Meet Gwyn Cready, Author of 'A Novel Seduction'

Gwyn Cready came on to the literary scene in 2008 with her debut novel, 'Tumbling Through Time'. She has been called "the master of time travel romance":

Tumbling Through Time
To view an excerpt Click Here.
Description on Goodreads:
In her sparkling and hilarious debut, author Gwyn Cready introduces Persephone "Seph" Pyle, a total control freak who plans for everything -- until a pair of killer heels sends her back in time and into the arms of a ruggedly handsome sea captain straight from the pages of a romance novel.

Wandering the Pittsburgh airport before a business trip, Seph decides to kill time with some preflight shopping -- anything to get her mind off Tom Fraser, her irresistible, dimple-chinned coworker turned travel buddy. So when a pair of to-die-for pink stilettos calls her name from a store window, she tries them on -- only to be swiftly transported back to the eighteenth century and flung aboard a turbulent ship sailing the Mediterranean!

There, Seph is stunned to meet Phillip Drummond, an arrogant British pirate and the spitting image of Tom. Phillip has summoned her back in time to straighten out his complete mess of a life -- for he is the burly hero in the romance novel she someday hopes to write, and she is responsible for his destiny. But in the midst of turning things right so she can get back to reality, Seph starts to fall for the smolderingly sexy Phillip. And when Tom is thrown into the mix, she doesn't know what -- or who -- she wants. Seph soon realizes that spotting the perfect pair of shoes may be easy, but finding the perfect man can be a real trip.

Six months after her first novel was released, she released her second, Seducing Mr. Darcy. It won her the Rita Award that year for Best Paranormal Romance:


Seducing Mr. Darcy
To view an excerpt Click Here.
Description on Goodreads:
In the second hilarious and sexy novel from author Gwyn Cready, a divorcée suffering from "carnal deprivation" has a racy one-night stand with one of literature's most irresistible heroes — and learns that you really can't judge a book by its cover.

Mr. Darcy just isn't Flip Allison's style. She prefers novels with hot sex on the bathroom sink to the mannerly, high-tension longing of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudice. That is, until she pays a visit to Madame K, who promises a therapeutic massage with an opportunity to "Imagine Yourself in Your Favorite Book." Somehow, on the way to a sizzling sink-top session with a Venetian Adonis, Flip lands right in the middle of Regency England — and dangerously close to handsome Mr. Darcy. So close, in fact, that she discovers a side of him even Jane Austen couldn't have imagined.

Waking from her massage, Flip is on top of the world and ready for her upcoming book club — that is, until she notices a new scene in which Darcy and spunky heroine Lizzy Bennet are arguing over...Flip Allison? Her rapturous liaison with Darcy has had disastrous consequences for Austen's characters — not to mention millions of Pride and Prejudicefans! Flip has twenty-four hours to put the story back on course, and Magnus Knightley, a sexy but imperious scholar whose brooding good looks and infuriating arrogance are decidedly Darcy-like, is the only one who can help. The only problem is, Flip can't keep her hands off him, either....

In March of 2010 Gwyn released her third novel, 'Flirting with Forever':

Flirting with Forever 
To view an excerpt Click Here.
Description on Gwyn's website:
Art historian Campbell Stratford is about to make a name for herself with her scandalously sexy tell-all “fictographies” of famous seventeenth-century artists, but she’s more iintimately familiar with her subjects than her eager readers can imagine. Thanks to a time portal she accidentally discovered, she has caused quite a stir in the Great Beyond. To save their reputations, the Guild protecting dead artists convinces playboy Peter Lely, portraitist to the king, to sabotage Cam’s latest project. A few hours posing on Sir Peter’s modeling chaise leads to a night of seductive passion—then Cam returns home and discovers his betrayal. But before she can turn her angry pen on her lover, Sir Peter makes a surprise visit to the future and transforms Cam’s twenty-first-century life into chaos of classic proportions. . . .

In September of 2010 Gwyn released her fourth Novel, Aching for Always:

Aching for Always
To view an excerpt Click Here.
Description on Gwyn's website:
Ambitious and feisty Josephine “Joss” O’Malley has spent years fighting to keep her mother’s map-making company alive. Just when she finds herself considering taking a risky next step with bad-boy entrepreneur Rogan Reynolds— whose generosity has helped keep the business afloat—Joss meets dark and mysterious Hugh Hawksmoor. Hugh’s deft touch and old-world seduction stir Joss’s desires like a storm at sea, and she has no clue that he has sailed three hundred years into the future to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of her father. Or that she holds the key to a map that will help him undo the destructive changes her father wrought in the past. When Hugh lures Joss into a treacherous journey through time, there’s not a twenty-first-century trick that can save her. But when she applies her own instincts to a course she thought was set, she discovers that the high seas hold some scandalous surprises.


For Gwyn's fifth novel she decided to try something new. A Novel Seduction is her first foray into contemporary romance as well as men in kilts, and she found both eminently satisfying:


A Novel Seduction 
To view an excerpt Click Here.
Description on Gwyn's website:
When snobbish book critic Ellery Sharpe screws up at Vanity Place magazine, her boss assigns her the ultimate punishment: write an ode to romance novels, a genre she considers the literary equivalent of word search puzzles. To make matters worse, he hires her sexy former party boy ex, Axel Mackenzie, to shoot the photos. Axel really wants the project to succeed. For one, the magazine will double his fee if he convinces strong-willed Ellery to write a story no woman can resist. Besides, getting Ellery to fall for romance novels might be just the push she needs to believe people can change . . . even him. At his sister’s advice, Axel gives Ellery a copy of Kiltlander, a much-adored romance whose warrior hero is utterly irresistible. To her dismay, Ellery finds herself secretly falling in love with the story—and with Axel, who’s drawing his own lessons from the book’s compelling hero. With her carefully crafted image of herself crumbling and her dream job on the line, will Ellery risk it all to make the leap from tight-lipped literati to happily-ever-after heroine?

Q&A

Lisarenee:  'A Novel Seduction' is your first contemporary romance novel. What inspired you to write a contemporary romance, and, as this may go hand in hand with this question, what inspired this book?

Gwyn: A key focus of a time travel romance plot is the "her world vs his world" aspect. The story in my head for A NOVEL SEDUCTION required a couple that once been together but had broken up. I couldn't really see working that into a time travel plot. And the book has a sort-of magical feel to it like my others, so I think it fits right in. Plus, it's hot-hot sexy and funny, like my other books. And for the plot, while A NOVEL SEDUCTION is first and foremost an engaging love story about two people who are meant to be together, it also happens to be my nod to the romance novel that made me fall in love with romance novels (thank you, Diana Gabaldon) as well as a response to the people out there who make fun of romance novels, despite having never read one.

Lisarenee:  You added quite a bit of humor in 'A Novel Seduction' is that something you feel is an important aspect to include in a romance?

Gwyn:  I think all my books have a certain level of humor—some more than others, of course. But A NOVEL SEDUCTION is definitely on the funnier end of things. And as far as the importance of humor, all I can say is, back in the day, the easiest way to get me in the sack was by making me laugh. Still is, at least according to my husband.

Lisarenee:  Is it easier to write a historical romance or a contemporary romance and why?

Gwyn:  Hmm. I don't think one is easier than the other. Some stories are easier to write than others, but I think I don't it necessarily relates to the sub-genre, at least not for me. This one was on the easier side, but still like blood-letting for me.

Lisarenee: What do you think is the difference between a good and great romance novel? Do you have any favorites?

Gwyn: The difference between a good and great romance novel is a unique voice. Let's face it, we're telling the same stories over and over—not just romance novels, but all novels. There are only a dozen different plots in the world. It's being able to take a plot and make something different out of it via characters you care about or a story that draws you in or a point-of-view the reader's never considered before that can make a book great. A great book draws you in so tightly you never want to leave.

Lisarenee: There is an 8 year gap between your first and second books, if you don't mind me asking, what happened? Side Note: Goodreads listed Gwyn's first book, Tumbling Through Time, as first being published 2000. I think someone had a numerical typo--Oops! Guess I'll need to double check what's on Goodreads from now on. I liked her answer so I'm keeping it in. What Goodreads had listed:

Mass Market Paperback, 336 pages
Published January 29th 2008 by Pocket Books (first published 2000)

Gwyn: An eight-year gap? Oh, dear, this could be a time travel story all its own. I started to write in 1997, finished a manuscript in 2003 and got an agent the same year. That manuscript didn't sell, so I started to write another, finished that one in 2005, it sold in 2006 and got published in 2008. That's eleven years from the first time I picked up my laptop until the book (TUMBLING THROUGH TIME) was in stores. My second book (SEDUCING MR. DARCY) came out six months later. FLIRTING WITH FOREVER and ACHING FOR ALWAYS were 2010, and now A NOVEL SEDUCTION is 2011. No eight-year gap, but eleven years from the time I started writing. Maybe that's what you meant?

Lisarenee: What do you think is one of the most romantic things a person can do for another?

Gwyn: I remember one time falling in love (briefly) in a business meeting when a man, one of my co-workers, leaned over after a negotiation he and I were holding with another company, and whispered to me, "Are you okay with the outcome?" It was soooo nice to have someone really care about whether I was actually okay with where we netted out that I fell instantly in love with him. I guess my point is it doesn't take grand gestures and claymores. A thoughtful question, an arm-squeeze when you're feeling blue, coming to your defense when he hardly knows you—a lot of little things can flip the switch from "Like" to "Love."

Lisarenee:  Besides a good chemistry What do you think are important traits for the hero and heroine in a romance novel?

Gwyn: The hero must be good at whatever his calling is. Not perfect—he's got to make mistakes—but pretty darned good. And he has to be honorable and true. The heroine's friend in A NOVEL SEDUCTION says, "Forget good looks and money. Without honor, you've got nothing." I heartily agree. The heroine has to be a woman I'd be happy to get a little tipsy and talk girltalk with, which means, she has to be smart, funny, capable and a little naughty. No shrinking violets or drama queens, please.

Lisarenee: What is the hardest thing about writing a book? Is it dealing with deadlines, writing the dialogue so it's believable and flows, doing research, or something else entirely? (The reason I always include the dialogue in this question is I'm always in awe of an author's ability to do this. If I were to write a book I'd probably start out writing a character like Fred, somewhere around the middle he'd end up sounding more like Shaggy, and by the end you'd swear it was Scooby. lol)

Gwyn: The hardest thing about writing a book for me is figuring out the plot twists. I know how I want the book to begin and end, and I know the dark moment, but doing the whole outline makes my brain hurt. Fortunately, once I'm done with that the rest is easy, which is to say, it's hard work and I don't do it very fast, but I see results every day and eventually (very eventually) it's done. The easiest for me is dialogue. I can just hear the characters in my head. If only I could write a whole book of dialogue.

Lisarenee: You received a Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best Paranormal Romance
for your second book, Seducing Mr. Darcy, how exciting was that? Were you surprised when you won?

Gwyn: Winning the RITA was easily one of the top days of my life. I had four non-romance-writing friends in the audience and my husband had come from Pittsburgh to DC to be there, too. I was totally surprised when they read my name. When was the last time a time travel romance beat out seven vampire or werewolf novels? My friends and I popped over to the bar at the hotel next door, I put the RITA in the middle of the table and we PARTIED! I haven't done that much damage since college. And the next day I woke up with the worst cold I've ever had. I was still coughing six weeks later. The price you pay for partying in your forties, I guess. Still, when I think of that night, all I can do is smile. Oh, and during the awards I was seated next to Nora Roberts, who won the RITA handed out after mine, and when she returned to her seat, I held out my RITA and she held out hers and we tapped them like champagne glasses. Happy sigh…

Lisarenee: Are you currently working on anything, and, if so, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Gwyn:  My next book (working title, Playing the Past) is a return to time travel romance, but as for after that, even I don't know. I'm writing the first chapters for two different books--one is the first of a trilogy of a very interesting time travel idea. The second is a contemporary about a yummy British art thief. I'm going to let my editor decide. I'm also working on a memoir about my sister, who passed away at a young age.


Thank you for hosting me, Seduced by a Book. I have to say I love the name of your site.


Best,
Gwyn Cready  


Lisarenee: Gwyn, Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions. I enjoyed reading both your book, A Novel Seduction, and your answers. I already have three of your books on hold at my library and will be looking into purchasing another they did not presently have.  

To learn more about Gwyn, visit her website at: http://www.cready.com/