An interview with Anna Campbell

Today I get to put on my journalist hat and ask probing questions of an author who is a new discovery for me — the lovely and very kind Anna Campbell. As someone who got burnt out on Regency romance in the 1980s, I typically don't read them any longer. However, reviews of Tempt the Devil persuaded me to give Anna’s books a try. I’m so glad I did! She offers a fresh look at the Regency era, one that isn’t mired in cliches and which feels unique and real.

So far, I've read Tempt the Devil and Captive of Sin, with Claiming the Courtesan and Untouched waiting in my TBR. When I finished Captive of Sin, I knew I needed to get to know Anna better, so I suggested an interview.

Without further ado, here's what Anna had to say:

PC: First of all, can you tell us a bit about your background?

AC: Oh, goodness! How long have you got? All right, here’s the shortish version. I’m an Aussie, born in Queensland which is the state high up on the right-hand side, the state with Steve Irwin and the Barrier Reef! I’ve been in love with books as long as I can remember so the desire to be a writer was a natural follow-on to that. I did an arts degree at uni – hey, three years where someone actually wanted me to spend my days with my nose in a book? My idea of heaven! Then I worked at a variety of jobs, including a long stint captioning TV programs for the Deaf. Great training for a writer! I love to travel and as well as shorter trips, I had two years living in England in the mid-1980s and four months traveling the U.K. in 2004. That was great for a budding Regency romance writer — all those wonderful stately homes to check out! I now live on the Sunshine Coast about an hour north of Brisbane, Queensland’s capital. I’ve been writing full time since Avon bought Claiming the Courtesan in 2006 - a dream come true.

PC: What inspired you to write romantic fiction?

AC: My mother gave me my first romance novel when I was eight in an attempt to get some peace. It worked! Mind you, back in those days, you could give an 8-year-old a category romance without worrying about her reading inappropriate material! I’ve been addicted to romance fiction ever since and like lots of writers, I went from reader to writer. The next major leap for me was reading The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss when I was in my early teens. I adored that book, the passion and sensuality and emotion of it, and suddenly I’d discovered exactly what I wanted to write. I decided then and there I wanted to grow up to write historical romance for Avon — it still blows my mind that that’s what ended up happening!


PC: That’s pretty cool that your dream came true in such a literal way. What is the attitude toward romance novels and romance novelists in Australia as compared to that in the U.S.?

AC: Romance is definitely a bigger force in the U.S. than it is in Australia, although having said that, Harlequin Mills & Boon is huge here. A lot of romance novels are sold here in other guises — for example, Nora Roberts is often shelved in either women’s fiction or crime. You can strike snobbish attitudes about romance but that’s something education from Romance Writers of Australia and our wonderful local authors is slowly changing.

PC: You’ve got four books in print right now — Claiming the Courtesan, Untouched, Tempt the Devil, and Captive of Sin. Was Claiming the Courtesan the first book you wrote? How long did it take you to cross that hallowed threshold and become a published author?




AC: Sorry, I’m laughing hollowly at Claiming the Courtesan being the first book I wrote! Not by a mile! I wrote a medieval in between high school and university and actually finished the manuscript so if I consider that the beginning of writing with the hope of publication, I needed another 27 years before I actually sold Claiming the Courtesan. I’d decided Harlequin would be the best way to develop a career and I wrote eight rejected manuscripts for them before I decided to go back to my first love, historical romance. Then I started a stack of stories, finished the occasional one, didn’t submit to anyone — yes, clearly, you have to submit your manuscripts if you want to be published! Two things brought a big change. One was that I gave up writing about seventeen years in because I decided I was never going to achieve my dream. I couldn’t bear not writing so I went back to it after about eighteen miserable months. And it was then that I joined Romance Writers of Australia. I started an enormously steep learning curve (and made a lot of wonderful friends on the way) and eventually sold Claiming the Courtesan to Avon at auction in 2006.

PC: What inspired you to write the period that you write?

AC: I’d always read Regency-set romance, going back to Georgette Heyer and Pride and Prejudice as a kid. But for some reason, I resisted writing in the period and tried every setting except Regency England. Then I finaled in the first romance writing contest I ever entered (with a manuscript set in 18th-century Hungary, I’m not exaggerating about my exotic settings!) and suddenly thought maybe I had a shot at taking this further. If that was the case, I clearly needed to think of a more commercial setting than the obscure ones I was exploring, much as I happened to love them. I started writing a Regency comedy and it was like coming home — my voice really belonged and through reading thousands of Regency historicals, I already had an extensive knowledge of the world my characters inhabited. I haven’t looked back since. I write late Regencies (really reign of George IV) set in the 1820s. I love the decadence of that period just before Queen Victoria came to the throne.



PC: Your books have been — very accurately, I think — described as “Regency noir.” I’ve read Tempt the Devil and Captive of Sin and enjoyed that darker element very much. Where does that come from for you?

AC: Thank you, Pamela! It’s odd – if you met me, I don’t think you’d consider me a dark person. Or at least that’s the feedback I’ve had! I was an avid gothic reader, though, and I had a huge crush on Heathcliff and Mr. Rochester when I was a teenager so clearly something in me responded to the darker side of romance.

PC: Do you do research first and let your characters develop out of that, or do you get to know your characters first and then do the research to match their story?

AC: Luckily because I’ve now written five Regency noirs (My Reckless Surrender is out in June, 2010), I’ve got a pretty good handle on the period I’m writing about. So I have a good idea of what stories will work in that setting and what won’t. Before I start writing, I always have a hero and a heroine, a problem, occasionally a villain, and always the opening. Then I write organically, letting each scene grow out of the one before. Having said that, I usually have a few high points in mind and I know what the ending will be. Those characters often present something I need to research in depth. Which is great as I love research. With Claiming the Courtesan, I did a lot of research on courtesans and I found so many amazing stories in that research, Tempt the Devil grew out of the same body of research. Untouched meant researching the treatment of mental illness in the 19th century – scarier than most horror movies! Captive of Sin required a lot of research on the legalities of marriage and also on my hero’s backstory with the East India Company.


PC: What’s your writing process? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

AC: Definitely a pantser! I wish I was a plotter. It would save me a lot of rewriting but I find if I’ve already told myself the story, I lose interest in it so I guess I’m stuck with my messy process.


PC: Hurray! Another pantser! I’ve tried to change my process also, and I find that I cannot. What's an author to do? I always feel that I truly know my characters when I understand where their deepest fear and pain comes from. What has to click for you to feel like you truly know your characters?

AC: I think you’ve got a great point there. What amazes me about the writing process is that I THINK I know these people when I start writing the story as they’ve lived in the back of my brain for a long time by then. I put pen to paper (or hand to keyboard!) and they emerge with traits and behavior that completely astonish me. I truly know my characters once I’ve come to the end of what is always a really difficult first draft process. Then the editing is refining and clarifying and strengthening what I’ve learned about them in writing their stories. And yes, inevitably the painful stuff comes out in that process! I think that’s how you get the power into your stories, making these characters confront the things they really don’t want to confront.

PC: Gideon from Captive of Sin was a tortured, sympathetic and delectable hero. What inspired him?

AC: Thank you so much. I must admit I had quite a crush on him when I wrote him. He’s such a knight in shining armor, isn’t he? Actually the idea for Gideon came during that trip to the U.K. in 2004. I picked up a book called The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk in a bookshop in Oban on the west coast of Scotland. This was much more exciting than it sounds and was full of Indiana Jones-style spies and soldiers as the Russians and the British vied for control of Central Asia in the mid-19th century. One story in particular struck a chord with me – these two amazing warrior scholars called Arthur Conolly and Arthur Stoddart who were beheaded in Bukhara in 1842 after being kept in a pit in the central marketplace. Anyone who has read Captive of Sin won’t have to think too hard about the links with what happens to Gideon in India. I’m fascinated by Central Asia but sadly, writing in the 1820s, this imperial rivalry between Russia and England was a little too late to fit my period. So I started researching the British conquest of India and came up with plenty of options that allowed me to torture poor Gideon in an appropriately Conolly and Stoddart way! On a serious note, I find the warrior scholar archetype terrifically compelling and Gideon’s definitely an example!



PC: How wonderful to give Stoddart and Conolly that tribute. Your books are fairly gritty, and the characters have an intensity of emotion that I enjoy. Does that come at a cost to you as a writer?

AC: Oh, absolutely! I’m like a wrung-out rag when I finish a book. You have to live through these experiences with the characters and sometimes it’s tough.

PC: What do you do to refill your creative well?

AC: I love to look at water. I walk by the sea or swim. I’ve always felt I should have been a water sign (for the record I’m an earth sign!). I watch TV. I read – not as much I used to, sadly. I find a really good book gets my subconscious firing in the way nothing else does. I catch up with my friends. I listen to music. A break away really freshens up the brain too.


PC: Your next book, My Reckless Surrender, comes out on May 25, 2010. Can you tell us a bit about that?

AC: It’s about a dangerous seduction in Regency London. Here’s the blurb:

Headlong into sin...

A well-practiced rake, weary of easy conquests and empty pleasures, Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, knows women—and his every instinct warns him to beware of this one. Diana Carrick’s brazen overtures have thrown the haunted, sinfully handsome lord completely off his guard. Why, the exquisite temptress stated outright that she wishes to be his lover! But it is neither Diana’s boldness nor her beauty that intrigues him so—it is the innocence he senses behind her worldly mask.

Intent upon the seduction that will finally free her, Diana has set her sights on the notorious Ashcroft—never dreaming that there is much more to the enigmatic rogue than sin and deviltry. His kiss is bewitching, his caress intoxicating—and even the dangerous secret Diana must protect cannot shield her from Ashcroft’s dark allure.

Unwittingly yet most willingly, they are playing with fire. Now the fuse has been lit and there is no escape…except surrender.


PC: That sounds luscious! What are you working on now, besides cleaning your house for the holidays?

AC: Ha ha! Someone’s been reading my Facebook posts complaining about having to do so much housework! I’ve just started my sixth historical romance for Avon. I’m still at that lovely stage when everything’s fresh and exciting. This book will probably be out some time in 2011. I’m also writing a mini-novella (13,000 words) for an anthology — it’s my first reunion story so I’m looking forward to seeing how that develops. The Australian edition of Captive of Sin is just about to hit the stands (mid-December) so I’m also gearing up for local promotion.

PC: Good luck with your Australian release, and congrats on starting your sixth book. And thanks for taking time to chat with me. Your stories have touched me, and it's nice to get to know you better.

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Does anyone have questions for Anna? If so, fire away and she'll answer as she’s able to.

Captive of Sin

I finished ghostwriting last weekend, and I wrote the author's note for Naked Edge, which meant that for the first time in ages I had time to... READ!

In the last poll I conducted, it's clear that I'm not the only one who chooses reading as my main way of relaxing. Some 70 percent of you do the same. Nothing else even came close. Television follows behind at a measly 13 percent, with goofing off on the Internet garnering 10 percent of the vote.

Reading wins in a landslide!

I love to read. I love to snuggle up with a book and disappear from this world for hours on end so that I forget what's going on in life entirely. It's something I used to do all the time before I started writing books. Now, I rarely have the time.

At the top of my pile was Captive of Sin, by the lovely and gracious Anna Campbell. An Australian author who's making a big impact, she's also an incredibly nice person.

I chose her book because it had just arrived at my door and because I'd heard so much buzz on it. The thing that really clinched it for me were the Amazon comments, which revealed a key plot element that I knew I would love: the hero finds the heroine, battered, weak and exhausted, and in desperate need of protection.

Here's the blurb from the back:

He pledged his honor to keep her safe . . .

Returning home to Cornwall after an unspeakable tragedy, Sir Gideon Trevithick comes upon a defiant beauty in danger and vows to protect her whatever the cost. He's dismayed to discover that she's none other than Lady Charis Weston, England's wealthiest heiress—and that the only way to save her from the violent stepbrothers determined to steal her fortune is to wed her himself! Now Gideon must hide the dark secrets of his life from the bride he desires more with every heartbeat.

She promised to show him how to love — and desire — again . . .

Charis has heard all about Gideon, the dangerously handsome hero with the mysterious past. She's grateful for his help but utterly unwilling to endure a marriage of convenience — especially to a man whose touch leaves her breathless. Desperate to drive him mad with passion, she would do anything to make Gideon lose control — and fall captive to irresistible, undeniable sin.



I read the book in two evenings after work, staying awake far too late and relishing every second. Anna Campbell is a new author for me. I'd previously read Tempt the Devil, which I very much enjoyed, and for many of the same reasons I enjoyed Captive of Sin.

As many of you know, I'm not a huge fan of Regency romances. Too often they feel like cookie-cutter, wallpaper romances. Lords, ladies, parties, gowns, the ton... That isn't to be critical of anyone who loves to read Regency romances. To each her own, I say. We all have our own preferences. But I've never gotten in to that period. I guess I don't much care what society thinks today, so reading stories about people trying to fit in to society 200 years ago just isn't interesting to me. Plus, I like stories that have a bit of grit and some real emotional depth.

This story has all of that.

Gideon, the hero, has suffered unspeakable torment and is returning home, when he encounters Lady Charis. Battered but still defiant, Charis doesn't trust Gideon at first; still, she really has no choice but to accept his help. The two of them begin a journey toward mutual trust that also results in healing for Gideon that he never thought he'd have. For him, his decision to risk himself to protect Charis, based in part on his belief that his life is actually more or less over, results in nothing less than a miracle of healing for him.

There are so many moments in the story where Anna demonstrates her superior storytelling ability, moments where some authors would have used a misunderstanding to create overly dramatic conflict between Gideon and Charis, i.e, the Big Misunderstanding. Anna doesn't do that, instead relying on her characters' intelligence and compassion to work through those minor glitches with no problem so that they stay focused on the real conflict facing them.

The sex is realistic and also very hot. And there's an element of romance to the story that never ebbs. For me, the story maintained its magic from the beginning through the end. I fell in love with Gideon. What a wonderful hero! And truly a hero, in every sense of the word, both before and after he meets Charis.

It's kind of funny because being an author means I have a different relationship with books — and other authors — than the average reader. It's easier for me to get in touch with authors and talk with them behind the scenes. Anna and I sort of discovered each other's books (thanks to a variety of blogs out there) over this past year. Though we have very different writing styles, there's a common thread in our writing, which we have noticed, that involves a bit of grit, some real pain and suffering in our characters' lives, and a willingness to go into the darkness of that suffering.

One author coined the term "Regency noir" for Anna, and I think that's very apt. It's that difference in tone — and her willingness to explore her characters' dark places in a deeper way — that endears her writing to me. Plus, being an Aussie, she manages the British-ness of the period quite deftly. It feels very authentic to me.

In short, I loved it! I have two more books of hers in my TBR pile — it's actually a bookshelf, not a pile — and I look forward to reading them.
”
Soon I hope to have Anna as a guest on my blog. I'll whip out my reporter’s notebook and interview her and share the interview here.

In the meantime, I've got big plans to get organized, clean my house, and write a proposal for Natalie's story, the next I-Team book. Then I'll move on to writing my next novel, which I hope (for once) to finish quickly.

We're supposed to get snow here, which makes me happy.

With the holidays coming up, I suppose everyone is very busy. I hope you get time to relax. When you do, what books will you be reaching for next?

Next up: I'll talk about Kathleen Givens' Rivals for the Crown. Then we'll interview some I-Team heroes, including Gabe, the hero from Naked Edge.