About Sydney Jane Baily
USA Today bestselling author Sydney Jane Baily writes happily-ever-after historical romance set in Regency and Victorian England, late 19th-century America, the Middle Ages, and the Georgian era.
You’ll find engaging characters, attention to period detail, and passionate romance often with a touch of intrigue in all of her stories.
Born and raised in California, she earned degrees in English and history on the East Coast and has traveled the world, spending a lot of exceedingly happy time in the U.K. where her extended family resides, eating fish and chips, drinking shandies, and snacking on Maltesers and Cadbury bars. Sydney currently lives in New England with her family — human, canine, and feline.
Sydney’s first book in her new Diamonds of the First Water Series was published by WOLF Publishing in spring 2022.
Visit Sydney at www.sydneyjanebaily.com.
Diamonds of the First Water Series
Q&A with Sydney
What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I love (and hate) research. I often need to research first to make sure I can write about what I want to write about in a certain year, then I research during the writing and that spurs on new ideas, and after I finish the first draft, I research to fill in holes. I leave myself reminders, right in the middle of sentences. I type “check check.” My family knows I have to go back and “do all the check-checks” before I’m really done with the book. I say love and hate because I have a brain like a sieve, so I often have to do the same research over again. And again.
Would you like to live in the time period and places you write about in your books?
I think it would be difficult to go back to a time your brain and body aren’t used to. For a day or even a week? Yes! Forever? No. I need hot water on demand. It would probably be difficult to go too far into the future, too. I think there’s only so much adaptation we humans can take.
What is your favorite childhood book?
I read some books over and over, including James and the Giant Peach and Charlotte’s Web.
Have you ever traveled as research for your book?
I’ve traveled a lot when I was younger because except for my parents and my sister, all my family lived in England and Scotland. I’ve used some of the places that I’ve been to in my books but I haven’t specifically traveled to do research.
What’s your favorite writing snack or drink?
Tea and dark chocolate, and occasionally a bowl of kettlecorn.
Are there any books or authors that inspired you to become a writer?
When I was a young teen, we would spend our summers in London at my grandparents’ home. There were stacks of Mills & Boon romances, which were contemporary, and Barbara Cartland historical romances, thin volumes with a powerful aristocrat and a fragile female. I didn’t love them, but they influenced me in such a way that when I decided to write my first book at age 17. Naturally, it was a romance.
