1--What is the title of your latest release?
COUNTESS OF STARS, Book 2 in my Struck By Lightning series.
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Desperate to stay near her motherless little brothers, Lady Grace Elliot weds Lucien Harcourt, a ruthless Viscount with a heart encased in ice. She opens his eyes to a world he’s never seen and challenges everything he believes about himself.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Victorian London was the perfect setting. So much was going on in 1848. It was the year of revolution across all Europe and there were riots in England. People were afraid the rebellions would spread. (And there were plenty of reasons the lower classes were angry). I wanted to show the contrast between the Seven Dials and Mayfair, and that once Lucien actual sees and comes to know a little flower seller and her family, his perspective changed.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I’d love to hang out with my heroine, Lady Grace Elliot. She shares my love of family, my longing to fight to make the world a better place for children, and my passion for books. My hero, Lucien Harcourt, Viscount Everdene would scare me at the opening of the book, but then, all of London sees him as formidable, ruthless, with a heart of ice. But at the end of the book we get to see his vulnerability, his willingness to change.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Grace: Empathetic, strong, and optimistic.
Lucien: Elusive, powerful, secretly wounded. Yikes. That’s four words, isn’t it?
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I’ve always been fascinated by how reading a novel can change your point of view. During the Victorian era, there was such social injustice, child labor in factories, poverty, debtor’s prisons, while the ton lived lives of excess. When authors like Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot began to write, readers came to know and love characters like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Little Nell and changed their opinion of the downtrodden. My favorite discovery while researching was that, while books were expensive, groups of the poor would put their pence together to buy a single book. Then, they would gather together once their grueling workday was done, and one of the few literate among them would read the story aloud. I love to imagine that scene, and the hope it must have given them to see Oliver Twist and David Copperfield triumph over their harsh conditions.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I draft and spend a lot of time on the first chapters, then do a complete edit at the end.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Lasagna.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
One complete wall is filled with bookshelves that hold my research library and my most beloved books—Jane Eyre, A Little Princess, A Secret Garden, To Kill A Mockingbird, Little Women and Charlotte’s Web. My desk faces out a window on the second story where I can see redwood trees. An antique lamp that belonged to my grandmother lights my white desk. She was a children’s librarian who inspired my love for writing. Her lamp reminds me that she was the first to believe I could be a writer. My puppy, Eliza, has a comfy bed at my feet, but often wants to snuggle. I’ve become adept at typing around a lap full of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Historical mystery author C.S. Harris and her Sebastian St. Cyr novels.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Charlotte’s Web. It’s the first book I cried in. This is the story that can still bring tears to my eyes.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
The first time a book sold, I’d been to my first Romance Writers of America conference in Detroit. I had a fifteen-minute meeting with an agent, and she took the first hundred pages of my manuscript (which I’d worked on for almost 3 years) and my synopsis back to New York with her on a plane. Monday morning, she called, asking to represent me. A few days later, my book sold. I was stunned, thrilled, until my new editor asked how soon I could have it finished… I had no idea! I’d worked on the first 100 pages for 2 years.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Historical mysteries.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Little Women with Winona Ryder.
15--What is your favorite season?
I adore spring. I’m a transplant to California, but when I lived in Illinois, I couldn’t wait until winter’s gray burst into that wonderful green mist of baby leaves, and hyacinths and snowdrops and lilacs bloomed.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Spending time with my grandkids and eating whatever cake they bake me. There have been some spectacular offerings. My favorite: a solar system with every kind of sprinkle you can imagine on top. (Who knew that Jupiter was crunchy?)
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’m adoring Season 3 of Bridgerton. I think it’s because Penelope and Colin are both writers… and I was quite the wallflower myself. I love the characters’ growth since Season 1.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian. I know the Italians invented lots of cool stuff like the Roman baths, the Coliseum and stuff, but I think once they came up with marinara sauce, they could have rested on their laurels.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Curl up and read, play with my grandkids and Eliza Hamilton the Puppy, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on the 5th book of my contemporary Jubilee Point series which starts with Picket Fence. Then, I believe it’s time for Jamie and Cassandra’s story in Struck by Lightning. We’ll finally find out what happened to him when he was a prisoner of war.
Struck by Lightning #2
A reckless vow…
After her beloved mother’s death, Lady Grace Elliot makes a promise to her heartbroken little brothers never to leave them. She has no idea what that vow will cost her. Warm, brave and compassionate, Grace must take desperate measures to keep that pledge. Her one hope to remain close to her heartbroken little brothers: marriage to London’s most notorious bachelor, a nobleman with a heart encased in ice... The ruthless Viscount Everdene.
An Elusive Viscount…
All of London delights in scandal sheet accounts of ton beauties and their mamas’ schemes to trap Lucien Harcourt, Viscount Everdene, into marriage. But Lucien has no intention of continuing the grim family legacy that scarred his own childhood. When Lady Grace comes to him with an unthinkable plan, he believes he has no heart to risk. But as Grace champions the poverty-stricken children working in factories, her irresistible warmth and kindness open Lucien’s eyes to a world he’s never seen and challenges everything he believes about himself.
A love brighter than the stars…
As mysterious forces mount a campaign to spark revolution, the dangerous cadre realizes the untouchable viscount has a chink in his armor at last… Will Grace pay the ultimate price for loving Lucien? Or is there a chance this beauty can give Lucien something he’d never hoped to find...? Redemption.
Romance Historical [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: July 23, 2024, e-Book, / ]
Kimberly Cates is the beloved author of the over ten historical romances, including Crown of Mist, Restless Is the Wind, Briar Rose, and Lily Fair. She turned her talents to contemporary fiction with her novels Fly Away Home and The Mother's Day Garden.
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