Welcome to our New Faces column, where we introduce some fo the newest romance authors on your bookstore's shelves. This week we're visiting with Karen White, whose Civil War time-travel, In the Shadow of the Moon, is a July release from Dorchester.

Karen, welcome to TRR! Tell us about yourself.

My father worked for an oil company so my family lived all over the world. I was raised with three brothers, which meant I spent a good portion of my childhood running and screaming while I was chased with some horrid insect or reptile. Our two year stint in Venezuela was filled with me being chased by my brothers with iguanas, insects as big as my head, and once being attacked by an ocelot.

We returned to civilization and spent seven years in London, England. We lived one block away from Regent's Park and next door to the Royal Academy of Music. I will always treasure the many memories of my time spent there. I attended the American School in London through high school and when I graduated, I attended Tulane University in New Orleans, LA where I received a BS in Management.

A husband and two children later, I am now a stay-at-home-mother/novelist. We live in Georgia where the summers are beastly but the rest of the seasons are perfect (as long as you don't have allergies).

Are you coming to romance writing from another job?

I stopped working outside the home eight years ago when I had my first child. I had been working as an Operations Manager for a software development company.

I started writing IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON one night about four years after I retired from the work force. Even though that book has long been finished and will be hitting bookshelves this summer, I haven't stopped writing since. I realize how very, very blessed I am to be able to pursue this wonderful hobby without having to deal with an outside job as so many other author friends do.

What led you to write romance? Are you a longtime reader?

I cut my romance reading teeth on Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss when I was in seventh grade and living in London. Even before that, though, I used to sneak my grandmother's inspirational romances off her bookshelves when visiting her during my summers. Soon, I was devouring Victoria Holt's gothics, Susan Howatch's family sagas and just about any romance I could get my hands on. Since I lived in the city, I could walk just a few blocks to a bookstore and spend my hard-earned baby-sitting money on whatever I wanted. I learned early on that no matter what I read, there had to be a love story somewhere between the covers.

So, when I started my book, I knew that it would have to be a story that I would want to read. It was a given that no matter what else happened in the book, there had to be a man and a woman whom I admired and loved, and they had to fall in love against whatever odds I threw at them.

Tell us about your road to publication.

I started writing IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON in the fall of 1996 and completed it, writing sporadically, in the spring of 1998. I promptly entered it into the Washington Romance Writer's MARLENE contest and it won. The finalist judge was an agent and she requested to see the rest of the manuscript. I sent it to her, she liked it, and she sent me a contract. She suggested revisions, so I worked on revising it, sent it back to my agent and then she sent it out to publishers. I signed my contract with Dorchester in November 1999. So, yeah, I got an agent and an editor without ever having to write a query letter.

My story is highly unusual and not at all like I expected my road to getting published to be. Again, I feel very blessed, and I owe so much of it to luck and to being in the right place at the right time. And to my agent, of course, for having such great insight!

What kind of research was involved for your first book?

Since my first book is a Civil War time-travel, there was quite a bit of research involved. Not being totally insane, I picked a town nearby where I lived that had quite a history during the Civil War period. Even with a 4 year old and a 2 year old in tow, researching was made easy by the wonderful people of the Roswell, Georgia Historical Society. Their museum has a wonderful book shop and I was able to obtain reproduced diaries from people living in the town during the War Between the States as well as maps showing the layout of the town during that time. I also made sure that I did the walking tour of the town as well as take in all of the house tours available in Roswell's historical district.

I would like to say that the research was hard, but that would be lying. I had way too much fun!

Who are your influences as a writer?

My favorite authors are Margaret Mitchell and Diana Gabaldon. Even though its been several years since I read either one of them, their characters remain in my head as fresh and original as when I first read their stories.

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

I think they're mostly embarrassed--but I think that stems from my cover. The woman on the cover (nearly naked and tearing off the shirt of the hero) looks like my identical twin. My brothers think it's outrageously funny--but they know it's not really me because there's no bug on the woman's head.

My mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, husband and children are my greatest supporters. They think it is the coolest thing to be related to a published romance author. My 8 year old daughter refers to me as "famous."

Tell us about plans for future books.

I have completed a contemporary love-triangle/southern gothic. My ever-wise agent wants me to revise it and I have plans to do so in the near future. I have submitted a proposal to my editor at Dorchester for their new historical gothic line, Candleglow, and am waiting to hear on that. In the meantime, I'm working on a contemporary mainstream called Falling Home. It's a southern coming home story and my favorite so far. I'm madly in love with the hero, Sam. I hope to have it to my agent in the next couple of weeks.

How can readers get in touch with you?

Via email at BlarnKaren@aol.com or by writing to Karen White, PO Box 451456, Atlanta, GA 31145. They can also visit my website at http://www.karen-white.com. They can read an excerpt, order a bookplate and enter my contest (which should be up and running by the middle of July).

Karen, thanks for joining us, and best of luck! Readers, we have a review of In the Shadow of the Moon on our Time-travel page.

Sept. 16, 2000