Tracy Anne Warren and I

Why did I ever start reading romance? The list of books I’ve read shows that it only began in late 2008, by the time I was already 21. The answer is quite simple: I decided I wanted to become a published writer. Which may sound unremarkable when you know I had never ceased entertaining such a dream… a dream being mainly what it was, though. There is a difference between wanting and doing, a difference you must face when you grow up, when all these things you used to believe would “just happen” once you were an adult are evidently not happening.

from Sarah MacLean's website

Deciding to be published meant, no matter how nicely my friends thought I wrote, determining what sells. Not just because I was ready to sell my soul and write whatever I hoped the audience would welcome, but also because knowing what you write and who you write for, all things I used to consider unimportant from a writer’s perspective, are essential from a publishing and marketing point of view. Unless you’re already famous, nobody’s ever marketed a book by being unable to describe it. However imperfect the label, you need it before you can elaborate on it. In my case, I was forced to admit even to my eclectic heart that everything I wrote had some kind of romance in it. Amongst all my historical, fantasy, sci-fi, cloak and dagger stories, romance was the single stable element.

Then I had to figure out what published romance really was like. That’s how I found Tracy Anne Warren, doing my research. I’ve never read a book by Warren. By then only the Trap and Mistress trilogies were out, with excerpts available on her website. Ms. Warren writes Regency historicals, an era haunted by Jane Austen’s ghost for me. Rakes, scandalous bargains, gambling, debts, mistresses and other such highly immoral notions by Austen’s standards were not palatable to me, save to be vehemently condemned. My favourite Austen novel is, after all, Mansfield Park.

“So you are to be a clergyman, Mr. Bertram. This is rather a surprise to me.”
“Why should it surprise you? You must suppose me designed for some profession, and might perceive that I am neither a lawyer, nor a soldier, nor a sailor.”
“Very true; but, in short, it had not occurred to me. And you know there is generally an uncle or a grandfather to leave a fortune to the second son.”
“A very praiseworthy practice,” said Edmund, “but not quite universal. I am one of the exceptions, and being one, must do something for myself.”
“But why are you to be a clergyman? I thought that was always the lot of the youngest, where there were many to chuse before him.”
“Do you think the church itself never chosen, then?”
“Never is a black word. But yes, in the never of conversation, which means not very often, I do think it. For what is to be done in the church? Men love to distinguish themselves, and in either of the other lines distinction may be gained, but not in the church. A clergyman is nothing.”

- Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (1814)

For this reason I will probably always like Regency authors such as Mary Balogh and Julia Quinn better than Liz Carlyle or Brenda Joyce. But back to Tracy Anne Warren. While I was never persuaded to read any of her novels, I’ve kept coming back to her website ever since. Specifically, for her chocolate cake recipe, which you can find here under the grand name of “Violet, Duchess of Raeburn’s Gateau au Chocolat” (incidentally, there’s a circumflex accent missing and we don’t capitalize every word/noun of a title in French). In years of baking, this is undoubtedly one of the best chocolate cake recipes I’ve found. Even my boyfriend finds the result better than what you can buy in many fancy pâtisseries.

What was your first impression when you discovered romance? Has Jane Austen spoiled Regency romance for you? What is your favourite chocolate cake recipe?