Interview with Tracy Grant

 It's no secret that Georgette Heyer, queen of the Regency-era historical novel, is one of my favorite writers. Between Heyer and Jane Austen, I became fascinated by the period of English history known as the Regency. This was the period when King George III of England was deemed unfit to rule and his son served as his Regent (1811-1820). This is also the era of the Napoleonic Wars, full of intrigue, danger, and suspense. Our guest today, Tracy Grant, is even more fascinated by the period than I am, and she has written over twenty novels and novellas set in this period. She started in the genre writing a series of Regency romances with her late mother, under the name Anthea Malcolm. That was how I first discovered her work.

Later on Tracy began writing a series featuring a husband-and-wife team, Charles and Mélanie Fraser, beginning with Secrets of a Lady (also published as Daughter of the Game). Thanks to the vagaries of publishing, after the first two books, when Tracy wanted to continue the books with a new publisher, Charles and Mélanie Fraser became Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch. So they have remained ever since. The latest in the series, The Duke's Gambit, is just out, and I asked Tracy to do an interview, and she graciously agreed.

[photo credit: Raphael Coffey] Tracy and her daughter Mélanie]

 What first drew you to the Regency period? And what keeps you there?

 Originally it was Jane Austen, starting with seeing the Greer Garson/Laurence Oliver “Pride & Prejudice" when I was six. I loved it and immediately wanted to read the book (or rather have it read to me). My mom said “I’m not sure you’ll like it, but we can try”. I thought it was wonderful—to me, at that age, it was a story about girls (older than me but young enough that I could identify with them) dealing with their sisters and parents, growing up, falling in love. (Every time I reread “Pride and Prejudice” I get different things from it, but I was totally hooked at the age of six). A family trip to England and Scotland the next year helped cement my love of British history. My mom and I went on to read all of Jane Austen and then my mom discovered Georgette Heyer’s Regency-set novels and introduced me to them. Even when I was reading on my own, we still tended to read the same books and talk about them. I loved the era and when my mom and I started writing together it seemed natural to write Regency-set stories. The more I’ve learned about the era, the more intrigued I’ve become. I love eras on the cusp of change, and the Regency is a bridge of sorts between the bawdier 18th century and Victorian restraint, between the classical and romantic eras, between between a more rural world and industrialization. It’s an era still reeling from the French Revolution with many political forces trying to push the ideas of the revolution back into the box, which resonates with as the child of sixties liberals who grew up in the eighties. The more I learn about it the more it intrigues me.

Your books have complex plots and rich, vivid backgrounds. Do you outline before you start a book, or do you sit down and start writing without one?

I’ve always been an outliner. I lay out plot elements and scene on index cards. I used to spread them on my dining room table. Now I write in Scrivener and use their cork board to lay out plot elements, which is great. Using Scrivener, I find it’s much easier to write as a I plot, and to write out of order. Often certain plot strands come into focus before others, so I can write those scenes while I’m mulling the rest of the plot. Then I do multiple drafts to piece everything together and smooth over the rough edges.

 Which comes first for each new book: the historical events that will be the framework, or the developments in Malcolm and Suzanne's story?

Good question! Sometimes one, some times the other. With "Vienna Waltz," "Imperial Scandal," and “The Paris Affair," I knew going in I wanted to do three books about the Congress of Vienna, Waterloo, and post-Waterloo Paris, so the historical events framed each story. With "The Berkeley Square Affair," I knew they’d be in England but I also knew Malcolm would learn the secrets of Suzanne/Mélanie’s past, so that drove the story. "The Mayfair Affair" continues from on from "Berkeley Square" and I’d had the story of the Rannoch governess, Laura Dudley, in mind for a long time. So much is still unraveling in the Rannochs’ lives with the secrets about Mélanie coming to the surface and the fight against the Elsinore League, that those developments really form the framework of "London Gambit," "Gilded Deceit," and "The Duke’s Gambit." Although one of the reasons I wanted them to go to Italy was to work Byron and Percy and Mary Shelley into the story, and I do have future books in mind that hinge on historical events.

I know you do extensive research for the books. What are the most difficult kinds of historical details to verify? (This is something I'm always curious about.)

Sometimes I get all hung up on a small detail like how a group would assemble to go into dinner or the order they’d get into a carriage. Or, even though one knows a gentleman stood when a lady stood, in an intimate family group does that mean the men would constantly be jumping up and down whenever the women moved about the room? It can also be really challenging at times to verify where less well known historical figures were in a given month of a given year - in the country, in London? I’m constantly learning new things - one of the things I love about the era, going to your question above. When I’m revising I always have a list of things to double-check/verify - and sometimes, I confess, I end up writing around things :-).

How far ahead do you know Malcolm and Suzanne's story? What's next after the new book?

It’s funny, I just started a Scrivener project for the series architecture so I can lay out things I know will happen and ultimately figure out which novel or novella they’ll occur in (I do a novel every May and a novella every November). A lot of questions are resolved in “The Duke’s Gambit" but it also leaves plenty of overarching questions and challenges for the characters and really sets up the next book. There are always new twists and turns that occur to me, which is one of the fun things about writing the series (I love that the characters can still surprise me), but there are quite a few upcoming developments I know. Including one that’s as much of a game-changer as the Rannochs being forced to leave Britain in "London Gambit"…

Finally, as an Anthea Malcolm fan, I wonder if these books will ever be available again?

Actually the first three, "The Widow’s Gambit," "The Courting of Philippa," and "Frivolous Pretence," are available a ebooks from NYLA (under Tracy Grant). We hope to get the others up as well. I love that readers are still discovering these books!

 
Thanks, Tracy, for taking the time to answer my questions. Tracy's website is www.tracygrant.org. Be sure to check it out for more information about the Fraser/Rannoch series and Tracy's other books! 

Comments

[Hank PhilLippi ryan]

This is so fascinating! And I love that era, my husband does too. He can get lost for many many days in the Napoleonic wars.

Oh Tracy, I know this is insiders, but changing the names of characters? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of that… And what a fascinating solution. How did your brain handle it?

And I can just picture you as a little girl, falling in love with the time. What a lovely story!

[Daniella Bernett]

Tracy,

This was a delightful interview. It provides wonderful insight into your rich and complex stories, and writing process.

[Tracy Grant]

So fun to be here! Hank, isn't it a fascinating era? Changing the names of the characters was hard at first, but I was thrilled to have a way to continue to write about them. For a while I'd write with their old names and then change them just before I submitted the book. Now the names are almost interchangeable to me. Though I made "Mélanie" Suzanne's real name, which she starts using when her spy identity is revealed, so now I get to call her Mélanie again, which I like.

[Tracy Grant]

Thanks so much, Daniella! I love talking about writing and plotting!

[Kristin Lundgren]

Very interesting! I read Anthea Malcolm! My mom and my sister read Heyer, so it was natural I'd read it, and then go on to assemble a huge collection of Regencies, including almost every anthology up to 2000 (and my divorce), and leaving the romance line for 17 years.

[Tracy Grant]

So great to hear you read the Anthea Malcolm books, Kristin!