Meet Catherine LaRoche, author of Knight of Love.
Catherine LaRoche is the romance pen name of Catherine Roach, who is a professor of cultural studies and gender studies in New College at the University of Alabama. Catherine won the Romance Writers of America Academic Research Grant in 2009 and is writing a book on how the story of romance—“find your one true love and live happily ever after”—is the most powerful narrative in popular culture. A lifelong reader of romance novels, she combines fiction writing of historical romance with academic writing about the romance genre for the best of best worlds.
Find Catherine at:
First off, can you tell us a bit about you?
I am Canadian by birth and have lived in Alabama the past sixteen years. I am a college professor of cultural studies and gender studies. I get to teach about popular romance fiction in my classes! I am also a mom. For the past year, my husband and I have been living with our two boys in England on a sabbatical exchange where we are having a wonderful time perfecting our Yorkshire accents!
Did you always want to be a writer?
Yes, I suppose so. I was a big reader as a child and devoured my mom's romance novels as well as the classics. All that reading made me want to write my own novels one day. My day job as a professor involves lots of academic writing, and getting to balance that work with the fiction writing makes me feel very fortunate.
What kind of writer are you? Panster or Plotter?
Like many people, a bit of both. I have a general plan for the plot and a sense of who the characters are, what their flaws and challenges are. I don't write any of that out, however, in notes or outlines. Perhaps I should, but it feels too boring! I just want to dive in and write!
Where do your ideas come from?
This question is a it of a mystery, I'm afraid. I am interested in history, so sometimes it's the setting and zeitgeist of the time that provide inspiration. But I am also interested in the dilemmas and anxieties related to being a woman in a man's world: how to earn a living, how to protect your loved ones, how to determine your own fate, how to explore your sexual desire.
A la Twitter style, can you describe your book (or series) in 140 characters or less.
KNIGHT OF LOVE: a runaway bride escapes a cruel fiancé only to be captured by a rebel knight as the countryside erupts in revolution.
What are your favorite stories to read?
I love poignant tear-jerkers where characters overcome long odds to earn their happiness. And I like a sexy story.
Do you have a favorite book?
I love all the romances of Laura Kinsale--such a mistress of the genre!
What are the scenes that are hardest for you to write?
A good piece of writing advice that I picked up early on is "to leave out the boring bits." If the scene feels boring, plodding, hard to write in that sense, then it's a sign that the story doesn't need it. If I'm not excited by every scene that I write, if it doesn't flow well for me, then I try to rethink the scene itself: delete it or change it until I feel the excitement again.
If you could have dinner with any three authors, who would you choose and why?
Hard question! It would be interesting to learn about the writing process of so many authors. Here are three writers whom I've been thinking about recently: Arthur Conan Doyle, because he apparently didn't favor Sherlock Holmes and his example illustrates how characters and books can take on a life of their own; Oscar Wilde, because he was such a master of the witty bon mot (I like his answer "Only my genius!" when asked by a custom official what he had to declare); and Tamora Pierce, who writes such great YA fantasy with strong girl characters.
Are you working on anything right now?
I am starting the third book in THE SOCIETY OF LOVE quartet, to follow on KNIGHT OF LOVE. It tells the story of Genevieve, accused of being a double agent spy and recently released into the custody of a reclusive lord. It's called PRISONER OF LOVE and is going to be very sexy.
A saucy romance, an English Lady turns the damsel-in-distress tale on its head as she escapes her malicious fiancé and fights for both her life and that of the lustful revel that has become her protector.
Lady Lenora Trevelyan, a naïve yet stubborn young lady born to the highest noble houses of England and Germany, finds herself betrothed to the brutal Prince Kurt von Rotenburg-Gruselstadtcruelly. But after she is cruelly bruised and flogged by her fiancé, she decides to take the reins of her fate. In the midst of a German revolution, Lenora escapes Kurt’s iron fist and embarks home to England. She quickly finds herself in the hands of a rebel group and their robust, gentle, and handsome leader, Wolfram von Wolfsbach und Ravensworth, the English Earl of Ravensworth.
Lenora struggles to deny the passion she feels towards the frustratingly chivalrous Earl but her desire for him continues to bloom. Wolfram hungers nothing other than to fight for democracy and civil rights in uniting Germany and to protect what he assumes is his damsel in distress. Through nights of immeasurable pleasure, Lenora and Wolfram learn that their passion is no match for the revolutionary chaos that ensues. And when Lenora discovers that her protector’s life is threatened, she must risk everything to save her KNIGHT OF LOVE.
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