Books-n-Kisses is please to have Jane Ashford on the blog to chat a little about her new book “Once Again a Bride“.

Jane, can you please share with us a little about yourself
JA: I love words. When I remember Joseph Campbell’s advice “follow your bliss,” I think of language and stories. I’ve pretty much stuck with words throughout my life. I studied literature and creative writing. I’ve worked as a composition teacher, an editor and in corporate communications. And I now have the privilege of being a full-time writer. My website is janeashford.com and my Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jane-Ashford/154028944714495

Have you always wanted to be an author?
JA: I have. My mother wrote, and she encouraged me. I also loved to read from the moment I learned how. Books were just magical things to me – spells evoking the full gamut of emotion and time travel and amazing images. I wanted to be that kind of magician.

Are you a plotter or a pantster or combo of both?
JA: A combo. I make pages of notes before beginning a book, particularly about the characters. They include events that will happen, but it is not an official outline. This often means that my first runthrough is more of a “rough draft” than a “first draft.”

What is your most interesting writing quirk?
JA: I don’t know if it’s interesting, but I tend to hear the text as I write. I’m more an aural writer than a visual one.

Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?
JA: Once Again a Bride is the double love story of Charlotte Rutherford Wylde and her maid Lucy Bowman. Thrown into a contemptuous household by Charlotte’s arranged marriage, and coldly oppressed in different ways, they both find their ways to love. After Charlotte’s aged husband Henry is killed in the dark London streets, they discover he had a family they knew nothing about. They’re taken into the household of his nephew Sir Alec Wylde, which includes handsome, sassy footman Ethan Trask. A dual attraction lights up, but there are many complications before the two couples are united.

How did you come with the idea for this story?
JA: It started with a phrase that popped into my mind “the Widow Wylde.” As I mentioned, I’m very attuned to the sound of words. They have a kind of music. And this phrase felt full of promise. I played with implications. What kind of widowhood? How wild? And characters started to make themselves known. I also became interested, in these tough economic times, in how a responsible landowner might deal with the agricultural depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars.

Can you share with us your current work(s) in progress?
JA: I recently finished another historical for Sourcebooks, A Compliant Husband. You can read a bit about it on my website http://www.janeashford.com/wip.html I’m working on another to follow it.

Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why?

JA: I’d love to talk to Alice Hoffman about magical realism.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to get into writing?
JA: As they say in one of my favorite movies, Galaxy Quest, “Never give up, never surrender.” That is, if you really want to be a writer, keep writing and working on being better at it, keep submitting or putting the results out there. Perseverance in the face of rejection is a huge part of success in writing.
Can you share with us something off your bucket list?
JA: I’d like to visit New Zealand, which seems to be an amazingly beautiful country. Among other things I’d like to see the facade of Hobbiton Peter Jackson created there.

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?
JA: I’m doing some reading for the Rita Awards right now. I don’t always keep up with release dates; that way a new book by a favorite writer can be a lovely surprise. I do wish Charles de Lint would write another Newford book!

What is one book everyone should read before they die?
JA: Wow. That’s a hard question. One? (dithers, panics) No, no! I can’t pick just one.

What is your favorite time of year & why?
JA: This in interesting because I’ve been spending some time in Los Angeles lately, where the seasons are so much less marked than in New England. I’m not really missing the snow and ice so far! But I think fall in western Massachusetts is probably a favorite. For the foliage colors, of course, and the quality of the air and the light, and warm memories I have from that area.

Who is your Celebrity crush? And what would you do if you ever meet them?
JA: Okay, I’ve always had a thing for Pierce Brosnan. Handsome, suave, twinkle in the eye, family man, actor, painter. What’s not to like? And I’d probably just stammer.

Is there anything else you would like to add?
JA:  Thanks so much for having me. I’ll be at the RT Booklovers Convention in May. Hope to see you there!

ONCE AGAIN A BRIDE

BY JANE ASHFORD 

IN STORES FEBRUARY 2013

Amazon| B&N | Book-a-Million | IndieBound |Chapters/Indigo | Sourcebooks

She couldn’t be more alone…

Widowhood has freed Charlotte Wylde from a demoralizing and miserable marriage. But when her husband’s intriguing nephew and heir arrives to take over the estate, Charlotte discovers she’s unsafe in her own home… Alec Wylde was shocked by his uncle’s untimely death, and even more shocked to encounter his uncle’s beautiful young widow. Now clouds of suspicion are gathering, and charges of murder hover over Charlotte’s head.

He could be her only hope…or her next victim…

A little more about Jane Ashford discovered Georgette Heyer in junior high school and was captivated by the glittering world and witty language of Regency England. That delight led her to study English literature and travel widely in Britain and Europe. Jane’s historical and contemporary romances have been published all over the world, and she has been nominated for a Career Achievement Award by RT Book Reviews. Eighteen of her Regency romances will be published by Sourcebooks in the near future! Born in Ohio, Jane currently lives in Boston. For more information, please visit www.janeashford.com.

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