1–What is the title of your latest release? THE ORNITHOLOGIST’S FIELD GUIDE TO LOVE 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Rival ornithology professors hunt through England for a rare magical bird. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I originally considered having the characters travel across Europe, but considering the complexities involved in that, such as different languages, currencies, cultures, and so forth, I chose to limit my research to England and France. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. Beth is very much a woman I’d be friends with. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Clever, kind, intrepid. 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? I learned more than I could possibly ever need to know about the structure of a bird’s feather! 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? I edit as I draft; it’s an integral part of my process. Besides, I’m never totally done! I could go on rewriting and editing a book forever if someone didn’t rein me in. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? Smoked chicken fettucine. 9–Describe your writing space/office! My desk is set…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present India Holton!     Writes: I see we’re starting with the tricky question first. My books tend to take genre categories and shoot them out of a canon. They’re historical fantasy adventure romcoms – with a couple of more sub-genres squished in there as well, such as light academia and satire. My upcoming novel, THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON, is a screwball comedy about rival autistic spies who fake marriage to infiltrate a pirate’s house party so they can foil an assassination plot against the Queen. Shenanigans don’t only ensue but erupt all over the place, and our heroes quickly discover that “’til death do us part” might be very literal indeed.   About: Snarky author seeking interested reader for long walks through the pages of romcom novels. Loves tea, books, and making characters frustrated by thwarting their desires. Can usually be found with a handkerchief, a Jane Austen quote, and a chocolate biscuit (whose existence will be denied if queried), but…

I’m curious about the world these Dangerous Damsels stories take place in. Is it a real time and place in history, but with a magical twist? Or is it set in some alternate, yet similar to our own, world? It’s real Victorian England, with the twist that a magical incantation was discovered many years before and a small group of people have access to it. Despite the fantasy element, the general setting is firmly established in historical reality – and yet, I also had to consider what that reality might look like under the circumstances of pirates in flying houses!   How does the Wisteria Society crime sorority of the first book in this series compare to The League of Gentlewomen Witches? The Wisteria Society and the Wicken League are remarkably similar to each other, although they would not agree with this. Both groups make claims in a decidedly resolute manner (ie, using guns, sharpened hat pins, and snubbing each other at parties) as to their superiority, but the fact is, even these powerful and dangerous magic-wielding women still find themselves conforming to the essential norms of Victorian culture. I’m interested in showing how women in a prevailingly patriarchal environment…