Ava Devlin’s Fluently Speaking Baron releases next week, and she was kind enough to answer some questions for us.
You can get your copy of this exciting start to a new series HERE!
Did you always know you wanted to be an author?
Yes, I think so. I can’t remember a time where I wasn’t writing stories or poems or doing writing exercises for the sake of them. It has always been a central part of who I am. Romance itself basically raised me. When I was eleven, I found a big, black garbage bag full of paperbacks with Fabio on the cover hidden in the back of my mom’s closet, and I read all of them.
What is the first story you remember writing?
This is a tough question because it does go so far back. I know I hand wrote short stories in middle school and passed them around to friends and friends of friends, but my first novel was when I was fourteen. I actually wrote seven full-length novels in high school, all romances. I’d bind them at the library and they’d get passed around my little rural high school. It was the most gratifying thing in the world to be approached by practical strangers, gushing about what I’d written.
How did you get from there to where you are today?
Oof, long journey. I got a BFA in film production, moved abroad for a while, wrote nonfiction and journalism, worked in radio and podcasting and marketing for everything from coffee machines to semi trucks to an off Broadway show. I still wrote. I have a YA fantasy novel I wrote for fun during that stretch, and I’ve lost a romance one I wrote about the building of the Thames tunnel.
In 2015, I decided to give short form erotica a shot as Amelie Bliss. The problem was each story kept getting longer and more romantic. They were historicals, set in medieval fantasy kingdoms or ancient Egypt or a traveling circus at the turn of the century. Eventually, I just had to acknowledge the inevitable: I’m a romance novelist. Always have been, always will be.
So Ava Devlin was born and I chose the Regency to bathe myself in. It quickly became the thing I cared about the most in my life, much to the chagrin of various employers.
What is the most inspiring place you’ve visited and has it shown up in one of your books?
This is honestly an impossible question to answer. I’ve lived in London and the French Alps. I taught English in Soria, Spain. I grew up in the Everglades. I live in NYC now. There’s a little bit of every experience I’ve ever had in every book I write. Sometimes the inspiration is a personal drama from my college years, and sometimes it’s standing on top of the tallest church in the world (Ulm Minster) after having braved the tiny conch-shell staircase. Both are important and both are transformative.
But, if you read my book Unveiling the Counterfeit Bride, you’ll get to spend some time in the village I moved to in France at 23 to be an au pair. That book really is a love letter to Serre Chevalier and its particular magic.
How much research do you do into the time period and places you write about?
A lot. And no matter how much I do and how detailed, there will always be something I missed. Short of a time machine and a few extra lifetimes, you’ll never get everything right. But, I’ve learned so much about the world from the research I do, and it’s put so many different places on my bucket list. I probably had the most fun researching the Cotswold Olympicks for my book Goodbye, Earl. One day, I will have to visit just to see the shin kicking contest and a round of dwile flonking!
Do you have any experience dressing in character or participating in living history situations or are you more a fan of libraries and online resources?
Short of the odd ren faire excursion, not really! I’d definitely love to do something like that at some point, though. I really love immersive experiences (I did Sleep No More an embarrassing number of times here in NYC) and always go out of my way to visit reenactment style attractions, castles, museums, etc. When I lived in London, I used to travel to eat lunch from my little apartment in Clapton Common all the way to Hackney Proper just to put my back up against an 11th century clock tower and imagine how many other people had done the same over the last thousand years.
What drew you to the era you write in?
When I decided to start fresh with Ava Devlin, I knew I wanted to stay historical. I’d have loved to have kept up with my medieval girlies (Damsels in Undress was a great series name, don’t @ me) and ancient Egyptians, but there was really no market for it. So I dug around until I found something I could both love with my whole heart and also reasonably build a career on. Regency was that sweet spot. It’s modern enough to feel familiar with all the beautiful costuming and quirky historical detail I love when I want to immerse myself in a place I can actually imagine existing within.
Is there something about the time period you think most people don’t know about?
Parmesan ice cream. (No, really)
The surprising number of women named Tiffany. That one actually goes back to medieval times.
A lot of my jaw droppers have been related to the legal system research I’ve done, like the fact that prior to the Bow Street Runners, the law enforcement system in England was mob justice with a pay out (how could that go wrong) and that magistrates were often just rich, bored dudes with no law training.
Oh! My favorite thing. Sentimental Friendships. This was the open practice of ladies being gay and happy about it, even if they were married and no one having a problem with the fact. Good for them.
What do you think would be the most difficult part about living in that period?
The same thing that’s difficult about living in any period. Being anything other than a wealthy, straight, Christian white man.
Look, I know that’s the obvious answer, but I get a lot of gratification out of creating women who succeed within those confines, because while they aren’t as visible or as restrictive as they used to be, we’re still dealing with them constantly. We have to play the hand we were dealt, so we might as well count cards while we’re doing it.
What are your favorite kind of characters to write?
Tricksters and fools are my cat nip. I just find them so damn hot and always have.
Do you have a specific trope that you’re drawn too?
I love resolving childhood crushes and angst. It is the central driving force behind the Starling Legacy. And I love building men with a facade we get to dismantle. It works really well with the fools and tricksters I mentioned above, but also is very fun with the super serious stuffed shirt types.
Where is your favorite place to write? Does it change depending on where you are in the process?
I write on my couch 99% of the time, but there is something about being stuck somewhere boring that gets my productivity juices flowing. I do great work in hotels and airplanes and half-built trade show booths too. In fact, I’m probably more productive in those places because there are zero appealing distractions.
Which comes first for you: the plot or the characters?
The characters, for sure. Several times I’ve had a character who is supposed to appear for one line or action and then go away so I can finish my carefully plotted plan, only to have them stick around so frequently, loudly, and charmingly, that they end up the protagonist of their own book shortly down the road (see: Joe Cresson of Hazard a Guest).
Do you know where the story is going before you begin, or does it come to you as you write? Do scenes come to you fully formed or are you as surprised as the reader?
Sort of. I have the shape of the thing I want to do, and sometimes really specific “flashbulb” moments that are cemented in my mind, but characters are going to do what they want to do. So, it’s more like I create a room for them, then drop them into it and see what happens.
Does your writing process include any kind of ritual? Story specific playlists, tea, or candles, for example?
Oh, man, I wish. I’ve tried really hard to be This Type of Artist. But no. Half the time I can’t sleep right away and end up skulking back to the couch with my dog under my arm to hunch over the laptop until 2am. It’s very esoteric and romantic, thank you.
Do you write better in the morning or evening?
Neither? Both? Really depends on the day? I never stop writing, to be totally honest with you.
How do you handle the distractions of working from home, especially if you’re sharing the space with others?
The only real challenge is my dog, Hera, deciding we have to go out right now while I’m in a flow state. And the only way to handle that is to submit.
Everything else? Construction noise, my partner loving squeaky basketball and endless sports podcasts? That time a pigeon flew into the apartment? It’s all just lofi and future inspiration.
When it’s difficult to physically travel, how do you find ways to escape?
I have hyperphantasia, so escapism isn’t really much of a challenge. I’ve become a homebody in the years since the pandemic, partially because of circumstance (chronic illness, shaky job market), and partially because I get a lot out of solitude, reflection, and fantasizing. To be completely frank, writing my books is also a form of escapism. I feel like I’m there while I’m doing it.
From all your books, who is your favorite hero and why?
Oh, this is such an impossible question. But the answer is Freddy Hightower. He’s the only hero that I spent multiple books redeeming from villain to hero and his is one of the only books where, after I finished it, I sat on it for days before sending it to my betas because I was so scared that someone might criticize my perfect, special boy and I’d have to burn the world down.
Rhys Caradoc in the upcoming The Trick of It gives him a run for his money, though. My fools and tricksters, as I mentioned above, always make me a little weak. I will always also have a very soft spot for Alex Somers from The Scoundrel and the Socialite, who was built to be a combo of Fred Weasley and Jonathan Carnahan (The Mummy, 1999).
What do you like to read when you’re not reading in your genre?
I read a lot of sci fi/fantasy. I recently worked my way through the whole Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters, which I loved. Right now, I think my absolute favorite person to read is Naomi Novik. The Scholomance Trilogy ruined my life in the best way, and Uprooted remains a superlative full body experience.
Did you have a favorite book or series when you were growing up?
No way. I rarely pick favorites. I don’t have a favorite color or city or food. I love so many things all at once and together. Growing up, I read everything I could get my hands on, from the school library to my mom’s Harlequin collection. I do have a fun book story from childhood though: My mother’s best friend growing up was the daughter of 80s and 90s romance novelist Kathleen Drymon. One of her heroines is named after me (and the two heroes in the remainder of the series are named for my brothers). Isn’t that cool?
