Shana Galen

Shana Galen is an award-winning writer and bestselling author of over fifty historical romances. Galen taught middle and high school English in Houston’s inner city for more than a decade. She is also dedicated to animal rescue and advocacy. She writes full-time, surrounded by four rescued cats and one spoiled rescue dog.

Galen's new Regency romance is A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord tells readers exactly what they are getting in this book. It’s a class divide romance featuring a lower-class woman and an upper-class man. Of course, there is so much more to the book than this trope, but my publishing team and I saw the title as a window into one of the central conflicts in the novel. When you’re titling a book set in the past, additional points to consider are what words were in use in that time and whether those words are still in use today and how much the connotation of those words has changed. For example, as the book opens the female main character sells flowers for a living; she’s a flower girl. But today a flower girl is a little girl who scatters flowers before the bride walks down the aisle, so that description wouldn’t work. There’s a lot of brainstorming and discussion and trial and error before a final title is decided.

What's in a name?

Characters’ names are so very important for signaling who they are in this book. Garret Kildare is the second son of an Irish earl. His Irish name is Gearoid, and Garret is the Anglicized version. Since he comes from an upper-class family, he needs a name that reflects his social position and his ancestry. Tamsin Archer is the female main character. Tamsin, in the early 1800s, was a lower-class name. The aristocracy were naming their daughters Elizabeth, Georgiana, and Sophia. I also wanted to give her a surname that reflected her personality. She’s very direct and goes for what she wants, which is why Archer works so well for her.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

As a teenager I read a lot of Stephen King and Anne Rice. I didn’t read romance at all, but I was very romantic in that I always daydreamed about the boys I had crushes on performing grand gestures to win my love (which never happened, unfortunately). I might be surprised that I grew up to write books that don’t feature vampires or scary clowns, but I would probably like the history and the love stories a lot and connect with those aspects.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I don’t find beginnings or ending difficult at all. Those are the easiest parts of the book to write. The middle is the hardest part for me. I suppose I do end up changing the beginning of the book more than anything else. I often start stories too early, meaning that I write a chapter or 20 pages of story that, upon more reflection, doesn’t need to be in the final book. I’m writing it for me so I can get to know the characters. I often cut those first pages or go back and change where the story starts or just make the first chapter sharper and more concise.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

In A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord neither character is like me. Tamsin is tough and a force unto herself. She’s a survivor—jaded and distrustful because that’s how she’s made it this far. I wouldn’t last a day in her world. Garret is kind of a frat boy in that he’s really social and fun-loving. He lives for a party. I’m not like that at all. He is the kind of person who has a soft spot for people or animals in need, and I think we overlap a bit in that way.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

For this book, in particular, I’d say several movies were influential. The book has shades of the film My Fair Lady, not because Garret tries to “better” Tamsin but because of the conflicts that arise from class differences. Pretty in Pink is another movie I enjoy because the characters really have to struggle with the pressures of the outside world interfering with their romance. Love isn’t always enough when two people are from opposite worlds.

Visit Shana Galen's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord.

--Marshal Zeringue