Part 2 of an Interview with Erica Vetsch, Author of The Indebted Earl

by | May 7, 2021 | Author, Blog, Books | 0 comments

Erica Vetsch brings her much beloved Serendipity & Secrets series to a close with the highly anticipated release of The Indebted Earl (Kregel Publications). This latest installment tells the story of Lady Sophia Haverly, the free-spirited and energetic younger sister of Marcus Haverly readers will remember from The Gentleman Spy, and Captain Charles Wyvern, a longtime naval officer trying to find his footing on dry land. 
 
Q: The Indebted Earl is the final release in your Serendipity & Secrets series. Can you give us a recap of the series up to this point and introduce us to your new book?
 
The Serendipity & Secrets series is three books about three men who come into titles unexpectedly and the women who capture their hearts. In The Lost Lieutenant, a soldier is granted an earldom as a reward for bravery on the field of battle . . . but he is suffering from partial amnesia and cannot remember what he did to earn the title. In The Gentleman Spy, the new Duke of Haverly is wrestling with keeping separate his public life as a duke of the realm and his secret life as a spy for the Crown. And in The Indebted Earl, a naval captain inherits a title and an estate, three young wards, and the care of his late best friend’s fiancé and mother, all while trying to get back to his life at sea.
 
Three unexpected titles, three unexpected marriages, and three stories of secrets, love, and testing whether God is truly sovereign.
 
Q: All of your leading men in the series end up with titles and responsibilities they weren’t expecting. Within moments of arriving at his new home, Charles’s new responsibilities multiply. Can you tell us about the surprise he receives?
 
Charles finds himself as the guardian to three young girls, sisters who were born on the estate. His uncle, the previous earl, had, for reasons of his own, taken on the orphaned girls as his wards and paid for them to go to boarding school. But at his death, the girls were returned to the estate.
 
The eldest is nearing womanhood and is a romantic, eager to fall in love and bewildering to Charles. The second is a daredevil, tomboy, and adventuress in whom Charles sees glimpses of his younger self. And the third is a girl barely six summers old, who is fascinated by Charles and imitates him at every turn. He’s not certain which of the girls scares him most, and as a collective, they have that crusty old sea captain shaking in his boots.
 
Q: What is Sophie struggling with spiritually in The Indebted Earl? Is Charles facing something similar?
 
Sophie struggles with the idea that God is both good and sovereign. It’s easy to accept one or the other, but both? How can God be good when He’s taken her beloved fiancé away? How can He be sovereign when bad things happen? How can she trust in His plan when it seems everything is spinning out of control?
 
Charles’s struggle is similar in that he is all about control, about ordering his life according to his plan, but with the cessation of war, he is on the beach without a command. And he’s carrying a tremendous weight of guilt over the death of Major Richardson. Did God make a mistake, having Rich die in his place? What Charles wants—to continue his naval career—is both noble and reasonable. Why won’t God make it happen?
 
Both Sophie and Charles are learning to trust in the sovereignty and goodness of God’s plans, and realizing that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are higher than ours.
 
Q: Charles is comfortable leading a ship full of men but finds himself in a house full of women. Does the very stern military officer become a softy?
 
As a captain in the Royal Navy, Charles has been trained to show no softness, no weakness. Conditions were harsh aboard ship, discipline strict, and the dangers of nonconformity very real. In addition, he’s not spent much time around women in general and none at all around girls. He mistrusts their giggling, crying, emotion, and, above all, what he sees as their lack of discipline.
 
But as he is exposed to them and their bewildering array of emotions, they each in their own way begin to break down those walls of sternness and discipline, teaching him that kindness and love will not make him vulnerable but, instead, make him stronger than he’s ever been.
 
Q: Captain Wyvern and Lieutenant Evan Eldridge (from The Lost Lieutenant) fought in the Peninsular War. Did you need to do a lot of research on the war and specifically on the different branches of the British military for the series?
 
There was definitely some research involved, as there always is when writing historical fiction. I first had to ground myself in the basics of the Napoleonic Wars, who were the major players, where did the major battles take place, and what was the general timeline. Fortunately, there are many resources available. I wanted Evan Eldridge to be a sharpshooter from the 95th Rifles, so I needed to pick a battle in which the 95th was involved and study the terrain, the battle lines, and the tactics in order to recreate it in his mind. There was also a bit of study into the medical treatments of the day and what they did with men who were suffering what we now know as PTSD, but at the time they knew even less about it.
 
The Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars was a completely different animal to the land battles of the Peninsular War. The jargon is so specific: the ships, the ranks, the rigging, the battle tactics. I was able to immerse myself in the work of Patrick O’Brian. I was able to find a book called Nelson’s Navy by Brian Lavery that gave wonderful overviews of life aboard a naval vessel.
 
Research both solidifies and uncovers new story lines for me. I get lots of inspiration and ideas from research, learning about a particular era or battle or place and then asking those what-if questions that lead to building a story.
 
Q: Last year you had your first research trip to England planned that, of course, got postponed. Are you planning an even bigger and better trip for the future?
 
I am! Though nothing is set just yet, I am planning to get to England. My list of must-see places continues to grow at an alarming rate. Hopefully, with the pandemic reducing in severity, world travel will again become an option for more people, and I will be winging my way to England to experience all the places I now read about.
 
Included on my itinerary are some places that are found in the Serendipity & Secrets series: Hatchards bookstore, Hyde Park, Oxfordshire, and Portsmouth to name only a few. And hopefully a few places that will inspire new stories.
 
Q: Will you be sad to let this trilogy—your first Regency series—go? What can readers look forward to next?
 
There’s such a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in seeing this series completed, but to answer your question . . . YES! I am so reluctant to let these stories and characters go that I’m bringing some of them back in my new series, the Thorndike & Swann Regency Mysteries!

The first book, The Debutante’s Code, should arrive in the fall of 2021 and features Lady Juliette Thorndike and Bow Street Runner Daniel Swann in a fast-paced tale of intrigue, espionage, and art thievery!Click here for an excerpt.About the authorErica Vetsch is a New York Times best-selling and ACFW Carol Award–winning author. She is a transplanted Kansan now living in Minnesota with her husband, who she claims is both her total opposite and soul mate.  
 
Vetsch loves Jesus, history, romance, and sports. When she’s not writing fiction, she’s planning her next trip to a history museum and cheering on her Kansas Jayhawks and New Zealand All Blacks.
 
A self-described history geek, she has been planning her first research trip to England.
 
Learn more about Erica Vetsch and her books at www.ericavetsch.com. She can also be found on Facebook (@EricaVetschAuthor) and Instagram (@EricaVetsch).