Mimi Matthews has enjoyed best-selling success in Victorian fiction and non-fiction, with romances that ask thoughtful social questions as well as entertain. And her playful animal tales in The Pug Who Bit Napoleon, a not-so-romantic interaction that took place on his wedding night, is one of dozens of amusing animal stories from the 18th and 19th centuries
Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Mimi talks about her latest book, Gentleman Jim, a rollicking romantic Regency, and tells what it was like to get her first publishing deal when she was still a relatively young teenager.
To help celebrate the end of what has been a pretty hard year for many of us, Mimi’s Christmas novella, A Holiday by Gaslight, will be one of four books featured in our Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway, starting this week.
Yes, for the next three weeks you will have a chance every week to win one of three holiday reading book bundles made up of two historical and two contemporary Christmas stories.
ENTER GIVEAWAY
That’s right, every week we will be giving away twelve Christmas books as our gift to you in our Twelve Days of Christmas giveaway. Enter on The Joys of Binge Reading website or on our Binge Reading Facebook page.
(The first winners from last week were: Daniel D: Sydney NSW, Karen N, Melbourne VIC, Mona B Lincoln, CA, and Rosemary K. Madison, OH.)
Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:
The startlingly young age Mimi got her first book dealHow an accident brought her back to fictionWhy she loves the VictoriansThe serious side to Victorian romance - marriage as a careerWhat's different about Regency plotsWhy Prince Albert's greyhound touched her heart
Where to find Mimi Matthews:
Website: https://www.mimimatthews.com/
Facebook: @MimiMatthewsAuthor
Twitter: @MimiMatthewsEsq
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/mimi-matthews
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16948224.Mimi_Matthews
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.nz/MimiMatthewsEsq/
What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.
Jenny Wheeler: But now here's Mimi. Hello there, Mimi and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.
Mimi Matthews: Hi Jenny. I'm so glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
Introducing Mimi Matthews
Jenny Wheeler: Beginning at the beginning – it’s a very predictable question with this show now because it's one I ask every one of our guests but I think people always want to know the answer – was there a Once Upon a Time moment when you decided that you just had to write fiction and if so, what was the catalyst for it?
Mimi Matthews - Author
Mimi Matthews: I would have to say, always being when I was little, really creative – like some little kids when they play with their toys or their dolls and thinking up stories and little scenes for them to act out.
My mom encouraged me to write it down, once I was able to actually be writing. This would have been at elementary school and I kept doing it. No one ever told me you can't do that, you're not old enough, you don't know enough, so I felt really comfortable writing out my ideas and little bits of a dialogue.
Eventually, by the time I was 13, I had written a book. It's not a masterpiece, but it was good enough that I was able to send it out on submission. Then when I was 18, I got an agent. I think a lot of it had to do with being young and a little bit of a dreamer and no one ever saying, you can't write these down, you can't make stories. So I did, and it ended up becoming books.
Jenny Wheeler: It’s quite remarkable that at such a young age you were able to do that.
Writing her own stories
Mimi Matthews: I never even realized when I was doing it, because I had always been doing it. It was nothing highbrow or technical. I didn't have a ton of skill at plotting things out or charac...
