We decided to feature some of our founding authors over the next week. We asked them all the same two questions:
- What made you become an author?
- Which one of your books would you like more readers to discover?
Here’s what Emmanuelle de Maupassant, Grace Roberts, and Tracy A. Ball had to say…
“I’ve always loved stories in which the characters go through a transformative journey, and romance offers such a special way to experience this.
There’s something really cathartic about making that journey with them, and reaching the other side feeling uplifted–believing that wonderful things can happen and we can become our ‘best selves’ through connection with other people.
I’d always written… all sorts of things (travel articles and guides for many years, and playscripts for children when I worked as a primary school teacher… as well as short stories) but it was only in my 40s that the urge to write romance came forcefully.
Having begun, I’m completely hooked. I love the idea of creating a story that has readers really ‘turning the pages’ desperate to find out what happens next and how a seemingly unresolvable situation can reach a happy conclusion, against all the odds.
Even better when there is something ‘Gothic’ afoot… and I love ‘wild landscapes’, so I had great fun creating my ‘Master of the Moor’, which takes place on the wide heath moorlands of England’s Dartmoor. Of course, this is where the Sherlock Holmes story is set – ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’. Conan Doyle (the author of that book) spent some time on Dartmoor researching the superstitions and folklore of the place to create his story, and I did the same. There are many stories of the Wisht Hounds–fearsome dogs with glowing eyes which are said to be the devil’s pack.
I don’t wish to give too much away, but the moors compliment well the bittersweet love story between Mallon and Genevieve.
From a place of resentment and mistrust, both must overcome the pain of the past, learning to give their heart again.
It’s something so many of us can empathize with–that need to forgive and to trust again, to reach our own place of peace.“
“I’ve been a bookworm since the day I learned how to read. The first author who made me fall in love with the romance and women’s fiction genre was Rosamunde Pilcher, with her novel “The Carousel”. As a teenager, I started writing fan fiction just for fun, but it was just something I did for me and never showed the stories to anyone. Years later, I picked up a book by Nicholas Sparks and after reading all the books I could get my hands on, I decided to become more serious with my writing and started creating my own stories and my own happy endings. My writing journey began with Rosamunde Pilcher, who helped me discover the genre I was passionate about, and Nicholas Sparks sealed the deal with the story of how he became an author, which made me realize being a published author was a dream I no longer wanted to ignore.”
“Story telling is in my DNA. I starting writing when I was three. However, I was in my twenties before it dawned on me, other people may want to read what I wrote. I was especially inspired by epic tales like Roots, Lord of the Rings, and the Thorn Birds. I love the idea that stories are real (in some far away parallel universe) and I work hard to cross that bridge.“
