Hey everyone! I got the fabulous honor of getting in a quickie interview with Sarah MacLean, author of The Season, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, and her latest release Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord. I have fallen in love with her characters, and I hope you all have the chance to do so as well.

Thanks so much for having me! I’m so happy to be here!

1. Why or how did you get into writing? And was your first novel published immediately? Or did it take a couple of years?

I’ve wanted to write romance for as long as I can remember. Aside from a short time when I wanted to be a film director, this is really my dream job.

It did take me a half-a-dozen false starts and a kick in the pants from a great friend to finally set pen to paper and write my first full book, THE SEASON, which I sold to Scholastic fairly quickly (and luckily!) After finishing THE SEASON, it was only a matter of days before I started working on NINE RULES . . . Callie popped into my head and that was that.

2. Do you have any unpublished mss at home locked away that never saw the light of day?

I have lots of unpublished beginnings at home and locked away. Several hundred pages of those beginnings. And no. You’ll never see them.

3. Are there any MUSTS for when you write? music? drinks? special lucky troll doll? (for example, I must have my ipod on-even if the kids are climbing into my lap, the ipod helps me:) Oh! And coffee, it runs in my veins rather than blood)

I try not to allow myself to have rituals with writing, because I don’t want to have *more* excuses not to write. So . . . Ink. Paper. Maybe my dog. But that’s it!

4. What made you decide to go with Regency Romance?

I’ve always loved British Historicals, so I always knew that it would be Regency or Victorian . . . I don’t think it was ever a conscious choice . . . but I knew I wanted to write The Season during the tail-end of the Napoleonic Wars, so the Regency chose me!

5. Your book The Season, is Young Adult Lit, are you planning on anymore YA books?

Absolutely. I’ve got a YA project in the works now. Stay tuned for more info on that soon!

6. And is there a release date and title for Juliana’s story?

Juliana’s story—Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke’s Heart—will release in May of 2011! I’m very excited to share it with all of you.

7. Anything else in the works right now?

In Autumn 2011, I start a new series with Avon . . . my Fallen Angels series. It’s still historical, still set in the same world as NINE, TEN and ELEVEN. . . but a new batch of characters who I am very very excited to share with the world. I’d say more, but my editor has sworn me to secrecy!

8. Who are some of your favorite authors?

I read around in romance…I started with Johanna Lindsey, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood & Jude Deveraux, and I reread these four more often than I should probably admit. I’ve a weakness for Anna Campbell, Eloisa James, Lisa Kleypas, Sophie Jordan, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Rachel Gibson, JR Ward, Pamela Palmer, Courtney Milan & Elizabeth Hoyt. Interestingly, I tend to love romances that read darker than my own, but yes…I think they all teach me something about my own writing. If I hit a particularly great scene, or great line, I find myself thinking about how the author crafted it…structure, cadence, plotting, etc. And that makes me a better writer (I hope!).

9. What are your favorite or most memorable books?

Jude Deveraux’s The Black Lyon, Eloisa James’s Pleasure for Pleasure, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Nobody’s Baby But Mine, Lisa Kleypas’s Devil in Winter, Sophie Jordan’s Sins of a Wicked Duke . . . .so so many!

10. What’s your favorite line from Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord?

Nick says the following to Isabel, and it never fails to make me smile:
“Also—and this is critical—you are not ugly.”

You can find Sarah MacLean http://blog.macleanspace.com/index.html