Hope Tarr is a graduate of the Catholic University of America where she earned a master’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in education. Her debut novel, A Rogue’s Pleasure, is a nominee for Romantic Times’ Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Historical.

2002 will witness the release of two more Jove historical romances, both career “firsts” for Hope. My Lord Jack, a Jove “Highland Fling” romance (May 2002, ISBN #0-515-13339-6) is Hope’s first Scottish-set historical. Sparks fly when pampered French beauty Claudia Valemont flees revolutionary France for Scotland in search of the Scottish father she has never known. Instead she meets Jack Campbell, a handsome half-English, half-Scottish outcast with a troubled past of his own.

September 2002 will see the publication of Hope’s single-title debut, Tempting, a “My Fair Lady” story with a very special twist. Amidst the backdrop of Victorian London, aspiring Member of Parliament Simon Belleville rescues lovely young waif, Christine Tremayne from the worst of the Covent Garden brothels. Polishing this roughly hewn diamond into a proper English miss will test not only the depths of Simon’s patience but also that of his very heart.

Hope is also a passionate spokesperson for the well- being of companion animals. As a volunteer project director for the Prevent a Litter Coalition (PaLC), she launched a national grassroots effort that united veterinarians and animal lovers around the country to win issuance of not one but two “Neuter/Spay Your Pet” U.S. commemorative postage stamps to be released in 2002. Whether dreaming up dashing heroes and spirited ladies to populate the fictional worlds of her historical romances or working to make her corner of the “real” world a brighter place for both humans and animals, Hope loves hearing from readers. You can contact her at P.O. Box 7666, Fredericksburg, VA 22404, by email, or visit her site on the World Wide Web.

MY LORD JACK
Jove "A Highland Fling"
May 2002
Buy Now

 
A ROGUE'S PLEASURE
Jove "A Seduction Romance"
November 2000
Still Available

Writerspace: How long have you been writing?

Hope Tarr: Since 1993 or all my life, depending on how you look at it. My childhood dream was always to be a novelist and a romance novelist in particular. I penned my first romance, an historical set in Tudor England, between the ages of twelve and thirteen. Finishing that "book," all ninety pages of it, felt like an enormous accomplishment at the time and looking back I suppose it was. Even though I tucked away my creative writing for a good ten years after college, I think on some level having completed a manuscript in the past put the starch in my spine to have at it again only this time successfully and as an adult.

But for a number of years, I took another path, earning first a Master's Degree in Psychology and then a Ph.D. in Education. In 1993, I was working as a research/evaluation consultant in the Washington, DC area and though I didn't exactly hate my job, I didn't exactly love it, either. It was October 1993 and I'd just completed a particularly grueling project and, uncharacteristically, I took a week off to regroup. One afternoon I found myself wandering around a shopping mall and, not unsurprisingly, I ended up in the bookstore. In the reference section, I spied a small pink paperback entitled, How to Write a Romance and Get it Published and somehow just seeing those words on the book's spine sent all those "forgotten" hopes and dreams about being a writer rushing back to me. I bought it, read it from cover to cover, and a few months later launched my first grownup attempt at a novel.

I would love to be able to say that that book became A Rogue's Pleasure, my 2000 debut, but of course that would be a lie. First novels are notoriously horrible and mine was no exception. But the important thing was that, though it took me three years, I did finish that book. By the time it was completed, I'd made just about every mistake possible and, in the process, learned so much about what **not** to do that when I started on the manuscript that was to become A Rogue's Pleasure, I couldn't help but get some things right. In the interim, I joined Romance Writers of America (RWA), met my wonderful agent Jenny Bent at a writers' retreat sponsored by my Washington, DC RWA chapter, and finished Book #2. In May 1999, we sold A Rogue's Pleasure to Berkley/Jove and the book, which came out in November 2000, launched Jove's Seduction romance line.

Writerspace: Why did you chose to write historical romance?

Hope Tarr: For me, the historical romance embodies all that romance is intended to be. Larger than life situations. Grand scale passions. Conflicts removed from the constraints of our own contemporary values and sensibilities and yet resonating with a timeless truth.

As a child, I was always more of a bookworm than I was an athlete. Summer vacations were sojourns for sitting out on my parents' screened in back porch and reading to my heart's content. I was voracious. On Saturdays year-round, I'd beg my father to drive me to our local library where I'd spend hours prowling the shelves for historicals by Victoria Holt-cum-Jean Plaidy-cum-Phillipa Carr, Anya Seton, Nora Lofts, and Daphne du Maurier. Anything I hadn't read before constituted "new," and each book read only fed my appetite for more. Even now, twenty-odd years later, I can recall clearly that feeling of being transported. Uplifted. Of turning the pages one after the other even as I forgot that I was reading in the first place. It was magic-and I was hooked.

Writerspace: Please tell us about your new release, My Lord Jack.

Hope Tarr: My Lord Jack, which came out on April 30th, is the fourth book to come out under Jove's new Highland Fling line of Scottish romances. It's set in the late Georgian period (1790s), so no clan structure to speak of and no kilts. My hero, Jack Campbell, is the classic introvert as well as a quasi-outcast owing to his half-English blood. Claudia Valemont, my heroine, is an extrovert through and through. Having fled France, and the Revolution, she is determined to find her Scottish father, no matter what the cost.

And so when Claudia and Jack meet in the smoky public room of the local coaching inn, the "opposites attract rule" comes into play. Parisian polish meets Scottish rough and tumble, city girl meets country boy, talkative meets taciturn etc. The attraction between these two is as immediate, as powerful, as it is (seemingly) doomed. But then of course My Lord Jack is a romance after all, so I'm sure I'm giving nothing away when I assure you that all's well that ends well.

Writerspace: How long did it take you to research and write this novel?

Hope Tarr: My Lord Jack was the first book I ever sold "on proposal" (synopsis and first chapter only), which for a writer is a scary sort of coming of age. Once I sold it, I had just a little more than four months to write the book. My previous two books I'd sold as completed works and both had taken me more than a year to finish. (A Rogue's Pleasure actually took me more than two years!). But I'd signed a contract and, more than even that, I'd given my word I'd have that manuscript completed and on my editor's desk by August 26th.

Suddenly writing wasn't something I squeezed in between laundry and errands and the miscellany of tasks that comprise a day. It wasn't a hobby or a dream or even a pleasant pastime. It was a job. My job.

Instead of waiting for my muse to visit, I started without her and then dared her to stay away. I set myself a schedule and, for the most part, I stuck to it whether I felt like writing or not. I wrote action scenes when I was tired and sex scenes when I had cramps. I borrowed my friend's library of books on Scotland and read and read-and read. It was tough, on some days it was hell, and it was also the best possible thing that could have happened to me at that stage of my career. I learned to write fast (for me), I learned to write efficiently, and most importantly of all, I learned to turn off my all-too critical internal editor and instead listen to the sweet, unerring voices of my characters whispering in my ear.

Writerspace: What sort of research did you have to do for My Lord Jack?

Hope Tarr: I still prefer the medium of books to anything else, so I did a great deal of reading. I also surfed the Net to fill in any knowledge gaps. There is a treasure trove of web sites on Scotland, past and present. I also read several books on British dialects in an attempt to get the brogue correct while keeping the dialect as readable as possible.

I also did a great deal of research to flush out the specifics of Jack's "job" as a hangman. It was very important to me to get it "right" while still handling those scenes with taste and tact. For anyone interested in further exploring the historical evolution of capital punishment, I highly recommend Howard Engel's 1996 book, Lord High Executioner, by far the absolute best text I've found on the subject.

Writerspace: A hangman for a hero is a very interesting twist to the story. Who or what inspired the character of Jack Campbell?

Hope Tarr: Actually, I'd call it more of a "visitation" than an inspiration. In all seriousness, I don't really know what "inspired" Jack Campbell's character; he more or less came to me. For a year or more, this sort of woodsman giant figure had lurked in the corners of my mind, appearing at the oddest times-and usually when I was supposed to be writing something else. By the time I finished my work-in-progress, I knew, just knew, that come hell or high water, I'd have to write Jack's story next. If I wanted to have any peace, that is.

As for the hangman part, that sort of evolved with my plotting the story. I always like to crank up the conflict to full blast and what better way to make my characters crazy, absolutely crazy, than to pair an enforcer of the law with a would-be thief. Jack is a good man, a moral man, but at the book's beginning he harbors a lot of emotional baggage not to mention a very black-and-white world view of justice. And then he meets Claudia, a creature of the Paris salon set and a former courtesan, for whom there are no moral absolutes and just about everything falls in to the "gray" area. Basically, they challenge each other, and by the time we get 'round to The End, they have both done a great deal of growing.

Writerspace: When you write, do you leave blanks to fill in later or do you perfect each scene/chapter before moving on to the next one?

Hope Tarr: Good God, yes. My first drafts are sprinkled with notes to myself to check on this or that and fill-in-the-blanks; otherwise I'm sure I'd never finish anything. And of course the very worst thing (for me) is to have slaved over a paragraph or a scene only to have to cut it later. So I try to discipline myself not to get too bogged down with the details in this early stage, although loving language as I do, it can be tempting to pause to add that "spit and polish."

Writerspace: Have you ever suffered from writer's block. If so, how do you entice your muse to come back out and play?

Hope Tarr: Experience has taught me that, if the story isn't coming, chances are the trouble isn't that my muse isn't playing enough; it's that I am not playing enough. A day off, even a few hours of frivolous fun, invariably serves as the cure.

Writerspace: What comes first for you, the characters or the plot?

Hope Tarr: For me it's the characters that come to me first, long before the story structure ever asserts itself. As I said earlier, in the case of My Lord Jack, I was haunted for some time (a year or more) by "Jack"--this sort of earthy yet ethereal Scotsman who lives alone and by his own code of honor, which follow the Natural Law far more than any manmade laws. By the time I sat down to actually "plot" the book, I knew everything about this special being--his favorite color and his worst fear, the way he smelled, even the pattern of calluses on his hands and the shape of his fingers. Once I have the hero and heroine down, the story quickly follows.

Writerspace: You have another novel, Tempting, coming out in September 2002. Any chance you'd be willing to tell us a little bit about it?

Hope Tarr: I'd be delighted as I'm just so completely over the moon about this book. Tempting is my first lead title and a Victorian set My Fair Lady story with a very special twist. It's the story of Christine Tremayne and Simon Belleville who, on first glance, appear to be another case of opposites attracting. But, as the story unfolds, readers will discover that the aristocratic Simon and the down-to-earth Christine have a great deal more in common than circumstances indicate.

Tempting is now available for pre-ordering online at amazon.com and other similar online venues and will be available in bookstores beginning August 27, 2002. And the cover, a photograph based on an advertisement in "Victorian" magazine is absolutely GORGEOUS! All my book covers are posted on the main page of my new website, www.hopetarr.com, along with links to the first chapters of all three of my books. So, if you're reading this interview, please take this as your personal invitation to visit me online and read the first chapters "on the house" so to speak.

And coming soon will be my new online newsletter hosted through yahoo groups. Rarely more than one message a month (promise!) but a great medium for keeping everyone abreast of my book signings and other scheduled appearances, latest releases, and just plain ole' good news. Visitors interested in signing up can do so by clicking on "Guestbook and News" from the main page.

Writerspace: I understand you are very fond of animals. Do you have any pets?

Hope Tarr: What I am is absolutely passionate about companion animals. More than five years ago, working in concert with the non-profit humane organization, Prevent a Litter Coalition (www.palc.org) I launched a national grassroots campaign for the U.S. Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp to increase Americans' awareness of the pet overpopulation problem and its solution-Neuter/Spay. Nearly 200,000 Americans sent their letters to the Postal Service on behalf of the proposal, including more than fifty politicians from both the major parties, celebrities, veterinarians, breeders, and plain old animal lovers. I'm thrilled to announce that not one but TWO "Neuter/Spay" stamps will go on sale nationwide this September 2002 and remain on sale for a full year. Printed on the stamp selvage will be a national Call to Action: a free, toll-free bilingual telephone number (1-888-PETS911) and website (www.pets911.com), maintained by Pets 911, and linked to a national directory of spay/neuter resources, searchable by zip code.

For animal loving readers who'd like to support my ongoing work with PaLC on behalf of the animals, we've provided a special link to Amazon.com accessible from my website (www.hopetarr.com) by clicking on the "Purchase" link page. When you purchase My Lord Jack or A Rogue's Pleasure or Tempting by clicking on the book cover images, 15% of the purchase price of these books (or 5% of any other Amazon.com purchases you make) will go to fund my volunteer work with the non-profit organization, Prevent a Litter Coalition, (PaLC), Inc

On the home front, my husband and I share our home with three wonderful kitties, all rescues. Little G is our twelve year-old tiger-striped tabby, my very own four-legged soul mate and muse, and the inspiration for the heroine's cat, Puss, in Tempting.

Blythe is our part Persian and the sweetest shy little girl you'll ever want to meet even if she is, as my husband likes to say, very much in touch with her inner "Poodle."

And then there's Molly Jane, better known as Jane, the black-and-white part Main Coon pictured in the photograph with me. Janey is our newest addition, a stray I scooped up in my arms and brought home last autumn after she narrowly escaped being creamed by a car speeding past our house. My husband and I weren't looking for a third cat by any means, and so we took Jane to our local veterinarian to be vetted, spayed (but of course!) and boarded until we could find her a good home. In the interim, we uh, visited her so she wouldn't get too er… lonesome and in the process, fell in love. Needless to say, the adoption sign on my vet's bulletin board came down within the week.

Writerspace: What qualities do you value most in a person?

Hope Tarr: The very same qualities I absolutely insist upon in my (otherwise flawed) fictional heroes and heroines and those are loyalty, honesty, and compassion-with a generous measure of tenacity sprinkled in.

Ah well, enough of my rambling. At this point, I'll sign off with a heartfelt wish for all of you to be graced with fairy tale dreams and an endless pile of fabulous romance fiction.

Warm wishes--and happy reading!