Who doesn't love a bit of old fashioned Regency Romance? Today. I bring you an interview with romance author G.L. Robinson. G.L. stands for Glynis Louise. Her latest release is titled 'The Lord and The Cat's Meow'.
Tell me about yourself
I’m a retired French professor, originally from the UK, but I’ve been living in the US for over 40 years with my American husband. I was brought up in a convent boarding school where we went for walks two by two in our uniforms, just like in the Madeleine stories.
My American friends tell me I still sound completely English but my English friends say I sound American – so I think I’m a Transatlantic!
You can find out more about me by going to my website:
How long ago did you write your first book?
I began in 2018. My sister died unexpectedly that year and I’m sure it was she who inspired me.
What do you love about writing romance?
I’ve loved Regency Romances since I was a girl. My sister and I used to read them to each other with flashlights after lights-out in the convent. They were a guilty pleasure while I was teaching much more serious literature, but now I feel no guilt whatsoever! I freely admit they’re sort of silly, but I LOVE a happy ending. Plus I approach them with a sort of tongue in cheek attitude that makes me laugh when I’m writing.
Can you tell me about your latest release?
My latest is called The Lord and The Cat’s Meow. It’s basically about two couples who are engaged to the wrong people and Horace the cat sorts it out. I found out that next year is the 200th anniversary of the first Animal Rights Act, passed in England in 1822. I used that as the background to the story. The chief female character is an animal rights activist and meets the chief male character when she comes to his house to tell him off for selling an unfit horse. It’s dislike at first sight, but of course, they end up together.
The first chapter is recorded on my website, if you’d like to listen to it (or any of my other books).
Can you tell me about your writing process?
Hmm – I don’t really have a process, as such. Something pops into my mind and I start writing. The story and characters develop as I go. I often surprise myself at what appears on the page.
How do you select the names of your characters?
That’s actually one of the hardest things for me. I want my language and names to be appropriate for the time, so try to keep a list of possible names as I hear or see them. I am trying to use my grandchildren’s names, but some of them just don’t fit. I have to cheat. I wanted to use the name Nina in the Lord and The Cat’s Meow, because my granddaughter by that name is a real animal lover. But it’s not historically appropriate, so I called the character Wilhelmina or Nina for short. It’s not really right, but it works!
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
It takes about three months if I don’t have too many interruptions such as my grandkids coming to stay!
What is your writing Kryptonite?
You know, I didn’t know what that meant. I had to look it up! I missed the super hero thing! But I think you mean what stops me from writing? The answer: NOTHING! I write in all places at all times and under all conditions. I find it the most relaxing escapism imaginable. I can sit in my make-believe world for hours with a smile on my face! I suppose the one thing that would make me stop would be an electrical outage that lasted longer than my laptop battery!
What advice would you give a new author?
First of all I would say is Just Do It! All the rules I keep hearing about not having this and not saying that are mostly nonsense. I see on Twitter that we’re not supposed to have Prologues. Rubbish. That we’re not supposed to use adverbs. Really? And the worst of the lot, that we have TO SHOW NOT TELL. This is half of a quote from Anton Chekov, the Russian writer, who, if you’ve read his short stories, did an awful lot of telling himself!! In fact, what he said is, if we use description, we should do it by giving details not generic statements, ie not the sun was shining after the rain, but the sun threw prisms into the droplets of rain quivering at the ends of the leaves. Or something of the sort. But of course you have to TELL a story! So my first piece of advice would be JUST GET ON WITH IT!
Then I would say have a zinger of a first sentence and lastly, have your work edited for punctuation and grammar (unless it’s deliberately ungrammatical).
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
I do Pilates and aquasize; I like reading really long books (unlike my own which are quite short); I like to ride my bike around the neighborhood, chat with the neighbors and look at the flowers. I’m very lucky to live in upstate New York, which is really pretty, safe, no traffic and cheap!
Thank you to Glynis for sharing the inspiration behind her work, and I am sure her beloved sister is very proud of her.
If you would like to check out her work, click on the links below.
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