An Interview with Author Sorcha MacMurrough, Part 1
Author and journalist Evelyn Trimborn interviews the author of
The Rakehell Regency Romance series and other top titles:
Q-How did you get started writing?
A-From the time I was a child, I loved to write stories, or even
re-write popular ones, to give them a more interesting twist or
better ending. Then I spent a lot of time doing academic writing,
but one day, I saw a little line in a history book while I was in
the library, and the rest, as they say, is history. I had my first
novel completed and published within 6 months, and never looked
back. That was the Sea of Love, set in Renaissance Ireland.
Q-What has your career been like as a writer so far?
A-I was extremely unfortunate, and fortunate, to be starting my
romance writing career at about the turn of the 21st century, when
things were changing very rapidly in the world of publishing, and
romance publishing in particular.
Unfortunate, in that traditional publishing was coming under a lot
of pressure from new technology, reader preferences, new authors,
and the need to be ultraprofitable.
I was also fortunate for the same reasons. So while my books were
accepted by traditional publishers and either made it to print, or
not because the ”lines” I was writing for were ‘killed’, I also
had numerous electronic publishing opportunities to explore. In
addition, readers’ tastes had changed, to something beyond the
sweet Regency, or the bodice ripping historical.Unfortunate, in that traditional publishing was coming under
a lot of pressure from new technology, reader preferences, new authors,
and the need to be ultra-profitable. I got some bad advice from certain
agents I was working with and was encouraged to write for the market,
rather than write what I was really passionate about, historical
romances that have, for want of a better word, an ‘epic’ quality to
them. In other words, that there is more at stake than just the two
of them falling in love.
I was also fortunate to have started my romance writing career then
for the same reasons. While my books were accepted by traditional
publishers and either made it to print, or not because the “lines”
I was writing for were ‘killed’, I also had numerous electronic
publishing opportunities to explore. In addition, readers’ tastes
had changed, to something beyond the sweet Regency, or the bodice-ripping
historical.
So for example, the Rakehell Regency series started as a single
book in the traditional Regency, sweet style, though with a lot of
gritty issues to be deal with (and yes, I do love romantic suspense
too, so every one of my novels has a mystery or crime to be
solved). Then it became a fairly sweet trilogy (because my editor
told me how much series titles sell compared to single title).
By the time Book 4, The Matchless Miss, was clamoring in my head to
be written, I was looking to write the kinds of books I wanted to
read, but could NOT find on the romance shelves. Or even online, at
a lot of the electronic houses! Not erotica, for instance, but
genuinely sensual couples we can believe really FALL in love in the
course of the book and have to work towards their happily ever
after. And couples who really engage, communicate, make love, not
bicker all over the place and act like frustrated alley
cats/fishwives.
My heroes are by no means bored aristocrats, and very few of them
are actual rakes in the series. I also deal with REAL history
(given my background as a literature and history teacher), and do
not set my books in the Regency period only because the fashions
were nice. A writer should never pen an historical romance if the
history is not key in some way. You can just as easily write modern
romance if that is going to be the case.
Q-You use the word gritty. At the same time, though, there is an
almost magical quality to your writing.
A-Thank you, I do work hard at it, because I really want to capture
in the couple not only the feeling of falling in love, but that it
transforms, redeems, heals, makes each hero and heroine grow, and
wrok to be worthy of the other.
Q-That is certainly true of The Scarred Heart, and Guardian of the
A-Mmm, yes, Books 5 and 6 of the series. As I said, once I got to
the stage of producing more sensual novels, with more love scenes,
I was looking to challenge myself in other ways. I had a fabulous
heroine in the Duke of Ellesmere’s youngest sister, Elizabeth, and
needed to find her an outstanding hero. At that time, everyone was
asking me to do a sequel or 3 to Scars Upon Her Heart, or
at least let them catch up with the main characters in that novel in some way. I did want to do a series, so it
became the Scars of the Heart series, and The Scarred Heart one of the titles in it.
It was tough doing a crossover book, but the magic of the Irish setting
and the way Elizabeth falls in love in the novel really did
make the book almost write itself in the end.
As for Guardian of the Heart, I wanted Blake the diligent but repressed doctor to get the one thing
he needs most in the world, true love, only to nearly lose it a
couple of times through his own pride, or at least lack of
awareness of who he is and how to love. Arabella becomes an
amazing woman through her suffering in the course of the novel, and Blake rises to the
occasion to be worthy of her.
I also put in a challenge many people can relate to nowadays,
sadly: coming home from war and trying to live a ‘normal life’, and
often finding that life after the war is MORE challenging that
during it.
Q-A good point. When you started the series, the current war had
started?
A-Yes. I think now, looking back, my reaction to 9/11 was to bury
myself in my writing, with the thought that the power of love
really can conquer all. Love, compassion, kindness, even in the
face of some almost overwhelming obstacles, and some pretty nasty
villains.
Q-Another good point. Where DO you get your heroes and villains?
They are so amazing!
A-To be continued….
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