Coming soon!

What's the story behind THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER and what inspired you to write it? What about the characters in this book intrigued you?

THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER is a historical romance set largely in the year 1812. I longed to write a fully fleshed out historical tale set in that year. So, in researching, I read through the trial transcripts of the Old Bailey (the central criminal court for London at this time), looking for inspiration for a story. I came across the transcript of the trial of John Bellingham. Bellingham is the only person to ever assassinate a serving British Prime Minister; shooting the PM, Spencer Percival, in the lobby of the House of Commons as Percival was walking through there on his way to answer questions on the British policies that would only months later cause the War of 1812. Percival lived long enough to announce, "I am murdered." One of his sons was present in the lobby, hoping to get a moment with his dad, and witnessed his father's assassination. (That boy, as a man in the Victorian age, would become a strong advocate for the rights of the mentally ill. But that's another book entirely.) In that trial transcript, Bellingham's landlady said John Bellingham had returned one morning from shopping with a new prayerbook. She stated she believed him to be a religious man. That's where my writer's imagination took over.

Suppose that Bellingham went to a fashionable London bookstore to purchase his prayerbook. Suppose he wasn't looking where he was going and walked right into a young gentlewoman, nearly knocking her off her feet. Nothing more than a chance occurrence in either of their lives. Nothing that either of them would have thought about twice, under normal circumstances.

Now, who could this woman have been? What was her story? The /ton/ was an interconnected social structure. Who were her people? What was her life like? Did her family have political connections? All Anglican nobles sat in the House of Lords, some being more active in lawmaking than others. Did she personally know the Prime Minister, who was a younger son of the Second Earl of Egmont? Did they have family connections? Or just social ones? How did she feel on the night that Percival was murdered and Parliament was mobbed to the extent that the Horse Guards were called out to prevent the mob from freeing Bellingham? How did the subsequent shutdown of the Royal Mails, as an effort to keep the suspected revolutionaries from communicating with one another, affect her? Was she caught up in the fear that Percival's assassination was another sign of growing social unrest? The French Terror was still a fairly recent memory. And there was substantial social unrest in the North with the Luddites. Conspiracy and revolution were the first thoughts of the Home Office. How did this affect her and those around her? Perhaps her beau might have been on the team of prosecutors involved in trying Bellingham? Perhaps some of her family members had witnessed the assassination? What sort of woman would she be?

THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER came out of that speculation. It is Jane Sommersby's story. I like Jane a good deal. She’s a good woman; feisty, strong, and vulnerable to the people she loves. I'll be telling the stories of the some of the other members of her family in their own books later on. I'm playing with Reggie's and Arthur's, as well as Edmund's stories now and the tales of some of the younger girls who will have come of age in the beginning of the Victorian era. And I'm very much interested in telling Jane's parents' romance, a story that was only sketched out in THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER . I have no idea when I'll actually write any of those.

What do you want to tell with your stories? Any message in your books?

I want to draw as real and fully fleshed out people as possible. I want my readers to walk away feeling that they know my characters. I want to tell stories that are entertaining.

Tell us something that no one else knows about you.

I very much doubt that there is anything that no one else knows about me. I live a very quiet life as a rule. Between my husband of 30 plus years, my close friends, my parents, my children and my confessor, there is someone who knows everything about me. Everyone may not know everything, but, in the aggregate, I believe I have no secrets.

What tools do you use as a writer? Pen and paper? Or computer and printer all the way?

I will write character sketches longhand. I buy 70 count spiral notebooks at the start of the school year sales, when they are a dime or so each. (Did I mention that I'm intensely tight with a dollar?) Often I write those while at swim meets or other sports' events my 15 year old is involved in. Those character sketches are detailed. In this process, the characters become real to me. Only when the characters are real, do I begin to write the book. When the writing begins, it is strictly on the computer.

What are you reading now?

I'm teaching a course in the writings of C.S. Lewis this year for the local homeschool high school co-op. So I've been re-reading those books to be better prepared to lead the teenagers in discussing those works. My high school second year Latin class is reading the Gallic Wars this year, so I’m re-reading Caesar as well. For fun, I've been reading the British "Girls Night Out" anthologies that benefited the War Child charity.

What can readers look for next from you?

Look for the LIKE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE Anthology, in trade paperback which will include reissues of my historical romance novellas The Peasant's Wise Daughter and A Gift of Frankincense. Both will also be released separately in electronic formats. My vampire romances DREAM LOVER and DREAM JOB will also be reissued in trade paperback and electronic formats. My Regency romances SUITORS AND SCOUNDRELS and THE RELUCTANT COUNTESS will be coming out again in trade paperback. Release dates aren't certain right now but Sleeping Beagle Books will be publishing all of them. You can find updates on release dates here: http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/jewelsupcoming.html.

What are you working on now?

I'm putting together an anthology to benefit pancreatic cancer research. I've lost two very good friends to pancreatic cancer within the last couple of years: Ronda Thompson and Patricia White. This project is in their memory. The anthology will be called FORSWORN. Both Pat and Ronda loved the fantasy genre. So this anthology will be fantasy. I'm in the first stages of organizing this. But the nuts and bolts of this can be found at www.sleepingbeaglebooks.com on the Submissions tab. All the proceeds from this effort will be donated to a recognized charity that funds research into pancreatic cancer cures, treatment, and prevention. The anthology will be in print and electronic formats, sold in print at Amazon, in e-format through hundreds of distributors. I expect this to be published in 2010.

Aside from the anthology, I have several other projects in the works. There are the spin-off projects from THE BISHOP'S DAUGHTER. I'm working on a series about triplet sisters who all took very different paths in life. My project list contains a good two dozen books in various stages of plotting and writing at the moment. I'm also editing books by several very good new writers. I'm very busy at the moment.