Society Novel Spotlight
The Leopard Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt

The Leopard Prince the latest release from Elizabeth Hoyt is this month's Society Novel Spotlight.

Read the interview, answer the trivia question below and you could a copy of Elizabeth's novel The Leopard Prince and a prize pack consisting of bookmarks and coverflats from our Society Author's.

1. Welcome Elizabeth, can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started writing Historical Romance?

Well, I sleep with two dogs—the third is too big for the bed. That should tell more than you ever wanted to know about me. I also have two children who spend most of their time bickering and then running to tell me about it. And I have a husband who is an archaeologist. When we go on family car trips he gives a running commentary about the geological history of the places we drive through. Despite this, we are still happily married.

I got started writing historical romance when my youngest entered kindergarten. I was a stay at home mom and I was getting pressure (mostly from my mother!) to get a "real" job--ie: one that made money. The problem with “real” jobs, of course, is that they involve things like going back to school, bosses, and clocking in and out. In comparison, sitting at a coffee shop and making things up on a computer sounded pretty fun. I was thirty-five and I figured, what the heck, if I’m going to write there’s never going to be a better time. So I gave myself permission to take five years for myself. If, after five years, I hadn’t sold anything, well, then it’d be time to start looking for a business suit. As it turns out I didn’t quite make my goal . . . I sold a week after my fortieth birthday.

2. Your second novel The Leopard Prince is available now can you briefly tell us about it?

The Leopard Prince is about a mysterious land steward, Harry Pye, his aristocratic employer, Lady Georgina, and the forbidden love they’re both trying to fight.

3. While going through the editing process was there a scene that was taken out that you wish was still in the novel?

Nope.

4. When it comes to writing novels what comes first the plotline, characters, or setting of the novel?

Definitely the characters. I think my books are all about the characters. I usually discover the hero first—what makes him tick, what he wants out of life, his fears and worries, and his little habits and quirks—and then the heroine comes to me, and after that I figure out the plot.

5. What type of challenges do your heroine and hero face in this novel separately or together as a couple?

Georgina and Harry are from different classes so that’s the main struggle in the book—can they make a life together? Harry is almost contemptuous of aristocrats of the beginning of the book—he’s had some terrible dealings with them in the past—and Georgina isn’t quite sure how to handle Harry.

6. What is your favourite scene in this novel that stayed with you long after writing it?

There’s a very short post-lovemaking scene that was almost an afterthought. I put it in because my agent wanted a bit more dialogue between Georgina and Harry (I always worry that I have too much dialogue and she’s always telling me to put more in.) Anyway, Harry’s all ready for sleep but Georgina wants to talk and I think the scene turned out very well. Harry ends up telling Georgina about what he feels for the land and I think she (and the reader) get a better understanding of what makes him tick.

7. While writing do you have any rituals of sorts that you always follow? (ie: candles)

Does coffee count as a ritual? ;-) Usually I write in coffee shops, but if I’m at home I like to listen to the same CD over and over again until it drives my family up the wall. It’s something about hearing particular music (Dido, Cold Play, Nora Jones) that gets me into writing mode.

8. What are some of your favourite authors? Favourite books? Would some of these authors be source of inspiration for you when it comes to your own writing career?

Favourite authors include Julia Quinn, Amanda Quick, Stephanie Laurens, Christina Dodd, Connie Brockway, and Lisa Kleypas. I think they’ve all inspired my writing in different ways.

9. The Leopard Prince is the second novel in The Princes Trilogy, can you tell us briefly about the first The Raven Prince and about your upcoming novel The Serpent Prince available September 2007.

The Raven Prince is about Edward de Raaf, the Earl of Swartingham, who has such a terrible temper that he’s scared away all his secretaries. He instructs his steward to hire him a new secretary pronto and the steward comes back with a lady secretary, the widowed Anna Wren, who isn’t about to stand for any of Edward’s nonsense.

The Serpent Prince is about Simon Iddesleigh, who is a bit of an elegant rake and who is also secretly revenging himself on his brother’s murderers. Simon gets himself beaten, stripped, and left for dead and is found by a country miss, Lucy Craddock Hayes, who has the disconcerting habit of seeing right through Simon’s blather.