In The Ambassador’s Daughter, the daughter of a German diplomat struggles to find her own identity as the post-World War I powers seek to define the wartorn world. In our Q&A with Pam Jenoff, the author sheds some light on her influences and the historic settings in her novel.

You earned your master's in history, graduated from law school, have worked for the Army and the State Department and now teach at Rutgers. Were the people in your life surprised when you turned to writing fiction?

No, being a novelist was actually my childhood dream, and I’ve been putting my writing in front of friends and family for as long as I can remember. But for many years I could not get started—something always held me back. The epiphany for me was 9/11. When those tragic events happened, I had a heightened sense of mortality and realized I did not have forever to make my dream come true—I had to get started right away. So I took a course called “Write Your Novel This Year” and began to write.

What did each of your previous careers bring to your writing?

In the mid-1990s, I was sent to Poland as a diplomat for the State Department. It was an exciting time as Poland emerged from Communism and there were many issues related to the Second World War and Holocaust, such as preservation of the concentration camps and property restitution, which were unresolved. Politically, it became important to resolve these issues so Poland could join NATO and the European Union. I was very close to the surviving Jewish community in Krakow and the consulate gave me responsibility for many of these issues. I was quite moved by my personal and professional experiences in Poland and these have largely influenced my writing.

My years as a lawyer and now law school professor have also helped by strengthening my writing. I believe that there are many synergies between legal and fiction writing. For example, creative writing can help a lawyer craft narratives, while legal writing has developed my ability to revise my novels

Your book follows Margot, the daughter of a diplomat who stays in Paris during the peace conference that follows the Great War. Do you ever have doubts about setting your novels against important historical moments like this? How do you manage to make the world feel authentic to readers?

When setting my stories amidst real historical events, I’m always struck by a great sense of responsibility to do justice to the time period and the people who lived in it. Sometimes, such as when writing my earlier books set during the Holocaust, it can be quite daunting.

As to authenticity, I think it is a delicate balance of including fresh original details while still remaining true to the realities of the era. The challenge is to capture the larger mood while manifesting it in detail. I certainly struggle with it!

Post-war Paris is brilliantly evoked in this novel. Can you still find traces of it in the city today? What might readers be surprised to know about the city during this time?

Paris at the time was such a contradiction in terms, one of the world’s grand cities in rubble. People were attempting to live again and capture the splendor of the city among suffering and starvation. But Paris is timeless and you can feel the era today in every narrow, winding street of the Left Bank. And while we are talking about cities, please don’t forget Berlin, where the last third of the book is set. Postwar Berlin is a fascinating example of a city trying to live again among the devastation and recriminations of a defeated nation, and particularly interesting for the Jewish people, who were trying to find their place in the new order.

The world seems particularly fascinated with the world of the 1910s and ‘20s right now. Any thoughts about why that might be, and what parallels can be drawn between then and now?

I think that for so long the focus of 20th-century historical fiction has been the Second World War. The interest is understandable—those very difficult times provide fertile ground for putting the reader in the protagonist’s shoes and forcing her to question what she might have done under such circumstances. But it is so exciting to explore the years surrounding World War I, a period of great change and momentous questions that would set the scene for the tragic events to come. I’d wanted to write about this time period since writing about it for my master’s thesis at Cambridge on the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations covenant. The post-World War I era is such an exciting period—the whole world was being reborn, new nations and identities, new roles and possibilities for women. The fledgling interest in the period following the First World War can be seen in everything from the popularity of recent novels such as The Paris Wife to the phenomenal success of “Downton Abbey.” I hope readers will enjoy taking this detour into the “deeper past” with me!

The Ambassador's Daughter features a love triangle. Do you have a(nother!) favorite literary love triangle? What makes for a compelling one?

I haven’t thought about other literary love triangles, though in some sense for me it dates back to Camelot and the Arthurian Legend (love triangle between Guinevere, Lancelot and Arthur.) If I look, most of my books include some form of love triangle, because it just makes for such a great story. The absolute best are the ones where both romances are compelling and there does not seem to be an easy answer or way out, because you must keep reading to see what happens

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

I like the beginning, which for me involves throwing down on paper (keyboard, actually) 150 pages or so of whatever comes out. And I like the end, when I have a manuscript taking shape. I often go away for a weekend with that manuscript and attempt to beat it into submission. But my least favorite part is the middle, or what I call “the dark place” when you are mired in a ton of material and can’t see the shape of it yet, or the light at the end of the tunnel. I get through that period with coffee and faith. And there’s nothing better than receiving a friendly reader email when you are in the pit of creative despair, to remind you while you struggle through writing in the first place.

Do you have a remedy for beating writer's block when you're working on a novel?

I’m not sure I believe in writer's block. There are times where my energy or inspiration is low, but to me this is a job so I still put my butt in the chair and write something. It’s all about finding what inspires you—fear or desire or whatever—and harnessing that.

What other books/authors do you read for inspiration?

I like to read other 20^th century historical fiction that is well done, though that can sometimes be intimidating because they are so good. For example, I loved The Postmistress by Sarah Blake and All That I Am by Anna Funder. But the timeless inspiration for me is Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. Her Zen Buddhist approach to writing is what broke me wide open and set my feet on the path to realizing my dream of becoming a novelist.

What are you working on next?

I’m presently working on another novel set during the Second World War. It involves twin sisters in rural Poland who are struggling to care for their three younger siblings, and one of them finds a downed American paratrooper in the woods. How far will she go to help him and at what cost?

Historical romance The Last Debutante is BookPage’s March 2013 Top Pick in Romance. It finds a young woman captured by a sexy, naked Scot—whose heart is in turn captured by her. Writes Romance columnist Christie Ridgway, “This is a tender story peopled with memorable secondary characters and two culture-crossed lovers worth rooting for.”

We chatted with author Julia London about writing romance novels, torturing characters and much more in a 7 questions interview.

Describe your book in one sentence.
A Highland laird’s fiercest battle is waged against the ransom he holds in an English debutante, who refuses to allow her situation to deflate her.

What is it about those Scottish men, anyway?
They are the ultimate historical romance fantasy: Sexy and strong, they take what they want and discard what they don’t. They are dismissive of rules and propriety when it comes to true love, and if one claims you and makes you his own, he is yours for life.

What is your favorite part of writing romance novels?
I never get tired of the mating dance between the sexes. It’s fun to step into different worlds and watch a man and woman try and resist their heart’s true north. I confess to liking to torture them a bit, too. In the end, a hero or heroine of mine only knows how good they’ve got it if they’ve been drug through a wringer or two.

“Push the boundaries, turn every scene upside down and see what shakes out.”

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Push the boundaries, turn every scene upside down and see what shakes out.

What’s your favorite movie based on a book?
Pride and Prejudice, of course! I think I’ve seen every version of it.

What advice would you give to a woman being held for ransom in 19th-century Scotland? You know, just in case.
Girl, work that captivity like you’d work a shark-infested ballroom!

What’s next?
A new historical series about four sisters who realize that when their stepfather dies, they may be nudged out of their cushy situation, and proactively work to make sure that doesn’t happen . . . in very unconventional and risk-taking ways.

When Sarah MacLean writes a historical romance, you can bet she does her research. This best-selling author holds a history degree from Harvard, and she just so happens to love stories that involve a good amount of smooching, and she’s not about to apologize for it.

MacLean continues her Rules of Scoundrels series with No Good Duke Goes Unpunished. It's dark, gritty and full of conflicts that are heightened by the pre-Victorian setting, but the emotional depth will have you struggling to put it down.

It has been 12 years since Temple, the “Killer Duke,” received his infamous title after a night with Mara Lowe—his father’s young bride-to-be—went horribly awry. After waking to a blood-soaked bed with Mara nowhere to be found, he was cast out from his home and polite society. Since then, he’s made his way in London as a boxer at the Fallen Angel, a seedy club where the London elite can exercise their debauchery out of the public eye. Yet, just as Temple has resigned himself to his misfortune, Mara resurfaces and offers the one thing he wants most—redemption and absolution.

In an impressive feat, MacLean builds a captivating romantic tension between these two characters despite the anger, conflict and mistrust between them. Both Temple and Mara are quite complex, and their relationship is not a typical or easy one, but the emotional revelations and forgiveness they find through their love makes this a stand-out read.

Maclean answered some of our questions about bad boys, Romance snobs, old-school gambling and her ideal date night.

All three of your Rules of Scoundrels books are set in Pre-Victorian London. What is it about this particular era that inspires you?
I’ve been a romance reader forever . . . and historicals were my first love as a reader, so it seemed natural that when I wrote my first book, it would be historical. I love the breathlessness of them—the way that every glance, every touch, every movement can mean something. In this particular series, I’m also exploring the darker side of London in the early 1800s, which makes everything slightly edgier and even more fun.

"Romance is, at its core, a heroine’s journey. She’s the hero of the story, and, at the end, she wins."

Like your other female characters, Mara Lowe is empowered and strong, even during her most intimate scenes. Why is this important to you?
Romance is, at its core, a heroine’s journey. She’s the hero of the story, and, at the end, she wins. Her journey is one of becoming empowered, of gaining strength through love and partnership. Not all of my heroines start the book this way—in fact, none of them do. Mara puts on a good face, but it takes her much of the book to believe in her own power and strength. I think that’s true of so many of us. Writing heroines who have to travel this path feels authentic to me . . . which is why I’m so drawn to it as a story.

Temple, the Killer Duke, is a famous fighter at the Fallen Angel, a gambling club that features prominently in this series. What drew you to focus on gaming hells, a little-known aspect of Regency life?
I knew I wanted to move away from ballrooms and into something a little more masculine and dark with this series. I was drawn to casinos because they give off this vibe that if you just barely scratch the surface, you’ll find something desperate and nefarious down there. The juxtaposition of winning more than you could ever dream vs. losing everything was a big plus for me. I like the way it works for love, too.

During my research on early casinos, I discovered a man named William Crockford—the grandfather of the modern casino. By all accounts, there was nothing sexy about William Crockford—he was ham-fisted, pasty-faced, foul-mouthed and fouler-smelling, with a penchant for prostitutes, but he was cunning and wealthy and more than enough for me to be down the imaginary rabbit hole. Crockford’s Casino became the Fallen Angel, and Crockford himself morphed into four fallen aristocrats—Bourne, Cross, Temple and Chase—each exiled from society either by chance or by choice. Scoundrels, yes, but clean, handsome, charming (when they want to be), and in need of love.

What do you love most about your bad boy characters?
The way they fall in love: hard and intense and grumbling all the way. But once they’re there, desperate for that one woman who can change everything . . . they’re not bad boys at all. They’re tremendously heroic and perfect for their heroine.

There’s a huge secret about one of your characters that is revealed in this novel. Has it been hard to keep the secret?
Yes! I’ve known it for two years and had to do a fair share of dancing around the truth to keep it quiet. I confess, I’m happy that it’s finally out—and that I can share it with readers. I hope it was worth it!

You are an outspoken champion of the Romance genre. What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of the genre?
I think romance is maligned in large part because at first glance, love seems so pedestrian. It’s all around us. It’s in books and songs and movies and on billboards, so how could it really hold literary value? But what people tend to forget is that the search for love—for the simple idea that there is someone out there who will see us for who we are and accept us isn’t trite. It’s a huge part of our lives. And it’s an enormous part of our dreams.

There are so many fabulous romances out there—there’s something for everyone. I really believe that. And I believe that most of the people who look down their noses at the genre haven’t ever read a romance novel. I think that if they did, they’d be really surprised by how good great romance can be.

What are your top “gateway” books for Romance newbies?
I always start everyone with Susan Elizabeth Phillips, who is hysterically funny and deeply emotional. My favorite of hers is Nobody’s Baby But Mine, which is the story of a socially inept but brilliant scientist heroine with a clicking biological clock, who is terrified of having a baby as smart as she is . . . so she goes looking for an unintelligent man who might make a decent sperm donor. She ends up “stealing” a baby from the quarterback of the local NFL team . . . and thereby hangs a tale.

If you’re watching and/or reading Game of Thrones or just into fantasy, you should absolutely try Thea Harrison’s Dragon Bound, set in an alternate universe of New York City where magic exists. The hero is the wealthiest man in New York, who happens to be a Dragon shape-shifter, and keeps his hoarde of wealth locked up in the basement of his skyscraper. The heroine has never met a lock she can’t pick. She gets herself into trouble and ends up having to steal something from him . . . so she takes one penny, and leaves a replacement and a note saying, “I’m sorry.” The story begins there.

And I have to recommend a historical, too! Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels is consistently listed as the best romance novel ever written, and it is. The hero is dark and truly alpha—a Marquess who doesn’t believe in love. The heroine is a spitfire who is his match in every way. They fall for each other with fireworks that are undeniable . . . but end up butting heads in a magnificent display of chemistry that burns you up.

What’s an ideal date night for you?
I know it sounds cheesy, but honestly? I’m still pretty crazy about my husband . . . add in a great dinner and a long conversation with lots of laughs, and I’m happy.

This novel ends at Christmastime. Which of your characters would you most want to kiss under the mistletoe, and why?
I’m still pretty hooked on Temple, the hero of No Good Duke Goes Unpunished. He’s the gentlest of all my heroes, even though he’s made his name as the winningest bare-knuckle boxer in London. A true alpha male with a gooey, nougatty center.

What’s your number-one song to smooch to?
I’m a firm believer that the smooching makes the song . . . not the other way around.

What’s next?
Chase’s book! The last in the Rules of Scoundrels series and the one that I’ve been waiting to write for nearly three years. Readers of the series will find Chase’s biggest secret revealed at the end of Temple’s book, and they’ll get the rest of the story in late 2014!