Julia Quinn (Bridgerton Author) in Arlington Reads Talk Series

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than seeing Bridgerton Author Julia Quinn? (yes, Dame Julie Andrews' voice has taken over my head as I write this).

Julia Quinn was part of Arlington Reads author talks series hosted by Arlington Public Library earlier this week. On a weird a**f*** weather week here in the DMV, a lot of people (yes, including me) gathered at Kenmore Middle School Auditorium. The auditorium was at max capacity with some people standing at the back. All there to see Julia Quinn, the mastermind behind Bridgerton. And I have to say, it was worth the icy winds we all struggled to get through the parking lot.

She is sensational. Picture Miriam Maisel from Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Julia Quinn speaks quickly, has an assertive voice, and cuts through everyone's defenses with laugh-out-loud jokes. She started by speaking about her current social work, highlighting that she has donated all of her talk fees to libraries, amounting to around 100k$ (applause please).

Of course everyone (or at least me) was silently waiting on any insider information (yes, high stakes stock trading) on the making of the Bridgerton TV series by Netflix. All Julia had to say was that she was very lucky to have been approached by Netflix. Bridgerton's first book came out 25 years ago(!). And she told the audience that maybe her sixth book might have gotten to the bottom of one of the books lists. But that she never expected this to happen. In her witty way of speaking, Julia mentioned that, of course, one of the first questions by Netflix was if she would surrender creative power over the story. And that she said yes. She emphasized how she knew how big of an opportunity this was. She playfully said that it was not like entrusting she was entrusting the story to a bunch of newbies or cheap TV show making, she was entrusting the story to THE best TV show maker: Shonda Rhimes. She then said she is hired as an adviser but other than keep her on the payroll and ask a few questions here and there, (oh! and receiving the extra-watermarked top-secret scripts) that has been all her input to the TV adaptation of Bridgerton.

Julia was asked on the differences between the books and the TV show. She mentioned how they don't wear hats on the TV show. And that the biggest change has been the story of Francesca. She also spoke about the making of the Bridgerton books. She confessed that the Bridgerton story started out as a possible trilogy. She even wanted to make only a duology as she believed sometimes authors save the juicy stuff for the third book when making a trilogy. But things progressed and she ended up telling the story of all eight Bridgerton siblings in a romance series encompassing 8 books starting with The Duke and I. Julia explained that every book in the series has its own little happy ending. She also mentioned how in the book, Queen Charlotte is more of an old crook compared to the younger and more socialite TV version portrayed by Golda Rosheuvel.

With her incredible sense of humor, Julia Quinn jokes how her daughter one day excitedly told her that Bridgerton was a lifestyle brand. And the host pointed out how Bath and Body Works even had a candle with Collin's scent.

At one point of the conversation, Julia mentioned that Lady Danbury actually exists outside Bridgerton. The character appeared on the book before The Duke and I. She confesses to the audience how she almost killed her off then and how she is one of her favorite characters to write.

Julia also mentioned that Romancing Mr. Bridgerton was the hardest to write of the Bridgerton series because the reader already knew Penelope and Collin. The author explained how characters are usually very malleable to the story she is writing, but she wanted to keep Penelope's and Collin's essence so while writing she would think that "No, Penelope would not say this or Collin would not do that". Julia shared a memory of her writing this book on a small screen with two windows opened and closes her thoughts with "I will not be doing that again". The author also shared her process of keeping organized for a series. But mentioned that other than having the names and birthdays and some basic information of the characters and Bridgerton family members, she is not sure she kept a very organized and detailed diary when writing the series.

Julia Quinn has published around 30 novels, and around 39 titles, and most of them take place on the same time period. She was asked on how she did her historical research. And Julia explained that her research was as arduous as someone writing a historical fiction novel. But that by now, it came easily. She mentioned she sometimes has to look for specific details, but she knows by now how they dressed and how did society worked, how women could not be left alone in a garden with another man (yes, everyone laughed with her reference to The Duke and I). For one of her books she researched ships (as she jokingly says she realized she did not know anything about ships while writing a book of a character in them), she travelled to Hawaii to investigate doughnuts and to Lisbon to investigate the city. The author mentioned she does not read her books after publication. By saying with her infectious sense of humor, "I mean, I have read them a thousand times while writing them so they are not very exciting when I know every word that is coming".

Julia Quinn is now focusing on her social work. She is not planning a new book at the moment but mentioned how she loves the Bridgerton Special Edition and added funnily "they have finally figured out romance readers like pretty books". She spoke openly about her concern about the banning of books in libraries around the country. She said something along the words of "you can and should monitor what your child reads, but not what MY child reads. The people who are doing this are loud, so we need to be louder". She has also contributed to Landesa a NGO that works to give land to women in Kenya and even travelled there herself. She encouraged everyone to follow her on Facebook for weekly book recommendations.