Eugenia Riley
Eugenia Riley is the author of many time travel novels including my personal favourite, Tempest in Time.
This July sees the release of her latest novel Bushwhacked Bride which is part of the Wink & A Kiss series from Leisure.
This series is very new and is all about romance and humour. Having read a number of the humorous novels of Ms Riley I can only wait with baited breath for Bushwhacked Bride to hit the shelves.
In the meantime Ms Riley has been kind enough to participate in an
interview for the Magical Romance Website and offer us a taste of things
to come.
LB First of all could you tell us a little about yourself as an introduction to the visitors to my site.
ER I’m a native Texan, and my father is a Methodist minister, now retired. I grew up in many different rural communities in Texas.
I received my degree in English, magna cum laude, from Texas Wesleyan College (now University) in Ft. Worth, and married my husband, an Army helicopter pilot who had done a tour in Vietnam, soon after I graduated.
I taught public school English during the first two years of our marriage, then quit to raise our two daughters.
I began my writing career once my daughters reached school age, and
have published twenty-one novels and three novellas since then. I’ve
written historical, contemporary, and time-travel romances.
LB You have said in the past that there are two voices to Eugenia Riley. Could you tell us a little about each and which is the most difficult to write as?
ER One voice is light, fun, and full of energy.
My new time-travel romance, BUSHWHACKED BRIDE (Love Spell, June, 1999)
is a good example. The other voice is dark, intense, and emotional,
sometimes intriguing and mysterious--A TRYST IN TIME is a good example.
However, I must add that both voices are intensely romantic, and I do try
to pack all of my books with emotion, since without that strong emotional
pull, readers fail to connect. I actually enjoy varying between my
two voices and don’t really consider either to be difficult.
LB Which of your novels did you enjoy writing the most and why?
ER I think probably ANGEL FLAME (Warner Books, 1991)
because it was so powerfully emotional, and I loved so much the antebellum
settings of plantation Louisiana and New Orleans.
LB What do you like to read for inspiration?
ER I actually like a complete change of pace when
I read for pleasure--fast-paced commercial thrillers by John Grisham, Dean
Koontz, Mary Higgins Clark, etc. I also enjoy the works of Susan
Isaacs and Sidney Sheldon.
LB How do you go about researching your novels and what do you find is the most challenging aspect of writing time travel romance novels?
ER I like to travel to the locales I use--also read
a lot, often books I find through interlibrary loan. The challenge
of the time-travel romance is finding a time and place which will fit the
story I have in mind--and there I must try to balance two time periods.
LB Your next book to be released is BUSHWHACKED BRIDE (great title BTW) - can you tell us a little about this book?
ER BUSHWHACKED BRIDE (Love Spell, June 1999) is a fun, sexy historical time-travel romance. The story begins in the present in Colorado, with my heroine, Jessica Garrett, taking a ride in an antique stagecoach in order to do research on the Old West. She is accompanied by three male colleagues from the university where she teaches.
After Jessica hits her head on the roof of the stage and pricks her posterior on an old cameo that was stuck between the seats, all at once the scene shifts, and her colleagues become their own nineteenth century ancestors! What’s worse, the stage is being fired upon by a gang of five outlaw brothers, the notorious Reklaw Gang, who then capture it and decide to make Jessica their captive!
At the outlaw’s farm hideout, mercifully, their mother takes up Jessica’s cause. But Ma Reklaw also decides that a contest for Jessica’s hand in marriage will be the perfect way to force her unruly sons to shape up.
This is quite a shocking situation for a rather confused, though spirited,
modern-day heroine to be thrust into. Although all five outlaw brothers
are charming bad boys who woo her in their own brash way, ultimately it
is the eldest, dark, sexy Cole, who steals Jessica’s heart--but not before
much liveliness, hilarity and romance along the way.
LB What do you think you would be doing if you were not writing romance novels?
ER I love to travel, and also spend time with my family.
This summer, my husband and I will celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary.
Both of our daughters are married now and live close by, and we’re very
excited to be expecting our first grandchild in the fall.
LB Could you tell us what you are working on now and what we can expect to see on the shelves over the coming months?
ER Right now I’m working on a big, zany contemporary romance entitled LOVERS AND OTHER LUNATICS. It’s a madcap romance/treasure hunt set in the Houston/Galveston area. It should be released by Leisure/Love Spell in the spring of 2000.
Another time-travel romance, EMBERS OF TIME, will follow in the fall of 2000. EMBERS OF TIME is a spooky, emotional read, in the tradition of my first time-travel, A TRYST IN TIME. EMBERS is set in Charleston, South Carolina, and covers three distinct periods in Charleston history.
And don’t forget that I have two other ’99 releases: SECOND-CHANCE
GROOM, my first Harlequin Duets romance, due out in October, ’99; and "The
Confused Stork," a time-travel novella to be included in the Love Spell
anthology NEW YEAR’S BABIES, due out in November ’99.
LB You have some great tips on your site for would be time travel romance writers. Would you mind repeating some of them for my visitors and please tell us which you think is the most difficult of your tips to remember when writing?
ER I’d love to invite readers to visit my website and see the guidelines for themselves: http://www.eugeniariley.com
I think the most difficult aspect of writing the time-travel romance
is making two time periods "mesh"--dealing with all the details and loose
ends of the time-travel experience in a believable, exciting way, without
allowing this to overwhelm the romance itself.
LB Do you have a message for your readers?
ER Yes! I have a dedicated, avid readership who write to me frequently and support my work. So, let me say to my readers, thank you! Your enthusiasm means the world to me. Please visit my website (listed above), or you can e-mail me: eugenia@brokersys.com
And thanks to you, Louisa, for inviting me to answer these questions for your Magical Romance website!
And I would like to thank Ms Riley for taking the time to answer
these questions so openly and I would recommend that any budding writers
out there hoping to break into the time travel genre stops by Ms Riley's
website
and takes a look at the tips she has written.
Books by Eugenia Riley: A Tryst in Time, Waltz in Time, Phantom in Time, Tempest in Time, Embers of Time, Wanted Across Time, Timeswept Bride, and Bushwhacked Bride
Eugenia Riley's website.
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