Why I Write Romance ~ by Author Penny Hampson

I’ve always been an avid reader. From when I first learned to read, I was usually to be found with a book in my hand. This didn’t change as I got older. Living near to not one, but two libraries, each located equal but opposite distances from my home, I joined both and visited every Saturday morning. With six books from each, I got through a lot of books.

Things didn’t change when I grew older, only now I was able to buy the books that took my fancy. Commuting three hours everyday to work and back meant I had plenty of time for reading. Whisked away to another time and place, a clever plot, and engaging characters, made the journey time shrink.  

My taste is fairly eclectic, I enjoy nearly any subject matter, providing it is well written and engaging. I read the classics, Jane Austen (of course) and Dickens, as well as modern writers like Kate Atkinson, Ian Rankin, P.D. James. It goes without saying that, as a historian, I also read lots of non-fiction history books. But if I was feeling low, reading something light and escapist was the answer. Georgette Heyer was an author I remembered from my teen years for her lively Regency romances. Beautifully written and well-researched, I enjoyed reading them all over again. To my delight I discovered lots more authors writing in the same genre — these became my go-to reads when I needed a boost.   

Well, that’s what I like to read… now, what started me writing?

A few years ago I was forced to face up to the fact that I couldn’t continue with my full-time job and provide the necessary care for a family member with health problems. I’d been doing just that for ten years and it was becoming a progressively more difficult balancing act. So, I decided to take early retirement. That freed up some time… time that I wanted to be just for me, and time that I wanted to be productive.
The answer seemed obvious… I decided to write.

Writing romance was a logical choice. Romance books had offered me the chance to escape from my problems, on days when everything seemed to be conspiring against me. I knew I felt better after reading an uplifting and compelling story, with characters I cared about overcoming their problems and finding their happy ever after. What better place was there to start than with the genre I enjoy the best?

My aim is to create swoon-worthy heroes, intelligent heroines, and set them in an historical era that I know well. My characters will have lots of adventures, challenges galore… they might not like each other to begin with, but they will fall in love, and there will always be a happy ending.

It is my small way of giving something back, in recognition of the help and comfort romance fiction gave to me.


Having worked in various sectors before becoming a full time mum, Penny Hampson decided to follow her passion for history by studying with the Open University. She graduated with honours and went on to complete a post-graduate degree. 

Penny then landed her dream role, working in an environment where she was surrounded by rare books and historical manuscripts. Flash forward nineteen years, and the opportunity came along to indulge her other main passion – writing historical fiction. Encouraged by friends and family, three years later Penny published her debut novel A Gentleman’s Promise. 

Her second novel, An Officer’s Vow, was released in February 2019.

Penny is working hard on her third novel in The Gentlemen Series, which will be published in 2020.


Penny lives with her family in Oxfordshire, England, and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and the odd gin and tonic (not all at the same time).

You can connect with Penny at the following links:
WEBSITE
TWITTER
PENNY'S BOOKS

Loving the Alien ~ by Anna Campbell

Did that title grab your attention? Not only does it out me as a major David Bowie fan, it also describes what I do for a living. I write historical romance, mainly set in the Regency period, although my latest release, The Highlander’s Defiant Captive, takes place in 1699. 

There’s a wonderful quote from L.P. Hartley: “The past is another country; they do things differently there.” Mr. Hartley didn’t just have a deft hand with a semicolon, he also spoke true! 

When people hear the word “alien,” they usually think of little green men, but in fact writing about the past means immersing yourself in a world with different mores and behaviors. The trick is making stories about people who lived 200 years ago relevant and hopefully compelling for a modern reader, while still keeping the characters true to themselves. 

That challenge is one of the many things that keeps me dedicated to my genre. I grew up in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s and while it was a wonderful, happy childhood, glamorous, exciting things always seemed to happen elsewhere.

I fell in love with European, specifically British, history when I was not much more than a toddler. My parents used to read to me from gorgeous editions of fairy tales with spectacular illustrations. I remember poring over Cinderella’s gown, which I now realize was vaguely late 17th-century French, or Sleeping Beauty’s dress, which was Norman. I’ll confess – pretty dresses were my gateway to a lifetime of fascination with historical personages and events.

My interest in my wonderful, larger-than-life genre grew when I started watching swashbuckling films on TV. Even then, they were were old movies! I still can’t resist Errol Flynn swinging in to charm Maid Marion or Maureen O’Hara flashing those magnificent green eyes at John Wayne or Burt Lancaster. You just knew you were in for a fun ride with these stories. By the way, my latest heroine, Bonny Mhairi Drummond from The Highlander’s Defiant Captive, is very much based on Maureen at her fiery best. 

Both the fairy tales and the Golden Age of Hollywood movies took liberties with history, but they had such verve and style, I didn’t mind. And that introduction to the rich tapestry of European history encouraged me to find out more about the real people and places behind the adventurous and romantic stories I loved.

I decided fairly early that I wanted to be a writer. Another childhood obsession was Enid Blyton. My mother kept a composition I wrote in grade two where I proclaimed to the world, or at least to my class at Redland Bay State School, that I was going to grow up to be the next E.B. 

I started my first novel, a racy little number about horse-napping, the following year. I kept writing through the years that followed, although I didn’t get a publishing contract until 2006 when I sold Claiming the Courtesan to Avon HarperCollins in New York.

That’s a long time to be in the aspiring writer category, but all those years of toiling away in obscurity turned out to offer a stack of unexpected advantages. One was that I’d developed my writing voice when I sold. The only way you do that is by doing a lot of writing and believe me, by then, I’d done a LOT of writing. The long wait also gave me time to experiment with genres and realize that my first love turned out to be my strongest love.

So, I decided I’d write historical romance. It took me a while to settle on Regency as my sub-genre of choice. I tried to write contemporaries in both romance and women’s fiction. I tried historical fiction and historical romances set in a variety of times and places, the research for which have made me a killer Trivial Pursuit player. 

I even gave up for about 18 months when I told myself that my dream of wanting to be a writer was like my childhood dream of wanting to dance for the Bolshoi Ballet. A silly idea that should be put away in favor of sensible grown-up ambitions like getting a proper job. 

That didn’t work out too well at all! I don’t think I’ve ever been so miserable. 

When I came back, I realized that I needed to be smarter about what I was writing if I wanted to be a published author. If those 18 months taught me anything, it was that I wanted to be a published author! 

I studied the market, instead of following my flibbertigibbet interest to obscure places (at least in historical romance terms!) like 18th-century Hungary or Renaissance Ferrara. It was clear that books set in Britain in the first quarter of the 19th century were king. The actual Regency period only lasted from 1811 to 1820, when Prince George stepped in to take over the sovereign’s duties after George III was declared incapable of ruling. But in historical romance terms, the period extends from the late 18th century through to the accession of Victoria in 1837. 

Readers can’t get enough of books set in this time. There are a couple of reasons for this. I think many people grew up reading Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I know I did. There have also been some fantastic authors writing about this era since historical romance became a major commercial genre with Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower in the early 1970's.

In the early 2000's, I wrote a Regency romantic comedy set in London which I still hope to publish one day. I read it recently and it stands up pretty well! Then out of nowhere an idea arrived for a dark, intense, emotional, and very steamy story about a Regency duke wanting to marry his notorious mistress which I called “No Ordinary Duchess.” As Claiming the Courtesan, this is the book that got me my first publishing contract. I’ve been a full-time writer ever since! 

Author Anna Campbell

I’m an Australian historical romance writer. So far I've published 10 award-winning novels for Avon and Grand Central, and 22 books as an independent author. My books have been translated into 22 languages. I'm currently working on a series featuring roguish Highland heroes, called The Lairds Most Likely. The Laird's Willful Lass, The Laird's Christmas Kiss, and The Highlander’s Lost Lady are now out. Look out for The Highlander’s Defiant Captive and The Highlander’s Christmas Quest later in 2019. 

To connect with Anna, click on the links below.
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
BOOKBUB
AMAZON