Why Reading, Writing, and Regency?

I don't remember learning to read, but my mother once told a sizeable audience that I was a difficult birth because I had a book in my hand while she was pushing and I refused to put it down. I started writing when I wasn't much older; there's some perfectly dreadful poetry in my baby book, and I wrote -- and actually finished -- my first romance novel when I was a freshman in high school. That was about the time I fell in love with the Regency period in British history, too -- the time from 1811 to 1820 when King George III was too ill to rule, so his son the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent.

So there you have my personal Three Rs -- Reading, Writing, and Regency.

I burned that first romance, and the next five books I wrote. I've sent better than a quarter of a million words up in smoke. But that was how I learned to write, and that's why my next 80 books -- contemporary sweet traditional romances -- were published. Then after a period of burnout, my career path took a hard right turn and I started writing spicy historical romances, set during the Regency period I'd enjoyed reading about for so long. The Mistress' House, Just One Season in London, and The Wedding Affair were published in 2011, and The BirthdayScandal will be coming in 2012.

I also teach writing -- mostly romance writing these days -- at Gotham Writers Workshop, http://www.writingclasses.com/.

When at last I added a blog to my social networking -- my website is http://www.leighmichaels.com/, on facebook I'm Leigh Michaels, and at Twitter I'm @leighmichaels -- it seemed natural to combine my interests in reading and writing and history... and share the results with you. I'm looking forward to learning as I go, and I hope you'll enjoy this journey along with me!