"Seven Days at Mannerley" with Audrey Schuyler Lancho
Today’s guest is Audrey Schuyler Lancho to answer a few questions about her Victorian romance novel Seven Days at Mannerley. It’s available in paperback, e-book, and even audio book. The stunning cover art is what initially made me stop and take a closer look. See for yourself!
Rebecca: Your debut novel Seven Days at Mannerley is hot off the press. Tell us where you came up with the idea. Did it start with a "what-if," or did you see a certain object and build a story around it?
Audrey: This book was a product of my TV watching habits during the time I wrote it. I was watching a lot of Jane Austen-based movies such as Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Austenland, and also some Victorian shows and movies such as Dr. Brown and Tess D’Ubervilles. I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, so the idea of well-to-do twenty-something-year-old single people together in a house for a week was definitely born from the setups of her novels, as well as the witty banter throughout. Apart from that, the idea for the plot and the characters just came to me years ago and kept growing, becoming stronger and stronger with each added detail. I was really excited about it and always knew I'd need to find time to get it down on paper, so to speak.
Rebecca: So it sounds like you immersed yourself in the setting. This novel required research in the Victorian era. What's the most interesting thing you learned while writing and researching it?
Audrey: The most shocking thing to me while researching was definitely the fact that women truly were second class citizens. They weren’t allowed to vote or even retain property if they were married. Their emotions were sometimes scorned or labeled as hysteria. If they were poor or stuck in a bad job, that was basically their lot in life. There was no way to work and move up the ladder, so to speak. While I love history and often daydream about going back in time to a different era, I’m positive that I would not enjoy that aspect of Victorian society.
Rebecca: Every writer has tricks of the trade. What is your advice to writers? What have you found that works or doesn't work for you?
Audrey: My advice to writers is firstly to keep writing, since, if you don’t write, you won’t have anything to show except unrealized ideas and dreams. Secondly and just importantly, I’d say keep listening to feedback. Everyone has an opinion, but if you request a lot of feedback from beta readers and CPs, agents, editors, reviewers, etc, and some of the things they bring up are common across the board in a negative way, make sure to take those things into consideration and realize that your readers (your “market”) may not like that aspect of your writing and you should try to amend that in future books. We all need to be told what comes off in a negative way and if you’re being told, instead of being offended, it’s best to accept it gratefully. This is how I operate and it works for me for sure. My writing has improved so much through the years and I feel it’s very strong now. I am thankful for every critical comment I’ve received.
Rebecca: Good advice! Now tell us what's next! I've heard rumors that Seven Days to Mannerley will have a sequel. Any truth to it? Any hints you can give the audience?
Audrey: It’s 100% true! I just typed ‘the end’ on A Telephone at Mannerley and now I’ll go through that very rough first draft and clean it up a bit before sending it to two trusted beta readers mid-May. It’s slated for release in the fall of 2025. I’ll go ahead and drop a major bombshell here: Mary Potts finds out she has a younger brother that she never knew about! He shows up and… hijinks ensue! I hope my readers love it just like they loved the first book. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. I want to keep the Mannerley fun train rolling!
Rebecca: We definitely hope to hop on the Mannerley train again in the near future! Thanks for taking time to give us more insight into your debut novel. We wish you lots of success and happy writing! Don’t forget to follow Audrey on social media for updates.
X: @AudreyLancho