love—but about how they acquire the depth and strength of character to handle something as marvelous and difficult as love.

MJP: Aha!  A most salient point, and entirely true.

ST: As for the historical part, for the longest time I had no idea why.  I mean, it has been my great ambition to write SF romance, yet I keep completing one historical after another.  Finally I realized that it's because the price of love is at its highest in historical romance, what with marriages being a practically irreversible choice and reputations of such paramount importance.  So the stakes are correspondingly higher.  With higher stakes come sharper conflicts.  And with sharper conflicts come more absorbing stories.

I got hooked on the late Victorian/Edwardian era because of my great addiction to 2 books—The Shadow and the Star by Laura Kinsale, set in 1887, and Beast by Judith Ivory, set in 1902, if I'm not mistaken (my copy is out with a friend).  Because all the technologies we take for granted nowadays were so sexy back then. (Electricity? Yum.  Telephone?  Hot.  Automobile? OMG!)  Because photography existed and I use photographs relentlessly in my stories.  And because people bathed regularly.  :-)

MJP:  Your first book, Private Arrangements has the mother of all conflicts!  Gigi committed a devastating betrayal, and the depth of Camden’s feelings are reflected in his equally devastating over-reaction.  Can you tell us a bit about how you came to write this particular story?

ST: I read a lot of Big Misunderstanding story lines growing up.  So I was rebelling against my romance upbringing by writing a story where there is no misunderstanding, that if the hero thinks the heroine did something awful, it's because she really did do something awful.

Private Arrangements exists in two versions.  The unpublished version was my first manuscript, completed in 2000.  It was soundly rejected everywhere.  I tossed my only physical copy of it into a box in a corner, where it quietly fed bookworms for five years until for no clear reason I sat down one day and read a few pages from it. 

I kind of gagged on my writing.  But I realized I was still as fundamentally taken with the idea as ever—that of a young woman who commits a grave wrong in the name of love and the messy aftermath of it all.  So I took that basic backstory, changed everything about the book except the characters' names, and rewrote it from scratch.  (There is not a single thing I used from the prior manuscript, nothing.)

The big lesson to me, which again served me very well with Delicious, is that I shouldn’t ever be afraid to toss things out and start over.  An idea is nothing until the execution is commensurate.

MJP: Your second book, Delicious, has some of the best food porn I’ve ever read. <g>  The lushness of the descriptions reminds me of authors like Barbara Samuel and the poet/essayist Diane Ackerman.  Do you love to cook?  Love to eat?  Was it because all that lovely food fit the story?  All of the above?

ST: Roughly speaking, I wrote three completely different full versions of Delicious.   In some of the earlier drafts there was actually a lot more food porn, because that had been my original intention, to write food porn.  And then somewhere along the way I came to a realization that no, it's not about the food, it was never about the food.  And I made a decision that food should not come on the page unless it is about character. 

MJP: That’s one of the things I loved about the book—that the food was always about emotion. 

ST: Much of Delicious is about the hero's loneliness.  He is a man who no longer tastes and his dead tastebuds are a metaphor of the way he's buried his emotional self.  When the heroine's cooking shocks his palate into life, this is his reaction:
       
“And therein lay the danger of Mme. Durant and her cooking—not that it was delectable, but that it was evocative, and made him think far beyond food. The rediscovery of taste was as perilous as he’d feared it would be, rousing other dormant, dangerous longings for everything he did not have, everything he’d hoped to hold dear and could not.”
 

So I hope this is what the lushness comes from, that it connects the stomach to the heart.

As for me, I do love to eat, and I do like to cook (though no one has ever called me cooking evocative).  But through most of the third and final draft of Delicious, I was very hungry myself—I have this bad habit of not getting off the computer when I'm on deadline, whether I'm actually writing or not.  And perhaps my own fervent hunger seeped a little into the book? :-)

MJP: There are two kinds of writers on deadline: those who don’t eat anything, and those who eat anything that isn’t nailed down….  (Read Delicious to find the meaning of the madeleines above on the right.)

As both a reader and a writer, what do you consider key elements of a great story?

ST: I really don't think there is a single key element beyond suck-me-in-ness.  Whether it is world-building, prose, character, voice, emotional intensity, sexual tension, humor, or just good old plot-and-pace, do one thing exceptionally well, and I will read the book.  Do two things exceptionally well, and I will read the backlist.  Do three things exceptionally, and I will shout about you from the roof tops.

MJP:  Are there any trends you hope to see in romance in the next few years?

ST: I'd like to see more power couples.  Readers love Eva Dallas and Roark.  They love Dain and Jessica.  Yet romance does not produce nearly as many of them as one'd think.  Heck, even I've only produced one power couple (Gigi and Camden in PA).  But I'm trying.

MJP:  What is the best part about being a writer?  The most frustrating?

ST: The best parts are so many, never having to buy business attire is definitely one of them.  And writing is just such a joy in and of itself, getting paid for it still makes me giggle, like getting paid for eating and sleeping.

The most frustrating thing is probably when stories don't gel.  You write and you write and everything is just so much pablum with no zing, no punch, no emotional truth.  Or when your editor comes back with a 16-page single-spaced revision letter. 

But after Delicious, I've concluded that just about any sad sack of a story can be fixed, provided one is willing to dump the said sad sack and start all over again. (Twice.)

(You bet now I think a lot harder before committing 90,000 words to hard drive!)

MJP:  Do you have any other thoughts you’d like to kick around?

ST: I'd like to thank the Wenches for having me.  It's been a pleasure and a privilege and I'm humbled to be amongst so much greatness.

<mjp rolls eyes slightly, but with a smile>

MJP: Tell us about your third book, Not Quite A Husband, which will be out in 2009. 

ST: I have a penny-dreadful kind of pitch for it, taken directly from a discarded paragraph of the manuscript.  “The frontiers of India!  A time of war!  He is deathly ill and she is the only doctor in miles!” 

And I'd like to mention that they used to be married until she asked for an annulment.  Conflict enough?  :-)

MJP: Works for me. <G>

For more fun, check out Sherry's two book trailers, which she did herself.  I particularly liked this one for Private Arrangements, which I thought really captured the essence of the story. <g>  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_9LYBD_YPY&feature=related

Here's the one for Delicious:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6VQZGSUYuk

Sherry will give away a signed book to a commenter who posts between now and midnight Thursday. 

You can check out her website at http://sherrythomas.com/

And don't try reading Delicious unless you have some good food at hand!

Mary Jo

Comments

[Maya M.]

Yippee! First comment! I get to be the inaugural squeeing fangirl!

I don't usually leap on books as soon as they appear so I took my time getting around to PA - but wow, now that I did, I'm blown away and joining in the cyberbuzz. The story, in a word, is magnificent (and I like to consider myself hard to please). Much as I loved and suffered along with Gigi and Camden, though, I have to say that my heart belongs to her mother and the Duke. I know because two weeks after finishing the book I can still quote passages from their very funny exchanges. I wonder what ever became of that catalytic kitten?

Also, I loved the little references to 'Herr Benz' and other contemporaries of the characters who are famous now but were, one imagines, unknown geniuses (geneii?) at the time.

Can't wait to launch myself onto 'Delicious' and, as a person who has blogged about India as novel inspiration, the next as well.

Thank you, Ms. Thomas, for your doggedness in creating MS after MS despite non-alligning stars.

*squee complete*

[liz m]

Don't pick me - I already read them both and I was SO grateful to the sites that urged me to try PA. I have absolutely nothing to add to this interview except that writers are different than musicians. A musician lists their influences, you check them out, and you're usually like, "The Wipers? Really? I don't see it." But Judith Ivory? Love it all. The connection to PA and Delicious? Get it. I preferred Delicious slightly, because the working heroine actually works - it's part of her personality and her life instead of a slice of color. And I so so so agree about the one two three rule - see? I'm raving, it proves it.

(PS, new month, new nag - last 18 days to click me name and see me bald!)

[cheryl c.]

Very interesting interview! I also watched both book trailers, and I really enjoyed them. The trailers were charming and witty. I am intrigued by the plots, so I am adding both Private Arrangements and Delicious to my TBB list! :-)

[ariana]

I'm wondering, with English being your second language, if you ever find it hard to write in English, especially when you can think of the perfect word for it in Chinese but just can't seem to find the right translations for it? I'm Chinese too and I always have this impulse to switch between the two languages, depending on what comes to mind first.

[theo]

Have them, read the, marvelous!!!

Thanks for the great interview! And I love the 'word geek' comment about writing phrases in a notebook. :-)

btw, side note: Gosh, I missed you all!! I've been without internet since Saturday thanks to my stupid cable company...sometimes, the 1800's look really good. At least I wouldn't have withdrawals for something I didn't know to miss...

[Courtney Milan]

The most brilliant writer that I have ever known--the one who actually mentored me for a year in writing, went through every sentence I penned and explained why it did or didn't work, who showed me how to edit in my voice rather than edit it out--was so effective a writer that he is talked about in luminous terms in his field. He is widely quoted in textbooks, not necessarily because he is the first person to voice certain ideas, but because he is the *best* person to voice them. He has managed some truly amazing things.

He is also not a fiction writer, but everything I learned that took me from a passable writer to a decent one, I learned from him. I owe him a tremendous debt.

The funny thing is, he is also not a native speaker of English. He came to the United States from eastern Europe when he was twelve. He still talks with an incredibly thick accent.

Because he came to the language as a foreigner, he has dissected the English language in a way that no native speaker ever can. He has taken apart all there is to know about the language. And so it doesn't surprise me that Sherry Thomas is absolutely brilliant with the English language. Sometimes, learning a language for the second time forces you to understand things in a way that native speakers never will.

And don't enter me in the drawings! I have signed versions of all Sherry's books. I have two copies of Private Arrangements, and three of Delicious (including the ARC I won last time). I'm just cyber-stalking Sherry. :)

[Patricia Rice]

Wow, Sherry, so glad you could be here, and it looks as if you have a fan base among our readers already!

I have to second the raves about both books, although I will admit that I resisted reading PA for months, certain I could never stomach what surely must be a Big Misunderstanding.

But you definitely have suck-in-ness. I'm a jaded reader and you hooked me from the first page.

And to Liz--we'll miss your bald image but you go, girl!

[Kimmy Lane]

Sherry, I've enjoyed this post immensely. I read Private Arrangements and really enjoyed it! I enjoyed the way the characters behaved like real people. There is a real give-and-take in the way their relationship develops. I cannot wait to read Delicious. What are you working on now?

[Lindsay]

Thanks for the interview, Mary Jo! I don't know how it's possible, but I managed to miss Sherry Thomas. She and her books both sound wonderful!

I'm convinced...I love authors who know how to write. I usually stick to Regencies and contemporaries, but I've been trying to branch out into other periods and locations. Sherry's books will fit in perfectly. :D

I'm going to find PA and Delicious, and Not Quite a Husband is on my "to-buy" list for 2009.

[jrox]

No new ground here. I loved Private Arrangements and read Delicious last week and it is amazing. Thank you, thank you, for these wonderful books!

When in 2009 does your next one come out?

Also, re: food porn...

I am pregnant and nauseous all the time and your book made me feel hungry again!

[Sherry Thomas]

Maya,

LOL, thank you.

Little references like Herr Benz make me smile too.

One thing I love about the late Victorian/Edwardian era is how fresh and fun and exciting were those technologies we now take for granted. I avoid using my car at all, if possible, but boy, was the automobile sexy in 1893.

And recently I was asked who was my fave character from my own books, and I picked Mrs. Rowland, Gigi's mother, just because it was such goshdarn fun to write about her and her duke.

In person I'm a bit of a clown, as anyone who knows me well will tell you. But I find translating humor to the written word difficult and always have a huge envy of writers like Loretta Chase who are just so witty and funny. So when I do think I achieved "teh funneh," I'm soooooo proud. So thank you again!

Kitty probably had a very carnivorous diet until his peaceful passing. :-)

Hope you enjoy DELICIOUS.

Liz M,

A fellow Ivory fanatic! Yay. I've tucked little references to Ivory's work in both of my books. In PA, Camden's dogs, which never made an on-stage appearance, but were referred to, were named after the H/H from BLISS. The French industrialist who keep wanting to hire Verity is M. du Garde from BLISS and DANCE. I know, I know, totally obscure references, but that's the wacky joy of fandom, non?

Though I have to say, Stuart from DELICIOUS is patterned much more after a Laura Kinsale hero than any Ivory characters. I don't know any Ivory heroes who is that chaste. :-)

Cheryl C.,

Thanks and hope you like!

Ariana,

Hi. I giggled a little as I read your question. My Chinese is so terrible nowadays that sometimes I'm afraid to order dishes by their names in Chinese restaurants, for fear of mispronouncing something. And I can't write a simple letter without looking up every other character in the dictionary because I've totally forgotten how it should look like.

So translating between languages is not a problem when I'm writing in English, since I think in English. But I imagine that I would have that problem in reverse in a rather pronounced way, i.e., if I ever have to write something complicated in Chinese, I'd be wondering how to translate from English.

Theo,

Thank you and glad you got your intertubes back.

Courtney,

LOL. What do you need so many of my books for? :-)

I loved your story of the writing coach being a non-native speaker of English. I remember how astonished I was to read LOLITA, reminding myself all along the way that English was not only not Nabokov's first language, it probably wasn't even his second language.

But I can't really take any credit for studying English with any brilliant attention to detail. (In fact, it flusters me still when people tell me about my prose.) I wasn't particularly conscious about prose when I wrote PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS, it was just in a style to please me. I've been totally gratified that it has been pleasing to other readers.

You know what I'd like to hear one of those days? That I SPEAK good English. Haven't heard one of those in years. :-)

Patricia,

Thank you. I'm so honored you enjoyed my books. And no, I've sworn never to write a Big Miz book, see, here's my certificate from the "How to have your H/H do real wrongs to each other" course. :-)

Kimmy,

Thank you! I really enjoyed writing a love story between 2 equals, to have them both be strong and both come to be sensible.

I'm currently working on another marriage-in-distress book called NOT QUITE A HUSBAND--not quite a husband because their marriage has been annulled. Ah, the angst, the pain, the heartache. And that's just the first five pages. :-)

They meet again in what was then the Northwest Frontier of India when he tracks her down to take her back home. And the danger. The conflict. The sex. (Hmm, did I just say that? Hehe.) Oh, heck, this one is getting a mantitty cover, so it better be hot.

The interesting thing is that the dangerous territories they had to traverse then are equally dangerous today. The mountainous tribal area of Pakistan where U.S. has been conducting airstrikes recently? That's the area.

[Maureen]

I have not read your books but from the comments I think I should go look for them. I think there's more emotion in a book from page one when the hero and heroine have a history together. Are you writing any stories where the couple doesn't have a history together?

[Kim C.]

Very nice interview. I've read both books and thoroughly enjoyed them. Ms. Thomas not only has a different take on the usual guidelines in writing a romance novel, but she has a unique voice in today's romance genre.

The thing I noticed in each book is that the heroines are much more adventurous, especially in love, than the heroes. Cam and Stuart are straightlaced and monogamous for quite a stretch of time, whereas Gigi and Verity have other lovers. Is this why you chose this particular time period? I like fidelity in a romance novel, but I think ST got around this plot point quite nicely by having Gigi's other romantic interests occur during her separation.

[Catherine Avril Morris]

Oh, heck, this one is getting a mantitty cover, so it better be hot.

Ha! Love it!! Can't wait to see it! (Especially since your first two books hold a firm and special place on my Keeper shelf.)

[Elyssa Papa]

Hi Sherry!

I've read and enjoyed both of ST's books, so take me out of the running, too.

I found myself really responding to this interview, especially in the part where you talk about manuscripts going under your bed and rejections. At this point, I'm only querying mss #2, but it feels like it's headed in under the bed direction. It really feels like no one--and I mean no one--wants contemporary romances right now. I've definitely gone back and forth in thinking that this is the best I've done so far with writing to wondering why the heck I'm deluding myself.

So, thank you for sharing that story because well, it takes persistence to get published and it shows me that no manuscript is truly under the bed.

When you pulled PA out under the bed and read it over again...how did you start over? How did you go about writing things differently? (I don't know if these questions make sense).

[Loretta Chase]

"So I was rebelling against my romance upbringing by writing a story where there is no misunderstanding, that if the hero thinks the heroine did something awful, it's because she really did do something awful."
Yes, yes, and yes.
So, can I be entered in the drawing? Just kidding. But Sherry, you sound like a writer after my own heart--and late Victorian/Edwardian is a fascinating historical setting. I've put you at the top of my bookstore shopping list. Thank you, MJP, for bringing Sherry to WW, and giving me some books to look forward to.

[Janga]

I too have read and enjoyed PA and Delicious. I particularly love PA; it has become one of my all-time favorites, one that I reread, one that I turn to in order to reaffirm my faith in romance fiction after I've flung a book against the wall.

Are you still planning to write that SF romance, Sherry?

[Sherry Thomas]

Dear Maureen,

Actually the people who commented are all my paid minions. What? Today is my minions' day off? Oh wow, then sure, go ahead and listen to them. :-)

Hope you like.

Hi, Kim,

I know you. :-)

I just like a chaste man. I don't like a bucket that's dipped into every well, if you know what I mean. And I think you do. :-P

Actually, Camden has had more lovers than Gigi. I seem to remember him confessing a period when he screwed anything that moved. And Stuart too, has had other lovers before he met Verity.

Now I think about it, I wonder why I have listed all the men my non-virgin heroines have slept with, but not all the women my heroes have slept with, thus giving you this slightly lopsided impression. Perhaps the double-standard is alive and well in a dungeon of my heart, breathing its noxious fumes up my brain. ;-)

And wouldn't you know it, my current book is a manwhore and virgin story, though the virgin has her revenge by being so complicated and passive-aggressive she total @#$%s up the manwhore. How's that?

Catherine,

I know, the dreaded mantitty cover. But Bantam promises it would be more along the lines of the old Susan Johnson mantitty. So everyone, pray to the cover gods for me.

In other words, Mr. Impossible good, Lord Perfect nooooo!

Hi, Elyssa

I started by moving the story 60 years forward into the 1890s, b/c I like the period. Then throw in a divorce. Then throw in a fiance. Then make the separate a lot longer just so I can have an older pair of H/H. And write everything from scratch. EVERYTHING. Not scene, a paragraph, a sentence borrowed from the older version.

But that's just how I work. I get rid of the clutter and start all over.

Hope the answer makes sense.

Loretta,

Heck, I'll send you a book, if you will read it!

And I knew I loved your books for a reason. :-) Your novella The Mad Earl's Bride is my favorite novella of all time, and the only reason I keep asking around to see if anyone would take me in an anthology, because I want to write something that compact and powerful.

Janga,

I have not only one, but three SF partials that I work on from time to time. One of them a novella that is in part inspired by MAD EARL'S BRIDE, which I just mentioned above. Isn't it funny, Regency inspiring futuristic? Heck, the opening scene of another I wrote furiously after finishing one Stephanie Plum book with particularly hot tension b/t Steph and Ranger. :-) Cross polination rocks.

[Anne]

Sherry Thomas, you crack me up! Great interview and wonderful glimpse into the mind of a (fairly-)newly published author. I've been wondering recently why there are not more popular historicals out there from the Vic./Edw. era so I am glad to find some and glad to know that that era gets some publishing space.
I read the excerpt from Delicious on the Sherry Thomas website and I was so glad when it ended because I had this desperate urge to raid the kitchen! LOL! There should be a warning on the book cover for anyone on a diet to suspend it until after they've read the book! LOL! :)
Please, please, please, do put my name in the drawing. I have not yet read either one.

[Jane George]

Thanks for coming to the Wenches, Sherry. It's wonderful to hear a tale of a writer rewarded for bravery and self-honesty.

I've been burned out on romance for a couple of months and have switched to reading "other stuff." But you have re-stoked my bookstore desire and I have added your titles to my list.

[Sherry Thomas]

Anne,

Thanks for reading the excerpt. Good luck on the drawing.

Jane George,

I'm totally sympathetic to getting burned out on reading once in a while. Hope my books might whet your appetites a bit.

And I'm not sure whether I'm exactly brave or just feckless. :-)

[Patricia Rice]

Sorry Sherry for intruding on this fantastic reception, but I had to comment on Elyssa's remark about trying to sell contemporary romance---Elyssa, yes, it's the market and not necessarily you. The cycle will come around again eventually. In the meantime, look to see what else interests you, and be ready to pull the book from under the bed and polish/edit/revise when contemps come back, because it won't be the same market that you wrote it for.

[theo]

Sherry, please forgive me for hijacking your thread for a moment too but Jo! I got my book!!! Thank you! :heart: And Loretta, I thought I did but again, thank you because I got yours as well :heart:

And now, back to our regularly scheduled interview...

*wink*

[Anne Gracie]

Fabulous interview, Mary Jo and Sherry. I really enjoyed it. Haven't checked out the trailers as this computer keeps crashing on anything complicated, and I don't want to risk a 90% finished book due in a few days.
Mary Jo mentioned (raved about) your books to me a while back, Sherry, and I have them on order, so don't put me in the draw.

And thank you, wenches and wenchling-commenters for this always interesting, always intelligent and stimulating blog.
When all else fails, there are the wenches.

[theo]

Anne!!! Would this be the third book in your Devil Riders? I'm waiting for the second to come. LOVED the first. I'll tell you if I see anything in this series too. I needed the second book to read first :D

Sorry, I know, I keep hijacking this thread today. I'm not usually this bad. Am I? ;-)

This is what happens when one doesn't have internet for four days!!!!

*sigh*

[maryjoputney]

From MJP:

Anne, what a lovely comment! You can enjoy Sherry's witty trailers after the book is done. :)

Theo, anyone who has been deprived of internet for four days is entitled to be a bit chatty. After all, the internet is about obsession, and Sherry's books are about a different kind of obsession, so it fits, sort of. :)

Sherry, I've also had readers occasionally comment on my bravery. Really, it's more like cluelessness. Which is sometimes a good thing, as is fecklessness. :)

Mary Jo

[Cathy Leming]

I am reading PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS now and was struck, immediately, by your prose. Beautiful language.

[Sherry Thomas]

Foof, this is the third computer I'm using today to get online. Guess it comes from having a Unix/Linux laptop that doesn't do wireless and the wired access being in the children's bedroom. :-) (And no, I would never have picked a Linux op system for my laptop, but sometimes Fate intervenes.)

Patricia,

Not a problem at all. I actually find it fun when blog comments take on a life of its own. It's the nature of conversation; we drift. :-)

And Elyssa, take heart. Kristan Higgins is doing well. Susan Mallery is doing well. There is definitely an audience out there for good single-title contemps. Sometimes it takes publishing a bit of time to catch up to what its customers wants.

Theo,

You are welcome to do anything you want in the comments too. You don't even need a four-day absence from the intertubes. :-)

Anne,

Good luck with the book and the deadline. And the computer.

Back up hourly!

Mary Jo,

I think cluelessness, in this sense, isn't a bad thing. Too many clues spoil originality, I say. :-)

Cathy,

Thanks. ::blushes::

[Sherry Thomas]

Just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to all the Wenches and Wenchettes (what's a commenter here called?) for having me and showing me such a great time.

I wouldn't have imagined I'd have so many readers here, but what was I thinking. Of course the Wenches would have readers of the most exquisite taste. :-) :-)

Once again, my heartfelt gratitude. Air kisses and cyber hugs all around!!!!

[talpianna]

Mary Jo, aren't Clueless and Feckless a couple of the cows at Cold Comfort Farm?

Sherry, just put PA on my TBB list. Thinking about DELICIOUS, but I just read Crusie's new column about weight consciousness, and I'm afraid to read it. Did you ever read Steven Brust's BROKEDOWN PALACE? There's a description of a feast in there that's hazardous to your mental health if you are any farther than two blocks from an open Hungarian restaurant when you read it!

[Margay]

Sherry, I love the trailers! I don't know which one I like best, but there are some really funny, uh, quotes (@#*&*) in the one for Private Arrangements.

[Anna]

I read both of Sherry's books as well... oh, they were so wonderful! I loved the prose. But I have to complain that both were too compellingly written for me to spend the time enjoying the prose that I wanted to. I was glued to them. If I could afford to have called in sick to the day job in order to finish them, I would have.

I never re-read romance novels (too many books, not enough time *sigh*), but I will be re-reading these. They are in a class by themselves!

I'm not surprised that Sherry is multilingual. She has an amazing gift with words.

They're outside the era that I normally read, but I'm so glad I gave them a chance!

[Jane Sevier]

What a wise, wonderful interview. "I don't think romantic love is sufficient at all for happiness, but must be accompanied by wisdom, courage, kindness, generosity, patience, commitment...." Brilliant, as the Brits would say.

I adored PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS and devoured DELICIOUS! NOT QUITE A HUSBAND can't get here soon enough for me.

Thank you, MJP, for bringing Sherry to Word Wenches. What a treat to have one beloved author interview another.

[Nancy Barber]

I'd already been intrigued by earlier cyberbuzz, but this interview plus the trailers (which I usually ignore having disliked most of the ones I've seen) has put both books on the "Go find in a bookstore. Now." list.

[liz m]

Theo - Pfft. You were born a hijacker - don't you recall when we got drunk in some seedy bookstore and got 'Random 4-Ever' tats? You didn't think it was the publishing imprint, did you?

Anne - Book 2 has arrived. Now if my kids would just have a playdate at someone else's house....

Sherry - How can one not love Judith Ivory? Megan Chance, Penn Williamson, Meghan McKinney - great era of 'different' books - and we seem to be coming out of the Vampires into another great era.

Here's my hijack query, I was wondering after Delicious if (in conjunction with LLG's Girl Bachelor series) we're heading into a period where readers are finally open to working heroines and Victorian/Edwardian settings in a bigger way than before. (Was there a wave of Georgian books before Regency? Hm...) It just seems to me that the time period isn't an obstacle in the same way it seemed to be before. Or, I'm totally wrong. Not the first time.

[liz m]

PS - speaking of the Victorians - we used to get Edison cylinders in all the time at my parent's junk shop and I'd crank them up.

Recently, a collection of the (ahem) adult ones was released to many a raised eyebrow among those who think people change from eon to eon.

Here's a review (second album set on the page, Actionable Offenses) that's very interesting but NOT for the offended, or those who want to preserve their image of Victorians as blushing moralists.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=8097

[willaful]

More pain? More angst? I CAN NOT WAIT! When it comes to romance, I belong to the My Sister Eileen school of "No Tears, No Good." Just thinking of Gigi scrambling along the deck of the boat so she can keep looking at Camden til the very last second makes my heart twist like a slinkee that will never work properly again.

[Susan/DC]

What I like about Ms. Thomas' books -- and I confess to being fonder of PA than of Delicious -- is that they are about grown-ups. There may be flashbacks to when they were young and foolish, and occasions during the book when they are mature and foolish, but they are believable adults. Far too many books either center on how the heroine's youth and innocence are the only path to the hero's salvation or else portray supposedly older H/H who nonetheless embody all the petulance and impulsiveness of a child. When I want to read a book that centers on a character arc of growth from adolescent to adult, I'll read YA. What I want from my Romances is something different: the story of two flawed (more or less, and some significantly more or less than others) adults who may make mistakes but who learn from them and find balance, passion, and fulfillment with each other. I know I'm not expressing myself all that well (one reason I'm in awe of those who can, such as the WW and Ms. Thomas), but I hope I've been able to express my POV clearly enough to express why I'm a fan.

[May]

Loved the interview, LOVED the youtube clips! I'm def. looking for these books. Good luck with your writing, Ms. Thomas!

[theo]

LIZ! Shhhh!!! You're not supposed to tell! *sigh* Yes, cat's out of the bag now...

;-)

I was a Thespian in High School and we did Aristophanes, The Birds. Took four weeks to be approved to do and obviously started my downfall...

I have however, no regrets! :D

(BTW, I was a Vulture for those of you familiar with the play)

[theo]

Oh, and that Aristophanes comment was in relation to the article Liz posted :)

[Anne Gracie]

Had a brainwave and dug out my eeepie (eee pc) to watch Sherry's trailer — it's just delightful, Sherry. I smiled all the way though it.

It's interesting to see the growth of Victorian era romances. I wanted to set a book in the era some years ago and my English editor said a flat no to the period. Too strongly associated with Queen Victoria's crushing mourning gloom in readers' minds, she said. Not romantic. It didn't matter that my book was to be the early part of the era— the whole era, she said, any book in that time is doomed to gloomy associations. Of course, she was thinking of an English readership (this was Harlequin Mills and Boon), so perhaps it's significant that it's American writers who have popularized the period.

(Waves to Theo -- yes it's #3.)

[theo]

Short of UF, I'll read most stories if the H/Hn are great. The setting is certainly a huge bonus, but I have to admit I really like character driven stories the most. I love rich, well described settings that pull me in to the story, don't get me wrong, but I think I mentioned before that for me, too much detail about the period, the clothing, the utensils, what-have-you tends to make my eyes glaze over. I don't care unless it's absolutely pertinent, how many holes there are in the button on the front of the brocaded pelisse that has 47 loops of cording around the edging with one or two being slightly off yada yada...that's just too much for me.

And I've always loved the Victorian period, any really from the 1650's through Lord Peter's time, and contemporary too but I understand the editors have to watch the markets. Too bad though. I have a feeling we readers miss out on tons of great stories that never get published because the editor said 'it won't fly right now' and then the author moves on to something else.

(Waves back at Anne - Can't wait!!)

[Sherry Thomas]

Talpianna,

Nope, haven't read Brokedown Palace, but I love A YEAR IN PROVENCE. Truly mouthwatering stuff. (Too bad the year I spent in Provence I was dead broke and could only afford cafeteria food, which is just bad in France as elsewhere!)

Margay,

Thanks! PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS happens to have an opening scene that lends itself well to dramatization. :-)

Anna,

Thank you. And I'm so happy to hear that the story propelled you along. When people tell me they slow down to admire the prose, then I worry the story isn't strong enough!

Jane,

Thank you, love. I view love as I do technology. It's not so much what it is intrinsically, it's what you do with it.

Nancy,

Thank you so much for the compliment on the trailers. I actually made them more out of a "Your babies have shoes? Then I want my babies to have shoes too" sentiment than strictly as promotion. But now I think I'm addicted. They are fun to make. :-)

Liz M,

I have no idea whether DELICIOUS is any foreshadowing of things to come. What I do know is that I chose this era specifically--in part--in order that I could have working women if I so desired. (Heroine in NOT QUITE A HUSBAND is a physician/surgeon. And who could forget the lady filmmaker in Judith Ivory's DANCE?)

Personally, I'm not looking for a sea change. Readers can read so many books a year. I figure, hey, even if someone who mainly reads Regencies and/or Vampires might not mind reading a few books about turn-of-the-century folks once in a while.

Though sea change will be welcome.

Willaful,

>>Just thinking of Gigi scrambling along the deck of the boat so she can keep looking at Camden til the very last second makes my heart twist like a slinkee that will never work properly again.<<

Omg, that is such beautiful imagery! Thank you.

Susan/DC,

I love how you said it.

As I said earlier in the comment, I'm working on a manwhore/virgin story right now.

I wrote to about a little past half way of the book, then had to go back and redo motivations from the very beginning. After I went through the first 30000 words of the book three times, I still felt a bit iffy about it.

Then I suddenly realized that I was counting on the H/H's continued hostility and immaturity to drive the tension. And I don't particularly care for it.

So I basically took the dethawing that had already been going on, and took it to the next level. It's not the same kind of tension, but there is something wonderful about two people being gentle and kind to each other, while dealing with the inner pain of believing that they'd lost each other forever.

Grown up, as you'd say.

May,

Thank you. Hope you enjoy!

Anne Gracie,

That's interesting, what you'd pointed out. Very true in a way. The two writers who inspired me to write in this period (Laura Kinsale and Judith Ivory) are American.

And I think even so, I prefer the very tail end of the period, because Victoria's very Victorian influences are weakening, and we are basically in La Belle Epoque.

[theo]

*one more hijack and I promise to stop*

Anne Gracie :-) Or really, anyone else here...I have an online email account and though I back up all of my ms to a flash drive, at the end of every day, I email my current ms to myself and save it in a folder in my online email. That way, if my computer crashes (which, lets face it, they all do sooner or later) I have the most current one and can access it from anywhere and haven't lost it.

Just a thought.

And I still can't believe what being without internet for four days can do to one's sanity!!

[talpianna]

Anne Gracie (and that's a redundant name as "Anne" means "grace"; I know this because I'm an Anne myself):

You can always do Victorian if you make it romantic suspense and have the h/h foiling a plot to assassinate the Queen--or for a much earlier era, abduct Princess Victoria. (That's the plot of Marissa Doyle's early Victorian fantasy BEWITCHING SEASON.)

[talpianna]

Theo has a sanity?

[theo]

HEY! Of course I do. Occasionally. Once in a while. Once in a blue moon...

:-P

;-)

[Santa]

Hello everyone. I know I'm incredibly late to this blog. Great interview with Sherry. It seems I am one of the few who haven't read your books but I will remedy that in short order.

I didn't know all the details of your writing career but am encouraged that you kept at it and wrote and re-wrote - really honing your craft. Your story enpowers me.

Like Elyssa, I am writing a contemporary and am hoping the market turns around. Weren't they saying just last year that historicals were out? Not that I believed "them" because everyone I know writes or reads historicals, lol.

Back to writing....

[Sherry Thomas]

Santa,

Yes, keep writing. Historical romances were dead for a while, or so everyone said. But then by the time PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS was ready to be shopped around, my agent told me that there were people looking for historicals, b/c they hadn't bought new ones for so long and didn't have enough in the pipes.

The pendulum will swing around for contemps too. And may you catch it just as the tide rises!