Historical author Anne Gracie is visiting us today. Nothing is off limits in this interview. We ask her about her background, her writing, and her Devil Riders series. Do you want to win a copy of The Accidental Wedding? Check it out…
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Book Binge: Can you tell the readers a little about your background and about growing up in Australia?

Anne Gracie: I’m the youngest of four kids, all of them very bossy. So I grew up finding the way around rules. We moved house a lot and usually lived out of town, so a lot of my early friends were animals, which might explain a lot, but we won’t go there. 😉

My dad’s job took us to Scotland and Malaysia, so I feel pretty lucky in being able to live in those countries. I also lived for a short time in Greece which was fabulous. When I was fifteen we moved into the city and I still have some of those first friends, which I think is very cool.

I’ve worked in a few different jobs, including postal sorter and kennel maid (mainly scooping up dog you-know-what) but mainly I’ve been a teacher. I have a fondness for naughty kids and most of my work has been done with them, and also teaching adults how to read and I loved it. But I always had stories in my head, and the time came when I wanted to see if I could make it as a writer. And when I tried it opened up a whole new world for me — of friends as well as opportunities.

BB: I see from the bio on your website that you’ve traveled extensively. In the Accidental Wedding you had your hero working as a diplomat in Russia; to Catch A Bride has us heading to Egypt; how much have your travels influenced where your books are set or where your characters go?

AG: Strangely, my travels haven’t influenced the story locations much at all. Those locations are more strongly influenced by historical events and by research. I wrote a story (Tallie’s Knight) about the Grand Tour (through France and Switzerland and Italy) because of an old print I saw and the research it inspired. I set another story (Perfect Stranger) on the coast of France because that seemed the most likely place my characters would be traveling. Luckily I had been to a French beach in Brittany and was able to use the sensory experiences, but I also used research and imagination for a lot of it. Last year I set a book partly in Egypt, and though I’d passed through Egypt as an 8 year old, it wasn’t the part of Egypt I’d set the story in, so again, I used some sensory memories, photos and paintings, some research — particularly diaries and letters from visitors to Egypt in the 18th and 19th century, and imagination.

BB: Who are some of the authors that have influenced your work? Do you have a favorite?

AG: I cannot pick favorites — they change with my mood. I grew up reading Georgette Heyer and I’m sure that’s why I write books set in the regency era. I love her characters and her humor and her brilliant dialogue. I also love Eva Ibbotson’s stories — they have a magical fairytale-for-adults quality that I really enjoy and brilliant characterization. I love Terry Pratchett and Lindsay Davis and Marion Zimmer Bradley and Mary Stewart and all sorts. I didn’t discover modern historical romance until I was in my 30’s — they just didn’t show up in ordinary Australian bookshops, but once I found them in specialist bookshops — wow! Heaven on a stick. Or a shelf.

BB: From what I can tell from your website you’ve only written one contemporary romance – the rest of your books are set in the regency period. What is it about that period that attracts you and do you plan, at this point in your life, to ever write another contemporary?

AG: I would love to write another contemporary romantic comedy — I loved writing that story, and I get ideas for them all the time and write them down in my notebooks. But everyone says rom-com is a difficult sell, so I keep writing my regency-era historicals. But it’s not either – or. I want to write both. And once day I will.

I love writing regency-era historicals because that era has all the drama I love — it’s got glamor and poverty and war and it’s a society in the middle of huge change, which has huge potential for adventure. And there’s also a place for my sense of humor. So I get readers writing to me saying I made them laugh, then made them cry, and that’s lovely.


BB: Please tell us a little about your newest release, The Accidental Wedding.

AG: For a start, it has the most beeeyouutiful cover. (I know, I’m gushing, but you cannot believe how grateful an author is when they’re blessed by the cover gods.) And here’s the blurb in a nutshell.

An injured man, a desperate woman…
She saves his life. He fakes amnesia…
And the consequence is, An Accidental Wedding

This story came to me one morning, kind of like a movie unrolling in my head. It kept nagging at me and I told my editor about it. She said, “Write it.” So I did.

My heroine, Maddy, is in a pretty desperate situation, but she’s got guts and when she sees a chance for happiness she goes for it. And you can’t help but root for her. Here she is confronting the hero’s aunt, who doesn’t approve of her:

“You may call me a fortune hunter, and I admit, I do want the security and the position—and the pretty dresses and jewels that come with it.”

Lady Gosforth made a rude sound.

“Snort all you want, I won’t deny they appeal,” Maddy told her. “I’m as human as the next girl. But if you think that’s the only appeal, or even the main appeal, you couldn’t be more wrong.” She glared at the old lady. “Have you looked at your nephew, really looked? Have you spoken to him? Do you even know him? Because if you did, you couldn’t possibly think any woman would marry him for his fortune.”
Lady Gosforth stared down her long arrogant nose, as if Maddy were an insect, and in the most skeptical of tones drawled, “You would have me believe you desire my nephew for himself alone?”

“I don’t give a fig for what you believe!” Maddy snapped her fingers. “But I will make him a better wife than any of those blue-blooded girls on your precious list.”
“Pshaw! You haven’t the first idea how to support his career.”

“No, I don’t,” Maddy admitted. “Yet. But I will learn, just see if I don’t.”

And Maddy has a few surprises up her sleeve. She’s also right — Nash, the hero, is simply gorgeous… (all right I admit, I’m biased.) There’s an excerpt and some reviews on THE ACCIDENTAL WEDDING page on my website, so you can make up your own mind.

BB: The Accidental Wedding is part of the Devil Riders series. Who are The Devil Riders, what are they all about and what was your inspiration for the series?

AG: It’s a series about four men whose friendships were initially formed at school, then toughened and bonded forever by the crucible of war — years of war. Heroes and horse-mad daredevils, they’re now “surplus to requirements” and finding it difficult to settle to peacetime life. Of course the key for each of them is finding the right woman.

The idea for the characters came first, as with all my books. It was my then editor’s idea to make them younger sons, and then it just unfolded.

BB: The Accidental Wedding is the last book in this series. Are you working on a new book as we speak?

AG: It is the fourth book in the series, and yes, it was planned as a four book series. But the series has grown and this story is an off-shoot of the original series. Currently I’m writing the one that was meant to be the fourth book. When the info about this book was released, I got a flood of letters saying, Hey, what about Luke? And I’m writing his story now.

BB: I see that you keep bees, something you also had the heroine in The Accidental Wedding doing with her siblings. Besides bee keeping and writing how do you spend your spare time? (Although those two pastimes could keep you quite busy!)

AG: Spare time? Well there’s my writing assistant who’s very demanding. That’s her in the red feather boa. Rain, hail or shine, she insists on a daily workout down at the park. 😉

I’m also still involved with adult literacy teaching and I have a huge TBR pile that’s also quite insistent I pay it some attention. I also make jewelry for myself and my friends — I’m a bit of a craft junkie and I make cards and teensy things for dolls houses. And music. And I have a garden that grows luscious crops of weeds whenever I turn my back. Plus I have friends who are very forgiving and patient and who are used to me being a hermit whenever a deadline looms. Housework? Shh, I’m hoping it will go away. Life is too short.

Thanks so much for having me here on Book Binge.

Leave a comment or question for your chance to win one of two copies of The Accidental Wedding. Giveaway ends on Wednesday 10/13 @ 11:59pm.