An interview with…

… Mills and Boon author Rachael Thomas.  Hello Rachael and thank you so much for agreeing to be cross-examined by me today.  I know your time is very precious so…

AW  What is your current release?

RT  ‘To Blackmail A Di Sione’ published by Harlequin Mills and Boon and I’m really excited about this book, as it is book three in The Billionaire’s Legacy.

AW   Congratulations on the book!  What first got you into writing and why?

RT   I was about eight when I first thought I want to be a writer after being told a short story I’d written at school was really good.  It was fifteen years ago, when my children were small, that I thought it’s time to chase that dream.

AW  You write Romance.  Is it all imagination or do you also undertake research?

Author on location!

RT   For the kind of character driven stories I write, I believe research is around me all the time.  I delve into the human emotions, happy or sad, and use them to bring my characters to life.

I do, though, enjoy the opportunity for a bit of setting research.  I have either set stories in places I’ve visited or even in the case of ‘To Blackmail a Di Sione’, made that trip after having written it.  In this book, a scene takes place at The Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, New York.  I had researched this setting online, but was thrilled to be there for real.

AW  And what about other types of writing?  Have you ever dabbled with short stories, for instance, or other genres?

RT   When I began seriously writing fifteen years ago, I was trying for the short story market, but my lifelong love of Mills and Boon books meant that focusing my attention there was inevitable.

AW  Famous authors, such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas, had a special space for writing.  Do you have a writing ‘shed’ of your own?

Rachael's writing room

RT   I do have my own special place, but it’s not a shed.  It was once, the dining room but is better known by my family as the writing room now.  In it I have all I could need to immerse myself in my writing – except a supply of coffee from the kitchen!

AW   Hmm, I know what you mean about the coffee but that’s a lovely room.  And finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead or a character from a book.  Who would it be, and what would you want to discuss?

RT   I have just finished reading ‘Sleeper’s Castle’ by Barbara Erskine and, being fascinated by history and living in Wales, I’d love to go back to the early 1400’s and spend an afternoon with Catrin.  Although she is fictional, I would love to be able to find out all about what it was like then, when Owain Glydwyr was revolting against the English King in a bid to be proclaimed The Prince of Wales.

AW  How very interesting!  Thank you Rachael and if you want to know more…

Rachael's latest release

…about the author  Rachael lives in Wales, where she and her husband run a farm.  Writing romance has been a long held dream and she can't believe how lucky she is to be ale to escape into the glamorous world of her heroes and heroines as part of her job.  When she isn't writing or working on the farm, she enoys photography and visiting historic castles and grand houses.

You can find her books at : To Blackmail a di Sione  Mills and Boon

Visit her at : www.rachaelthomas.co.uk