The XO Interview: Caroline Linden

Wagers of Sin and spreadsheets of romance

Caroline Linden is one of my favorite romance authors, both as a writer and as a friend.  Her books are just beautifully written, with characters who feel real and an emotional journey that rings true. As friends, we talk about the writing business, kids, husbands, and puppies. For this XO Interview, we covered her very latest release, Fortune Favors the Viscount, the romance novel formula, and the author whose books made her say “whoa!”

How did you discover romance novels? Which book was The One for you?

I think it came in stages. When I was in high school I would smuggle Harlequins and YA romance out of the library, away from my mother’s eyes because she didn’t think they were appropriate. In college one of my roommates read those “fun books” which you chose by the dress on the cover (or so she told me). And then when I had babies, I discovered Lisa Kleypas. !!!!!!!!! Hers were the books that made me sit up and say “WHOA…”

We were recently talking about emotional vulnerability in romance novels in our chat with the Ashland Public Library, particularly how the characters in our novels demonstrate what it looks and feels like to really open yourself up to another person and to love—something that can be hard and scary to do in real life. How do you write emotion into your stories? You do it so well!

I suspect it’s much easier to make characters do the right thing than for real people to do it. I mainly have two things I work into every romance plot: the characters have to admit some fault or failing to each other (with commensurate regret/apologies/etc) and they have to make each other laugh. I love a lot of things about my husband but the first thing that really got me about him was his sense of humor (also, he can admit when he is wrong).

You were a math major and now write romance, famously the most formulaic of the genres. You are also an excellent baker, which means you’re good at formulas and recipes. What, in your opinion, is the formula for a good romance novel? Related: what do you have to say to people who say romance novels are “so formulaic?!”

What’s wrong with formula? It means you know what you’re going to get. Genre fiction just makes a few basic promises about what you’re going to get when you open the book. A mystery promises that the detective will find the killer. In a thriller, the protagonist will disrupt and stop the evil plot. In a romance, the main characters will be happily together at the end.

I think of it like cookies (which are the best food ever). If you crave a warm, chewy chocolate chip cookie, an empanada or a spinach quiche isn’t going to cut it. It may taste good, but it’s not what you wanted. When I want a chocolate chip cookie, I better get a chocolate chip cookie, whether the dough is chocolate or vanilla or peanut butter, and regardless of whether it also contains marshmallows or M&Ms or pretzels.

Your new novel is Fortune Favors the Viscount and it’s the latest in your Wagers of Sin series. Please tell us all about it.

The Wagers of Sin series is set at the Vega Club, a luxurious and notorious gaming hell in London. It’s modeled on the elite gentlemen’s clubs of the time, but with the twist that women are allowed to join. It’s no secret women gambled as much as men in that time period. 

All the books in the series revolve around scandalous wagers made at Vega’s, and this final book is about the owner of the club, Nick Dashwood. He’s built his club from nothing, and it’s made him rich and perfectly happy with his wicked, disreputable life. He has only one weakness: a much younger half sister whom he does not know how to raise (and he’s getting worried about it). Into Nick’s life marches Emilia Greene, who is governess to a little girl whose father just died. That father was a monster but he was also a viscount, and left no known heir as well as no money for his daughter. Emilia decides she’s going to find the heir, and basically extort some cash from him to support this little girl, and after months of searching, she finds the man she’s looking for: Nicholas Dashwood. He wants nothing to do with a title, and she’s appalled that her plan now depends on a gambler, but they begin to see the advantages to working together… not least being that they each find the other unrelentingly attractive.

We have written a few anthologies together (At the Duke’s Wedding, At the Christmas Wedding, At the Summer Wedding). What is your favorite thing about writing with me?

Just kidding! I think the Lady Authors (you, me, Katharine Ashe and Miranda Neville) put together some incredibly stellar, fun and magical anthologies, especially our first, At the Duke’s Wedding. What fun memories do you have from that anthology (and was it the spreadsheet we made to keep all our stories straight?!)?  

My favorite thing about writing with you? Hmm. I think it’s that I look almost tall standing next to you? Plus you have excellent taste in cocktails.

AT THE DUKE’S WEDDING came along at a turning point for me. I was actually starting to drag, in writing and personally. I was starting to think that I should put my writing career on pause for a year or so, but I had agreed to do that project with you three, and I didn’t want to let down anyone. So I went through with it, and damn it, it was the most fun I’d had writing anything since I wrote my first book, on a lark, in the evenings, helped by some wine. We all came down to NYC for a plotting weekend (at a time when getting away from home was NOT easy for me), and I’ll never forget sitting around that table making up stuff to put in the book. Miranda, just announcing that she had planned out half of the ducal estate, and that it had a dark, romantic grotto. You, suggesting a crotchety old lady who loved to stir up trouble and root for scandal, but who had a good heart. Katharine, telling us that her story was going to be a time-travel inspired by a 1980s comic book music video, of all things. I remember that I wrote about the actual duke of the title because no one else wanted him, even though we all agreed someone had to write about the duke (story title: When I Met My Duchess). And it all worked out so brilliantly! I think that spreadsheet where we planned the weather of each day, what furnishings were in each room, and even what phase of the moon it was must be still out there somewhere…

Anyway, it is a total blast writing with you, and the Lady Authors rule.

How do romance novels bring you joy?

They make me laugh. They make me cry! I learn something most of the time, especially from historical romance, and no matter how twisty or dramatic the path is, I know the two main characters are going to realize they’ve met their match in every way. There is something so satisfying in seeing people find respect, and acceptance, and love. Life is sometimes (often) hard, but if you have those things, you’re in a much better condition to deal with the worse parts.