Jane Ashford: Married to a Perfect Stranger

Mar5

Interview with Jane Ashford

Susana: What inspired you to start writing?

Jane: My mother. She was a reader, a writer, and a firm believer in her children’s talents.

Susana: What comes first: the plot or the characters?

Jane: I’d have to say they develop together. The personalities of the characters determine where the story can go.

Susana: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Jane: I begin with a rough outline and let it change as I write.

Susana: Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.

Jane: There’s a monkey.

Susana: What is your favorite food? Least favorite?

Jane: I’m a sucker for cookies or pastries, with a nice pot of English Breakfast tea. I’ve never been able to like liver.

Susana: What would we find under your bed?

Jane: I live in a small house. The space under my bed is filled with storage bins.

Susana: If your publisher offered to fly you anywhere in the world to do research on an upcoming project, where would you mostly likely want to go? Why?

Jane: A Polynesian island, Tuvalu. The heroine of one book in my upcoming series grew up there.

Susana: Do you have a favorite quote or saying?

Jane: As a lover of words, I’m always being struck by good quotes. One I saw recently that I really like is: “Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don’t want.”

Susana: What is something you’d like to accomplish in your writing career next year?

Jane: Meet all deadlines! : )

Susana: What has been your biggest adventure to date?

Jane: I spent some time alone in the mountains in Montana. An amazing experience.

Susana: What is the one modern convenience you can’t do without?

Jane: Electricity, I think. I’m kind of addicted to writing on the computer.

Susana: Are you working on something at present that you would like to tell us about?

Jane: I’m having fun with a new series called The Duke’s Sons. It tells the love stories of the brothers introduced in The Bargain.

One reader who leaves a comment about what they like about series books wins a copy of The Bargain.

About Marriage to a Perfect Stranger

Time and distance have changed them both. Quiet and obliging, Mary Fleming and John Bexley married to please their families. Almost immediately, John was sent on a two-year diplomatic mission to China. Now John is back, and everything they thought they knew about each other seems to be wrong… It’s disconcerting, irritating, and somehow very exciting.

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Indiebound • Books a Million • Indigo

About the Author

Jane Ashford discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school and was entranced by the glittering world and witty language of Regency England. That delight was part of what led her to study English literature and travel widely in Britain and Europe. Jane’s historical romances have been published in Sweden, Italy, England, Denmark, France, Russia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Spain, as well as the U.S. She has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award by RT Book Reviews.

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Spotlight on Jane Ashford + Giveaway

Mar14

Win a $20 Amazon Gift Card and/or a Treasuring Theresa coffee mug!

Susana’s Parlour is celebrating the second anniversary of The Romance Reviews with the Treasuring Theresa Lucky In Love Giveaway. To enter the contest, click the TRR graphic at right or the Treasuring Theresa graphic in the side bar.

Before you go, leave a comment on today’s guest post for five contest entries. Be sure to include your email address in your comment!

Spotlight on Jane Ashford

In my younger days, I used to devour the old Signet, Zebra, Candlelight, etc. Regencies by the dozens, and still have quite a collection on my TBR shelves. Jane Ashford was one of my favorites. I’m glad to see that she is making some of these available in digital form so that they can be enjoyed by the younger Regency readers.

The more I learned about Jane Ashford (whose real name is Jane LeCompte), the more I realized how much we have in common. She discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school, while I discovered Heyer’s magic in ninth grade, but both of us were entranced with “the glittering world and witty language of Regency England.” She studied English literature in college. I have an English minor. She traveled widely in Britain and Europe. I studied abroad in Spain, France and Mexico, lived in Ecuador for three years, and have traveled around Europe, Central and South America. She was born in Ohio and lived in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. As for me, I’ve always lived in Ohio, except for the three years in Quito, Ecuador. She started writing at a younger age, but her career was interrupted by various life events. I read voraciously during my teaching career and began writing seriously afterward.

At the moment I’m reading The Impetuous Heiress, which features a strong, self-confident society lady labeled an “ice queen” because she’s turned down so many offers of marriage. But when she meets a tall flame-haired Scotsman who isn’t impressed by her popularity or beauty, she falls hard. This time, though, she is the one who gets turned down, and oddly enough, it only seems to make him more attractive to her. Will the Scotsman see through her social veneer to the sweet, generous girl beneath, or will his first impression of her as a rather “fast” society lady make a love match between them extremely unlikely?

Which of Jane’s Regencies have you read? Do you miss the shorter Regencies as much as I do?

Giveaway#2: One randomly chosen commenter will receive the following SIX vintage Jane Ashford Regencies*:

The Repentant Rebel (1984)
The Irresolute Rivals (1985)
Meddlesome Miranda (1988)
Gwendeline (1980)
A Radical Arrangement (1983)
The Impetuous Heiress (1984)

*These are used books in relatively good condition.

Jane’s new historical release is Once Again a Bride:

Pushed by her dying father into a marriage with one of his friends, Charlotte Rutherford Wylde finds herself bound to an old man who disdains and ignores her. Miserable, furious, she determines to take drastic action, but before she can confront him, her husband is murdered in the dark London streets. From the moment Charlotte hears this upsetting news, she is subject to shock after shock. Her dead husband has spent the fortune she brought him, leaving her nearly penniless. His will reflects his obsession with the artifacts of ancient Rome, turning her home into a museum. And most astonishing of all, he had an entire family that he never mentioned.

The fashionable Wyldes are as surprised to hear of Charlotte’s existence as she is of theirs. To the charismatic Alex she is, at first, just another obligation in his overburdened life. He has to grapple with his dead relative’s shady business dealings, an attempted robbery, and a suspicious Bow Street Runner. But it’s not long before Alec realizes that there is nothing he would rather do than cherish the entrancing Widow Wylde.

Jane discusses marriage laws in Regency England on the Historical Hussies blog.

Historical romances by Jane Ashford include: