Much as today, smaller, cheaper and longer lasting was the name of the game. I did hours of research into the battery technology of the time and how it evolved. There were many advancements, thanks to electricity and the telephone, towards an affordable portable hearing aid. The Gilded Age was an interesting period in Deaf history. I was really interested in the development of sign language and how Oliver came to learn it. Can you speak to the research you did on what sorts of technology or accessibilities were available to those who were deaf during the time period? The hero, Oliver Hawkes, lost his hearing at a young age.

So we won’t be saying good-bye quite yet. Yes and no! This will be the last book in the Four Hundred series, but the next series will carry some of these characters through. I’ve noticed that your series tend to be trilogies! Is this the last book we can expect in The Four Hundred series? I hope I’m able to show readers different sides of American history and surprise them a little. And that’s a very limited lens through which to study the past. English history feels perhaps more remote and mysterious.īut we have to ask ourselves, who records the history taught for other generations? It’s those with power and access. I think some American readers come to our history feeling like, “Been there, done that.” They think they know it so well because we’ve been learning history in school since kindergarten. the Gilded Age had it all.Īre there more challenges writing a romance in turn-of-the-century America as opposed to Regency England? Innovation, reform, corruption, political scandal, extreme wealth. I like to say it’s when the America we know today takes shape. I love the Gilded Age because it’s such a fascinating time in history.

What draws you to this time period and setting? We talked to Shupe about the Deaf community in Gilded Age America and writing a passionate romance between two introverts.Ī Notorious Vow is part of a second series of yours set in Gilded Age New York. It’s that he’s deaf, and is both consumed with his work on a proto-hearing aid and realistically afraid of being thrown in an insane asylum because of his disability. Because A Notorious Vow is a romance novel, notice her he does, but Oliver’s reasons for seclusion aren’t a propensity for brooding or some tragic backstory. Wealthy but reclusive Oliver Hawkes doesn’t seem to use his garden or even venture outside his property, so Christina doubts he’ll notice her. When shy, lonely Christina Barclay moves with her family from London to New York City, she finds solace in clandestine walks through her neighbor’s garden.

A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe