Today's Special - - Theresa Romain

It's my pleasure to welcome Theresa Romain back to the blog today. I just finished reading Theresa's new book, SEASON FOR DESIRE and it's another winner from this talented author - a great way to kick off your Christmas reading season. 

For more information about Theresa and her books and to connect with her online, follow the links below.

Website: http://theresaromain.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorTheresaRomain

Twitter: @TheresaRomain

Hi Theresa!  Welcome back to The Romance Dish. Congratulations on tomorrow’s release of Season for Desire, the fourth and final installment in your Holiday Pleasures series. Please tell our readers what they can expect from this book.

Thanks for the warm welcome, PJ! And thank you for hosting me today. It’s always such fun to visit The Romance Dish.

SEASON FOR DESIRE is a story about finding love where you least expect it. Our heroine, Audrina, is an earl’s daughter thrown into company with an American, Giles, on a treasure hunt for long-lost jewels. Neither of them understands the other’s world; neither wants to be in Yorkshire over Christmas. At first. (It’s a romance. You knew they’d change their tunes.) Soon enough, they see each other in a new way, and once they do, the treasure hunt leads them to understand themselves and their families in a new way too.

Audrina and Giles are complex characters, each with their own reasons for avoiding marriage. What was it about these two that convinced you they had a shot at a happy ending?

I never really know when I start writing! I just come up with characters who seem completely wrong for each other, then start figuring out what happens next. So Giles is a blunt American who’s the oldest and most responsible in his family (and yes, that includes his widower father, who’s on the journey with him). Audrina is the youngest and most rebellious of five daughters of an earl. They sound like opposites—but as I got to know their characters better, I realized they had both sacrificed their true selves for their families. They desperately want to matter to the people they care about, and this becomes a stumbling block to their romance as well. They have to learn to pursue their own dreams and be comfortable in their own skins before they find an HEA. The more they change and become stronger, the better suited they are for each other.

I really enjoyed their journey and there are so many wonderful scenes in this book. Without giving away spoilers, what's the one scene you would never cut?

I would never cut the library scene in which Giles and Audrina look through a telescope together, or the scene in a York inn’s kitchen when, snowbound over Christmas, they peel and cut apples together. These are everyday events that bond them and give them a chance to talk about what’s truly important. Not everyone falls in love because of grand gestures. Sometimes it’s the little things, like watching the moon or lining up perfectly peeled apples, that jog the big questions and the deep emotions.

I love both of those scenes and I especially love that it's the ordinary, everyday things that draw them closer together.

Our band of travelers is served a Yorkshire Christmas Pie for their Christmas meal, an interesting combination of five kinds of bird plus a rabbit.  What dishes are your holiday favorites? Do you have a traditional course that is served every year?

Isn’t that an amazing recipe? I’d love to know how many people it fed! (Readers, you can see the real-life historic recipe I used on my website at http://theresaromain.com/extras/mrs-booths-christmas-pie/ .) My family is Cajun on one side and Sicilian on the other, so when I was growing up, traditional dishes depended on which side of the family we were visiting. My mom’s family serves homemade ravioli and cuccidatis (a kind of pastry), all of which are incredibly labor-intensive to make. So in the hours before mealtime, tables are covered with flour, there’s meat filling and candied fruit everywhere—don’t mix them up!—and there are never enough rolling pins. My dad’s family would be more likely to have a potluck with a cochon de lait as the main dish–that is, the meat of a young pig, slow-smoked on a spit. Both kinds of food traditions are well-suited to huge family gatherings. Which, now that I think about it, that huge Yorkshire Christmas pie would be too. Maybe next year…

I looked up the recipe for cuccidati.  Wow, that does sound very labor intensive but also very delicious.  I think I may need to give them a try.

It’s hard for me to say good-bye to much loved characters when a series ends.  As their creator, do you feel the same sense of loss when it’s time to bid them farewell or does the anticipation of new characters on the horizon ease the parting?

A little of both, really. When I started writing SEASON FOR DESIRE, I knew some of the characters so well from previous books that their scenes flowed easily. But over the course of the series, I wrote myself into a few corners too. I couldn't change the timing of the story, or the way someone behaved, if it would be inconsistent with one of the earlier Holiday Pleasures books. A new series gives an author a chance to go down different historical rabbit holes.

When you’re not busy writing your own books, what types of books do you enjoy reading?

Romance, of course! It’s my favorite genre to read, which is why I started writing it. I like historicals and contemporaries best, though sometimes nothing will do but a romantic suspense or a time-travel romance. When I’m ready for a change of pace, I like quirky narrative nonfiction. It gives my storytelling brain a break, though sometimes it also jostles free a new idea.

I love autumn with its crisp, clear days, cool nights, deep blue sky and brilliantly colored leaves…and football.  I do love football.  Do you have a favorite season that you look forward to all year? What is it and what makes it your favorite?

My favorite seasons are autumn and early winter, before it starts to feel like it’s been cold forever. I don’t think I had such a strong preference before I wrote four holiday romances, but for the past several years I was working on a new Season book through each fall and early winter. It’s quite nice when a story’s setting matches up with the real-life weather! I did write some of SEASON FOR SCANDAL (my 2013 holiday historical) during a terrible summer heat wave, and that was tough. I had to make my characters cold when I could hardly remember what cold was like.

I also ought to admit: besides the beautiful weather, part of what I love about fall is that you can finally get eggnog again. :)

What’s next?

Thanks for asking! My next book will be out in January.SECRETS OF A SCANDALOUS HEIRESS is the last in my Matchmaker trilogy, and along with the scandalous heroine it features an Anglo-Indian hero who’s got his own secrets. These two struck a lot of sparks, and their story was really fun to write. I just posted Chapter 1 on my site, if readers want a sneak peek: http://theresaromain.com/books/scandalous-heiress/

Before then, though, I’ll be back here! On November 7, I’m joining fellow holiday historical authors Valerie Bowman, Elizabeth Essex, and Carolyn Jewel here at The Romance Dish for a fun day of festive posts and reader giveaways. We’re really looking forward to it!

As are we!  Thank you for visiting with us today, Theresa. Would you like to ask our readers a question?

It’s my pleasure. Thank YOU for hosting me!

Readers, I’d love to know: what’s your favorite thing about your favorite season of the year? I have confessed my fondness for eggnog. By the end of SEASON FOR DESIRE, Giles and Audrina would probably say the chance of getting snowbound together was one of their favorite things about winter. But maybe you like spring or summer more? Do tell!

To one random commenter, I’ll give print copies of the previous Holiday Pleasures books, SEASON FOR SURRENDER and SEASON FOR SCANDAL. Open internationally.