Interview: Sarah MacLean author of 9 Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake and The Season

I'm very happy to be able to share an interview with author Sarah MacLean today. Both her books, 9 Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake and The Season are 5 star books in my opinion! And she was also kind enough to share some insight in the romance genre! Also be sure to check out her 2 must read romance lists, one for Historical and one for Contemporary!

1. What's the difference between writing for teens and adults? Do you hope your teen fans will take interest in 9 Rules or do you see those as two separate audiences?

I keep coming back to this: good reads are good reads. I see the Adult romances as an extension of the YA ones. I hope that teenage fans of THE SEASON will enjoy the fact that as they grow and their tastes and experiences change, they can keep reading books that I've written. At the same time, I hope that fans of NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE will come to enjoy my YA books--or at least share them with the teens in their lives.

2. It sounds like you always wanted to be a writer and a romance writer at that, what's it feel like for your dream to come true?

It's incredible. If you'd told 17-year-old Sarah that one day she'd have an historical romance published by Avon, she would have freaked out. Oh, who am I kidding? 30-year-old Sarah freaked out, too. Honestly, though? I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and I'm amazed by how much our teenaged selves know what's up. As we age, we become so hesitant about following our dreams--but when you're 13 or 15 or 17...you know what your dreams are. And you believe in them. I think it's a matter of remembering how to do that.

3. You seem to have some really tight deadlines, how do you stay on schedule?

It's not easy, especially when you're deep in the middle of a book or thinking about how to start revisions and the very last thing you want to do is sit down and write. I am incredibly lucky that my husband is willing to be my coach. If it weren't for him, I would never turn off the tv or put down the book I'm reading and get to work.

4. 9 Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake has such a clever premise, how did the idea evolve?

I love wallflower/rake romances...so I suppose that it was no surprise that my first romance was a spinoff of that idea. But more importantly, I wanted it to be about a wallflower finding it in herself to take action. To seize the day, so to speak. Callie popped into my head, the perfect, prim, proper wallflower...and I asked myself...what would it take to make her do something that changed her life? And what would that look like? Her list was born.

5. So far both The Season and 9 Rules have been set in the Regency time period, do you have plans to venture out of that time?

I have always had a love-affair with history--and I adore the long legacy of Regency-set historical romances, so it is no surprise that when I set pen to paper, I wrote a Regency--it will always be my first love. But, yes...I have a YA series that I'm noodling around right now that I'm really excited about, and it's not a Regency. I would say more, but I'm afraid to jinx it.

6. I’ve heard you talk about your own personal romance library (it sounds heavenly), how did your love affair with the romance novel begin?

My older sister was an obsessive romance reader and, like any younger sister, I wanted to be like her. So...when I was eleven or twelve, I started picking up the books that she put down. And I was hooked. Who doesn't love a great love story?

7. I think of you as one of my own personal romance novel mentors, would you mind helping me puzzle out some more things about the romance genre?

There is no greater compliment to me than that, Alea...I'm thrilled that I could introduce you to romance!

8. What is it about the romance genre that is so addictive?

Love is one of those wonderful, ephemeral things that everyone thinks about. I defy you to show me a person, male, female, young, old, rich or poor, who hasn't grown up with tales of love. It's the stuff of ancient legends. It's been around since the dawn of time. We have seen the most cynical of people laid low by love. And so...there is something undeniably attractive and enduring about the love story. You take two people with different pasts and contradictory personalities, you throw them together in an electric combination, and you watch them fall in love--who doesn't want that?

9. Who is your new author to watch?

This is so hard! There are some AMAZING new authors...Rachael Herron's HOW TO KNIT A LOVE SONG is a wonderful contemporary...Miranda Neville is writing great, sexy historicals...Sabrina Darby's ON THESE SILKEN SHEETS is a hot hot hot erotic historical...I just finished Louisa Edwards's CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, a fun contemporary about the NYC culinary scene (if you, like me, are a sucker for chefs, it's a must read)...Leanna Renee Hieber is writing these amazing cross-genre Victorian Gothic romances...and there are dozens more that are just fantastic.

10. What do you think will be the next trend in romance and why?

I don't think this is just a trend for romance, but I think that eReaders are going to make romance an even more popular genre. There are far too many people who hesitate to pick up that romance novel that they might love because they're afraid to read it in public (I've never had this problem...but I know that my husband read my manuscript on his iPhone because he didn't want people to see him reading the ARC on the subway). That's becoming a thing of the past...because now you can read whatever you want on your eReader! I also think that eReaders will make for hotter and hotter romances becoming more and more popular...which I count as a very good thing!

Thanks Sarah!