Yuletide Interview with Lauren Willig, Author of The Mischief of the Mistletoe: A Pink Carnation Christmas

From the desk of Laurel Ann Nattress: 

Lauren Willig, one of my favorite historical romance novelists, has just released The Mischief of the Mistletoe, her seventh novel in The Pink Carnation series. Set in Regency-era Bath she has elevated Reginald “Turnip” Fitzhugh, one of her very popular comedic characters from the series, and given him his own spy adventure and a romance. One of the supporting characters is our very own Jane Austen and the storyline parallels her unfinished novel The Watsons. It is rollicking great romantic adventure and I recommend The Mischief of the Mistletoe highly.

Please join me in welcoming Lauren Willig today to chat with us about her new novel and its Jane Austen connections.


AUTHOR INTERVIEW

LAN: Welcome Lauren. Many of your male characters in the Pink Carnation series are iconic romantic heroes, rivaling Jane Austen’s Mr. Darcy or Captain Wentworth in honor, bravery and integrity. Only one is a lovable bumbler – Reginald “Turnip” Fitzhugh. He is endearingly flawed, and because I dearly love to laugh, one of my favorite characters. Turnip is a very unusual name. Can you share his back-story and why you decided to spotlight this un-conventional hero in The Mischief of the Mistletoe?

LJW:  I hadn’t intended to write a book about Turnip.  I threw him in there purely for comic relief.  Ever notice how any group of guys seems to contain the one slightly clueless friend who acts as a foil for the rest of them?  (Extra points if that guy is named Bertie, Bunty or Gussy Finknottle.)  Turnip was that guy.  But as the series continued, emails started pouring in, asking when Turnip was going to get some lovin’.  And I began to wonder if there might not be more to my lovable vegetable than I had previously imagined.

There was a school of thought that posited that Turnip was another Percy Blakeney, hiding a cunning intelligence beneath a foppish façade.  I didn’t want to go that route, partly because Baroness Orczy already had, and partly because it seemed too easy.  I wanted to make Turnip heroic despite his lack of endowment in the brainbox.  The more I explored Turnip’s character the clearer it became that he really did have one thing going for him, hidden beneath those gaudy waistcoats: an enormous heart.

Side note: several people have asked me how Turnip came to be called Turnip.  As followers of the series know, his real name is Reginald and his doting (ahem) sister calls him “Reggie”.  At least, she does when she wants something from him.  When I wrote the early books in the series, I was on the tail end of a massive Blackadder obsession.  As anyone who has watched Blackadder knows, just as sheep are inherently amusing animals, turnips are inherently amusing vegetables.  When I wanted a silly name for a character, what better than the sheep of the vegetable kingdom?

LAN: In 1803 Bath, your impoverished heroine Arabella Dempsey has returned to her family and friends after several years as a companion to a wealthy aunt in London. Her neighbor and best friend Jane Austen is a supporting character in your story. What research did you undergo to prepare for her character? Was it a challenge to write about the famous Regency-era authoress?

LJW: Wow, this was really my book of “I never intended….”  But I do mean it when I say I originally didn’t intend to go near Austen with a ten foot pole.  People have very firm idea about Austen and the era of Austen.  My books deal with zany French spies and improbable historical episodes (many of which actually occurred—there’s nothing quite so improbable as the actual, and nothing quite so strange as truth).  This is not the orderly world of Austen’s drawing rooms.

Except that this book was occurring in Austen’s drawing-room. Well, almost.  I knew I wanted to set Turnip’s book in Bath in 1803, revolving largely around a faux all-girls’ school across the street from the Sydney Gardens.  In the winter of 1803, guess who was living at #4 Sydney Place?  Yes, Jane Austen.  I bowed to the inevitable and spent a great deal of time reading Austen’s letters, her juvenilia, the annoying biographies written by her near and dear ones, and more useful biographies written by less near and dear ones in the hopes of getting her tone as right as I could.

Getting the right balance of Austen-time and Austen-tone was tough.  I didn’t want to fall into the trap of making Austen sound too oracular, which, I think, so often happens in these Austen cameos.  I also didn’t want her to take over too much of the story.  This, after all, was Arabella and Turnip’s tale, not hers, and, in 1803, she wasn’t the authoress who would be later admired by Prinny himself, but just an unmarried twenty-seven-year-old living with her parents in rented rooms, waiting to see if that publisher would ever do anything with “Susan” (he didn’t) and whether she could buy some cheap trim for that old bonnet.  I wanted her to be what she would have been—someone’s slightly snarky friend, on the sidelines of the main action.

LAN: You cleverly incorporated characters and plot elements that parallel Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons into The Mischief of the Mistletoe. I can see strong similarities and differences. Some might consider your new novel a variation and completion of Austen’s unfinished novel. I view it as a gentle homage. What intrigued you about the often overlooked The Watsons to include resemblances in your novel?

LJW: There was an almost uncanny symbiosis at work.  It all began with timing.  My novel was set in 1803, just when Austen was beginning The Watsons, the one thing she wrote during a long, dry spell in between her early works and her later ones.  What was it that had inspired The Watsons?  And why had she dropped it?  No one seemed to know.  What author can resist a challenge like that?

When I opened The Watsons, one exchange jumped out at me.  Emma Watson declares:

“Poverty is a great evil; but to a woman of education and feeling it ought not, it cannot be the greatest. I would rather be teacher at a school (and I can think of nothing worse) than marry a man I did not like.”

“I would rather do anything than be teacher at a school,” said her sister. “I have been at school, Emma, and know what a life they lead; you never have.”

I already knew that my heroine, Arabella, was seeking a position at a girls’ school.  This hit eerily close to home.  That’s when the “what if” hit.  What if it was my heroine who inspired this exchange?  What if, like Emma Watson, she had been tossed out of the home of a wealthy relation when that relation imprudently remarried?  What if, unlike Emma Watson, she actually took that position at a school—over the advice of her friend, Jane?  Like that, my plot came together, and facts I hadn’t realized I’d known about my heroine became clear.

Of course, with the addition of mysterious messages wrapped around Christmas pudding, Arabella’s story takes a turn Austen could never have anticipated….  And now we know why Austen never finished The Watsons!

LAN: The highly anticipated eighth novel in your Pink Carnation series, The Orchid Affair, will be released on January 20, 2010. As you continue the “Pink” franchise, how did this new story come to you, and can you share with readers one of your favorite new characters?

LJW: Picture it.  Spring 2008.  I’d just finished writing The Temptation of the Night Jasmine and was rewarding myself by indulging in a little domesticity before plunging into the next book in the series, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily.  I’d made a large, complicated quiche that involved a lot of frying and chopping, and I was plopped on the couch, flipping channels as it baked.  I wound up idly watching a World War II drama starring, among others, Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffith, and Liam Neeson.  Griffith’s character goes undercover in Nazi Germany, planted in the household of high-ranking something-or-other Neeson as a governess.

There was one problem.  The Liam Neeson character was meant to be evil (I mean, he was a Nazi, ergo), but he was still Liam Neeson.  As I watched, I kept waiting for that plot twist that would make him not evil, i.e. secretly working for the other side or something like that.  It didn’t happen.  I wandered off to the oven to retrieve slightly burnt quiche in one of those hazes unique to authors and other spaced-out types, thinking, hmm, I can use this….  And I did.

The Orchid Affair features a graduate of the Selwick Spy school, a long-term career governess desperate to get away from governessing, planted in the household of Napoleonic bigwig Andre Jaouen—as a governess.  Jaouen is a card-carrying member of the revolutionary regime.  He’s second in command at the Prefecture of Paris and right hand man to Napoleon’s sinister Minister of Police, Joseph Fouche.

Through Andre Jaouen, I got to explore the failed hopes of the Revolution, to look at the course of events, not through the eyes of an aristocratic Englishman, but through those of a child of the Enlightenment, someone who believed in the early dreams and ideals of the Revolution and is forced to come to terms with the way it all turned out.  And did I mention that he looks oddly like Liam Neeson?

LAN: In addition to your next installment in the “Pink” series, your original short story “A Night at Northanger” will be featured in my anthology, Jane Austen Made Me Do It, to be released by Ballantine Books in October, 2011. Do share a bit of your storyline and inspiration for your contemporary homage to Austen’s burlesque comedy Northanger Abbey. Was it any easy step from novel to short story? Are there any surprises in store for readers?

LJW: As you may have noticed from this interview, brevity is not one of my strengths.  The last time I’d written short fiction was for a short story class back in college—and even then I’d found it hard to confine my enthusiasm to the proscribed page length.  But I had a fabulous time writing “A Night at Northanger”.

Northanger Abbey, with its broad comedy (and a genuinely sweet hero in Henry Tilton) has always been my favorite Austen.  I’m not quite sure where I came up with the idea of combining Northanger Abbey with a low-budget ghost hunting show.  Too much SyFy channel on an empty stomach?

Here’s the plot in a nutshell:  Things go horribly wrong for Cate Kartowski and the rest of the cast of Ghost Trackers when they elect to spend a night at Northanger.  (No one expects the ghost of Jane Austen!)

LAN: On his deathbed, famous playwright George Bernard Shaw said “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” I could not agree more. You excel at high comedy, sharing a rare sense of the ridiculous with fellow authors Georgette Heyer, P.G. Wodehouse and Oscar Wilde. How did you develop your sense of humor and who inspires you?

LJW: Thank you so much!  That is a high compliment, indeed.  My college roommate, who has an equal facility for the appreciation of the ridiculous, refers to it as having a well-developed sense of the absurd.  I’m not sure how that sort of thing comes about.  Part of it, I’m guessing, comes from having been steeped in eccentricity from an early age.  I grew up watching Wodehouse (back before Hugh Laurie became a grumpy American doctor) and Rumpole of the Bailey, Blackadder and Allo, Allo.   And then there were the real life characters (hopefully none of whom are reading this interview, but best not to be too specific, just to be on the safe side).

From those beginnings, it was an easy step to Elizabeth Peters’ mystery novels, with their wry humor, the social satire of Nancy Mitford and Angela Thirkell, and Judith Merkle Riley’s delightfully batty historical fiction.  Other icons include George MacDonald Fraser (one word: Pyrates), L.M. Montgomery (boy, can she skewer them!), and Stella Gibbons, author of Cold Comfort Farm.

LAN: What is next for Lauren Willig? What are you working on now, and what is your dream project that you have simmering on the back burner? Personally, I think it is time to write that Pink Carnation Compendium that I am craving. Hint, hint!

LJW: Right now, I’m on revisions for Pink IX, still cleverly called Pink IX.  Speaking of the absurd….  Pink IX, which comes out in January 2012, features that melodramatic poet, Augustus Whittlesby, writing a court masque in conjunction with an upstart American friend of Napoleon’s stepdaughter.  Let’s just say it’s an interesting collaboration.  And that their masque isn’t going to be winning any awards for Best Script.

As for dream projects… I’d tell you about them, but that would probably jinx them!

Thanks so much for having me here, Laurel Ann!  It’s been such fun.

My pleasure, Lauren.


AUTHOR BIO

Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Pink Carnation series and several stand alone works of historical fiction, including “The Ashford Affair”, “That Summer”, “The Other Daughter”, and “The Forgotten Room” (co-written with Karen White and Beatriz Williams). Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. After graduating from Yale University, she embarked on a PhD in English History at Harvard before leaving academia to acquire a JD at Harvard Law while authoring her “Pink Carnation” series of Napoleonic-set novels. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.


BOOK INFORMATION

  • The Mischief of the Mistletoe: A Pink Carnation Christmas, by Lauren Willig
  • Dutton; First Edition (October 28, 2010)
  • Hardcover, trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook (352) pages
  • ISBN: 978-0525951872
  • Genre: Historical Mystery, Regency Romance, Holiday Reading

ADDITIONAL INFO | ADD TO GOODREADS

Austenprose is an Amazon affiliate. Cover image, author interview, book description, & author bio courtesy of Dutton © 2010; text Laurel Ann Nattress © 2010, austenprose.com. Updated 19 March 2022.

40 thoughts on “Yuletide Interview with Lauren Willig, Author of The Mischief of the Mistletoe: A Pink Carnation Christmas

Add yours

  1. What a magnificent interview! This most definitely sound like a series I should get into. I really love Jane Austen’s fragment of the Watsons. I would love to see your variation of it!

    It was interesting to learn where you draw your inspiration from. You don’t always have to be looking for an idea, I guess, they sometimes find you. Your next book sounds like an exciting adventure. And a main character that looks like Liam Neeson? Woo-hoo! I’m there!

    Thanks for the lovely interview and giveaway opportunity ladies!

    Meredith
    merry816@aol.com

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Great interview! I’ve had my eye on this book, especially after reading some great reviews. It seems like the perfect holiday read, especially if you are a Jane Austen fan!

    The part that intrigued me was the fact that this book incorporates the plot and characters of Austen’s unfinished novel. I didn’t know that and now I am more desperate to read this! Thanks for this fabulous giveaway! Happy Holidays!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I haven’t got around to reading Mischief yet, but since I’ve always had a soft spot for Turnip, I’m thinking whoever he ends up with will make them my favourites.

    Great interview. I’ve been enjoying these books since the beginning and now I know they’ll be continuing at least to no IX. That means another book I can recommend. Thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. The Mischief of the Mistletoe seventh in the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. What ifs and a zany comedy written by someone with “a well-developed sense of the absurd.” Having been lovingly accused of that myself a time or two makes it all immensely inviting–especially since I just went through the entire Jeeves and Wooster series on DVD for the first time ever and feel a certain affinity for anyone who appreciates the charm of Bertie and his madcap friends. I also particularly enjoyed reading about the genesis of the book. It sounds like an altogether charming read.
    Smiles,
    Teresa

    Like

  5. I just read & enjoyed The Scarlet Pimpernel, and the Pink Carnation series has been recommended by so many (online and IRL) that I really need to read it!

    Like

  6. I have just started reading this series and so far I just love it. I first found the series because of your blog so thank you. I agree with Margay. Everything about this book intrigues me :)

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  7. I know that movie Lauren Willig was talking about! It’s called Shining Through and it was based on a novel by Susan Isaacs(a lot of changes from page to screen on that one). Liam was a dish in that one,even as a bad guy:)

    Like

  8. I love the cover illustration! It sounds like a fun read, especially since Jane Austen makes a “cameo” appearance. It sounds as though I also better make some time to finally read “The Watsons.”

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  9. I just returned Mischief of the Mistletoe to the library because I couldn’t renew it again. It was wonderful! I have listened to the rest of the series, but I couldn’t wait for Turnip’s story on audio. Please put me in for the book. Thanks.

    Like

  10. I love Mistletoe, especially the puddings. Jane’s appearances were perfect. :) I’ve been eagerly awaiting Orchid since I read the first chapter.

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  11. I love Lauren’s books (I’ve already read this one and am eagerly awaiting Pink VIII :)) but of all her couples, I like Miles and Henrietta the best, because I love boy next door romances (Hello, Mr. Knightley :))

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  12. I bought this book on the strength of your review, Laurel Ann, so don’t put me in for the giveaway, please. I am currently reading it, and laughing out loud at so many things! It is absolutely wondeful, and I’m happy to read the background supplied in your great interview with the author. It’s so entertaining that I’m seriously considering getting the rest of the books in the series. Thank you, ladies.

    Like

  13. What an insightful interview, Laurel Ann! No wonder I’m enjoying Ms. Lauren Willig’s sense of ‘the absurd’ so much… I’m also a huge fan of Blackadder and Lucy Maud Montgomery!

    Thanks again for introducing me to this series. My favorite is still Amy and Richard (aka The Purple Gentian)… =)

    Like

  14. I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t read any of the Pink Carnation series, but I have ordered the first book for myself for Christmas. I love the idea of Jane Austen being a neighbor and supporting character in this story. Sounds just wonderful. Thanks for the giveaway.

    Like

  15. Really a fabulous interview. What drew me to this story, besides all the great reviews, was Turnip. I love that type of hero…a man with a great heart and depth beyond the surface, something only the “right” woman could see. I am new to the Pink Carnation world so I am anxious to sink my teeth into this book.

    Thank you!

    Like

  16. Lauren Willig possessed the ability to make this shy little girl laugh very loudly in the presence of people who consider her mute. Her characters are relatable, her humor funny and I can’t for the next instalment :)

    Like

  17. I just started reading this book last night. I’m so excited to finally have Turnip in his own romance; he really deserves it, the poor fool. :P
    Choosing a favorite couple is so hard. They’re all just so great! I think I would have to say Vaughn and Mary, if only because Vaughn reminds me so much of Alan Rickman, who I adore. I might change my mind with Pink IX, though. Augustus Whittlesby has cracked me up since his first appearance, and I’ve missed him terribly. :)

    Like

  18. Actually, my favorite couple in the Pink Carnation series is Eloise and Colin, even though we only get a peak into their worlds. The way that Eloise falls into the stories in the letters is the way that I fall into books, totally and completely lost in the story. We only know enough about them to peak our curiosity but there is definitely an untold story between them just as there is when Mistletoe begins between Arabella and Turnip. I do miss E&C in this book and look forward to reuniting with them soon.

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  19. I can’t wait to read The Mischief of the Mistletoe. I love The Pink Carnation series! I can’t wait for the next installment in January, too!

    Like

  20. I’ve always wondered whether Austen dropped The Watsons because it was written during such an unhappy time in her life. If you read it, her control–her distance–seems to slip in a few places. I kind of like it, but it probably didn’t come up to her standards.

    Like

  21. The romance between Letty and Geoff in “The Deception of the Emerald Ring” was incredibly endearing and sweet. Their chemistry really sizzled off the pages, and their banter was very witty and entertaining. :)

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  22. Thank you for another fabulous interview. Lauren Willig, thank you for great books and also a keen insight into your writing!
    I have to agree with Pauline that Eloise and Colin are my favorite couple, and I love to have snippets of them and looking forward to MORE!
    Newt, Stilton… Turnip… love how you came to these. We are big Wooster and Jeeves fans in our house. I will find myself humming the theme song around the house!
    I would love to have my name put into the hat for this one.
    Thanks again, and Happy Holidays, everyone. May it be filled with a little bit of Mischief!

    Like

  23. Thanks for this wonderful interview. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the Pink Carnation series yet. But it’s on my “to read” list for sure now. This particular book sounds wonderful. I loved reading the comments, and I’m intrigued with a hero named Turnip!! Just the name makes me smile. Thanks for the chance to win.

    Like

  24. Not only am I intrigued by a hero named “Turnip” (as a lover?!?!) but The Watson’s is a great favorite of mine (oh, how I would love to know what magic Austen would have done with it) and am eager to revisit that story (or that which is connected to it).

    Wonderful interview. I don’t know the series, but my curiousity is piqued!

    Like

  25. I feel so bad that I haven’t read the book series; but it really sounds interesting! Time to inter-library loan it!!! :)

    Like

  26. His name, Turnip, just makes me want to hear more (plus, I love BlackAdder, so having anything remotely related to that sounds like it will be funny!)

    Like

  27. I’m halfway through the series and I love the intelligent writing and storytelling. I find myself chuckling out loud as I read and, of course, enjoy all the references throughout to Jane Austen.

    Like

  28. I only just started reading this series recently but I’m already plowing through the books. They’re such a delight to read. I’m intrigued by this book because Turnip is such a great character and I can’t wait to read more about him. Thanks for the great interview and the chance to win.

    Like

  29. I read “The Temptation of the Night Jasmine” after first hearing about the series on this blog. (Thank you, Laurel Ann, once again for another great recommendation.) I’m very excited to hear the next book in the series is partly inspired by The Watsons. I’ve loved that fragment of a story for years. And I’m curious to read more about the Christmas traditions of the time period. I loved the chapters in Night Jasmine that took place during the holiday festivies.

    Like

  30. I’m so, SO glad I heard about this giveaway just in time! I’ve loved Lauren Willig’s books for SO long! It’s such an amazing series, and what interests me about this book is that it seems like the usual intrigue, romance and hilarity (all in excellent style!) BUT with a bit of extra info on holiday routines during the Regency Era!
    And, on the side, my all-time favourite couple from the series is probably Miles and Henrietta. They were adorable, hilarious, and…well…great!
    That ornament is so cute!
    Thanks for the giveaway,
    Laura.

    Like

  31. I am most intrigued, I think, by the heroine’s friendship with Jane Austen – what did she think of Jane? What did Jane think of her? Did Jane approve of Turnip? (after all, her heroes are usually of the ‘mind’, not the ‘heart’ type)

    And the romance sounds interesting too, reminding me a bit of Heyer’s Cotillion, where the hero is also not the cleverest of the lot.

    Like

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