Regency writer Leanne Shawler has long had
an affinity for the electronic world, having met her husband
on the internet back in 1996. Both fans of science fiction's
most romantic couple: Clark Kent and Lois Lane, it seemed natural
to leave her home country of Australia and move to Southern
California, where dreams come true.
Leanne has written for all
of her remembered life: from a short story about a monster
eating the bully in her third
grade class, to the full-blown and unlikely adventure romances
she wrote with her high school gal pals. She then graduated
to angst-ridden poetry and erotica, followed by a masters
in fanfiction. At last she pulled a Regency manuscript
she'd written one summer (back in 1990!) out of its storage
box
and decided to "fix" it. She has since completed
four other novels (three Regency-based, one contemporary).
Three of her manuscripts have been finalists in RWA-sponsored
contests and one, A Sword for Wellington is a 2004 Golden
Heart Finalist. She is a member of the RWA Regency chapter
The Beau Monde , her local RWA chapter, RWASD and the Futuristic,
Fantasy and Paranormal chapter "FF&P".
She has
short erotica published with Amber Quill Press and now
sweeter Regency romances with Zebra Kensington, with
the first book tentatively due out April 2005.
An Anglophile,
she first became interested in the Regency period over fifteen
years ago and has been researching and
visiting England ever since. "I enjoy the mannered wit
of the Regency, the bright personalities (Byron, the Duke
of Wellington, Jane Austen) and the adventures of the time:
wild rides hanging on a bizarre bet, elopements to Scotland,
the wars with Napoleon. While they maintained an outward
appearance of good society, they are known to have lived
life to the fullest." Frequently, her research takes
her to the seedy underworld of the Regency period.
When
she's not writing, Leanne reads, designs websites and
enjoys the theater and good food with her husband.
