And on another note, my RITA finalist Countess of Scandal is an excellent deal in ebooks right now, only $1.99 on the Kindle and the Nook...
What movies have you seen lately? Any you're looking forward to? Read anything good lately???
Tuesday
Like Diane, I have deadlines, oh, tomorrow! Two projects have to go in, so I am a bit crazed here in the Writing Cave (and thanks to some scheduling snafus on my part, the new Victorian-set book had to be written in two months, so I am especially happy to see the back of it for a while!). So let's look at some handsome men for today while I sit over here and quietly go crazy. There are lots of summer movies out now/coming soon featuring hunky heroes, none of which I have seen yet but I'm definitely planning to. (There's Thor, the new Pirates of the Caribbean, and X Men: First Class, which I will probably see even though I am not a huge X-Men fan because, hello, it has Michael Fassbender AND James McAvoy...)
And on another note, my RITA finalist Countess of Scandal is an excellent deal in ebooks right now, only $1.99 on the Kindle and the Nook...
What movies have you seen lately? Any you're looking forward to? Read anything good lately???
And on another note, my RITA finalist Countess of Scandal is an excellent deal in ebooks right now, only $1.99 on the Kindle and the Nook...
What movies have you seen lately? Any you're looking forward to? Read anything good lately???
Fallen Soldiers Redux
I'm writing the last chapter of Leo's Story, my book connected to The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. Have I mentioned it is due June 1? Because today is Memorial Day, I could not think of a better blog than one I wrote in 2007, titled "Fallen Soldiers." Who knew we would still be mourning fallen soldiers five years later?
Here is that blog, adapted for today.
Memorial Day is the day set aside by the US after the Civil War to honor military personnel who have lost their lives in service to their country. Memorial Day remains poignant for Americans today.
As the daughter of an Army officer, I have a particular regard for soldiers, which led to my Three Soldiers Series: Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady; Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress; Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy. In my other books some of the heroes are soldiers and I almost always mention the war with Napoleon.
As the daughter of an Army officer, I have a particular regard for soldiers, which led to my Three Soldiers Series: Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady; Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress; Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy. In my other books some of the heroes are soldiers and I almost always mention the war with Napoleon.
I love my Regency soldiers. I secretly yearn to write some Napoleonic war romances, sort of like Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, only love stories. I own a brazillion books on the Napoleonic war and its soldiers. It seemed fitting today to tell you about one of them: Intelligence Officer in the Peninsula Letters and Diaries of Major The Honorable Edward Charles Cocks 1786-1812, Julia V. Page, editor (1986, Spellmount Ltd)
Major Cocks served in various capacities in the Peninsular war. He was attached to the regular Spanish army for a time and also with the 16th Light Dragoons. He worked as an intelligence officer behind enemy lines, performed special missions for Wellington, and was a field officer commanding soldiers. His family wanted him in Parliament, but Charles, as he was called, loved soldiering more than anything else. He was the consummate professional soldier, very much in his element in the war in Spain.
In a letter to his uncle, Charles wrote:
Few regard soldiers in their true light, that is as a body of men giving up many individual pleasures and comforts for a general national advantage, coupled certainly with the hope of personal fame and at the same time preserving more individual independence than any class of men....Men unused to war and ignorant of its ways regard slodiers as pernicious characters because they always figure them as intent on the desruction of their enemy, but a soldier only meets his foe now and then and he is every day engaged in reciprocal offices of kindness with his comrades....for my part I think there is much less ferocity in putting your foe to death when you see him aiming at your life, than in coolly rejoicing in your cabinet at home at successes purchased by the blood of thousands--Your dutiful and affectionate nephew, E. Charles Cocks
On October 8, 1812, Charles was acting as a field officer in the seige of Burgos. In the hours before dawn he led his men up a slope to regain the outer wall. When he reached the top, a French soldier fired straight at him. The ball passed through his chest, piercing the artery above his heart. He died instantly.
That morning Wellington strode into Ponsonby's office, paced to and fro without speaking for several minutes. He started back toward the door, saying only, "Cocks is dead" before he walked out. Later Wellington wrote, "He (Cocks) is on every ground the greatest loss we have yet sustained." When Wellington stood at his graveside, ashen-faced and remote, none of his officers dared speak to him.
Admiration for valor, gratitude for sacrifice, grief at loss. Today is not very different than 1812.
Each book in my Three Soldiers Series is dedicated to a relative who served in the military.
Major Cocks served in various capacities in the Peninsular war. He was attached to the regular Spanish army for a time and also with the 16th Light Dragoons. He worked as an intelligence officer behind enemy lines, performed special missions for Wellington, and was a field officer commanding soldiers. His family wanted him in Parliament, but Charles, as he was called, loved soldiering more than anything else. He was the consummate professional soldier, very much in his element in the war in Spain.
In a letter to his uncle, Charles wrote:
Few regard soldiers in their true light, that is as a body of men giving up many individual pleasures and comforts for a general national advantage, coupled certainly with the hope of personal fame and at the same time preserving more individual independence than any class of men....Men unused to war and ignorant of its ways regard slodiers as pernicious characters because they always figure them as intent on the desruction of their enemy, but a soldier only meets his foe now and then and he is every day engaged in reciprocal offices of kindness with his comrades....for my part I think there is much less ferocity in putting your foe to death when you see him aiming at your life, than in coolly rejoicing in your cabinet at home at successes purchased by the blood of thousands--Your dutiful and affectionate nephew, E. Charles Cocks
On October 8, 1812, Charles was acting as a field officer in the seige of Burgos. In the hours before dawn he led his men up a slope to regain the outer wall. When he reached the top, a French soldier fired straight at him. The ball passed through his chest, piercing the artery above his heart. He died instantly.
That morning Wellington strode into Ponsonby's office, paced to and fro without speaking for several minutes. He started back toward the door, saying only, "Cocks is dead" before he walked out. Later Wellington wrote, "He (Cocks) is on every ground the greatest loss we have yet sustained." When Wellington stood at his graveside, ashen-faced and remote, none of his officers dared speak to him.
Admiration for valor, gratitude for sacrifice, grief at loss. Today is not very different than 1812.
Each book in my Three Soldiers Series is dedicated to a relative who served in the military. The first book was dedicated to my father. My father, Daniel J. Gaston, pictured here circa 1940s, was not called upon to make a soldier's ultimate sacrifice. He reached an advanced age, long enough to see his daughters well-situated and happy, and his grandchildren grown. He died peacefully in 2001 before my writing career took off.
The second book was dedicated to my uncle, Robert Gaston, who served in WWII and who remains a proud veteran to this day, and to my cousin, Richard Witchey who served in the Vietnam War.
The third book will be dedicated to another cousin, James Getman, an officer in the Coast Guard who lost his life one winter over 30 years ago while readying his vessel for service.
Do you have a soldier, real or fictional, who deserves tribute?
Would you like more war romances? Do you have any favorites?
To all our soldiers......Thanks
Diane
Do you have a soldier, real or fictional, who deserves tribute?
Would you like more war romances? Do you have any favorites?
To all our soldiers......Thanks
Diane
Double Your Dangerous Lady Seduction Pleasure
Today is Double the Fun. Amanda and Carolyn both have releases this week and we are pimping them hard, giving you the inside scoop and revealing amazing details. Leave a comment for a chance to win a cool prize which will be awesome. Like a gift card for books, or maybe books or something else. Check out the rules at the bottom of this post then comment to enter!
It's a mad, ill-advised journey that leads the usually-sensible Lady Caroline Blacknall to the legendary isle of Muirin Inish, off the windswept coast of Ireland. Even so, she doesn't expect to find herself shipwrecked and then rescued by a man she believed she would never see again. A man who, long ago, held her life in his hands--and with it, her heart.
Reformed rake Sir Grant Dunmore knew he could never forget the beautiful woman he once endangered, nor will he ever forgive himself for placing her in harm's way. But history seems doomed to repeat itself, for as long as Caroline stays on the island, she is trapped in a secret plot that could forever free Ireland--or turn deadly for all. And yet, now that she is in his arms again, how can he ever let her go?
Buy Lady of Seduction
Read an Excerpt
TEMPT THE DARKNESS Strong-willed and independent, Paisley Nichols is used to taking care of herself. But when an insane mage begins tracking her every move and threatening her at every turn, she has no choice but to put her life in the hands of a demon.
RISK THE PASSION Burned by betrayal, demon assassin Iskander won't get too close to anyone. He spends his days serving his warlord and his nights indulging in carnal pleasures . . . and that's exactly how he likes it. But when a mage wages a wrenching psychic assault on his beautiful tenant Paisley, Iskander must defend her. Under his protection, she will be drawn irresistibly into his life and learn about her own mysterious powers. And not a moment too soon. The mage haunting her isn't acting alone-and he won't rest until he destroys both Paisley and Iskander.
Buy My Dangerous Pleasure
Read Chapter 1
Enter my Contest and read chapters 1-3
Amanda: Lady of Seduction is the third (and last!) of my Daughters of Erin series, and I'm so sorry to say good-bye to these characters! Though I like to imagine they are off living their HEAs and having lots more adventures. It's set in 1803, and is (possibly) my favorite of the three stories. Caroline is my favorite sort of heroine (bookish, outwardly quiet and sensible, but adventurous and brave when she needs to be), and Grant is my favorite sort of hero, the villain-turned-hero (he was one of the bad guys in Duchess of Sin), scarred, dark and brooding, lives in a crumbling old castle (I blame my love of the Bronte novels).
It also has a windswept Irish island with ancient ruins and cliffs, and a "road romance" as Caroline and Grant have to make a run to Dublin with all sorts of danger chasing them. (There's also a medieval manuscript that contains dangerous secrets). I had so much fun writing this book!
Carolyn: My Dangerous Pleasure is book 4 of my My Immortals paranormal series. The hero is Iskander, a demon and former blood-twin who entertains a different woman just about every night because he's still learning how to live alone. Paisley Nichols is his tenant. She's living her dream of owning her own bakery. To keep costs down, she rents a tiny apartment above her landlord's garage. She doesn't know her smoking hot landlord isn't human. Then she finds out and things get hot.
Jewel MckeeCabe: My Dangerous Lady Seduction Pleasure is a book for the times. For all times. A sweeping saga that will bring you to tears while making you laugh. There are no clowns in this story.
Amanda: My Amanda McCabe self has a Harlequin Historical Undone short story out in August (Unlacing the Lady in Waiting), but you'll have to wait until May 2012 for another full-length book! Laurel will have a new series, The Scandalous St. Claires, which will start in 2012 with book one, One Naughty Night. It's a bit of a change, since this series is set in Victorian London and centers around an underworld family of gaming club owners, actors, and naughty bookstore owners. There will be great clothes, too....
Carolyn: I have two historicals slotted for 2012, Not Wicked Enough and Not Proper Enough. The two books are loosely linked by a locket reputed to have magical powers. In Not Wicked Enough Lily Wellstone comes to the rescue of her best friend and ends up falling in love with her friend's brother. You can read Chapter 1 here. (Unedited and subject to update!)
Later this year, I expect to get the last of my reverted backlist titles online and available once again; my Crimson City novel, A Darker Crimson and my Crimson City novella, DX, as well as the very first book I wrote, a Georgian-set historical titled Passion's Song.
Jewel MckeeCabe: In 2012, I will win several literary prizes for novels of staggering genius. In 2013, watch for six major motion pictures based on my fictional novels.
Amanda: LOL! Only one??? But there are so many. Catherine de Medici, Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth I, Victoria. I think I would have to go with Anne Boleyn, though. Beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed, brave, fiery-tempered and outspoken--yeah, I'm definitely a fan.
Carolyn: Queen Latifah. Because Amanda stole all the dead ones I like.
Jewel MckeeCabe: Uh, Queen is a band and there can be only one. Unless it's me. I am queen of the fiction novel. Ask anybody.
Amanda: Hmmm. For looks--the mid-18th century. I am crazy about those rich fabrics, big skirts and tight waistlines, ruffles and lace and ribbons. But for comfort--the Regency. Light corsets, high waists, thin fabrics, much better. But that's two, isn't it? Can I go with the 1920s, too?
Carolyn: Imperial Rome, because I really have a thing for Centurions and Legionnaires. Also, I would like to point out that Amanda is cheating with her answers.
Jewel MckeeCabe: Honey, I invent fashion. Everyone else just follows.
Amanda: When I was a kid I told everyone I wanted to be an opera singer, but I can't actually sing so that was out. Then I thought I might like to be an actress, and did school and community theater. I had so much fun with it! So I would be an actress, but a stage actress not a movie actress. Or maybe a race car driver.
Carolyn: I'd want to be an artist, I think. Or else a physician. I really always wanted to be a singer, but I can't sing and Amanda stole that answer, too.
Jewel McKeeCabe: I would be the world's best number guesser. Then I would guess a couple of mega-winning lottery tickets and I wouldn't need a job. You two are kind of slow, aren't you?
Leave a comment in which you:
Share your favorite Jewel McKeeCabe fun-fact or story. Don't be shy. Jewel McKeeCabe isn't! Or tell us your favorite queen--alive or dead....
About Lady of Seduction
It's a mad, ill-advised journey that leads the usually-sensible Lady Caroline Blacknall to the legendary isle of Muirin Inish, off the windswept coast of Ireland. Even so, she doesn't expect to find herself shipwrecked and then rescued by a man she believed she would never see again. A man who, long ago, held her life in his hands--and with it, her heart.
Reformed rake Sir Grant Dunmore knew he could never forget the beautiful woman he once endangered, nor will he ever forgive himself for placing her in harm's way. But history seems doomed to repeat itself, for as long as Caroline stays on the island, she is trapped in a secret plot that could forever free Ireland--or turn deadly for all. And yet, now that she is in his arms again, how can he ever let her go?
Buy Lady of Seduction
Read an Excerpt
About My Dangerous Pleasure
TEMPT THE DARKNESS Strong-willed and independent, Paisley Nichols is used to taking care of herself. But when an insane mage begins tracking her every move and threatening her at every turn, she has no choice but to put her life in the hands of a demon.
RISK THE PASSION Burned by betrayal, demon assassin Iskander won't get too close to anyone. He spends his days serving his warlord and his nights indulging in carnal pleasures . . . and that's exactly how he likes it. But when a mage wages a wrenching psychic assault on his beautiful tenant Paisley, Iskander must defend her. Under his protection, she will be drawn irresistibly into his life and learn about her own mysterious powers. And not a moment too soon. The mage haunting her isn't acting alone-and he won't rest until he destroys both Paisley and Iskander.
Buy My Dangerous Pleasure
Read Chapter 1
Enter my Contest and read chapters 1-3
What they're saying
Stellar writing, a charismatic hero and fearless heroine, an amazing blend of suspense, action, and romance, LADY OF SEDUCTION will entice, exasperate and enchant readers without mercy. Laurel McKee books are automatic Must Buys
-- Romance Junkies
An unlucky human female becomes the focus of the next battle in the ongoing war between the Magekind and Fiends. Expert storyteller Jewel excels at developing rich and intriguing characters who face challenges of the most dangerous kind. Packed with the right dose of danger and treachery, this love story is the perfect escape from reality.
-- Romantic Times, Reviewed By: Jill M. Smith
Your Dangerous Lady Seduction Pleasure is the BEST book I ever read. It has everything. Ladies. Danger. Seduction, Pleasure. Hot guys. TEN stars. No, a HUNDRED stars! A bazillion stars! Fictional novels just don't get any better than this. Jewel McKeeCabe is a genius.
-- A. Reeder
Tell me about your book
Amanda: Lady of Seduction is the third (and last!) of my Daughters of Erin series, and I'm so sorry to say good-bye to these characters! Though I like to imagine they are off living their HEAs and having lots more adventures. It's set in 1803, and is (possibly) my favorite of the three stories. Caroline is my favorite sort of heroine (bookish, outwardly quiet and sensible, but adventurous and brave when she needs to be), and Grant is my favorite sort of hero, the villain-turned-hero (he was one of the bad guys in Duchess of Sin), scarred, dark and brooding, lives in a crumbling old castle (I blame my love of the Bronte novels).
It also has a windswept Irish island with ancient ruins and cliffs, and a "road romance" as Caroline and Grant have to make a run to Dublin with all sorts of danger chasing them. (There's also a medieval manuscript that contains dangerous secrets). I had so much fun writing this book!
Carolyn: My Dangerous Pleasure is book 4 of my My Immortals paranormal series. The hero is Iskander, a demon and former blood-twin who entertains a different woman just about every night because he's still learning how to live alone. Paisley Nichols is his tenant. She's living her dream of owning her own bakery. To keep costs down, she rents a tiny apartment above her landlord's garage. She doesn't know her smoking hot landlord isn't human. Then she finds out and things get hot.
Jewel MckeeCabe: My Dangerous Lady Seduction Pleasure is a book for the times. For all times. A sweeping saga that will bring you to tears while making you laugh. There are no clowns in this story.
What's next?
Amanda: My Amanda McCabe self has a Harlequin Historical Undone short story out in August (Unlacing the Lady in Waiting), but you'll have to wait until May 2012 for another full-length book! Laurel will have a new series, The Scandalous St. Claires, which will start in 2012 with book one, One Naughty Night. It's a bit of a change, since this series is set in Victorian London and centers around an underworld family of gaming club owners, actors, and naughty bookstore owners. There will be great clothes, too....
Carolyn: I have two historicals slotted for 2012, Not Wicked Enough and Not Proper Enough. The two books are loosely linked by a locket reputed to have magical powers. In Not Wicked Enough Lily Wellstone comes to the rescue of her best friend and ends up falling in love with her friend's brother. You can read Chapter 1 here. (Unedited and subject to update!)
Later this year, I expect to get the last of my reverted backlist titles online and available once again; my Crimson City novel, A Darker Crimson and my Crimson City novella, DX, as well as the very first book I wrote, a Georgian-set historical titled Passion's Song.
Jewel MckeeCabe: In 2012, I will win several literary prizes for novels of staggering genius. In 2013, watch for six major motion pictures based on my fictional novels.
Who is your favorite queen of all time? Ever.
Amanda: LOL! Only one??? But there are so many. Catherine de Medici, Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth I, Victoria. I think I would have to go with Anne Boleyn, though. Beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed, brave, fiery-tempered and outspoken--yeah, I'm definitely a fan.
Carolyn: Queen Latifah. Because Amanda stole all the dead ones I like.
Jewel MckeeCabe: Uh, Queen is a band and there can be only one. Unless it's me. I am queen of the fiction novel. Ask anybody.
If someone said you could live in any time period but your decision had to be based SOLELY on the clothes, what time period would you choose and why?
Amanda: Hmmm. For looks--the mid-18th century. I am crazy about those rich fabrics, big skirts and tight waistlines, ruffles and lace and ribbons. But for comfort--the Regency. Light corsets, high waists, thin fabrics, much better. But that's two, isn't it? Can I go with the 1920s, too?
Carolyn: Imperial Rome, because I really have a thing for Centurions and Legionnaires. Also, I would like to point out that Amanda is cheating with her answers.
Jewel MckeeCabe: Honey, I invent fashion. Everyone else just follows.
For this question, assume you would have all the necessary talent, skills and aptitude: If you weren't a writer (PRETEND!) what would you be instead? In other words, non-writing dream job?
Amanda: When I was a kid I told everyone I wanted to be an opera singer, but I can't actually sing so that was out. Then I thought I might like to be an actress, and did school and community theater. I had so much fun with it! So I would be an actress, but a stage actress not a movie actress. Or maybe a race car driver.
Carolyn: I'd want to be an artist, I think. Or else a physician. I really always wanted to be a singer, but I can't sing and Amanda stole that answer, too.
Jewel McKeeCabe: I would be the world's best number guesser. Then I would guess a couple of mega-winning lottery tickets and I wouldn't need a job. You two are kind of slow, aren't you?
The Contest
- No purchase necessary.
- Void where prohibited.
- Deadline to enter is midnight Pacific May 31, 2011.
Leave a comment in which you:
Share your favorite Jewel McKeeCabe fun-fact or story. Don't be shy. Jewel McKeeCabe isn't! Or tell us your favorite queen--alive or dead....
The Life of a Regency Courtesan, Part II
Last week I blogged about Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs. This week I’ll talk about some more aspects of the Regency courtesan’s life.Courtesans were expected to be witty and accomplished, capable of conversing with their aristocratic protectors and their friends. Harriette was well aware that education could help in this regard.
My sisters used to subscribe to little circulating libraries, in the neighborhood, for the common novels of the day; but I always hated these. Fred Lamb’s choice was happy—Milton, Shakespeare, Byron, the Rambler, Virgil, etc. I must know all aobut these Greeks and Romans, said I to myself. Some day I will go into the country quite alone, and study like mad. I am too young now.
In the meantime, I was absolutely charmed by Shakespeare. Music, I always had a natural talent for. I played well on the pianoforte; that is, with taste and execution, though almost without study.
Later, when Lord Ponsonby went out of town upon the death of his father, Harriette went into the country to study, in order to become “more worthy” of him.
The word study sounded very well, I thought, as I pronounced it; and, after arranging my books in due order, in the pretty rural room allotted to me by my civil landlady, I sat down to consider which of them I should begin with, in order to become clever and learned at the shortest notice…
As we talked about last week, money was an important issue. Being a courtesan carried serious business expenses. One had to dress well. Harriette was careful to be fashionable and wearing white was her signature style. Perhaps white was used in a way to emphasize her elegance and distinguish her from more vulgar professionals? A courtesan had to rent a box at the opera (kind of a shop window) and to entertain lavishly. Harriette makes fun of her sister Amy for eating black-puddings, but perhaps this was Amy’s way of being frugal.Harriette was not frugal and wrote of always being out of funds. One thing she complains of frequently is of protectors being cheap. At one point Harriette asks her sister Fanny if things are going well between Julia Johnstone and Napier.
Oh, he is horridly stingy,” answered Fanny, “and Julia is obliged to affect coldness and refuse him the slightest favour till he brings her money; otherwise she would get nothing out of him. Yet he seems to be passionately fond of her, and writes sonnets to her beauty, styling her, at forty, although the mother of nine children, ‘his beautiful maid.’
Harriette was supposed to receive an annuity from the Duke of Beaufort for breaking off her relationship with his heir, Lord Worcester, but she reports being stiffed.
In the end, writing her memoirs was a last-ditch attempt to raise funds. Some paid to be omitted from them, although Wellington famously said “Publish and be damned!”
Another problem courtesans dealt with were lovers who were unattractive, unpleasant, who wanted “services” they were not comfortable providing, or even ones who were violent.
Her sister Fanny told her:
Ward wanted me to submit to something I conceived improper. When I refused, he said, with much fierceness of manner, such as my present weak state of nerves made me ill able to bear, ‘D---d affectation.’
Another risk was that of falling in love with one’s protector and getting hurt.
Harriette claims not to have thought about the pain she might be inflicting on the wife of Lord Ponsonby, the one man she appears to have loved deeply.
I am now astonished at that infatuation, which could render a girl, like me, possessed, certainly of a very feeling, affectionate heart, thus thoughtless, and careless of the fate of another: and that other a young, innocent and lovely wife! Had anybody reminded me that I was now about to inflict, perhaps, the deepest wound in the breast of an innocent wife, I hope and believe I should have stopped there; and then what pain and bitter anguish I had been spared: but I declare to my reader, that Lady Fanny Ponsonby never once entered my head.
Her sister Fanny was deeply hurt by the eventual desertion of her long time protector, Colonel Parker. Fanny died young, as did Julia Johnstone soon after. Harriette wrote that Julia’s “complaint, like her poor late friend’s, was a disease of the heart, and there was no remedy.”
However, it was not impossible for courtesans to marry into the aristocracy, as has sometimes been claimed by irate readers of some courtesan romances. Harriette reports that Lord Worcester frequently begged her to elope to Gretna Green with him (he was under age).
…I, who might, as everybody told me, and were incessantly reminding me, have, at this period, smuggled myself into the Beaufort family, by merely declaring to Lord Worcester, with my finger pointed to the North—that way leads to Harriette Wilson’s bedchamber; yet so perverse was my conscience, so hardened by what Fred Bentinck calls, my perseverance in loose morality, that I scorned the idea of taking such an advantage of the passion I had inspired, in what I believed to be a generous breast, as might, hereafter, cause unhappiness to himself, while it would embitter the peace of his parents.
Harriette’s younger sister Sophia did marry her protector, Lord Berwick, although she nevers seems to have liked him and cut her sisters afterwards.
I hope you enjoyed these tidbits on Regency courtesans. Now I am curious to read more about Harriette, to get a more objective account of her life. Googling around, I found there’s a new book about her, THE COURTESAN’S REVENGE by Frances Wilson (no relation), which looks interesting.
Have you read either Harriette’s memoirs or THE COURTESAN’S REVENGE? What did you think? Any other thoughts on Regency courtesans?
Elena
World-Building!
Last week, Blogger was being a pain, so I wasn't able to post. I know you all missed me!So I have been writing (although a snail would mock me at how slowly I'm going!), and reading, and such, and I was pondering just why I read so much fantasy and paranormal in addition to my previous inhalation of historical romance:
It's the world-building.
I read historical and PNR/UF novels for the same reason: I like to escape the everyday world into a fantastical one, whether it's populated by men in waistcoats and cravats or men in leather and armor. I like the authors' world-building, which is likely why anachronisms and tweaking of the 'real' history in Regency-set novels doesn't bother me as much as it does some people.
Right now, I am reading A Feast for Crows, the fourth novel in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (currently showing on HBO as Game of Thrones). I've got Laurel McKee's next book on its way, as well as Carolyn Jewel's (and wouldn't it be neat if they came in the same package?), both of whom are incredible at creating their particular worlds. Laurel's book is set in Georgian Ireland, while Carolyn's is sets sort of now, but with demons and mages and magic.
Two completely different books with a common thread of world-building.
That's why, with a few exceptions, I don't read contemporary romance. I don't find it compelling to read about the world in which I do, or could theoretically, live. I like escapism, fantasy, elegance, the occasional dose of magic.
Could that be why you read historical romance? Or other genres that include world-building?
Spare Change, Anyone?
Sotheby's made the announcement a few days ago that one of Jane Austen's original manuscripts is coming up for sale in mid July. It's of The Watsons, consisting of 68 heavily corrected pages. It's the largest existing original manuscript of any of her novels. The only other one that survived is two canceled chapters of Persuasion in the British Library.
It's not even the whole thing. The first twelve pages were sold by a descendant to raise money for the Red Cross in World War I and are now in possession of the Pierpont Morgan Library, NY. The next few pages were somehow lost while being "looked after" by the University of London. So the remaining pages are being sold by the anonymous person who bought them in 1988 from the British Rail Pension fund, which obviously went in for some odd investments. The Fund should have hung onto them because they probably didn't count on at least one of the retirees making it to 100 (my dad, still hanging in there).
The pages are quite small; Austen apparently liked to cut sheets of paper in half and fold them into an 8-page booklet.
So if you have about $485,000 burning a hole in your pocket in mid July, you might win the auction.
I really hope a museum wins The Watsons. I hate the idea of coming upon this tantalizing news item and knowing there's a possibility no one will ever see it again; it makes my Jacobin blood boil. And I wonder how the person who, uh, borrowed those missing pages feels. Does he or she take them out for special occasions and admire them? Share them with a few friends bound to secrecy?
If you owned something as precious as this, what would you do with it? Hand it over to a museum on permanent loan and go and visit occasionally?
Link of the Week?
Threads of Feeling is a really remarkable site. 18th Century textile tokens left with abandoned babies at the London Foundling Hospital is a flash slideshow, so if you're on an iThing, I believe you won't be able to view the slideshow. But I highly recommend it. The bits of fabric that were left with the babies are poignant as are the glimpses of writing. The photographs are vivid and lovely.
More about The Foundling Museum which, as I discovered, houses a collection of the composer Handle's original manuscripts.
Here's another site I adore: Trovais If I just need to look at something pretty, I go here.
More about The Foundling Museum which, as I discovered, houses a collection of the composer Handle's original manuscripts.
Here's another site I adore: Trovais If I just need to look at something pretty, I go here.
Diane's Where Do You Buy Books Winner
Congratulations to the winner of my guilty where-do-you-buy-books contest: Catslady!
Catslady, email me at riskies@yahoo.com with your preference: ebook of your choice of my backlist and your email address, or a signed copy of my Diane Perkins book The Marriage Bargain (Warner Forever, 2005) and your mailing address.
I'm pretty sure you are going to want the paperback book, since you said that you don't have an ereader.
Thanks, everyone, for an interesting poll!
Diane
Happy Birthday Queen Victoria!
So, what has Amanda been doing this week? Well.....
1) Writing! One project done (I think--or maybe I'm just sick of it now), one to finish. Then one to start. And RWA in about 4 weeks. Good times.
2) What to do since the Vampire Diaries season is over and True Blood hasn't started yet? Thanks to the wonders of Netflix streaming (honestly, what did we do without this??), I have been wasting much time watching many episodes of Top Gear. That show is made of awesome. Also Bollywood movies.
3) Getting my (very excited) little ballet students ready for their recital in two weeks. It is all pink tulle all the time over there now!
4) Also getting ready for book three of my "Daughters of Erin" trilogy to hit the shelves next week! Visit us Sunday for the chance to win a signed copy. It's hard to say good-bye to these characters... (and the first reviews are coming in! Here and here...)
My current project (One Naughty Night, which will be out from Grand Central Publishing in June 2012) is Victorian-set, so I've been spending a lot of time reading Victorian research books lately. In trying to find something to blog about today, I discovered that May 24 is Queen Victoria's birthday! So happy 192nd birthday.
Princess Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 at about 4:15 in the morning at Kensington Palace to Edward, the Duke of Kent (4th son of George III) and his wife Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (sister of Princess Charlotte's widower Prince Leopold). Princess Charlotte's death in childbirth in 1817 set off a succession crisis--none of King George's many sons had managed to come up with any more legitimate heirs, but they now scrambled to find suitable wives and produce little heirs to the throne. Victoria was born 5th in line of succession, after her father and his three elder brothers, the Regent and the dukes of York and Clarence. The Regent was long estranged from his wife Caroline, and now his only child was dead; York was also all but estranged from his wife, and she was too old to have children anyway; and Clarence (who married his wife Adelaide the same day as the Kents) had two legitimate daughters who died in infancy, even though he had copious amounts of children with his longtime mistress Dorothy Jordan. Victoria won the heir stakes.
She was christened in a small ceremony by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace on June 24. She was meant to be named Victoria Georgina Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta, or some combination therein, but the Regent threw a big fit which made the Duchess of Kent cry and made them take off the Georgina (after him) and the Charlotte (because of his daughter). The Alexandrina was after one of the baby's godfathers, Tsar Alexander of Russia.
Victoria's father died in 1820, and her childhood she later described as "rather melancholy." For more information and images, you can go here...
What is your favorite TV show right now? Did you watch the Vampire Diaries season finale (what did you think)?? Are you going to be at RWA this year? And who is your favorite dysfunctional family in history? (The Tudors, maybe?)
1) Writing! One project done (I think--or maybe I'm just sick of it now), one to finish. Then one to start. And RWA in about 4 weeks. Good times.
2) What to do since the Vampire Diaries season is over and True Blood hasn't started yet? Thanks to the wonders of Netflix streaming (honestly, what did we do without this??), I have been wasting much time watching many episodes of Top Gear. That show is made of awesome. Also Bollywood movies.3) Getting my (very excited) little ballet students ready for their recital in two weeks. It is all pink tulle all the time over there now!
4) Also getting ready for book three of my "Daughters of Erin" trilogy to hit the shelves next week! Visit us Sunday for the chance to win a signed copy. It's hard to say good-bye to these characters... (and the first reviews are coming in! Here and here...)
My current project (One Naughty Night, which will be out from Grand Central Publishing in June 2012) is Victorian-set, so I've been spending a lot of time reading Victorian research books lately. In trying to find something to blog about today, I discovered that May 24 is Queen Victoria's birthday! So happy 192nd birthday.
Princess Victoria was born on May 24, 1819 at about 4:15 in the morning at Kensington Palace to Edward, the Duke of Kent (4th son of George III) and his wife Princess Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (sister of Princess Charlotte's widower Prince Leopold). Princess Charlotte's death in childbirth in 1817 set off a succession crisis--none of King George's many sons had managed to come up with any more legitimate heirs, but they now scrambled to find suitable wives and produce little heirs to the throne. Victoria was born 5th in line of succession, after her father and his three elder brothers, the Regent and the dukes of York and Clarence. The Regent was long estranged from his wife Caroline, and now his only child was dead; York was also all but estranged from his wife, and she was too old to have children anyway; and Clarence (who married his wife Adelaide the same day as the Kents) had two legitimate daughters who died in infancy, even though he had copious amounts of children with his longtime mistress Dorothy Jordan. Victoria won the heir stakes.
She was christened in a small ceremony by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace on June 24. She was meant to be named Victoria Georgina Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta, or some combination therein, but the Regent threw a big fit which made the Duchess of Kent cry and made them take off the Georgina (after him) and the Charlotte (because of his daughter). The Alexandrina was after one of the baby's godfathers, Tsar Alexander of Russia.Victoria's father died in 1820, and her childhood she later described as "rather melancholy." For more information and images, you can go here...
What is your favorite TV show right now? Did you watch the Vampire Diaries season finale (what did you think)?? Are you going to be at RWA this year? And who is your favorite dysfunctional family in history? (The Tudors, maybe?)
Where do you buy books?
I am in the last days before turning in Leo's Story, the book connected to The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor, so naturally I'm in panic mode. Forgive a brief blog.My son's birthday is today so over the weekend my in-laws came, my son and his girlfriend, her cat and her dog. Needless to say it was a busy but fun-filled weekend for everyone except my cats. One cat immediately terrorized the dog, one didn't care, and the other two hid the entire time.
My mother-in-law, one of my greatest supporters, had bragged about me writing books to one of her friends in Williamsburg and found me another potential reader. The problem is there is no bookstore in Williamsburg that sells Harlequin Historicals, at least the last time I looked (see Where In Williamsburg Can You Buy Diane's Book, my 12/31/2007 blog).
This got me to thinking...Where do you buy books these days? There's been much press about ebook sales rising dramatically and about Borders financial woes. Book selling seems to be in the throes of change.
My book buying habits have changed in recent years, I'll admit. The fiction I buy is almost always through Amazon for my Kindle. My research books are almost always purchased online. I don't spend nearly as much time browsing bookstores as I used to.
So a little survey (a la Carolyn, who does this so much better).
Where do you buy books?
1. Online? If so, which vendor?
2. Bookstores? Which one?
3. Other stores, like Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc?
4. What do you purchase more of these days, ebooks or print books?
Commenting will earn you a chance to win a signed copy of The Marriage Bargain, one of my Diane Perkins books or an ebook download of any one of my Gaston books.
How's that for feeling guilty for not having a proper blog posting???
Stefanie Sloane Winner
Congratulations to the winner of a signed copy of Stefanie Sloane's The Devil in DisguiseSue P!
Sue, email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your mailing address.
We'll send it on to Stefanie.
The Riskies
Debut Author Stefanie Sloane and The Devil in Disguise
As you know, The Riskies all love a debut author. Today we welcome debut author Stefanie Sloane whose first book, The Devil in Disguise, will be released May 24. The Devil in Disguise has received some pretty impressive endorsements:
“Captivating… Stefanie Sloane will charm her way into readers’ hearts.” –Susan Wiggs
“Smart, sensuous, and sparkling with wit…. Spectacular.” –Julia Quinn
Stefanie will give away one signed copy of The Devil in Disguise to one lucky commenter chosen at random. Without further ado, let’s welcome Stefanie to Risky Regencies.
Stefanie, tell us about The Devil in Disguise.
Lord William Randall is a rake—a most unlikely suitor for the beautiful and fiercely intelligent Lady Lucinda Grey. But his latest assignment for the Young Corinthians, an elite spy organization, involves protecting her from a kidnapping plot. To do this, William uses his devilish charm to seduce Lucinda, never imagining he will lose his own heart in the bargain. And though Lucinda has gracefully sidestepped even the most persistent suitors, she is tempted by William’s sinfully sensuous mouth and piercing eyes. Can she resist him when his touch begs her to let him so much closer?
How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?
The Devil in Disguise started with a character. I was at the gym, sweating away on the elliptical, when a dark, handsome stranger appeared in my mind’s eye. But he wasn’t just any handsome stranger. There was something decidedly dangerous about this man. I let my mind wander about his back story, and William Randall, the Duke of Clairemont, was born. A few more grueling rounds at the gym and I had Lady Lucinda Grey, my heroine, her unforgettable aunts, the Furies, and the over-arching premise of the Young Corinthians.
And then I had to, you know, actually write the book, which it turns out is way more tricky than anything I’ve ever endured at the gym.
Did you come across anything interesting in your research for The Devil in Disguise?
Oh, most definitely! I love the research part of writing—a little too much, actually, as I’ve been known to spend hours pouring over books and websites in search of the perfect touch for a scene. One of the most interesting aspects about the research for my debut was the fact that SO many interesting individuals turned out to be spies during the time period. From poets and professors to important politicians, clergymen, actors, and more were involved in espionage.
What do you think is the greatest creative risk you took while writing this book?
Honestly? Actually sitting down and finishing the book was the biggest risk for me. Before The Devil in Disguise, I’d poured my heart and soul into writing a contemporary chick lit manuscript. I signed with a top agent and thought that my career was going to really take off, the future looking as limitless as a summer sky. And then every last publisher passed on the book. I was devastated. It took a long time for me to think about writing again, and when I finally did sit down to start the Young Corinthians series, I was scared. Actually, terrified. Writing is unbelievably hard work on every level, and I just didn’t think that I could put myself through the process once again knowing that there would be no guarantees when I reached “The End.”
But, the only thing worse than the fear of a second rejection would have been the regret I felt over letting myself get in the way of, well, myself. So I finished the book, and the rest, as they say, is history.What’s next for you?
The second book in the Regency Rogues series, The Angel in My Arms, will be published June 28, 2011, and The Sinner Who Seduced Me, the third installment, will hit the shelves July 26, 2011.
And I recently turned in the fourth book, tentatively titled, The Saint Who Stole My Heart, to my editor. Fingers crossed that she loves it!Now, please say hello and you’ll automatically be entered to win a signed copy of my debut book, The Devil in Disguise!
Thanks so much for being our guest, Stefanie. I'm sure our readers will have questions and comments. They always do!
The Life of a Regency Courtesan, Part I
I just finished HARRIETTE WILSON’S MEMOIRS. Though I don’t trust her on details of dates, persons or places, I find her memoirs highly satisfying Regency research, for at least two reasons. One is her use of language, which feels so conversational. The second is what they reveal about the lives of Regency courtesans: Harriette herself, her three sisters and her friend/rival Julia Johnstone.Courtesan heroines used to be somewhat taboo in romance, but now I think they are becoming a trope rather like dukes (i.e. shorthand for glamorous and sexy). Actually, one of my favorite courtesan stories is GAMES OF PLEASURE by Julia Ross, in which the hero is the heir to a dukedom. But I digress!
I don’t have a courtesan story on the backburner, but I never say never. If I ever write a courtesan story, just as with dukes, I would write with an awareness of the reality as well as the fantasy. There’s some of both in Harriette’s memoirs.
One aspect I find interesting is the motivation for taking up such a life. Recent biographers of courtesans suggest a desire for independence, and this is borne out by Harriette’s account.
“I am afraid my conscience has been a very easy one; but, certainly, I have followed its dictates. There was a want of heart and delicacy, I always thought, in leaving any man, without full and sufficient reasons for it. At the same time, my dear mother’s marriage had proved to me so forcibly, the miseries of two people of contrary opinions and character, torturing each other to the end of their natural lives, that, before I was ten years old, I decided, in my own mind, to live as free as air from any restraint but that of my conscience.”However, I don’t doubt the motivations to become a courtesan were complicated and as varied as individuals. None that I’ve read about had the connections or fortune to be likely to make a good marriage (although a few did eventually). Some were “ruined” when very young. So becoming a courtesan may have been an attractive alternative to the otherwise limited opportunities women had for interesting and gainful employment. Perhaps for some it was a way to gain some power.
I get the impression from the memoirs that neither Harriette nor her fellow courtesans thought of themselves as high-end prostitutes and showed much the same disgust for them that one would expect of a respectable woman. She tells a story of going to the play with a friend and then mistakenly leaving through the wrong room: “Oh, dear me! Good gracious, Mrs. Prude, we are in the lobby, with all the very worst women!” When she goes to Melton (having been previously told it was not the thing to join the men there during hunting season) she is shocked at the “wretched, squalid prostitutes”.I think there's more here than the contempt of the elite for the less glamorous practitioner. In the career of a courtesan, for instance, companionship and lively conversation were important as well as sex. There are many places in the memoirs where the courtesans and their pretenders live a sort of mock-marriage. Love, or at least the semblance of love, seemed often to be important to one or both parties.
Here’s an exchange in which Harriette urges Julia Johnstone to take up with Napier:
“Napier is your man. Since you could be unchaste to gratify your own passions, I am sure it cannot be wrong to secure the comfort and protection of six beautiful children.”Here’s a bit about her sister Sophia and a prospective lover:
“But Napier’s vanity makes me sick,” retorted Julia, impatiently. “The possession of my person would not satisfy him. He wants me to declare and prove that I love him; and the thing is physically impossible.”
Sophia continued to hint, with proper delicacy and due modest blushes, that her living with him or not, must depend on what his intentions were: in other words, she gently intimated that, as yet, she was ignorant what settlement he meant to make on her. The gay handsome Colonel Berkeley’s vanity being now deeply wounded, he in his sudden rage, entirely lost sight of what was due to the soft sex, at least to that part of it which had been so hard upon him. "Do you fancy me so humble and so void of taste, as to buy with money the reluctant embraces of any woman breathing?"Harriette writes of Lord Ponsonby and “…how he, one day, one night I mean, called me his angelic Harriette! and further declared that, had he known me sooner, he would never have married any other woman?” In other places, he calls her his “angel-wife.”
I’ll talk more about Harriette in a later post, but for now, do you enjoy courtesan stories? What do you find most interesting about the life of a courtesan?
Elena
Best Way To Go?
Okay, so accept, for a brief moment of premise-accepting, that the world (as we know it) is ending tomorrow.What would you do today?
I would:
--call my friends and tell them I love them. Thankfully, that is a lot of phone calls (I would get phone ear, but that's a small price to pay).
--chill the super-pricy champagne we've had in our wine rack forever; drink it, at some point, before Saturday at 6:00pm.
--wear one of my loudest, longest maxi-dresses all day. Put glitter on my eyelids AND my skin.
--watch my favorite films: Pride and Prejudice, House of Flying Daggers, North and South.
--hug my husband and son for hours until I squoze them to pieces.
--take a guilt-free nap.
--burn my TBR pile, maybe, so I didn't have to regret not reading anything. Maybe not. That seems like a waste of a lot of good books.
--read the ends of books so I could know what happened.
--eat nuts and cheese ALL DAY!
What would you do?
Dark Day anniversary
'Twas on a May-day of the far old year
Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell
Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon,
A horror of great darkness, like the night
In day of which the Norland sagas tell,
The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky
Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs
The crater's sides from the red hell below.
Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars
Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;
Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell
Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring
Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon,
A horror of great darkness, like the night
In day of which the Norland sagas tell,
The Twilight of the Gods. The low-hung sky
Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim
Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs
The crater's sides from the red hell below.
Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls
Roosted; the cattle at the pasture bars
Lowed, and looked homeward; bats on leathern wings
Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;
The "far old year" of the poem was 1780, and May 19 the day on which darkness descended upon a huge swath of New England from Portland, Maine south, with duskiness extending as far as New York. Philadelphia was not affected. Some thought it was the end of the world; some were amazed at the way the light changed colors, silver appearing as brass, green grass taking on a new richness.The day was ordinary enough at first, although people remembered that in the few days before the sun had assumed a strange, rusty color in a yellow sky. And then in mid morning darkness fell, with all the phenomena that Whittier described (although he was born after the event almost certainly he knew those who had experienced it first hand). It lasted over 36 hours.
In some places, the darkness was so great, that persons could not see to read common print in the open air.... The extent of this darkness was very remarkable.So what did cause the Dark Day of New England? Tree ring analysis from Algonquin Provincial Park in eastern Ontario has revealed that it was smoke from massive forest fires.
The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light.... A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes was equally invisible with the blackest velvet.
By 12, I could not read anywhere in the house — we were forced to dine by candle light. It was awful and surprising.
I love this sort of phenomena even if I'd never dare invent something similar and include it in a book. That's not to say I'd want to experience 36 hours of darkness, but if it did happen (and you weren't busy praying or drinking like New Englanders in 1780) and you had only candlelight, how would you spend the time?
Secret Facts
The Shameless Self-Promotion Portion of This Post
I have put out another of my backlist titles. Stolen Love is my second book, published by Harper-Collins in 1991. It's not quite old-skool but almost. I'm not the same writer as I was in 1991 but I've put the book out pretty much exactly as it was published -- because today I would write a totally different book and any editing would inevitably be a total re-write and then STILL no one would be able to read the original unless they got their hands on a paper copy.
I made one change because I realized later my editor was right, my hero would call his valet by his last name only. So I removed all the Mr.'s for that character. That's it.
Nicholas Villines is the heir assumptive to a viscount. His father left him in dire straits, but he's managed to recover the family fortunes and re-enter society. His childhood friend Elizabeth is now in London, hoping to make a modest marriage, as she is a woman of very modest means. Not so her beautiful (and rich) cousin Amelia. Every agrees that Nicolas and Amelia would be a perfect match. As Elizabeth and Nicholas rekindle their friendship, society can talk of little but The Mayfair Thief, a mysterious and cunning person who has made off with a fortune in jewels and other valuable items. Just who is this mysterious thief, and has Elizabeth really guessed his identity?
Nicholas agrees that Amelia would be the perfect wife for him, but he can't stop thinking about Elizabeth and the beautiful woman she's become. Will he accept his feelings for her before it's too late or will she marry his best friend?
Secrets Revealed
Stolen Love was written before the World Wide Web and when the Internet was mostly accessed via text based commands (gopher, anyone?). In those days, authors couldn't do anything like the promotion we can do today.
I wasn't able to tell anyone things like this:
- The hero, Nicholas, was named after my sister's dog.
- The hero's last name (Villines) came from an article I read about a General Contractor who had an embezzling employee.
- I lived in Berkeley at the time, in an apartment that, unbeknownst to me, had absolutely ideal conditions for growing orchids. I had several Phalenopsis and a Cattleya that bloomed six months of the year. I believed I was an orchid genius and made my hero one, too. Because, like, what's so hard about growing orchids? Then I moved to San Francisco and my orchids died or never bloomed again.
- I set the book in 1844 because I thought the fashions then were killer. I HATED Regency gowns. The cover was pure Regency. There was no cover consult.
- When on submission, the book was pitched as hardcover and even I, pretty much a total newbie, knew that book wouldn't sell hardcover and I was brave enough to tell my agent that. It sold to a St. Martin's Press editor who promptly left to go to Harper-Collins, which was starting a NY based Romance line that, eventually, morphed into Avon. She took my MS with her.
- I didn't know I was a pantser. I just wrote the dang story by reading what came before and seeing an interesting theme and going with it. (Oh hey! In this chapter, the hero's best friend is in love with Elizabeth! Let's go with that. . . )
- My printer was a near top-of-the-line daisy-wheel printer and it took 9 hours to print out the entire MS.
- At one time, I laid out all the chapters in piles on the floor and rearranged them. I used scissors and tape to move scenes
- I did all my research in the UC Berkeley libraries or at any number of extremely fine used book stores in the area. During that period I acquired some great reference books.
- I learned that about this time (1844-ish) there was an orchid craze. The Amazon and other fragile habitats were scoured for orchids to the point of destruction and/or extinction of the flowers. They believed all orchids required the same hot-house conditions -- which was untrue as we now know --so there were some orchid species that never bloomed in captivity. Orchid collections were valuable and stealing of collections and plants was a threat.
- In 1991, there was no such thing as email for regular people, but I had a fancy answering-machine. With a tape.
- I was worried the sex came too late in the book so I tried to sex it up in other ways.
If you want to read a sample or just buy the book:
ISBN: 978-0-9833826-4-5A Racy Offer
If you happen to read Stolen Love (or any of my backlist titles) and post an honest review on Amazon or B&N, I will send you the eBook of two erotic short stories I wrote. I have a pretty cover for it. One story is historical, the other contemporary and both, technically, involve demons. You have to be over 18 and not easily offended.
Just post your review (You are not required to have liked the book) and send me the URL to it and let me know what format you'd like. I will then send you the stories in just about any digital format.
Anne Boleyn, Redux
I am still running toward that June 1 finish line for a couple of projects, and I am also at the dentist today getting a root canal. Happy Tuesday to me! But May 19 marks the anniversary of the death of Anne Boleyn, one of my great heroines in history. So I am reposting a blog I originally published here in 2009....
"To us she appears inconsistent--religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of a politician--but is this what she was, or merely what we strain to see through the opacity of the evidence? What does come to us across the centuries is the impression of a person who is strangely appealing to the early 21st century. A woman in her own right--taken on her own terms in a man's world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps in the end it is Thomas Cromwell's assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit, and courage." --Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
Today, May 19, marks the grim anniversary of the death of Anne Boleyn (1501 or '07--1536). History geeks like me tend to have a list of "historical heroes and heroines," people we would like to invite to our dream dinner parties, sit them down, serve them some drinks, and ask "So--what were you thinking there anyway?" Anne Boleyn is definitely one of mine. I've been fascinated by her since I was a kid and watched Anne of the Thousand Days on the TV at my grandmother's house. I read everything I could find about her, and yet she still seems elusive. As Ives says, a woman of her own time but also so strangely modern, a woman of intelligence and ambition, pride and immense courage. Ives also calls her "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had."
I could write a post days long about her life and activities, but I'll concentrate here on the end. After a crazed pursuit of 7 long years, Anne agreed to marry Henry on January 25, 1533--even though the Church and the Pope stubbornly persisted in insisting he was married to his wife of 20+ years Katherine of Aragon (who stubbornly insisted the same! For a man so set on his own way, Henry did marry so many proud and strong women...). On May 23, Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury (who was once the Boleyn family chaplain, the Boleyns being staunch Protestants) declared the marriage of Henry and Katherine void and the marriage of Henry and Anne valid. They were all thereafter excommunicated. But Anne was crowned queen in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey on June 1, and gave birth to a princess, Elizabeth, on September 7. Elizabeth, of course, was destined to be her mother's daughter in every way, even though she never knew her.
But the good times weren't to last long. After many miscarriages, Henry got tired of her outspoken stubbornness, and in April and May of 1536 brought her to trial for high treason, via adultery and incest (and rumors of witchcraft). It was an utter travesty of a trial on charges everyone knew were trumped up, but Anne and her accused lovers (including her brother George) were declared guilty and sentenced to death. George was executed on Tower Green on May 17, as Anne waited for her fate in the confines of the Tower, where only 3 years before she had come in glory to wait for her coronation.
Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, wrote "This morning she sent for me...and at my coming she said 'Mr. Kingston, I hear I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain.' I told her it should be no pain, it was so little. And then she said, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck,' and then she put her hands about it laughing. I have seen many men and also women executed, and they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this lady has much joy in death."
Around noon on May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn died on a scaffold erected on the north side of the White Tower, in front of what is now called Waterloo Barracks. She wore a red petticoat under a black damask gown trimmed in fur and a mantle of ermine. With her ladies-in-waiting, she walked from the Queen's House (which is still there), climbed the steps, and made a short speech to the gathered crowd as the French headsman waited.
"Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you. And if any person will meddle in my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord Have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."
She then knelt upright in the French style of executions, said once more, "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul." Her ladies took away her headdress and jewelry, tied a blindfold over her eyes--and it was over in one sword-stroke. Cranmer said "She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in heaven." Anne was buried under the floor of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula behind the scaffold site, near her brother, where her grave can be seen today, and a few days later Henry married Jane Seymour. Following the ascension of her daughter as Queen Elizabeth, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the Protestant Reformation, and she's an object of fascination (and movies and novels!) to this day.
There are lots of great sources on Anne Boleyn and her tumultuous times, but a few I like are: Antonia Fraser's The Wives of Henry VIII; Eric Ives's The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn; Joanna Denny's Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen; Retha Warnicke's The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn--Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII; and Karen Lindsey's Divorced Beheaded Survived--A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII.
See, I told you I could write about Anne Boleyn for days!!! When I visited the Tower last year, I actually started crying while standing at the scaffold site and reading the words engraved on the new memorial fountain there (at least it was early and not crowded yet! No one to see the crazy lady crying over stuff that happened 473 years ago). Who are some of your heroes? Have you visited sites that had significance for them? What did you think? Who are your "fantasy dinner party" guests??
"To us she appears inconsistent--religious yet aggressive, calculating yet emotional, with the light touch of the courtier yet the strong grip of a politician--but is this what she was, or merely what we strain to see through the opacity of the evidence? What does come to us across the centuries is the impression of a person who is strangely appealing to the early 21st century. A woman in her own right--taken on her own terms in a man's world; a woman who mobilized her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps in the end it is Thomas Cromwell's assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit, and courage." --Eric Ives, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
Today, May 19, marks the grim anniversary of the death of Anne Boleyn (1501 or '07--1536). History geeks like me tend to have a list of "historical heroes and heroines," people we would like to invite to our dream dinner parties, sit them down, serve them some drinks, and ask "So--what were you thinking there anyway?" Anne Boleyn is definitely one of mine. I've been fascinated by her since I was a kid and watched Anne of the Thousand Days on the TV at my grandmother's house. I read everything I could find about her, and yet she still seems elusive. As Ives says, a woman of her own time but also so strangely modern, a woman of intelligence and ambition, pride and immense courage. Ives also calls her "the most influential and important queen consort England has ever had."
I could write a post days long about her life and activities, but I'll concentrate here on the end. After a crazed pursuit of 7 long years, Anne agreed to marry Henry on January 25, 1533--even though the Church and the Pope stubbornly persisted in insisting he was married to his wife of 20+ years Katherine of Aragon (who stubbornly insisted the same! For a man so set on his own way, Henry did marry so many proud and strong women...). On May 23, Thomas Cranmer, the new Archbishop of Canterbury (who was once the Boleyn family chaplain, the Boleyns being staunch Protestants) declared the marriage of Henry and Katherine void and the marriage of Henry and Anne valid. They were all thereafter excommunicated. But Anne was crowned queen in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey on June 1, and gave birth to a princess, Elizabeth, on September 7. Elizabeth, of course, was destined to be her mother's daughter in every way, even though she never knew her.
But the good times weren't to last long. After many miscarriages, Henry got tired of her outspoken stubbornness, and in April and May of 1536 brought her to trial for high treason, via adultery and incest (and rumors of witchcraft). It was an utter travesty of a trial on charges everyone knew were trumped up, but Anne and her accused lovers (including her brother George) were declared guilty and sentenced to death. George was executed on Tower Green on May 17, as Anne waited for her fate in the confines of the Tower, where only 3 years before she had come in glory to wait for her coronation.
Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower, wrote "This morning she sent for me...and at my coming she said 'Mr. Kingston, I hear I shall not die afore noon, and I am very sorry therefore, for I thought to be dead by this time and past my pain.' I told her it should be no pain, it was so little. And then she said, 'I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck,' and then she put her hands about it laughing. I have seen many men and also women executed, and they have been in great sorrow, and to my knowledge this lady has much joy in death."Around noon on May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn died on a scaffold erected on the north side of the White Tower, in front of what is now called Waterloo Barracks. She wore a red petticoat under a black damask gown trimmed in fur and a mantle of ermine. With her ladies-in-waiting, she walked from the Queen's House (which is still there), climbed the steps, and made a short speech to the gathered crowd as the French headsman waited.
"Good Christian people, I am come hither to die, for according to the law, and by the law I am judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it. I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak anything of that, whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you. And if any person will meddle in my cause, I require them to judge the best. And thus I take my leave of the world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray for me. O Lord Have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul."
She then knelt upright in the French style of executions, said once more, "To Jesus Christ I commend my soul; Lord Jesus receive my soul." Her ladies took away her headdress and jewelry, tied a blindfold over her eyes--and it was over in one sword-stroke. Cranmer said "She who has been the Queen of England on earth will today become a Queen in heaven." Anne was buried under the floor of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula behind the scaffold site, near her brother, where her grave can be seen today, and a few days later Henry married Jane Seymour. Following the ascension of her daughter as Queen Elizabeth, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the Protestant Reformation, and she's an object of fascination (and movies and novels!) to this day.There are lots of great sources on Anne Boleyn and her tumultuous times, but a few I like are: Antonia Fraser's The Wives of Henry VIII; Eric Ives's The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn; Joanna Denny's Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen; Retha Warnicke's The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn--Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII; and Karen Lindsey's Divorced Beheaded Survived--A Feminist Reinterpretation of the Wives of Henry VIII.
See, I told you I could write about Anne Boleyn for days!!! When I visited the Tower last year, I actually started crying while standing at the scaffold site and reading the words engraved on the new memorial fountain there (at least it was early and not crowded yet! No one to see the crazy lady crying over stuff that happened 473 years ago). Who are some of your heroes? Have you visited sites that had significance for them? What did you think? Who are your "fantasy dinner party" guests??What is a Romance Novel?
What if you were asked What is a Romance Novel by someone who doesn't read romance novels? A relative asked me this question. She's an educated, well-read person, so I wanted to give her as good an answer as I could. This is what I said:
Romance novels can be incredibly diverse, encompassing history (like me), suspense, elements of women's fiction, comedy, paranormal, inspirational – you name it. They can also vary by tone from light "romps" to darkly emotional. But what they all have in common is that they are telling the story of a romance. The book is about the romance. The story is the romance--How two people fall in love and find their happily ever after. The happily ever after is essential. A romance is not about doomed romance or tragic romance. It is a celebration of successful romance.
Romance novels can be incredibly diverse, encompassing history (like me), suspense, elements of women's fiction, comedy, paranormal, inspirational – you name it. They can also vary by tone from light "romps" to darkly emotional. But what they all have in common is that they are telling the story of a romance. The book is about the romance. The story is the romance--How two people fall in love and find their happily ever after. The happily ever after is essential. A romance is not about doomed romance or tragic romance. It is a celebration of successful romance.
What I mean is, an historical romance is not about the historical events; it is about how two people manage to find love together. Historical events might impact on them, but the story is about their romance. Same with Romantic Suspense- the story is not about—say—a murder mystery. It is about how two people find love together while impacted in some way by a murder mystery.
Because of the focus on two people falling in love, romance novels are basically character focused. And because nobody would read a book about a romance that goes smoothly from first meeting to the wedding day, there has to be conflict. There must be forces driving the couple apart as well as the attraction between them that make them fall in love.
The very best conflicts are internal ones, things about the personality or emotional characteristics of the hero and heroine that drive them apart. External conflict should also play a part. External conflict can often be what the hero and heroine think is keeping them apart, but really it is something inside them that they need to change in order to have their happy ending.
Romance novels today mostly have strong heroes and heroines. Gone are the victim heroines who must passively be rescued by the hero. Heroines need to act on their own behalf just as much as the hero. Characters must be three dimensional and must act in sensible ways or in ways that are understandably motivated.
Romance novels today mostly have strong heroes and heroines. Gone are the victim heroines who must passively be rescued by the hero. Heroines need to act on their own behalf just as much as the hero. Characters must be three dimensional and must act in sensible ways or in ways that are understandably motivated. The hero and heroine should not be "Dudley Do-Right" perfect; they should have flaws, ways they need to change in order to have their happy ending. The conflict should not be something that could be solved by a conversation. The hero, in my opinion, should be someone the reader will fall in love with; the heroine should be someone she'd like to be.
There are some "mostlys" we see in romance novels:
There are some "mostlys" we see in romance novels:
The hero and heroine mostly meet in the first few pages.
The hero and heroine are mostly together for most of the book
The plot is mostly fast-paced with a major turning point in the middle of the book and a "Black Moment" toward the end.
But none of these are hard and fast rules.
I also provided some links:
Okay....so, how did I do?
The best place to start is with Romance Writers of America. Here's their take on what constitutes a romance novel:
Be sure to click on the link to the various subgenres as well.
Here's a nice article from a respected romance review site where authors say what they think makes a romance.
Here's another description – The essential elements of a romance novel according to Pamela Regis
Pamela Regis is an academic who has studied, taught, and researched the romance genre. She's written a scholarly work on Romance Novels: A Natural History of the Romance Novel
Here's a little summary:
And from my publishers, Mills & Boon, the UK branch of Harlequin- what constitutes a perfect romance
How would you have answered the question What is a Romance Novel?
What links would you have provided?
Speaking of romance novels, my cover of Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress is still up for best Historical cover at Cover Cafe. (So is one of Amanda's covers) Vote here if you haven't already, but don't forget to vote in at least three categories.
On Thursday at Diane's Blog, my guest will be Colleen Gleason, talking about her new adventure in publishing!
You're invited to ... ruin!
Anthony James Craven, the Earl of Wickham, is dubbed Lord of Wicked for good reason. He lives and breathes seduction - until he mistakenly beds the wrong woman and is forced to marry the sensible, reserved Melissa Goodly. He intends to offer Melissa security and position, nothing more. Once they marry, Melissa cannot understand why her devastatingly attractive husband does not come to her bed. The more he pushes her away, the more she is resolved to turn the tables and open her shuttered heart to love. And though Anthony tries to resist the sensual siren that his wife has become, his plans for a companionable relationship are unravelling in the most pleasurable way...
Today's guest is Bronwen Evans who's here to talk about her book INVITATION TO RUIN. Bronwen, congrats on your debut. Did you always intend INVITATION TO RUIN to be the first of a three book series, and what are the challenges of writing a series?Thanks for having me over today. My INVITATION TO… series was always going to have at least four books, but I’ve had a few readers ask for Cassandra’s book – can I redeem her? That’s a challenge and I’m thinking about it. So maybe there will be five books. I’m only contracted for two, so we will have to wait and see how sales of book one go.
As a reader I love series romances, so it’s only natural that I wanted to write a series. Thankfully, I love plotting. Part of the fun of writing a series, for me, is plotting out the overarching story and then each individual book before I start writing them. I think that’s important because readers want to see all the characters continue on through the books, so you have to understand how they are going to interact and enrich the stories.
The challenge in writing a series is to have enough interesting and engaging secondary characters that make the reader want to read their story’s too. Stephanie Laurens (one of my favorite Regency authors) did this really well. The Cynster books are still my all-time favorite series. The secondary characters in each book were very compelling. They needed a book of their own.
Already I have fans wanting Rufus Knight, Viscount Strathmore, and Richard Craven, Anthony’s twin brother’s stories.
Tell us your "call" story.
It all seemed to happen fairly quickly. I finished INVITATION TO RUIN at the end of October 2009. It was my first completed manuscript. Although I had been trying to write for a few years, I had never finished a book before – loads of half completed books – would be writers, don’t do that – you can’t sell what isn’t finished! So I didn’t have any expectations for the book. I sent off a query letter to two editors who I thought might be interested in the book and three agents. I got a full request from all of them BUT in the mean time (there is a lesson here – don’t send out queries until the book is polished and ready) my critique partners suggested some changes (and they were right) to one chapter that meant re-writing the last five chapters.
So instead of sending the full, I sent the first three chapters, hoping nobody noticed. My reasoning was, why hurry the re-write if they weren’t interested. Blow me; four came back asking for the rest, one agent declined. It was now about 15th December 2009, and I was coming up for my Christmas break. I thought, I’ll finish the last remaining chapters in my break, and send in on 3rd January. However, Megan Records from Kensington rang me in New Zealand on the 20th December, chasing the rest of the book saying, “I think I want to buy it.” I could not believe it – I was so excited and nervous – three chapters do not make a book!
I came clean and told her the situation. She was happy to wait. On 1st January 2010 I sent the finished book to everyone and on 3rd January, Melissa Jeglinski at The Knight Agency offered me representation (she’d come to the RWNZ 2009 Conference and I’d pitched to her) and on 7th January 2010 I had a two book deal from Megan. It was a dream run and it happened so fast my head was spinning. I still can’t quite believe it.
Needless to say I’ve fallen on my feet with both Megan and Melissa. It gets confusing sometimes – Megan and Melissa. I call them my M&M’s - sweeties.
What is it that attracts you to the Regency?
I’ve always loved reading Regency. The vibrancy and vividness of the period is appealing. The customs, behavior, clothes, houses, peers of the realm, ballrooms, virgins, absurd rules which everyone loves to break, the rakes, the clever women who try and mold the world to their ends, even when all the rules are stacked against them. As an author all of the above makes it so much fun to write. The period is so stifled and yet so risqué. It’s a writers dream come true.
Besides, I think my voice suits Regency. At my very first RWNZ conference, Paula Eykelhof, (Senior Editor HMB) told me to write what I love reading. So I did. She was right of course.
What don't you like about the Regency?
Well, I suspect the reality of the time period was nothing like fiction. War, disease, poverty, lack of personal comforts and the fact woman had very little, if any rights, would make it a terrible time to have lived. Especially for intelligent women. You’d have limited or no control over your life.
One of your subplots involves the abolitionist movement. Would you like to tell us about the research you did.
I remember watching the movie, Amazing Grace, about William Wilberforce and I thought it interesting that in all the Regency period books I had read, no one mentioned slavery, yet it went on in England. Also, I thought about women’s rights or lack of them during the Regency period, and thought it would be interesting to have a heroine understand the concept of slavery and how it applied in her case and to others. The next step was obviously to have a hero whose background was in slave trading.The movie Amazing Grace talked about the about the Anti-Slave Trade Act that was passed in 1807, making it illegal for British ships to carry slaves. I did a lot more research through books etc The Act was a very astute political move. Keeping most happy. It made England look as though they were trying to halt the trade, yet still allowed slavery to continue. England didn’t abolish slavery until 1833.
Still, some information took a lot of digging. I found out the largest slave trading port was at Bristol. Some of the hardest information to ascertain, was things like the price of slaves in England.
Tell us about being a twin and how you use that in your books.
I don’t really know what it’s like not to be a twin. Leigh has always been with me and is always experiencing life at the exact same time as me. That’s good and bad. You always have someone to discuss issues with and to experience important events in your life.
I wondered what it would have been like having a twin, but not being with them while growing up. How would I be different, how would that affect our relationship. Hence, Anthony, my hero, is brought up by his evil father and looks like his father. Richard is brought up by his gentler mother and looks like his mother. As they didn’t understand genetic in those days, Anthony assumes that as he looks like his father, he must be evil too. While Richard, looking like his mother must be an angel.
RT's review describes your book as having "...a tortured hero that will delight the reader as much as he delights the heroine. A strong heroine, some wonderful secondary characters and a villain who is truly evil ..." Which of these characters did you most enjoy writing?
I loved writing all of them because each of them was integral to the story and the emotional journey of the hero and heroine. Writing Anthony was emotional. To have his upbringing, to have suffered like he has, yet still be capable of love – he was such a wonderful character. Melissa was the perfect woman to help him. Intelligent, compassionate, and she has such a big heart. Philip, the villain I made completely evil. I gave Philip the exact same childhood background as Anthony, to show how someone can overcome their upbringing if they are strong enough. Anthony turned his back on evil, while Philip embraced it.
Tell us a bit about the next book in the series and when it's coming out.
INVITATION TO SCANDAL is Rufus Knight, Viscount Strathmore’s book. He’s Anthony’s friend who works for the Crown. In INVITATION TO RUIN, Rufus asks for Anthony’s help to stop a white slavery ring. In INVITATION TO SCANDAL, Rufus is trying to atone for his father’s past. His father died amid rumors of treason, and Rufus is determined to learn the truth by catching a French spy using a Kent smuggling operation. But when Rufus discovers the true identity of the smuggler, he faces his biggest conundrum, what’s truly important in life, love or honor? INVITATION TO SCANDAL is due for release in 2012. After that look out for Richard Craven and Madeline Knight – Rufus’s sisters - story.
Thanks for having me over at Risky Regencies, it’s been fun. Leave a comment or answer the following question and go in the draw to win a signed copy of my book.
Q: What is Anthony’s middle name? Hint – read the first chapter excerpt of INVITATION TO RUIN.
In the eye of the reader...
Reading Megan’s post on Breaking Rules last week and some of the comments it generated made me think about common tropes regarding romance heroines and their looks.I’m not sure there’s a rule that heroines need to be beautiful, although it’s definitely a common trope. In my mind, it goes along with the billionaire or duke (depending on subgenre) hero—a fantasy that’s OK in moderate doses and not taken too seriously.
I do get put off by books that continually emphasize the heroine’s beauty, especially when in her own point of view. It grates on me when the heroine repeatedly tosses her red-gold hair and flashes her sapphire eyes. It’s clumsy writing and yet such books can be popular, maybe because some readers love that fantasy so much.
I want the knockout heroine to have some substance. It's fun when she recognizes her assets and uses them (as in BEAUTY by Judith Ivory) or if she has to downplay them in order to be taken seriously (MISS WONDERFUL, by Loretta Chase). It is going too far if the heroine is completely unaware of her beauty (false modesty) or is too full of self pity because people don't value her for anything else.
Then there’s the trope of the too-tall, too-thin, too-whatever heroine, or the one with a limp or a crooked nose or mismatched eyes, or just plain in some way. I think that appeals to many of us who lived through an awkward phase, or are insecure in some way about our looks. We may long for, and with luck find, someone who appreciates us as we are. (Hopefully, in time we learn to do that for ourselves.) There’s also the fantasy of being made over, which can be really fun.This trope can fail if the heroine only thinks she is plain, i.e. she thinks she's too thin or hates her red hair, but we know everyone else can see she’s gorgeous. Again, it's false modesty, really a kind of narcissism. Other ways the trope fails is when it’s a gimmick to inspire sympathy, or the heroine dwells too much in self-pity.
Done right, the plain/odd heroine can be very cool, especially if the heroine and others learn to see her physical traits as part of a total package they appreciate. The classic example is JANE EYRE. Among modern historical romances, my favorite (perhaps one that spawned some bad imitations) is the tall heroine with mismatched eyes in Mary Jo Putney’s THE RAKE AND THE REFORMER.I’ve also enjoyed the descriptions of several of Julia Ross’s heroines: one with a longish nose (NIGHT OF SIN) and another who is freckled (CLANDESTINE). Maybe these stories go where Janet and Amanda were suggesting: the heroine of ordinary looks who doesn't have any hangups about it, and whose hero enjoys her physical quirks along with everything else.
What do you think about these common tropes regarding heroines and their looks? Any particular sorts of heroines you enjoy reading about, or would like to see more of?
Elena
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