Critical Opinion

"Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it." -- Mark Twain

"Tonstant Weader Fwowed up." —Dorothy Parker's Book Review of The House at Pooh Corner.

"People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like." -- Abraham Lincoln, in a book review

Reviews. The thought of them can strike terror into an author's heart. Will the reviewer appreciate the sly wit and clever heroine? Find the hero dreamily attractive and powerful? Or will she point out that if the hero and heroine had only cleared up one little misunderstanding, the book would have been over after fifty pages?

My first book comes out on Tuesday, and it's already received one review, a complimentary one from Romantic Times. When it reaches the general reading public, chances are good it'll get some bad reviews, too--after all, I made one huge historical inaccuracy, which will bother some people, my heroine can be perceived as snotty, and the plot, well, is not so layered.

I welcome any and all reviews. Prior to writing fiction, I wrote music reviews for 15 years for two different music industry publications. I fielded many, many calls from musicians and record labels who wanted reviews, people who disagreed with my, and my staff's, reviews, and people who thought our magazine had been accurate in its subjective opinion. So for me to dismiss any bad review out of hand would be hypocritical.

What I do not like, at all, are sycophantic reviews. You do romance authors and their potential audience no favors when you gush about a book, or an author, with no degrees of assessment. For example, I love Anne Stuart. Do I think Shadow Dance is as good as To Love A Dark Lord? No. That doesn't mean I'm not supportive of her work, don't love her as an author, won't buy her books in the future. A few posts ago, Elena posted about Laura Kinsale, an author who inspires fanatical devotion from her fans. If a fan of her dark books didn't like her light books as much, would that mean she was somehow disloyal? No.

And yet, it is a peculiarly romance genre thing to insist on blind devotion. The New York Times Book Review usually features reviews written by one author about another's work. Is that author accused of disloyalty if they don't like the book? I should hope not. It's an opinion, a subjective one that, if written well, should demonstrate exactly why the reviewer didn't like the book. It doesn't mean the reviewer isn't a nice person, or isn't appropriate to review the book in question, or has a personal vendetta against the author. It simply means that, in the reviewer's opinion, the book wasn't that good.

When I first started writing romance, I also started writing romance reviews for the website All About Romance. I was proud to review for them because I got to state my opinion, recommending plenty of good books and advising readers to avoid some others. Although I don't write for them any longer, I still go to AAR for reviews, and lately I've taken to visiting readers' blogs to find recommendations (I've got a sidebar full of links on my Writer's Diary page: (www.meganframpton.com/diary.html).

I don't look to reviews to corroborate my own opinion. I look to reviews to help me decide what to read, not to cheerlead. I want honesty, and if someone doesn't like my book, or books that I like, I won't take it personally.

Do you read reviews? If so, why? If you're an author, do you hunt for them, or avoid them? As a reader, do reviews influence your buying decisions?

Kate Ross

I was originally going to cover the subject of "What else do you read?" but decided instead to talk about Kate Ross, whom I would have talked about anyway. She's a writer who died in her early 30s, having only written four books; and she was the sort of writer you wanted to have around for years. She's not a romance writer, but her books are set in the mid-1820s and feature a dandy and detective called Julian Kestrel (great name!).
I find with a lot of historical mystery series I find myself muttering, "Oh, for God's sake, check the fingerprints," before realizing the technology was decades, or centuries ahead. Or frankly, they're just silly (like the impeccably researched medieval series, I mention no names, that had chipmunks frolicking in the grounds of a medieval abbey). But Kate Ross and Kestrel are just, well, in a word, fabulous. He's not an aristocrat, but a self-made man who lives on his wits and gambler's instincts. He reminds me a little of Lord Peter Wimsey set a century earlier--cultured, witty, super-intelligent, and with a frivolous, flippant demeanor that hides a deeply serious and private personality. He moves easily between the fashionable world and its dark side, both beautifully evoked by Ross.
Three of the books are set in England. The fourth, and her most ambitious--I suspect Ross knew time was running out, and stretched herself--is set in Italy, has an extremely and convoluted operatic plot, and finally gives us the truth about Kestrel's origins.
Ross' secondary characters are great, too. There's his manservant, Dipper (slang term for a pickpocket, which was his former profession), and Sally, a whore and thief and his sometime accomplice and lover. Kestrel resists Sally for a time, and then capitulates. This wonderful bit of writing describes his state of mind before they make love for the first time:
So it was over--the struggle and suspense between them. But it was no ending as he had expected, or resolved. Because in that moment his perspective shifted. He had often tried to fathom what she meant to him; he had never once asked himself what he meant to her. Looking into her upturned face, he saw her for the first time, not as a seductress, but as offering him the only thing in the world she had to give.
All four of the novels--Cut To The Quick; A Broken Vessel; Whom The Gods Love; and The Devil In Music--are all still in print. Check them out.
Janet

Mothers!

Yesterday I wrote a short scene between the heroine of my very new mess-in-progress and her mother. The heroine’s father had to be dead, for plot purposes, but I thought perhaps the mother might prove an interesting character. Well, I tried her one way and another—sympathetic, controlling, whiny, funny—and nothing clicked. So I decided she was just better off dead, too. I may revive her at some point, but only if she has something entertaining to contribute to the story!

I think there’s a reason why heroines of romances often don’t have mothers, or at least not ones who are present for most of the story. The mother/daughter relationship is very complex and can take over from the romance. A mother’s good counsel might keep a heroine from making her own mistakes and learning from them. And depending on the story, having a mom around might destroy the mood.

And yet, is creating orphaned characters an easy (and cheap) way to buy a reader’s sympathy? A problematic mother (like Mrs. Bennett in Pride & Prejudice) can escalate conflict, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to see more positive mother figures in romance fiction?

Most books I recall that included such a mother also featured a hero with bigger problems than the heroine's, where it made sense that a mother's support would help her deal with him. Some examples: Julia Ross’s MY DARK PRINCE and Jo Beverley’s DEVILISH.

Can anyone else think of examples of interesting fictional mothers, good, bad and ugly?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com/

Roger Michell's PERSUASION

Does anyone want to discuss Roger Michell's film PERSUASION? (It was released as a television film in the U.K., and as a theatrical release in the U.S. -- which may make it unique!) I call it "Roger Michell's PERSUASION" because he was the director -- but of course screenwriter Nick Dear deserves as much credit as Michell for this understated, heartfelt adaptation.

I think Ciaran Hinds is very real as Wentworth -- and a swoony romantic hero at the same time. Amanda Root is so true and so subtle as Anne that I don't think I could ever picture anyone else in the part.



The silences in the film are amazingly powerful. This is an incredibly internal film.

The supporting performances are also great. I particularly adore Simon Russell Beale as Anne's cheerful (but perhaps not too bright) brother-in-law Charles Musgrove, and Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft, the Admiral's resourceful wife. (I once saw Simon Russell Beale portray Guildenstern in Stoppard's ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, and Fiona Shaw play King Richard II in Shakespeare's play, but I assure you I am quite unbiased!)

So, which were your favorite parts of the film? Or what didn't work for you?

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05

Great review of LADY MIDNIGHT!

Amanda McCabe just got another great review for her historical LADY MIDNIGHT -- this time at "The Romance Reader" website. Congratulations, Amanda!

The review can be found here:

www.theromancereader.com/mccabe-lady.html

The reviewer refers to her "luscious prose," and argues that LADY MIDNIGHT belongs more to the tradition of Charlotte Bronte than Jane Austen. (Do you agree, Amanda?)

Cara

Your first time

Like almost every other writer/reader, I have a TBR pile. No, pile is a vast misnomer--it's s structure, a mountain. For a long time, I had these books stacked in my hallway, blocking the coat closet and waiting to brain unwary passers-by. Until one day, when the volumes went almost to the ceiling, my cat tried to climb up the pyramid and started an avalanche. Books were scattered far and wide, and I knew I had to make a change. Get organized. So, I bought a slew of clear plastic tubs at Target and started packing the volumes away to store them in the garage (after I moved the car out, of course). To a non-reader this sounds like a quick and easy job, but we here at Risky Regencies surely know better. This job took days, weeks, because I ended up sitting on the floor re-reading old favorites, starting new books I've been meaning to get to, just basically wasting time and having fun.

I sorted these books into several stacks--books I will read soon, books I will read some day (when I'm 80?), and books to give away (I think there were about 3 of these). Then I found it. A battered, taped-up copy of the Very First Regency I ever read--Marian Chesney's AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN PINEAPPLE. And nostalgia set in.

A little backstory. Unlike lucky Megan, my parents were never great readers. But my grandmother was, and she was always taking me to the library and giving me books as presents. Some of them I loved, like the Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables series (for their romantic elements, and their plucky, wanna-be writer heroines). Some I loathed (like the egregious, treackle-beset POLLYANNA and ELSIE DINSMORE). But I devoured them all.

My grandparents lived on a sort-of farm, and every summer we visited them for several weeks. This particular summer, when I was 8 or 9, someone gave my grandmother a couple of big boxes full of romance novels, and I ended up sitting in the closet (where the boxes were stored) and reading the whole time. At first it was just a fun way to avoid my cousins, who only ever wanted to play Star Wars and brooked no deviation from the script. Boring. Soon, though, I was totally hooked, living in a world of country estates, Almack's, handsome dukes, and high-perch phaetons. I could not even be lured away by my grandmother's German chocolate cake.

These boxes were filled with mostly Cartlands, with a couple of Heyers, and some old Fawcett and Harlequin Regencies. I was somewhat familiar with the period, having seen the Garvie-Rintoul P&P, and I loved the clothes, the manners, the witty atmosphere. I was so excited when I pulled a book out of the box--AT THE SIGN OF THE GOLDEN PINEAPPLE--and saw the words "Regency Romance" at the top. I devoured it on the spot, and then dug out every single volume that also declared itself a "Regency." The monster was unleashed.

I don't remember a huge amount about that particular book. It was maybe set in Bath, and the heroine ran a Gunter's-style shop. But it sucked me into a fabulous, fascinating new world I couldn't get enough of. I still can't.

So, I'm curious. What are the books that first drew YOU into the Regency? What did you like about them, what kept drawing you back? What was your first time like?

Interview with Elena Greene, Author of Lady Dearing's Masquerade!

Elena grew up reading her mother’s favorite Regencies, and after being sent on an international assignment to England she could no longer resist the urge to write her own. Her stories have won the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill and the Award of Excellence. Learn more at http://www.elenagreene.com/


Praise for LADY DEARING's MASQUERADE!

"LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE could have been a dark, depressing story considering its many tragedies: orphaned foundlings, throwaway babies, malicious gossip, years of abuse. But it’s a tribute to Elena Greene that the story is poignant, and the admirable way in which Jeremy and Livvy deal with their trials endears them to readers and will have you rooting for them to unite." -- Romantic Times Bookclub
4 1/2 Stars, TOP PICK!

"The characters of this remarkable tale sparkle with sensitivity, wit, humor, and a genuine quality that will make them stand out in readers’ minds long after the last page is turned... For a story that is sure to stoke the romantic fires burning in every Regency fan, be sure not to miss LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE." -- Edith Morrison, for Romance Reviews Today Read the review

"This was a very well written novel, with great characters and a terrific (and plausible) plot... I’ll definitely be looking for more books by Elena Greene." -- Lynn Lamy, for Rakehell Reviews Read the review

The Interview

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?

It started with Livvy (Lady Dearing), who appeared in "The Wedding Wager", a novella I wrote a few years ago. She helped the couple in that story get together, but said she did not want a romance for herself. An irresistible challenge! At the time I knew that her first marriage had been bad, but it wasn't until I got well into writing the story that I figured out just how bad. So somehow a minor character from a story that was short, fun and fluffy now stars in the longest and most angsty book I've written to date.

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?

This book took about 10 months and 6 drafts (as opposed to my usual 4), and as Jennifer Crusie says of her own work, "there's blood on every page." It's not only a longer story (about 90,000 words as opposed to the more typical 65-75,000 for a standard-length Regency), but I was also dealing with more serious issues than I've ever written into a book before and frankly I was plagued with self-doubts.

Several other things complicated the progress of the story. When I first suggested it to my editor, we both thought it was going to be a standard-length Regency. But once I'd gotten about 100 pages into the first draft, I knew it was a bigger story. Since it was not yet contracted, she agreed to make it a Super Regency, but a while later, after I'd completed the first draft, I was told they wanted to discontinue Supers and asked if I could cut it back. By that point I'd gone so deep into the story it would have required major surgery to do it, so I was relieved when my editor went to bat for me and it was kept a Super Regency. And then there was some confusion about pub dates, which meant I half-killed myself to complete the story earlier than it needed to be. I felt I hadn't done my best work, cried all the way back from the post office before diving into some Ben & Jerry's. So it was a relief to learn there was time for revisions, which were pretty extensive.

It just proves that even with a conscientious author and a very nice, very supportive editor, things can go wrong. But it's over now, and I'm very proud of my "problem child".

Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?

I already talked about Livvy, my starting point for the story. When I brought Jeremy into being, I wanted him to be both the best and worst thing that could happen to her. So I made him ultra-respectable (as a foil to her notoriety) but also extremely kind. I think of him as the sort of character Colin Firth often plays: gentlemanly, honorable but with a simmering restrained passion. I wish the guy on the cover looked more like Firth, since that's who I had pictured in my mind (and what I put in my suggestions to the art department).

Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?

London's Foundling Hospital figures heavily in the book. When I researched the Hospital (making use of an excellent book titled CORAM'S CHILDREN, by Ruth McClure), I learned that Regency society's attitude toward foundling children was much less sympathetic, on average, than our own. Foundlings were usually the result of illicit unions and many believed that children born in sin were prone to evil and unworthy of aid. This prejudice tied in thematically with society' misjudgment of my heroine, Livvy, though perhaps I shouldn't mention that. I'm not sure I want readers to know there are themes here, it sounds so literary!

The other main area of my research was in women's reproductive health. Regency medicine had some frightening ways of dealing with any difficulties with conception and pregnancy, including a "lowering regimen" (a diet which would have limited a woman's intake of calcium and iron) and bloodletting. Overall, the course of treatment seemed design to weaken women, at a time in history when the Victorian ideal of submissive, proper womanhood was beginning to form. So another theme in the book was Livvy's struggle to maintain her integrity against the men who tried to control her. Here again, I hope that it came through naturally in the story!

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you've taken in this book? How do you feel about it?

Even though writers like Mary Balogh were doing sex in Regencies way before I even started writing, some readers still object to it. But I knew I was going to take that risk when I started, because I knew this story would have to go that way and the ellipsis (...) just wasn't going to have the same emotional power. And much less fun to write! :)

I also dealt with several of the harsh realities of Regency England--the fact that husbands had nearly complete power over their wives, and the grim situation of unwanted children. I felt that softening these things would have weakened the story, but I'm bracing myself for the reactions of readers who like their Regencies "cozy". (Not that I have anything against "cozy" Regencies! I've written a few of them myself. This just isn't one.)

The scenes that felt the most risky to me were the flashbacks into Livvy's first marriage.

Q. Is there anything you wanted to include in the book that you (or your CPs or editor) felt was too controversial and left out?

Actually, no. I took lots of wrong turns in the process of bashing this manuscript into shape, but I don't miss any of the deletions. I'm also very grateful to my editor for not making me take anything out.

Q. Lady Dearing is a widow with a scandal attached to her name; you've also written about young, virtuous debutantes. Which is your favorite kind of heroine to write about?

I don't have a favorite in terms of age, marital status, etc... But one thing my heroines all have in common is that they are seeking something. Some readers have called my heroines selfish, but I think they're just real women trying to come into their strength. They make all sorts of mistakes, but they won't be passive Cinderellas waiting for someone to rescue them.

Q. As a mother yourself, you know romance and kids don't always go together. How was it writing a romance involving children? Is there any author you feel does it particularly well?

Wow, good question! You may have hit on the riskiest element in this story--a plot that revolves around children and sex. There are a couple of reasons why that mix can be dodgy. I think some people are uncomfortable with the innocence of children and adult passion in the same book. As if sex and parenthood were not somehow connected! The other reason is that, well, obviously, the pressures of parenthood can play havoc with one's sex life. Anyone who's had an attempt at lovemaking interrupted multiple times by a crying child knows what I'm talking about.

But I like to show my heroines experiencing (or at least looking forward to) a life that includes passion and children. And by the end of any romance, I want to feel the h/h are so deeply devoted that they will keep things hot whatever life throws their way. Otherwise he could just go running back to his mistress, right? Of course, if Livvy and Jeremy feel the need for a brief getaway to London, they've got a governess and the rest of their household staff to keep the kiddos in order!

As for romances involving children, I have to say I've read too many that didn't work for me at all. Sometimes the kids are just cute props: cherubic Victorian-greeting-card children rather than flesh-and-blood kids who may be cute, but also fight, make messes and pick their noses at inappropriate moments! And some authors don't seem to "get" motherhood. If a heroine is searching for her kidnapped child, is she really going to be checking out every hunk she meets along the way?

But some authors do combine children and romance in a way that works. Between my own kids and writing, I don't get as much time to read as I'd like, so I'm sure I'm missing many! But the books I've read by Susan Elizabeth Phillips had very realistic children. But then all her characterizations are strong. I'll also add a word about my blog buddy, Janet Mullany. Her debut book, DEDICATION, deals with issues of parenthood and even grandparenthood, in a realistic and touching manner. And the sex is pretty hot, too!

Q. What are you working on now?

I'm working on a Regency historical romance, and the hero is neither a duke nor a spy. Sorry, but I'm not ready to say much more yet. My first drafts resemble my final books about as closely as a newly fertilized egg cell resembles a bouncing, cuddly baby. At this point the idea might just sound stupid. That would be bad. :)

Thanks for interviewing me!

Highest Concept

I hate for this to be all about me, but . . .

let's talk about me.

My book, A Singular Lady, comes out in stores in less than two weeks. Ten days, to be exact, but who's counting? My editor sent me one copy of it, which is now crinkled, stained, and worn because I've been hauling it around to show off if anyone asks what I do besides stay at home with my son.

I've read a few bits of it, too, when I've been waiting for someone to ask me what I do besides stay at home with my son (um, did I say that? I meant waiting to save a puppy or make chocolate from scratch. That's what I meant). It feels as if another person wrote it. I certainly don't remember tapping out some of those words on the keyboard.

I do remember, however, when I knew I would finish writing it. I was at a music industry conference talking with a Very Important Music Journalist and I mentioned what I was doing in my theoretical spare time. I told her the bare concept--my heroine writes a column detailing her husband quest--and she replied, "Oh, Sex And The City in the Regency."

A ha! I thought. That made it all so much clearer.

And thus was I introduced to the high concept, a buzzword that's since been cutting a swath through writers' conferences. The High Concept is a sentence, sometimes only a sentence fragment, that describes the book (or movie, or TV show) in a succinct, catchy way.

So when I pitched my book at those same writers' conferences, I'd say "Sex And The City in the Regency," and editors and agents would nod excitedly and ask me to send a partial and synopsis. Which is, in fact, how my book sold--I pitched it to an editor and an agent at the same conference and it sold to one and I got representation from the other.

So, if you're a reader, how would you characterize your favorite book in a high concept sentence? If you're a writer, do you think in high concept? What's your latest project's high concept? Do you find it easier to think in high concept, or is it just more work?

And while you're thinking about that, I'll be off saving a puppy.

Megan

Time on my hands

Ten things you’ll never hear a regency heroine say:

1. Hell with Almack’s. I think I’ll stay home and entertain myself with the footmen.
2. I might as well marry the first man who offers for me. I can always have passionate love affairs afterward.
3. I never really wanted to be a writer/surgeon/spy/scientist/explorer/archaeologist/herbalist/
highwayperson/governess/publisher/artist/balloonist/acrobat/pirate/opera singer/engineer. It just seemed to make me more attractive to eligible men.
4. Oh, Papa, what a shame you gambled away the family fortune. I’m afraid I can’t think of anything I could possibly do to help out.
5. A devastatingly handsome, notorious, wicked rake? Eeeew.
6. I know it’s our wedding night, but would you mind terribly if I got on with my knitting?
7. I don’t care if that adorable lisping child is the apple of the hero’s eye. If she doesn’t shut up I’ll slap her.
8. Pay no attention to my siblings. They’re only here for the sequels.
9. Would you mind using one of those thingies made from animal intestines?
10. You don’t have any? Look in my reticule.


Ten things you’ll never a regency hero say:

1. No brandy for me, thank you. It gives me terrible wind.
2. But I always wear a nightshirt and nightcap. Why should it be any different tonight?
3. All this striding around is giving me groin injuries.
4. No, no. I insist, madam. You take the floor. I’ll be quite comfortable in this huge bed.
5. Send my valet for some Rogaine. I have been indulging in overmuch hair raking.
6. I’m afraid some women have complained it’s rather on the small side.
7. I am Everard Dominic Benedict Ashford Alexander Artichoke FitzGrennan, Duke of Hawkraven, known and feared as Satan’s Elbow, but you may address me as….Cuddles.
8. I really don’t want to go to a gambling hell tonight. Couldn’t we just stay home and read up on the bills we’re supposed to vote on tomorrow in the House?
9. Butler, remove this strange woman from my bed immediately.
10. Waterloo? Oh, it was quite fun, actually.

Janet

Laura Kinsale, Light and Dark Stories

Not long ago, I heard the good news that Laura Kinsale has completed a new book.

For anyone who doesn't already know, Laura Kinsale writes superb historical romances, many of them featuring amazingly tortured heroes. In fact, no one does dark heroes better, as the judges of this year's Romance Writers of America RITA contest recognized in selecting her last release, SHADOWHEART, as Best Historical Romance. My critique partners and I sometimes refer to her as the Goddess. When we analyze her scenes, as a writing exercise, we usually find ourselves genuflecting and mumbling, "We are not worthy, we are not worthy..."

OK, I could rhapsodize for a while longer, but you get the picture.

I read on her website (www.laurakinsale.com/books/lucky.html) that Laura decided to do a lighter story after all the angst and turmoil in SHADOWHEART. It's going to be more like her other lighter book, MIDSUMMER MOON.

As presumptuous, not to say blasphemous, as it is to say this, I think I understand. Some of my earlier Regencies were on the light side, but LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE has darker elements than I've tackled before (still Little League compared to SHADOWHEART, of course). I found myself suffering along with my characters, which can be a draining experience. When I started another angsty story it was like wading through an ever-deepening snowdrift. Now I'm doing a lighter one and finding that the ideas are coming a little more quickly (though first drafts are never easy). So for me, changing up was a creative necessity.

However, switching gears feels like yet another creative risk.

I think Laura Kinsale's devoted fans will buy her next book. I certainly will. But do some readers feel cheated when an author of an angsty (or funny, or sweet, or sexy... you name it) book does something radically different in her next?

I wonder.

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Who's Your Favorite Austen Heartthrob?

Time to take a poll! Please answer any or all of these three questions, about the pictured film and television portrayals of Austen characters at the end of this post! (Or you can pick someone who's not pictured!)

1) Which of these Austen characters, as played by the specific actor, do you think has the most of what Janet calls "essential hotness"?

2) Which would you find it easiest to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with?

3) Which would you most like to marry? (This of course takes into account your answers to questions 1 and 2, but also practical matters -- like who your in-laws will be, and just how disgustingly wealthy he is.) :-)

Just put your answers in a comment -- you can explain your choices if you like! I'll keep tabs on how voting goes, and soon we will know who are the hottest, the dreamiest, and the most marriageable cinematic Austen heroes!

If any gentlemen are here, you can vote on which hero you'd most like to be! And yes, you may take into account who you would get to marry, just how disgustingly wealthy you would be, and whether or not you have to have Lady Catherine de Bourgh as your aunt!

Cara
Cara King, MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05
more Jane Austen movie info at www.caraking.com!

Talk Like a Pirate Monday

I was reading over the posts from the last few days, all the great discussion on Jane Eyre, historic castles, and The Green Fairy Book, and I couldn't decide what today's post should be about. Something erudite and cultured? Literary, historical? Nah--it's officially Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arggh, maties!

OK, so I'm getting silly, I know. Maybe my brain is baked from trying to finish my WIP on time and thus have my editor still like me. But the first "real historical romance" I ever read (and by that I mean not a Cartland, a Heyer, or a trad Regency) was Virginia Henley's The Hawk and the Dove. This was more years ago than I care to remember, I was in the eighth or ninth grade at the time, but I still remember how great I thought this book was. The heroine (the fabulously-named Sabre Wilde) has come to the court of Elizabeth I to get revenge on her long-lost husband, the also wonderfully-named Captain Shane Hawkhurst, also known as The Sea God. He is (you guessed it!) a pirate (or maybe a privateer--whatever, it's all good), and she has long, red hair and is very "feisty," which means she pitches fits all over the place and causes big scenes. She also wears terrific clothes. It was an immensely fun book, and it set me on a pirate-story jag that lasted for many months. I still enjoy the occasional high-seas adventure (especially when it gives me the chance to indulge my Orlando Bloom obsession a bit!), even though good pirate books are a little harder to find these days. Here's a list of titles I liked, and I'd love to hear suggestions from everyone else. :)

Marsha Canham's The Iron Rose (an absolutely splendid book, where the heroine is the pirate--I loved this one. The prequel, about the heroine's parents, was also great--Across a Moonlit Sea)
Jennifer Ashley's The Pirate Next Door (a great, humorous look at Regency-era piracy)
Meagan McKinney's Til Dawn Tames the Night (another early historical read of mine--pretty steamy! The hero also has a fab tattoo)
Sabrina Jeffries' The Pirate Lord
Amanda Quick's Deception
Lisa Cach's The Wildest Shore
Gaelen Foley's The Pirate Prince
Heyer's Beauvallet (maybe stretching it a bit? But I had to include it!)

For more info on this great holiday, check out http://www.talklikeapirate.com/buzz.html. Check it out, or walk the plank!

Interview with Janet Mullany, author of DEDICATION!

Janet was brought up in England where she read Georgette Heyer when she should have been studying for some exams, didn’t read Jane Austen when she should have (for some more exams) but rediscovered her later in life, and didn’t want to be a novelist when she grew up. She has been an archaeologist, draftsperson, radio announcer, arts administrator, proofreader, and bookseller.
Learn more at www.janetmullany.com

Praise for Dedication!

"I'd encourage every Regency fan (except perhaps for sensuality sticklers) to run out and get this book. It's entertaining, thoughtful, and more than worth your time." -- Blythe Barnhill, for All About Romance Read the review

"This isn't a fluffy book, but a deeply psychological love story. For me, this depth of character and plot was refreshing, and made the book a constant surprise." -- Cybil Solyn, for Rakehell Read the review

"One of the best Regencies I have read in years. Very highly recommended." -- DeborahAnne MacGillivray, for The Best Reviews Read the review

Interview

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?

The first scene--that of a man knocking at the door of a London house early in the morning-- came into my head strongly enough that I was able to build the plot and characters from there. I don't know why it works this way for me, but it does.

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?

It was a much revised book, but it was always easy to write. It began first as a single-title regency set historical, and had a rather convoluted plot. Adam was a codebreaker for English intelligence, and Fabienne his major suspect as a spy. I had a near miss with an editor who suggested I drop the spy plot and make it more a comedy of manners, so I revised it and she rejected it via form letter (one of those character building moments). It was never was a comedy of manners, and it continued to bomb until it won the 2004 Royal Ascot Contest (sponsored by the Beau Monde) and Signet made me an offer for it later that year. I had to chop off 20k words, so the subplot almost disappeared, but at least almost all the sex stayed intact!


Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?

I've no idea where Fabienne and Adam came from. I think they were based on what I didn't want to write about or read about. I was interested in characters who had had experience in life, including good relationships with other partners, friends, and family,and who had not been holding grudges or harboring revenge plans for decades. In other words, fairly complex and healthy people, who were mature enough to solve their own problems but were also human enough to make mistakes. So that's how I ended up with a heroine in her late 30s and a hero in his early 40s, both widowed.


Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?

I did some research on Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, a French portrait painter, and used that to create one of my minor characters, Elaine, although she's from a much different background. I grew up in England, so I have the advantage of knowing what houses and the countryside look like, and how people speak. My mind is a vast repository of trivia, and it's amazing that some of the stuff in there is useful. I also did some research on French emigres to England after the revolution. Basically I'm a sloppy researcher, and I can only hope my mistakes aren't too embarrassing.

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you've taken in this book? How do you feel about it?

When I was writing it I had no sense whatsoever that I was taking risks, although I did become accustomed to mutters (and shouts!) from CPs that I was breaking rules, editors wouldn't like what I was doing, and/or I wasn't writing a romance. I'm happy to say I didn't let it faze me. In retrospect, I think my greatest risk is in having a hero who is older than the norm, uses reading glasses, and is an atheist, grandfather, and novelist.


Q. Is there something in the book you originally included but left out because you thought it was too controversial?

Well, originally I had the villain eaten by the hero's pigs, which is a wonderful way to kill off someone, and I hope I can use that elsewhere! (Spoiler follows!) One of the few times I dropped something was the scene where Fabienne's brother finds she's pregnant. In the original, she had decided to abort the pregnancy, and he stops her. The reaction from my CPs was one of unanimous horror (to put it mildly). So as it is now, her maid (who would of course know her mistress' cycle) picked up the abortifacient for Fabienne, and her brother prevents her from taking it. He's concerned about her health and the honor of the family, not because he's thinking of an unborn baby. I still think the original was stronger; women don't always welcome an unplanned pregnancy with overwhelming joy, and Fabienne is in despair after she ended her relationship with Adam.


Q. Your book is very racy; how did you keep thoughts of your kid(s), parents, friends, and the local grocer from intruding when you were writing those scenes?

Oh, my God, who told you about me and the grocer? I really don't find it that different from writing any other sort of scene. I don't think about them then either, although I do find it alarming how much I reveal of myself through my writing generally. That's why I very rarely let non-writers read my works in progress. You must bear in mind, too, that the characters tended to take over. I had no idea, for instance, on p. 79, what Adam was about to do to Fabienne on p. 80. Honest.

Q. What are you working on now?

I'm revising my regency chicklit (if you want to see what a regency chicklit is like, go to my website and check out my excerpts) and writing a new regency-set erotic romance novella. I'd love to do a sequel to Dedication, based on the relationship between Barbara (Adam's daughter) and Ippolite (Fabienne's brother) but given the condition of the market I don't think there's anywhere for it to go.

Thanks for interviewing me!

My October Cover...and the Sussex Coast

Here's the cover of my October book, WHEN HORSES FLY, and I hope I can upload it and have it come out at a reasonable size....

The story takes place near Beachy Head on the southeastern coast of England...the castle is fictitional, of course, although I had some inspiration from Hastings Castle, only my fictitional one is not a ruin.

A link to the official Hastings site:

http://www.visithastings.com/attractions/default_castle.asp

And another:

http://www.discoverhastings.co.uk/discover_hastings/index2.html

Here are a few pictures of Beachy Head, The Seven Sisters, and the coast:

A long look down from the top of Beachy Head...the site of more than a few suicides...

And finally, a shot of Birling Gap, which figured in smuggling history among other things.

Laurie

Inspiration can come at the most unexpected times—visiting a lovely, historic place, as the posts this week have demonstrated; seeing a movie with a particularly attractive (some would say hunky) man; reading a book, even if it’s not a romance (man, the ideas I’ve gotten from Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon. No, just kidding.)
Chances are, each writer’s inspiration is idiosyncratic, speaking to our most primal thoughts and images. For example, I like visiting a nice historic site, but I don’t think I’d get inspired to write because of it, even if I went to Gretna Green, found a blacksmith, and did that whole anvil thing. All five of my fellow bloggers have posted about places they found inspiring.
Me, I’d probably just look around a little and then go find where they sell the coffee.
It’s not that I don’t enjoy visiting historic places, I do; but I don’t feel my writer’s soul quiver when I’m there. For inspiration, I reach back into what I first loved about Happily Ever After stories and come up with two main sources:
A friend of my mother’s gave me The Green Fairy Book when I was born (I’m certain my parents would have preferred burp cloths, but there you go). Needless to say, it took me a couple of years after that to actually read it. And when I did, my romantic streak was born. Andrew Lang collected and compiled fairy stories from all over the world, from Europe to Africa to Asia. His translations, accompanied by H.J. Ford’s amazing art, defined, and continues to define, romance for me.

There are twelve colored fairy books in all, and I would say I’ve read them all close to a hundred times each. When my copies got too worn out and mildewed, my husband replaced them as a birthday present (and this was before the internet made thoughtful shopping so easy).
Also when I was little, my parents and I lived in New Hampshire (stick with me, I am going somewhere). Since both of them worked, I went to a neighbor’s house after school to play with her daughter and her friend’s two daughters. My babysitter was Trina Schart Hyman, a multiple Caldecott Honor Award winning illustrator. Trina’s artwork featured beautiful, independent women with long, wild hair and handsome, honorable men doing noble deeds (it also featured a guy who looked suspiciously like my dad, Trina’s martini-drinking buddy. I always got the olives.).

I read, and re-read, and re-read these stories hundreds of times. I imagined myself disguised as a boy and rescuing a prince from a dragon. I imagined myself sleeping for twenty years and being awoken by a prince. I imagined myself watching as a prince completed an impossible task set him by my father (notice the plethora of princes?) . Of course, I imagined myself as beautiful, graceful and quick-witted as these heroines, too, even though I was a chubby glasses-wearing asthmatic (I’m not chubby anymore, but don’t ever put my glasses near your cat).
And when it came time to write, I didn’t even give it a second thought. I would write a romance, a story where I knew the ending was going to be happy. Those are the stories, and images, that make me happy. That inspire me.

Elena's Review!

Elena's book, Lady Dearing's Masquerade, gets a great review from Romance Reviews Today. Hey, check it out--my favorite part is where the reviewer says, "For a story that is sure to stoke the romantic fires burning in every Regency fan, be sure not to miss LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE."

Jane Eyre

Even people who haven't read "Jane Eyre" know what it's about. They know who Mr. Rochester is, they know about the mad wife in the attic, they know the heroine is a friendless governess. I found this out after writing an alternative erotic novella based on JE (called "Reader, I Married Him," one of the book's most famous lines)--and I showed it to a few other writers for critique. They immediately knew what it was about whether they'd read JE or not. (In my version, btw, it's Mr. Rochester who's chained up in the attic.)
It's not my favorite Bronte--that's "Villette," also by Charlotte Bronte, a real kick-ass book that is even more brave, puzzling, difficult, and frustrating than JE (go to my website, http://www.janetmullany.com/aboutjanet.htm, to read my thoughts on that book).
I hate the fact that JE runs away from Rochester because he wants her to become his mistress--the fact that he's lied through his teeth to her and taken advantage of her lowly status and lack of connections doesn't really seem to bother her as much. The sexiest part of it is not the love scenes with Rochester (which I find cringeworthy), but life at Lowood. I remember reading it during adolescence and getting all steamed up in the early part of the book and bored with the rest of it, and couldn't really understand why. Wasn't it Mr. R who was supposed to float my boat? Although I have to admit that first meeting with the hound and the mysterious figure on horseback has a wonderful, mythic quality to it. The first sentence of the book is extraordinary for an era that specialized in purple prose (in which Charlotte Bronte did pretty well)--blunt, atmospheric, spare:
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
Very fitting for a book that is about repression, choices made from necessity, and the lack of opportunity for action.
My daughter, a tough, cynical sophomore (and English major) told me she was quite shocked by JE. Why? Well, there's all that talk about mistresses, she said. It is an extraordinarily frank book in that regard--although of course all of Mr. R's messing about took place on the Continent, where Englishmen went to behave like, well, foreigners. That makes it all the more shocking when he sets out to entrap Jane into a bigamous marriage. As for the fate of the first Mrs. R, it does make you wonder how many mentally ill female family members were quietly tucked away under the eaves. Better than sending them to a mental hospital, of course, but the same treatment could be meted out to disobedient or eccentric wives.
JE may be the first historical regency gothic. It was published in 1847, and is placed somewhere in the regency period. There are a few hints--a reference to a novel by Walter Scott, for instance--that place the novel anywhere in the first twenty-five years of the nineteenth century. I think Bronte is being deliberately obscure--it's set in that period when England hovered on the brink of change that came about with the 1832 reform bill. It was a period that fascinated the Victorians--much of Dickens and George Eliot is set in the late 1820s--because afterward, everything was different. She's writing about a time that is now history, from the perspective of the present, deliberately manipulating fact to fit fiction.
So, I really can't avoid this: JE as a great love story. Well, yes, but... There's Jane's capitulation and surrender (on an emotional, not physical level) to Mr. R--almost--she's always holding herself back, playing it safe, exercising caution and control. Jane is constantly reminding us of Mr. R's brooding physical presence, his size, and ugliness, a Beast she cannot tame. It's only when he's debilitated by the fire that he become safe enough to domesticate. I don't necessarily agree with the favorite theory that it's more than his arm and eye that got damaged in the fire (and then how on earth did Jane get pregnant--I mean, I wonder anyway, but really, that's just dumb...), but now Jane is the strong one, the heroine who makes the choice to begin her journey with him.
Comments, anyone?
Janet