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| Loretta Chekani in her office |
Yesterday she has been announced the winner of the prestigious award "VIVIAN", which is awarded to American novelists. She has been named the best historical novel author for 2021, for her novel "Ten Things I Hate About the Duke".
"VIVIAN" awards are the highest level of appreciation in romantic fiction - "The equivalent of the Oscar-winning romance publishing industry," Chekani says.
In December 2020, the book was selected by library staff across the country to be included in the LibraryReads monthly list of the top ten books published that month. And in January 2021, "The Oprah Magazine" named Chekan's 1995 novel, "Lord of Scoundrels," ranked it fifth on the list of 27 Best Romantic Novels of All Time
The 71-year-old, who lives in Worcester, published her first novel, Isabella, in 1987. At the time, she was writing screenplays for a video production company in Worcester, which helped her learn to build dialogue and write in a summary manner.
The events of Chekan's books are all set in the era of the English Regency, around 1795 to 1837. Called the "history nerd" (obsessed with history) she says she works hard to bring events in the books as close as possible to the reality of the time. And this persistence has led her to study in the museums and libraries of London, where she has studied the art, maps, and artifacts of the years 1700-1800.
Chekani's own collection includes an 1833 magazine that tells her exactly what several hundred women wore in the Queen's drawing-room and who attended the Duchess of Cumberland's dinner.
In her novel "To young to marry" Chekani has used a biographical element of her family, where she tells the story of her grandmother's marriage in Albania.