Carla Prince

Regency romances

Recently I have been writing as Carla Prince.  I had written a set of three contemporary romance novels under this pseudonym (see below), and so it was a natural choice for this  historical romance series.

The current work in progress is a series of  romances set in 1813, the regency period, called A London Season.  The first book in this series, Hester, is just out and up on the usual sites.   I am currently at work on the second of these novels, Rhoda.

I am not sure how long the series will be – ideally four or five books, I hope. 

I loved writing Hester.  It took me right back to reading Georgette Heyer when I was young and was such fun!  My passion has always been Science fiction, so I haven’t gone into the Bridgerton-type genre until now.  But after fifteen years of writing sci-fi and crafting worlds, it was a wonderful dip into something that came easily and made me smile often.  I did find that I had to weave a little of the bad parts of the era into the book too, and make the heroine a little more au fait with the social problems, but that just happened. It wasn’t really intended.  A sign of the times, perhaps!  I have never liked ‘milk-sop’ ladies, as Georgette Heyer might have said!   Anyway, I hope you all enjoy Hester, and eventually, the rest of the regency romance series.  

For all of these I am writing  as Carla Prince, because for me, the Science fiction series have to be under my real name, Gillian Andrews , and the romance novels have to continue the Carla Prince pen name.  Just to make sure that the two genres are separate for any readers.  

My very first book was published under the Carla Prince pseudonym, so it actually came first!  I was accepted by a main-stream publisher for Legacy of Loneliness (now out of print).  I can still remember the thrill of being accepted, but the actuality was so much worse than I expected.  In fact, it put me off writing for a very long time.  I still cringe at the cover they gave it.  In fact, when I bought a copy from a rare books vendor, I had to take the wrap-around paper cover off the book and hide it!

So it was wonderful to realize, years later, that I could actually publish myself, via kindle kdp and later kobo  and google play, without having to go through a conventional publisher.  After my less than optimal experience with traditional publishing, I never looked back!  And I can choose the covers myself, even though they don’t always display quite as well as I hoped.