Author Interview with Carolyn Miller!

Hi, Angela here and I am super excited to be visiting with Carolyn today! First a little intro:

Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. A longtime lover of romance, especially that of the Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. She is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. Her Regency novel 'The Elusive Miss Ellison' is available from Amazon.com, CBD, Barnes & Noble and Book Depository

  

Welcome Carolyn! We're so glad you could visit us today. 

G’day from Australia! Thanks for having me J

That is a pleasure, but don’t you mean, g’night from Australia? Just saying. ;)

Anyways, I will say right off that I really enjoyed your book, The Elusive Miss Ellison. You have a lot of talent as a storyteller. What made you decide to become a writer? How long ago was that?

In 2010 I was watching the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics and noticed an Australian female competitor walk into the stadium holding hands with a male American competitor. It piqued my interest: what was their story? How did they get together? The questions rolled around inside for a while until I eventually started writing down my imaginings as to how they met. This became my contemporary story ‘Love On Ice’ which I started to enter into writing contests to get feedback as to whether it was any good. At the time my youngest child (I have 4!) was nearly two, so I was at home with plenty of time to focus on writing – and learning how things could be written better!

Where did the inspiration for The Elusive Miss Ellison come from? 

After writing three contemporary novels and entering them in various contests I was told my Australian based characters and setting wouldn’t sell too well in the US (L) so I switched genres.

 I’ve always enjoyed Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency-era fiction, and had wondered about trying to write something similar, but with a Christian thread. So I did. I wanted the classic ‘Pride and Prejudice’ set up, with something of their wit and banter, but with deeper issues that hint at the real struggles we face when we’re forced to ‘practice what we preach’in dealing with difficult people and situations.

How does your faith and spirituality work in with your writing? 

Together with my husband we pastored a small church in our small town for ten years. I learned a lot about people, about being humbled, about grace—about not knowing nearly as much as I thought I did—during this time. I try to incorporate some of what I’ve learned in my writing, and show flawed characters (like me!) learning to practice grace instead of judgment. It’s a fine line between being preachy and having enough spiritual depths and truths to warrant the label ‘Christian’ fiction J

On a more personal side, over the past few years I’ve seen God’s tremendous faithfulness revealed in many ways, especially as He’s opened the right doors (and closed the wrong doors!) at the right time with my writing. A few years ago I was working four days a week at my local public high school, which allowed very little time for writing; last year I worked two days a week, which gave enough time to write two brand new novels; this year I’m being an author, and taking a break from teaching, which I thank God for every day, because there is no way I could cope with teaching as well as all my writing responsibilities. It shows that even when I don’t know what I need God is still directing my paths—a great thing to realize in hindsight, and something I need to remember to take into the future.

Wow, thank you for sharing that. What do you want readers to come away with after reading your books?

I want people to have enjoyed themselves, to have smiled, maybe laughed, maybe cried. I want them to have been touched a little by God’s grace, and be able to take that uplifting hope with them.

Now for our random question of the day. What is your stress food…or, if you’re not a stress eater, you favorite snack while writing?

I’ve been eating plenty of this lately!! (Australian-made) Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate is THE BEST. And Twisties. Love my fake-cheese-flavored Twisties. (All those artificial flavorings and preservatives…mmm J)

What is one of your favorite scenes in The Elusive Miss Ellison?

I love near the end of chapter 20 when our two leads are engaged in a heady round of…chess. The banter and tease demonstrates their burgeoning friendship, while the Earl’s awareness of his deepening attraction to Lavinia…(sigh)

I can second the that *sigh*. :) What are you working on next?

I’m proofreading book 2 in the series, ‘The Captivating Lady Charlotte’. Then I’m sure there’s more edits with book 3 in the series (‘The Dishonorable Miss DeLancey’), before I commence work on my second series. Exciting times! (Need more chocolate. And Twisties!) 

Yay for chocolate! Looks like you have some great stuff going on. Thank you so much for being with us! 

Thanks so much for having me!

For all our visitors, here is a little more about Carolyn's book:

Handsome appearance counts for naught unless matched by good character and actions.

That's the firm opinion of not-so-meek minister's daughter Lavinia Ellison. So even though all the other villagers of St. Hampton Heath are swooning over the newly returned seventh Earl of Hawkesbury, she is not impressed. If a man won't take his responsibilities seriously and help those who are supposed to be able to depend on him, he deserves no respect from her. In Lavinia's pretty, gray eyes, Nicholas Stamford is just as arrogant and reckless as his brother--who stole the most important person in Livvie's world.

Nicholas is weighed down by his own guilt and responsibility, by the pain his careless brother caused, and by the legacy of war he's just left. This quick visit home to St. Hampton Heath will be just long enough to ease a small part of that burden. Asking him to bother with the lives of the villagers when there's already a bailiff on the job is simply too much to expect.

That is, until the hoydenish, intelligent, and very opinionated Miss Ellison challenges him to see past his pain and pride. With her angelic voice in his head, he may even be beginning to care. But his isn't the only heart that needs to change.

These two lonely hearts may each have something the other needs. But with society's opposition, ancestral obligations, and a shocking family secret, there may be too many obstacles in their way.

Connect with her:    www.carolynmiller.org    

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