Welcome, Kate Pearce!

Antonia’s Bargain

by Kate Pearce

Ellora’s Cave—Available Jan 10th, 2007

Since the suicide of his first wife, Lord Gideon Harcourt has avoided sexual encounters with women in favor of less emotionally draining liaisons with men. When he unmasks ‘Anthony’ Maxwell and finds he is, in fact, Antonia, he is still sexually intrigued enough to want to bed her.

A reluctant heiress, Antonia knows she has to marry but she intends to do it on her own terms--her wealth in return for a husband-free bed. Gideon offers to help her infiltrate the world of the ton dressed as a man so she can see her potential suitors in their natural habitat. In return, she agrees to allow him to teach her every trick in his sexual repertoire as long as he doesn’t take her virginity.

Her fear of marriage and pregnancy is a puzzling barrier that Gideon, despite his exceptional skills, finds difficult to penetrate. As they become more scandalously intimate, he has to decide whether to help Antonia face her fears or walk away from the only woman he believes he could ever love.

Antonia’s Bargain is set in the Regency period. How did you become interested in this time period? What you love about it?

-I’ve always loved this time period. I think that’s Jane Austen’s fault. I read all her books in my teens and all Georgette Heyer’s and I was hooked!

For me, the fashions, the character of the Prince Regent, the darkness of the political situation and the war with France make a fascinating if uneasy time period to study.

What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn’t get out of your head?

-I wrote a short book for Ellora’s Cave called “Eden’s Pleasure” (Nov 05) which had identical twin brothers in it. I always intended to write about the second, older, darker twin. It was a struggle to stop him taking over the first book and a lot of readers and reviewers seemed more worried about what would happen to him than about the happy ending of the main couple!

Did you have to do any major research for his book? Did you stumble across anything really intersting that you didn’t already know?

-I’m fairly familiar with the Regency period, but I did do some research about the different types of gaming establishments so that I could include them in the book. I’m also lucky enough to belong to the RWA Beau Monde chapter who are wonderful if you need to know something quickly.

What do you like least about this period? Anything that constrained you or that you had to plot carefully around?

-I try very hard to be historically accurate to the period. I’m english and I have a degree in history so I take my research fairly seriously! I don’t let my heroine’s run around unchaperoned in Society, I don’t try and impose modern ideas back onto them. One of the best reviews I had said that my heroine was a woman who understood the constraints of her time all too well and yet still found ways to be a strong independent woman. That’s very gratifying.

What do you like to read?

-I’m a voracious reader and will read anything if I have to. Obviously, I read historical romance and straight historicals. I also love paranormal and futuristic novels, especially Laurell K Hamilton and Catherine Asaro. I also like to pop across to literary fiction and particularly love Ian McEwan.

Care to share a bit about your writing process? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you write multiple drafts or clean up as you go?

-I’m a true pantster. It’s a lot harder for me now because I’m able to sell on proposal and that means I have to know where the story is going and, quite frankly, I don’t. My synopsis tends to run out of steam about a third of the way in!

I write quite quickly and quite cleanly, chapter by chapter. I normally write 2/3 drafts of each chapter and then pass it to my cp’s. When they’ve finished ‘correcting’ it, I rewrite and put it away until I have a complete novel. I write for about 2 hours a day and work on 3 different manuscripts at the same time.

What are you planning to work on next?

-I write for three different publishers in three different romance sub-genres. At the moment, I’m committed to write a futuristic erotic romance for Ellora’s Cave, a contemporary erotic romance for Virgin Cheek and two Regency-set erotic romances for Kensington Aphrodisia.