Isabella Thorne

I am an only child. I always wanted brothers and sisters, but none were forthcoming. When I was twelve our family went to Canada to stay in a cabin on the French River. My cousin Mike went with us. My dad, who wanted a boy, but got me, challenged us to a fishing contest. I caught the biggest walleye! Then, my cousin dropped the stringer of fish off the dock. We had to “fish” with a large lure to catch a link in the chain of the stringer. My cousin teased me that he caught the most fish—nine all at once. That relationship with my cousins colored the Northwick tales.

I was a pretty solitary teen. I spent a lot of free time reading anything and everything I could. I read everything I could find about the Tudors and Plantagenets and I loved medieval history. I also discovered science fiction at this time, and shared an interest in the original Dr. Who with one of the boys in my class. We became a couple—my first boyfriend. I crocheted him a scarf that was twice as tall as he was. Guess which doctor was his favorite?

I am not sure I actually know what my first piece of writing was. I know whenever I liked a book, I often wrote in that style. When I didn’t like how a book ended, I often re-wrote the ending. I still do that on occasion. I was obsessed with “getting it right”. I wrote essays after reading Emerson. I wrote horror after reading Stephen King. I wrote about dragons after reading Anne McCaffrey, and I always went back to historical fiction, but never felt confident I would get the history right. That frustrated me. I spent a lot of time at the library. The Internet helped with the research many years later, and although I still sometimes obsess over getting it right, but I’ve learned that people love a good story, and sometimes authors can take some poetic license, such as when Lord Keegain plays Santa Clause, in Winning Lady Jane, although many of the Christmas traditions we know are actually Victorian in origin.

Katherine without a doubt. The struggles she went though as John of Gaunt’s mistress were real and the happily ever after was just as magical.

I’ve lately been reading more Georgian history. My high school French is deplorable. I took Latin for three years and only one year of French, but I’d like to do something during the Terror in France. I think there is opportunity for adventure there and maybe something with lady spies during the Napoleonic War.

I generally write straight through the rough draft and my writing is just dialogue. I write on pure emotion. Sometimes I don’t even tag who is speaking. Then I go back and add in the setting and descriptions. Usually, the dark moment will have me stalled for a bit. I ask myself what is the worst thing that can happen at this moment? That’s where I put the twist. In The Duke’s Winter Promise, Emily and Alexander originally found their happily ever after a few thousand words earlier. It was all a misunderstanding, yes, but every book does that. I try to dig deeper. Then, I thought what if Alexander actually listened to Emily’s words? What if he took her to heart and proposed—to the wrong girl?

That’s easy. I feel them. I live with the characters. I love them. I hate them. I think they dealt with much of the same problems we have today: human trafficking, abuse, PTSD (although they didn’t have a name for it) and dementia. I don’t think people have changed much over the years and it is easy to hurt those you are closest to—family and friends. I use the famous “what if?” and then once I’ve written the rough draft, I take it to the next level.

In writing historical novels, everything is sexist. It was a sexist time. That is the history part of historical novels, but I also believe there were women who saw a future when women were equal. They had to, or we wouldn’t have progressed as much as we have. There also had to be men that supported them. Those are the men and women I write about, but they also had to live in their own time, just like we do. We wouldn’t consider living without a cell phone. That is our convention. They just had different conventions in the past.

There are so many Regency romances that start with a heroine who has to marry an odious man, and usually, they find love in a Beauty and Beast sort of story. I wanted something different; something more exciting; something with a twist. I used the “what if” principle. What if he really was odious and she did marry him? What sort of villainy could he be involved with? I had already dealt with human trafficking and abuse with the Baggingtons. This would have to be different, and the odious man she married, I would obviously have to kill so she could have her happily ever after with another. If I did that, then the story would end. How could his dying make things worse for her rather than better? That is the question I continually ask: How can this get worse? I had too many ideas that didn’t fit together for one book, and I couldn’t choose whether her hero should be a kindly doctor or a peer. In the end, I had to write Marilee’s story too so I could use the abundance of ideas.

I knew I wanted to write books about Keegain’s sisters, and Charlotte was the obvious choice to start. Usually, I just lie on the sofa and think of the character for a while. I try to get into his or her skin. Charlotte had dismissed a suitor in Bath. We knew this from Jane’s book. I wasn’t sure how important I wanted to make that suitor. How hurt was Charlotte over the loss? Probably on the inside she was vulnerable, but on the outside, she is a tough cookie. She wouldn’t let anyone know she was hurting, but Ruddy is like her. He would know. Plus, Charlotte rides and she hunts. She can shoot. I wanted to use that. In Jane’s book she walks into the parlor with her muddy riding boots. This tells me something about her character. These were things I wanted to include in the book so that readers could know the person that is Charlotte. These were things that were important in Charlotte’s life. They needed to be important to the story.

I had actually two different directions I considered. One was a spy who tried to kidnap her—a continuation of the string of villains in Jane’s book and Amanda’s book, The Duke’s Daughter and the other was a charity event for orphans. The choice was easy. Charlotte just didn’t fit for the orphan plot. She is too active; too physical. I put aside the orphan plot and will probably use it for Helen’s story at some point, but you know, it can’t just be the typical orphan plot. That’s not how I write. It has to have a twist. I have some ideas, but you will have to wait for Helen’s story to find out what surprises are in store.

A little of both actually. It helps me to write better books, but it also slows down the process. Sometimes I don’t see the mistakes right away. That means I have to step back and let the story percolate for a while. That means a slower publication rate. Checking the history often elicits a fall down a rabbit hole of research that can cost days of writing.

I read them all, but sometimes I re-read them. I have them on audio and sometimes fall asleep to the narrator’s lovely British accent.

I don’t usually get writer’s block per se. I get overwhelm. For example, I have three different ways that Hope Baggington’s story could end. That’s why I haven’t finished it yet. Plus, it is the culmination of the sister’s stories. It needs to be perfect. Sorry for the delay folks. I have plots in my head for all of the Baggington brothers—Isaac’s is a whopper so I have to do it justice. I’m hoping I can keep in romance. It may turn into a saga.

Then, there are the Keegain sisters and the Hawthorne sisters. I purposely brought up Robert Hawthorne in The Duke’s Winter Promise, just to prep for those books coming soon. The Hawthorne-Firthley feud is not over yet, and there is Patience’s brother Reginald. I really like him and writing that book would bring me back with the characters I love, Patience and Percival’s friends. Wouldn’t you like to see them again? I also have two brand new series that are knocking around in my head, one Regency, one Georgian. I like the slight cross-over in my world and I’m not sure if one of the new series might be in Northwick or Halthaven or Bath. Perhaps it can include some of the Dowager Mayberry’s family. The Georgian will be at least partially in France.

Truthfully? Ads. I hate doing ads. They take me away from what I really love, the actual writing. I do have several stories in various stages of completion.

Here is an excerpt from the second in the Hawthorne Sister’s stories; Lily’s story.

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