10/14/11

you find USA Today best-selling author Kieran Kramer.

Kieran writes Regency Historicals for St. Martin’s Press, and her November 1^st release If You Give A Girl A Viscount is the fourth in her Impossible Bachelors Series. In the interest of full disclosure, Kieran is also my sister-in-law (I’m married to her brother). But that just makes for a more interesting interview!

And listen to the lovely highland song featured in the book, as sung by Kieran’s brother Patrick (also my husband) who’s an Irish Tenor just like his grandfather. “Will Ye Go, Lassie”

SW: Kieran, do you have a short blurb for If You Give A Girl A Viscount?

KK: Here’s the back cover blurb: All the Single Ladies Want Him

 If life were a fairy tale, Daisy Montgomery’s stepmother and two stepsisters would surely be cast in the wicked roles. For years, they’ve made life miserable for Daisy. But when she discovers she has a godmother, she’s determined to ask her for help. Little did Daisy expect her godmother to play matchmaker with her very own grandson—who happens to be a viscount!

Is He Ready to Put a Ring on It?

A freewheeling playboy, Charles Thorpe, Viscount Lumley, is bored with his wealth-seeking female admirers. Not only that, he’s been cut off from the family coffers. One day, on a bet, he rids himself of what little money he has left in his pockets and vows to solve problems using his wits alone. But when the Impossible Bachelor is confronted with Daisy’s plan to save her castle, the payoff is more than he could have bargained for. Sometimes, if you give a girl a viscount, you just might find love.

You can read an excerpt and see the book trailer on my website: www.kierankramerbooks.com.

SW: At any point of writing this book did you ever want to set yourself on fire and jump off a cliff?

KK: The last two weeks of writing!!!

SW: Did you want to take the entire publishing industry with you?

KK: *laughs* No, I actually LOVE my publisher, St. Martin’s Press. I also adore my editor, my agent, and all the people I’ve met who work on my book. They are a huge bright spot for me. I want to hug them and kiss their cheeks when I see them–I can barely restrain myself. Sometimes I don’t! I’m sure my overabundant affection for them is quite annoying. <ggg>

SW: This book is a Cinderella story–is Cinderella your favorite fairy tale? (mine is Beauty and the Beast)

KK: I don’t have ONE favorite fairy tale. As a child, I regularly read an anthology called THE WORLD’S BEST FAIRY TALES, put out by Reader’s Digest in the late 60′s. It held almost seventy fairy tales, and I probably read each story several hundred times and studied the illustrations almost as long. It was a beautiful book. (not that it belonged only to me–I had to share it with my six siblings).

Anyway, some of my favorite fairy tales are: “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Little Match Girl,” “The Little Mermaid,” and “Thumbelina”. Looking back, what I find they have in common is very cozy repetition, scary or sometimes simply mischievous forces at work, magical mentors, and brave, everyday heroes and heroines. Their stories of struggle did help prepare me for life! And for becoming a storyteller myself.

SW: Your covers are gorgeous. What do you love most about them?

KK: I specifically asked for my heroines to look intelligent, lively, and fun, and I think Danielle in St. Martin’s art department did a fabulous job with that.

SW: What recurring themes do you have in your books?

KK: Recurrent theme number one: Girl power. I know my books are about love and romance, but in every single one, I want my heroine to take control of her destiny as much as possible. Each of my heroines is flawed in some ways, but all of them are proactive. They’re open to life and love and possibilities, and not only that, they go AFTER what they want and believe in, which brings me to…

Theme number two: My heroines’ cups are half full instead of half empty. This is my worldview. I think it’s incredibly easy to be negative. Not only is it easy to be negative, you get tons of admiration for it…wow, you must be educated, discerning, sophisticated, in touch with the gritty truth. It’s much harder to be positive, and you take a lot of flack for it. Many people assume you’re stupid or naïve or phony. The positive people I know aren’t any of those things. We’ve been down in the trenches as much as anyone. But we cling to a truth that transcends the “gritty truth,” and that is: Good Always Wins in the End.

SW: Are these themes mostly seen in your hero or heroine?

KK: Both, actually. My hero will always go through an inner conflict in which he has to confront a choice: go with the easy way out? Which is to succumb to negativity. Or take the higher, scarier road and become a better man?

SW: I’ve heard people say your fun and flirty stories are wallpaper historicals. What is a wallpaper historical?

KK: It’s considered a derogatory term, but I embrace it. It’s an historical novel which some history die-hards decry for not being exactly, 100% representative of the times…you might take liberties with the dialogue or plot, for example. In my case, in When Harry Met Molly, I got Prinny, whom my research showed was extremely depraved yet also creative and intelligent, to make a bet among my Impossible Bachelors in which the loser would have to get married.

I try to give a sense of the Regency world in my settings, but they ARE fictionalized and meant to be highly amusing. I’m very glad I have an audience with not only a love for the Regency period but an appreciation for my lighthearted approach to writing historical romance. I’m proud to be associated with my fun, funny, and clever reader friends! I love you all!!!

SW: Do you ever wish you lived in Regency times?

KK: Yes, I do. I’d love to meet some Regency chicks and try on all their dresses and tell them how modern women can do anything they want and that they should try it—to hell with decorum and making a “good” marriage to a rich old fuddy-duddy. I’d tell them to marry for love, even if he’s a baker or something and your super rich family cuts you off.

Oh, and it would be so much fun to crash White’s to meet some hunky Regency guys, who’d be astounded at my effrontery, entering their hallowed male grounds! But I’d win them over by pulling someone’s cravat loose and yanking off his skin-tight coat made by Weston, and…let’s just stop there, shall we? <ggg>

SW: Who is your favorite sister-in-law? (Kieran is one of seven children so there are a lot of in-laws I have to compete with)

KK: N-O-R-A-H-S  hold that up to a mirror to see the answer!!! And just realize that while answering that question, someone was waving a gift card to Ann Taylor in front of my face…she’s a beautiful, talented, MANIPULATIVE writer who’s related to me. And she’d better not take back that gift card! <ggg>

SW: Sorry! No gift card for you. If You Give A Girl A Viscount takes place in Scotland. Is it based on personal experience?

KK: Yes, I lived there a whole year in college and had an experience that seemed to come straight out of a romance novel. I was twenty, madly in love with a Scotsman, passionate about learning, traveling…about everything! I never wanted to leave to go back to America. But I did. I left my Scottish world behind me, but the feeling of newness and wonder I felt that year—it was such a year of growth and discovery!–has never left me. I carry it in my heart.

SW:  Have you ever seen under a man’s kilt?

KK: If I have, the memory escapes me, which doesn’t say much for the kilt-wearer, does it? LOL!!!

SW: Do you prefer tea or coffee to help you write?

KK: Tea, girlfriend!!! It’s part of my brand now. I give away teapots, and mugs, and tea, and yummy tea biscuits, and my next thang is going to be vintage tea towels. I’m going to roam Charleston’s antique district looking for some.

SW: (Tea towels? Today’s my birthday–hint, hint) Did you have to cut out any scenes that you love? If so, would you ever put them on your website?

KK: Oh, yes, I cut out a huge scene in which Daisy has to convince an entire town of women to go along with her plan, even though none of them are getting along. I COULD put it up and just might!

SW: Do you prefer to interact with readers on your website, Facebook author page, or Twitter?

KK: I think my favorite place is Facebook. It’s very immediate. But my website is a close second. I really enjoy how “homey” it feels for me there. Twitter’s nice, too…I’ve actually made many heartfelt, wonderful connections on Twitter. But now everyone’s on it, so the Twitter stream is getting bigger and bigger, and more people are using it just for promotion. It’s not as authentic a place for me as are Facebook and my website.

SW: Do you have any contests running with this release?

KK: Yes, I run contests all the time. Check Facebook, Writerspace, and my website. I just gave away a gorgeous teapot and mugs from Pier One.

SW: What other genres have you written in/would you write in?

KK: Romantic comedy; YA; middle school

SW: For the last question, can you tell us a short story? How about that night on Bohicket Road when your car broke down, you had oatmeal on your face, and a local man thought you were a ghost?

KK: Aww, this was so funny! There I was, 16, and like every girl that age, I pored through magazines looking for ways to be beautiful and popular, because I sure didn’t feel either way most of the time. One big thing I always worried about was my skin, which was prone to breakouts. It was a summer night and I didn’t have any plans, so for kicks I put an oatmeal concoction on my face. It was pretty much just oatmeal and water. A magazine told me it would help shrink my pores.

Sure enough, it worked like a charm. My face felt like it had been set in concrete. I was sitting there wondering how I would ever get the stuff off when my sister called and said she needed a ride home from work. I was certain I wouldn’t see anyone—it was 10:30 at night and I’d be driving down a lonely South Carolina country road to pick her up outside a restaurant that had a dirt parking lot. I would stay in the car and wait for her to come outside. Good plan. Until I ran out of gas on the way to the restaurant.

I was sitting on the side of the road (this was way before cell phones existed), wondering how long it would be before my sister or my parents figured out I was nowhere to be found, when this little, stooped man came walking by with a paper bag. I knew what was in the bag: a nice cold bottle of beer or something of that nature. He wasn’t exactly the kind of guy I thought could help me, but I rolled down my window and called to him. It was a moonlit night, and when he looked over at me, he nearly jumped out of his skin. In my worry, I had forgotten all about the oatmeal mask on my face!

He said, “I thought you was a haint.”

A haint is a ghost in Johns Island lingo. I frantically tried to claw off the oatmeal mask, causing bits of oatmeal to fall down my shirt into my bra. I begged the man to continue up the road and stop in at the restaurant and let them know where I was. I was young and afraid to leave the car and walk by myself down that moonlit country road. Big oak trees hung right over the asphalt. They had scary limbs that looked like they would reach out and grab you.

So after the man recovered from the shock of seeing my face, he said he was heading to the restaurant anyway to get some pork barbecue. He took off at a slow walk, and I sighed and waited. After a long while, the next thing I knew the ONLY CUTE BOY at the restaurant showed up in a pick-up truck with my sister to assist me. He had a big ole 5-gallon jug with some gas in it, and at this point, I was nearly crying with mortification. No matter how hard I tried, I still had flakes of oatmeal all over my face!

The boy was as wide-eyed as the little man when he caught a glimpse of me, but he didn’t say much. He just poured gas into my car’s gas tank and mumbled a few words when I thanked him, and took off again. I knew that he would NEVER look at me as if I were a girl on the cover of Seventeen magazine. He’d always think of me as the Oatmeal Face Girl.

What young ladies will do for beauty…and how messed up most of those beauty suggestions are, LOL!!!

Well, that’s the end of THAT story. I sure am glad I’m not sixteen anymore. :>)

SW: Thank you Kieran for joining us today and sharing your story. I can’t wait to read If You Give A Girl A Viscount and hope it’s wildly successful!

KK: Thanks, Sharon. And today I’m giving away a copy of one of my books to three different commenters. The winners can choose from WHEN HARRY MET MOLLY; DUKES TO THE LEFT OF ME, PRINCES TO THE RIGHT; and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MARRIAGE. Each book comes with a Regency-inspired porcelain tea rest, a small tea tin with a few packets of my favorite teas, and some of my favorite tea biscuits. I’ll include my romance trading cards as well.

To connect with Kieran, you can check out her website, Facebook Author Page, and Twitter @kierankramer.

So, I’ve asked Kieran a ton of questions. Do you have any you’d like to add?

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