What (Not) To Wear, Part 2

What (Not!) To Wear, Part 2:

This Tuesday, Amanda shared some of her thoughts on Dressing For the RWA National Conference. Today I'd like to talk about some of what I saw a few weeks ago in Washington, DC. It was not pretty.

1. Monochrome outfits--head-to-toe (including hat!)--in the same color make you look like a weirdo, not interesting or creative or anything but 'stay the hell away from me' bad.

2. Mom jeans are not a good idea unless you plan on doing some gardening. Which I don't believe was an option during National.

3. White shoes?!?

4. No, I don't want to see your rack. Or any part of you that isn't normally on view. Unless your day job is being wrapped around a pole. Thanks.

5. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN GET IT ON DOESN'T MEAN IT FITS.

5a. If your usual size seems snug, there is no shame in going up another size. No-one will know you've got on a size 12 instead of a 10. We will all, however, be grateful for your discretion.

6. Just because it DOES fit doesn't mean it's age-appropriate. Here's a tip: If you're over 21, don't shop at Forever 21, Mandee's or Hot Topic.

7. Wear comfy shoes. And if you don't wear comfy shoes, don't complain loudly about your pained feet. Honestly? We don't care.

8. Random zippers were okay back in the '80s. Not so much now.

9. All kidding aside, most of these observations were limited to a few people. I just like to snark (like you didn't know that?)

10. What are your fashion pet peeves?

Megan

Wuthering Heights and a mess on the floor

This is what a finished book looks like.
Last night I finished Improper Relations, my next Little Black Dress book, and this is the entire manuscript dropped on the floor as I went through it page by page after a hard copy edit.

Whew! I'm still catching up from Nationals and then a Mullany expedition to the beach last week where I thought I'd have internet but didn't. Here's a pic of my mother in law Rosie Mullany to whom I dedicated A Most Lamentable Comedy.

But today is the birthday of Emily Bronte (1818-1848) so I thought we should talk about Wuthering Heights. I consider it an odd, difficult novel, full of shifts in time and narration. Where Jane Eyre (by sister Charlotte) has a clear legacy in popular fiction (plain, poor, virtuous heroine--check; brooding dark hero--check; brooding dark house--check; unspeakable secrets--check), what influence has Wuthering Heights had?

It's almost as though Wuthering Heights stands alone, the odd cousin who smells of elderberries and talks to herself in a corner at the family gathering. We know she's there, we know she's part of the family, but she doesn't quite fit in. Somehow she takes things to extremes--Heathcliffe is dark and brooding yet psychopathic; the heroine dies; the bleak landscape is the star of the show.



And what about the movie versions? Do you think any of them crack the Wuthering Heights code? There's the 1939 classic with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon (left); the 1992 version with Juliette Binoche (whom I love, but why??) and Ralph Fiennes with bad hair.

The most recent is the 2009 PBS adaptation with Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy (both of whom look far too clean in this pic and yet another bad Heathcliffe wig). And according to this article Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan are battling it out for the role of Cathy in yet another remake.

But to me, the most brilliant adaptation is this one by Monty Python (it starts about a minute in after some silly stuff with a policeman but this was the only one I could find without Spanish subtitles):



What do you think? Is there a movie version you like? A book you feel that is particularly influenced by Wuthering Heights?

My blog tour continues tomorrow with a visit to the Word Wenches and more next week--visit my website for the whole schedule (and enter the contest, which is ending soon, while you're there).

A winner

Kate Diamond, you've won the signed copy of A Most Lamentable Comedy. Send your snailmail to riskies@yahoo.com.

Turn up the Volume!

A novel requires some measure of structure to hold it together, a plot tends to work nicely for this. To deconstruct a bit, traditionally, a novel is divided into chapters and at one time was even commonly divided into physically separate volumes. Over time, the result of the separate volumes has been the unhappy event of missing volumes. If I had only volumes 1 and 2 of the original Pride and Prejudice I think I would be very sad. (I don't have any, by the way.) But I do have single volumes of other very old books.

I've heard only anecdotally that the reason for separate volumes stemmed from the convenience of being able to pass on volume 1 to the next reader while proceeding with volume 2. I've never come across this as any more than speculation. Personally, I suspect the volume decision was a financial one and/or a limitation of the materials at hand, and the fact that the separate volumes could be passed on so that readers didn't have to wait for someone to finish the entire book was simply fortuitous for the customer. Perhaps in my copious spare time I'll try to track that down.

The historical practice of physically separate volumes has gone by the wayside, thank goodness, because imagine the horror of your TBR pile if your favorite historical romance (let's say it's Scandal by yours truly) came in three volumes and now that you finally have time to read this lovely book, you discover you're missing volume two. Or the book eating cat (we have one of those) has managed to drag volume three under the bed for a nice snack of the opening chapters. Or that you picked up all three volumes on your way to the airport but only when you're at 40,000 feet do you discover you have the volume one of some other book.

If books today still came in separate volumes, would each volume have different cover art? This, of course, was not an issue back in the day. You either went cheap and kept your books in their original boards (what would the neighbors think of that?) or you bound them yourself, probably in Morocco leather. And since Carolyn Jewel of 1815 would surely have been Lady Readerham (married to the dashing and wholly reformed rake the earl of Readerham--- I assure you, we had quite the tumultuous courtship and that the story about how he got that scar is completely false. There were never any crocodiles in the moat.) At any rate, I would have a nice little coronet to have embossed on the covers of the books in my library.

But that was then. (Would have been then?) What about today? Would bookstores today even allow you to buy single volumes of a multi-volume work? Or would there soon be a healthy after-market source for orphaned volumes? Maybe there'd be special deals, Buy Volumes 1 and 2, get Volume 3 for half off!

What do you think? And if you lived in 1815, who would you be and what would be in your library? Sorry, Lord Readerham is taken.

Conference What (Not) To Wear!

Today's post is the beginning of a two-parter. Watch for part two from Megan on Friday! The two of us sat together at the RITA awards at RWA (and probably drove our neighbors crazy with the whispering--sorry, neighbors!). We sat behind the giant screen in the middle of the room, and had a fabulous time watching the parade of fashions go by. Here are a few tips we came up with to remember when packing for conference:



A little leopard print can be great! Shoes are always good...

Scarves are good (just ask Emma Hamilton! But you can leave the leopard head at home)


But it can be easy to go a little overboard...
All-white can be fresh, summery, and youthful! A good choice in the steamy cities of RWA


But too much can say "Demented Bride"!
Nice walking shorts with cute shoes--Yes!
Sloppy cut-offs--maybe not. And be sure you can sit in your skirt!!!

Dress-over-jeans--Yes or No?

In a room of 3000 women, a nice pair of shoes will get you noticed faster than anything! (Just be sure you can walk in them...)





Abigail Adams knew the power of nice shoes
So did Martha Washington!
Make sure your clothes fit...
Bring shawls for air-conditioned workshop rooms
Most of all, be comfortable and have fun!!!

What are some of your favorite "do's" for conference?

Romance in High Places

To have one’s novel noticed by a person of great power and influence must be a wonderful thing. Certainly Ronald Reagan’s public mention of The Hunt for Red October as "un-put-downable" contributed to Tom Clancy’s successful writing career. Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club*, of course, shot many a book to the best seller list. For Romance, of course, there was Kelly Ripa’s book club selection of The Bachelor by Carly Phillips.



Jane Austen had her own brush with the powerful and influential. In 1815 she was in London visiting her brother Henry who became ill and was seen by the Prince Regent’s physician. After that contact, the royal librarian, James Stanier Clarke, called upon her and invited her to Carlton House where he told her His Royal Highness had given his permission to dedicate her next work (Emma) to him. In that era, what bigger honor could there be?



What would be comparable today? If our popular president took notice of a romance novel, perhaps?

Harlequin author, Geri Krotow, recently moved from Annapolis, MD, to Moscow, where her Naval Officer husband is posted with the American Embassy. Geri, a graduate of the Naval Academy and a former Naval Officer herself, had barely unpacked when the opportunity came to see President and Mrs. Obama at the Embassy during their visit to Moscow. Geri wanted to give something to Michelle Obama in thanks for her support for military families. She decided to give Mrs. Obama a book, her first, A Rendezvous to Remember (Harlequin Everlasting Love, 2007), the only book that wasn’t still packed.




Read what happened HERE

Geri’s (and my) web designer, Emily Cotler of Waxcreative Design, picked up on this exciting news and got an article about it published in the Huffington Post, the online newspaper.

I’ll let you know if Geri receives any word from Michelle Obama, who hopefully will read the book. Think of it, though. We have proof that a romance novel is in the White House!

Was Jane Austen as excited as Geri about coming to the notice of the Prince Regent?
All indications are she was less than thrilled. Austen had no admiration for the Regent’s profligate lifestyle, especially his treatment of his wife. Her question to Mr. Clarke was if it was “incumbent” on her to accept this honor. It was.

Here is her dedication, delicately worded, perhaps satirical, and mentioning nothing of gratitude:

To His Royal Highness, The Prince Regent, This work is, by His Royal Highness’s permission, most respectfully dedicated by His Royal Highness’s most dutiful and obedient humble servant, The Author

I suspect Geri would word a dedication to the Obamas a bit more exuberantly. Me? I’m thrilled for her! I think the moral of her story is, we should never be apologetic about writing romance, no matter who we speak to, even the President of the United States!

What romance novel would you like to put in the hands of which powerful and influential person, if you could?

NOTE: Official White House photo showing the President and Mrs. Obama in the receiving line. Geri is the blonde head behind the woman touching her cheek. You can see Geri's book in Obama's hand.


*One of Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club Selections was A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, which was debunked by The Smoking Gun as being partially fabricated. The Smoking Gun discovered the fabrication because my daughter's friend emailed them to find and print Frey’s mug shot. His name appears in the acknowledgements of Smoking Gun’s book, The Dog Dialed 911.

Check my website! I have a new contest.

Domestiques Rule!

The past few weeks, I've been watching the Tour de France, marveling at the cyclists' athletic ability and intensity. It's a joke between me and my husband that we'll be watching a sports event, and I'll say something like, "Remind me never to be a linebacker," or "a catcher," or anything, honestly, that requires that kind of Herculean effort.

But there is one athletic job I wouldn't mind, and I think it can relate to the books I like to read, too: That of a domestique, a "a road bicycle racer who works for the benefit of his and leader. The French domestique translates as 'servant'."

Yeah, a servant. Which is likely why the quiet governess who's suddenly thrust into the romantic spotlight is so appealing to me as well; after all, I myself shun the spotlight, instead preferring to observe and comment--usually snarkily--on the sidelines. My other favorite heroines are the plainer sisters of Diamonds of the First Water, who attract the attention of the Luscious Rake.

A domestique doesn't have the pressure of having to win, just having to work hard for someone else (see: Megan and her spotlighting husband). But a domestique can have their own story, such as my favorite cyclist George Hincapie, who's finishing the Tour this year with an allegedly broken collarbone. Allegedly because he says he's fine, and won't let doctors look at him until after the Tour. Now THAT is a hero! (Plus he's 6'4". Swoon).

Are you following the Tour? Do you find your allegiances remain consistent, whether it's in sports or in books? What kind of athlete would you like to be?

Janet Mullany Interview!

Today Janet cedes her usual place in the Thursday spotlight to Megan, who interviews . . . Janet!

Janet's latest book, A Most Lamentable Comedy, is out in the UK now, and Janet answers some questions all about it.

Tell us about this book; what was its inspiration?
It’s a sequel (sort-of) to The Rules of Gentility (2007), and and an attempt to prove to my editor at HarperCollins that Rules wasn’t a one-off book. Although she didn’t bite, Little Black Dress (UK), who’d bought and published their own edition of Rules, offered me a three-book contract. This is the first of the three. I chose Caroline as heroine because I wanted to write about a bad girl. Philomena, the heroine of Rules, was quite well-behaved, as was Inigo, more or less. Caroline isn’t and I had to create an equally disreputable hero to match her. I based the premise of the book on a couple of minor characters from Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, con artists who find out after they marry that neither has any money, which I found quite fascinating.

It’s told in first person present tense—how did you decide to write it that way (since it is an unusual style)?
Rules was written that way, my UK editor loved it, and I find I have a lot of fun with it. Essentially it is all about my entertainment.

What would be your response if people say they can’t sympathize with your heroine, who is on the run from creditors and has not always led a pristine life?
Read another book?! She gets more likeable as the book goes on; she is a fiercely proud, loyal woman and you see that side of her emerge, although she remains a troublemaker who can’t resist opportunities to behave badly.

Do you plan to write more on any of these characters?
Not at the moment. They may turn up elsewhere, but they haven’t so far!

You’re a “risky” writer in terms of sex, yet this book has hardly any actual sex in it; what made you write it that way (although it does have plenty of sexual overtones)?
For this style it’s all in the subtext, and so there’s very little explicit language, which makes sense given who the characters are. Also during sexual encounters most of us are not taking notes or having a blow by blow (if you’ll pardon the expression) narrative in our heads.

What kind of research did you do for the book?
Embarrassingly little. I researched card games, bears, and sheep online, and wrote to the Folger Shakespeare Library about prompt books. As usual I dredged up items from the large trivia collection in my mind.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken here?
I think having characters who don’t reform. Nick and Caroline remain essentially who they are, but what redeems them is that they open themselves up to friendship and community and responsibility. I may also have offended every writer who’s written about Dukes and courtesans, and every reader who likes that particular trope.

What’s up with the animals that pop up in your books: The pig who eats buttons, the dancing bear, etc.?
Oh, I like animals. The pig is based on a bit of family lore and there’s a photograph to prove it (which my brother, ahem, is supposed to be finding and scanning so I can put it on my website). When my brother was two he had a traumatic experience in a Dutch petting zoo with a pig that ate a button off his coat. As for the bear, Elena Greene blogged at the Riskies last year about dancing bears and I found them very appealing. I needed a way for the hero to meet up again with another character who’d disappeared, and I thought of a circus. As one does.

Do you think this book has an HEA?
Definitely. I can’t write the long, drawn-out apologies, explanations, declarations and six babies later type endings. To me it’s always an act of faith, the leap into the unknown territory of marriage.

What is your writing process? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
I’m a pantser by nature which is a bit of a problem for selling on proposal. So my rule of thumb is that if an idea doesn’t come together in a week to can it. My synopses are always extremely vague (the phrase “after many exciting adventures” is very useful) and once I start writing, the plot twists and secondary characters emerge.

What's next for you?
Lots! I have a two-book contract with HarperCollins for a paranormal-speculative history series, Immortal Jane Austen. The first one is about Austen and vampires fighting a French invasion in Bath and should be out next summer. I wanted to call it Blood Bath; my brother, with whom I brainstormed the idea, suggested Austen Powers. I’m just finishing up my next Little Black Dress book, Improper Relations, and I have no idea what the third one will be, although I have a very appealing title knocking around in my mind (Mr. Bishop and the Actress). I also have a two-book contract with Harlequin Spice, writing erotic contemporaries as Liz Diamond, and the first of those will come out in early 2011. I’m very lucky; I’m enjoying the glow of having all these exciting projects to work on, and then remembering that yes, I do actually have to write them.

Thanks for letting me pretend to be a guest here today, Megan! Today I’m also over at History Hoydens and guest blogging at Romance Buy the Book about writing a historical bad girl. There’s a complete blog tour on my site (and a contest!)

A Most Lamentable Comedy doesn’t have US distribution but you can buy it with free shipping worldwide from bookdepository.co.uk.

Thanks, Janet!

http://riskyregencies.blogspot.com/2008/06/bears.html
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/browse/book/isbn/9780755347797/ref/janetmullany.aff
http://historyhoydens.blogspot.com/
http://www.romancebuythebook.com
http://www.janetmullany.com

The Link-o-Matic Machine Debuts!

I'm pretty sure I'm still not completely coherent after my return from RWA Nationals so what the heck, here's some links to interesting stuff.

• Which side of the road do they drive on? This only SOUNDS boring. There's some fantastic material here discussing this going back to Roman times and beyond. The Romans, it seems, drove on the left. Discusses driving and walking habits through the ages.


• History of wedding rings Not sure how accurate this is. Does anybody know?


• World Digital Library swoon From the website: The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world


• Learn to Navigate by the Night Sky


• Looking to learn stuff? Then check out Open Courseware Consortium


• Cornwall Online Census Project Census data going back to 1841. Never be stumped for a Cornish name again.


• VADS: The online resource for visual arts. Ohh, so pretty!


• Pigments Through the Ages How many different kinds of green are there? Lots.


• Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library Electronic Texts in the History of Medicine From the website: several popular medical texts from the 15th through 18th centuries. Culpeper's famous reference is here.


• They Fight Crime Oh, go on. Just go look. Then write a novel about it. Srsly. Heh.


• News Map Kind of overwhelming, but take a look.


• British Genealogy.com Because we're Risky Regencies and we're odd that way.


• Calculate Me Confused about Celsius vs. Fahrenheit? Roman numerals make you XX-eyed? What about butter, meters to feet, Time or maybe you need to calculate the area of a circle. CalculateMe can help.


• Phil Factor's Phrenetic Phoughts Don't freak when you see this is a SQL Server site. The article is a very readable discussion of the history of cryptopgraphy. Augusta, Countess of Lovelace is mentioned in the first sentence.

RWA '09

I'm back! I got home yesterday evening from RWA, and am still a bit stunned and zombie-fied, so I'm afraid this won't be a very in-depth post. :) (Look for more info next week!). This was a very fun, upbeat conference--I would rate the Marriott Wardman Park above average for conference hotels (especially for its nice neighborhood with such a plethora of good restaurants!), and the conference attendees get a gold star for fun conversation and the best parties EVER. A few highlights:

The Beau Monde Soiree! (The costumes were gorgeous, and I enjoyed the dancing--watching, anyway. My hoops were too heavy and my shoes too pointy-toed to participate. In these pics I'm with Megan, and Keira Soleore and Michelle Willingham, who looked gorgeous in her Josephine-style gown. And our own Louisa won the Royal Ascot!!)


The Harlequin Party (of course! In these pics I'm with a bunch of people--Andrea Pickens, Diane, Deb Marlowe, Michelle W. and Elizabeth Mahon of the Scandalous Women blog, and with my Grand Central Publishing editor Alex Logan, who gave a thumbs-up to the dessert selection. The third pic is Michelle W. and her husband, who were totally The Cuteness Couple at the party...)



The post-awards ceremony! (The disgustingly tall woman is my Harlequin editor Joanne Grant, and of course you know Megan by her lovely vintage gown. One day she will wake up and find I've snuck into her house and stolen those dresses away since she once made the mistake of showing me where she keeps them)



And I even got to play tourist for a day, which I usually don't at conference! On Sunday I hit the Mall with Keira, Regina Scott, and Marissa Doyle. I saw the American History museum (including these gowns once worn by Martha Washington and Dolley Madison) and briefly ran through the American Indian building, which was gorgeous (I'm determined to go back there next time). We had a fabulous dinner, too, handmade pasta, calamari, and tiramisu, yum!





I have to admit, though, the highlight of the conference was doughnuts, cocktails, and True Blood. Megan and Carolyn, you are superlative hostesses and I hope the neighbors didn't call the front desk on you. (I even got to catch the new episode on Sunday as I packed, and there was a bit more Eric than usual, yay! We even glimpsed his Viking days...)









And major congrats to Pam Rosenthal on your much, much deserved RITA win! If you haven't yet read this fun, literate, sexy book, run out and get it right now.

In short, it was a fabulous time. It's always hard to get to the end of RWA, say good-bye to everyone, and find myself back here doing laundry, trying to get my Pug to take her eardrops, and actually writing rather than just talking about writing. There will be more info later--just as soon as I take a nap...

Random Musings about the RWA Conference

I'm home from the RWA conference in Washington, DC, after having a lovely time. I am still so tired from the festivities that all I can do is produce random thoughts.

1. The time started out in a very exciting way! We Riskies (except Janet who was squiring folks around on a Washington DC historic house tour)
were interviewed at XM Radio (more on that in upcoming days!)

2. I danced with Janet (and the Harlequin Historical editors) at the Beau Monde Soiree. But just one dance. We would not wish to set tongues wagging.

3. The Harlequin Party was held at the Ritz Carlton in a ballroom with a great dance floor and the same DJ as in San Francisco (He's so good!). The theme was Harlquin's 60 year anniversary, and they set up bars with a theme of the decade. For example, the 1960s bar served Singapore Slings. A video display of old covers was flashed on the wall and on monitors throughout the room. Needless to say, it was a wildly wonderful party.

4. Harlequin was a big presence at the conference and well they should be with the wonderful year they are having, sales-wise. They gave all conference attendees tote bags with a vintage Harlequin cover on them. Keep an eye out for more Vintage cover products, soon to be on sale in Barnes and Noble and Borders and such. Harlequin partnered with a stationary company to produce a bunch of very cool notebooks and things like that. To a few lucky early arrivers at the Harlequin party, I snatched a set of post cards with vintage covers on them. Here is an idea of the covers that will perhaps be featured.

5. The Mills & Boon editors (including Harlquin Historicals) are the BEST!! Not only did Joanne Grant (Historical) and Kim Young (Romance) attend (and dance in spike heels) at the Soiree, they also "made an offer" to aspiring writer and Golden Heart finalist (and later the winner) Jeannie Lin to buy her manuscript Butterfly Swords. Joanne and Kim gave a great workshop on avoiding cliches, a download of which should be available to purchase. (check the RWA site for more on that). I could go on and on about how much fun these two ladies are, but the other editors were equally as friendly. Sheila Hodgson (Medicals) greeted me like an old friend at our Mills & Boon Reception and editorial directo, Karin Stoecker, met me for a friendly drink. (Joanne, Karin, and Sheila also toasted me with champagne in 2006 after my RITA win). Tessa Shapcot (Presents) sat across from me at the Harlequin Historical lunch and was a delight to chat with.

6. Our Riskies get-together did not go as planned. Harry's Pub was not conducive to such a gathering, but we made do in the Lobby bar and I had a great time chatting with Santa and Keira. Andrea Pickens and Miranda Neville, both past guest authors, also were there. Santa and I even did an impromptu plot-storming session. (Miranda Neville, by the way, helped me solve a sticky plot problem, as well, when we were just chatting at breakfast Sunday). Another Risky interviewee, Pam Rosenthal, won the RITA for BEST HISTORICAL Romance!!!

7. My very favorite part of the conference is running into old friends and making new ones. I love the mystery of why I sometimes see certain people everywhere (either Sandy Coleman and Amy of All About Romance were stalking me or I was stalking them, not sure which, but everywhere I went, they did too.) and others hardly at all. And I also love walking through the halls and greeting old friends.

8. I had great intentions of touring around DC with Keira and Amanda on Sunday, but I was so exhausted that I went home early and barely budged from my spot on the couch. So sorry, Keira and Amanda! I hope you had a good day.

How about you? If you attended the conference, what were your most memorable moments? If you didn't attend, what else can we tell you about it?

Oh, I also met with Emily Cotler of Waxcreative Design so look for some new stuff at my website real soon. There is a new contest there right now.

Meet the Riskies today

We're all (Megan, Carolyn, Amanda, Janet, Diane) in Washington DC for RWA Nationals and you can meet us at Harry's Pub, Marriott at Wardman Park, at 4:00 p.m. today. Please stop by!

p.s. Janet has more copies of A Most Lamentable Comedy, yours for a donation to the literacy organization of your choice...

True First and Poignant

Yikes!

Where to start. First off, all the Risky Regencies with the exception of Elena Greene, are here in Washington, DC, at the Romance Writers of America's National Conference. Which is cool! And we are having a get-together on Saturday afternoon at Harry's Pub so come by if you are also around.

But that means that I am, as usual, at a loss as to what to talk about. So, of course, I will choose to talk about hot guys. And right now my hot guy du jour (non-Clive Owen edition) is Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill Compton on True Blood. Since Carolyn Jewel--my RWA roomie--was onto the True Blood trend way before me (but her One True Love is Alexander Skarsgard), she brought her Season One DVD so I could see the first time Bill and Sookie do it. Which is what we did last night, in-between eating Krispy Kreme donuts and howling about rhinoceroses. Hard to explain about the latter, but let me assure you it was hysterical.

But back to the matter at hand. Bill and Sookie's first time is so damn romantic, and Bill manages to convey both his lust for and worship of Sookie in that scene. And the donut was pretty damn good, too.

The first kiss, the first time, the first moment in the fiction we love--whether it's movies, TV or books--is what gives my heart a poignant ache. Also in True Blood, the first time Sookie even sees Bill is a scene I had to rewind and watch over and over. And all it is is a look, but what a look.

The first time Darcy and Elizabeth see each other, when John Thornton and Margaret Hale have their first encounter, when Mr. Rochester nearly tramples over Jane Eyre--these are the moments that inform our romance vernacular.

What first times do you find particularly memorable? What was your first time like?

Winner of Mary Jo Putney's Loving a Lost Lord

Winner!! (finally)

The winner of Mary Jo Putney's Loving a Lost Lord is......
Linda
(the first "linda" on the comments list)
Please send your address to riskies@yahoo.com to claim your prize

(my apologies for the delay. We're all at RWA and I was a crazy person the two days before--Diane)

antic hays with the Riskies

Greetings from the nation's capital (except I'm almost always here), and here's what we've been up to.

Yesterday, a group from the Beau Monde (RWA's Regency special interest chapter) visited Tudor Place and Riversdale House Museum, and as official photographer naturally I didn't check the battery on the camera before we left. Here's a pic of Tudor House from an earlier visit.


In the evening, live dancing, live music, a new battery for the camera and an open bar at the Beau Monde soiree--what could be better?

Once again we demonstrated our complete incompetence on the dance floor, although by the end of the evening we were improving noticeably. Diane's here next to one of the very glamorous M&B editors in her killer heels.

Here's our very own Amanda in her Marie Antoinette outfit.

What are you up to?

Risky Radio! Plus the Riskies in Washington DC

My post is a bit late, but not untimely. The Risky Regency ladies are in Washington DC for the RWA National Conference.

We were excited to be interviewed by Kim Alexander, the host of Fiction Nation on XM Satellite Radio. We had a wonderful talk about Romance, our books, romance books in general, the Regency era and why it's so popular. We should have a link to an audio file for you in just a few days. Fiction Nation will be doing several more interviews on, at and about the RWA conference, so you should give them a listen. We're hoping Kim and her show hook up with Janet Mullany (who was unable to be there due to a prior engagement) to get the low down on the pebbled nub.

After our interview, your Risky ladies had lunch at the Supreme Court. We did not see any judges but we did see a beautiful spiral staircase.

The Literacy Signing is tonight, July 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Wardman Marriot in Washington DC. If you're in the area, please stop by and say hi to the Riskies, visit your other favorite authors (besides us, of course!) and support a great cause.

Gone To RWA! And Bastille Day

I'm jetting off to Washington DC this morning for the RWA festivities (having finally packed my suitcase to somewhat satisfactory results)! Will be back next week with pics and reports.

In the meantime, today is also Bastille Day! Time to break out the baguettes and champagne! And if you're in Paris, go watch the festivities on the Champs-Elysees for me. The day commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 (the prison had once been notorious for holding political prisoners, but when it was stormed it held only 7 inmates, mostly forgers and petty crooks. 8 attackers and 1 defender, Bastille governor de Launay, were killed in the attack). It also marks the day a year later when the Fete de la Federation was held in celebration, a great feast on the Champ de Mars marked with fireworks, copious amounts of wine, and (it's said) running naked in the streets to celebrate freedom. The good times didn't last too long, though.

So Happy Bastille Day! See you next week....

Finishing a Book

This will be a quick blog because I still am not finished the book ( due today).

This book is Number 2 in my Three Soldiers series.

The Prologue is set in Badajoz, as in each book:











This book starts at the Battle of Waterloo at Hougoumont:














And it ends in London (or I think it ends in London. I haven't gotten there yet!)










Today I also have to take "Devil Cat" to the vet (or get my daughter to do it)










And I have to pack for RWA. I bought these two dresses (or at least one somewhat similar to the black one pictured here):


I hope to see some of you at RWA!

I'll be signing books at the Literacy signing on Weds July 15 and at the Harlequin signing, Friday July 17 at 9:45 am

And don't forget our informal Risky Regencies gathering in the Bar at the Marriot Wardman Park hotel, Saturday, 4 pm.

Next Monday I'll do an RWA blog and let you know how the conference went!

Mary Jo Putney!!!

Today our guest author is none other than MARY JO PUTNEY!! I've already gushed about Mary Jo in my Monday blog, but today Mary Jo is here to discuss her newest book, Loving a Lost Lord. Mary Jo will be giving away a signed copy of Loving a Lost Lord to one lucky commenter, so join the party and ask the incomparable Mary Jo Putney what you've always wanted to know.
Diane

STARRED REVIEW “The enchanting first Lost Lords novel confirms bestseller Putney as a major force in historical romance. . . . Entrancing characters and a superb plot line catapult this tale into stand-alone status.”-- Publisher's Weekly

RR: Welcome, Mary Jo!

MJP: Let’s hear it for historicals!

RR. Tell us about Loving a Lost Lord.

MJP: LALL is the first of my new Regency historical series. The “lost lords” of the series are men who met at the Westerfield Academy, a school for boys of “good birth and bad behavior.” The school was founded by an eccentric duke’s daughter, and her students are boys who didn’t fit into the rigid expectations of their class. The very first student who sparked the school’s founding was Adam Darshan Lawford, the half-Hindu boy who was wrenched away from his mother after he became the Duke of Ashford.

LALL begins when three of Ashton’s friends report to Lady Agnes Westerfield that Adam has been killed in the explosion of an experimental steam yacht in Scotland. When she learns that his body hasn’t been found, she sends them north to see if they can bring him home for proper burial.

Meanwhile, far in the north, newly orphaned Mariah Clarke could really used a husband as protection against an unwanted suitor, and when a battered man washes up on her beach with no memory, it seems too good an opportunity to pass up….

And it goes on from there. It’s one of my more over-the-top stories!

STARRED REVIEW “Compelling, flawless prose, gentle humor, exotic elements (courtesy of Adam’s half-Hindi heritage), and irresistible characters caught in a sweet, sensual dilemma will leave readers smiling, breathless, and anxiously awaiting the next adventure in Putney’s new “Lost Lords” series. Readers who loved Putney’s “Fallen Angels” series are in for a rare treat; fortunately, there are more delicacies to come! Putney (A Distant Magic) writes some of the most sensitive, exquisite historicals in the field.”--Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

RR: Loving a Lost Lord marks your return to the Regency era. Can you tell us something about your writer’s journey that brought you back to the Regency?

MJP: The vast majority of my thirty plus books have been set in the Regency, but several years back, I felt that I was on the verge of burnout, so I wrote several contemporaries and then paranormal historicals. Now that I’ve recharged my batteries, I’ve come home.

But the issue of burnout hasn’t gone away, even if it’s temporarily in abeyance. I’ve had people ask me if editorial pressure made me do the fantasy historicals, and the answer is no. I love writing history, fantasy, and romance together. But the combination isn’t as commercially viable as straight historicals, so that’s what I’m doing.

However—I’m delighted to report that recently sold a young adult fantasy historical series to St. Martin’s Press. That will give the chance to get my fantasy fix. I just have to learn to write faster!

RR: What is risky about this book?

MJP: It’s far from my riskiest book, actually. I mean, it starts with the hero presumed dead and he’s a half-Hindu duke, but that’s pretty conservative for me. No alcoholics, epileptics, or abused characters in sight. Definitely middle of the road. I hope long time readers aren’t disappointed.

TOP PICK "If you loved the Fallen Angels, you'll adore the Lost Lords: men who formed unbreakable bonds while at a school for boys of "good birth and bad behavior." Only the incomparable Putney could bring them to life and have readers yearning to be close to such dynamic heroes and the women who tame them"--Kathe Robin, RT Book Reviews

RR: Did you come across any interesting research in writing this book?

MJP: This isn’t one of my highest research books. The previous book, A Distant Magic, was hugely research intensive since it was built around the 18th century British abolition movement. I’ve found that after a book like that, I need something simpler on the next book so I can recover.

So LALL is a fairly standard Regency setting—1812, England and Scotland. But I did find some very cool material on diving bells when Ashton’s friends take a salvage ship out to try to recover the wreckage of the sunken steam yacht. Did you know that diving bells were first described by Aristotle, and Alexander the Great went down in one? A bell is heavy and water tight, and it’s lowered directly into the water. The pressure of the air trapped inside keeps water from rising in the bell unless it goes fairly deep.

To quote Wikipedia: “A diving bell was used to salvage more than 50 cannons from the Swedish warship Vasa in the period immediately following its sinking in 1628.” That’s some serious salvage! By the time of the Regency, fresh air could be maintained in the bell with a hose and a pump, so divers could stay under water for quite some time.

Sorry to run on, but you really shouldn’t ask a Regency writer about research!

RR: Precisely why we asked! What is next for you?

MJP: I’ve finished the second Lost Lords book. The hero is Randall, who shows up in LALL, and the book is scheduled for May 2010. Kensington has also bought rights to one of my Fallen Angels books, and it’s scheduled for early 2010. I have at least four other potential heroes I’d like to write about, so this is a pretty open ended series.

In January 2010, I’m part of a paranormal Grail anthology called Chalice of Roses with Jo Beverley, Barbara Samuel, and Karen Harbaugh. (This is the third paranormal anthology the four of us have done together.)

And in Very Cool news, I found this week that Loving A Lost Lord made the extended New York Times list as well as the USAToday list. It’s great that readers still enjoy Regency historicals after all these years!

RR: Wow!! That's terrific! But not surprising.

Thanks so much for having me here—

Mary Jo Putney

Okay Risky Readers, now's your chance to ask Mary Jo a question, or make a comment. You might be the one chosen to win a signed copy of Loving a Lost Lord.

Visit Mary Jo often on her website or on her blog, Word Wenches.

Talk To Me

For some women, it's height; for others, broad shoulders. For still others--sometimes the heroines at the start of our books, although certainly not by the end--it's wealth.

For me, it's the voice. That one essential element to finding someone attractive, without which it's a dealbreaker. I've only realized it recently, while watching actor Ed Burns try to be confident in Confidence. He wasn't. And it was because he hasn't got a sufficiently deep, raspy voice; his voice is a tenor, unconvincing because it was just too high. I just didn't believe what he was saying, despite his posturing.

There's a trainer at my gym who is, by job definition, totally cut and happens to be really good-looking on top of it. But I just can't find him attractive because his voice doesn't appeal to me (too high--sense a trend here?). Conversely, I swooned over former NY Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy after particularly tough games, because his voice got all raspy and jagged after 48 minutes of yelling. I know it's weird. But I cannot deny my attraction (the fact that he is so intense is appealing, too, but that is a post for another time).

And I think, although I would like to blame my inherent Anglophilia for it, is why I find so many British men ridiculously attractive; there's something about the way they speak that I find devastating. Clive Owen has a supremely sexy voice, as does Sean Bean. Richard Armitage is off the charts in terms of how damn sexy his voice is. Listen to a sample of him reading Georgette Heyer's Sylvester.

Oh, goodness. (By the way? If my husband doesn't pick up on copious hints to get this for my birthday next month, he might need a Clue Intervention).

So if a hero has a deep snarl, or a husky rasp, or a low-throated growl, I'm sold.

(And, yes, my husband has a fantastic voice, especially when he's really worn out.)

That, I've realized, is my dealbreaker. What's yours?

Two unrelated anniversaries

Yesterday was the anniversary of Shelley's death (1792-1822) and today is the birthday of Barbara Cartland (1901-2000) so I thought I'd blog about them both. And yes, there is a connection.

Shelley first: Anarchist, heretic, idealist, fugitive, sponger, love-rat, twentysomething corpse: Percy Shelley was surely the romantic’s romantic ... more.

Even his death was unconventional and appropriately mysterious. He drowned in a boating accident, and allegedly foresaw his own death. When his body was cremated his heart did not burn, and Mary Shelley kept it for the rest of her life. (Eeew.)

And now onto Dame Barbara. She wrote some romance novels (which is like saying Shelley was a great poet). But did you know she was also a recording artist? In 1978, she joined up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to produce her first and (thankfully) only album, Barbara Cartland's Album of Love Songs.

Now, whatever your opinion of her as a writer (I'm saying only that it's a taste I have yet to acquire), the lady can't sing. Not many people in their 70s can, even if they could before. And the songs--helping upon helping of silken strings, swelling harps, throbbing woodwinds, angelic back up vocals; as the musical spouse commented, "Vaughan Williams in a whimpering mood."

Each song is sandwiched by Cartland's "poems"--stuff like this:

A woman must seek all her life until she finds in one man the complete perfect love which is both human and divine. Any sacrifice is worthwhile when one knows the ecstasy, the glory, and the irresistible fires of love.

And if you think her breathless, posh voice for the spoken word is bad, just wait until she sings. What was her arranger thinking? All that I could stand to listen to was way out of her range (if she even had one). How Deep Is the Ocean is particularly bad. Yes, these songs are available for your download and listening pleasure at WFMU, with a review that is less than polite (and with some entertaining typos).

So what do Shelley and Cartland have in common? A lot to answer for, in my grumpy opinion. Shelley made it okay for male writers to behave badly; and Cartland left romance writers an unfortunate legacy. In other words, the cult of the writer-as-personality. But with Shelley it wasn't just image (Byron, now, is another matter)--he was a passionate, visionary, uh, nutter, who honestly believed in free love and radicalism. Yet his callous horndogginess certainly had repercussions--none of the women with whom he was involved escaped with heart, or even life, intact.

Whereas the Cartland legend--all that pink, pink, pink, the glamorous trappings, big hair, lapdog optional--it's still with us. I think the Internet has made it even worse--here we are, all over the place, feeding out bits about ourselves on Twitter (yes, I do), Facebook (no), blogs (here I am), and so on... and I'm wondering how much promotion is too much promotion, and how fascinating our lives as writers and all round nice people really are.

What do you think Barbara Cartland or Shelley would have done with the Internet if they'd had access to it?

Meet (most of) the Riskies for more opinionated rants on Saturday, July 18 at 4:00 at Harry's Pub at the Wardman Park Marriott, and, yes, I will have these buttons available on my other favorite rant topic--the pebbled nub.

Random Googling in Historical Books or Carolyn is Very Naughty

I'm being a bit naughty in this post so move along if such things bother you word-wise. I limited my search to books publishing in the years 1811 - 1820 and written in English. The language restriction didn't work too well as foreign language books were still returned. But, let's carry on. Perhaps we'll put to rest some assumptions or prove them. Which will it be? Regardless, I think the results will be interesting.

I am sorry (I think, but then again, maybe not) that as I followed down this iniquitous path, I started giggling and perhaps going a bit off track. Oh well. You are forewarned. This post degenerates quickly. You might want to stop while it's still safe.

Bugger

How, exactly, was this word used in the Regency period? As a verb connoting a certain sexual practice? A verb more slightly less specific or perhaps an expletive? The answer appears to be all of the above. Claims that the word was less broadly used than it is today seem to be incorrect.

25 books returned

A few are clearly irrelevant, but just looking at the results we see the word being used in a name-calling sense; In The Lexicom Balatronicum: A blackguard, rascal, term of reproach. But in sources drawn from trials, we see the sexual sense: A Relation of a Quaker, that to the Shame of his Profession, attempted to bugger a Mare... as well as several examples of the word used as an expletive.

Fuck

Oh my

Apparently, this is also a Dutch word. And there are some rather amusing typos where the letter P has been mistaken for F and rendered Shakespeare differently than one would expect. Also, and this is really VERY amusing to me, the Google OCR could not correctly render the long squiggly lowercase letter s that in many books of the period looks a lot like an f but isn't. Thus instances of say, suck, sucking, sucker and the like become versions of the F-bomb. In fact, the innocent word such comes in for its share of OCR maddness with the ch being reported as ck along with s being replaced with f...

Although this was a very amusing search, it would take hours to find actual instances of the F-word so I'm moving on.

Quim

226 results

Referring, of course, quite naughtily, to a certain part of female anatomy. However, it is also a perfectly innocent nut, and a common and rather boring word in Latin. Also a city and someone's last name. Oh. Gee. I'm leaving this one and moving on.

Penis

486 results

Lots of boring medical texts, though I'm sure there are pictures. Samuel Cooper's 1815 book Surgery has my favorite excerpt:

When the attempt fails leeches should be applied to the glans, and the flow of blood be afterwards promoted by immersing the penis in warm water

That does not sound very fun.

Vagina

Hah! The ladies win!! 500 results

Well well well. What have we here? From the Encyclopaedia Perthensis; Or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences... Volume 2, 1816

The clitoris is a small spongy body bearing some slight analogy and resemblance to the penis in men... This part has been supposed to be the chief seat of a woman's pleasure in coition as the glans penis is in men, but this is somewhat doubtful.

We can now officially stop saying the clitoris was unknown or nobody knew it might be an important bit for the women. Women surely figured this out on their own, but it seems there were men with a clue. Thank you.

asshole

3 results

To be honest, I expected this. Back in the day, the asshole was a mechanical part; the place for receiving ashes under the grate.... And, alas, we must reduce the search results by one because one of the books is an odd Google OCR error. The text shows the word asshole but the actual page says the whole.

which leads me directly to...

Arse

618 results

Pretty much what you'd expect. So here's some interesting bits.

From A compleat collection of English proverbs which seems to be something on the order of a Barlett's Quotations.

• You would kiss my arse before my breeches are down.


• Kit careless, your arse hangs by trumps


• Proverbial similies, in which the Quality and the Subject begin with the same letter:
  
  as bare as a bird's arse
  

And there, I'm done with my juvenile traipse through Google Books. I had fun. Did you?

Nicola Cornick Winner!

Caffey, you are the winner of a signed copy of Scandals of an Innocent! Please send your address to riskies@yahoo.com to claim your prize

Miscellaneous Tuesday

Well, my Christmas In July Writing Extravaganza is almost over (yay!). The Christmas Regency novella (a Diamonds of Welbourne Manor spin-off, watch for it next year!) is done and being hacked into shape, and my goal is to finish the Elizabethan Christmas "Undone" story before I leave for RWA on the 14th. (Maybe if I post this goal here, it will come true). But after trying to think about presents and carols and snow in the middle of 4th of July fireworks and 95 degree weather, my brain is tired. Or maybe just lazy. Either way, it's hard to think of a good blog topic. So here, in no particular order, is a list of What I've Been Thinking About Lately (besides Christmas...)

1) TV. I have only very basic cable, so I am always late to TV show parties. Mad Men, Deadwood, etc--I had to wait for Netflix, but now I love them. And right now I am loving True Blood. What a crazy, wacked-out, fantastic show. It sort of reminds me of the sadly-departed Deadwood in that it has a similar dark, gritty atmosphere of weird humor mixed with the gore (even though the settings are very different). But now I have to wait for season 2. (Please tell me there is more Eric in season 2!!!)

2) Sports. I'm not much for sports usually, but there are 3 I enjoy--soccer, bicycling, and tennis. Lucky for me I've had 2 out of the 3 in the last week! The Tour de France started, and despite the return of Lance Armstrong (and the fact that he finished a surprising 3rd place after Monday's stage 3, and has an entirely undiminished ego) my money is still on his Astana teammate Alberto Contador.

In tennis, of course, there was Wimbledon. Despite the fact that my true love (one of them, anyway) Rafa Nadal was not there, that Federer/Roddick match was a classic.

3) Books, of course! I've been reading Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (thanks to Andrea Pickens's excellent rec!). I'm only about 1/4 of the way through right now, but I have to say the first chapter, "The Patricians," is an excellent portrait of the old aristocratic mindset and responsibilities and privileges. Dukes, earls, marquesses, etc simply did not look at the world like everyone else, and it's a good thing to remember when creating such a hero. (And I loved the anecdote about the fiery 1st Marchioness of Salisbury, who was responsible for revitalizing the ancient Cecil line, which had gone downhill since Elizabethan times, and who hunted every day until her death at 85, despite being blind and having to be tied to her saddle. A groom would ride beside her, and shout out when she approached a fence, "Jump, dammit, my lady, jump!" And her beautiful daughter-in-law, the 2nd marchioness, had the Duke of Wellington as a devoted admirer. He gave her flags captured at Waterloo to hang in the entrance hall of Hatfield, and wore the coat of the Hatfield Hounds on campaign).

For fun, I'm reading a YA novel by Jacqueline Kolosov, The Red Queen's Daughter, about Mary Seymour, daughter of Katherine Parr and a magician. (The real Mary probably died in infancy, after her mother's death in childbirth, though no one knows for sure. In this story she grows up, finds her magic, and goes to the court of Queen Elizabeth). And I just finished our own Risky Carolyn's My Forbidden Desire, which I stayed up until after 1 in the morning to finish (even though I had work the next day!). Go and read it right now!! (Though Carolyn tells me the next story is not the one I was hoping for, but that's okay--for now).

4) The RWA conference! It's impossible to pack light for this, but this year seems more ridiculous than ever. One costume (for the Beau Monde Soiree Wednesday night) along with all the accessories, plus 3 evening gowns, plus 4 day dresses, plus some casual stuff, plus shoes and bags and jewelry. My luggage is taking on Duchess of Windsor proportions here. But I can't wait to be there!

And BTW, if you are going to RWA be sure and join us (the Riskies) for a drink on Saturday afternoon at 4ish, in harry's Pub in the Marriott...

What are you thinking about today?

Everyone Should Have a Mary Jo Putney in Their Life

Next Sunday our guest author is none other than NYT Bestseller and RITA winner, Mary Jo Putney! What a treat!

I can credit Mary Jo Putney with helping me forge my love of Regency Romance. The Rake and the Reformer (re-released as The Rake), recommended to me by my friend Helen, was the very first traditional regency I read. I loved that book! (How many times does The Rake and The Reformer appear on lists of favorite historicals?) The Rake and the Reformer began my love affair with the Regency era and sparked my voracious reading of traditional regencies and as many of Mary Jo’s books I could get my hands on.

Mary Jo gave me many wonderful reading experiences. I fell for her Fallen Angel series. Shattered Rainbows first got me interested in Waterloo. And Thunder and Roses had a perfect level of sensuality. I loved the premise of The Bargain and greatly admired The Bride Series, especially The China Bride with its rich recreation of Regency era China.


I could go on and on...

But I was also lucky enough to get to know Mary Jo through Washington Romance Writers. One of my first WRW meetings was a synopsis workshop given by Mary Jo. Mary Jo had invited members to read her latest book (can’t remember which one it was now) ahead of time and to write a synopsis of it for the workshop. Being highly motivated, I came to the meeting with my synopsis, only to discover I was one of two people who had done so.

We were invited to read our synopses to the crowded room. The other member read hers, which turned out to be merely chapter summaries. I read mine and was applauded. Wow. I’d done it right!

(By the way, the member who had done the synopsis all wrong was Catherine Asaro. Catherine, of course, went on to become a super-mega star author of sci fi and fantasy and a Nebula winner.)

Also about this time, I read Mary Jo’s essay “Welcome to the Dark Side” in Dangerous Men Adventurous Women, an early (1992) defense of the Romance genre, another “Aha!” moment about how to craft a Romance hero.

It took me awhile to gain the courage to write a Regency Historical, to aspire to join the likes of Mary Jo. Gasp! But try I did. I had a chance to discuss an early draft with Mary Jo at a Washington Romance Writers Retreat. I remember it so clearly, standing in the lobby of Hilltop House with Mary Jo and then editor Gail Fortune, explaining my story. Mary Jo gave me some excellent advice, which I took wholeheartedly, but mostly her interest helped me to persevere with the book—which eventually became The Mysterious Miss M.

Recently, of course, Mary Jo invited us to discuss The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor on the Word Wenches Blog, which was great exposure for the book.

And yesterday Mary Jo let me know that The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor was reviewed in The Baltimore Sun.

So, really, look what it has done for my writing life to have a Mary Jo Putney in it!

I’m delighted we at Risky Regencies can help get out the word about Mary Jo’s latest book, Loving a Lost Lord, her return to the Regency era (Yay!). Come back next Sunday July 13 to read her interview and comment for a chance to win a copy of Loving a Lost Lord.

What is your favorite Mary Jo Putney book?
Do you have a favorite Mary Jo Putney moment?

The Riskies Welcome Back Nicola Cornick!

Risky Regencies is thrilled to welcome back Nicola Cornick, to tell us all about her new trilogy from HQN! (Out May, June, and July) For more information on these and upcoming stories, you can check out her website here--and be sure and comment on today's post for a chance to win a copy of The Scandals of an Innocent!

Thank you so much for inviting me to visit the Riskies today. It’s always such a pleasure to visit this blog! Amanda very kindly invited me along to talk about my new Regency series, The Brides of Fortune, the first two books of which are currently in the shops. And as this is Risky Regencies I thought I should focus on what is risky and different in these stories!

The idea for the overall Brides of Fortune trilogy was sparked by something I read in the newspapers. Even though I write historical fiction I get a lot of my ideas from contemporary papers and magazines. That in itself is a risky if rewarding approach because you have to make sure that in taking a modern idea and adapting it to a Regency context you aren’t doing anything anachronistic. But the more I research, the more I realize that there are so many themes and ideas that are fundamentally the same now as they were in the Regency period and perhaps throughout history. One of these was the idea of the rights and laws associated with the title of Lord of the Manor. This sparked the Brides of Fortune series. A couple of years ago I read about a village in England where someone had bought the title of Lord of the Manor and then discovered that he could impose lots of ancient taxes on the villagers. He started to charge them for walking their dogs on the village green and for parking their cars when they went shopping. Naturally there was uproar with the villagers rebelling. I thought this would be great idea to explore in a Regency series and so the Brides of Fortune trilogy was born! Sir Montague Fortune imposes an ancient tax on the villagers that means that every lady has to marry or lose half of her dowry. Penniless gentlemen come flocking to the village and so Fortune’s Folly becomes the marriage mart of England!

The first book in the series is called The Confessions of a Duchess and it tells the story of Laura, Dowager Duchess of Cole, who featured in my previous book for HQN, Unmasked. After Unmasked came out I had so many emails from readers asking for Laura’s story that I couldn’t resist. Confessions of a Duchess is set four years after Unmasked and Laura has retired to live quietly in the country with her young daughter Hattie. Then her former lover, Dexter Anstruther, comes back into Laura’s life and turns everything upside down. Dexter and Laura parted on bad terms and now he has to marry a rich heiress to save his family but despite knowing that he has to marry for duty, Dexter finds it hard to resist his attraction to Laura. There are so many secrets keeping them apart and so many reasons why they cannot be together, not least that Laura is eight years Dexter’s senior and she thinks that to have a toy boy lover is totally scandalous! I absolutely loved writing a book with an age difference between the hero and heroine. Laura is quite a risky heroine – she’s a former highwaywoman for a start and as Dexter works for the government to keep law and order, he’s not that thrilled when he finds out!

This month the second book is out and it is called The Scandals of an Innocent. The trilogy heroines are all friends and this is Alice’s story. Alice is a former housemaid who inherited her late employer’s money so she is struggling with the snobbish attitudes of some members of society towards her – they look down on her socially even though they’d quite like to have her fortune! One of Fortune Folly’s penniless adventurers, Miles Vickery, decides to blackmail Alice into marriage and sets out to seduce her. Miles is an out and out rake, a real scoundrel, but Alice is determined to reform him so it is a battle of hearts. I have to confess that Miles is probably my favorite of the trilogy heroes! Although I love heroes who have integrity and a strong code of honor, I am a total sucker for rake heroes and Miles is a very, very bad boy indeed. He totally does not want to reform and fights really hard against it but Alice is no pampered society miss, she’s got a tough background, and she’s not going to just let Miles walk in and take what he wants! The risky thing about this book… Alice’s rose tattoo! Tattoos for women were rare during the Regency period and not at all the done thing for a respectable female. In her fabulous series about Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies my fellow Word Wench Andrea Pickens also has heroines with tattoos, which perfectly fits the racy ambiance of her lady spies! In Alice’s case it’s yet another thing that marks her out as deeply unrespectable!

And for book 3, The Undoing of a Lady, the risk I took, I think, was to create a heroine, Lizzie Scarlet, who is so outrageous that I suspect some readers may feel she goes too far. Lizzie starts the book off by exercising her droit de seigneur over the hero and goes on from there! It can be difficult to write a young heroine who is a bad girl and yet who still commands a reader’s sympathy. My editor described Lizzie’s characterization as “brave” which made me very nervous! Hopefully to understand Lizzie and her background will be to love her. She is right on the edge of control – just when you think she couldn’t possibly behave in a worse fashion she goes off and does something even more shocking. But I loved Lizzie to bits and felt enormous compassion for her (after all, being the half sister of the wicked village squire and his even more appalling brother is no picnic!) So I hope that readers will love her too. And she does have a very, very strong man as her hero – he needs to be!

I hope that in Fortune’s Folly I have created a “Regency world” that readers can step into. There is an e-book prequel to the series, The Secrets of a Courtesan, which is available to download from e-harlequin. It sets the scene and introduces some of the characters and is also a steamy love story! And I deliberately left a few story threads loose at the end of The Undoing of a Lady because I don’t think I wanted to let go of the Fortune’s Folly trilogy completely. I have a sneaking feeling I will want to go back there sometime and find out what has happened to a few of the characters! In the meantime I’m working on a new series for HQN. The first book is set in London and the Arctic. Now that really is risky!

RWA Festivities!

If you're going to the RWA conference in Washington DC (only about 10 days away now!) be sure and join the Riskies (Diane, Amanda, Carolyn, Janet, and Megan) for a drink and a "coze" before the awards ceremony on Saturday! 4:00 in Harry's Pub at the Marriott Wardman hotel. Hope we see you there!!!

Self-Evidently

*

"We hold these truths to be self-evident . . ."

Happy Official Holiday for the Fourth Of July, Even Though It's Only The Third!

There are certain inviolable rights that we take as Life Assumptions; I'm talking, of course, about knowing--and owning as part of one's self--certain pop culture touchstones. Recently (i.e. yesterday), I was reminded of a truth I'd suppressed: That Carolyn Jewel, our newest Risky, had never seen North And South, the BBC mini-series based on an Elizabeth Gaskell book. It's not set in the Regency (it's Victorian), but it is otherwise perfectly suited for a historical romance fan.

Because, you know, it's set in a historical period and is a romance.

Anyway, Carolyn will doubtless rectify that gap in her life soon, thanks to pressure from me and many other N&S fans who are on Twitter, but it got me to thinking about pop culture assumptions, and then into the Venn Diagram of romance novel assumptions. There are some people who grew up without TV (like me), and I don't have that common vernacular of forty-somethings who grew up on a diet of '70s television. There are romance readers who've never read Nora Roberts (also like me), or Lord of Scoundrels (NOT like me), or seen Romancing the Stone (me, again), or liked Ghost (guilty), or any of a countless other shared experiences that weren't so shared after all. Just like we all know Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson, and Watergate, and chia pets, and Frankie Says Relax, we all assume we've read Nora, or seen certain iconic romantic movies or share the same opinions and assumptions about our books (for example, I am always startled when someone doesn't love Lord of Scoundrels; I can accept it, but it stuns me for a minute or two).

What Romance Pop Culture Touchstone have you never experienced? Which of your Romance Pop Culture Touchstones are inviolable when it comes to discussing romance with others?

And happy Truth-Holding Day!

Megan

*See how concerned Richard Armitage is that Carolyn hasn't viewed his John Thornton-ness?

What's in a name, Part X

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. Top Ten Things, Rules of Gentility

Part X, because this is something we write about again and again--how to find names for characters that don't sound hideously 21st century, that somehow represent a quality of the character, and lend themselves to different forms of address. How would your hero's mother, sister, mistress, best friend, etc. address him? (Other than as "sir," of course.)

This is something on my mind at the moment because I'm considering changing the hero's name in a book that's pretty much written. For one thing, his nickname, a shortened version of his title, is a sort of fish. And yes, he's a retired naval officer, but even so... His first name is pretty much nonedescript because no one ever uses it. Everyone close to him uses his nickname, even the heroine. As far as fish names go, I can think of better ones--Hal, short for Viscount Halibut--but there are also minor characters called Henry and Harry. Not that he has to have a fish name--I'm trying to get away from the fish motif, you understand. And it bothers me that somehow, in not having the right name, I don't have the proper handle on the character. Eeek.

So I did a bit of research on favorite names and it's a small but level playing field in the 18th-19th century: lots of Johns and Williams. There's a list at thinkbabynames.com but I'm not sure how accurate it is in relation to usage then or or now, and some are specific to the US. For a list of popular English girls' names in the eighteenth century, there's some good information in Female Names over the Centuries.

I like old-fashioned interchangeable male/female names like Evelyn and Joslyn. (Did you know that John Wayne's real name was Marion Michael Morrison and he adopted the nickname Duke in his youth?)

The book Bad Baby Names by Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback,was reviewed in the NY Times by John Tierney:

By scouring census records from 1790 to 1930, Mr. Sherrod and Mr. Rayback discovered Garage Empty, Hysteria Johnson, King Arthur, Infinity Hubbard, Please Cope, Major Slaughter, Helen Troy, several Satans and a host of colleagues to the famed Ima Hogg (including Ima Pigg, Ima Muskrat, Ima Nut and Ima Hooker).

The authors also interviewed adults today who had survived names like Candy Stohr, Cash Guy, Mary Christmas, River Jordan and Rasp Berry. All of them, even Happy Day, seemed untraumatized.

A contest that followed the review for the worst modern name came up with this winner:

Iona Knipl. The judges chose it because, in addition to being an embarrassing pun, it also set up an inevitable reply from people imagining they were being wittily original. I called up Miss Knipl and asked her how many times she had heard someone meet her and reply, “I own two.”

As for names that seem to have implicit meaning, if you read Chuck Shepherds's News of the Weird, you'll know that the name Wayne has unfortunate connotations and the column has regular Wayne updates.

So I won't be renaming my hero Wayne.

Here's a short story I wrote in 2001 at the writing site Toasted Cheese, all about the different forms of names and what they can say about characters.

The hero in A Most Lamentable Comedy is called Nicholas Congrevance, because I like the first name and his surname is a French Arthurian name I came across that seems suitably foreign and exotic. The heroine was originally named Mary, which I found a very stultifying good girl name (although her first appearance in The Rules was as a very bad girl indeed) so I changed it to Caroline, and she took off. The book is released July 23 and you can order it with free shipping from bookdepository.co.uk. And don't forget the contest at my website!

Compulsory promotion over, what are your favorite names in fiction and in real life? Is there an interesting story behind a character's name in one of your books?

Travels in Syria - Virtually

When I started writing my October historical release, Indiscreet, I didn't intend for the story to be set anywhere but in England. But my heroine, Sabine, had been so terribly wronged, she and her uncle (and guardian) had to leave the country. Well. Where would they go? Europe smack in the middle of the Napoleonic wars would be a bit dicey.

For some reason my brain brought up the Ottoman Empire, as mentioned in previous posts here. Syria happened to be a province at the time and Aleppo, one of its most famous cities, had a crucial location and role in the period. This city was a main stop for caravans going to the Orient or back toward the port city of Iskenderun. But Aleppo (Haleb, as it is more accurately spelled today) isn't the only fascinating place in Syria.

The Roman city of Serjilla is one place I'd love to visit.
Picture courtesy of traveladventures.org

Then there's the castle of Bagras, of which Wikipedia has this to say:

Bagras or Baghras is the name of a town and nearby castle in present-day Turkey, in the Amanus Mountains.

The castle, properly known as Gastun (or Gaston, Guascon, Gastim) provided a base for a force to cover the Syrian Gates, the passes between İskenderun and Antioch. It was built in two levels around a knoll, the fortification resembling Armenian work, and with water supplied by aqueducts.[1]

It was built about 1153 by the Knights Templars[1] and held by them or by the Principality of Antioch until it was forced to capitulate to Saladin on 26 August 1189. It was retaken in 1191 by the Armenians (under Leo II),[1] and their possession of it became a major point of contention between them and the Antiochenes and Templars.


After much negotiation, it was finally returned to the Templars in 1216. According to the Armenian chronicles, it withstood a siege by the forces of Aleppo at about this time.[2] After the fall of Antioch to Baibars in 1268, the garrison lost heart, and one of the brothers deserted and presented the keys of the castle to him. The remaining defenders decided to destroy what they could and surrender the castle. Despite the loss of the castle, Hethum II of Armenia and Leo IV of Armenia soundly defeated a Mamluk raiding force in the nearby pass in 1305.

In America, we tend to think of England has having some real but the UK has nothing on a country like Syria (Some very interesting information at that link). And with vistas like this:


There's also the water wheels in the Syrian city of Hama. When Syria talks about history, don't be surprised if they're talking about the Iron Age. Here's a great link to a website that had pictures of traditional costumes You probably won't be surprised if I tell that I wasn't very far into my research before I wanted to visit Syria.