Cecilia Grant always knew she'd do something with that English degree. After waiting tables, composing software Help files, and answering the carpool-lane-violators hotline, she's delighted to be writing stories.
Cecilia makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her fellow-writer husband, two bookish children, and un-literary cat and dog.
FAQ
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Why do you write romance? |
A: Because I believe the story of two people falling in love, negotiating their differences, and going forward in hope is a story worth telling. Not the only story worth telling. I'm actually very fond of literature with a pessimistic outlook on love and marriage, too. But romance is more fun to write.
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Why Regency? |
A: One of the things that attracts me to the era is how very much depended on making a good marriage, especially for a woman. In the Victorian era the divorce laws started to loosen up and women had more opportunities to support themselves. In the Regency you really had to hope you picked the right spouse.
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What are your favorite books? |
A: If I could read only one book for the rest of my life it would be Middlemarch, because George Eliot's intelligence, wit, and sympathy gleam from every page. But let's say I get five. Huckleberry Finn, for the sheer joy of the narrative voice. Persuasion, because it makes me laugh as much as any Austen but ends with a huge emotional payoff. Moby-Dick for meaty existential angst. And I need at least one nonfiction, so Antony Sher's Year of the King—an actor's memoir of playing Richard III, and just a funny, vulnerable, achingly relatable document of the creative process.
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What were your favorite books as a child? |
A: I adored Edward Eager's dry-witted books (Half Magic, Knight's Castle, etc.) chronicling the magical adventures of two generations of children in the same family. A stray mention in one of those books led me to my other favorite childhood series: Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books. Betsy-Tacy, like Little House, follows the author-surrogate protagonist from about age five through adulthood and marriage. Unlike Laura Ingalls, though, Betsy knows from the beginning she wants to be a writer, and a lot of the pleasure of the series comes in following her sometimes-tenuous relationship with that ambition.
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Did you know from the beginning you wanted to be a writer? |
A: No. Which is funny because in high school I took a career-aptitude test and after I got through the battery of questions, the only career option it returned was "freelance writer." I got into writing by a sort of circuitous route, and only gradually realized I loved it. (I tell that story here, if you'd like to read it.)
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What advice would you give to aspiring authors? |
A: Probably nothing they haven't heard before. Read, and not only in your chosen genre. Read poetry. Read nonfiction that isn't research. Admit that you have things to learn, and read a craft book or two. Write every day if you can. Find at least one friend who believes in you. Write thoughtful thank-you emails to writers whose books you enjoy (they write back!). Work to develop a thick skin (and if you succeed, drop me a line and tell me how, because I'm still trying to figure that out myself).
