Sarah MacLean. 2x RITA Award Winner, New York Times & USA Today Bestseller, and my literary hero!! I first discovered Sarah about 10 years ago and was instantly a fan (own every book she’s written lol). The reason I was hooked because Sarah has her heroines- smart, bold, fearless and uniquely themselves and they get the guy! This unique blend of standing out in the crowd and getting your happily-ever-after seemed far reaching, especially in the ever present conformity era, but Sarah brings to life that being happily and uniquely yourself is the truest happily ever after. Enjoy my uber fan girl interview!! 

Hi Adylia!…Oh my gosh hi Sarah! It is so nice to talk to you, you are literally my favorite author! I am rereading the final ‘Bareknuckle Bastard’.  Oh thank you for reading. Yes, I have read every book of yours. The first was the ‘The Nine Rules to Romancing a Rake’. I was obsessed with your books, and my bookcase is like a mini library of your books. Oh, well thank you. Are you reading by yourself, or are you going to do Summer Sarah MacLean on Instagram?  What!?!...No, I did not know it was going on…what? I have no personal social media. Well, I love you, and your writing – so let me just jump in, I just had to fangirl for a moment.  Oh, well thank you!

How would you introduce yourself to people who are unaware of you

Oh…well I am Sarah MacLean, I write romance novels and I read romance novels. That is how I introduce myself on my Podcast as well.

When you were growing up what authors did you look up to

Oh, I started reading romance when I was really young, about ten or eleven years old. So, it was almost entirely romance writers. People like Judith McNaught, and Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, Beverly Jenkins, and Julie Garwood. That is probably the five, if there was a book out by them I read it.

Why did you start so young (reading romance), most think romance novels (skills) as a joke; but it’s such advanced writing skills in these novels. Is that why you gravitated to them at such a young age (the complexity of them)

Simply, I came to romance reading because of my sister, who is ten years older than me, and she was a romance reader. I was just a reader, period. If there was a book in the house, I wanted to read it. We shared a room, and she was hiding the books from my parents, under her bed. So, when she went to college, I found all her books in boxes under her bed. I still remember my first romance, by Jude Deveraux,  ‘The Black Lyon’ a book of its time. I would not necessarily suggest someone to begin there with romance. After that I immediately fell in love with the genre. I was in middle school and I was just an awkward kid.  I had a small group of friends, I was overweight, and uncomfortable with myself. So, romance novels were a place to find triumph for women, and people like me. So, for me happily ever after has always had to do with hope. When I was in middle school hope was…thin on the ground (let’s just say). Oh, I know, school can have lasting memories, some not so positive. Sure, and now that I am forty years old, I can look back at that time and realize everybody feels awkward and uncomfortable; and that is a part of the DNA of middle school. Yet, we all feel so alone. Although books, and romance novels made me feel not alone.

Did you always know the genre of writing you would write about, if you had a second choice of genre what would it be

I think I would probably write thrillers. I would definitely write something that was genre based. Also, I would write something that had clear goals, because the joy for me is writing within a rule structure. So I’m thinking that’s where I would go – thrillers, or mysteries.

I read mystery novels for fun, and what is so cool about it is that it has a similar structure of a romance. In that the end is always the same. We will find out who did it, because if we did not it would not be a very rewarding mystery.

What is amazing to me is how that in hands of brilliant authors, is that both romance and mystery…Coexist. Yes! Also, that these authors are able to write different books every time. I think that’s what most people don’t understand about genre fiction in general. They are all the same, but the trick is making them all completely different. Yes, and unique. Have you read the ‘In Death Series’ by Nora Roberts. Oh yes, of course. That made me think of the duality between romance and mystery, because she writes in mystery, and low key futuristic. As well she also has notes of the romance.

As you are known for your romance novels, what do you think makes a fantastic romantic gesture

Well, that is kind of personal (romantic gestures)…right? Oh, you know it is funny when I was younger, I use to think, and in my books too, that grand gestures are so important. I think about Haven climbing that wall in Parliament, and giving Seraphina that divorce, that is such an iconic moment. Yet, in real life I feel like the grandest gestures are the quiet ones. I feel like when someone notices you are having a rough day and buys you flowers; cleans the kitchen; or does small things that is incredibly special - It makes you feel seen. I do feel why romantic gestures are so big in romance novels is because of love. 

This is weirdly personal – but the other day my husband walked into my office with a box and said, ‘I noticed your mouse was being weird, so I bought you a new one’. I was like my mouse was acting weird. I do get that someone would not think that gift as a romantic gift. But yes, it is at the same time, because he noticed. Yes, he noticed my mouse was being weird, and knowing I would not take time to get another one. That kind of lifting is light lifting, but its such heavy lifting in a relationship, just to see someone else.

In all your novels all of your characters are multi-dimensional, bold, different, and fearless, how do you balance them and keep them interesting

Well, that’s such a nice thing to say. I think it’s real easy for me to create heroines because I am surrounded by real remarkable women. For me it is not complicated to create an interesting multi-dimensional nuanced heroine. Because women are interesting, multi-dimensional, and nuanced in the world. With creating heroes, it goes back to what I was saying before about romantic gestures. It is about building someone to see that heroine for who she is, and for her strengths, flaws, her beauty, and for her power all at once. So, for me the creation of everything starts with the creation of the heroine, because for me she is the center of the story.

What type of relationship best inspires your writing

Yes, my relationships to other books also inspires me. I think romance novels are iterative on the world, and on each other. When I read romance novels by magnificent writers – ‘Queen Move’ by Kennedy Ryan; ‘Like lovers Do’ by Tracey Livesay; and ‘The Virgin and the Rogue’ by Sophie Jordan. I am compelled as a writer to tell a story that competes. Like Kresley Cole who is one of the best; so, when I read their books I am inspired to write better. To meet the standard that they are setting. As the genre broadens and becomes more rich, my work gets better by the virtue of the great other texts in the genre.

Please describe what your Podcast ‘Fated Mates’ is about

Yes, we just started Season 3, which is mind blowing. Jan Krakow, who is a romance critic, we met on Twitter several years ago. We talked about how much we adored Kresley Cole’s ‘Immortals After Dark Series’. I was reading it for the third or fourth time, Krakow had done the same, and I was tweeting about it. We cannot remember who suggested it first, but we said we should do a Podcast, a read along Podcast. Our intention was to have 18 episodes, and when we started talking about romance, we knew we were not going to stop. 

So the first season is a deep dive read along, of Kresley Cole’s ‘Immortal After Dark Series’. We do interviews with brilliant authors that do interesting things in their books. In Season 2 we went back to the beginning of our lives as romance readers, and books that taught us how powerful romance novels could be in ones lives. 

This season we are doing modern romance, and the first read is ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. The Podcast is every Wednesday. This season should be real fun with great interviews. We will really see how books evolve, and how the whole genre evolves.

How did you come up with ‘Bareknuckle Bastards’, and why do you save Grace’s story for last

I knew that Grace would be the last book for a while. She was always the most important character in the book for me.  If you go back to ‘Wicked in the Wallflower’, and you read the Prologue its told as a fairytale. At the end I introduce Grace, by saying something like…’ her story is for another time’. This story must end with Grace because she is the girl who had her life stolen for all these boys. It is not a secret I spend a lot of time thinking about how the world treats women. When I say women, I mean women of color – all women…trans women, and queer women. 

For me, Grace’s story was a lot about me working through my own concerns and anxiety about the world right now, and this is how romance works. I wanted to tell this story of how women can triumph with a partner by their side, not all men are the worse. There are men who understand and are willing to be good allies. This book is about allyship. Grace is the queen. Adylia, you are a romance reader, so you know historically there is always the big Duke that comes last in the series.  I love that set-up in a series as a writer, and a reader; in this case Grace is literally the Duke, and her story has to come last. Yes, because if not, no one would have cared about Devil.  Yes, the movement from Devil, to Wit and essentially to Grace that are the Bastards; it’s very much like leveling up on society. Devil’s conflict is very tactile, he is mad, he wants revenge. Wit is trying to reckon with his own life, Grace and Wit are really reckoning with the world. 

In Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (my favorite), why did you make Lady Calpurnia Hartwell so bold? From fencing to smoking. I fell in love with this one because I was a former fencer. 

So when I read this I was like yes someone that gets it (fencing). I do not care what century you are in, it has never been a real crowd pleaser for a girl to be a fencer…. That is so cool. I wish I could say it was thought out and intentional, but it was my first book. Nine Rules was where I sat down and wrote all the things, I love about romance novels. The hero is the twin, and heroine is Callie. She makes list of all the cool things she wants to do. It is her way of pushing against what the world wants her to be. I wrote that character over and over, it is a character I can never escape. For me building Callie like that was me tapping into my own insecurities, desires, and my own way of being in the world. 

I wrote it in my twenties, this was my way of working through things. I was trying to figure out who I was, and so was Callie – we were doing it together.

How do you pamper yourself, get relaxed and recharge

That is weird in 2020, I don’t (relax and recharge) …I feel like a ball of anxiety. I know that it is about filling the well between books; I try to fill the well, to think outside of my book world. I try to read three to four other romance novels a week, so that is a part of it. Making sure that I do not get bogged down in the work of writing.

Perfect, thank you.