This week on Romance Thursdays I had the lovely privilege of interviewing Martha Waters. I’m so excited to share this interview with you all. If you haven’t checked out the rest of my interviews in this series be sure to and see what other romance authors have to say. 

Romance Thursdays is a feature that spotlights romance authors to highlight how amazing the romance writing community is. Each week I’m will be interviewing a different romance author from across subgenres as well as both traditionally and self-published. I want to share their experience writing romance and why they love it so much. While also focusing on their writing and books. 

Martha Waters is the author of two regency rom-coms, To Have and to Hoax which was published earlier this year and To Love and to Loathe, which is set to be released in April 2021. Now let’s get into this interview. 

Hi Martha, and welcome to Angel Reads. For those that haven’t read anything by you yet. Tell us a little about yourself and your books?

I’m a children’s librarian and Anglophile who writes romantic comedies set in Regency England. My first novel, To Have and to Hoax, came out this past spring, and a companion book, To Love and to Loathe, comes out on April 6, 2021. They’re both silly, hijinks-filled rom-coms featuring a big cast of meddling friends, lots of banter, and — of course — plenty of kissing. My first book is a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers story about an estranged married couple, and the companion is about their best friends and a friends (frenemies?) with benefits type arrangement.

Why did you start writing romance novels? Is there anything in particular that drew you to it over other genres?

I always wanted to write but for the longest time, I thought I wanted to write fantasy for kids and teens. I’m not ruling out doing that eventually, but once I started reading romance novels while I was in graduate school, I got really hooked on the genre and realized that romance was full of my favorite thing to write: people sitting around talking to each other. I just love interpersonal relationships between characters, which is what romance is all about. To Have and to Hoax is the first romance I ever attempted, after a few years post-college of trying and failing to get a YA book published, and I just instantly knew once I started writing it that it was the right fit for me.

Both of your books are historical rom-coms. What is your favourite thing about combining historical romance and romantic comedy? Why did you decide to do that? 

I really like all the tropes and societal rules of Regency romances — and I’m just generally obsessed with all things England — but I wanted to write something that felt really fresh and young and modern and appeal to readers my age. I kind of just wrote the book I wanted to read, to be honest, and this is the result — I think it’s the best of both worlds.

What is your favourite thing about romance as a genre? Why do you like reading and writing it?

I love all the tropes! It’s so fun to see a trope you’ve seen done over and over again executed in a really clever, original way by a great author. The predictability of some of the beats in a romance novel — the mid-book coming together, the third act breakup, the happily ever after — is really comforting to me as a reader.

What are some of your favourite tropes that you like reading and writing in the romance genre?

I love enemies-to-lovers (which both of my books kind of are, but also kind of aren’t, if that makes sense). I also really love marriage in trouble stories (which my first book definitely is), marriage of convenience (I want to write one of these!), and fake dating.

Who are some of your favourite romance authors? Who inspired you to write?

Julia Quinn is the reason I started reading and writing romance, and I’m inspired by a lot of other historical authors in addition to her, including Loretta Chase, Eloisa James, Cat Sebastian, and Tessa Dare. In the contemporary space, I love Lucy Parker, Sonali Dev, Kate Clayborn, Jasmine Guillory, and Sally Thorne.

What are some of the ways that you think we can start overcoming the stigma of romance novels?  

I think we’ve made good progress in this regard in the past few years. And I hate to say it, but I think the popularity of illustrated covers has helped in some ways, in that it’s lured new readers to the genre and once they’re here we can get them hooked on other romances with more traditionally “romancey” looking covers. I have so many friends who read romance now who didn’t read the genre even three or four years ago, so that gives me a lot of hope. I also think we need to continue to diversify as a genre and make it less of a straight, white space so that it feels like something relevant to the modern world, which will attract even more readers, and the more readers we have, the less of a stigma there will be!

Do you currently have any books in the works? Is there anything that you are looking forward to writing, but haven’t started yet? 

I’m working on something right now that I, unfortunately, can’t talk about because it’s not yet announced, or even under contract! But once I can (hopefully) share more about it, I will. I also have an idea for a fantasy rom-com I want to try writing, if I can find some time in between other projects — hopefully soon!

Thank you so much for coming by Angel Reads. It was lovely having you here. And I can’t wait to read more of your books!

Thank you so much for inviting me!

***

I hope that you a lovely time getting to know Martha Waters. I know that I can’t wait to read her books now. 

If there is an author that you would like to see featured here, please do let me know. And I will try my best. If you are a romance author and would like to be apart of Romance Thursdays, don’t hesitate to message me. 

Have you read any Martha Waters books before? What did you think of them? Are you excited for more Romance Thursday posts? Let’s Chat! 

 

About The Author 

Martha Waters is the author of To Have and to Hoax and To Love and to Loathe. She was born and raised in sunny South Florida and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She works as a children’s librarian in North Carolina and spends much of her free time travelling.

Twitter | Instagram | Website | Newsletter | Goodreads