Julia Quinn: The #RWA15 Interview

My final RWA interview was with Julia Quinn. Ms. Quinn was beyond lovely to take the time to talk to me. She’d just finished giving the Keynote address at the conference. That address was wonderful. (You can watch it here. She starts right before the twelve minute mark.) Given the context, my questions were brief. She answered them all with warmth.

Dabney: Thank you so much for talking with me. Your speech was lovely.

Julia: Thanks.

Dabney: So tell me about your most recent release.

Julia: It’s The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy.

Dabney: And it’s about…?

Julia: The short version is the hero needs to marry the heroine very quickly but the heroine doesn’t know why and neither does the reader.

Dabney: What makes the hero tick?

Julia: He’s a good person who made a bad decision for good reasons. A lot of the book is about what that means and what do you do to overcome that? Part of my job as a writer was to show that he didn’t feel good about his decision and was really quite tortured over it but did not see what else he could do.

Dabney: Tell me about the heroine.

Julia: She’s Iris Smythe-Smith who has  appeared in several books already. She’s got a dry sense of humor and the world’s most annoying sister, Daisy. I have no plans to write about Daisy.

Dabney: What’s up next for you?

Julia: I am writing a book called Because of Miss Bridgerton. It will be out at the end of March 2016. Here’s one thing about it: As there was in The Viscount Who Loved Me, there is a Pall-mall game! My writing challenge with that scene was to do something that captures the spirit of what people like about the family but still not have it be the same. I’ve tweaked it in some different ways.

Dabney: If you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Julia: Don’t be so impatient.