Writer Wednesday: Meet Rachael Miles

Author Rachael MilesWelcome, all, to Writer Wednesday!

This week I’m excited to bring you Regency historical romance author, Rachael Miles. Regency is my favorite subgenre of romance, and I’m squeeing because I’ve found a new author for my “must read” list – I hope you add her books to yours, as well.

Settle in (hopefully before the air conditioner, if it’s as hot where you are as it is here in Virginia – goodness gracious!) and enjoy as you get to know Rachael a bit better, and then find out about her latest release, Chasing the Heiress!


Heart shaped book pagesWhich type of romance do you love most, and why?

I’m a pretty omnivorous reader, and I love all sorts of romance. But of course, historicals hold a special place on my shelf. I especially enjoy ones that evoke a real sense of the period, whether by describing the furnishings or the dresses or the ways that people interacted differently than we do now. And if those historicals can include a bit of suspense all the better!

Name one interesting thing you learned in researching/writing your last book.

I knew that women followed the camps during the Napoleonic wars, but I hadn’t realized that 4-5 officers from every regiment could take their families with them. In Chasing the Heiress, the heroine Lucy learned how to nurse from working in the field hospitals, so I also had to learn what treatments would have been used in sewing up gunshot wounds or in treating them after. It was fascinating – and a bit terrifying – to read what were considered to be helpful treatments.

jtdName two things people don’t know about you.

1. I tend to name the wild life in my backyard. The groundhog is Eleanor. The two chipmunks who live in the retaining wall are Pyramus and Thisbe.

2. I find historic gardens fascinating, and I love touring them. Most recently I visited the small—but very interesting—Shaker garden at the Shaker village in Chatham, NY. Perhaps this is part of what made Sophia Wilmot in Jilting the Duke such a special character for me.

What fellow romance author do you recommend reading, and why?

Who I recommend usually depends on what sorts of stories the person I’m talking to likes. If they want something tender, I point out Jodi Thomas, If they want something sparkling, I say Cathy Maxwell.  If they want something spicy, I recommend Christine D’Abo. If they want a story with multicultural characters, I suggest Jenny Holiday’s contemporaries. If they want YA, I’d suggest Kara Bietz’s debut YA novel coming out in November, Until I Break. I’m reading an advance copy, and it’s gripping!

TypewriterWhat one piece of advice do you wish you’d had when first starting out?

Write every day. Whether just a sentence or a paragraph, don’t wait for inspiration or large blocks of time. Just write: you can revise later. I learned this when I first began writing professionally as an academic, and it’s a lesson that served me well when I started writing novels.

What’s your favorite romance novel of all time, and why?

When I was a child, I discovered The Perilous Gard, a Newberry Honor book by Elizabeth Marie Pope. The story follows a girl in the Renaissance who is exiled through no fault of her own by Elizabeth I to a distant estate. She stumbles over a mystery that she must solve or lose the young man she has come to love. It was my first real experience with historical fiction and with self-determinative young women protagonists. I read it over and over.


cthA Bit on Chasing The Heiress

Heiress on the Run

Lady Arabella Lucia Fairborne has no need of a husband. She has a fine inheritance for the taking, a perfectly capable mind, and a resolve as tough as nails. But what she doesn’t have is the freedom to defy her cousin’s will—and his will is to see her married immediately to the husband of his choosing. So is it any wonder that she dresses herself as a scullery maid and bolts into the night? 

Colin Somerville’s current mission for the home office is going, well, poorly. Of course, who would have expected otherwise for a rakish spy tasked with transporting a baby to the care of the royal palace? But when, injured and out of ideas, Colin stumbles upon a beautiful maid who knows her way around children, it seems salvation has arrived. Until he realizes that though Arabella may be able to help him survive his expedition, he may not escape this ordeal with his heart intact…

Buy Chasing the Heiress here: 

Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Amazon 


writingA Bit On Rachael:

Rachael Miles writes romance novels set in the British Regency. Jilting the Duke and Chasing the Heiress—the first two novels in her debut series The Muses’ Salon, published by Kensington Zebra Shout—received 4-star reviews from RT Book Reviews and positive notices in Publisher’s Weekly.

Identified as a ‘strong new voice’ by Mary Jo Putney for Omnivoracious.com, Miles is a former professor of book history and nineteenth-century literature. Miles lives in the woods with her indulgent husband, three rescued dogs, an ancient cat, and a herd of deer who love her vegetable garden.

Want to connect further with Rachael? Find her here:

Website | Twitter | Facebook |  Goodreads |  Pinterest


Thank you so much for joining us, Rachael! You’re positively delightful. 

2015: A Year of Giving Thanks, Meeting Romance Idols, & Making New Friends

2015 has been a very good year for me. I am so thankful. 

This year, I:

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Eloisa James with Margaret Locke
The ever-charming Eloisa James and I.
The fabulous Sabrina Jeffries!
The fabulous Sabrina Jeffries!
With Pamela Morsi!
With Pamela Morsi!
With the gracious and knowledge-generous Valerie Bowman
With gracious & knowledge-generous Valerie Bowman.
MLockeCMaxwell
With the exuberantly charming Cathy Maxwell.
Sue London getting silly at the West Virginia Book Festival
Sue London getting silly at the West Virginia Book Festival.

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  • met a ton of new people, and, even more amazingly, new fans! I, little ol’ Margaret, now have fans. What, what? But, yes, I do, like the oh-so-fabulous Annie, who even had lunch with me when she was in town.
Annie is a riot, y'all, and we had so much fun at our far-too-brief lunch in October!
Annie is a riot, y’all, and we had so much fun at our far-too-brief lunch in October!
Long-time friends supported me, too, including my grade-school friend Heather, whose animals apparently also want to read A Matter of Time!
Long-time friends supported me, too, including my grade-school friend Heather, whose animals apparently also want to read A Matter of Time!
Some fans read my books out loud to their babies!
Some fans read my books out loud to their babies!
... While others forced their kids to do things like this!
… While others forced their kids to do things like this!
  • solidified relationships and friendships within my Shenandoah Valley Writers critique group and more, and basically surrounded myself with writer friends the whole year through.
Maggie and Rebekah helped me celebrate debut day!
Maggie and Rebekah helped me celebrate debut day!
And these fine characters cheered me on, critiqued my work, picked me up when I felt down, and celebrated my successes!
And these fine characters cheered me on, critiqued my work, picked me up when I felt down, and celebrated my successes!
  • had the loving support of my family, including my very own computer-science-professor-in-shining-armor husband, who read BOTH of my books, just to support me (and help me find typos). He’s that awesome of a guy.
My real-life romance hero.
My real-life romance hero.

Yes, it’s been a very good year. 

And I owe so much of that to you all.

  • Thank You Word CloudThank you to everyone who took a chance on A Man of Character (and now again on A Matter of Time!).
  • Thank you to the friends and family who’ve supported me, and the new readers who’ve picked up one of my books this year.
  • Thank you to the book bloggers and reviewers who graciously gave their time to review my books.
  • Thank you to Tessa Shapcott, my editor, for her invaluable guidance, and to Joy Lankshear, my cover designer and formatter, for making my books look better than I ever imagined they could.
  • Thank you to the fellow writers I’ve met on Facebook and Twitter, whose companionship brightens my day every day, and whose wisdom is lighting this crazy, twisting and turning path I’m on.
  • Thank you to the people who’ve liked my books enough to join my street team, Locke’s Flock, or to review them on Amazon or GoodReads, or even just to tell someone else about my books and/or me. All of those seemingly little things make a HUGE difference.

Simply put, I wouldn’t be here without you, and I wanted to express my gratitude as 2015 closes out and 2016 gets ready to begin.

What does the next year hold?