6 questions with Tessa Dare on #MeToo, romance, and meta humor

Fresh off the release of The Governess Game, Tessa Dare revealed some of what went into writing the book and how she’s incorporating today’s issues.

Both books in Tessa Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series have made it to the New York Times bestseller list, including last month’s release, The Governess Game, which appeared in 10th place. (The Duchess Deal arrived last year.)

But how do readers keep coming back for more? How does the process work? As both a romance fan and a writer, I was pleased to have the chance to ask some questions via email, and below you’ll see what she had to say.

(Don’t worry — they’re not all about The Governess Game. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and style.)

Cheryl Wassenaar: Beyond drawing on your husband’s family history, what did your research process look like for the creation of Alexandra’s backstory?

Tessa Dare: I knew I wanted to write an astronomer heroine, so naturally I visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The way Alex makes her living—setting Londoners’ clocks to Greenwich time—was inspired by a little plaque in their museum that showed an early photograph of a Victorian woman whose family had been “selling the time”  for generations. I decided that would be an amazing job for Alex. From there… lots of internet rabbit holes, out-of-print books, and museum displays on clocks and chronometers and longitude and early astronomy and trade routes… 99% of which would never appear in the book. That’s the way it should be, though. The hardest—but most important—thing about research is resisting the urge to use all of it.

CW: What were the hardest and easiest parts of writing The Governess Game?

Oh, gosh. Nothing ever feels like the “easiest” part for me! I tend to find it all challenging to some degree, even the title. So instead of “hardest” and “easiest,” I’ll do “hardest” and “hardester.”

Hardest: One thing I particularly worried about while writing this book was Rosamund and Daisy, the hero’s two young wards. I’ve written lots of teen and tween characters in the past, but never any young children with significant parts in the story. Getting kids right is tricky! There’s a fine line between making them too precocious and just plain annoying. I hoped that they felt real to the readers, and judging by feedback so far, that seems to have gone okay.

Hardester: I decided on the book’s basic trope (governess/rake) well before I started writing it. However, the #metoo movement really took off while I was writing it, and suddenly the power dynamics of a relationship between a wealthy, high-ranking employer and his impoverished, lower-class employee felt much more problematic. Which is for the best, of course—#metoo is not only an important conversation in our broader society, but within romance. I wrestled with it a lot, trying to make it clear that both characters were equally matched and the heroine was fully consenting. In the end, I know the book is better for it.

CW: How do you decide what pop culture references to put into your novels (“draw me like one of your French girls” here; Do You Want to Start a Scandal scanning to “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”, etc)?

TD: I’m always aware that even though I’m writing a story set two hundred years ago, I’m writing it for modern readers. A joke can’t work unless it draws on a common reference point. No doubt there are pop culture jokes that would have had Jane Austen and friends in stitches, but would leave us all scratching our heads today. If we didn’t share the reference point, we couldn’t possibly get it. So if a reference comes to mind while I’m writing and it makes me laugh, I’ll put it in. I enjoy “meta” humor in TV and movies, so I have fun putting it into my own stories. But I do try to restrain myself from putting it on every page. A little goes a long way.

CW: How do you “fit” characters and couples together without making it seem too simple? Put differently, what goes into writing good chemistry?

I like that you used the word “fit” because it really is like creating two interlocking puzzle pieces. One character needs to fill the other’s empty spaces, and vice versa. Outward qualities like social status or wealth can set them apart, but what locks them together has to be a delicate mix of their personal histories, their beliefs and attitudes, their fears, their weaknesses, their personality quirks… It might sound kind of corny, but—at least in my case—a writer really does get to know her characters as she writes them. As the hero and heroine are getting to know each other, I’m getting to know them, too.

CW: With over 20 books at this point, how has your writing process changed?

TD: Good question! It feels a little different every book. The best thing about having so many books behind me is that I can see it coming if I’m repeating a past mistake. The worst thing is, I keep coming up with new mistakes.

CW: Any chance of a little preview into The Wallflower Wager for next year?

TD: I don’t want to say too much quite yet! But if you’ve read either of the first two books, you know that the animal-loving heroine, Penny, takes in all sorts of wild and wounded creatures. And let’s just say, the hero of the book will prove her biggest challenge yet.

What would a romance novel be like if there weren’t any challenges for its heroine or hero? All the same, these insights show the crafting work that goes into creating some of the best-selling romance out there these days.

Both The Duchess Deal and The Governess Game  are out now, and How the Dukes Stole Christmas, coming later this year, will feature a new novella from her. Meanwhile, The Wallflower Wager is expected for next year.

Thanks to Tessa Dare for her lovely answers!