FROM JOCELYN KELLEY

answer to comment # 15 and 18 (Lory)

I know my editor at ImaJinn has talked about selling foreign rights on the books, but I don't know if Italy was one of the countries. The excerpt is from a fantasy romance -- it's set on a completely different planet with a very different culture.

Thanks for the kind words about the historicals. Yes, a fantasy novel has to have unique qualities...just as a historical romance does. That is why the "voice" -- or the style -- is different. The characters have different perspectives, which in turn "colors" the words I chose. While I am writing the first draft of book, I am not aware of it, but I always look for that when I am working on the final draft before I send it in.

I received word last week that the second book of the Nethercott Tales will be published by Mondadori. I assume that means the first one will be, too. As for the third, I haven't written it yet, so who knows? But thanks for asking!

answer to comment # 16 (mrstll)

I would like to say that I chose to do the Ladies of St. Jude's Abbey because it was a wise marketing decision to do something unique. However, the simple truth is that is the way the stories came out of my imagination. I have always written strong female characters, and when I read how Eleanor of Aquitaine established abbeys for women at the same time she was trying to be a political force in Europe, the two facts came together in my mind. Such a woman would certainly need trained warriors of her own to serve her purposes in the political games that the rulers of Europe played then. Out of that idea, St. Jude's Abbey was born. I chose that name because St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes. (Did I mention all of this in the interview? If so, sorry for repeating.) And then there was the fun research. I had archers on two continents advising me on what Mallory could and couldn't do with a bow and arrow (She's the heroine of A Moonlit Knight, the next book in the series).

Jo/Jocelyn