Welcome to our New Faces column, where you will meet debut authors in the romance genre. This time we're talking with Tanya Hanson, whose first historical romance is The Outlaw's Woman from Leisure.

Tanya, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself.

A native of Southern California, I am happily married to my very own hero, a sexy firefighter. We live near the beach with three Labrador Retrievers; our son and daughter are both recent graduates of USC. We love traveling to Hawaii where we relax and snorkel, and I'll be going to England in mid-July for fun, inspiration, and research--I do love medievals! I attended a small college in Nebraska and have been an English teacher and college counselor at local private high schools.

Are you coming to romance writing from another job?

After a serious change in the administration and philosophy during this past school year, I realized it was the right time to "retire" and try my hand at writing full time. I will substitute teach after the summer vacation so that I can be around real people, not just my computer.

What led you to write romance?

I grew up loving fairy tales and have been reading romances forever. Why write one? Well, I love happy endings, of course, and spicy scenes that don't use four-letter words!

Tell us about your road to publication.

A teaching colleague led me to the Orange County Chapter of RWA in March 2000. I knew it was time to start putting the stories in my head down on paper. Honestly, without my OCC "sisters," I wouldn't have had a clue how to get started. I urge any interested writers to join their local RWA chapter, and if they live within 200 miles of OCC, to join ours. (I travel about 100 miles to get to a meeting; fortunately an author friend lives about halfway and we carpool.) I'd been working on a Western set in Nebraska when I learned about the inaugural "New Historical Voice" Contest that Dorchester Publishing held last summer. Author Charlene Sands read a rough draft, and I took her advice on revising the opening "hook." I submitted my first three chapters and was thrilled to be named a finalist. Their Leisure Books line asked for the entire manuscript right away, and one day on the way to class last fall, my husband phoned me at school, saying an editor had just called at home wanting to talk to me. I told him I couldn't call her back right then as I had a class starting. His advice: Be late. Good advice, as that was the sale.

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

My good friend Nancy, born and raised in Nebraska, mentioned one day that she had an ancestor who had been gored to death by a bull. Hard to imagine, but a romance developed out of that! She and her folks supplied me with other family lore and local color when I decided to set my story in Nebraska. I guess because my favorite Western movie is The Long Riders, I knew that somehow Jesse James and the gang would have to play a part. I used the Internet to obtain facts about them to use as ideas for my outlaw, their fictional cousin. When Nancy's dad mentioned that Nebraska in the 1870s had been hit hard by invasions of grasshoppers, the Internet helped me to learn about the Rocky Mountain Locusts. I also got e-mails back from the government website at Lincoln, NE on a couple of other matters.

Who are your influences as a writer?

Because of my profession, all the big guns--Shakespeare, Dickens, Thoreau, Poe, Twain--are certainly inspirations. Romance favorites are so many...Charlene Sands is a wonderful story teller as well as critic and friend. I like Shannon Donnelly for Regency, Glynnis Campbell for medieval...Mindy Neff's contemporaries are spicy and fun. Some favorite novels that I reread constantly are Jude Devereaux's Knight in Shining Armor, an Anne Stuart novella, The High Sheriff of Huntingdon, Anya Seton's Green Darkness, Daphne du Maurier's The House on the Strand, and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Luanne Rice always manages to touch my heart, and nobody can beat Edward Rutherfurd or Norah Lofts for bringing history to life. Although crime stories aren't my favorite, I do enjoy James Patterson's fast paced mysteries.

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

They're ecstatic, having yearned for this moment as much as I have. I was thrilled to have John De Salvo on my cover, but my husband and son are far more interested in who the cover girl is.

Tell us about plans for future books.

I've had two other manuscripts, a medieval and a contemporary, requested for editorial review and my '"spin off" of The Outlaw's Woman (working title Preacher in Love) will be finished before I go to England. The preacher is the outlaw's woman's brother-in-law.

How can readers get in touch with you?

E-mail is TanHanson@aol.com.
Website URL: www.tanyahanson.net

Tanya, thanks for joining us, and best of luck! Readers, we have a review of The Outlaw's Woman in our Historical section.

September 27, 2002