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Nola Saint James Samples Curse of the Ravenscroft Brides
Katherine Grant: Welcome to the historical romance sampler podcast. I'm your host, Katherine Grant, and each week I introduce you to another amazing historical romance author. My guest reads a little sample of their work, and then we move into a free ranging interview. If you like these episodes, don't forget to subscribe to the historical romance sampler, wherever you listen to podcasts and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Now let's get into this week's episode.
I am very excited to be joined today by Nola St. James. Nola, AKA Rabbi, Dr. Jo David writes Sweet and Spicy Regency romantasy and Romances in which heroines save themselves and often the hero as well. One night Nola had a dream in which a Raven turned into a handsome man. She woke up, went to her computer and quickly wrote the outline for the first of her Ravens Croft Chronicle series,
the Curse of the Ravens Croft Brides. She's been writing Regency romances ever since. As Rabbi, Dr. Jo David Nola has published a wide variety of poetry and nonfiction books and articles on subjects as diverse as spirituality. Theology, feminism, genealogy, archeology, and food and wine. She is a native New Yorker, married to her middle school sweetheart.
It was love at first sight. Nola, thank you so much for coming on today.
Nola Saint James: Thank you so much, Katherine, for having me. I really appreciate it.
Katherine Grant: Yeah, I am excited to hear your work and talk about your, your inspiration and your very diverse career and life that you've lived. So yeah. What should we know about the curse of the Ravenscroft Brides?
Nola Saint James: As you mentioned in the introduction this came the, the idea for this came in a dream and I woke up, I had this dream of a man who turns into a raven and I woke up thinking. What would that do to his sex life? And I thought that would be fun.
The problem is that he believes that all of the wives of the Viscounts Ravenscroft die within a short period of time after the heir is born. And so he decides that he can't fall in love and get married until he solves the mystery.
And so that's the setup for the story, and that's why it's pulled the Curse of the Ravenscroft Brides. It was hard for me to decide what to read to you today because I love, as all writers do, I love the whole book. And I have a secondary character in this book, who is, I just adore.
He's the best friend of the hero and he is gay. And, the situation in the book is that Drake knows that he's gay and has had relationships with other men, casual relationships.
But he and Wyatt, his friend, the hero, have this unconsummated relationship that Wyatt has no idea that that Drake is in love with him and into this comes the heroine, and Drake is faced with the question of what to do about this because he really does love Wyatt. He wants the best for him.
He never had to worry about it before. They haven't solved the problem with the Curse of the Ravenscroft Brides. But something happens in the book and this we're about a third of the way through. In which Drake suddenly realizes that there's this woman and she's becoming close to his friend and he's becoming interested in her.
And in order for his friend to be happy, he's gotta remove himself from the situation. And, and that's what I'm going to read too about, it's one of my favorite scenes in the book.
Katherine Grant: All right.
Nola Saint James: Oh, Robin, thought Drake as he walked aimlessly towards his home. How will I manage without you? Why did she have to come into your life? Drake knew that was unfair. It could have been any woman.
He always knew that it would happen one day, but he never thought it would hurt so bloody much. It had started to rain. Perfect, thought Drake. Why not hail, locusts and frogs as well? He was still at least a mile from his home. There were no hansoms in sight. He saw the arch of a small churchyard a few feet away. Any port in a storm, he thought, and walked quickly toward the churchyard looking for a suitable shelter.
A light in what must have been the vicar's office at the rear of the church beckoned him. Drake knocked on the door. It was opened by a young man of about 30 with wavy black hair, piercing blue eyes, and a pleasant smile. "Come in, come in out of this beastly weather," he said in a rich baritone voice. "This is a night in which no being man or beast should be abroad.
Let me take your things. I'll hang them near the fire. Welcome my study." The vicar settled Drake into a large, leather covered chair and went over to a small shelf that held an assortment of bottles and glasses. "I can offer you brandy, quite fine, or whiskey, also quite good. Which would you prefer?"
"Whiskey sounds good
on a night like this," said Drake, beginning to feel less chilled. The clergy man handed Drake a glass and sat down on the overstuffed chair in front of him. He lifted his glass toward Drake in a toast.
"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door."
They drank. "I'm Reverend Ewan Forbes. New to the Sacred Parish of St. Muriel's Light. Welcome to my study and you are my friend?"
"Heathcoat. Earl of. Drake Martin. Drake, to my friends. Your welcome of me, sir, certainly puts you in that category especially were you to offer me a dram more of this very fine whiskey."
"A pleasure."
The two men sat back in their chairs enjoying the crackling of the fire and the warmth through the whiskey. As it slid seductively through their veins, the sudden storm continued to rage outside the sanctuary of the cozy welcoming room. "If it's not too much to ask, Drake, what brings you out on a night like this?"
Drake thought of giving a polite but uninformative answer. "I was on my way home and got caught by the storm," but even as he took a breath to say those words, he stopped. He didn't want to give a polite answer. He needed someone to talk to, and perhaps this friendly vicar with a good scotch whiskey with such a person.
Certainly he couldn't tell him the entire truth. Perhaps though, just perhaps, he could tell him enough and then the vicar could help him figure out what to do. "I was at a friend's home," he began "and I was upset when I left. I didn't realize the storm was approaching and I decided to walk. Then the skies opened up."
The vicar nodded, but said nothing. Drake knew that the vicar was attentively listening to him. It was an unusual experience. Of course, people listened to him when he gave him instructions, but he couldn't remember ever really having someone listen to him when he needed to speak of his feelings, something he rarely did anyway.
When he wanted to speak about difficult matters, Drake spoke to Wyatt, who listened to him, comforted him and helped him. But now the problem was Wyatt and he couldn't say the things to Wyatt that were raging in his mind and heart. "I was upset," Drake continued after a few silent minutes. "I realized that I'm going to lose my dearest friend and I don't know what to do.
We've been together since we were newly breeched. We were at school together. We are closer than brothers. There are circumstances that I can't explain, but for my friend's sake, I have to terminate our relationship."
"Loss of someone close to us is one of the most difficult experiences we face as human beings," said the vicar, "even if it's not loss because of death, we grieve deeply.
Our world feels like it's been torn apart."
This terrible situation was Drake's responsibility to handle properly. He and Wyatt had been happy together for so many years, platonic and unknowing on Wyatt's side of the relationship, as monogamous as the most devoted man and wife. Drake had created the situation knowing it couldn't last. Now it was his job to end it so that his friend, his dearest, most beloved friend could go on with his life as he was meant to do.
Maybe after a long period of time apart, they could be friends again. Maybe. But it was difficult to imagine. How could Drake spend time with Wyatt, knowing that he wanted a woman as his lover? How could he bear it? Drake's part was breaking even as he realized that there was no escape for him. He had to create the opportunity for Wyatt to become what he was meant to be, a man who could love a woman.
He put his head in his hands, and his body was racked with sobs. The vicar said nothing, did nothing except sit and bear witness to Drake's grief. When Drake began to fumble for his handkerchief, the vicar got up, filled Drake's glass with whiskey and handed it to him. The vicar's eyes were filled with compassion and tenderness.
"You are resolved to do what you must."
"Yes."
"What will you do?"
Drake thought for a few minutes, examining and discarding one idea after another. "I think I need to go away for a while. Perhaps a great while. I don't know if I can ever really come back."
"Did you commit a crime so that you can't return?"
"Is loving someone unsuitable a crime?"
"True love, not lust?"
"True love and un consummated," whispered
Drake.
"True love is a gift," said the vicar. "Even if circumstances in society create complications."
"Yes, it has been a gift, but now I must renounce it and my friend."
"Where will you go?"
"I have no idea," said Drake. "I've never really been anywhere outside of England. I have no family in far-flung places or plantations in the West Indies to attend to."
The vicar nodded his head. "Sometimes unknown places can help us learn to know ourselves better," he said. "I haven't seen my friend with the whiskey in quite some time. I've only a few bottles left. What would you say to a trip to Scotland?"
"Scotland?" replied Drake.
The vicar continued. "My friend Cameron has the largest castle with more rooms than residents and I'm sure he'd be happy for company.
He runs a very successful brewery. Scotland's a lovely land and the people are friendly. When you return, you can bring back a few bottles of whiskey. Take your time touring. Whenever you return, the delivery will be welcome."
"Do you think he would really want to entertain a house guest he doesn't know?" asked Drake.
"I suspect that you and he have similar interests," replied the vicar.
Drake frowned. Was the vicar suggesting that this man was also uninterested in the company of women?
"Cameron rarely leaves his home. He's not a hermit. He insists that if he ventures too far from the distillery, the brew gets upset and goes sour.
He's a very sociable man though, and he enjoys company. You'd be doing him a favor by visiting him and me a favor by bringing back some of his sweet whiskey when you are ready to return."
Drake didn't want to go anywhere, but he knew he had no choice.
Katherine Grant: Wow. What a, I, I feel so much for Drake. I wanna find out more. So first we're gonna take a quick break for sponsors, and then I've got lots of questions for you.
Katherine Grant: I am back with Nola St. James, who just read a sample from The Curse of Ravenscroft Brides, and I am, like I said, I feel so much for Drake. I hope that he has his own story.
What brought you to write so much of the book from the perspective of a character who's not one of the romantic leads?
Nola Saint James: He was always a major character and I just fell in love with him because I've known so many people in that kind of situation where either what they want in their life is not acceptable to either where they are in the social hierarchy or in their family or, or in the society in in which they are.
And it's heartbreaking. It's not something that you find in romance novels. I mean in, in male to male romances. You know, you find that same sex romances, but generally in romance novels, if there's a gay character, they're, they're not fully realized. There's really secondary characters and
drake has this problem that so many people have, whether they're gay or not, of where do they fit into the world? What is their place in the world? How, how do they build a happy life? And it in a broader way, the whole story of the book is about this. It's about Wyatt, who has this gift of turning into a raven whenever he wants to, but it creates problems for him, and he has to deal with this differentness.
Mm-hmm. And Sophia, the, the love, his love interest has a problem because she doesn't actually know who she is. She thinks she knows who she is. But she doesn't really know who she is and she has to fight to protect any semblance of a normal life. She has an evil stepfather. And so the storylines in the book are really about people who don't fit into the mainstream
Who have to find a way to create for themselves good lives that may be different. And, I thought that differentness is important to talk to even more so than it was 15 years ago today in, in our society.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And I know that a lot of times in fantasy or when there's a paranormal element, the. That paranormal element, like the shape shifting ends up working on a metaphoric level as well.
Did you find a specific metaphor as you were writing the Raven story?
Nola Saint James: I started thinking about birds. I like birds and Sophia's name is Sophia Nightingale. Originally, when I was in the first draft, there was a lot about birds and because birds free you, and ravens particularly are very, very intelligent.
I mean, ravens make tools, they have a very wide vocalization range. I didn't want to create, You know, the dragon, Dragon Riders of Pern, for example, a wonderful, wonderful series.
I didn't want to go that far. I wanted a real world in which there were elements of specialness. Mm-hmm. Because frankly, I think those things are all around us. We just may not see them all the time. And I, I wanted to perhaps focus attention on spirituality as, as a rabbi is something that I, is, I'm thinking about all the time.
Katherine Grant: And I read an interview where you talked about how, although your stories are not explicitly about jewish characters or Jewish themes, there's Jewish spirituality in it. And the example was in your first book, it's A Love at First Sight and that's beshert, the concept of true love.
Can you talk about that a little bit and how does it fit into this story?
Nola Saint James: Yeah. I always wanted to write a book like that where they see each other, of course, across a crowded room, and I wrote it and I loved it.
But what I didn't realize until sometime after Anarchy was published was that that's how I met my husband. Mm. We were, we were teenagers. I was 13, he was 14, and we met across a crowded room and it was like that. And when Neil, my husband, tells the story, he says, I saw her across a crowded room.
And I said, that's the girl I'm going to marry. It didn't occur to me I was writing that story un until one day I looked at him. They said, oh, you know that, that's interesting. Yeah. Because we, we bring our life experience to to, to these stories. It's all us. It's just in all our different little people who, who live in us.
I, I once saw a great meme on Facebook and it said, authors are people with too many imaginary friends.
Katherine Grant: It's true. Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I think it's a good time to move to love it or leave it.
[Musical Interlude]
Katherine Grant: All right. Do you love it or leave it? Protagonists meet in the first 10% of the story.
Nola Saint James: Love it. I find when I read and I'm still reading three, four different novels a week by other authors. I find if I can't identify what the story is about at the very beginning, maybe not the whole, you know, maybe not both, but somebody who I can connect with.
I'm not, I'm probably not going to read much further.
Katherine Grant: Love it or leave it? Dual point of view narration.
Nola Saint James: I've never done it. Oh, there, there are, there are scenes when, for example, in, in, in Curse, there's a scene where Sophia
has a sexual awakening and that's told from her point of view. I think it would be interesting at some point to do a scene where you go back and forth and back and forth, but I, I, I tend not to do that.
Katherine Grant: Love or leave it third person past tense?
Nola Saint James: When I do too much of that Jim Gainor, my editor and creative partner yells at me, so I don't do too much of that.
Katherine Grant: All right. Love it or leave it? The third act dark moment.
Nola Saint James: Leave it. I think that's comes from my reading a lot of, mysteries. Mm. I don't like it when suddenly towards the end of the book, they, they throw in something that you didn't see coming and it wasn't hinted at. And so I think, I think it, it's, for me, it's artificial. I would rather have the story arc build and then
develop and, and get to the, to the ending in, in a way that's more, I hate to use this word, but it's the only word, that is more organic, you know? Okay. Where the reader feels that you haven't manipulated that. I'm, I'm always thinking about how is my reader going to deal with this and, and I, I read a lot of writers who, who do this, that they, the third act breakup.
My, it's not my favorite type of book to read, and I try to write the books that I would like to read. So.
Katherine Grant: Naturally, do you love it or leave it? Always end with an epilogue.
Nola Saint James: Oh love it. First of all, as we all know, you've gotta have a series. So these days so the epilogue gives you that opportunity
to seed the next book. But also it gives you a chance to make the happy ending happier. Usually. Yeah. Usually not always, but, but you know, you know, they got married. But then you wanna know, did they have children? How did they love, you know, that, that kind of thing. So I, I really, I I'm always writing an epilogue.
Katherine Grant: All right. Do you love it or leave it?
Always share your research in the author's note.
Nola Saint James: Oh, yes. Love it. . I write very long author's notes, and in all of my books, we have a Nola St. James meme, if you will, that every book has a recipe of something that's been mentioned in the book, and the recipes are either vegan or vegetarian.
If not, they can become vegan or vegetarian. Because I'm a vegan and, and it drives me crazy when I get this lovely recipe and I can't eat it and I can't make it. So a recipe with a photograph and a book club questions at the end. And a bibliography of books for more reading about whatever it is that the book is about or special themes.
Katherine Grant: Oh, thorough author's note. And are there any other romance conventions or rules I didn't ask about that you like to break?
Nola Saint James: It's a great question. I don't know if it's breaking the conventions exactly, but I always want the reader to feel that I have given them a great ending. Because I found in my own reading of the last few years that many of the endings, even of people who I admire a great deal, are very unsatisfactory. And it's like, like the editor said, you've hit
300 pages, you're done. You know? And it drives me crazy. So it has to have a really good ending. The ending has to make me feel like I didn't waste my time reading this. This is something I'd like to give to someone. That's really, really
important to me. And also language. I try to use language that is appropriate to the period,
which not everybody cares about, and it's really hard to do because sometimes you just miss it. And but for example I might write something like he closed the barn door after the horse had escaped. Right? Well, that's would seem like it should. It could be in a regency. But I will go and look that up before I put something, when I write something like that, because I'm not trying to write like Jane Austen.
Jane Austen is Jane Austen. But I think when the language that the story is told in is, has a contemporary feel, but not contemporary language. I think it's, it gives the reader more of, of historical feeling. Mm-hmm. And, and I think that's what, for me, that's what makes regency books and historical books so interesting and satisfying.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. Well, we unfortunately have to wrap up. Where can listeners find you and your books?
Nola Saint James: They can find, I have a website, nolasaintjames.com. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook under Nola St. James, and my books are all on eBooks, so, perfect. That's where you can find us.
Katherine Grant: Yeah. And listeners, as always, I will put a link to Nola's website in the show notes so you can find it so easily. Nola, thank you so much for coming on. This has been a great conversation.
Nola Saint James: Katherine,
thank you so much. It was really, really a delight and I wish you well also with, with your lovely books
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