Five Fun Facts

1) When I was a teenager, my friends were mostly fan-girls for movie stars and rock musicians.  Not me.  I was a geeky history fan-girl for people like Madame de Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth I.  (I had one friend who inexplicably liked Mary Queen of Scots!  Despite the odds, we are still friends.)  This made me a weird 14-year-old but has given me endless inspiration for stories.  For Countess of Scandal, I looked at women like Mary Ann McCracken, Emily the Duchess of Leinster, and Margaret King.

2) As well as being a historical fan-girl, I’m a bona fide girly-girl, with secret guilty pleasures like Hello Kitty, bright pink shoes, and MAC lipgloss.  That means I spend huge amounts of time researching my heroines’ wardrobes.

3) I had an inkling for the beginning of a story that would grow into Countess of Scandal years ago on a tour of the grand house Castletown outside of Dublin.  Castletown was once owned by Lady Louisa Conolly, one of the famous Lennox sisters, and the home is stunningly gorgeous.  The tour guide provided lots of information about the lives of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy and what they faced in 1798.  It just took me a while to meet the characters to fill the story!

4) I have no sisters and always sort of wanted one.  I even made my poor little brother have tea parties with me when we were kids.  Maybe that’s why I love writing connected stories about sisters.

5) I always create characters collages when I start a new book.  This usually entails copious amounts of time online looking at photos of hunky actors.  Very hard work, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice for my book!  For Countess of Scandal, I was inspired by Rupert Friend in uniform in Pride and Prejudice, and I pictured Eliza as looking something like Rachel Weisz.  (I also create soundtracks for books!  Lots of Chieftains and the Young Dubliners for this book…)