After years of rising his more and more passionate fanbase with unbiased and digital-first novels, Alexis Corridor achieved mainstream recognition—and hit the bestseller listing—in 2020 with the witty London-set rom-com, Boyfriend Materials. The equally profitable Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake adopted a 12 months later, and now the British creator is conquering historic romance with A Woman for a Duke.
Being presumed lifeless after preventing within the Battle of Waterloo gave Viola Carroll the possibility to stay as the girl she has at all times been, nevertheless it got here at the price of her greatest good friend. Two years later, Justin de Vere, the Duke of Gracewood, remains to be devastated by Viola’s supposed loss of life and has change into a recluse. Viola travels to his property to attempt to assist him, regardless that doing so may destroy the brand new life she’s constructed. We talked to Corridor in regards to the thorny questions that include writing about queer characters in a historic setting and why he’s such a prolific creator. (A Woman for a Duke is his second launch in 2022, with two extra to come back!)
It’s been a busy few years! Do you ever sleep?
Properly, I don’t sleep a lot, and I’ve no social life. I type of joke about this, nevertheless it’s genuinely not sustainable for me. Mainly, as a result of the market modified quite a bit and fairly rapidly by way of how receptive persons are to queer romance, that is kind of the primary time in my profession that these sorts of alternatives have been potential for me. So I did what any fairly neurotic individual would have achieved and mentioned sure to all the pieces. Which does imply my life is briefly on maintain. I’m hoping to get to a extra smart tempo in a 12 months or two.
Are you a fastidious organizer with regards to drafting or is it a extra chaotic course of?
This appears like a nonanswer however kind of each? The reply I often give to the plotter versus pantser query is that it fails to take into consideration that just about all books undergo a number of drafts and you might want to use totally different methods at totally different elements of the method. Like, I’ll often have an overview for the primary draft, however then the primary draft is itself type of the define for the second draft. And there have been books which have seemed, of their remaining type, fairly just like how they seemed once they began, however there are others which can be virtually unrecognizable. So I assume I’m organized after I have to be organized and chaotic after I have to be chaotic. To be honest, I’m typically additionally chaotic after I have to be organized.
“It was necessary to me . . . that neither the textual content nor actually anybody within the textual content ought to meaningfully query that Viola is a lady.”
A Woman for a Duke takes place after the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, which Viola fought in and after which she was presumed lifeless. Why did you select to make Waterloo the pivotal turning level in her life?
Firstly, and most easily, Waterloo is a giant, iconic, central function of the Regency, and I wished to interact with it in a significant manner. It was type of one of the crucial devastating navy conflicts that Europe had ever seen, in order that feels . . . important? In any other case, it could be like setting a e-book in 1916 and by no means mentioning the First World Warfare.
The opposite motive is a little more narratively centered. It was necessary to me from very early on within the conception of the e-book that neither the textual content nor actually anybody within the textual content ought to meaningfully query that Viola is a lady as a result of, frankly, I don’t suppose anybody advantages from fiction legitimizing that specific “debate.” And in order that meant I wanted Viola to have transitioned and to be comfy in her identification from the second she arrived on web page. In that context, Waterloo provides depth to the life she lived and the alternatives she made up to now, whereas offering a supply of battle between her and Gracewood that’s not associated to her gender identification.
Viola’s first interactions with Justin are among the most emotionally fraught moments in your entire e-book. How did you make sure the poignancy of those moments with out slowing down the tempo?
I at all times really feel dangerous about these artful sorts of questions as a result of I really feel like persons are anticipating a extra insightful reply than I even have. I imply, the brief reply is “I don’t know, and I think some readers will suppose I didn’t.”
However I feel a few of it, partially, is simply trusting my viewers. One of many hardest (and most liberating) issues about writing style romance is that individuals acknowledge that the feelings are the plot. I imply, you’ll be able to produce other plots as properly, nevertheless it’s not such as you’re ever going to get a romance reader saying, “Nothing occurred on this e-book besides some folks received collectively, the place are the explosions?”
Learn our starred overview of ‘A Woman for a Duke.’
How is writing about queer love within the Regency period totally different from writing a recent queer romance?
In some respects, it isn’t. The philosophy I are likely to take about writing in a historic setting is to maintain clear sight of the truth that I’m nonetheless a contemporary author writing a contemporary e-book for a contemporary viewers. And the way far I’ll steer into that can differ quite a bit. For instance, my different Regency sequence is unabashedly, absurdly trendy in just about all of its sensibilities, and a few readers don’t like that, and that’s high quality. However I don’t suppose there’s something intrinsically mistaken with writing historic fiction like A Knight’s Story as an alternative of The Lion in Winter.
That mentioned, I feel there are some choices it’s a must to make consciously that, in modern fiction, you’re allowed to make unconsciously. Readers usually have fairly particular expectations about how being LGBTQ+ ought to be offered in a historic setting, and people aren’t at all times expectations I’m going to agree with or play into.
I feel one of many extra delicate questions it’s necessary to deal with in writing a queer love story in a historic atmosphere is whether or not you’re going to use trendy perceptions of identification or, as greatest you’ll be able to, historic perceptions of identification. On the one hand, it’s appropriate to say that relationships and experiences that we’d at present connect particular labels to have at all times existed. However, however, neither these labels nor the customarily fairly advanced set of assumptions that go together with these labels would have made sense to folks in a historic setting.
My common take comes again to what I mentioned about holding in thoughts that I’m writing for a contemporary viewers. It’s finally extra necessary to me that my queer tales resonate with trendy queer readers than it’s for them to painting what I feel an individual on the time may even have perceived their identification to be. Not least as a result of that’s unknowable.
“One of many hardest (and most liberating) issues about writing style romance is that individuals acknowledge that the feelings are the plot.”
Each the duvet mannequin for Viola and the audiobook narrator of A Woman for a Duke are trans girls. Why was it necessary to you to contain trans girls within the means of bringing this e-book to life? And the way did you’re feeling the primary time you noticed its beautiful cowl?
Who can characterize whom and in what media is a posh query that doesn’t essentially have clear generalizable solutions. For instance, I’m unsure I may readily articulate why I felt it was necessary to have a trans girl narrating Viola (or why I are likely to really feel that it’s necessary to have POC voice actors narrating books with POC protagonists) however haven’t felt so strongly about having voice actors who match the identities of my homosexual or bisexual characters. I’m additionally deeply conscious that this isn’t a subject that I’ve authority to hold forth on, and in some ways I’m simply type of guided by intuition. For what it’s value, I do have one other e-book (The Affair of the Mysterious Letter) by which the trans male narrator was portrayed by a cis man within the audiobook as a result of, on the time, I couldn’t discover a British trans man to do it. In the end I feel that was an appropriate second greatest, and the voice actor did an awesome job, however I feel I’d have felt dangerous if I may have had a trans voice actor for A Woman for a Duke however gave the job to a cis individual anyway.
One of many issues I wished to do with A Woman for a Duke (and I’m removed from the primary individual to do it) is to contribute to the normalization of trans folks inside romance typically and historic romance specifically. And maybe I’m mistaken, however I hope having Violet wanting beautiful as Viola on the duvet and Kay Eluvian doing a incredible job narrating the audiobook helps to speak that trans folks belong right here as a lot as cis folks do.
And sure, the duvet is ideal and I find it irresistible.
Inform us in regards to the analysis you probably did for this e-book. What did you be taught that shocked you?
The very first thing I’d say is that it’s value remembering that the Regency is an extremely tiny little bit of historical past each spatially and temporally. Like, not solely did it cowl simply 9 years of precise time (1811–1820), but when we’re speaking in regards to the particular neighborhood that persons are often speaking about once they’re speaking in regards to the Regency, we’re speaking in regards to the 10,000 richest folks in England. And, in reality, if you happen to slim it right down to the subset of those that historic romance tends to concentrate on (which is to say, dukes and individuals who instantly interacted with dukes), you’re stepping into the low a whole lot.
On high of that, there’s the broader problem that I’ve loosely touched on already, which is that the language we use to explain LGBTQ+ identities and experiences within the current day solely actually applies to the current day. So, for instance, we do know a certain quantity about molly homes, which had been brothels/social golf equipment within the late 18th century (which, actually, had been type of fading out by the Regency) the place males would go to have intercourse with one another, typically cross-dress and typically do sham weddings and even sham births. However none of that may essentially be assumed to map onto any particular identification as we perceive it at present.
“I don’t suppose there’s something intrinsically mistaken with writing historic fiction like A Knight’s Story as an alternative of The Lion in Winter.”
Equally, there have at all times been individuals who have lived as a gender that isn’t the gender they had been assigned at beginning (though, clearly, the one ones we learn about are those who had been outed, both throughout their lives or autopsy), however we are able to’t essentially understand how these people understood their identities. It will get notably advanced if you’re speaking about individuals who had been assigned feminine at beginning and lived as males. Hannah Snell, for instance, dressed as a person to struggle in a conflict however afterward instructed her personal story in a manner that very strongly framed her as a lady who had dressed as a person to struggle in a conflict. However there are additionally folks like Dr. James Barry who lived as males throughout their lifetimes and made it very clear that they wished to be considered, recognized and remembered as males after their deaths.
An ongoing downside with queer historical past typically and trans historical past specifically is you’ll be able to’t show how an individual actually considered themselves, and mainstream tradition tends to demand a really excessive burden of proof. Dr. James Barry is a extremely good instance. Right here we’ve got a person who lived as a person, explicitly acknowledged he was a person and wished to be remembered as a person, however most of his biographies current him as a lady who cross-dressed to entry privileged male spheres. And whereas I’m not a historian, as a human being my private feeling is that if somebody says they’re a person, it is best to, like, imagine them.
What was probably the most difficult side of writing A Woman for a Duke?
In any romance e-book, you want an emotional nadir of some form, as a result of in any other case the journey towards the fortunately ever after can really feel prefer it lacks stakes or pressure. This often occurs at 70% into the story, however that didn’t really feel proper for this e-book.
I knew the primary supply of battle was going to be what occurred at Waterloo, however the thought of getting that hanging over the e-book, the characters and the reader for 200 to 300 pages was simply tremendous grim. Viola and Gracewood even have loads to work by means of each personally and socially, and I didn’t suppose I’d be capable to squoosh that into the final third of the e-book. All of which meant that I really hit the emotional nadir at about (spoiler) 30% or 40%. And due to that change in construction, it took some finessing to ensure the remainder of the e-book nonetheless felt prefer it had one thing to say and the characters had someplace to go.
What have you ever been studying currently?
I not too long ago learn an outstanding modern rom-com referred to as The Romantic Agenda by Claire Kann. It’s type of a riff on My Finest Good friend’s Wedding ceremony, nevertheless it centralizes two asexual characters who’re navigating their sophisticated relationship with one another whereas falling in love with different folks. The heroine, Pleasure, is an absolute pleasure. And I feel it’s simply one of the crucial romantic books I’ve ever learn.
I additionally liked The Stand-In by Lily Chu, one other modern rom-com. This one has a zany “Oh, you look precisely like a well-known movie star” premise, nevertheless it’s really extremely grounded and tender, exploring the significance of every kind of relationships, not simply romantic ones.
Oh, and Siren Queen by Nghi Vo is breathtakingly good. It’s a magical, darkish fairy-tale tackle pre-code Hollywood a couple of queer Asian American movie star who makes a reputation for herself enjoying monsters, since she received’t faint, do an accent or take a maid position. It’s extremely intense however, at its coronary heart, exquisitely form. A type of books you’re feeling genuinely humbled to have learn.
