Candice Hern, Visiting Vagabond

The Vagabonds are delighted to welcome Candice Hern back to the caravan. Candice is the author of fourteen Regency and Regency-set historicals, including The Bride Sale, which was named one of the top five romance novels of 2002 by Library Journal and the award-winning Merry Widows trilogy, renowned for having some of the classiest covers in romance novel history. For over a year now, some of us have been looking forward to It Happened One Night, an anthology that includes novellas by Candice and Mary Balogh, Jacquie D’Allesandro, and Stephanie Laurens. Today is the release day, and we are thrilled that Candice is spending it with us.

Who were the writers you loved growing up?
I was a huge Tolkien fan as a teenager. I read the LORD OF THE RINGS over and over. I loved books that swept me away to different times and places, and remember reading lots of historical novels. Thomas. B. Costain was one of my favorites.

Who do you read now?
I read lots of romance, of course, most of it historical. Some of my auto-buys are Mary Balogh and Liz Carlyle for emotional depth, Judith Ivory and Laura Kinsale for complex characters and beautiful prose, Loretta Chase for great heroes and crackling dialog. Too many others to name. Historical fiction makes up a big percentage of my reading. I loved Patrick O’Brien’s books and Ken Follett’s historical novels. I also read mysteries, and love Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries as well as Elizabeth George’s Inspector Lynley series. I read a lot of non-fiction as well, some for research and some just for fun.

Who has influenced you?
I suppose I have been influenced in one way or another by all of my favorite historical romance authors. I am generally more interested in character than plot, so those authors who write strong 3-dimensional characters inspire me the most. I discovered Georgette Heyer rather late in life, and her books inspired me to want to write a book of my own. I’d love to write with as witty a voice as she had.

What’s your best-loved book?
The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett (I consider them as one long book rather than 6 separate ones).

Did you always want to be a writer?
No, it never occurred to me until about 15 years ago. I have been a voracious reader since I was a child, and developed a love of language and words from an early age. I loved putting my own words together and have always written in some form or another, just not fiction. I did a lot of writing in my day job and came to be known as a good editor so that people often gave me documents to critique. Writing fiction never entered my mind until a friend suggested I should write one of the Regency Romances I was so fond of reading, since I knew the period so well. The moment he said that, I had a kind of epiphany and about ten story ideas popped into my head. All at once, I knew I had to do it, I had to write a book of my own. And once I started writing, I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. I loved it!

Do you have a favorite among your books?
Yes, but I don’t think I’m supposed to admit to that, am I?

What drew you to historical romance?
History has been a driving force in my life since I was a kid. It’s what I wanted to read about and learn about above anything else. As mentioned above, I have read historical fiction my whole life, and when I discovered historical romance when I was almost 40, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. At first, I read only Regency Romances, having discovered, through a friendly bookseller, that books similar to those of Georgette Heyer were still being written. As I gradually branched out into longer historical romances, I really came to appreciate the quality of the writing, the depth of characterization, the blend of history and romance. I have never much enjoyed books where the heroine throws herself under a train or otherwise comes to an unhappy end. I much prefer a happy, hopeful ending, so romance came to be the perfect genre for me. Historical romance was only natural.

Have you considered writing a book set in a period other than the Regency?
I’d like to write a bit earlier one day. I love the 18th century

How has publishing changed since you began writing?
When I first started writing, I think there were 8-10 publishers doing traditional Regency Romances. Now, there are none. There have also been several consolidations so that there are now only a handful of major publishers. There are lots of new small presses, but fewer big publishing houses. That makes it more difficult to sell, as there are fewer major outlets

How have readers changed?
The romance-reading population has aged, and in order to attract younger readers, publishers want shorter books, faster paced stories with lots of dialog. There seems to be no patience for descriptive narrative, which I happen to love. And of course, readers want sexier books. Hence the death of the sweet traditional Regencies and long family sagas. Frankly, I think there are still audiences out there who crave sweet books, and longer, more complicated novels. Not to mention a bigger variety of historical settings. But publishers want the broader audience, and can’t afford to support niche markets anymore.

Amanda McCabe announced on Risky Regencies recently that Signet is reissuing some of their regencies. My copies of Miss Lacy’s Last Fling and The Best Intentions are in sad shape from many rereadings. Can we hope to see some of yours reissued?
I would love to see some of them reissued but there are no plans in the works at the moment. Signet still owns the rights, so I will have to approach them again and see if they would be interested.

Where did the idea for It Happened One Night start? What was it like to collaborate on the project?
The idea for the anthology was born on a bus between Chicago and Detroit. I was on a bus tour sponsored by Levy Entertainment, a distributor of books for K-Mart, Target, grocery stores, etc. Mary Balogh and Jacquie D’Alessandro were also on the bus and seated near me. We began talking about how fun it would be to do an anthology together, and Mary said she had had an idea for ages that she wanted to pursue, and that was to have all the authors in an anthology write the same plot. She was certain that no two stories would be alike, however similar the plots. Jacquie and I loved the idea, and we brainstormed a plot: two people who know each other but haven’t met for ten years are both stranded at an inn for a night. The stories were to take place within only 24 hours.

We needed a 4th writer, and immediately thought of Stephanie Laurens. I had her email address with me and sent her the idea. She responded right away with a thumbs up, and we were off and running. To keep the experiment pure, we did not share our stories with one another until they were near publication. I think Mary’s premise was right: they are not at all alike!

I cheered when I first heard that “From This Moment On,” is a Merry Widows story. I am so glad that Wilhelmina is getting her HEA. Was it always part of your plan to give your readers this addition to the Merry Widows?
The Merry Widows books were only planned as a trilogy. I never intended for Penelope or Wilhelmina to have her own book,and gave Penelope a happy ending in the last book, LADY BE BAD. But I got a boatload of mail about Wilhelmina, asking for her story. When the anthology came along, it seemed the perfect opportunity to write her happy ending. Also, because she and her hero are in their 40s, it was a story that was likely more acceptable to an editor as a novella than a full-length book would have been.

I just have to ask about the seasonal structure of IHON. How did you decide which writer would use which season? Was an autumnal story for Wilhelmina a deliberate choice, or was it the luck of the draw?
Luck of the draw, for the most part. The only season I asked not to have was winter, as I’d never been in England during that time of year and would not feel confident with that setting. But it did work out rather nicely, with my protagonists being in the “autumn” of their lives.

How does it feel to be a Midwesterner now? How did you, your antiques, and your collectibles survive the 1500+ miles from San Francisco to Minneapolis? Are you busy adjusting to your new like, or are you making voluminous notes on a new project?
It’s a big change but so far, so good. I love our house and our neighborhood. But I am bracing for my first Minnesota winter! The move went well, with only two casualties. A beautiful little Regency chair had its leg snapped off, and an 18th century Chippendale chair had a piece of the fretwork broken off. Both are repairable, but still sad.

As for writing, my “office” is still a turmoil of boxes. I haven’t yet found my monitor or printer. And I am much too busy unpacking to write. I hope to get back in the swing of things very soon, though.

Thanks for having me, Vagabonds!

Candice will be checking in during the day to answer your questions, so ask away, gypsies. We have one copy of It Happened One Night to give away to one lucky poster.