One thing that sets romance novels apart from other genres of fiction is how reliably our heroines get to win—not just the cute duke, but a life of love, respect, empowerment (and all that good stuff!). And what sets our industry apart from many others is how reliably the members of the romance community support each other. I chatted with my friend and fellow romance author Katharine Ashe--author of The Earl, a historical romance about a heroine advocating for women’s rights--about women supporting women in Romancelandia.
Maya Rodale
Tell me about the heroine of THE EARL. I hear she’s a public advocate for women’s rights—which is so perfect for this moment in time.
Katharine Ashe
Lady Emily Vale is a passionately supportive of women's legal and social autonomy. In that era, women had many fewer rights than men, and when women married their legal identity was entirely subsumed into their husband's. Publicly, in her secret identity as Lady Justice, she's pressing Parliament to change laws that control married women's rights to their property, income, children and even their own bodies.
For her personally, it's not just a political stance. She really believes in equality. She treats her women (and men!) employees as equals, which makes her household a lot like a family. THE EARL is a road trip story, and as she meets women along the journey she treats them all with respect and compassion and dignity, even women who are very different from her.
The Earl, a historical romance by Katharine Ashe
Maya Rodale
What in her past makes her a champion of equality? I’m always interested in how historical heroines—real or fictional--came to these “revolutionary” ideas about female worth. And what in the real world today inspired you to write this kind of heroine?
Katharine Ashe
As a child Emily was an oddball, the eldest of seven daughters of a fashion-mad mother who loved to dress up her girls as pretty dolls. But she loved to climb trees and read and collect frogs and fish, so she never quit fit in.
The story of how she came to champion the rights of people who didn't have power -- women and the poor -- is central to the love story, so I can't reveal too much about it.
Maya Rodale
Oooh. Tease me!
Katharine Ashe
She and the hero have known each other since childhood, and he was an oddball too, but in an entirely different way.
Maya Rodale
Hint!
Katharine Ashe
I seriously can't say anything else because anything else would be a giant spoiler for the whole thing. :)
Maya Rodale
Well I guess we’ll just have to read the book! ;-) So, changing from fiction to real life, I feel like one of the strengths of the romance genre is how supportive authors are of each other. Do you feel this too?
Katharine Ashe
I wrote this heroine because the longer I've worked in the romance industry, an industry dominated by women, the more I have come to understand and appreciate how women can support each other so powerfully that they can profoundly impact each others' lives.
Maya Rodale
Agreed! I always think about how romance authors are so willing to plug each other's books which shows we don't exactly think of each other as competitors (though let's be honest there's a little bit of that). Why do we see such support in romance?
Katharine Ashe
Working in an industry where the lions' share of folks I work with are independent contractors -- including me -- I've come to have a deep appreciation for small business entrepreneurs, especially women. And it’s not only writers, but freelance authors' assistants, cover artists, publicists, tech people, website designers, graphic artists... And then of course more than 80% of the readers are women. It's an entire network or women shining with diverse talents and supporting each other professionally. I love it.
Perhaps this isn’t accidental. We write stories about relationships, and those relationships struggle through conflict and set backs, but ultimately succeed. In real life we want to help each other succeed just as our characters succeed.
Maya Rodale
I like the idea of not being competitive with our characters.
Katharine Ashe
The heroine of THE EARL sees the world as a place of equals, where everybody supports and nurtures everybody else. And she's entirely unapologetic about it. She demands that others behave the same way. I absolutely adored writing her. And I adored writing their love story.