Let's Hear it for Erotic Historical Romances

Before I reach the subject of today’s blog, I want to give thanks for my beloved mother, an avid reader of romance fiction. Without her encouragement and love, I would never have become published. To me and many others, she was a shining example of a perfect heroine. Tomorrow marks the seventh anniversary of her passing. While I miss those wonderful times we spent together over the years, I know she’s with me every day, spurring me along my career journey.

Each morning before I sit down at the writing desk, I read my emails. This past Thursday it’s likely anyone walking past our house heard my celebration. At the time I was alone in the house, still in pajamas and not yet sipping my first cup of brisk morning coffee. But I didn’t need to be dressed to the nines in order to perform the Happy Dance and burst into song when I read the news from my editor at Ellora’s Cave. She’d written to let me know she wanted to contract my erotic historical romance novel. Talk about great aerobic exercise! I must remember that metabolism-boosting impromptu dance routine—and play K.C. and the Sunshine Band on the stereo as opposed to hearing their tunes only in my mind. Even though several days have passed since the news, I’m still smiling and in the best of moods.

The first three romances I wrote were historicals. Historical romances were my first reading love and will always have a special place in my reading and writing heart. The fact I can transport readers and myself to a time we can’t experience firsthand is one of the main reasons I delight in telling historical tales. In junior high school I truly enjoyed reading steamier historical romances. Kathleen Woodiwiss is the author who whetted my reading appetite for historicals. THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER remains a treasure in my literary collection.

Writing can become a very solitary pursuit, but being able to surround myself with the bawdy characters I’ve created from bygone eras passes the plotting, researching and writing time in a most pleasurable way. The historicals I’ve published are set in Jazz-Age Manhattan (SAINTS AND SINNERS) and Tombstone, Arizona, during the silver boom (TAMING THE TEMPTRESS).

Readers, fess up. What do you most enjoy about erotic historical romances? The lusty ways these characters loved and lived in days past? The richness and authenticity of dialogue? The ability to live vicariously with the hero and heroine during a bygone era? Period details of place, clothing, architecture, etc?

Feel the heat in erotic historical romances,

Shawna Moore
ROUGHRIDER – Ellora’s Cave
HELLE IN HEELS – Ellora’s Cave
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