In Terrestrial Passions, an unsuspecting widow finds her life transformed by the extraterrestrial who arrives in her orchard via starship. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I think that I’ve learned an important lesson writing this book. You see, it’s a satire. If you look at the reader reviews, about half of the readers are laughing their pants off, get the offbeat literary humor, and understand that all the detailed historical background is being used in the service of its outrageous, surreal humor. The other half are trying to read it in romance genre terms, and therefore thinking that it’s off-key. The lesson: committed Regency romance fans take their genre rather seriously and don’t laugh at it; science fiction fans, on the other hand, are more likely to get a kick out of it. The result: a large number of 5-star reviews from the Hitchhiker’s Guide, Life of Brian, and Black Adder crowd, plus Lit Majors who have spent many a long night with Jane Austen and feel liberated by being able to laugh…and bewildered negatives from those expecting a serious romance with a tinge of spice. Even Literary Titan’s own reviewer, who did an admirable job analysing the book’s historical accuracies, never mentioned that it’s funny – while some other reviewers, the humor is ALL they talk about.

This is on me, not on the readers. On the way the book is marketed and packaged. I’ll have to tweak the presentation so it reaches its intended audience I think.

My inspiration…yes, indeed, it comes from having read all six Jane Austen novels in school, in England. Loved them. But her early novel Northanger Abbey is a bit different…you could see her going the way of the wild, satirical fantasy adventure rather than the way she ended up being best known for. It’s this playful version of Jane that inspires this book (with a bunch of Dickens tropes thrown in). Then…

I was at Cambridge the same years as Douglas Adams. This book, in a sense, comes from a similar mental place…a warped sensibility…highly intellectual yet sardonically detached. It’s what Americans call “British humor,” I think. An odd thing since according to the Library of Congress, my works are classified as “fiction, American.” This is what you get for growing up in too many countries.

What was your approach to writing the interactions between your characters?

No matter how outlandish, as far as the characters are concerned, it’s really happening. That’s really the only to make a story this weird be believable.

Within this book, you flawlessly blend historical fiction and science fiction. It takes exceptional talent to blend the two genres. How did you go about blending the two genres without disrupting the story?

They are the two genres that have most influenced me since childhood, and I have done several quite serious stories set in the past with fantasy elements, like my multiple award-winning werewolf novel Moon Dance. When it comes to science fiction, however, I can’t seem to escape “comedy.” My Hugo-nominated Aquila series is about the Roman conquest of America, but it’s essentially a laugh-a-minute romp.

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?

I am finishing the third volume of my Delicatus trilogy — historical fiction which isn’t comedic at all (despite some arch dialogue at times), and starting another trilogy, the Yrth series, for new New York publisher Brazen House.

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