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Kelsey Painter Samples Ship of Dreams
Katherine Grant: Welcome to the Historical Romance Sampler Podcast. The place for you to find new historical romance books and authors to fan over. I'm award winning historical romance author Katherine Grant, and each week I'm inviting fellow authors to come on and share a little bit of their work and themselves.
They'll read a sample of one of their books, and then I'm going to ask them a bunch of questions. By the end of the episode, you'll have a sense of what they write and who they are. Hopefully, you and I both will have something new to read. So what are we waiting for? Let's get into this week's episode.
I am excited to be joined today by Kelsey Painter. Kelsey was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she still lives today. Her passion for romance began with fan fiction and eventually expanded into romance novels. She has always loved all things historical and even includes historical elements in her contemporary romance books.
When not reading or writing, she enjoys ballroom dancing and watching soccer or football, depending on how you prefer. To call it Kelsey. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today.
Kelsey Painter: Well, thank you for having me.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, I'm really excited to know a lot of times this historical romance podcast is historical Regency or Victorian romance.
I'm very excited because you are bringing a different flavor today.
Kelsey Painter: Yes Edwardian period. You don't see a whole lot of that in the historical romance sphere, but I was excited to write it and so far it's going pretty well.
Katherine Grant: That's awesome. So you're reading Ship of Dreams, is that right? Mm hmm. Is there anything we need to know about the scene before you get started?
Kelsey Painter: So the beginning of this scene is the context is that our main characters Sybil and Charles, are in the gym of the ship, and they have just discovered that Sybil, who's the lady's maid, her, the lady she serves, they've just spotted her husband, That lady's husband with another woman on the ship, so and they are eavesdropping.
Katherine Grant: And to be clear, this ship is the Titanic. It is Titanic, yes. Okay, exciting. Take it away. All
Kelsey Painter: right. Sybil hopped down from the bike seat and slunk closer to the window, Charles on her heels. She pressed her back into the wall adjacent to the window where she would be able to hear whenever they finished kissing and started talking.
Charles leaned against the wall beside her. "I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have an American woman in my arms again," louis said. "What?" The woman replied in a husky voice. "The English girls aren't friendly?" "Downright frigid. Even the servants call my wife the Ice Princess." "You're lucky I'm here to warm you up, Mr.
Mooring." They kissed again, and Sybil ground her teeth. Charles nudged her shoulder with his elbow. "Is that true?" He hissed. "The Ice Princess thing?" "Yes, but it's complicated." Charles's brow furrowed, but Sybil didn't get to explain before the woman outside spoke again. "Shall we take this somewhere more comfortable?"
Louis groaned. "Absolutely. Though, I believe our servants are still in our rooms." "You're lucky again. My rooms are servant free, and only a five minute walk from here." "I'm lucky indeed. Lead the way." Giggling, they hurried away, the sound of their footsteps fading down the boat deck. Sybil's hands balled into fists, and she pushed herself up from the wall, already pacing back and forth.
"That wretched, rotten rat of a man," she cried. "I can't believe he's doing that out in the open. Anyone might have seen. We did see. He's a- a- a-" "Dirty bastard," Charles finished. "That's it." "I've got something worse if you like, though I'd hesitate to say it in front of you." She giggled. "Thank you, that will do."
His gaze softened. "Are you alright?" "I think so," she said. Her eyes found his. "Could we go back outside? I want to look at the stars with you." He cracked a wide smile. "I'd love that." Before she knew it, they were out on the promenade deck, lying on two lounge chairs they'd pushed together and looking up at the sky.
She could see her breath form a vapor in the air each time she exhaled. She let out a contented sigh. "There. Now we could be at home if we pretended enough." "Not quite," he said. He lifted his hand. "We always held hands when we went stargazing back then." He intertwined his fingers with hers. His touch eased the ire still simmering in her chest about seeing Louis with that other woman.
Charles always had that ability. Whenever she was sad or angry, he took her out to their meadow, and they reminded themselves how small their problems were in the grand scheme of things. "Can I ask, how did you end up working for that man?" He asked. "I don't really work for him. I work for Lady Iris." "Yes, as her lady's maid, but how did you get there?
Doesn't it take time to become a ladysmaid? I would have thought you were too young." "I was head housemaid by the time I was eighteen," she said. "Not that I'm boasting." "Hold on, your parents let you go to work that young?" Her heart skipped a beat. Had his brothers not told him? A lump formed in her throat with the old familiar hurt.
"They passed away." "Oh, Sybil, I'm so sorry." "It's all right," she said with a sniffle. "I've managed being on my own." "How did it happen?" "A house fire." "And when did it happen?" "A year after you left." He turned his face towards her. "Well, that explains another thing." "What's that?" "Why you stopped writing." She blinked. "Oh, well, I am sorry, Charles.
I meant to, but I-" He held his free hand up to stop her. "Quite all right, I assure you. I suppose I could have reached out, but I thought..." "You thought what?" "I thought you must have met someone. And as much as I missed you, I was happy for you. At least, that's what I kept telling myself." He paused for a beat. "So how'd you survive?
The fire, that is." "I wasn't at home," she said. The staggering grief of that night still was sore on her heart. But it didn't hurt as much to tell Charles. Something felt right about it. "I'd gone to our meadow to stargaze. I did that a lot whenever I was really missing you. I smelled the smoke and started back, but by the time I got there..." she trailed off and closed her eyes.
She could still feel the heat of the blaze on her face. "Nothing could be saved, not even mom and dad." "Well." He cleared his throat and swallowed. "I suppose I'm happy to be the reason you weren't there." "I hated you for it for, you know, for quite a while." "Fine by me." He met her gaze. "At least you were alive to hate me."
She offered a small smile. "Your father stopped me from running inside. He took me in at the farm after. I thought about staying, but I wanted to get through life on my own." "So you went to the Earl's house and demanded a job?" He teased. "I offered my services what they were worth," she returned firmly, but her smile lingered at the corners of her mouth.
"They took me in as a housemaid, and then when Lady Iris got married, I was promoted to her lady's maid. The rest is history." He squeezed her hand. "You're impressive, you know that?" She cut her gaze to their clasped hands. "I'm just a servant. Nobody, really." "You have never been nobody to me." Her eyes flew back to his face, her heart suddenly fluttering like a hummingbird.
The look in his eyes stole the breath from her lungs. His free hand came to cup her cheek, forming around her face as if it was made for her. "I used to look at the heavens and miss you, too," he said. "So much I would ache." "I know what you mean." The night her parents died, she had experienced that desperate yearn in her heart looking at the empty grass beside her.
She felt it even more the following days when she had lost everything and would have sold her soul to the devil to have Charles's arms around her. "Surely you met plenty of other people," she said in an attempt to lighten the mood. "You've been traveling for so long." "I have," he agreed. "To Africa and Australia and the Americas, parts of Asia."
"You never met anyone special?" "Women, you mean." Her cheeks got warm but she didn't look away. "I think it's a fair question. You did kiss me after all." "You remember?" He asked with the raise of his brows. "Of course I do." He paused and she watched a smile grace his lips. "I did meet women on my travels," he said.
"Nice ones." Her heart sank. "I see." "Beautiful ones, too." "I'm sure." "Smart, funny, talented ones." "Well, bully for you," she said and started to sit up, but he stopped her. "The problem was, none of them were you, giggles." "Oh." Her heart went out a full gallop. This was all beginning to feel like a dream. Seeing Charles again was hardly believable, but the things he said made her head go straight up to the clouds, above the stars and into the sun.
Any moment now, she expected to wake up, back in the servants quarters at Buckland Hall, alone, with only the memories of Charles and that one kiss to comfort her. But his hand was on her cheek again, warm and tender and real. His lips in her direct line of vision. Would he kiss her again? Would she let him?
She didn't know. There was still so much to rediscover about each other. And yet, he moved closer. His eyes fell closed. Her heart was screaming at her to shut hers too and welcome him with open arms. Her head warned against it, telling her to spend more time before allowing this. But if she stopped him, would he ever try again?
"Charles, I don't know if-" "Sybil?" Iris's voice made them jump apart, though their fingers still clung to each other. "Sybil, are you there?" Sybil cleared her throat. "I'm here, m'lady." Iris walked over, her heels tapping against the deck as she made her way toward them. Sybil got to her feet and Charles followed suit, without letting go of her hand.
Iris's eyes went to their fingers linked, before looking at Sybil with a knowing smirk. "I hope I'm not interrupting." "We were just talking," Sybil blurted out. "I mean, catching up." "If you want, you may continue and I can get myself ready for bed." "No, my lady, I'll come help you." She finally released Charles's hand, though found herself reluctant to do it.
She turned to face him, drawing a blank on what to say. "Well, good night, Charles. It's been lovely." "It has," He agreed with a smile. "When may I see you again?" "Oh, I'm not sure." "Tomorrow," Iris interjected. "Same time and place if your rounds will allow it." "Works for me. I'll see you then, Giggles." He touched his finger to her chin, and Sybil couldn't help but smile at him.
He bid them good night, and then headed back toward the officer's quarters. Sybil watched him go and heaved a sigh. "Don't worry," Iris said. "Tomorrow will be here before you know it." And there we go.
Katherine Grant: Ooh, I love that. It's just the connection of these long lost lovers. That's so lovely.
Kelsey Painter: Thank you.
Katherine Grant: Well, I have a lot of questions for you, but first we're going to take a quick break for our sponsors.
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Katherine Grant: I am back with Kelsey Painter, who just read a sample of Ship of Dreams, which is a historical romance that takes place on the Titanic, and is part of a duet, is that right? This one is the maid Sybil, and the next one is her lady, Iris.
Kelsey Painter: Mm hmm.
Katherine Grant: Yes. Very exciting.
So one of the things that stands out to me when thinking about Titanic romance is there's a very iconic Titanic story. And there are also very iconic romance scenes. beats that we hit. And they, so there's, you know, in romance, there's like the first meeting, there's the first kiss, blah, blah, blah. We all know that.
And in the Titanic, there's like this ticking time bomb of what we all know is going to happen, but the characters don't know. Can you talk a little bit about combining those two formats and coming up with a story?
Kelsey Painter: So one way I sort of got around having them meet on the ship was that they were friends in the like childhood sweethearts back in Yorkshire
where they grew up. And so when they see each other again on board, it's actually a reunion instead of a meet cute. So I got around that by having them have history already before we get on the ship. And so you get a couple of chapters from each of their perspective and they both remember each other and think about each other.
And then of course they reunite. while they are on board. So that was sort of getting past that first beat of like, Oh gosh, they couldn't meet on the ship and they only have this amount of time. Like we know from the movie, Jack and Rose meet on the ship and it's one of the criticisms of the movie.
It's like, Oh, they barely know each other. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to get around that already before we before we jump into them. So it's like kind of just reigniting some feelings that they had in the past already. And then It was a little bit difficult because it was such a tight time frame.
I mean the ship leaves Southampton on April 10th and by the 15th it's under the Atlantic. So they only had a certain amount of time and of course it hits the iceberg the night of the 14th. So I had a lot of them These are both working class people. So he's an officer on the ship. She's a lady's maid.
So they both have things to do for most of their day. So that's why they spend a lot of their evenings together. And they just sort of find those things that they had in their childhood while also appreciating how different they've each become through these conversations that they have every night together.
So that was, that was pretty big. And so the, by the time the sinking happens. I was like, they need to be firmly together. And now the stakes are not, are they going to be together? It's how they're going to survive the sinking.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, because I know working class people were much less likely to survive.
So therefore I, as the reader, I'm much more worried about that.
Kelsey Painter: Yeah. I did have Sybil be a lady's maid to a first class passenger so that they would kind of have this access to escape. Of course things get in the way and they. They don't get off and then he's an officer, so he has to get all the lifeboats loaded before he himself can get off the ship, so they both are trapped in ways on Titanic as it's sinking and They have to navigate survival together.
Katherine Grant: And can you tell our readers who love Happily Ever Afters if there's a Happily Ever After, or do you prefer not to spoil it?
Kelsey Painter: It is a Happily Ever After, I will say. I'm okay with saying that because it is, at the end of the day, it is a romance, so the Happily Ever After was a requirement. So I I'm not as mean as James Cameron, I promise.
Katherine Grant: I was feeling anxiety just hearing you talk about it. I'm like, oh no, I hope they end up together. So I know you said that in your bio that you know, you began writing fan fiction. And so I guess my first question is, Is this story rooted from some fan fiction, or is it, you know, inspired by the movie or other Titanic stories that you've read?
Kelsey Painter: It actually was inspired by the movie. I was writing one of my contemporary romances, and one of the characters, her favorite movie is Titanic, and I had not seen Titanic in over ten years, or, I mean, it had been a long time. And then I, so I had to rewatch the movie. I was like, if I'm going to write jokes about this, I need to, you know, Rewatch it familiarize myself.
Yeah, and I absolutely fell in love with it and it just like awaken this whole thing and then plus It was also like around the time the whole Titan submersible thing was happening. So people were talking about Titanic It just was kind of this perfect storm of things that happened for me to Into the Titanic and the history of it.
And so the movie was a huge, like motivator. I wanted to tell a very different story from what we see in the movie. I definitely didn't want to, I didn't want it to feel like fan fiction of the movie. Even though fanfiction from the movie is very fun. I think it's, it's great. But the, I definitely wanted this to be an original story about two very different people in very different positions on the ship so that it would not feel too much like Titanic fanfiction.
So this actually came from writing another story and then watching the movie and being like, oh my gosh, I want to write my own version of this, I guess. And I do have other historical based fanfictions that I want to adapt into original work. I have two, actually, Band of Brothers fanfictions that at some point I want to adapt into historical romances of their own.
So yeah, I, this one didn't start that way, but I've got some others on deck.
Katherine Grant: Well, and I'm curious, I've actually never read fanfiction. I have this impression that fanfiction is very romance driven in general, if I'm going to categorize. So I'm curious from writing fanfiction to writing romance, commercial romance what's your take?
Is it, are they similar? Is it a different approach that you have to do when you're writing commercial romance?
Kelsey Painter: Yeah the main difference is that when you go into fanfiction, it, the world has already been established for what you're writing. Like, Everyone going into and reading that fanfiction knows who the surrounding characters are and knows the world that they're jumping into so you don't have to do like any world building, or really sort of a lot of the groundwork that you have to do when you're writing original stuff, especially if it's like fantasy or whatever, but even in things like Contemporary fiction or whatever and or even just your average TV show that takes place in the world We live in you still don't have to establish who's who?
And with original work you do you have to explain who everyone is in regards to the story So it's a little bit more groundwork as far as original Fiction goes but for me I Almost all the fan fiction I was reading and writing was extremely romance driven. It was a lot of like original characters that people would put in and have them have a love story with whoever their crush on the show was.
So, or in the book was. So, at least that was the case for me. That's, that was what I did and a lot of what other writers that I read was what they were doing. So it was kind of like already writing romance novels. We were just. inserting a romance novel into this thing that already existed. So for me there, it wasn't too difficult of a crossover.
It was just you know, adapting to having an entirely original cast. And obviously with Ship of Dreams, I didn't have as much of that problem because people were familiar with the Titanic and they know some, who some of those historical figures are, especially if they're, if they were Titanic kids at one point, you know, but yeah, Yeah, the transition from fanfiction to original fic original romance stuff.
It happened pretty smoothly because I felt like I already had the structure of I'm writing this character, falling in love with this character.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. The blueprint was there.
Kelsey Painter: Yeah.
Katherine Grant: And then what about the transition? I know you have contemporary sports romances and then this is your Ship of Dreams is your first one.
First historical romance. So what about the transition or the addition of historical romance? Is that, does it feel different for you than writing contemporary?
Kelsey Painter: A little bit. I had to do a lot more research especially as far as Titanic went because there's a lot of information out there and I wanted to be sure I was getting things right.
And also for the timing of the sinking, I had to be like, okay, where's everything happening right now. So that I really had to nail down before I started writing just how this was happening. But the, so the research part of it is a little bit more intense for historical cause even the sequel to Ship of Dreams, I mean, it takes place about eight years.
Yeah. In 1920. So it takes place eight years after Titanic and enough has changed that I had to do further research further that one, because this, this, this, this, this, this entryway into a whole new decade. And so things were shifting a lot as far as history. You know, women were pushing for the right to vote and it was just this big, Like there was a huge cultural shift so I was like, okay, I can't reuse a lot of the stuff I used for Ship of Dreams because they were dressing different.
Culturally things were changing. I had to know what was legal as far, because like apparently by 1920 in England, some women could vote, some couldn't. There was like a whole thing. Interesting. Yeah, so it's so there were things that I had to still look up. So the research is very intense for historic romance especially, you know, I think in eras that aren't as common in the historical romance genre, like there's so much out there about Regency England because so many people write Regency England as far as historical romance goes.
And even then it's not the most accurate. I understand, and readers understand this isn't a documentary. This is for entertainment. So, but as right, so contemporary just, you know, it's in the world we exist in. And so it's kind of like that fan fiction thing. I don't have to. I don't know if I can establish a whole lot.
Like, I can tell you, like my contemporary series, it takes place in London. So I can tell people it's London and they know it's modern day London. They're using, they have the advantage of using cell phones and, you know, social media. And those things can be part of the story and push it along. There's alternatives to it in historical, but I love writing both and I plan to keep writing both.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, yeah, so are you do you have different, I know you mentioned you have Band of Brothers that you're interested in adapting, but are there specific historical eras that really, like, speak to you that you're hoping to dig into?
Kelsey Painter: Yeah, the big one is the 1940s and Second World War I'm very eager to get to those and adapting those because that's another era that I think is underrepresented in historical romance.
I, I don't have any plans for like Regency England or anything like that. I think the market is just kind of saturated by that. And so I'm kind of looking for other stuff because I know even as a reader, I, like, I love books. the Regency stuff like Bridgerton and I found especially in Beverly Jenkins, I started reading her a lot and she does some different eras and and Liana de la Rosa, I read her her first two books in Victorian England.
So it had some of that same feeling, but it was still a different enough era that it kind of took me out of it. But so it, I think that more and more people are interested in. Getting outside of regency but yeah, so for me 20th century is where I'm staying
There's so much That this is unexplored in the genre from from there. So I am super excited to keep going with that and and Yeah, I I I, maybe one day I'll, I'll do something else. I am watching Little House on the Prairie right now. So maybe something in there will make me want to do like, okay, Out West, you know.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. No, I love that. The, the, the very first Little House on the Prairie book I ever read was the last one, which is These Happy Golden Years. And it's when she gets, she falls in love and gets married. And I was like, that was great. And then when I went back to read the rest of them, I was like, but where's the romance?
But I think that she got married like pretty late, like almost Edwardian period, but America. So similar, you probably already have research. You can,
Kelsey Painter: you can,
Katherine Grant: I would hope so. Well, I think it's time for us to play our game, Love It or Leave It, where we find out how much of a romance rule follower are you.
Katherine Grant: Love It or Leave It, protagonists meet in the first 10 percent of the novel?
Kelsey Painter: Love it. I need to see them interact basically right away.
Katherine Grant: Love it or leave it, dual point of view narration?
Kelsey Painter: I love it. It's all I write I will read both but as far as writing, I have to get in both characters brains. I just, and I, and I love it as a reader too.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. All right. Love it or leave it, third person past tense?
Kelsey Painter: I love it. It is the standard for historical.
But I wrote my contemporaries the same way. I am writing a contemporary right now that I'm actually doing my first book and first person present. But I love third person past tense. I think it's great.
Katherine Grant: Do you feel like you access the characters differently depending on which one you're using?
Kelsey Painter: Yeah, with, with first person I found that it's a little bit easier to just insert. like a train of thought for the character whereas with third person, I feel like I have to, you know, like maybe do like a line of italics and then she thought or he thought. Whereas with First Person, I can just kind of put it right into the narration, because you're right in their brain.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, get a little bit closer to that stream of consciousness.
Kelsey Painter: Yeah.
Katherine Grant: Okay, love it or leave it, third act, breakup, or dark moment?
Kelsey Painter: I love it. I know that's not a popular opinion anymore, but I think it is great for the story structure. And I Like the drama, especially, because I'm reading a story, I want to be entertained.
Katherine Grant: All right, love it or leave it, always end with an epilogue?
Kelsey Painter: I love it. I, I, it's not necessary for me, but I love an epilogue. I just think it's great to see where the characters end up after the story ends.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Okay, love it or leave it, share research in your author's note.
Kelsey Painter: I leave it for me. I personally didn't do it. And I know that when I'm reading historicals, I, this is bad, but I just kind of skim it when I find it.
I,
yeah, I'm like, I trust you. I don't know. And for me personally, I don't include my research mostly because I don't know what I would even include or leave out.
I know, as far as the story goes, I leave out anything that's not relevant to the story, but and I have shared on my social media where some of my sources were for Ship of Dreams, so, but, as far as in the book, I'll leave it.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, you know, as a reader, I often feel so fuzzy and warm at the end that I don't want to read the author's note immediately because I'm like, in a happy story world.
And then I'm curious, and so then I'll go back and read the author's note when I'm like, oh yeah, what was that historical fact? But I, they're kind of like discrete experiences for me.
Kelsey Painter: Yeah.
Katherine Grant: Yeah.
Kelsey Painter: That makes sense.
Katherine Grant: Alright, well, and are there any romance rules I didn't ask about that you like to break?
Kelsey Painter: I think as far as, like, structure, like, I, with Ship of Dreams, it was so different for the romance structure, like, you didn't have this, like, meet cute in the normal story structure, because basically the whole second half of the book is the sinking and them surviving it together, so that was actually kind of fun to write, to kind of break out of that normal romance book structure, not that I don't love it, I do, and I think it's a great guide, but I think that depending on the story, you can, you can change up the structure a bit.
Katherine Grant: I love that. Yeah, I think also creatively it's nice to like have a chance to kind of break that structure and see what's romance if you take away the beats that we all know as romance.
Kelsey Painter: Yeah, for sure.
Katherine Grant: Well, I love that. Kelsey, thank you so much for playing love it or leave it with me and for talking with me about the Ship of Dreams.
Where can our listeners find you and your books?
Kelsey Painter: So I am on Instagram and TikTok. Both handles are just author Kelsey painter. I have a website Kelsey Painter Books, and I am trying to find a new home for my newsletter, so I don't actually have one right now, but because I was on Mirrorlight and thinking of switching to Substack, so, just, yeah.
Just playing around with that right now, but as far as the news about my current books and past books everything is On Instagram and TikTok, especially Instagram. I'm very active over there.
Katherine Grant: Nice. And are your books Kindle Unlimited or are they wide?
Kelsey Painter: Yeah, they're on Kindle Unlimited. And as far as paperbacks, they are everything's on Amazon.
Katherine Grant: All right. Cool. Well, thank you again. I've really enjoyed this conversation.
Kelsey Painter: Thank you. I had a good time too.
Katherine Grant: That's it for this week. Check out the show notes where I put links for my guests, myself, and the podcast. Until next week, happy reading.