Interview with Audra Hershey, Author of A Timeless Masquerade

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write A Timeless Masquerade?

My steamy time travel and historical romances include actual historical figures, and when turning to Regency England I found a great lady from history to include. Bridgerton involves an earlier generation of British royalty, with George III and his wife, German princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Thair arranged marriage produced 15 children, and the two loved one another despite George’s growing mental illness. However, their eldest son George, Prince of Wales, and his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick could not have been more different than his parents’. While they remained married until Caroline’s death in 1820, their strained marriage ended in separation after less than 2 years – with a single daughter as heir to the throne who predeceased both parents in 1817. Caroline of Brunswick plays a central role as a femme fatale in Betrayal in the Ballroom (the prequel to the book), and a central role in the action of A Timeless Masquerade, as well as the royal history in the Regency period which was named for her husband’s role as Prince Regent.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

I love time travel romances – though with that focus I read a lot of non-fiction history for research. But in the end, my love of the HEA wins over the historical facts every time!

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

I found myself deep into other Regency romances, especially those where masquerade balls, mistaken identity, and dastardly dukes play a major role – The Necessary Arrangements series by Sadie Bosque, and Tammy Andresen’s The Lords of Scandal books were inspirations for me. But I always have other time travel books that I collect as they interest me, regardless of time period, like Irina Shapiro’s The Hands of Time series, and one of Matt Haig’s novels – How to Stop Time.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

I found my enemies-to-lovers couple’s frigid relationship thawing when my female love interest searches the empty ballroom for a mask that might return her home – and the man who despises her arrives. There they have an impromptu waltz, with no music, and yet the two move perfectly in sync, as if they were two halves of the same whole. I think they were already in love and didn’t know it!

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

My cats have the “assistant’s chair” where they can sit and quietly observe, making sure I’m writing well, when not napping!

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

Eat dessert first, life is uncertain.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

Even the depths of time and separation by history can’t part two lovers destined for one another.

Audra Hershey is the author of the new book A Timeless Masquerade

Connect with Audra Hershey

Facebook

Buy The Book