My special guest writer today is Carola Dunn! I have enjoyed her writing for many years. I've always liked the blend of mystery and romance in her books. How can one exist without the other?
I've also read several of her Regencies, which I adore.
Thanks for coming by, Carola!
Carola Dunn
Romance and Mystery, huh? I've been writing for 33 years and I've done my share of both.
I used to write Regencies, thirty-two of them and a bunch of novellas. Now I write mysteries, twenty in my Daisy Dalrymple series, set in England in the 1920s, and three Cornish mysteries, set in about 1970 in—you've guessed it—Cornwall. Incidentally, I was born and grew up in England but have lived in the USA for over forty years. All my books were first published in the US.
I'm often asked why I switched from romance to mystery. In a way it was a natural progression.
Looking back at my Regencies, I can see that many of them had mystery/suspense/adventure elements. There are attempted murders (none successful!), spies, smugglers, kidnappings, blackmail—not to mention time travel and a ghost. The very first, Toblethorpe Manor, had that favourite device of Golden Age crime fiction, a protagonist with amnesia.
In Death at Wentwater Court, the first in my Daisy Dalrymple mystery series, Daisy meets a Scotland Yard detective, DCI Alec Fletcher. As the series continues, their relationship develops.
I started to get letters saying, "Isn't it about time they got married?" and others saying, "You can't let them get married, it'll ruin everything!" What's a poor author to do?
Well, the moment of decision came. I wanted to set a mystery on a Transatlantic liner, and Daisy, being a properly brought-up young lady, would not travel with a man to whom she was not married. So at the beginning of To Davy Jones Below they tie the knot, and then they cross the ocean together--with bodies falling overboard forward, aft, and amidships.
The inevitable happens: Daisy gets pregnant.
I start to get letters saying, "I hope Daisy will have a girl, to be company for her stepdaughter, Belinda." And letters saying, "I hope she has a boy. She already has a daughter." What's a poor author to do?
Give her character twins, one of each.
So, the relationship between Daisy and Alec continues to develop throughout the series, but many of the books have romances between subsidiary characters. People don't stop falling in love just because someone has been bumped off!
Though many of my earlier books are out of print, all are available for Nook, Kindle, and other ebook formats, including Nook.
Come and visit my website, http://www.CarolaDunn.weebly.com or drop by on Facebook. Besides my personal FB page, I have an Author page, and one each for Daisy Dalrymple, Cornish Mysteries, and Regencies.
