MUSE MONDAY
Please welcome my guest, Donna Hatch. LEAVE DONNA A COMMENT AND BE ENTERED IN A DRAWING FOR A FREE EBOOK OF HER NEWEST RELEASE, A PERFECT SECRET! DRAWING ON WEDNESDAY.
I love historical romance. As
a little girl, I loved historical novels such as Anne
of Green Gables, Little Women, the Little
House books, The
Secret Garden and A
Little Princess. Sometime in my teens, I read Jane
Eyre, the Jane Austen novels, and other historical classics. But I
wanted more romance in my stories. So I turned to historical romance. I
discovered that historical fiction was a hot market, in every way. I don’t like
to read hot sex scenes so finding a historical novel with enough romance while
still staying on the “sweeter” side of things became a challenge. Eventually, I
found traditional Regency romances. They fit the bill perfectly because they
are usually very clean, romances. I had found my perfect historical romance fix.
It was a short-termed joy.
Historical fiction sales across the board began falling. My
guess is that readers got bored with hot, sexy romance novels referred to as
“bodice rippers” which seemed to be the same old cliché stores over and over.
However, even clean romance novels sales fell. The final nail on the coffin
came when two major traditional Regency romance publishers closed their line. This
broke my heart. Not only did I love reading them, but I had written a
traditional Regency romance novel that I’d planned to submit to them in hopes
that they would publish it. For about a decade, people labeled historical
romance in general—and Regency romance in particular—a “dead” market. I think I
went into mourning.
Yet hope is not lost! Historical Romance novels, specifically Regency
Romance novels, have begun to
grow in popularity. Sales are climbing for all historical romance and those “hot”
romances as well as the “sweet” romances are returning. The traditional
romances such as Jane Austen era novels are a fast growing favorite genre.
As a Regency romance author, I wondered why had caused the return
of the historical romance?
One reason sweeter Regencies are returning with such a bang is so
many recent adaptations of historical era movies based on famous books such as
Jane Austen, North and South with the stunning
Richard Armitage. As a result a new generation of fans have been discovered
historical romances and have fallen in love.
A second reason historical
romance book sales are gaining respect is because people turn to a book either
to relax or to escape their stressful lives (and escaping is part of relaxing,
don’t you think?). Only a journey into new world can provide the kind of
escape found in a historical novel. It
may partly be the fantasy of vicariously living the life of the very
rich, where handsome heroes vie for our attention and sweep us away into a
magical world of happily ever after.
The upper class of Regency England spoke eloquently, prizing wit
and excelling in the understatement attributed to British humor, something I
try to bring that out in every historical novel I write.
Regency men were civilized
and treated women with courtesy. When a lady entered the room, gentlemen stood,
softened their language, offered an arm, bowed to the lady, and did other
courtesies I wish men did in this day and age. But the men weren’t soft, oh no!
They were athletic; they enjoyed to hunt, box, race, fenced. They were as manly
as a girl could want. Honor ruled the day.
That is why I love them!
And that is why I love to read and write the
Regency novel. My newest sweet historical novel is A Perfect Secret. Though it’s the third in a three book series, the
Rogue Hearts series, it’s written as a stand alone book so you can read it
without having read the other two.
Thank you for hosting me on your site :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's great having you, Donna. Gotta love those regency men!
DeleteCongratulations, Donna, on the third in the series! I loved the first two.
ReplyDelete