Shelli Rosewarne

Hi all,

It’s Monday again – they do seem to come round quick! – but I have a cure for the Monday blues 🙂 The fab Michele Stegman is visiting to talk about her new release, The Shrew That Tames, as you may have guessed from the title, it’s a re-imagining of the Shakespeare play. I’m intrigued already, so will pass over to Michele to tell us more!

Yes, I love history. Even as a child I loved old things. I would ask my grandmother how old her things were and always hoped they would be older than me, older than she was, from another century. My mother and mother-in-law both bought antiques, some of which have now been passed on to me.

Old things seem to have character, a presence that I don’t find in new furniture or pictures or jewelry. My husband and I went on sabbatical once for a year. We lived in a rented apartment with borrowed furniture. After a while I began to miss having antiques around me. I packed up the kids, took them to an antique store and spent an hour just touching the old furniture and relics from the past. I went home feeling soothed.

So when I write historical fiction, I feel very comfortable “in the past.” It’s also why I prefer reading and writing historical fiction. Somehow, the characters and the settings seem so much richer to me than a contemporary story.

If I hadn’t felt this way all my life, I’d say I must be getting old! But there is still that love of modern technology I have. I’ve been a “Trekkie” since the first episode of Star Trek, and came out of the theater ready to conquer new worlds when I first saw Star Wars. I’ve read science fiction since my discovery of Andre Norton and The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet in grade school.

In The Shrew That Tames, I “modernized” Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew but still kept it in the past, setting it in the Regency period. And I twisted that old tale into a pretzel. I always thought Shakespeare’s poor Kate was misunderstood and abused. I certainly didn’t let that happen to my Katherine! I guess my love of the past doesn’t include a disregard of women’s hard earned rights!

Which do you prefer reading, historical romance, science fiction, or contemporary? Was there a book in your childhood that inspired your current reading preferences?

Blurb:

What’s an impoverished aristocrat to do when a beautiful heiress asks him to marry her?

Katherine is an heiress who uses her shrewish tongue to keep fortune hunters away. But what is it about Lord Ashfair that leaves her speechless?

Although in need of money, Peter Monroe, Marquis of Ashfair, has resolved to restore his ravaged estates on his own. How can he convince Katherine that he wants her, not her money?

Thanks for sharing Michele! I will read most types of romance, but I must admit I tend to go through stages – seem to be in a historical, and in particular regency, phase at the moment so this may be good timing! Will have to check it out 🙂

If you’d like also like to get your grubby mitts on The Shrew That Tames you can buy at the following places:

Breathless Press

Amazon

Amazon UK

All Romance Ebooks