This is complicated but, um, probably not? It’s not that I don’t want to (and I’m super flattered you liked a set of characters so much you want to spend more time with them) but whether a publisher wants a sequel is a business decision. Chances are, if a sequel isn’t available, it’s because there isn’t an opportunity at present for me to write one or else I feel I’ve left the characters where I want them to be. This doesn’t mean I don’t love the books and don’t value your enthusiasm for them. It’s just the way the industry works. And I do try to leave my characters in good places at the end of my books – I might not go full HEA, but HFN for sure!
It’s very unlikely, I’m afraid. The choice as to whose POV a story is told from is always a deliberate one? Also my thinking tends to be if I could retell a story from a different POV, I probably should have included it in the first place.
How awesome of you to ask! Yes it is and you can find links to specific audio editions on the page for the individual book. For example, if you’re interested in the audio edition of Boyfriend Material, just go the Boyfriend Material book page.
- Sand and Ruin and Gold: This is a freebie for new subscribers to my newsletter.
- Wintergreen: Currently unavailable to download – but if you want to read it from when it was originally published on my blog, you can find it here.
- My last Husband: Currently unavailable.
- Glass: Currently unavailable.
- Draconitas: Download in the format of your choice here.
Mostly, I’m just very interested in language. I also have a real problem with prevailing attitudes to non-standard dialects, at least in my country. In many circles it’s actively socially prestigious to be ignorant of the many ways in which English can be spoken and that profoundly offends me. So something I try to do in my writing is to reflect the diversity of spoken English.
Basically, I don’t. I am very grateful to everyone who has taken the time to read and review my work (whether you liked it or not) but reviews are for readers, not writers. I will never engage with readers on reviews of my books or discussion threads about my books unless explicitly invited to do – and even then I’d be terrified of potentially closing down the conversation. If you want to talk to me about my work, you’re very welcome to contact me via my assistant Mary.
Theoretically yes. I’m afraid I have quite a busy schedule so I can’t always accept every opportunity that comes to me. As a general rule, I care less about the size or prestige of the outlet and more about the sincerity of the ask. If there’s something you’d like me to be involved in/with, please get in touch via my assistant Mary in the first instance.
From a purely legal perspective, I should probably highlight that I retain full derivative works rights over all of my material. But, having said that, I’m actually a big supporter of fanfic as a valuable and creative means of engaging with the text. So you can absolutely write fanfic based on my stuff without fear of being sued or being asked to cease and desist.
It’s a secret. Seriously, I’m not trying to be a coquette here, but I’m very nervous about talking about things before they’re done. Also you spend a lot of time bigging up this amazing lesbian space opera you’re working on, and then you can’t finish it or sell it, you end up looking like a bit of a knob.
Ah hah! I actually wrote an entire blog post all about this.
But the tl;dr is: I don’t think they are.
Why don’t your historical novels reflect the reality of attitudes to LGBTQ+ people in that period?
Two answers here.
The first is that the question of what the real historical attitudes of LGBTQ+ people were in any historical period, unless that period is incredibly recent, are actually pretty hard to pin down. There’s a tendency to assume that historical attitudes to, well, everything are just modern attitudes to everything but getting linearly worse the further back you go, and that’s not true. Nor do we actually know how people who died a century or more ago actually felt about anything in their day to day lives. We can make guesses based on the writings those people (those people who actually had their writings recorded, so mostly the rich and powerful) left behind but guesses are all they are. Assuming that every conversation in a Regency household sounded exactly like a Jane Austen novel is like assuming every conversation in an American household sounds like an episode of Succession.
The second is that I’m a novelist, not a historian. I use historical settings to explore themes and ideas I like and find interesting, and I don’t feel any particular obligation to hold to any standard of “realism” that doesn’t make for a good story. Nobody should be trying to learn history from my books.
This is kind of the same answer as above. Our idea of what counts as “historically authentic” is very skewed by what texts survive and the contexts in which those texts were written. And, for that matter, by the perceptions and misperceptions of those texts that have percolated into popular culture. A lot of terms that seem incredibly modern actually go back centuries, while a lot of terms that seem very historical-ey are actually fairly modern.
Plus, once again, these are novels not documentaries. Characters often use deliberately anachronistic language to give the text a modern sensibility. Like the way Bridgerton uses classical covers of modern songs in its soundtrack.
Because it fits their character. I do try to take my use of language seriously and I am very conscious that authors have complete control over what their characters say and so I very much try to avoid using character as an excuse, but at the same time it feels genuinely inauthentic to me for every character to follow the exact same list of social taboos. My characters come from a range of backgrounds and cultures, and which words and phrases they avoid or don’t avoid are part of the way they express that.
I’m a big supporter of content guidance as a concept (I think people have the right to make informed decisions about the books they read), but no content guidance can ever be truly exhaustive. So while I try to make mine as comprehensive as possible. some content will always slip through the cracks, especially because I often write about emotive topics.
I’m afraid not. As important as I feel it is to support young people in cultivating their love of reading and writing, the sad fact is that I get too many of these requests to say yes to all of them, so the only fair answer is to say no to everybody.