Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Caroline Warfield. Tell us, what inspired you to write your book Lady Charlotte’s Christmas Vigil?
Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog, L.A.
As is often the case, I was inspired by travel. We were in Venice a few years ago and had enough time to ramble around side streets and little canals. Since I write mainly 19th century historical romance I started wondering whether I could put English Regency characters in Venice. A stop in a little bookshop answered my question when I found, Venice and the Veneto with Lord Byron—everything I needed to know about Venice and English visitors 1816-1818. My imagination was off like a shot.
If you were not a writer, what vocation would you pursue?
I began life wanting to join the Foreign Service, but marriage and children intervened. At this point in my life I can’t imagine doing anything else, although I’m strongly drawn to church work.
Do you prefer to read in the same genre you write in, or do you avoid reading that genre? Why?
My answer to what I read is usually, “historical.” I mean historical anything: mystery, romance, historical fiction, and just plain history. I do a lot of beta reading for friends and I still read historical romance, particularly by favorite authors, but lately I’ve been leaning toward historical mysteries.
How do you create internal and external conflict in your characters? I find conflict often the hardest to create when I start planning a book.
Ever since I read James Scott Bell’s Writing from the Middle, my process has begun with the question, “What is the mirror moment?” “The moment when the character looks in the mirror and makes a decision that changes the direction of the story. To do that I have to know who the characters are, so I begin with forms for the hero’s journey and a character outline. Once I know what drives them and what in the situation sets up internal conflict, I look at the 3-4 key turning points in that journey. Then I write. I Can. Not. Plot. Nothing kills it for me more than over planning.
If you could live during any era of history, which one would you choose?
Aside from a general lack of hygiene and antibiotics, I would probably choose Tudor England. It had an abundance of intelligent interesting women.
Give us a brief summary of Lady Charlotte’s Christmas Vigil:
It's 1818 and Byron is in Venice.
Lady Charlotte clings to one dream—to see the splendor of Rome before settling for life as the spinster sister of an earl. But when her feckless brother attempts to mimic his idol by swimming the Grand Canal, he falls ill, stranding her in Venice halfway to the place of her dreams. She finds the city damp, moldy, and riddled with disease.
As a physician, Salvatore Caresini well knows the danger of putrid fever. He lost his young wife to it, leaving him alone to care for their rambunctious children. He isn’t about to let the lovely English lady risk her life nursing her brother.
But Christmas is coming, that season of miracles, and with it, perhaps, lessons for two lonely people: that love heals the deepest wounds and sometimes the deepest dreams aren’t what we expect.
Venice, Christmas, a handsome Italian doctor... her life is about to take an interesting turn.
Launches October 20.
Pre-Order Links:
Bio:
Traveler, would-be adventurer, former tech writer and library technology professional, Caroline Warfield has now retired to the urban wilds of Eastern Pennsylvania, and divides her time between writing and seeking adventures with her grandbuddy and the prince among men she married.
In her newest series, Children of Empire, three cousins torn apart by lies find their way home from the far corners of the British Empire, finding love along the way.
Find Caroline:
Hi Caroline! Love this blurb and cannot wait to read!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope you enjoy the story.
DeleteThanks so much for letting me visit L.A.
ReplyDelete