My guest today lives in a place that is filled with history and romantic, so perfect for the author of historical romance. Please help me welcome Catherine Tinley! Let’s take a look at her bio and then find out more about her.
Catherine Tinley is an award winning author of historical romance. She writes witty, heartwarming Regency love stories for Harlequin Mills & Boon. She has loved reading and writing since childhood, and has a particular fondness for love, romance, and happy endings. After a career encompassing speech & language therapy, Sure Start, maternity campaigning and being President of a charity, she now manages a maternity hospital. She lives in Ireland with her husband, children, cats, and dog.
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Betty: When did you become a writer?
Catherine: I’ve been writing for many years – writing for work, and writing for my own enjoyment. I first became an author in 2017, when Waltzing with the Earl was published.
Betty: How long did you work on your writing skills before you became published?
Catherine: All my life, I suppose. It may look as though I had overnight success – Waltzing with the Earl was the first project I’d ever submitted to publishers. Not only did it get me my first ever publishing contract, it also won the prestigious RitaTM Award in the USA. In reality, I’d been building and honing my writing skills for years.
Betty: What authors or stories do you feel influenced your writing style?
Catherine: Georgette Heyer is my all-time favourite author, and my first book was borne out of the frustration that I’d read all of her Regencies and Georgians too many times.
Betty: What prompted you to start writing?
Catherine: An idea. That’s often the case, I think. I’d been watching the BBC Pride & Prejudice (yes, the Colin Firth version) and I wondered what might happen if a woman lost her place/ financial standing after she and a man were on the way to falling in love. Since then I’ve published seven books, with the eighth, Captivating the Cynical Earl, set for release in July.
Betty: What do you most enjoy writing? Why?
Catherine: I write women’s stories. I write about strong women who face challenges, and overcome them, and find partners who are worthy of them. Although my books are set around 200 years ago, the themes are recognizable as issues affecting women and girls today. I like writing gentle, family-based stories, exploring relationships, and occasionally throwing people into unusual situations to see how they’ll cope. My recent book, Rags-to-Riches Wife, tells the story of a serving-maid, Jane, who is invited to stay with wealthy relatives. Readers seemed to really enjoy the fish-out-of-water and Cinderella tropes, and that book has recently won the RoNA award from the Romantic Novelists Association, which is wonderful!
Betty: How did you learn to write? A mentor, classes, conferences, craft books, or something else?
Catherine: None of the above :D. I just wrote, and read, then repeated that ad infinitum. I now use craft books and find them really helpful, but I rarely attend classes. Everyone walks their own path, and that has been mine.
Betty: What inspired you to write the book you’re sharing with us today? Lady Cecily Thornhill appeared as a secondary character in two of my other books, and I thought it was about time she moved centre-stage for her own story to be told. I’ve matched her with Jack Beresford, Earl of Hawkenden, and given her only a month to melt his cold heart.
The cool, aloof earl
And the enchanting lady
For Jack Beresford, Earl of Hawkenden, emotional entanglements are the path to pain. But when his brother brings his new wife and her best friend to his country home, everything changes. Lady Cecily Thornhill is both vibrant and beautiful, and Jack finds himself increasingly captivated by her sunny nature. Yet he must resist her charms, for in a month she’ll be gone—unless his frozen heart thaws before then…
Excerpt:
There was a sudden murmur of female interest, drawing Cecily out of her thoughts. At the same time she heard Nell gasp beside her. All eyes were drawn to the door, where a new arrival had just been announced.
He stood just inside the room, a head taller than almost everyone there. His figure was strong, lean and imposing, his face starkly handsome. Or at least it would be, Cecily thought, if there had been any kindness in it. He wore the full evening dress required for events such as these, but had chosen a black jacket, giving him a faintly sinister air. It was moulded to his form, drawing the eye to the breadth of his shoulders, the narrowing of his back, the smoothness of his hips.
I’ll wager he needed two valets to get into that, thought Cecily dryly. And men accuse us women of vanity!
All around the room ladies were sitting up a little straighter, smiling a little more broadly, and chattering just a little more loudly than they had been. Cecily sighed. Sometimes she quite despaired of her sex.
Buy links: Available for pre-order now. Books2Read
Congrats on winning the RoNA award, Catherine! That’s fabulous! Thanks also for sharing your story with us.
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Betty
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