Forced into the role of servant by her new stepmother, Lucinda Townsend's only refuge is the garden behind her London townhouse, a haven that is invaded one night by the dashing William Steadman, Duke of Grenville.
I was born in a small English village . . .
Actually, no. I was born in Hollywood, California, and have lived in Southern California most of my life. My parents were both teachers, so I grew up in a house filled with books and music. Also animals, and lots of relatives.
My grandmother taught me to read before I went to school. I can't remember a time I wasn't reading. We read everything. Comic books, the backs of cereal boxes, and lots of books. She also taught me to keep a journal from the time I was nine, so the pathway from my brain to a pen was developed early.
I never thought of being a writer. My uncle published a biography of Mozart. My father, a history professor, published three textbooks. As a child, I imagined that writers were alone at their desks, always isolated. They also got depressed when the rejections arrived. Not what I wanted to do for a living!
My parents always encouraged me to dream. Nothing was seen as out of reach, and a career in the arts was respected. When my father died two months before I graduated from college, I started writing a novel. It was my way of trying to find order in chaos and pain. Six years after I started, I published that novel, and went on to write a few dozen more.
I was so wrong about the writing life. You're never alone, you're surrounded by your characters, always thinking about them, laughing and cheering them on or crying when they face heartbreak. And as for the rejections? The truth is that writing is not for the faint hearted. You need a certain toughness which was hard for me to learn. But my Dad used to always say, the way to get Elda to do something is to tell her she can't. (Works like a charm.)
I've been a writer for many years now, and I can't think of a better way to live my life. My goal was always to give a reader a bit of the pleasure that countless authors have given me, and I hope I've done that.
