1--What is the title of your latest release?
AN HONORABLE DECEPTION
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When Lord Yates Fairfax, an earl and also the head of a mysterious P.I. firm called The Imposters, is hired to find a compelling young lady’s missing childhood nanny, he soon stumbles into dangerous secrets that prove the nobility can be far from noble. Together with his new client and the woman he does not love anymore—who dubbed herself an interim Imposter—they must unravel these twisted secrets…and sort out how to right the wrongs being perpetrated by their peers.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Most of the book is set along the beautiful, rugged coast of Northumberland, England’s northernmost region. I love exploring England’s diverse, beautiful landscapes in my stories, and there’s something about the raging North Sea that always captures my heart!
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Oh, absolutely! And you can bet I’d stick around long enough to watch my earl and his sister perform on the trapeze, meet the retired circus animals who call their estate home, and be entertained by their wit and humor!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Witty, noble, strongman
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I was fascinated to learn more about the Indian nannies (called ayahs) who were hired by English families to watch their children during the passage from India to England, and then just abandoned in London without a way to return home. It was such a problem that charities sprang up in the 1880s for the sole purpose of providing for these many women and helping them find passage back to India. By the 1910s, these places, like the original Ayahs Home in Hackney, became the place that families went to find Indian ayahs for their own trips to India, and where the nannies in turn knew to go upon arrival in England, to either find jobs there or trips home. Before researching this, I had no idea it had been such a huge problem!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I am an edit-as-you-go person, for sure! Sometimes I’ll make myself a note to just change a detail later, but in general I am such a linear writer, always building on what came before, that I can’t stand to have the “before” not right. If I decide something needs changed, then I usually just go and change it, so I can keep everything straight.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
At the risk of sounding typical: CHOCOLATE!! Though I’m trying to limit my sugar intake, so I’ve been enjoying sugar-free chocolate lately, guilt-free.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
During summers and school breaks, I’m at a teeny-tiny desk in the kitchen, which has a great view out the window (hummingbirds, deer, flowering trees and bushes, and a view to the horse pasture on the other side of the driveway!), but when the cat decides to sit beside my laptop (which is, oh, half the day), there is literally no room for anything else, including my mouse. So while my daughter’s away at college, I take over her HUUUUUUUGE desk, which my dad made for her. It has shelves, a luxuriously large work surface, and room for cat, coffee, notebooks, laptop, mouse, and even my tablet and stylus. I mean, I have to retreat back to the kitchen whenever she comes home, but it’s totally worth it!
10--Who is an author you admire?
Too many to count! C. S. Lewis will always rank high for both his fiction and non-fiction—I realized as an adult, rereading the Chronicles of Narnia to my kids, just how much he shaped my theology through his fiction. In terms of today’s writers, Lori Wick gave me my love of historical romance, Francine Rivers taught me to go deep, Frank Peretti showed me how to look at the world beyond the one we see…and that doesn’t even begin to name the authors that I admire and count as friends. There are seriously so many that I fear forgetting one so won’t even try.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
In addition to the ones by the authors named above, I’d go with Wings Like a Dove by Camille Eide. That book was so jam-packed with wisdom and insights into our deepest hearts that even now, years after I read it, it still comes to mind at odd moments. It explores some of the ugliest parts of humanity—the parts that want to judge and condemn whoever is different—but also the courage and beauty of those who choose love instead.
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.
Way back in 2011, I’d written a manuscript specifically upon an editor’s request, so I had very high hopes. But the days and weeks had crawled by without a word from her. One Tuesday morning in March, I was getting my kids—five and three at the time—ready for Story Time at the library. I’d just gotten them in the car when I realized I’d walked out without my keys, so I dashed back into the house…just in time for the phone to ring. (House phone! Remember those?) I knew I risked running late if I answered it, but the name that came up on the caller ID—my agent!—convinced me to risk it.
After I answered, she said, “Are you sitting down?” Now, my kitchen was a tiny thing with no seating in it…aside from the little stool my toddler used to reach the counters. So I sat on that. And I finally heard the words I’d been waiting on for years. They were offering me a contract! Not only that, but there was going to be a super-quick turnaround to get the book, Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland, out late that year. The call was quick enough that I still made it to Story Time on time, and I’m pretty sure my feet didn’t touch the ground the whole time. My mom was there with my niece, so I got to share the news with her, and with the librarian who’d been rooting for me too. She promised me then and there we’d do a book event, which we did. Such fun!
All my later contract news came via email, and I’m still a bit surprised my agent chose to call that day, but I love having the story!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
I read very widely, but anything “favorite” must have romance in it!
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Hmm. We tend to watch more shows than movies—favorite show is probably The Expanse. But if I have to pick a movie, it’s probably The Intern.
15--What is your favorite season?
Spring!! I love watching the world come back to life, that bright spring green, all the flowers on the trees and bushes, and that first taste of warmth after the long, cold winter. Fills me with joy every time!
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With a day filled with whatever-I-want-to-do and NO COOKING. This year, it was brunch with the girls of the family, an afternoon of reading, and dinner at one of my favorite local places.
17--What’s a recent book you highly recommend?
PROTECTOR by Megan Schaulis!! I literally turned the last page and called out to my husband, “This book was PERFECT! Like, totally perfect. I don’t remember the last time I was so impressed with a book.” Every single thing about it was just… chef’s kiss. It’s a dystopian Esther retelling, and it had everything. A Hunger Games-style competition, kick-butt heroine with a unique relationship to God, fascinating society, unexpected friendships, hidden identities, wonderful romance, plenty of angst…and perfectly executed with fantastic writing.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Probably Italian, as long as we don’t mean the type of Italian involving seafood, which is SO not my thing.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Free…time? What is this thing of which you speak? ;-) Not surprisingly, reading is my go-to, but I also enjoy talking walks with my husband, knitting, baking, and hanging out with my kids, who still claim to like me even though they’re teenagers, LOL.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Now that The Imposters series is complete, I’ll be traveling to World War II Paris in The Collector of Burned Books, with a French heroine who’s a professor determined to gather intelligence for the Allies, a German hero who was forced into the Nazi war machine and sent to Paris to dismantle their libraries, and secrets that could get them both killed if their enemies find them out. And for a lighter-something, next May I also have The Island Bookshop coming out, which is a contemporary beach read with a light historical line, set in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It’s a second-chance love story with the most bookish heroine you could imagine, coming home again to help out at the bookstore she and her sister inherited from their grandmother…and stumbling upon a family secret that could put it all at risk. I had such fun with that one, combining two of my favorite things: books and the beach!
The Imposters #3
English Historical Romance Series with Mystery and Private Investigators Set in Edwardian Englan
As the leader of elite private investigative firm the Imposters, Lord Yates Fairfax has made an art of concealing his identity. But when his newest client, the beautiful Lady Alethia Barremore, is shot while leaving their meeting, he throws caution to the wind and rushes to her aid. Though Lady Alethia thought she was only looking for her missing former nanny, she has clearly stumbled upon dangerous secrets.
Lady Lavinia Hemming suspects there's more to her oldest friends than they're willing to admit, and when she stumbles upon the truth that they're the Imposters, she recruits herself into the firm. Happy as she is for the distraction of an investigation, Lavinia's own family secrets continue to haunt her. And the one thing to bring laughter back into her life--her friendship with Yates--lands her squarely on the bad side of her best friend, his sister.
Tormented by a past that she doesn't dare to voice aloud, Lady Alethia does what she can to help her handsome host, her new friends, and the investigators. But as clues lead them deeper into the darkest of society's secrets, Alethia, Yates, and Lavinia soon learn anew that the gentry isn't always noble . . . and truth isn't always honorable.
Romance | Christian Historical [Bethany House Publishers, On Sale: November 19, 2024, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780764240942 / eISBN: 9781493448166]
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award nominated author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
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