Author Annie R McEwen Writes Travel Inspired Historical Romance

Historical Romance author Annie R McEwen draws her inspiration from travel and books. Learn more about her and her new release in today’s interview.

Welcome, Annie R McEwen,

What do you do when you’re not writing?

Travel is my auxiliary career. I call it that since every place I go, every person I meet, and every incident along the road finds its way into one or more of my books. When I was young, my parents were great travelers, and so I guess I got the wanderlust from them. Don’t get the idea they were jet setters! But they explored most of the U.S. and several European destinations, and how lucky was I they usually took me along? I’ve supported my “traveler gene” all my adult life, and—as I do this interview—am planning my next trip: spring and summer in the U.K.

What interesting jobs have you had?

I’m not sure I’ve ever had an uninteresting job, though a couple were interestingly horrid, ha-ha. But I’ve had what I call serial careers, and they’ve given me a broad view of life. I was in the theatre for 25 years as a dancer/actor/singer, including 17 years at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and three years with touring shows for Department of Defense. I hold two degrees in History and was a classroom teacher in college and university settings, as well as working in three museums and serving as the executive director of Florida’s oldest history organization. I directed a juvenile theatre arts company for almost three decades and, believe it or not, was simultaneously the owner of a chain of tattoo studios. Oh, and I was a vintage goods dealer for years!

Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in way, either growing up or as an adult?

I was a horse-crazy kid and discovered National Velvet by Enid Bagnold when I was twelve. I read it four times—in a row! Yup, I’d get to The End and go right back to Page One. Somewhere in the reading, I decided I wasn’t only crazy for horses, I was crazy for all things British. (My mother was startled to discover, by the time I’d read the novel twice, that her Florida-born daughter had somehow acquired a South-of-England accent; the book’s setting is a small village in Sussex.)

The rich local detail in that book turned on two switches in me. The first lighted my way to a career in history. The second showed me that when I someday became an author—which at twelve I already wanted to be—I would write historical fiction, full of the tiny and memorable details that made National Velvet such a rich, immersive experience.

Can you tell us about any other upcoming book, series, or writing plans?

I can! I’m enormously excited about a series that launches in January 2025 from my U.K. publisher, Bloodhound Books. It’s called The Corset Girls and is historical romantic suspense. Not the usual silken gowns and heated ballroom encounters, The Corset Girls follows the lives and loves of four working class women who sew bespoke corsets in a Mayfair salon in the early 1890s. Their lives are embedded in the events of the day—London fogs, Women’s Suffrage, labor unrest, new technologies like automobiles and electrical lighting—and the men they encounter are more likely to be from crime-ridden slums than Belgravia mansions. The first book of the four-book series, Unlaced, will be available in pre-orders at the start of December. Look for it!

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

I’ll answer that about The Chelsea Milliner, since that’s the book I’m spotlighting today, and it’s easy: the desperate coach journey by the MMC, Hugh Fyne, from London to Bath. A high-speed trip in a carriage, on dangerous roads in the dead of winter, was the Regency Era equivalent of the wild car chase scene in a movie or book today.

The research was fascinating, since I not only had to determine the capabilities and limitations of period vehicles, but the two routes—the known one and the one the protagonist gets lost on. The effects of fatigue and freezing weather on men and horses, the threats of banditry and fallen trees and deep snow, the lack of signposts: compound those with Hugh’s panic as he thinks he may not reach his lady love in time… Well, I won’t give you the ending. You’ll have to read The Chelsea Milliner to find out what happens!

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All Paris-born Amelia de Maupassant ever wanted was to make hats. But overnight her dream’s gone up in smoke, along with her London millinery shop. When witty and handsome Hugh Fyne comes to her rescue, Amelia has doubts. Is he there to save her or seduce her?

Hugh’s heart leaps to its own conclusions. He must have Amelia, and he will, if she doesn’t discover his shocking secret.

Betrayal and horror in Revolutionary France haunt Amelia. Memories of war and a father’s villainy ravage Hugh. A woman sick of lies. A man lying for love. Will the truth destroy them? Or release them from their pasts to make a future together?

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Available

Pre-order links for The Chelsea Milliner, Annie’s Regency Romance holiday e-novella, launching December 30, 2024: www.wildrosepress.com/sales/  oOn Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK3WXXCW or on your favorite sales platform.

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Learn more about Annie R McEwen

https://facebook.com/Quillist

https://www.instagram.com/anniermcewen

https://www.youtube.com/@AnnieRMcEwen

https://www.tiktok.com/@anniermcewen

https://www.amazon.com/author/anniewritin

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22379947.Annie_R_McEwen

https://linktr.ee/mcewenannier

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Annie R McEwen would love to hear from you. Please post your questions and comments below.

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