Welcome to Jennifer Ashley's guest blog

Welcome Ms. Jennifer Ashley to Love Romances and More, thank you for joining us.

Did you always want to become a writer?

Yes. Since I was eight years old. I started writing stories about that age and haven’t stopped since.

What is the most, and the least interesting fact about writing?

Most interesting—making up new worlds and characters.
Least interesting—Typing. Dull.

How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your book in a bookstore? Do you have a special ritual for celebrating a book release?

I celebrated my first release by freaking out. I didn’t quite know what to do. I was so excited to see my book in print and so terrified it wouldn’t sell. What should have been a happy time turned into a stress-out fest.

Now I celebrate a book release by putting my hot-off-the-press author copy on the shelf next to the rest of the books I wrote and taking my husband out to dinner. I’m much calmer!

My husband has a ritual—he goes out to a store during the first week of release, buys a copy of my book, and has me sign it to him. (Ain’t he sweet?)

How did your family react to fact that you also write romance novels? Have your family read your books?

My mother-in-law, who recently passed away, adored romance novels. Her collection grew to 40,000 books! (I’m not kidding.) She loved the fact that I wrote them.

My husband loves it. He reads all my books (except for a couple Allyson James ones with m/m/f in it—he can’t go for that *g*).

But most people in my family (except my MIL) aren’t romance readers, and neither are my friends. They apologize to me a lot for not reading my books.


Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

I try to read two books a week, usually a romance and one from another genre. I love mysteries! My favorite mystery author at the moment is Lindsey Davis, but I also like Tony Hillerman, M.C. Beaton (Hamish Macbeth series), and Elizabeth Peters. I’ve also “discovered” Donna Leon, who I am very much enjoying.

In romance, I adore Nina Bangs. She’s hilarious. How she thinks of what she does, I can’t guess. I also just “discovered” Virginia Kantra who is a beautiful writer with amazing characters.

I’m also an urban fantasy fan: Charlaine Harris and Patricia Briggs are my favorites. (True Blood, woo hoo!) Carrie Vaughan too, though I haven’t read through all the Kitty books yet. I’m so excited that I get to write some urban fantasy this year!!

Your characters come to life in your books. Do you feel each of your characters live with you as you write? Do their lives sometimes take over a part of your life? Can you name an example? Do you have living role models for your characters?

I do feel like my characters live with me as I write. One exercise I do for character development is to imagine what my characters would say if they drove around with me in my car. What would they notice? And how would they express their opinions? That’s always fun.

I don’t have living role models for characters (that I’m aware of). My characters grow inside my head from a germ that comes from who knows where. I simply watch what they become and write it down.

Where do you get the inspirations for your books?

Inspiration comes from many different things: A random thought, something I read in a newspaper, something I stumble across during historical research, something I see while out shopping. Inspiration comes all the time and strikes when I least expect it. My stories usually gestate in my brain for up to a year or more before they develop enough to be full novels.

Do you find it difficult at times to write love scenes?

No, I love writing love scenes. The love scene has the potential to be the most boring in the book, so I strive to make each one different, unexpected, and interesting. I usually rewrite the love scene four or five times before I think it’s right. They’re difficult and I have to be in the “mood,” but I enjoy the challenge.

What is your favorite book from the books that you have written so far? Who are your favorite hero and heroine, and why?

I have a hard time with this question! I am smitten right now with Ian Mackenzie and his brothers from my May 2009 release, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie.

But then I love Megan and Alexander from The Mad, Bad Duke. They’re one of my favourite couples.

All the Shareem from my Allyson James Tales of the Shareem books are gorgeous, sexy, and damaged. I love those guys.

I’m also falling in love with Liam Morrissey from my upcoming new paranormal series, Pride Mates (Jan 2010).

And then there are the pirates . . .

I like them all! I can’t choose.

So far you have written historical and paranormal romances as well as some steamier stuff under your pen name Allyson James, which of the genres is your favorite?

I adore historical romances and always have. When I first started reading romance, I refused to read anything that wasn’t historical! I didn’t like paranormals when they first started getting popular, because I was annoyed that almost all of them were contemporary. Then I read Sherrilyn Kenyon and Charlaine Harris and was converted.

My preference is still historicals, and I’m glad the popularity of historicals has never died. (People said it died, but I never believed them. My historical sales have been fine.)

However, I am happy to have the opportunity to explore paranormals. I grew up reading fantasy and scifi (not romance), and I like marrying fantasy with romance.

Which book was the hardest to write and which the easiest?

The most difficult book—a tie between The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie and Highlander Ever After.

Highlander Ever After because I was burned out and going through writers’ block when I wrote it. No matter what I did, it just didn’t come out right. I’m still not happy with it.

Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie because Ian’s character was so difficult to pin down. I started the book eight times (usually reaching 100 pages before I threw it away and started again) before it was right.

Easiest—I don’t think there has been an easiest. They’re all a challenge. The novellas and short stories should be “easier” because there’s fewer pages, but they’re not really.

If you could change places with one character from your books, who would it be and why?

Hmm. Right now I’d say Kim from Pride Mates (a book no one knows about because I’m still writing it). She’s a defense attorney who doesn’t take sh*t from anyone, and she comes up against a family of very sexy shapeshifting men—Irish guys with dark blue eyes and black hair. Yum.

If you could travel through time to visit a special time period or famous person, what or who would it be and why?

I have a problem with time travel… namely, plumbing. I like bathrooms with running water. I love to read about the past, but I doubt I’d be comfortable going there.

I’d love to have met Jane Austen, though, and listened to her conversation. I’d also love to talk to Louisa May Alcott or L.M. Montgomery. I read Little Women and Anne of Green Gables until the books fell apart. It would be fun to speak to the authors who created some of my favorite characters of all time.

Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?
I have guitar music (jazz and rock) loaded into an iPod that I listen to while I write at coffee houses. I like guitarists because (a) I’m a guitarist (more or less), and (b) the music doesn’t have words to distract me. Except Stevie Ray Vaughan—he can sing if he wants to.

If you could choose of your books for a movie, which one would it be and who would you as the cast?

Interestingly enough, it would be my one contemporary, Confessions of a Lingerie Addict. I think it would make a decent romantic comedy (any producer can call my publisher, Dorchester, OK?)

Casting? I am very bad at thinking of actors who would portray my characters. Whoever the studio hired would play them, LOL. I can picture actors for other people’s characters but not my own. Don’t know why.


Are you working on anything right now, and can you tell us a teaser about these projects?
I’m working on three things:

1. A paranormal shapeshifter romance called Pride Mates (Jan. 2010). I’m writing that for Love Spell as Jennifer Ashley.

2. An urban fantasy for Berkley as Allyson James. A sexy story featuring a half-Navajo woman who can call the power of storms, and who is an investigator of paranormal phenomena. (Stormwalker, May 2010)

3. Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage (book 2 of the Lord Ian Mackenzie series). Historical as Jennifer Ashley, Leisure, sometime in 2010.

More about all these can be found on my website

Big congrats to your newest release, The madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, can you tell us something more about the book?

The year is 1881. Lord Ian Mackenzie is the youngest of four sons of the Scottish Duke of Kilmorgan. Ian’s father, for reasons that are revealed in the book, had Ian declared mad when Ian was ten years old and committed to an asylum. Ian stayed in the asylum for ten years, being released by his oldest brother Hart on the day their father died.

Ian has this amazing memory—he’s able to learn strings of numbers or pieces of music after hearing them only once. Hart uses him as kind of a human recorder, to remember conversations Hart has with political allies or rivals; Ian is also great with accounts.

Ian knows he’s not “normal,” but he’s rich enough that he can live his own life with help from his brothers and his loyal valet. He collects Ming bowls (never vases, and never any period but Ming), and he loves beautiful women (and they adore him).

Enter Beth Ackerley. Beth grew up in East End workhouses after her con-man father died, and married a penniless vicar. When her husband died, she became a companion of a rich old lady, and the rich old lady passed on and left Beth a fortune. Beth decides to take her money, travel and forget her troubles (including the jerk who tried to marry her for her money). She wants to go to Paris, study art, and live without drama.

And then the mad Lord Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

(Author’s note: Ian Mackenzie has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is high-functioning autism. I wondered what it would be like to have this kind of disorder in an age when no one knew what it was. The idea took root, and the book was born).

Thanks for the interview!