Author of the Month – Victoria Kincaid

 

Good Afternoon everyone,

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have created a new feature called author of the month where each month I give a shout out to a specific author for a particular reason. This month’s Author of the Month is Victoria Kincaid and she was actually the reason why I created this feature. I remember reading President Darcy and thinking how incredibly diversified her work is and how that deserved to be talked about, and that is how I came up with the idea of the Author of the Month post.

In my opinion, Victoria Kincaid deserves a place here because she is very versatile in her writing and we never know what to expect from her which can be very thrilling for those of us who are following her work.

I absolutely loved the first book I ever read from her, The Secrets of Darcy and Elizabeth, which is what we would call a regular what if story, but ever since writing that, Victoria Kincaid has presented us with a humorous book: Chaos Comes to Longbourn, seasonal books such as Christmas at Darcy House, a sequel:  A Very Darcy Christmas (another favourite of mine), a mash-up inspired novel: Darcy Vs. Bennet, a secondary character centered book: When Mary Met the Colonel (again my favourite of the genre), and a modernization such as President Darcy. The truth is, we never know what to expect next and I keep wondering what she will present us in her next release! The stakes are now getting very high because honestly I keep waiting for her to surprise us with yet another different approach to Pride and Prejudice.

I find her novels very easy and pleasant to read and that is the consistency she presents through all these different types of novels. No matter what sub genre she is writing, she makes it a page turner, I don’t even like modernizations and she made me love President Darcy! Victoria Kincaid has everything to be a bestseller in the genre, she is able to present varied books but always providing readers with an incredible need to keep reading. Her books have the perfect length, they are not too short nor too long, and they focus exactly on what readers want to read. It seems Victoria Kincaid is studying her audience and doing a great job at it! I dare say there isn’t anyone out there who hasn’t read and loved at least one of her books because she doesn’t write to a specific audience, she doesn’t specialise, she diversifies and tries something different each time, reaching therefore a wider range of audience. That is not an easy approach and Victoria Kincaid deserves my respect for going along this path.

Authors such as Victoria Kincaid keep the genre interesting and appealing to readers around the globe and for that I have to thank her, her contribution to the JAFF community is very valuable.

These are the books that made me choose Victoria Kincaid as author of the month:

 

My Review   Amazon.com

My Review  (coming soon)  Amazon.com

My Review   Amazon.com

My Review   Amazon.com

My Review   Amazon.com

My Review (coming soon)  Amazon.com

My Review   Amazon.com

My Review  Amazon.com

My Review (coming soon) Amazon.com

My Review (sorry, haven’t read this one yet)  Amazon.com

 

I know she is working on another novel and if I am not mistaken she will once more take our characters to France! But I will let her talk to you a little about that 🙂

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Hello Rita, and thank you for having me as Author of the Month!  What an honor!  In your post you mentioned the wide variety of my books: secondary characters, modern, Regency, set in different countries, humor, etc.  I hadn’t really thought about that before, but I guess I do vary the setting and focus of each book quite a bit.  Greater variety gives me greater enjoyment in the writing process.  Each book is a new challenge because it’s different than the ones I’ve written before.  That way the writing is always a process of discovery.  I’m never quite sure how I will resolve the plot, although each one of my books has ended with a wedding.

You also asked me how I got the idea for The Secrets of Darcy and Elizabeth, which is a particularly apt question since the book I’m in the process of writing now also takes our heroes to France during the war.  The seed for The Secrets of Darcy and Elizabeth sprouted when I learned that there had been a brief peace between England and France in 1803.  During that time, English tourists flocked to Paris—only to be endangered when hostilities resumed.  Suddenly hundreds of English citizens needed to flee France, and the French government was arresting any English men it could find.  I’d been reading Jane Austen Fan Fiction and thinking about writing a book of my own.  I thought the Peace of Amiens would be a great setting for Darcy and Elizabeth to encounter each other—and then be forced to escape France together.  Since that was my first JAFF book, I wasn’t at all sure how it would be received.  But it got a warm welcome from the JAFF community, and here I am—nine books later!

I don’t want to say too much about the plot of my work in progress, The Unforgettable Mr. Darcy, because it’s still in process.  But it starts with Darcy discovering that Elizabeth has been killed in a shipwreck off the coast of France.  Fortunately, she doesn’t stay dead. 😊  He goes to France and finds her alive, but without her memory.  They must evade capture and escape from France.  The new book required me to do a lot of research about the lives of everyday people in France during the Napoleonic Wars as well as about espionage between England and France.  I was surprised how little has been written about both subjects (at least in English), while there are tons of books devoted to military strategy, uniforms, canons, and naval battles.  But what I did find out was fascinating.  Toward the end of Napoleon’s reign, he was unpopular in many parts of France—having dragged them into endless wars that drained the country’s wealth and killed its youth.  The espionage activities were also quite different from what expected.  I didn’t know where the plot would take me, but I also ended up doing research on the Channel Islands, barge traffic along the Seine, and smugglers between England and France.  Thank goodness for the internet!

Of course, a lot of the research doesn’t show up in the book, although it’s still fascinating.  But other historical details push the plot in new and unexpected directions.  Hopefully my readers will enjoy it as much as they have enjoyed my other books.

 

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Victoria has a Ph.D. in English literature and has taught composition to unwilling college students. Today she teaches business writing to willing office professionals and tries to give voice to the demanding cast of characters in her head. She lives in Virginia with her husband, two children who love to read, a cute (but clumsy) puppy, and an overly affectionate cat. A lifelong Jane Austen fan, Victoria confesses to an extreme partiality for the Colin Firth miniseries version of Pride and Prejudice.

You can visit her website at www.victoriakincaid.com and her Amazon Author page here.

 

 

Victoria Kincaid would like to offer my readers a copy of the Secrets of Darcy and Elizabeth and I would like to offer a copy of When Mary Met the Colonel, my favourite secondary character story so far.

The giveaway is international and ends on the 11th of May. To enter it you only need to comment on this post and let us know which is your favourite book from Victoria Kincaid and why 🙂

Good Luck everyone!