Our reviewer Make Kay
loves historical
romance and one of her favorite authors is Sabrina Jeffries. After Make reviewedTHE STUDY OF SEDUCTION
there were still some burning questions she had for Ms. Jeffries. So we asked
her to let us all in on the conversation.
Hi, Sabrina! Thank you for joining us here today at Fresh Fiction. I'm
so happy to be talking with you about your books and your life!
Iβm delighted to be here!
THE STUDY IN
SEDUCTION is the second book in the Sinful Suitors series. I
love the idea of a bunch of gentlemen banding together to form their own club in
order to pool information about the ne'er do wells in society who might be
prospective suitors, in order to protect their sisters and other females
relatives from unsavory marriages! Can you tell me one fact that readers might
be surprised to discover about the series (even readers like me who stalk you on
Facebook, Twitter, and your website!)?
I considered calling it the Guardians Club, but my friend Megan Frampton said
that sounded oldish. I realized she was right. Once I came up with the Sinful
Suitors series and the St. Georgeβs Club, I liked the names much better.
There are now about 30 gentlemen in the St. George's Club looking to
protect their womenfolk from scoundrel suitors. You've talked last year about
how you are intrigued with an open-ended series rather than one defined by a
story arc set at the beginning. As you're a little further into it, how many of
their stories do you expect you will write for this series, roughly? And can you
tell us who will be featured in the next book in the series?
Right now, Iβm writing the book for the Marquess of Knightford (Warren Corry,
Clarissaβs cousin and former guardian) and Miss Delia Trevor (remember her from
the automaton exhibit?). But Iβd also like to do stories for Clarissaβs brother
Niall, another of Warrenβs brothers (Captain Hart Corry), and Lord Fulkham.
Right now, Iβm only contracted for three, so weβll see what happens down the line.
As a series grows, how to you keep track of all the details about the
characters and how the stories are interrelated?
I have two charts for every series. One keeps track of charactersβtheir ranks,
physical characteristics, family relations, etc. The other is a timeline
color-coded by book, which lists significant dates for the characters and the
age they are for those dates. Anything that doesnβt fit in those two charts, I
just look up in the old manuscripts. Thank God for search engines!
I love reading the Regency Tidbits that you post on your website! I have
learned all sorts of fascinating things from you over the years. What is the
strangest thing that you have come across in your research that you would have
loved to put into a book, but just couldnβt figure out how to work it into a
story?
Oh, there are so many. Like details about the adulteration of food during this
period (chalk, dust, sand, plaster of Paris, and lead were among some of the
additives). Or the story of the teenage girl who ran off with her uncle. When
her family went to rescue her, she refused to return, preferring to live with
him as his mistress.
After being raised amidst the rubber plantations in Thailand by
missionary parents, have you traveled back to Asia as an adult? What places to
do you like to spend time (anywhere in the world)?
The last time I was in Thailand was 1994, if I remember correctly (I was
definitely an adult). It was also my last time to visit Asia. For several years
after that, my husband and I were unable to travel outside the country and very
little inside it because of our autistic son. But in recent years, weβve managed
to do it a few times. Not a lot, however. Weβve been to England twice and
Scotland once, and thatβs it. I love England. I would go every year if I could
manage it. Next year weβre going on a cruise to Amsterdam, Scotland, one of the
Channel Islands, and Ireland. Iβm very excited! And maybe weβll pop in to London
while weβre nearby, too.
What prompted you to start your Will and Jane's Excellent Adventure comic strips that you
create? I find them endlessly entertaining! Do you take all the photos for the
strip yourself?
My agent gave me a Jane Austen action figure for Christmas. The next Christmas,
my husband bought me a Shakespeare figure, but he was more of a caricature. And
he was short. When I put the two figures next to each other, I flashed on how
they would interact if they were characters. Then my brother showed me the Comic
Life software on my Mac, and that was it! Will and Jane were born. Yes, I take
all the photos myself. Which is probably why the βartworkβ isnβt fabulousβIβm
not a photographer. But itβs fun to do.
Is there any book that you've read in the last year that you've thought,
"I wish I had come up with that plot!"?
Not in the last year, no. But Iβm not generally impressed by plots. Iβm more
impressed by characters. I always envy really well-drawn characters, because I
have to work so hard at mine. Plots come easily to me.
What are you obsessed with right now? It can be a book or series, a tv
show, a band... What's captivating your soul currently?
I tend not to get obsessed but if I had to choose something it would probably be
Downton Abbey. Iβm mourning the loss of it! And considering watching the whole
thing over again.
With a busy life and your writing career, how do you grab some "me"
time, and what do you like to do for it?
I like to travel, but donβt get nearly as many chances as I like. I also enjoy
doing jigsaw puzzles. Theyβre very soothing for me.
New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries is a regular
on both the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists and
winning more than a dozen industry awards in the proces
New Orleans-born, Thailand-reared, Jeffries attributes her success to
listening to what peers, her publisher and her own common sense told her she
should be writing: "I write what I enjoy reading: lighter, sexier historical
romances, with more dialogue and more sensuality."
Writing about 19th-century English life comes naturally for Jeffries. Not only
is she a lifelong Jane Austen fan, but she has a doctorate in English lit from
Tulane and a specialty in Early Modern British literature. Yet the impetus for
her stories, Jeffries says, is always "what if" — not what if her hero
likes this or that, but what if this happened and this happened ... what would
it do to a person?
And she writes, she says, because "I can't not write . . . I have stories in my
head, and I have to get them out."
Sabrina writes at her home in Cary, N.C., where she lives with husband, Rene,
and their son, Nick. When not answering e-mails as she logs miles on her
treadmill or doing jigsaw puzzles ("my reward for finishing a book"), Jeffries
can be found championing the cause of autistic children in the name of her son.
A marriage of convenience ignites into a passionate love affair in the
hotly anticipated second novel in New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling
author Sabrina Jeffriesβs addictive Sinful Suitors series!
When Edwin
Barlow, the Earl of Blakeborough, agrees to help his best friendβs impetuous
ward, Lady Clarissa Lindsey, in her time of need, he knows heβs in for trouble.
Heβs been hunting for someone to wed, and sheβll just get in the way. Although
captivated by the witty, free-spirited beauty, he fears sheβd be all wrong as a
wife...if she would even take such a gruff cynic for her husband. Yet he wants
nothing more than to have her for his own.
Clarissa has no intention of
marrying anyoneβnot Edwin, whom sheβs sure would be an overbearing husband, and
certainly not the powerful French diplomat stalking her. But when matters
escalate with the diplomat, she chooses Edwinβs gallant offer of a marriage
between friends in hopes that it will deter her stalker. She expects nothing
more than an amiable union, but their increasingly tempestuous kisses prove more
than she bargained for.
When her stalkerβs vow to expose the loversβ
deepest secrets threatens to destroy their blossoming attraction, will their
tenuous bond withstand public ruin, or will Edwin lose all thatβs important to
him to protect his bride?
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