Welcome to our New Faces column, where you can meet debut romance authors and find out about their books. This time we're visiting with Kathleen Baldwin, whose first novel is Lady Fiasco, a Zebra Regency.

Kathleen, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in Arizona and moved fourteen times before high school. My early years overflowed with the challenges of adjusting to different schools and meeting new people. Consequently, I have scores of characters to draw from.

I married a very heroic man, an alpha male. So, we have lots of character building conflict, but he’s my best friend, even after twenty-three years of marriage, I still love to see his face every morning. And his mind is like no other mind I have ever met on my journey through earth. So, when I write about love it’s with some serious experience behind the words.

Are you coming to romance writing from another job?

I’m a mother of four--that’s a full time job, especially with my wild bunch, three boys and one girl. I adore my children. But yes, I have a BA in Art and Design, and I freelanced as an artist for many years, working for manufacturers designing models for toys. Very fun, but I quit in order to have time to write.

What led you to write romance?

We, humans, learn and grow from the stories we hear and read. Most of the great plays, most of our memorable stories have love at the core. Romance is more than just a fairy-tale for women--it’s at the heart of great literature--Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, Great Expectations, Little Women, on and on. Try to imagine Star Wars without the romantic intrigue between Han and Princess Leah. Romantic love is integral to the human condition. Ever since Adam met Eve and Jacob met Rachel, the world has been full of love stories. I am delighted and honored to share in their company.

Tell us about your road to publication.

My road to publications was a long and bumpy one. I started writing back in the days of the typewriter. My first submission was in high school. And, while my nonfiction and some poetry found its way into print, my fiction kept getting rejected. I just couldn’t get an editor to read it. I have 63 fiction rejection notices.

I joined Romance Writer’s of America, a great organization, had marvelous critique partners and, of course, read every writing book known to man. But to be honest, sometimes it is just a matter of getting an editor to spend the time reading the work. My wonderful editor at Kensington took the time. For that I am very grateful. Afterward, she bought several more books from me.

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

I spent years researching the Regency period. This is one of my pet peeves--sometimes, people feel they’ve become an expert on this tiny time period and indulge in all sorts of weird assumptions based on generalizations. Unfortunately, there are very few actual experts on the Regency--although I have acquired an adequate background, I do not claim to be one.

The Regency is an extremely complex juncture in our history. The people were as unique and different as they are in our current day. It is a time of conformists and extremists, ultra-morality and vile depravity. There were those deeply interested in the burgeoning scientific discoveries of the time and others who were doggedly tied to traditions and superstitions. It is a time of extreme diversity. For example, my heroine knows how to swim, and while most of the townspeople would not know how, there are historical examples of others who did swim quite well, Lord Byron for one.

Tell us about your debut book.

Lady Fiasco is about a delightful young lady who has the unfortunate habit of attracting mishaps. Fiona is a fish out of water, more likely to spill tea over a guest, than to pour it out correctly. The question is, can a lady with a reputation for disaster stumble into love?

When Fiona was young, Lord Wesmont was her hero. But he came home from fighting Napoleon a hardened man. And nothing can breathe life back into his cold heart... nothing except, perhaps, the love of this unusual young woman who regularly turns his life upside-down.

Who are your influences as a writer?

My mother did not allow television in our home when we were young. She used to read to us every night. She read Heidi to us, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Little House on the Prairie, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, and many other books. I treasured those nights curled up in the window seat listening to her voice as she carried me away to other realms.

My mother died when I was thirteen, almost fourteen. How can I ever thank her for the gift she gave me? I continued to love reading and spent hours and hours with wonderful authors like: Kipling, Victor Hugo, Dickens, P.G. Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, O’Henry, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Anya Seton, Daphne De Maurier, (Ooh, have you read Jamaica Inn?) and, of course, Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen.

I loved them all! They are part of my blood. I have been there with them in those worlds they spun out of magical words.

What does your family think of having a published romance author in their midst?

Only my mother-in-law is impressed. Mostly, it’s like: “Well, finally.” Probably because my sister is published, my brother-in-law has eight books out, and even my oldest son, who had a column in the Dallas Morning News, was more published than I was. In my family, writers put their pants on the same way everyone else does.

Tell us about plans for future books.

Lady Alameda, the heroine’s Machiavellian aunt in LADY FIASCO, returns to mess up another niece’s love life in MISTAKEN KISS, a Zebra Regency, March 2005. She meddles with her mysterious nephew’s hunt for a wife, in CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH, a Zebra Regency, October 2005. I enjoy Lady Alameda, she’s such a devious and funny woman, she’s modeled loosely after my own crazy aunt. She’s in these three books and who knows where she might pop up after that?

I am currently writing a historical romance, set in the wild territory of Arizona in 1886, is coming out in May 2005, a Zebra Historical romance, written under my pseudonym, Katie Alder.

How can readers get in touch with you?

I would love to hear from readers. Tell me what you think. Ask questions. My website www.KathleenBaldwin.com has an email address on it: kat.baldwin@comcast.net

Kathleen thank you for visiting with us, and best of luck with your future books!