I am delighted to welcome Ann Finnin to my blog. Ann is a member of the Los Angeles chapter of RWA and writes romantic suspense as Anne Roebuck. I bought her novel, The Dear Departed, read it in two days and loved it. (Was not fond of the cover, but the book?!)
The book reminded me of Amanda Quick at her best and I love Amanda Quick. The characters, plot, and setting captured me from the first moment and deposited me regretful at the last page, wishing it hadn’t ended. A late Victorian romp with a lovely intelligent widow and a handsome mysterious magician with a secret. Together they work to uncover a diabolical mastermind whose is helping love starved widows to their deaths.
Ann, please tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a long time student of the strange and arcane, of bygone eras that have become less history and more myth, when the rules about what was real and what wasn’t was less cut and dried as it seems to be now. I have always kept my interaction with so-called ordinary reality at an absolute minimum while participating in a variety of esoteric and magical organizations, historical reenactment societies, and other ‘weird’ groups. Fortunately, the gods sent me a husband who shared my interests, and he and I have traveled hand in hand for over forty years through a number of very odd places that most people would swear don’t exist.
We now live quietly in a 1930s cabin in the mountains behind Los Angeles with a lovable mutt named Rufus. I still work writing user guides for a medical software company. I hope to retire this year and devote all my time to writing novels.
I love firsts, so tell me about the moment when a publisher told you they wanted to publish your book.
Utter panic.
I had spent nearly thirty years sending books out to publishers and having them rejected. Being rejected had become a habit. It wasn’t particularly fun, but it was comfortable and familiar.
Then, in 2010, an editor at Flux emailed me an acceptance letter for my YA Fantasy. I honestly didn’t believe it. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to get a rejection, dammit. NOW, what was I supposed to do? And what was this revision letter thing all about? I had never gotten one of THOSE before. I didn’t know how to write on a deadline. At the time, I had a full-time job with a two-hour commute, a house, and a husband to take care of. I usually had an hour to write on my lunch hour and maybe a couple of hours over the weekend. Would that be enough? What if I couldn’t make the changes he wanted? Would he just end up rejecting the book in the end? What happened to that book? I would love to know. I am assuming you used a different pen name?
My YA Fantasy was published by Flux in 2010 under the name Ann Finnin. It was called The Sorcerer of Sainte Felice and it's about a young wannabe magician in the year 1480 who is about to be burnt at the stake for sorcery. He is rescued by the abbot of a Benedictine monastery that turns out to be a haven for other renegade wizards, sorcerers, alchemists, and astrologers.
If you have a copy, I would love to read it.
My YA Fantasy was published by Flux in 2010 under the name Ann Finnin. It was called The Sorcerer of Sainte Felice and it's about a young wannabe magician in the year 1480 who is about to be burnt at the stake for sorcery. He is rescued by the abbot of a Benedictine monastery that turns out to be a haven for other renegade wizards, sorcerers, alchemists, and astrologers.
If you have a copy, I would love to read it.
Any advice for new writers just starting out?
Keep writing what you love. Believe in your visions and continue to hone your skills. If your books don’t sell today, they might sell tomorrow or next year or next decade. That’s the thing about novels. They don’t go bad sitting on your hard drive. My YA fantasy was first written in 1975 (with a major rewrite in 1991). It didn’t sell until 2009. I pitched it as a ‘medieval Harry Potter’ and it sold on the first try.
So, never give up. Never stop writing. Keep believing in yourself. Easier said than done, I know, but it’s been true for me.
Tell us about The Dear Departed
My latest book is a paranormal historical romance called The Dear Departed. In this story, a young widow and a mysterious magician battle a psychic killer in Victorian era San Francisco.
The heroine, Virginia Paley, has no interest in attending the séances at The Society for Eternal Love, but the women of the society are dying mysteriously in their sleep, leaving their fortunes to Professor Arthur Chadwick, its charismatic medium. As her aunt might very well become the next victim, Virginia must join forces with the darkly mysterious Jonathan Bradshaw, a man who isn’t the grieving widower he appears to be.
From the moment he spies Virginia, Jonathan is smitten. But romance is impossible. Mrs. Paley is a respectable woman, and he himself is outside of society, an orphan, an ex-thief and a true wizard, able to hypnotize with a word and even separate his spirit from his body. No, he must instead remain focused on his goal, avenging his mentor’s death. But, facing a foe with power over demonic forces and Virginia’s very life in the balance, love might indeed be the only salvation.
What’s your current WIP?
My next book takes place in England in the year 1774. The Grand Master of the local Masonic Lodge, who secretly sponsored the American Revolution, has been found dead with his ritual sword thrust through his vitals. In order to discover who killed him and why, his daughter Julia must leave her sheltered virginal seclusion and descend into the bowels of the closest thing to eternal perdition in 18th century England – the limestone caves of the notorious Hellfire Club. Only there can she find the one man who not only holds the key to her father’s murder but has the power to unleash an unearthly sensuality within her – a man who wears a golden mask. I know about the Hellfire Club and I can't wait to read this one.
And finally, where can we find you?
The best place to find me is on my website: www.anneroebuck.com. There, you will find a link to my book, my bio, a blog with posts on a variety of arcane topics (including an entire series on Sex Magic) and an invitation to sign up for my newsletter with more esoteric goodies to come.
Thank you for being here, Ann. Dear ones, I really loved this book so I am giving away one Kindle copy. Please don't enter unless you are willing to review the book after you read it. We authors need reviews. If we don't have enough of them, book sales don't happen. Nowadays when I read a book and like it, I publish the review on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, and ever-popular BookBub. Rafflecopter below. Happy Reading.
