It’s time for A Series of Senseless Complications! Book one in Kate Archer’s new series is available tomorrow, and she was kind enough to answer some questions for us.
You can get your copy of this sweet historical romance HERE!
Did you always know you wanted to be an author? What is the first story you remember writing? How did you get from there to where you are today?
I always vaguely had the idea, but it was not before I was living in the Caribbean, and it was the slow tourist season so I had some time on my hands. I also had a very young niece and nephew, and I thought it might be fun to write them a story. It just went from there. Writing fiction can be sometimes hard to get started, but then hard to stop after you get going.
What is the most inspiring place you’ve visited and has it shown up in one of your books?
I have gone places that have turned up in my books, but I am also a very big fan of Google maps “little man” function where you can just drop into a neighborhood and have a look around. I use that all the time because England has been gracious enough to keep so many of their old buildings.
How much research do you do into the time period and places you write about? 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?
I don’t do any dressing in character or anything like that, but I do maintain a massive excel file with gathered research in it. So if I’m looking for flowers, or fabrics, or Almack’s or whatever, it’s all right there.
What drew you to the era you write in?
I grew up reading Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, the Brontës, etc, so it seems natural to me to write in that time period. When I discovered Barbara Cartland, and then Georgette Heyer, as a teenager, I devoured them.
Is there something about the time period you think most people don’t know about?
Regarding what people don’t know about – I would like to clarify that lobster was definitely on the menu at a regency era dinner. Lobster has got the reputation of poor man’s food because that was the case later, in the Victorian era. Even Jane Austen wrote of lobster at a dinner in a letter to Cassandra. I have seen more than a few reviews scolding a writer for having lobster at a regency dinner because of the idea that it was a poor man’s food. I no longer include it because of that.
What do you think would be the most difficult part about living in that period?
There were so many difficult aspects that we, as writers of romance, often gloss over of fail to mention. The bathroom situation comes to mind. As well as the plight of servants, the general wellbeing or lack thereof of most of the population, colonialism, racism, lack of rights for women, the lack of anesthetics and antibiotics, and on and on. It sometimes reminds me to appreciate what we have now. I think, aha! I have a microwave. Regency era people would have thought it was black magic.
What are your favorite kind of characters to write? Do you have a specific trope that you’re drawn to?
I think most of my readers already know my secret. I adore an eccentric character, and I love to write at least one servant as a point of view character so that we can access their thoughts. True eccentricity is becoming a lost art, but it is oh so fun to write. In Lady Ferocity, the first book of A Series of Senseless Complications, I’ve kicked off a seven-book series with the most eccentric duke I could conjure. He does not give a toss for society’s niceties, is an inveterate liar for his own amusement, does not care who he offends, can be downright childish, refuses to employ a butler, but has long-employed a rather diabolical housekeeper. He has raised his seven daughters in a very remote estate in the Yorkshire Dales, so they are chips off the old block. His saving grace is he will back his daughters no matter what sort of ridiculous trouble they get themselves into.
Where is your favorite place to write? Does it change depending on where you are in the process?
I am a creature of habit – always the same chair in the same place with the same order of drinks: coffee, yogurt smoothie, coffee, green smoothie. If I’m hungry, I might take a break to have a slice of Velveeta and some olives. And now that I’m reading that, I feel like I really have to fix my life.
Which comes first for you: the plot or the characters?
Two people with a problem between them is always the beginning for me.
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?
How I wish I could plot things out, as it seems eminently sensible and I like to do things sensibly. However, it just doesn’t work for me. I get ideas as I go along and oftentimes some small character who was supposed to just show up for a purpose on one page ends up growing in importance because new ideas came along. I really never know how it will be. I’m writing book four of A Series of Senseless Complications at the moment and a dog who showed up in book two is playing a major part in the plot—who knew?
Does your writing process include any kind of ritual? Story specific playlists, tea, or candles, for example?
Well, there is the coffee, smoothies, Velveeta, and olives. Otherwise, I just put light classical on the tv. It’s background but boring enough not to be distracting. (Unless on the odd occasion it is a piece played by the Theramin. Nobody will ever convince me it is or should be an actual musical instrument. It sounds like a woman being murdered in a dark forest.)
Do you write better in the morning or evening? How do you handle the distractions of working from home, especially if you’re sharing the space with others?
I have a full-time job in social services, so I write all day on Saturday and Sunday. I work best with big chunks of time.
When it’s difficult to physically travel, how do you find ways to escape?
Wine, terrible reality television, and brilliant television on Britbox. I especially like the long older British series like Heartbeat, Where the Heart is, The Doctors, and Peak Practice. (Although if anybody takes these recs, please be aware that Peak Practice had the worst ending to a series in the history of television. No show will ever top its awfulness and the outcry on the internet will back me up on that.)
From all your books, who is your favorite hero and why?
My favorite is ALWAYS the one I’m currently writing. Though, I do have other favorites. Conbatten from book 2 of A Very Fine Muddle, and Mr. Vance from book six of A Series of Worthy Young Ladies, and Dalton from book six of The Dukes’ Pact will always be at the top of the list.
What do you like to read when you’re not reading in your genre? Did you have a favorite book or series when you were growing up?
Georgette Heyer is always my go-to comfort read. I usually reread either David Copperfield or A Christmas Carol around the holidays. The first real book I ever got as a kid was A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett. I must have read it a hundred times. When I got to the end, I would just start over. The attic makeover scene alone made it worth doing.
