Worth mentioning: Quinn did this interview while preparing to catch a flight for England, where she would meet Queen Camilla at the Queen’s Reading Room Festival.
Q. You’re coming to the Boston Book Festival in October. So is Shonda Rhimes [producer of the “Bridgerton” show]. But you’re not appearing together. Is it possible that if I go to both events, between the two of you, I may get some spoilers for the next season of the show?
A. [Laughing] Not for me. Shonda is allowed to say whatever Shonda wants. She’s the boss lady. I can’t say a word.
Q. I have been finding Regency romance very soothing — perhaps because so many of these stories are about women finding ways to live their best lives, despite a scary and oppressive world that doesn’t want them to be independent. Can you speak to that phenomenon? That this sub-genre within romance can be surprisingly calming and empowering, despite it existing in a time when women had little agency?
A. Speaking in general … Regency is interesting because it is far enough in the past that we can imbue it with fairy-tale qualities. We can romanticize it in a way that we can’t romanticize, say, World War II stories. I mean, you can romanticize elements of that, but it’s too close. A lot of the very real horrors of it are still too close. … [Regency] is like this little sweet spot — and then you add in the fact that you can make it glamorous. That’s part of the Regency — and the wonderful conversations and witty repartee.
Q. I did a story years ago about Sarah McLean, who also writes Regency romance. I’m a fan. She has Boston and New England ties, and she told me another of my faves, Lisa Kleypas, is not only local but was Miss Massachusetts.
A. Well, [Lisa] also went to Wellesley [College]. But can I tell you, the funniest thing is, she’s, she’s small. And “Massachusetts” is one of the longest state names there is, and so when they wrapped [the sash] around her, it just said, Miss massa-chu. … Who else is up there … oh — Caroline Linden. She lives in Massachusetts.
Q. A question about “Bridgerton,” the show: In thinking about how some of these beloved characters get adapted and change, what is it like to look on as a writer?
A. I’m very hands off. It’s helpful that I’m the type of writer who, when I close my computer at night, I close my computer. I don’t sit around thinking about my characters. … When they adapted the show, it was never like, “Oh, that’s wrong.” It was always like, “Oh, yeah, OK.” I love what they’re doing. I feel like all the characters … they’re a little different, but they’re still true to the essence of the story. I think you could do a masterclass on adaptations with this, because I personally don’t like it generally when a book is adapted too faithfully. I think that a really good book is written as a book, and it’s written to take advantage of what makes a book great. And what makes a book great doesn’t necessarily make film or television great, and vice versa.
Q. What are you watching right today?
A. I’m actually watching “Outlander” again, because my husband never saw it, and I kept saying, like, “I think you would like it.” And he met [“Outlander” author Diana Gabaldon] at a book festival and really liked her. We just finished season four of “Hacks,” which is brilliant. [HBO’s “Somebody, Somewhere”], which I loved. “Department Q.”
Q. [“Department Q” star] Matthew Goode seems very proto-Bridgerton.
A. He could absolutely be in “Bridgerton.”
Visit bostonbookfest.org for tickets to this event and to see the full schedule of happenings.
Interview was edited.
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at Meredith.Goldstein@Globe.com.
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