Author Spotlight: Historical Romance Author Kate Moore Talks About Creating a Story…
Today I’m so pleased to welcome fellow Tule author, Kate Moore to the Author Spotlight. Her historical romances bring a touch of fun and a little different take to the genre.
Kate taught English Literature to generations of high school students, who are now her Facebook friends, while she not-so-secretly penned Romances. In Kate’s stories, an undeniable mutual attraction brings honorable, edgy loners and warm, practical women into a circle of love in Regency England or contemporary California. A Golden Heart, Golden Crown, and Book Buyers Best award winner and three-time RITA finalist, Kate lives north of San Francisco with her surfer husband, their yellow Lab, toys for visiting grandkids, and miles of crowded bookshelves.
Giveaway! Kate is giving away an ebook copy of your choice of any the books in the Duke’s Men Trilogy to one lucky commenter. Just tell her in the comments here what your favorite historical romance trope is. Marriage of convenience? Beauty and the best? Scandal or Forbidden? Dukes? Governesses? Bad Boys? Or perhaps something else? What’s your favorite kind of historical romance?
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The floor is yours, Kate…
Hello Readers, and thanks to Nan for inviting me to her blog! I’m Kate Moore, and my latest books are clean, historical romances set in London in 1835.
Have you made vacation plans? What’s ahead this summer–a return to your favorite lakeside/beachside cottage? Or a trip to a new destination on your wish list?
I confess I tend to return to favorite places. For years our family went to the West Shore of California’s Lake Tahoe, rafted the Truckee River, bought bread (and donuts) from our favorite bakery, made home-made ice cream, watched fireworks, and lay in the sun on the round black rocks of the lake’s shore. That summer ritual restored us all.
As a writer, I’m the same. I return for a mental vacation to London in the first half of the nineteenth century, my favorite fictional city. Research (and sometimes a plane ticket) lets me walk its streets and meet its historical figures. Imagination lets me invent a cast of characters as companions for the journey. In London, a city of contrasts, I can mix waifs and orphans with lords, ladies, and scoundrels.
In each of The Duke’s Men stories, a warm-hearted, determined young woman refuses to be daunted by London’s dangers or its restrictions on female behavior, especially when her family needs her to take action. She may be underrated by those around her, but with one of the duke’s men as a partner, she triumphs in the end. Each of those men, my former “lost boys,” has a story of discovering his true identity and rising in the world with the help of a heroine.
Does the hero have to be a duke? That’s a question I asked my editor as I thought ahead. She ‘virtually’ hemmed and hawed. “Readers do like their dukes!” she said.
I get it. I’m attached to the Duke of Wenlocke, once a kidnapped boy with no knowledge of his true parentage. He’s been a character in six books of mine, and still has a role to play as I look ahead. A lovely reader recently asked me when the next book is coming. I don’t have a date yet, but a bit of chance research led to an amazing true tale and has given me the spine of a new story.
Cordelia Staveley’s father has gambled away the mortgage on her family home and lost the family’s respectability, just when Cordelia is trying to get her younger sisters married. She wants to get her home back to give her sisters their promised annual midsummer ball. Cordelia is willing to sell all their possessions, but the arrogant viscount who’s won the mortgage has other plans for what he sees as a mere “pile of stones.”
Writing a book is like taking that family Tahoe vacation. Our summer trips started with all the chaos and confusion of piling six kids, a dog, and gear into the family station wagon at an early hour. That’s me as a writer at this stage, gathering ideas and packing them in notebooks for the journey. Jammed in the car, we kids tried to outdo each other in spotting landmarks and altitude signs. As a writer, I am planting those landmarks, the signs that my hero/heroine are understanding one another and coming together. At a certain altitude on the way to the lake, the very air changes. The smell of sun-warmed pines takes over, and with a few more winding turns of Highway 89, the lake comes into view. As I write, my enemies-to-lovers will navigate their own twists and turns. They will banter and face danger, enter into fake betrothals, learn their secret identities, have second chances, and in the end be dazzled to discover love where they least expect it.
Dear Reader, whether you’re planning that favorite vacation or some dream trip, I wish you happy summer and hope you’ve packed a sustaining number of books in your bag or on your e-reader!
Cheers,
Kate
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The Duke’s Men Series
For years readers have asked, “What happened to the boys?” Now the answer comes in a new series, the Duke’s Men. Three of the Lost Boys in To Tempt a Saint, To Save the Devil, and To Seduce an Angel, return as young men, educated as gentlemen in spite of the obscurity of their backgrounds. Helped by their old leader, “boy,” now the Duke of Wenlocke, Lark, Raven, and Robin embark on new paths in the wake of the devastating fire that destroyed the Houses of Parliament, paths that connect them to their old friends, reveal their true identities, and lead to love. All three books, published by Tule Publishing, are available at all book retailers. Just click on the titles below for links to each book.
Book 1, The Lady and the Thief
In 1835 London, companion Vivian Bradish daringly pursues her dream of being a writer by researching and notating her ailing employer’s new book–A Guide to London for Fearless Women. Posing as a mark, Viv boldly enters a street known for pickpockets. When she’s attacked, she accidentally shoots the handsome gentleman who aids her. She brings the wounded stranger to her employer’s home for medical aid, but they are caught in a compromising situation, threatening Viv’s position and dreams.
Her would-be rescuer, Lark, was once a Lost Boy, part of a gang of street urchins and pickpockets rescued by the Duke of Wenlocke. Reformed, he’s now Edward Larkin, posing as a gentleman and searching for clues to his past. Meeting Viv is unexpected, and to save her position in the household, he proposes a fake betrothal.
To “court her,” Lark promises to guide her through the streets of the London she’s never seen so she can finish the book, never dreaming his impulse to help Viv will lead him to his lost family.
Book 2, The Raven’s Lady
Inventor and engineer Adrian Cole, “Raven” had a rough childhood on London streets. Once one of the Duke of Wenlock’s ‘lost boys,’ he’s now heir to his industrialist grandfather’s fortune. Newly knighted after his fire-fighting invention and daring saved lives when the Houses of Parliament burned, Raven now seeks a wife. Falling for a high-born beauty, he leases and renovates a country estate so he can court her, confident he can rise above his past. But his quick-witted, reclusive landlord has him second-guessing himself and his choices.
After a disastrous London Season and a crippling accident, Lady Cassandra Lavenham secludes herself at her grandmother’s neglected estate, Verwood Hall. She struggles to keep the once stately home from ruin. When a wealthy man wants to lease and renovate the property, her prayers seem answered. Then, friendship and an inconvenient attraction bloom as Raven’s heart is set on another Cassie knows to be cruel and faithless.
Cassie helps Raven prepare for the midsummer ball where he plans to propose. Dare she hope Raven will see the love standing in front of him?
Book 3, The Lady and the Secret Lord
In 1835 London, two stubborn souls from separate worlds clash and collide to find a missing child.
When a threatening message warns Lady Phoebe Marchmont to stop searching for her missing younger brother, the Earl of Grafton, she rebels. Donning a disguise that permits her to move freely about London despite her youth and station, she entreats one of Scotland Yard’s secret detectives to assist her—but she wants to be involved with the investigation.
Former beat cop Robin Jones jumps at the chance to work a case that could prove him worthy to join the ranks of a secret group preparing to be Scotland Yard detectives. But finding the missing earl threatens to expose Robin’s youth as a troubled street urchin when he was one of the Duke of Wenlocke’s lost boys. Of the seven, he was the only one who refused help to find his family. Now Robin must face his past to help the determined and witty Lady Phoebe find her brother.
The search moves from vibrant, decadent Soho to glittering ballrooms, peeling away their disguises and opening their hearts.
13 Comments
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Latesha B.
I love the covers of all these stories and each one sounds amazing. I like stories where the rakes are reformed by stong-willed women and they have to fight for their happily ever after.
Kate Moore
Hi Latesha, I think we like rakes because when they fall, they fall so hard! 🙂
Roseann McGrath Brooks
Your series sounds enchanting. I’m always amazed at the research that goes into historical fiction. I think I like the tropes of forbidden romances of a hero and heroine of “unequal” status, mostly because it makes me mad that that status is so important. I, too, love the “lost boys” concept, and I did love the movie _Lion_.
Kate Moore
Hi Roseann, You are so right about the research, but I do love it. It’s a bit like beach combing. You’re in a fun place looking for gems that have washed up on the shore. And I always like bringing an H/H together from separate worlds. Happy reading this summer!
Carol Light
Hi Kate and congratulations on your series!! I, too, love the idea of your lost boys. I guess one of my favorite tropes is overcoming a lost fortune (or family dishonor). Reading your blog, I was reminded of a favorite book (and movie) of my childhood–The Lost Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Not a romance, but very heartwarming. Enjoy your summer!
Kate Moore
Hi Carol, I too am a fan of the family plunged into disgrace or misfortune and as my mom used to say “rising to the occasion,” and of course, coming together as a family. I want the book I’m writing to be just such a story. Meanwhile, for our book club, I am reading The Count of Monte Cristo (1440+ pages long). It’s all about families being wrongly enriched or wrongly impoverished, and the Count’s efforts to undo the wrong. A complication for the count is that evil parents can have good-hearted children.
Melissa Westemeier
What is it about Dukes? Maybe they feel more attainable than a Prince (there are fewer, the odds are stacked against becoming a princess) and less creepy than a Count (see: Dracula), so yeah. I get it.
Kate Moore
Hi Melissa, Do you have a favorite fictional duke? I’ve always liked Georgette Heyer’s Sylvester and Laura Kinsale’s Jervaux (Flowers from the Storm). One is more Darcy-ish, the other more angsty. There is one of Loretta Chase’s that I like, too, a recent one. A real duke that intrigued in is the Duke of Marlborough who did not get to be duke. in 1994 his father, the then duke, went to parliament to have the inheritance pass over his son (there were drugs) to his grandson. The non-duke is now reformed and helping to run Blenheim.
Karen Hasby
Book one sounds like a great start to this series.
Kate Moore
Karen, my husband has a soft spot for book one. The Tule site gives a good sample. It was fun to write!
Liz Flaherty
I love the sound of this series. Just the term “lost boys” draws me in. And I think I would have liked joining your family vacations, too.
Kate Moore
Hi Liz, Were you a fan of the movie “Lion” at all, about the little boy from a village in India who is separated from his family, adopted by an Australian family, and eventually reunited with his mother? I had already written my “lost boys” first three books when the movie came out. It partly inspired me to find their happy endings for them. Loretta Chase, a writer friend of mine is in London this month, visiting among other places, The Foundling Hospital in Brunswick Square, where I did some of my research on how boys (and girls) could get “lost” in London and what might become of them.