Sara Blayne was born and reared in Las Vegas, New Mexico, a stopover on the Santa Fe Trail nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. She graduated with a BA and MA from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, where she met and married her husband Steve. She taught Freshman English at ENMU for five years until she and Steve had their first child, a son named Caleb. She quit teaching to remain at home. Her daughter Kathryn was born two and a half years later. Sara presently resides with her husband and family, including Kathryn’s five-year-old son Morgan, and two-month-old son Tristin, on her husband’s family ranch outside of Portales.

     Her favorite pastimes are playing with her grandsons, helping Steve feed the cattle, throwing the Frisbee for Penny, her Labrador Retriever, and watching old movies on TV. She houses a menagerie of five cats, six dogs, and a Guinea pig,  most of whom belong to her daughter, an aspiring veterinarian.

     In 1985, she published her first novel, Passion’s Lady, which was nominated for Best Regency Romance by Romantic Times. An Elusive Guardian was nominated for Best Regency by Romantic Times in 1993-94. Theodora won a Gold Medal Review from Romantic Times in 1996-97 and was nominated for Best Regency the same year. In 1997, A Noble Pursuit was nominated for a RITA award. In 1998, Sara Blayne was awarded the Career Achievement Award by Romantic Times. In 1998, A Noble Resolve was nominated for Best Regency. She has published four fantasy historical romances under the nom de plume of Johanna Hailey.

The Romance Newsletter Interview for 2003

1. What do your family and friends think of your career as an author?

     The day that the editor (Wendy McCurty) called to tell me that Zebra Books had bought my first novel, Passion’s Lady, was one of the most memorable days of my life. It just happened that it was my birthday and my mom and dad had come to help me celebrate. I will never forget the look on my dad’s face when I told them who was calling and why. He went from shocked incredulity to beaming pride, an image that has stayed with me all through the years. That was in 1985, and he and Mom are both gone now, but I shall always hold that day in my heart because it was the beginning of the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, and they were both there to share it with me.
     In the seventeen years and twenty-eight novels and novellas that have come since, my husband Steve has been my greatest mainstay, my most fervent supporter. There were countless times when he looked after the kids, cooked, and took on a host of other tasks to give me the time I needed to write. His surprise gift of long-stemmed roses to celebrate the completion of a new book simply melts my heart each time he does it. He has always been there for me when I needed a word of inspiration, a comforting shoulder, or a little humor to lighten my mood. It is equally certain that I could not have done without the loving support of my son Caleb, who did not hesitate to ask the manager of an Amarillo book store why he did not have my books in stock and who has always encouraged me to pursue my dream just as I have always encouraged him to pursue his in music. And there is my daughter Kathryn, who created my beautiful web page for me, who solves all my computer problems for me, who massages my shoulders and makes me laugh whenever I am feeling discouraged.
     There are so many people I could mention—my mother-in-law, Polly, who buys my books and gives them to her friends, my sister-in-law, Candy, who suggested I try writing Romance novels and now, with her husband Glen, makes a point to stop in bookstores wherever they go to ask if they carry Sara Blayne’s novels, my neighbors Alan and Jana, who buy each of my books and bring them to me to sign, my friend, Dr. Jack Williamson, who was my mentor and who has followed my career with sympathetic interest.

2. Has anyone in your personal life ever been an influence on a character in one of your novels?

     My daughter Kathryn’s beautiful red-gold hair and mist-green eyes, along with her vibrant personality and strong sense of independence have cropped up in several of my heroines. My son Caleb’s dark, expressive eyes, his strength of character and his sensitive nature underlying his staunch masculine pride has influenced more than one hero. I have used little bits of wisdom given me by my mother-in-law in more than one book, and anytime that I mention fishing, you may be sure I am thinking of my dad, William Hurt, who was an avid fly fisherman. Kathryn Hurt, my mother, has formed the inspiration for several of my adventuresome heroines with loving hearts, and the life I have shared with my husband Steve permeates all of them.

3. What are some of your favorite themes to write about?

     Probably the most pervasive theme is the importance of trust between lovers. Without trust, there cannot be a true and lasting love. Another favorite theme is the power of love to dispel loneliness, which I believe is part of the human condition. A real love survives the hard times that are inevitable in any relationship and lasts beyond the initial, intoxicating experience of falling in love to create a bonding of souls.

4. If you were not a romance author, what do you think that you would be doing?

     I cannot imagine what it would be like not to be working on a novel. I expect if I had never sold my first book, I would probably be teaching English somewhere. I was teaching Freshman English at Eastern New Mexico University when I decided to stay at home to rear my children and began writing Passion’s Lady. Of course, I would still be helping Steve in my small way on the ranch.

5. Is there any one historical figure that you would like to go back in time and meet?

     I cannot think of one particular historical figure I would like to go back and meet, but I do think it would be great to be able to travel back in time to become acquainted with some of the early pioneers who settled the West. Kit Carson, perhaps, or some of the trail drovers who drove cattle herds to Dodge City, or some of the pioneer women who braved loneliness and uncertainty to build homes in a new, unsettled land. I cannot conceive of the courage and strength that must have been theirs.

6. Who are some of your favorite authors and how have they influenced your own writing?

     I love Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and his Lords of the Ring trilogy, Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy, C. S. Forester’s series about Horatio Hornblower, and, yes, Zane Grey’s romances set in the Old West. I cannot leave out Jack Williamson’s Darker than You Think and Humanoids, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, or James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans and, of course, Sir Conan Doyle’s marvelous stories about Sherlock Holmes as well as Edgar Alan Poe’s stories, Mark Twain’s and Georgette Heyer’s wonderful books. The list is nearly endless, but these are probably my very favorites. They introduced me to the magic that comes from weaving wonderful tales of adventure, romance, intrigue, mystery, and fantasy, all of which I have tried to incorporate into my own works. They taught me the value of a well-woven plot, of characters who capture the heart and/or the imagination, and they gave me an appreciation of the singular power of language not only to tell a story, but to portray humor and irony, which are strong elements of my particular style of writing.

7. How did you conduct your research for The Captain’s Bride?

     I began by consulting Grun and Stein’s Timetables of History in search of British naval events that occurred in or around 1800. The capture of Malta gave me an historical setting suitable for my hero, Captain Trevor Dane, and led me to explore the Internet for a description and history of the island. St. John’s Cathedral, erected by the Knights Templar to honor their dead, captured my imagination, and I soon had set up an intrigue that began in the cathedral and led back to London and my heroine, Lady Violet Rochelle. This was not my first time to write a story around a British naval captain, so I had already done extensive research into the descriptions of naval battles, conditions onboard British men-of-war, and various other details concerning the British navy. For Sea Witch, for example, I spent hours poring over books in the attempt to learn about sailing vessels and sailing itself. After all, my hero was a naval captain, and my heroine was the captain of an American privateer. For an author who was born and reared in landlocked New Mexico, it was no small feat to create a believable naval encounter between the two enemy ships. For The Captain’s Bride, I also spent time on the Internet in search of descriptions of the towns between Exeter and Bath. I settled on Yeovil because of its picturesque rural setting with its nine springs flowing into a sylvan lake. This seemed the ideal sort of place for an unexpected, romantic encounter between Lady Violet and Captain Dane. One other bit of research began with the development of the character of Violet’s grandfather, the Duke of Albermarle, who had already appeared in my earlier work about the Rochelle family, An Improper Bride. I was looking through The Timetables of History in search of books that had been published in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century that would appeal to a dabbler in science and came across C. W. Hufeland’s Macrobiotics, or the Art to Prolong One’s Life. Surprised that macrobiotics had gained a certain appeal in Europe as early as 1796, I could not resist the humorous possibilities in exposing Violet’s plethora of suitors who had laid siege to the duke’s castle in an attempt to win her hand to a macrobiotic regimen. Anyone who is familiar with the seven or more course meals that were the accepted norm among the British aristocracy of the time must appreciate the relish with which I created my macrobiotic menu.