Stephanie Laurens

Readers really want to come back to an author; they do not want a one-book wonder. That is all very well, but to be career author, you have to be prepared to write one really good book and then write another really good book and keep feeding your readers. You build your audience over a long time.

What woman wouldn't want to be pursued in a flattering, non-physically threatening way by a gorgeous, fascinating, intelligent man? Being wanted, desired, being the focus of a man's aspirations, his goal, his grail - the one companion he must have to live contentedly - is one of the most universal and fundamental of female wishes.

You do not know, and the readers cannot tell you, what they might like until they have it. It is one of those things that particularly if you want to be the next wave, well the next wave is not already on the bestseller lists. The next wave is in somebody's head.

In my works, the geography map-wise is accurate - roads are where I say they are, and go from this town to the next as I say they do, and yes, it would take a curricle that long to travel that distance.

Most books set in England between 1800 and 1840 have a 'Regency' feel. The reason that era is so useful for romance authors stems from the wide-ranging social changes that were occurring over that time, and the parallels, or echoes, those create with our time and the lives of our readers.

Real people are never central characters in my works.

I usually sit down at 8 A.M. and work through to 7 P.M., with breaks that total no more than an hour and a half.

I truly believe that as a novelist, you cannot adequately describe the weather in England - the light, the dampness, the bitterness, the summer softness, and so on - without having experienced it.