by Christy Laverty

Romance. Who doesn’t want a little more romance in their life? But with work, schedules, shuttling kids all over town, making lunches, helping with homework, doing housework, who has the time to feel inspired? Well, I think that’s why romance novels are so popular, especially with women. Books are an escape from life, and romance books offer an escape from our lives but also offer a little inspiration too.

Author Jo Beverley has penned more than thirty historical romances and shorter works in her career. She is considered to be one of the most prolific romance writers. Born and raised in England, Beverly moved to Canada in the mid-seventies with her husband. She later moved back to England and now lives in Yorkshire.  In the mid-eighties her professional writing career really took off. In 1985 she got serious about writing, completing a regency romance. She says it was promptly rejected by a number of publishers, but she didn’t give up. She got even more serious about learning the craft. In 1988, she sold the book and it was published as Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed. It was the first of many romance novels. Her works are regarded as well researched, filled with historical details and characters and communities stretching the boundaries of the historical romantic fiction genre. They have been translated into several languages and Beverley has been given several awards.

After many years of being out of print, Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed has been reprinted, to the delight of Jo Beverly and her fans. I got a chance to read the book and really enjoyed it. There is love, intrigue, sexual tension and it marries my love of books and history.

I recently got a chance to talk about the book and writing romances in general with Jo Beverly.

AMW: What inspired you to start writing romance novels?

JB: It seems to have been an instinct or a calling. I always loved that sort of book, and at about 16 I wrote a historical romance in a school exercise book. As an author I find the complex business of courtship and relationships – the human mating dance and the complexities it brings —  very interesting.

AMW: Why do you think that women are so attracted to romance as a genre?

JB: The romance novel supports a need to believe that strong, supportive unions between men and women are possible, which is why the happy ending, and even the happy future, is so important. A tragic ending or even a bittersweet one doesn’t work for a romance, though such a book might be a very satisfactory read in another context.

AMW: How do you feel to see your first book back in print?

JB: It’s lovely to see any book back in print, especially when it’s been hard to find for so long. It’s interesting when it’s the first, however, because it has to be less skillful than something I’m writing now, twenty years later. In this case the style is quite different to that of my new books, which are Georgian historical romance. The next one of those, The Secret Duke, will be out in April.

AMW: Jane in Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed seemed to me to be a very weak woman at first glance but the more I read, the more I realized Jane is actually very strong. Talk about the woman of the book, they are strong and powerful.

JB: When I began this book I was burned out on regency romances in which the hero and heroine met in extraordinary circumstances, and where she is far from a normal young woman of the time, so I wanted to do the opposite, as shown in the first sentence.

I’m always interested in the concept of the strong woman because often its taken to mean assertive, perhaps physically confrontational, and all too often, man-like. If heroines are presented as being better for being like men, what does that say about the majority of women who are not that way?

As I see it, most women have always been strong, working hard, often carrying the world on their backs and ensuring the survival of their families. But they’ve done it from within traditional roles because they didn’t have much choice. That doesn’t demean them. There have always been extraordinary women, and they deserve recognition, but not at the expense of the more ordinary, but strong, women around them. Also, for veracity, it’s important to show the likely reaction of their society to their nature and actions. Because we in the 21st century what we might applaud them doesn’t mean that people of the 12th, 15th, 18th century would.

AMW: And what about the men of Lord Wraybourne’s Betrothed? Especially Lord Wraybourne? What was the inspiration?

JB: I can’t say there was any particular inspiration. As with all my heroes, he has characteristics I admire, plus the story dictated certain things. For Jane’s parents to approve the marriage, he had to be hard-working, responsible, and steady. He has his racier side, but he’s sensible enough to be discreet about it, as opposed to his friend Lord Randal, who is known to be wild.

Wraybourne is strong, however, active, and also has a sense of humour, which is very important to me.

AMW: What is your favourite part of writing?

JB: Interesting question! Beginnings are always fun, discovering these people and their immediate world for the first time. But allowing for the ups and downs and occasional frustrations, I enjoy all of it. I don’t pre-plot my books, so I’m always discovering new things.

The Stanforth Secrets, the next book in this series is out now. It goes back a few years and involves Lord Randal Ashby’s cousin, Chloe, who’s the widow of Lord Stanforth. She wants to escape from Stanforth Hall in Lancashire before the new Lord Stanforth turns up, because  she and he fell inconveniently in love, threatening her marriage vows, but murder and mayhem trap her there.  The Stanforth Secrets is set in my native area of Morecambe Bay, and deliberately includes a variety of strong female characters as my mother had died the year before in Morecambe, and she was a strong woman.
Readers can find out more about this and all Jo Beverley’s books on her web page www.jobev.com. She also has two solo blogs, but only posts to them when she has something interesting to share. In Minepast, she shares interesting tid-bits of history she discovers as she researches her novels. In Jo Talk, she posts anything that interests her. She is also part of the Word Wenches blog, a group of historical authors who blog about history, writing, and anything vaguely related. And the UK Historical Romance blog.

Christy Laverty is a mother and an editor for a Toronto all news radio station. She also does freelance writing for several parenting magazines. Visit Christy’s blog where she updates the trials, tribulations, and fun of being mom of two beautiful girls.