I sent my first (terrible) manuscript to a publishing company when I was twelve. I’ve been both a big reader and a big writer since I was very little. OA: I don’t know that there was a specific path into writing for me. I loved what you said about football players. HG: For a broad question, that was a wonderfully specific answer. I find that when you understand history, you understand human motivations as a whole, which makes it easier to build a believable fantasy society. Obviously, I love history as well, and I apply a lot of the same research that I do for my novels to my D&D and Pathfinder games. I know what THAC0 is, which should date me a bit to anyone who knows the term. I love running tabletop games, and have done since I was extremely young.

I currently live in Montreal, Quebec, with my husband and two cats. I am therefore qualified to tell you that football players scream in a very satisfying, high-pitched manner when surprised by a creepy clown, no matter how big or intimidating they look! My biography lists a handful of my previous jobs, but I will add that one of my other favorite jobs was working in a haunted house, wearing heavy makeup and scaring football players and their girlfriends. I’ve always had a very eclectic mindset, though, as I love learning new things. I’m currently both a writer and a back-end web developer, with a specialty in application security. OA: Oh dear, that’s a very broad question! But, I’m a very broad person, so I suppose it fits. HG: Olivia! How would you describe yourself to somebody who isn’t familiar with your writing yet? Subscribers to Hidden Gems picked her first novel, Half a Soul, as one of last month’s top romance reads, and I’m sure fans will love to learn more about her.

Jane Austen would probably be astonished at the wide variety of ways in which her groundbreaking romances like Pride and Prejudice have been reinterpreted over the years (… and Zombies, anybody?) However, she’d be delighted to see how talented Canadian author Olivia Atwater has approached what’s now become ‘Regency Romance’ – with her beautiful historical fantasies that weave the truth and fantasy of the Regency era into a vivid backdrop for her stories.

Half a soul olivia atwater