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Andrea Jenelle Samples How Frances Wainwright Learned to Love

[00:00:00] 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.

[00:00:21] 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.

[00:00:41] Welcome everyone to today's episode. I am joined today by Andrea Jenelle. Andrea wrote her first story about a friendly giant that saved a ladybug.

[00:00:51] She has at least three journals crammed full of poetry. And in middle school and high school, Andrea had a non profit side gig writing love stories for her friends that featured characters with their names. Which, by the way, you should totally write into a young adult novel soon.

[00:01:09] Andrea Jenelle: I plan on it at some point, yeah.

[00:01:12] Katherine Grant: As a young single mom in the early 1990s, Andrea was discouraged from pursuing a writing career. So in 2022, the year she turned 50, Andrea decided it was time to make her dream a reality. Andrea knew she wanted to write in several romance categories and release at least three books a year, which is a big ask.

[00:01:32] So indie publishing was an automatic decision. I'm really glad you made that decision and welcome to the podcast, Andrea.

[00:01:40] Andrea Jenelle: Thank you, Katherine. I am so happy to be here. We'll talk more about why I write in all those different categories.

[00:01:47] Katherine Grant: Yes, we will. Yes.

[00:01:50] Andrea Jenelle: But I'd like to read an excerpt from my upcoming Victorian historical.

[00:01:54] It is actually releasing at the end of February. This is the story of the second sister and the second Wainwright sister, the first sister story released in November of last year. So This sister, her story begins during the Crimean War. She is a nurse. So when she originally volunteered to go over to the Crimean battlefront, it was not under Florence Nightingale's auspices.

[00:02:17] There were several women who joined other volunteer efforts and went over there to serve, but After about a year and a half of the war going on there were so many decimations in the ranks. Several nurses had died of cholera several had decided it wasn't for them, that Florence Nightingale did start recruiting women from other, like, other areas.

[00:02:37] So my heroine said, okay, I think I'm done with the battlefront. I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and apply to be, you know, to be a nurse at Scutari Hospital. So. So she's done that. She's there. This is actually her first full day there and The hero who is now the chief surgeon. He's Irish. This is their first meeting.

[00:02:57] And he's been told of her presence by his friend who was like, you know, this new nurse isn't like any of the other nurses. And he's, he's very skeptical. He's like, whatever. I don't need someone distracting me from my work. So I actually modeled him after both House and Owen Hunt from Grey's Anatomy.

[00:03:15] Katherine Grant: Yeah.

[00:03:19] Andrea Jenelle: So, so this is their first meeting and it is from Mac's perspective. So Mac is the hero. The following morning, Mac set aside his bleary disposition and the vestiges of too much whiskey. Cholera, mini bows, trench fever, and all sorts of other maladies and wounds were devastating the ranks, and today he'd be treating them all.

[00:03:39] The improvements to hygiene and supplies he'd tried to implement, and Nurse Nightingale's organizational efforts hadn't been enough to reduce the mortality rate. It still hovered around 40%. Although he looked forward to proving Hotchkiss wrong, catching a glimpse of the new nurse would be nigh impossible.

[00:03:55] He removed the watch from his inner pocket and sat down beside the youth they'd operated on last night. The boy was still asleep, and his pulse was sluggish but steady. Although he'd taken every precaution, his care hadn't erased the likelihood of infection. He snapped the watch closed and pulled out his stethoscope.

[00:04:12] There was a gaggle of nurses headed his way. They were packed so closely into the waddling formation, they nearly tripped on each other's heels. Except for the straggler at the end of the ragged queue. She followed unobtrusively, like she wanted nothing more than to blend into the background and remain unnoticed.

[00:04:29] He wondered if she was the nurse Hotchkiss had been raving about, and his curiosity was piqued. He figured he would discover her identity soon enough and turn back to the once ready cheeked youth lying in the cot. He needed to assess the patient's likelihood of survival beyond this night, because the youth's heartbeat was a tribal erratic.

[00:04:46] Mac wondered if they had any Digitalis in their stores. He was rising from his cross beside the bed, satisfied the boy would make it into the next day, and intent on rummaging for Digitalis in case he needed it later, when he came face to face with the new nurse. An end drawn gasp, like the snake of a lock room at Briming Home, cut through the relative silence behind him.

[00:05:07] He swiftly turned and caught the flutter of a hand falling to the side, like a moth trapped in the sliver of gaslight. He immediately leapt to the rescue and managed to scoop her up mere moments before she tumbled to the floor. You needn't have caught me. Her eyes were fastened on his, and they were such a stark midnight blue, he grew winded on the spot.

[00:05:25] It was like looking at the horizon against the backdrop of green meadows right before a storm. The golden freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose found out like the soft down of fledgling bird wings over her cheeks, and he wanted to connect them with his fingertips. Her hair was deep, dark sable, not nondescript brown.

[00:05:42] Her skin was luminous, like she danced through a cloud of the fairy dust his mother had always believed in. She wasn't mousy. She was the furthest thing from mousy he'd ever encountered. Let me reiterate, you needn't have caught me. Her words shattered the silence and reminded him where they were. Mac had scoffed at what he thought was Hotchkiss's hyperbole last night.

[00:06:01] He'd been confident he had the moral fiber to resist whatever temptation was posed by Nightingale's newest nurse. But now, he was stricken speechless, just as Hotchkiss had predicted. You were looking forward to ruses then. I had borne much worse. Her voice was a husky alto with a hint of broad West Country accent.

[00:06:20] It reverberated through him, just like her eyes. He fell into the promise of the sweet warm weight of the curves nestled against his chest. She was all lush bounty in the cradle of his arms, and it was only too easy to imagine the satin of her skin behind the cage of her corset and crinoline. Her gaze was focused on him like the lure of the moon clad knight in the Byron poem Hotchkiss had referred to, a stupidly romantic poem Mac had often scoffed at.

[00:06:43] He had been as certain of Hotchkiss's hyperbole as he was of the man's intolerance of more than two fingers of Irish whiskey in a sitting. For once, Hotchkiss hadn't been exaggerating. That lack of exaggeration made Mac irrationally angry. He didn't want to notice her eyes. He didn't want to relish the curve of her body in his arms.

[00:07:02] He didn't want to acknowledge the helpless way his gaze dropped from her spangled midnight eyes to the pale pink bow of her lips. Sheer temptation disguised in gray wool. Sheer temptation he wanted to taste. He wasn't a poet, and he never claimed to be one. The only verse he'd ever memorized was body limericks.

[00:07:18] But he was now convinced her eyes would inspire any man to compose a sonnet, even one who'd only memorized naughty limericks. Are you okay, madam? He gruffly asked. He didn't bother reining in his impatience or disguising his irritation. She was both impossibility and possibility, only missing a pair of wings.

[00:07:37] And the lack of feathers brushing against his knuckles where he clasped her upper shoulders was almost a shock. Surely she'd fallen from heaven and was there to drag him to purgatory. He didn't have time for a taste of heaven or a descent into purgatory. He wanted to draw part of the floor for making him consider an indulgence in either of those things.

[00:07:55] He suspected she had the potential to shred the delicate balance of his life. He had no room for emotional entanglements or sparkling, watchful, mind eye eyes. If he wanted to rise in his profession after this infernal war, he needed a spotless reputation and a match that improved his social standing.

[00:08:11] The quality of this woman's scuffed boots, and the fact she was here instead of cultivating a jaunty existence, shouted her station in life louder than any flower seller hawking watercress and violets. He'd wager her beginnings were as humble as his own, and he needed a helpmate who would guarantee him access to the sitting rooms his Irishness would bar him from.

[00:08:31] The endless barrage of sweating, dying, blood soaked bodies bombarding the hospital drove a man to the dark places inside his head. There was no room or thought left to spare for dwelling on the dubious charms of one of the newly minted nurses. But if she so much as shifted, he peered he'd tumble head over heels like a flimsy house of cards.

[00:08:48] She chewed her bottom lip, the picture of trepidation, and he bent his head to soothe away the mark. She floundered in his arms and jerked backward like she'd just laid eyes on her own fetch.

[00:08:58] Her flailing reminded him they weren't alone. Her eyes and that bitten lip had rendered him oblivious to the audience. When he turned and set his scrambling cargo firmly on her feet, Mrs. Nightingale sniffed in disapproval. The other nurses avidly glanced back and forth between them. The hushed murmurs of the ward signaled his uncharacteristic behavior hadn't gone unnoticed.

[00:09:25] The woman adjusted the ends of the scarf around her neck and brushed imaginary flecks of dust from the apron she wore over the gray wool dress. When she'd finished, the needle gaze she rose to his made him feel like a tangled skein of wool. It was impossible to tell if she was grateful for his rescue.

[00:09:39] I'm Nurse Wainwright. I'm Byrne. He captured her slim hand in his own, just long enough for a brief shake. Her fingers and wrist bones were fragile, and he felt the skip of her pulse. She slid from his grasp. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Byrne. I look forward to assisting you in the other positions.

[00:09:57] He cleared his throat, acutely aware of the way Nightingale was impatiently hovering just beyond his shoulder. She hadn't interrupted yet, but he was well acquainted with her brash manner and knew an interruption was imminent. As I'm sure Nurse Nightingale has conveyed, the conditions here are anything but optimal, and we require all hands on deck.

[00:10:15] He nearly winced at the naval reference. I hope the sight of blood doesn't always have this effect on you. Her mouth curled at the corner in a half smirk. It doesn't. I'm sorry you had to step in and rescue me. He wanted to wipe away that smirk with the pad of his thumb. I hope you weren't normally queasy, Miss Wainwright.

[00:10:34] You won't last long if you don't have a stomach of iron and the will to match it. She bracketed her hands on her hips, and he braced himself for a set down. She was anything but meek and mild. Hotchkiss was delusional. I'll thank you to keep your opinions about my staff to yourself, Mr. Byrne. I assure you they are well prepared for their duties.

[00:10:53] Mrs. Nightingale finally interrupted. Cormac should be thanking her for the interruption, because facing this woman felt like maneuvering a flimsy canoe between treacherous coral reefs that would rip it asunder. It would be wise to welcome the interruption. Instead, he resented it, but he had no choice other than bowing in her direction.

[00:11:10] My humble apologies for any slight. I did not intend to impugn your staff. She sniffed again. In the future, please keep your observations to yourself, Mr. Byrne. They are both unsolicited and unwelcome. Nurse Wainwright joined us from the battlefront where she was administering care with Miss Seagull and other volunteers.

[00:11:28] I assure you the sight of blood does not make her squeamish. Mac Riley saluted her. As if she sensed his irreverence, Nightingale's nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed. I do not appreciate being mocked. I will be reporting your flippancy to your superiors. So, she hadn't heard the news. He took great relish in being the one to inform her of the new chain of command.

[00:11:52] That may be difficult, Nurse Nightingale. Dr. Huddleston was relieved of his post and sent packing to London two weeks ago. I've been promoted to the position of Chief Surgeon. Her shoulders stiffened and the Siberian winter in her eyes clearly indicated she didn't agree with the decision to elevate him.

[00:12:07] He knew her opinion was shared by many because he was nothing more than the orphaned, jumped up son of an Irish tenant farmer. She and his colleagues always left the chance to remind him of his humble beginnings. You have my congratulations, she bit out. The new nurse watched their exchange with a sly smile.

[00:12:24] He imagined she was smiling because she felt he was getting the comeuppance he deserved. Do you find our exchange amusing, Nurse Wainwright? Wrote Nightingale. Anything but a mouse widened her eyes and vigorously shook her head. No, Nurse Nightingale, I was simply remembering the way my sisters and I always jockeyed for the upper hand.

[00:12:43] I believe that the spirit of cooperation should always be employed to achieve the best results, especially when we are spread so thinly and must care for so many. From the mouths of babes. My apologies again, Nurse Nightingale, to you and your staff for my glib conversation. Nightingale inclined her head in a cursory nod.

[00:13:01] Apology accepted, Mr. Byrne. Come along, Nurse Wainwright. We haven't time to lollygag. You can spar with Mr. Byrne when you find yourself assigned to his floor. He sketched a bow in their direction that was met with a loud, Haraf! He was lost in thought, watching them walk away, when someone slapped him so hard on the shoulder he staggered forward.

[00:13:21] What'd I tell you, old chap? A sight for sore eyes, ain't she? The way she was looking up at you when you caught her makes a man think of inappropriate things. Hotchkiss's comments settled in Cormac's gut like a venomous barb, reminding him of his inconvenient reaction and ill advised near loss of control.

[00:13:38] He'd been on the verge of bloody kissing her. We should speak of them with respect, no matter what we think of the necessity of their role, Hotchkiss. It's inappropriate to speak of Nurse Wainwright as you would a woman of the streets. Hotchkiss's brows flew into his hairline as he confided, Oh, I see how the wind is blowing.

[00:13:53] Already ensnared you, has she? It's not like that. He couldn't afford the possibility of something like that, not if he wanted to keep his new position and use it to leverage a lucrative career when he returned home. The end.

[00:14:05] Katherine Grant: How intriguing, what a great meeting, setting them up to be, they could be enemies, they could be allies, really it's all up to how they react to each other. Well, thank you so much for sharing that we are going to get into the interview portion soon, but first, a break for our sponsors.

[00:14:23] Hey samplers! It's Katherine Grant. I am interrupting this episode to tell you how to get a free book, the Viscount Without Virtue. First, go to bit.ly/hrs fan, go through the checkout process. This is where you add the promo code, HR SFAN as your last step. Just download your free ebook to your ereader.

[00:14:51] Alright, well let's get back to this week's episode.

[00:14:53] All right, so we are back with Andrea Jenelle, who just read a really great excerpt from her book.

[00:14:59] How Frances Wainwright Learns to Love. And we just saw the meet cute of Frances and Mac the doctor. And I couldn't help but notice

[00:15:10] a key character in that meet cute is Florence Nightingale, who is, of course, a real person. So I'd really love to know just to kick things off, how did you go about portraying Florence Nightingale and did you always know she was going to be in the text or did you make that decision as you were researching her?

[00:15:31] Andrea Jenelle: So I knew she was going to be in the text just because she played such an integral role at Scutari Hospital, which is where the book is set initially. Midway through the book, well, they're in Scutarii slash the Crimea for about the first half of the book, and then the second half of the book, they're actually in London.

[00:15:47] But I, I, like, you can't talk about Scutari Hospital and the Crimean War without talking about Florence Nightingale because as you know, the, the out, one of the major outcomes of the Crimean War was the fact that That was like the genesis of modern medicine. In terms of cleanliness like there were, there were physicians who had advocated for it before, like Lister, which I I'm going to have a whole conversation with him about Lister later, had advocated for the use of carbolic acid for cleaning implements.

[00:16:15] But before Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War, the practice of medicine, you were as likely to die of infection as you were to die of the surgery. So so. You know, she's such an integral part. There's no way I couldn't portray her. So I read I did read all of her correspondence that she had sent back to her funding to the people who funded her endeavor.

[00:16:37] I read all of those letters. I also read two biographies of her and some other like contemporary accounts. So she was very she was an integral part of that. very much a product of the Victorian era, but then she was not. She was raised in kind of a non traditional household. She was the daughter I believe her, her father was a member of the clergy.

[00:16:54] So she had an education. They, they did discourage her from pursuing nursing though. They said it was not, you know it was not a career that a young woman should pursue. She, they eventually caved in because she's like, this is what I'm really passionate about. And so I'm just like that. You know, portraying her personality and that she was so she was so passionate and devoted to what she was doing, but also very brusque to those who worked for her and with her, like, she was no nonsense, just from, that's what I gather from everything I've read.

[00:17:25] Katherine Grant: Yeah, that's so interesting. So, that leads me to wonder a couple of things. First of all, You are writing stories across so many different types of the romance genre. Did this story come to you or this series come to you and you were like, Oh, I have these interesting dynamics, but I don't know what setting I want to explore?

[00:17:47] Or did it come to you where you knew that you wanted it it to be Victorian, and you wanted this book to be about the Crimean War.

[00:17:54] Andrea Jenelle: It came, like, I knew I wanted to write a Victorian series, so, and I've had it planned for a long time, so I have all seven books planned out but I knew that I wanted to write about characters we don't often hear about who, because, you know, they had their love stories too, right?

[00:18:08] So I didn't want to write another book about dukes, etc. So none of my characters are members of the nobility they might be, like, wealthier landowners, like, in the first book, Thaddeus he, he does, he does have a substantial farm. I kind of modeled him after Mr. Martin and Emma, like, that kind of a holding, so so again, you know, not, not traditional, you know, not the nobility. So,

[00:18:34] Katherine Grant: yeah, we need a lot less of the nobility. And arguably, I would say in real life, the nobility had far fewer love stories than the working class people

[00:18:45] Andrea Jenelle: just, just on the basis of how many of them there were.

[00:18:48] Katherine Grant: Yeah, that alone.

[00:18:50] And then also we know that they were like. You know, living these lives where they weren't marrying for love, whereas the working class didn't have that stricture as

[00:18:59] Andrea Jenelle: much.

[00:19:00] Exactly.

[00:19:01] Katherine Grant: So, why the Victorian period?

[00:19:05] Andrea Jenelle: So, I chose the Victorian period because I, that is when, Women's suffrage really took off. It is also when a lot of the legal restrictions that were placed on women were lifted that had been there previously. You know, as to property ownership how they can live their lives.

[00:19:19] It's also the rise of the middle class as opposed to the Regency period, the Regency period with the late Regency period, there, it was starting to happen a little bit, but the Victorian period, it definitely happened. And the middle class and trades were a different avenue to wealth and to prosperity.

[00:19:36] And that You didn't have to be a farmer. So that's the reason I chose the Victorian age instead of the Regency period.

[00:19:43] Katherine Grant: That makes sense. So would you say you're interested in exploring the narratives of suffragettes or people who were advocating for class? Ah, class change,

[00:19:53] Andrea Jenelle: I am. And actually I will be incorporating that into Some of it is incorporated in this book.

[00:19:59] There's this whole discussion they have about Emerson. I like self actualization like so. So yeah, I do explore those themes in this book too, but these seven sisters, are very erudite like for their age. One of the sisters like runs the town lending library and she's like writing her own stories and then another one is an apothecary.

[00:20:19] She's the apothecary's apprentice slash assistant. So, you know, I wanted to show how like that suffragette theory had already trickled down to the middle class and this was happening. So

[00:20:31] Katherine Grant: yeah, that's really cool. You obviously do a lot of research for your books. You've already mentioned. Quite a few of those.

[00:20:38] So how do you incorporate that into your writing process?

[00:20:42] Andrea Jenelle: So I do do an outline and then I, based on that outline, I figure out what I need to research, right? So, so I, I really wanted my description of the surgeries and the conditions in the hospital to be accurate. So I made sure I researched those things.

[00:20:57] I actually read this book published in eight, I think it was 1853. It was the battlefield surgeons or sorry, the surgeon's guide to. Anyway, it was like, it was like a surgeon's guide.

[00:21:08] Katherine Grant: An actual primary text. Yeah.

[00:21:12] Andrea Jenelle: It was like a contemporary text. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:16] Katherine Grant: Do you have a medical background?

[00:21:18] Andrea Jenelle: I do not. I'm an attorney.

[00:21:20] Katherine Grant: So you all, you were researching how they did it back then and then also under, trying to learn like, well, what does that mean? How would we understand that today? Wow. And so do you find that Does that because you write historical you also write contemporary because there's so much research that you do and paranormal and paranormal.

[00:21:42] So, because there's so much research that you have to do for the historical, do you find that that changes. So do you feel like that's your craft for writing the historical or does it, do they all kind of feel the same,

[00:21:53] Andrea Jenelle: they all kind of feel the same but I do write them in different POVs right so obviously the historical is third person.

[00:22:02] Both my contemporary and my both my contemporary and my paranormal or first person POV alternating. Oh, interesting. Yeah, alternate female, male, you know, female male main character. So and I do thought a little bit in this, but again, it's still from the third person. So.

[00:22:19] Katherine Grant: Interesting. And in terms of going back to the time period that you chose, when I'm writing Regency, I do a lot of research and I put that into my books, but I also know that most readers who are picking up a Regency historical have some basic understanding of Regency England.

[00:22:39] And so there's a little bit of I don't have to do world building for what is a Duke. Yeah. How do you think about building, especially with the Crimean War, like people heard about it, but like, we don't really know where is the Crimea anyway. So how do you think about the world building aspect.

[00:22:59] Andrea Jenelle: So, that one again I had to be very particular like I have all these maps of the Crimea.

[00:23:06] I actually read this is really cool book. Mrs. Jubilee's Journals, and she was she was one of the women that followed the drum. I actually model one of Fran's friends after her. So she had these really, really interesting journals. She was the wife of a quartermaster during the Crimean War.

[00:23:26] And just like the, she talk, the way she talks about the scenes and like the battles and like the setting. So I had to do a lot of research about that. Right. And the same with so Fran's from Cumbria. So, when she goes back home after the war, I had to, like, I had done a lot of that research anyway because the entirety of the first book takes place in Cumbria.

[00:23:46] So I'd already done a lot of that research, but that's incorporated as well. And then London, like, I have this really cool book. It's it's like, It's like lays out like forgotten places in London, but like there are all these maps of like what Victorian London looked like, and where the hospital that Francis, I'm sorry, where the hospital that Fran works at and that nurse nightingale started was located.

[00:24:07] So, yeah.

[00:24:11] Katherine Grant: And have you found that readers. Understand the Victorian era?

[00:24:15] Andrea Jenelle: No, no, no. So, so, okay. It's funny you ask that because I can talk about this a little bit. So so there was a, there was a lot more freedom for women in that period. And then there wasn't a regency era, and there was also a lot more freedom for women in the middle class than there was for women in the nobility as far as like their sexuality, you know, that kind of thing.

[00:24:38] So, so. The first book, the first book in the series definitely has some scenes, okay? Sure. And I did, I did get some, but this doesn't read like a reason to do this, and I actually, like, there's, there are like instruments that are used on the first book, and I like did my research, right? Like, so they, The things were available and they were used.

[00:24:59] So but it was just interesting like the feedback I got about that.

[00:25:03] Katherine Grant: That is interesting. I think it is interesting to walk that line. In terms of readers think that they know a lot. We're the ones doing the research. First of all, we're not historians, but we have done a lot of research for our books, probably more than the reader who is just reading for fun has done.

[00:25:24] And then also I think there's so many exceptions to any rule. Yes. And sometimes it's like, well, you might not have encountered this before in literature, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[00:25:39] Andrea Jenelle: Exactly. It's so funny you say that. So one of my beta readers and one of the women on my art team, she actually has her, she actually has her doctorate in Victorian literature and like Victorian history.

[00:25:53] So now her take on this, on like the first book was like, wow, this is a very accurate portrayal of women's roles. In the Victorian period, you know, right. So I'm glad that made me happy because I'm like, okay, I did my research. Right. But then, like, then, you know, there are other readers who are like, oh, this doesn't read this is like too modern.

[00:26:14] And by modern, I think they mean that they're used to reading Regency, probably. They're used to like, like books that don't deal with anything other than the nobility. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've done so much research on like, you know, the socio economics of the period and like, like, what I what the conversations were that were happening, you know, In the middle class and in the lower class.

[00:26:39] I mean, they they weren't ignorant and literacy was finally taking off because there were like village schools, right?

[00:26:46] Katherine Grant: Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And there were also so many people and there was a lot of change happening. So there's a lot of things that were happening that we might not have learned about in school, but it was still happening.

[00:27:01] Andrea Jenelle: Exactly.

[00:27:03] Katherine Grant: So why do you write so much?

[00:27:08] Andrea Jenelle: Honestly, honestly, like, I don't know how not to do it. Like, I've done it my whole life, but, like, this is finally me, like, putting it out there. So sometimes I think I'm a little too ambitious, right? So I, so I put three, I put my first three books out in 2022. I put five out in 2023, like, counting the novella.

[00:27:25] And then I'm putting out four this year, plus a novella. So this one, this. The one that I just read the excerpt from. And then I have my sixth Willow Creek book is coming out at the end of April. And then my second Paranormal at the end of June. And then my seventh Willow Creek book, October. And then I have the third historical, which is that Christmas novella is Coming out in November, but I like I do like I have all the elements already and I probably have like So the one that's coming out, I'm I'm almost at the end.

[00:27:57] I think I have like 65, 000 words. I'm almost done with that one But the other ones I have at least You know, 10, 000 or more words on each of them already. Yeah. Yeah, I'm ADHD. So sometimes I get tired of writing like about one couple and I'll like move to another couple right and then come back to what I was doing.

[00:28:19] Katherine Grant: I've actually heard that from other authors who identify as ADHD that they have all these stories that they're producing all the time. And I am very much not ADHD. And so I'm like, For example, I'm working on a draft right now, and I got the edits back for another book last night, and I'm like, well, I can't look at those edits until I finish this draft, because otherwise I'm just going to get very

[00:28:41] confused.

[00:28:42] Okay,

[00:28:44] and I would love to ask, on your website, you say you believe in cinnamon rolls, and I believe in cinnamon rolls too, but I would like to know, what does it mean to you to have a cinnamon roll hero?

[00:28:58] Andrea Jenelle: So a cinnamon roll hero, he might not appear to be a cinnamon roll on the outside, but the part that makes him a cinnamon roll is the caretaking that he does, right?

[00:29:08] So, so like, softie on the inside, like, I'm going to bring you breakfast in bed I'm going to massage your feet, I'm going to, you know, so, so like, so like all of my all of my Willow Creek heroes and, and like my paranormal and my historical, they all have that kernel of softness, right? So like that the heroine unlocks.

[00:29:31] Yes.

[00:29:32] Katherine Grant: Oh, I like that. Yeah, they're not afraid of the feelings that are inside of them, and to be vulnerable.

[00:29:38] Andrea Jenelle: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So she brings out that vulnerability in them. So to be a cinnamon roll hero means, like, you have that vulnerability and you're not afraid to claim it once, once you realize that you feel that way about someone and you're not afraid to express it.

[00:29:52] And I'm married to a cinnamon roll, so, yeah.

[00:29:56] Katherine Grant: I am too. My husband, when I was going I went to celebrate Christmas with my family, he didn't come with me, and I was talking about what I was planning to do, and I said I'm going to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas, and he was like, you've got to make cinnamon rolls because you're leaving your cinnamon roll behind.

[00:30:11] Andrea Jenelle: Oh, I love that so much. I love that so much.

[00:30:17] Katherine Grant: All right, well, so it is time to move on to our very fun segment.

[00:30:20] Are you a romantic?

[00:30:26] Okay, which do you trust more? Your heart, your gut, or your brain?

[00:30:30] Andrea Jenelle: Definitely my heart.

[00:30:31] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in love at first sight?

[00:30:33] Andrea Jenelle: I do.

[00:30:35] Katherine Grant: Do you think there's a difference between lust and love?

[00:30:38] Andrea Jenelle: Absolutely. Do you believe in soulmates? I do.

[00:30:43] Katherine Grant: Do you believe in true love, and is it the same?

[00:30:46] Andrea Jenelle: They're not the same, but yes I do.

[00:30:48] Katherine Grant: Ooh. What makes an apology meaningful?

[00:30:52] Andrea Jenelle: True remorse. And you can see that in the way that the person makes the apology.

[00:31:00] Katherine Grant: And finally, why is romantic love important?

[00:31:04] Andrea Jenelle: It's important because it shows us that we're valued as human beings, right?

[00:31:07] By someone other than ourselves. You know, that we have a value to add to the world and that our perspective and who we are is important.

[00:31:16] Katherine Grant: Andrea, I think you're a romantic. I

[00:31:19] Andrea Jenelle: definitely am.

[00:31:20] Katherine Grant: Well, thank you so much. For our listeners, where can they find you and your books?

[00:31:26] Andrea Jenelle: So all of my books are, you can buy them on paperback, on Barnes Noble on Amazon,

[00:31:32] my audiobooks are available on Audible and iTunes. So No Regrets is the first one that was produced in audio. I have four audiobooks coming out this year as well that are, like, recordings of my books I've published in the last two years. Those will also be on Audible and iTunes. My, for now my first historical and the Willow Creek series are all in KU.

[00:31:55] However, I will be pulling that stuff out of KU. I'm dropping it in Kobo plus when the enrollment period ends for each of those just because I, it's, it's not, it's not economically resilient. It's just not economically sustainable to like keep them and get you, so.

[00:32:11] Katherine Grant: Great. And do you have a website or social media that you want people to

[00:32:14] go to?

[00:32:14] Andrea Jenelle: I do. So you can actually go to my website. It's andreajenellromance. com and all the links to all my social media is there. I'm, that is like one of the things I did not know was going to be so crazy as an indie author. So I have a TikTok and Instagram threads, BookBub, my website. Facebook and I also have a Facebook reader group if anyone's interested in joining but you can find like all those links are on my website.

[00:32:38] So,

[00:32:39] Katherine Grant: awesome. Thank you. And I do, I think not many readers are aware of BookBub but it's a great place to follow authors. It helps us business wise if we get to 1000 followers, and then also as a reader, you will get alerts When our books are up for pre order, when they are released, and also when they are on sale.

[00:32:58] So it's definitely a good place to go follow authors.

[00:33:02] Andrea Jenelle: Yeah, and if you guys, if your readers are interested this book that I read the excerpt from, the pre order is up on Amazon. But it will be in KU.

[00:33:12] Katherine Grant: Awesome. And so How Frances Wainwright Learns to Love comes out February 28th. And readers can go get it on Amazon.

[00:33:20] 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.