SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Author Caroline Warfield!

Joining me today in The Loft is award-winning author Caroline Warfield! Caroline writes historical romance, taking her characters on adventures in England and far-flung corners of the UK. Caroline has embraced many roles in her lifetime--from nun to mother and Internet and Web services manager. She has retired to the urban wilds of eastern Pennsylvania, where she crafts engrossing takes of love during war and peace, and contributes to the blogs, History Imagined and The Teatime Tattler.

Author Caroline Warfield

S: Thanks for joining me today, Caroline! Tell me, why did you become a writer?

C: I come from a family of world-class storytellers and I've always been a voracious reader. Add those together and writing novels becomes inevitable. Since my intellectual wheelhouse has always been history, the odds were high that I would write historical novels.

S: What is your favorite thing about writing romance?

C: The greatest conflicts, the strongest passion, the depths of psychological motivation, all come from family. It drives much of what we do, believe, and/or are forced to overcome and reject. Romance, well written, takes people on the journey through facing or overcoming the family of origin into the formation of a whole new one. The love of a man and woman is also the process in which each of them is led to be the best version of themselves. No other drama contains the same depth, pain, and richness of conflict and growth.

S: Do you write in any other genres?

C: I don't have much interest in the detailed plot development required for mystery, but I have dabbled in straight historical fiction. I just haven't published anything in that genre yet.

S: What's the best advice you have ever given?

C: A friend told me, "If you want to be a writer, you have to write." It sounds simple, but it took me a long time to fully understand that. First of all, it means, "Just do it." It also means to hone your craft, you have to keep at it in spite of rejections, bad reviews, desertion by the plot bunnies, writer's block...whatever. You have to get up every day, get yourself in the chair, and do it. Just write and keep doing it.

S: That's sound advice for any writer. You can't be distracted by outside "noise," you just have to keep writing.

What do you crave?

C: Coffee, coffee, coffee! A friend gave me a mug that defines coffee as "a necessary beverage that inhibits anti-social behavior; to be consumed until it is socially acceptable to drink wine." So, coffee and red wine. And chocolate.

S: (Laughs.) I think you've hit all of the basics!

What is your deepest regret?

C: That I didn't start writing sooner.

S: Tell me about your book, "Christmas Hope."

C: Sure. Here's the blurb--

After two years at the mercy of the Canadian Expeditionary force and the German war machine, Harry ran out of metaphors for death, synonyms for brown, and images of darkness. When he encounters color among the floating islands of Amiens and life in the form of a widow and her little son, hope ensnares him. Through three more long years of war and its aftermath, the hope she brings keeps Harry alive.

Rosemarie Legrand’s husband left her a tiny son, no money, and a savaged reputation when he died. She struggles to simply feed the boy and has little to offer a lonely soldier, but Harry’s devotion lifts her up. The war demands all her strength and resilience, but the hope of peace and the promise of Harry’s love keep her going.