Roseanna White ~ Author Interview 2

Apr 29, 2016 by Rachel

Welcome back to Rachel’s Back Talk! Another Friday interview!

Today’s interview is with Roseanna White. Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to review her newest book The Reluctant Duchess.

So without further ado, on to Rachel’s Back Talk – Special Edition!

RR: Hi Roseanna! Thanks for joining us here today. How did you come up with the idea for The Reluctant Duchess”?

RW: Part of the inspiration traces back 2 decades—after I wrote the first draft of book 1 at the ripe old age of 13, I started planning the sequel, which would be about Brice Myerston. I knew that I wanted the heroine to have suffered a harsh past…but knew very little about what that would do to a person, so I didn’t get very far in writing it back then. When I set about actually writing it eight years ago, the story became largely what it is today, though there have been a lot of changes still between that draft and this one.

Part of the inspiration, too, came for my interest in Scotland—I knew that my maternal grandfather’s family was Scotch-Irish, and that made me quite happy to delve into the Highlands to learn about a piece of my own heritage as well as how it would apply to my heroine.

 RR: Are the characters Brice and Rowena based off of anyone you know?

RW: Nope, LOL. How’s that for a simple answer? 😉 As with many of my characters, they’re just an amalgam of things I’ve observed in many different people over the years.

RR: Haha! That’s a great answer! 🙂 So what drew you to writing in the “Ladies of the Manor” series?

RW: These stories have been with me so long! As I mentioned above, I was in middle school when I started working on these books. And though the plots have certainly deepened and the characters have changed drastically since then, I never lost my love for the concept—hidden family secrets, cursed jewels, questions of faith and superstition, adventure and romance . . . ah. Bliss. 😉

RR: What was the level of research in this book because of Rowena’s background?

RW: Quite a bit, and all of it fun! I took tours through the Highlands via YouTube, jotting down notes not only on the landscape, but on the cadence of the natives’ speech and phrases they favored. I read articles and books about Scottish myths and legends. I bought a book called, appropriately, Edwardian Scotland, that took me inside the daily lives of people in the day. And I read Outlander, since everyone told me the author handled the Scots so well, and I was curious how others were spelling some of their words and accent. =)

RR: That is great to tie in that level of family history interest. Can you tell us a little bit about the last book in this series? 😉

RW: Absolutely. In A Lady Unrivaled, we follow spirited, optimistic Ella to the Cotswolds, where she’s determined to figure out this Fire Eyes business once and for all, so that her brother and his wife can focus on their coming baby rather than curses and villains. She’s staying with Brook and Justin from book 1…and hence runs (literally) into Justin’s cousin Cayton and is instantly intrigued—and wary. He doesn’t exactly have a great past when it comes to relationships, but there’s something about him that draws her. Unfortunately, there’s something that draws the Rushworths to him too, and they soon show up, Lord Rushworth desperate to get the Fire Eyes before their Russian buyer makes good his threats against his sister.

Cayton, determined to live a better life and raise his baby daughter right, doesn’t want to get distracted either with the lovely Lady Ella or with Rushworth’s plots. But he’s determined to do the right thing this time, to stand up for justice. And to keep his daughter—and Ella—safe from the villain that deems him a friend.

Meanwhile, we also meet Kira Belova, a ballerina with the Ballet Rousse…whose patron is none other than the Russian buyer. He sends her to England with one purpose: gain the trust of the Rushworths, and figure out where his diamonds are. Easier said than done.

RR: OOOH! Sounds exciting! I’m so glad that there will be more of Brook, Justin, Brice, and Rowena! As we close here today, what do you hope readers will take away from Brice and Rowena’s story?

RW: That no matter what we suffer…no matter what we feel we lack…no matter whether we think we’re enough…we are the beloved of God. And He is guiding us, always, toward our better good. We cannot always see it through the shadows man’s sin cast over us, through the pain we cause each other—but He is there. And He is able to fill our empty places and make not enough into an abundance of His glory.

RR: And what a great closing that is! Thank you so much for being here today! It was great to get a little “behind-the-scenes” of The Reluctant Duchess.

If you missed my review, check it out HERE.

 

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. The Lost Heiress is Roseanna’s tenth published book. Her novels range from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. She lives with her family in West Virginia. Learn more at www.RoseannaMWhite.com