And our Sue's Clues Mystery Author is:
 After earning her B.A. in English Literature from the State University of New York at Fredonia, Gaelen Foley moonlighted as a waitress for nearly five years, devoting her daylight hours to writing and honing her craft. Her dedication paid off in 1998, when Ballantine Books published her first novel, The Pirate Prince, which went on to win the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best First Historical Romance and was voted one of the Top Ten Romances of 1998 by the 1000-Bookstores-That-Care Network.
Four years and six books later, her bestselling historical romances have garnered such distinguished awards as the National Readers Choice, the Beacon, and the Golden Leaf. Her titles have appeared on the USA-Today, Waldenbooks, and Amazon bestseller lists, and her audience is now global, with translations of her novels in seven languages.
Gaelen lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Eric, and two spoiled bichon frises. She is hard at work on her next novel.
Lucky for us, Gaelen spared a few minutes of her hectic schedule to answer a few questions for our readers and her fans:
How did you start your writing career?
The old-fashioned way--in blissful ignorance. <g> My starting point was to figure out which kind of books I could be excited about writing for the next 20 years--big, exciting, dramatic historicals set in Napoleonic Europe/Regency England. I never wanted to jump around in sub-genres. Instead, I wanted to pick one thing and become really, really good at it.
From there, my method was pretty simple: write a book, send it out, wait eons for rejection, repeat, repeat, repeat, etc. After about five years of this, the senior editor at Ballantine called me up with checkbook in hand and tons of enthusiasm about my manuscript, THE PIRATE PRINCE. That was June of '97. Five and a half years and seven books later, my philosophy is much the same. Write a book, send it out, pray to God the readers like it.
Do you have any plans to write other types of romances besides historicals?
No.
Are there other historical periods you'd like to set your books in other than the Regency?
No.
Do you plan to revisit the Ascension series?
No.
When does Black Jack finally make an appearance in the Knight series?
Don't know. Soon, possibly.
Of all your books, who is your favorite character and why?
I can't decide amongst my heroes and heroines, so I'll choose from secondary characters and say Vicar, Lazar's dear old mentor from THE PIRATE PRINCE. I love sweet old man characters. I wrote another one in LORD OF FIRE, Lucien's elderly tutor, Mr. Whitby. I love old folks in real life, so I guess that's why I like writing about them in fiction, too.
Other than the other Knight books, do you have anything else on the backburner?
No.
Do you read other genres other than romance?
Yes. I like fantasy, gothics, some sci-fi, and some horror, as long as it's not too bloody.
Any advice for struggling writers?
Keep your priorities straight. Don't let the tail wag the dog. Write because you have a story you are burning to tell and don't get too worked up about straining after publication. Just love the writing process and let selling the book take care of itself.
It's a paradox, see? The harder your try to SELL, SELL, SELL, the less likely you ever will. But the more you focus on your own unique creativity and your joy in the writing process, the better your chances of writing something so fabulous it will sell itself. ;)
Good luck.
Gaelen's photo and bio are courtesy of her website:
http://www.gaelenfoley.com/
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