Interview with novelist M Pepper Langlinais

Romance author M Pepper Langlinais joins me today to talk about her new regency romance, Brynnde.

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Bio:

M Pepper Langlinais is an award-winning screenwriter, produced playwright, and published author.

M holds a Master of Arts in Writing, Literature, and Publishing and a Bachelor of Science in Radio-Television-Film. She has a love of Shakespeare, having both performed and taught his work, and has also interned on Hollywood film sets. M worked for Houghton Mifflin and Pearson before deciding to devote her full time to her own writing (and occasionally parenting). She lives in Livermore, California with her family, cats, and hamster.

Welcome, M. Please share a little bit about your current release.

My novel is set in Regency England and is about a middle daughter whose father is eager to see his children settled. A neighbor has asked for Brynnde’s hand in marriage, but the man in question is almost as old as Brynnde’s father and Brynnde considers him dull besides. She is therefore keen to find another suitor in order to avoid having to marry the neighbor. But while Brynnde seems able to make matches for various friends, she cannot find anyone for herself. The one person she was going to marry—handsome Viscount Burbridge—is no longer an option after a scandal scotches their engagement.

What inspired you to write this book?

Brynnde is a Regency romance in the vein of the old Signet and Zebra books. I used to read them all the time, and then those lines folded and I missed them. After writing a couple of heavier books, I wanted a lighter project and began playing with writing a Regency novel of my own. It’s light and sweet and clean.


Excerpt from Brynnde:

She was the first lady to arrive at the lawn but discovered the men had already started. Her brother and Graeme Sommerford were laughingly arguing over a shot one of them had made, and Brynnde reflected they had grown friendly quickly.

            As if reading her thoughts, a voice at Brynnde’s ear said, “They seem to be fast friends.”

            Brynnde turned to find Garrick Sommerford—Lord Burbridge, she reminded herself, though the name did not suit him, was far too stuffy—at her shoulder. She frowned, not liking having been snuck up on, nor having her thoughts so openly spoken by someone else. “It would seem so,” she agreed.

            Garrick raised his eyebrows. “You disapprove?”

            “Not at all,” said Brynnde. “As a rule, my brother shows good judgement in his choice of friends. If he were laughing with you, I might wonder, but as it stands…” She gave a tiny shrug.

            Garrick placed a hand over his heart. “You wound me, Miss Archambault. Are you still angry about yesterday evening? What if I were to swear I almost never suffer such verbal clumsiness? That it must be your stunning beauty that has caused me to trip over my own tongue?”

            Brynnde looked hard at him, the angelic halo of his sunlit hair, the twinkle in his slate-colored eyes. He was laughing at her! Again! “Insufferable,” she muttered and stepped away to find a free target. She had a sudden and acute need to shoot something.


What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m working on three projects at the moment! I’m writing the second book in my Changers series (a YA fantasy series published with Evernight Teen), I’m writing another Regency romance (because it was too fun not to do again), and I’m working on a YA contemporary version of Hamlet.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When my fan fiction started getting accepted to fanzines (back before you could just toss it up on the Internet—that’s how old I am). I was about 18 years old at the time, and I was so flattered people thought my work was good enough to “publish.”

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I don’t know if I’d say I write full time. I sort of split it with being a mother and running a household. But I do consider writing my career. Every morning I get up, get the kids ready for school, take them to school, take a walk, then come back to the house and write and/or market for a bit. I try to keep appointments and errands to only one or two days a week so I can devote discreet blocks of time to just writing. That doesn’t always work, and there are always chores to distract me, but I do at least try.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I need for the house to be empty in order to write. Like, it doesn’t matter how quiet everyone is being, or whether I have a white noise machine running—if I know people are “around,” I can’t write.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to work in film or television. I wasn’t sure what that entailed, but I was captivated by the screen, large and small. I guess in that way I always wanted to be a storyteller. It took me a while to figure out that my way of telling stories and fulfilling that dream was a bit different, and that I have my own, original stories to tell rather than wanting to tell stories based on other people’s characters.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

That I used to perform Shakespeare and later taught it at summer camp? Or that I’ve had a play produced and then turned into a short film? I’d especially love to have my novel The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller be adapted for the big screen. I guess I haven’t entirely given up that dream of working in film after all!

Links:

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