What genre(s) do you write in and why? I love historical romance, although I have written contemporaries under the pen name Jane Blackwood. I have more half-way written contemporaries than I care to think about. My first love, my true love, is historical romances. I love the Victorian age, as it was such an exciting time in the world. I am an author who cares about history and I always strive to make history more than just wallpaper.
Tell us about your current series. I’m in the middle of my “Lost Heiresses” series. It’s a series of very loosely connected books that are all stand-alone. You’ll see a few characters from past books pop up now and then, but if you haven’t started from the beginning, you definitely won’t be lost (like my heiresses ha ha). The first book is Behind a Lady’s Smile, and How to Please a Lady is the second installment. The first two books are set in England and America. Lady Lost, set on the moors of England, will be released later this year, and I’m currently working on a new series that I’m very excited about!.
What inspired your latest book? Back before the Internet made research easy, I spent the day in the Boston Public Library going through old newspapers on microfiche and stumbled across a small story about a German princess who escape a planned marriage and came to America with the help of a servant. Things went very badly for the poor princess. The servant stole her money and jewels, and left destitute and in the middle of a blizzard in New York City, she attempted to walk to the home of a wealthy American diplomat who she hoped could help her. She made it as far as his front door before collapsing. The wealthy American found her, but she died days later of pneumonia. You’ll see bits and pieces of that tragic story in How to Please a Lady, though my story ends much happier!
How likely are people you meet to end up in your next book? I love this question! Actually, pretty likely, particularly if they are people with big personalities. I met a physician at a recent convention and he was so flamboyantly wonderful, he made it in a small role in an upcoming release. If you’re a jerk, you have a much better chance of becoming a nasty character. Jerks are more memorable. Ha!
Has your muse always known what genre you would write and be published in? Yes. I can’t help it. Believe me, I’ve tried to write other kinds of fiction but my muse always introduces a romance. My kids are a bit embarrassed by my writing and have urged me for years to write other genres. Even my mom, who loves my books, has suggested writing “a real” historical fiction book. I suppose I would if I could, but my brain always looks for the romance. I tend to re-write movies or books that end badly. Castaway? Tom Hanks ends up heading toward that lady with the angel wings and they fall in love. Gone with the Wind? She gets Rhett back, by the way. Just sayin’
What are you currently working on? I adore my current project. Both my hero and heroine are wonderfully complex characters, particularly my hero, who blames himself for his best friend’s suicide—a friend who happens to be my heroine’s brother. It takes place during the 1870s, and part of the plot involves a little known human catastrophe, the famines of that decade that history has mostly forgotten. Don’t worry, it’s not a downer, but I’m hoping it’s inspirational. My hero is a true hero in this book, an admirable man with a heart as big as a mountain.
What did you want to be when you were a child? A shortstop for the Boston Red Sox. Really. I was pretty devastated when I realized there were no girls on the team.
Please tell my readers a little bit about your book. How to Please a Lady is a book that’s been brewing for years ever since I read that newspaper article about the German princess who was escaping a terrible planned marriage. At first I thought my heroine would fall in love with the wealthy diplomat. But Charlie, my hero, would have none of that. After all, he’d been in love with Rose for years and wasn’t about to let her go. In How to Please a Lady, I explore the unlikely romance between a high born lady and her servant. The challenge was to ground this in reality, because it was extremely unlikely (actually unheard of) for the daughter of an earl to even think about marrying a servant. So she doesn’t. You’ll have to read the book to find out if she finally comes around and whether Charlie finally gets the girl!
How To Please A Lady
Run though they might, love will find them…
Lady Rose Dunford is shocked–and titillated–by the number of female visitors coming and going from her mysterious new neighbor’s Manhattan brownstone. Recently widowed by the death of her very sweet, but not very exciting husband, Rose finds it difficult to imagine just what the attraction could be.
And then she meets the bachelor in question. Not only is Charlie Avery dashing and outrageously good looking–she knows him! He is none other than the man who once helped her escape the dreary matchmaking plans of her father, the man she once dreamed she could love. Can Charlie’s presence next door be an accident? Or has he come to show her everything he has learned about…
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/How-Please-Lady-Jane-Goodger-ebook/dp/B010ZZY13Q/
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GooglePlay https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Jane_Goodger_How_To_Please_A_Lady?id=HRMZCgAAQBAJ
Kensington Books http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/32163
Jane Goodger lives in Rhode Island with her husband, three children, Chihuahua, one-eyed cat, and a ferret. She works full-time, and operates an editing service in between writing Victorian-set historical romances. In her free time (hahahaha), Jane watches HGTV and dreams of fixing up her 1940s colonial. A former journalist, Jane has lived in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Pozzuoli, Italy.
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