Susan Baganz is a personal friend, my very own editor, the reason I am published, and an inspiration! She is mother to 3 curly-haired young’uns and with a last name like Baganz—you can see the connection to my favorite Middle Earth folk!

In the middle of preparing for a wedding to the man of her dreams, and packing and moving and all the crazy things both entail, Susan agreed to visit the Tuesday Prude with a bit on her Christmas novella, “The Doctor’s Daughter.” It is a Regency-era story of the challenges faced by doctors and the even greater challenges faced by women who practiced healing arts! And since it is written by Ms. Baganz, there is a healthy dose of romance and proof that “the course of true love never did run smooth.”

Blurb:
Miss Silvia Burnett is left without a home after her father, a local physician, passes away unexpectedly. She appeals to a friend from boarding school, Mrs. Katrina Tidley, who resides in the same area where her father’s mentee set up practice. With a calf-love on her part, they’d once agreed to wed each other if she remained unattached at a certain age. But are youthful promises meant to be kept? Would the handsome physician want her now?

Dr. Bruce Miller has watched all his friends from university marry and begin their families. Living in the village of Didcot did not provide him with a wife. When a letter from the daughter of the doctor he interned with in Bristol arrives at his door, hope soars within that maybe this woman is the answer to his lonely nights.

As influenza spreads and Silvia uses her talents in medicine to aid the doctor, will he find her competition or a viable companion? With Christmas dawning, will dreams be shattered or fulfilled?

I had a few questions for this busy bride-to-be:
You write contemporary dramatic romance and Regency era novels. Which is your favorite? And if you ever branch out to another time period to set your books in, what would it be?

Which is my favorite? They both have their fun aspects and challenges. Regency is fun because of the language and the culture. I can use a wider vocabulary and the moral strictures on women and men make it fun to play around with. The challenge is to get the details correct and to not let contemporary slang slip in! Contemporary romance is fun too, because you can delve more into the emotional pain and lingo – the technology makes it more challenging to keep a story relevant and accurate as anyone can fact check so many things I might choose to write about – so one needs to be careful there as well. Another challenge is not to hit too close to home to people and experiences you want to put in your stories, even in a veiled way.

A different time period? I don’t know. I did write a novella set in the last 1800’s in Wisconsin, kind of a “prairie romance.” I’ve dabbled in romantic suspense (contemporary) and hope to co-author some military romances in the future.

 
Your contemporary novels involve real people with real pasts and honest problems who find love. Yet even then, they don’t necessarily live “happily ever after,” but rely on God to help them work through knotty problems and even heartache. (The question is coming. Honest) How much of your own love story is identified with the lives of your protagonists?

When I’ve done workshops at writer’s conferences, I’ve confessed that there is much of our history that shows up in our fiction. I think I’ve lived vicariously through my characters and some of their struggles have been ones I’ve had at some level. I, however, have not until now, had my own real-life romance. I wrote romance to fill that need and because I believed at my core that even though I had not experienced it, that it existed. Yet for all of that I sometimes feel like I’m living a fairy tale with my new love. It will be interesting to see how a real-life romance impacts my writing from here on out!

 
Tell us how you came up with the idea for “The Doctor’s Daughter.”

I had the last of my Black Diamond Gothic Regency Romances release this year and knew I wanted to do a novella for the Pelican Christmas Extravaganza – so I figured I’d take a recurring character, Doctor Bruce Miller, and give him a sweet romance – no gothic but plenty of drama! It is fun is to see some of the characters from the series playing a part in his romance.

Bio:
Susan M. Baganz chases after three Hobbits and is a native of Wisconsin. Susan writes adventurous historical and contemporary romances with a biblical world-view.

Susan speaks, teaches, and encourages others to follow God in being all He has created them to be. With her seminary degree in counseling psychology, a background in the field of mental health, and years serving in church ministry, she understands the complexities and pain of life as well as its craziness. Her favorite pastimes are lazy…snuggling with her dog while reading a good book or sitting with a friend chatting over a cup of spiced chai latte.

You can learn more by following her blog susanbaganz.com, her Twitter feed @susanbaganz or her fan page, http://www.facebook.com/susanmbaganz.

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I pray for every happiness for this godly, genuine woman. And if you are looking for a quick, inspiring Christmas read, grab “The Doctor’s Daughter” available on ereaders.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Daughter-Christmas-Holiday-Extravaganza-ebook/dp/B07JHPWV2L