Given Eloisa James' pedigree -- her father is poet Robert Bly, she has degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, and is a professor of Shakespeare -- one might expect her to publish dry academic tomes. Indeed, she did write a nonfiction book published by Oxford University Press.

But the New York Times best-selling author is better known for her historical romances which have sold close to 4 million copies and are published in nine languages.

Her latest, "This Duchess of Mine" (Avon 2009, $7.95), continues the saga of Jemma and Elijah, Duchess and Duke of Beaumont, and their somewhat unusual marriage.

James jumped into the romance writing business because she had a ton of student loans to pay off.

"I was going to be gray before that happened," said James, head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York.

But once her debts were paid, she found that she loved writing saucy, humorous novels that are historically accurate.

"I like bawdy humor," James said. "A lot of my story ideas come out of details in Renaissance drama. `Midnight Pleasures,' for example, was based on a very obscure play written in 1607 called 'The Hog Has Lost His Pearl.'"

She set her "Desperate Duchess" series in Georgian England because it was a racier time. James spends some of her school year daydreaming about plots and characters. Then she writes her novels in the summer.

The author wants to clear up a misconception.

"People think that historical novels are porn for women," she said. "There are sexual parts to my books because I'm interested in marriage and sex. And marital problems and marital joy tend to be played out in the bedroom."