MARY BALOGH
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I have been reading Mary Balogh's Regencies since she first started to publish them in 1985. Since then, she has written more than fifty Signet and longer novels, and over twenty short stories for anthologies, etc. Many of you also have enjoyed her intensely emotional stories . Some of you just discovered her this June when you picked up the paperback release of MORE THAN A MISTRESS. This August, she had another hardcover released, entitled NO MAN'S MISTRESS. I love the details of everyday life, the references to music and art, as well as the interesting characters Mary presents to her readers. I was very happy when Mary Balogh (pronounced to rhyme with Kellogg) consented to be interviewed for the RBL Romantica newsletter. Rebels, here is Mary Balogh!
Reny: Welcome to RBL, Mary. Thank you for agreeing to do this interview. Would you please tell us a bit about yourself - your family, hobbies, interests, etc.?
Mary: I was born and raised in Wales. I came to Canada in 1967 to teach high school English in a small prairie town in Saskatchewan. I still live here with my husband of 32 years. We have three adult children and three grandchildren. I write full time. In my spare time I read, knit, sing in a community choir, watch television sports (notably curling and tennis), and work out.
Reny: Who are your favourite authors? What are you reading now?
Mary: Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Neale Donald Walsch. I am currently reading Amanda Foreman's GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.
Reny: Have you found any benefits as a writer to living in a small community?
Mary: Actually, yes. This is a quiet place with few distractions. There are not many restaurants, no theaters, galleries, etc. There is very little to do outside the home except visit and participate in sports, which I don't do. Writing is both my job and my hobby.
Reny: Does living where you do give you greater insights into Regency life?
Mary: Absolutely not. Life on the Canadian prairies in 2001 is probably as different as it can be from life in Regency England, except that basic human nature never changes. My insights into Regency life come entirely from reading and growing up in Britain and visiting it frequently now.
Reny: Have you always been interested in writing? Who inspired you?
Mary: Always. As a very young child I filled notebooks with long stories. I always used to tell people that when I grew up I wanted to be an author. I have always read voraciously, from childhood on. So it is hard to say who, if anyone, inspired me. It was my discovery of Georgette Heyer's novels when I was an adult, though, that made me realize it was the Regency era in which I wanted to set my books.
Reny: How did you get your first book published?
Mary: By doing everything wrong. I wrote in an utter vacuum. I read no books, knew about no organizations that might have told me how to go about it. I wrote a book, chose a publisher I thought did the best job of Regencies (Signet), and sent in my whole manuscript with a very brief covering letter. I sent it to a Canadian address. Two weeks later they wrote to tell me it was a distribution center (!). But someone there had read it, liked it, and sent it on to Hilary Ross in New York. Two weeks after that, she phoned me to say she wanted to buy it and offered me a two-book contract. So I went in by the back door, so to speak.
Reny: Why did you choose the regency era to write about?
Mary: I am British and have always loved the novels of Jane Austen. But it was my discovery of Georgette Heyer that inspired me. I thought her books gloriously romantic, but the main feeling I had about them was nostalgia. I still feel it for Regency England. I absolutely must have lived there very happily in a previous life.
Reny: After over 60 stories, where do you find new plot ideas?
Mary: You know that old saying that the more you learn, the more you realize there is to learn? Conceiving plots is a little like that. The more I create, the more I realize there are to create. It was a wonderful discovery. When I started to write, I assumed that after a certain number of books I would run out of ideas. I know now that I never will.
Reny: You have worked as a teacher as well as being a wife and mother while writing. How are you able to do all this?
Mary: Yes, when I started writing I was a school principal, a high school English teacher, and mother of three children between the ages of 6 and 14. Writing was strictly my hobby at first. I used to live for that moment mid-evening when I could sit down at the kitchen table, surrounded by mayhem, pen in hand, notebook open before me, and write my 1300 words for the day. Strangely enough, I wrote much faster in those days than I do now, when I have an empty nest, no teaching job, and I have to write only one book a year. Or maybe it is not so strange. The busiest people are often the most productive. Of course, they are often the most stressed out too!
Reny: What was the reaction of your family, students, and neighbours to your books?
Mary: At first I suppose it was a huge novelty. Suddenly I was a celebrity, with journalists and television cameras always descending on town and school. Coffee row men passed copies of my first book from hand to hand, dog-earred on certain pages of the "dirty" stuff. Men of a certain type invariably think sex is dirty! Soon enough, thank goodness, I was just plain old Mary Balogh again.
Reny: Are there any plans to rerelease some of your earlier Signets?
Mary: Not yet. I have the rights back to almost all of them, so someone is going to have to buy them again to reissue them. I am sure this will happen, but there are no immediate plans. The early books are very much in demand, though, and sell for outrageous prices on the various on-line second-hand and auction sites.
Reny: Why did you decide to release MORE THAN A MISTRESS and NO MAN'S MISTRESS in hardcover this year?
Mary: It was Dell's decision, not mine. They had tentative plans to bring me out in hardcover eventually, in order to boost my sales and raise me to a higher level. MORE THAN A MISTRESS was already in production as a paperback and had been scheduled when the decision was suddenly made to make it my debut hardcover. The powers that be at Dell felt it was one of my best books and wanted to make the most of it. They managed to get me onto the New York Times Extended Bestseller List with both the hardcover and paperback editions of MORE THAN A MISTRESS.
Reny: What is your personal favourite of all the stories you have written? Why?
Mary: That is rather like asking a mother to choose among her children. However, if pressed I would probably name HEARLTESS because of the deliciously dangerous Georgian hero, LONGING because it is filled with all the passion of my Welsh heritage, THE NOTORIOUS RAKE because of the notorious rake, and MORE THAN A MISTRESS because it was such fun having both the hero and heroine as such headstrong people that they clash on almost every page and never ever back down from each other.
Reny: In your stories, the women's strengths and problems are often shown. What is your view of the role of women within a marriage and a family, then and now?
Mary: When you write historicals, of course you have to aim for historical accuracy. Regency women had no power or rights. Legally they were non-persons. But that does not mean they could not be strong, independently-minded women of great integrity. Part of the challenge for me, perhaps, is to place my heroines into relationships and marriages in which they will be given absolute equality by their heroes. But they have to earn that equality. In the process the heroes have to earn our admiration. I like to see love and marriage as a perfect balance of two wholes.
Reny: MORE THAN A MISTRESS had a more explicit sex scene than your former books. Was this your choice or did your editor ask for it?
Mary: I was surprised to read this. I don't think it is so. Almost all of my books contain explicit sex. It is never gratuitous. It is always there to show something about the relationship - what is right with it, what is wrong with it. I never write a sex scene just for titillation purposes. My books are never larded with sex scenes. I didn't think MORE THAN A MISTRESS was any different. Certainly I have never been under pressure to spice up my books - or to tone them down, either, when I was writing straight Regencies.
Reny: You often write connected stories. The hero of NO MAN'S MISTRESS is the brother from last year s book, MORE THAN A MISTRESS. Will there be more spin-offs?
Mary: Maybe, maybe not. Quite a few readers have asked for the sister's story. The trouble is that she is married already in both these books to a dry stick of a man, though it is apparently a love match. And she is an airhead. The idea of going back to tell their story from the inside has its appeal, I must admit. I think it would have to be quite a comic story. There is also a minor character, Viscount Kimble, whose story some people have asked for. He is an attractive rake, so may very well become the hero of a future book. But I have no immediate plans. I have just started a series of six books about the Bedwyns, a family of four brothers and two sisters who make an initial appearance in next year's book, A SUMMER TO REMEMBER.
Reny: Many authors write about more than one era. You have concentrated solely on one era. Do you have any plans to write about another period of time?
Mary: Most of my books are set in the Regency era. However, I have written three Georgian books (1700s), one Victorian, set during the Crimean War in the 1850s, and two Welsh books set during the 1830s. I enjoyed venturing out into new eras, but of course I feel most comfortable with Regency England.
Reny: What advice would you give to your students or RBLs who want to write?
Mary: Simply write! There are all sorts of how-to books (I am currently writing one!), and workshops. There are lots of conferences and conventions. There are support groups, critiquing groups, and writing contests. Use any or all of these if you feel the genuine need or if you just like to be in contact with fellow-writers, but don't use them just as a crutch or an excuse to procrastinate. The only way to learn to write is to write. The only way to finish a book is to start one and keep writing it until it is finished.
Thank you for asking me to do this interview.
And thank you, Mary, for taking the time to do the interview! We love your books, and we're all looking forward to A SUMMER TO REMEMBER!
November 2005
When I interviewed Mary Balogh in 2001 for RBL, I knew she was a prolific writer. She had already published more than 50 stories and 20 novellas. I had most of these books on my keeper shelves. She has been an automatic buy for me since her first Signet Regency in 1985. I love the real people and authentic settings in her stories. Her stories have the power to amuse and comfort me. That is why her books are keepers for me which I reread and enjoy often. I am not alone in my enjoyment of Mary Balogh. When preparing for this interview, several Regency Writers whom I admire told me that Mary�s books were keepers for them also. I was also happy when many ReBeLs decided to give her Bedwyn Series a try and then went out to buy up her backlist.
Since the 2001 interview, she has published eight more novels, gaining many more new fans with her popular Bedwyn Series. Her new quartet, which started with SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE in the spring of 2005, promises more of her storytelling magic and the reappearances of the Bedwyns and their friends. It was time to catch up to this talented author for another interview.
Reny: Thank you, Mary, for agreeing to do this interview with RBL. So many friends at RBL told me how they have bought up your backlist and enjoyed the Bedwyns. Many also have met and talked books with you at various conferences. You have been very busy!
Mary: I have. But writing is such a pleasure, as is talking with friends and readers.
Reny: I loved the Bedwyn Series. Tell us a bit about this series.
Mary: When I was writing A SUMMER TO REMEMBER I needed a haughty, powerful, rather cold family to give the heroine a rough time since she was betrothed to the man to whom they had wanted to marry one of their own. And so I invented the wealthy, privileged Bedwyns, six brothers and sisters with the powerful, autocratic Wulfric, Duke of Bewcastle, at their head. But as soon as I created them I knew they were trouble. They tried again and again to take over the book. Finally I had to make a pact with them and promise them their own books if they would behave themselves in this one. I mentioned to my editor that I wanted to write a six-part series about them, and the next day she offered me a six-book contract even though my current contract had not yet expired. One might say that the Bedwyns really really wanted to see themselves in print.
Reny: How did you decide the order to write the stories of the brothers and sisters?
Mary: Only five of the six actually appeared in A SUMMER TO REMEMBER. The sixth, Colonel Lord Aidan Bedwyn, the second brother in age, was away fighting in the Peninsular Wars against the forces of Napoloeon Bonaparte. But strangely, when I went to start the series and cast my mind about to decide who was going to go first, it was Aidan who stepped firmly forward. After that, I don't remember puzzling each time over who should go next. They seemed to decide it among themselves. Except that, of course, Wulfric, the duke, had to go last!
Reny: Why did you save the duke's story for last?
Mary: It was largely a matter of climax. He fascinated me from the beginning--so cold and arrogant and reserved and powerful and yet with flashes of a deeper humanity especially where his brothers and sisters were concerned. He was the sort of man who would not have looked to his own happiness until he had seen the others all settled. He fascinated readers too. The swell of anticipation as his story neared amazed, delighted, and terrified me! I knew I was going to have to find him just the right heroine and just the right story if readers were not to find his book--and the whole series--anti-climactic. Fortunately, reader reaction to his story (SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS) has been almost overwhelmingly positive.
Reny: I love your representation of the positive effects of love. For me, your stories are healing. When a couple finds love the whole family and community are enriched. I come away feeling more generous to my fellow man. How do you view love?
Mary: I think of myself as writer of love stories rather than as a romance writer. Romance, wonderful as it is, and much as it should pervade the atmosphere of the whole book, is only one aspect of love. Love is the force, the light, the energy behind the whole of life and creation. Love is all there is. Learning to love is our mission in life. I believe there are three aspects of love, all of which we need in order to be whole people. We need to be able to give love; we need to be able and willing to receive love; and we need to deeply love ourselves, not in an egotistical, narcissistic way, but in a way that recognizes the deep reality and wonder of who we really are. Once we are capable of all three kinds of love (and it takes time and effort), then we can commit to meaningful love relationships, including the romantic love of our lives. This is really what my books are all about. The romance is there, yes--I hope. But there is so much more. My heroes and heroines have to come to personal wholeness before they can freely love each other and before the reader can be assured that they have a good chance of living happily together for a lifetime.
Reny: What treats do you have in store for your readers in the quartet started by SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE?
Mary: More of my usual kind of book, I think. The second in the series, SIMPLY LOVE, due out in hardcover next August (2006), is a deeply passionate love story, starring two characters from previous books. Anne Jewell (first seen in SLIGHTLY SCANDALOUS) is a wounded soul, a single mother who became pregnant as the result of rape. And Sydnam Butler (first seen in A SUMMER TO REMEMBER) is severely maimed and scarred as a result of torture during the Peninsular Wars. And because he has no right arm or right eye, he can no longer paint though it is obvious he was born to do so. When the two meet on the Welsh estate of the Duke of Bewcastle (of the Slightly Series), they have to confront their woundedness and find healing so that they can love. The third book of the series, SIMPLY MAGIC, also uses a character from an earlier book. The third teacher, Susanna Osbourne, meets Viscount Whitleaf (from A SUMMER TO REMEMBER) during a summer holiday and they strike up a friendship of sorts. There can be nothing more between them, of course, because they are worlds apart socially, and such things mattered in the Regency era. But of course, this IS a love story, and love can always find a way. The older, more enigmatic Claudia Martin, owner and headmistress of the school, will have her story told last. Don't ask--I don't really know myself yet!
Reny: I notice your books now often come out in hardcover a year before the paperback release. What benefits do you as an author find with this method of distribution?
Mary: I know that many readers get irate at having to wait so long for the paperbacks to come out. I understand that and sympathize. However, it is surprising how many readers buy hardcovers rather than paperbacks. I have acquired all sorts of new readers in hardcover. And of course, the library market is huge and open far more to hardcovers than paperback. The publisher has to be very committed to an author if it is to bring out her books in both formats--and it is always a great advantage to have one's publisher fully committed!
Reny: There are many aspiring writers at RBL. Could you explain your creative process for us? How do you set about creating your plots and characters? Do you develop an outline before you write or do your characters take over and sometimes lead you down an unexpected path?
Mary: I am a very disorganized planner. I think a huge amount of the planning of my books happens in my sub-conscious. I don't have conscious access to it, but when I need it, it is there! It's not comfortable, but I am very grateful that it happens at all. Synopses are almost impossible for me, because I can't force details to come to the surface until I actually need them during the writing process. I try to get a pretty firm idea of the hero and heroine, though even this is not quite satisfactory as I find when I start writing their story that really I don't know them at all. I know them only as I would know a fairly close acquaintance, not as I would know them as they know themselves--soul deep. As I write, I get to know them in that way. I try ahead of time to put these two characters into a story that will force them into conflict and self-awareness, and then I get at the story. I don't imagine that this explanation will be of much help to aspiring authors except perhaps to those who think and work as I do. But I will add this. In my experience of talking to numerous writers, we all work in vastly differing ways. So I would advise any writer just to write, to do things your way, to find out what works for you. No true artist will be confined by any rigid rules.
Reny: Your characters are never stereotypical. What traits do you look for in your heroes and heroines? Which heroes and heroines are favourites for you? Why?
Mary: I look for reality, for real people. I am not content with drawing up character sketches with lists of characterstics for each. I may start that way, but then I want to get to know the real person. And real people are made up of a dizzying number of different forces and influences. Real people are full of contradictions. I like to dig deep and deeper. I often talk to my characters--"Who ARE you?" And if that doesn't work, I put myself right inside them and ask, "Who AM I?" The only thing I demand of heroes and heroines is that they will be ultimately willing and able to look deeply at themselves and put right what is wrong and become self-aware--that they learn, in other words, to accept and love themselves so that they are capable of loving and being loved by others.
Favorite heroes and heroines? Perhaps Wulfric Bedwyn, Duke of Bewcastle (the Slightly Series) is my favorite hero. I think it is because he developed gradually through six books before he had his own story. I had time to get to know him. Also, I think, it is because I kept him in character to the end. He was autocratic, powerful, reticent. He took his duties very seriously. But he was also a man. There is a moment close to the end of SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS at which he tells Christine, the heroine, that he is who he is and he will never change--he does not want to change. He IS the Duke of Bewcastle. But he goes on to tell her that he is also Wulfric Bedwyn, a man with feelings and passions--and it is perhaps the first time he has admitted that, even to himself. By the end of the book it should be very clear that he is both. In other words, he is not transformed by his love for Christine. But his self-awareness has deepened and he has accepted who he is and is able to offer that person to the woman he loves.
My favorite heroine is perhaps Lady Emily Marlowe in SILENT MELODY. She is deaf and cannot speak, and she lives in the eighteenth century, when there was no sign language and no braille. Deaf people often ended up in insane asylums. Emily is fortunate enough to have a loving family. Creating her and her story was an enormous challenge. But I discovered an intelligent, artistic woman whose life was rich with meaning and with an understanding of life that most people with five senses don't have. The hero was able to teach her much--he taught her to speak, for example. But she taught him every bit as much as he taught her--she was no victim. I was hugely relieved to discover from a few deaf people after the book was published that somehow I had got Emily right.
Reny: A CHRISTMAS BRIDE is a favourite read for me. Whenever I pick it up, I have to reread all the stories connected to it. What books are favourites for you?
Mary: A CHRISTMAS BRIDE is one of them. I am also partial to THE NOTORIOUS RAKE, LONGING, A SUMMER TO REMEMBER, MORE THAN A MISTRESS, SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS--not to mention about sixty others! Oh, and SIMPLY LOVE, my next book out.
Reny: You often have Christmas as your setting for romance. Why does this setting work so well?
Mary: I happen to believe that love is all there is. And somehow, whether you accept its religious significance or not, Christmas embodies all that is best about love--family, giving, generosity, innocent enjoyment, peace, hope, the celebration of childhood. I could go on and on. In my Christmas stories, Christmas itself becomes almost a character. These stories could not happen at just any time of the year. Christmas plays a definite part in bringing the two characters together. Almost all my Christmas stories have children in them too.
Reny: Wales was your birthplace. I remember the Welsh setting in LONGING. Will you be writing other books set in Wales?
Mary: As it happens, SIMPLY LOVE, my next book, is set largely in Wales. It differs from LONGING and TRULY in that it does not really concern itself with Welsh history, but the setting is there and the music and the spirituality that so characterize my native Wales.
Reny: Most of your books take place from 1750 to 1850. Many authors are leaving this period and writing paranormals or contemporary stories. Do you have the urge to write books set in another period?
Mary: Not really. As long as I write romance, I will stick with the Regency or Georgian periods. That is where I feel I belong. I have never had any desire to jump on bandwagons. I write what I love writing. I may at some time write a different type of book, something with a more spiritual (NOT religious) base. But if I do, chances are that I will use a different name. And chances are that I will write these books in addition to my Regency historicals rather than instead of them.
Reny: After writing so many books, what keeps writing a challenge for you?
Mary: What keeps life a challenge? There is always something new to learn, something new to experience, someone new to get to know. And there is no end to love.
Reny: You mentioned in the 2001 interview that you were giving workshops for aspiring writers at some of the conferences. What appearances and workshops will you be appearing at in the next year?
Mary: 2005 has been a busy year. So far I have nothing at all lined up for 2006! If that changes, I will include the details in the newsletters on my Web site.
Reny: You have so much information for your readers on your Web site. I especially like your family snapshot and the epilogues of some of your books. Thank you. The extra chapters were a treat. I love catching up with old friends. I also noticed when I checked your Web site that some of your older Signets are being re-released. Will this be in the near future?
Mary:
I would like to think they will. Realistically, I think it may happen rather slowly. One reason is that Bantam Dell was not the original publisher of the books, so it is not a simple matter of reissuing them. They have to republish them, and they are doing it in a committed way--that is publishing them in a big way. This is great for me in many ways, but of course it does mean that they have to set aside coveted slots for these books. So far, THE SECRET PEARL will be coming out in late November, 2005, and the WEB trilogy will come out in that spot over the next three years. That really is very slow, isn't it when my backlist is so long? I am hoping that soon they will come up with an idea for an more accelerated way of getting the old books on the market again. I know there are many readers who want those old books.
Again, I would like to thank Mary. I love her Web site and want to encourage everyone to check it out to find out more about this charming, professional lady and her books.
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