The Author Interview featuring Riana Everly

Welcome to the Author Interview. This time, it features the lovely Riana Everly, author of The Assistant.

If you’re an author who’d like to take part in the series, email me: debbie@myrandommusings.co.uk

Now over to Riana:

1 Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself

I was born in South Africa, but I’ve called Canada home since I was eight years old. I grew up in Edmonton in the western prairies, and lived in Montreal for a while as a music student.

My degrees are in music history and Medieval Studies, but most of the reading and playing I do involve books and music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, so it makes sense that I have fallen in love with the Regency period. I still play music, sometimes professionally but mostly for fun. And I read voraciously!

Now I live in Toronto with my family. When I’m not writing, I can often be found playing string quartets with friends, biking around the beautiful province of Ontario with my husband, trying to improve my photography, thinking about what to make for dinner, and, of course, reading!

2 Tell us a little bit about your books

I mostly write historical romance, and even the few contemporary books I’ve written (but not yet published) have a historical angle to them. As I mentioned, I love the Regency period in early nineteenth-century England, and many of my books take place during this time.

I also love the works of Jane Austen, and became intrigued by the wealth of Austenesque literature out there, and have decided to add to that genre.

As well, over the last few years I have started exploring some gems in Canadian history, both local and more distant.  My husband’s family has been in this part of the country since the 1780s, and regional and family history are often one and the same. There is even a family ghost who haunts a popular inn nearby, and who has a starring role in one as-yet unpublished novel.  So it should be no surprise that I love dropping bits and pieces Canadian into my stories.

The Assistant, a prequel to Pride and Prejudice, takes place partly in Nova Scotia in 1800, and touches lightly upon life in the colony in the tension-fraught years between the American Revolution and the War of 1812.

Teaching Eliza is not influenced by Canadian history, but by another love of mine, which is live theatre. It is a mash-up, if you will, of Pride and Prejudice and G.B. Shaw’s brilliant play Pygmalion. Teaching Eliza was named as one of Savvy Verse & Wit’s Favourite Books for 2017.

3 Where do you find your inspiration for your books?

As always, Jane Austen’s novels are a great source of inspiration, but that is only the start. I never know what might spark an idea – a story in the news that makes me think, “What if….” A song, an opera, a line in another story I’m reading, even a story from the newspaper…  Sometimes the switch goes on and I have to jot down my ideas right away!

4 What, for you, is the best thing about being a writer?

I love letting my imagination have free rein. It’s almost a game, seeing what happens if I set this plot device in motion, and watching as my characters react and determine the course of the story.

I have also discovered a whole community of amazing authors, whose support and friendship and encouragement has been beyond amazing. I had no idea that such people existed before I began writing, and becoming part of this community is a perk I’d never have imagined. But most of all, I love knowing that something I’ve done, something I’ve written, has made some people smile. I can’t change the world, and I certainly can’t fix it, but if my stories bring a smile to someone’s lips, I feel like I’ve done something right.

5 And the worst?

The self-doubt! With every book, every word, comes this sense of “it’s not good enough. No one will like it. My characters won’t appeal, my story will turn them off and fall flat, it’s no good.” That can be hard to push through, and it’s always a surprise when people end up loving the stories.

6 If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

The ability to eat endless amounts of chocolate and not gain weight would be nice.

7 Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to write their first book?

Just write. Do it. Make it the very best you can, and don’t stop writing. The best way not to write a book is to put the (metaphorical) pen down.

8 Tell us one random fact about you

I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 12, but now I do long-distance rides whenever I can. The longest ride I’ve done in a single day is 144km.

9 Who is your favourite author?

This is like asking a parent which is her favourite child. Um… all of them?  Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Ngaio Marsh, Isaac Asimov, A.S. Byatt… and that’s not getting into the playwrights like Shakespeare, Sheridan, Shaw, Wilde… there too many brilliant writers out there to choose.

10 And your favourite book(s)?

Another impossible question. I adore The Secret Garden, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, pretty much any Inspector Alleyn mystery, and of course, all of Jane Austen’s novels. Of those, Persuasion is probably my favourite but each has its own delights and charm.

11 What book are you reading right now?

Right now I’m taking a break from historical literature and reading P.D. James’ The Black Tower.  Her stories often leave me feeling unsettled, but her writing is fabulous.

12 Where is your favourite place to write?

I do almost all of my writing at my computer desk in the back room of my house. The window opens onto my overgrown garden and the lush mess of foliage from trees that probably should be trimmed but that I won’t touch. There’s a little shed out there, which hosts cats and squirrels and the occasional raccoon, and I love watching them play as I write. I don’t have a laptop, so if I want to write on a full-size keyboard and not on my teeny-tiny tablet, this is where it happens.

13 Do you prefer to write in silence or do you have a writing soundtrack?

Silence. If music is playing, I always stop to listen to it.

14 What can we expect from you next?

I’m polishing up my third novel to be published. This is also a Pride and Prejudice-inspired story, featuring a character on the autism spectrum. The provisional title is Through a Different Lens, and I’m hoping to have it released by the end of the year.

I am also editing a mystery featuring Mary Bennet as the unwitting sleuth in what I plan to be a six-book series. My plan is to complete #2 for this year’s NaNoWriMo project and publish the first one early next year.

15 Anything else you’d like to share with us?

I’m a bit of a theatre geek, although I don’t act even a little bit. We are lucky to live near not one, but two world-class summer theatre festivals and we take full advantage every year.  Sometimes snippets of what we see sneak into my subconscious and reappear on the page of whatever I’m writing at the moment. It’s a grand example of artistic synergy!

16 Where can we find you? (Links to your Amazon page and social media)

My Amazon author page, Facebook, and my blog.

Come and say hello! I’d love to meet you all.