Monthly Archives: October 2009

Books and More Books

Updated on October 13, 2009 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Deadline status for Duchess of Sin: Crawling, scrabbling, clawing towards The End! If I could just push my stubborn characters off a cliff, I would be set. Luckily, just when I am at my lowest, Alex Logan, my lovely Grand Central editor, sent me a few ego-boosting quotes for Countess of Scandal. And I’m bursting to share, aren’t you blog readers lucky? 🙂

“Laurel McKee’s prose is lyrical, her pacing is flawless, and her talent for evoking a rich, sweeping historical atmosphere is second to none” –USA Today bestseller Julianne MacLean

“Laurel McKee has few rivals when it comes to blending an intriguing historical background with an exquisitely romantic love story” –John Charles, Chicago Tribune

“My kind of story! A very well-done book and a wonderful first offering of a planned trilogy” –Mary Balogh

There are a few others, too, but my characters won’t listen to me when I beg them to cooperate anyway…

And in between working on this book, working on the day job, etc, I’ve been busy packing for a move. This is taking a while because I keep stopping clearing the bookshelves to sit on the floor and re-read old favorites I haven’t encountered in a while. (Speaking of old favorites, have you seen this article by Meg Cabot about the Betsy-Tacy books? I loved these books when I was a kid! They were my absolute favorites, along with Anne of Green Gables, the Noel Streatfield “Shoes” books, and The Secret Garden. The last book in the series, Betsy’s Wedding, was probably my fave of the series. There’s also this great article about Edith Wharton’s Paris. As you can probably see, I’m also wasting time not packing and not writing by messing around online).

Now most of my books are snugly tucked into 97 boxes and a few plastic tubs and stored in the garage. A few volumes, ones that are valuable or currently being used for research, are still on the shelves and they look quite forlorn without all their friends.

I also like to visit to Roger Ebert’s site to check out his movie reviews every week and read his excellent blog. One recent entry is a wonderful essay titled “Books do furnish a life.” And I’ve been reading a book called Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books. I’m enjoying it immensely, and am thinking maybe I should consider a move to Hay-on-Wye. I recently read another book by the author, Paul Collins, The Book of Will, about Shakespeare’s First Folio, and that’s how I found this earlier work. Once I read the cover copy, I wondered where it had been all my life.

“Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside–to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the ‘Town of Books,’ boasting 1500 inhabitants and 40 bookstores.”

Books just seem to be popping up everywhere in my life this week! What have you been reading lately?

On the Shelves

Updated on October 12, 2009 by Diane Gaston

This summer we Harlequin Historical authors heard that our books would be shelved with the single title books at the Barnes and Noble stores. This was terrific information, because we often feel that some readers would never think to find us at the Harlequin displays, usually separate from the alphabetical shelving.

Last week I checked at my local Barnes and Noble. Harlequin Historicals were, indeed, not to be found with the other Harlequin books. Instead, they were shelved at the very end of the alphabetical single titles, down on the bottom shelf.

I’m not sure if this is an improvement….

So my questions are:

1. Where do you buy Harlequin Historicals and where are they shelved in your stores?
2. If you couldn’t find them in your store, would you ask for them?
3. Where do you think is the best place for them?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Emily Bryan talks about A Christmas Ball

Updated on October 11, 2009 by Diane Gaston

Hang your mistletoe and stir your pudding. Today we welcome Leisure author Emily Bryan who will tell us about the Christmas Anthology she shares with fellow authors, Jennifer Ashley and Alissa Johnson. Emily is also offering to give away one of her backlist books. Read on and welcome Emily.

“Great writing and research skills, as well as her ability to weave a good old-fashioned story with heft, make her an author to watch.”~Michelle Buonfiglio, RomanceBuyTheBook

1) Tell us about A Christmas Ball and your story in it!

Thanks so much for having me here at Risky Regencies!

A Christmas Ball is a collection of three Regency-set Christmas stories from USA Today Bestseller Jennifer Ashley, Alissa Johnson and me. Since I never like to do the expected, my heroine in My Lady Below Stairs is a scullery maid. Jane Tate is a dead ringer for her well-born half-sister, so when Lady Sybil runs off with an Italian portrait painter, Jane is called in to pose as Sybil long enough to accept an arranged marriage proposal at the Christmas Ball. Needless to say, Ian Michael, the well-muscled head groom who loves Jane, makes plans to crash the party himself. It was great fun to write!

2) How do the three stories fit together? How did this anthology come about? How are the tales connected?

A Christmas Ball is the brain-child of our fabulous editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, at Dorchester Publishing. She conceived a holiday anthology where the stories are united solely by setting and time. The date is December 19, 1822 (not technically Regency for you purists out there, since Prinny has been on the throne for two years, but it’s before the Victorian era kicks off in 1837.) The characters in all three of our novellas attend the same Christmas ball at Lord and Lady Hartwell’s elegant London home. We had to agree on the floor plan of the mansion and certain details about the ball, but otherwise, we were given complete autonomy in writing our stories. Jennifer used her novella as a chance to revisit her Nvengaria paranormal Regency world and Alissa penned a delightful Darcy-esque hero in hers.

3) Did you come across any interesting research on historical Christmases?

Oh, yes! First of all, most of the way we celebrate Christmas now is directly linked to Victorian traditions. For example, there were no Christmas trees in England in 1822. That custom was imported from Germany after Queen Victoria married her German cousin. But greenery was used for decoration, most specifically a “kissing bough.” This was an arrangement of ivy (to symbolize women), holly (whose prickly leaves remind us of men!) and of course mistletoe (still used to steal kisses.) During the Regency era, mistletoe was a limited time offer. For each kiss, the man was supposed to pluck one of the berries. When the berries were all gone, so were the free kisses.

4) What are your own favorite holiday traditions?

Being with family is the most important tradition for us, which means we’ve spent more Christmases in airports and on the road than I care to count. But once we’re all together, before we open our presents, my dad always reads the Christmas story from the Bible, the Luke 2 passage. Any time I read that scripture to myself, I hear my dad’s voice in my head.

5) What is next for you?

I just finished Stroke of Genius (coming June 2010). I adore Crispin Hawke, my hero for this story. He’s a brilliant, but cynical artist who’s so handsome my heroine compares him to a total eclipse. Dangerous to look upon.

Crispin is engaged to sculpt Grace’s hands and decides to help Grace bag a titled husband. But when he starts falling for her himself, the games are just beginning.

I’m in that limbo-land of being between books at present. Just listening to my mental cast of characters and deciding whose story needs telling next. It’s really pretty exciting when a new book starts taking shape.

Another thing I’m excited about now is my MERRY CHRISTMAS BALL CONTEST. Readers who subscribe to my newsletter and enter this contest may win a $100 B & N gift card! So please pop over and enter today. And I’d like to give away a choice from my backlist to someone who leaves a comment or question here today.

To get the conversation started: What’s your favorite Christmas tradition? It can be historic or contemporary.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A Christmas Ball, Emily Bryan | 22 Replies

Steampunk Romance and The Regency

Updated on October 9, 2009 by megan

The January issue of Marie Claire will, hopefully, feature an article I’ve written on steampunk romance. Steampunk romance is being hailed as the successor to the paranormal romance boom, and I discuss a bit (very little bit! 300 words!) of what it is.

Steampunk combines mechanical innovation (the steam) with subversive Victorian drama (the punk). It’s rich in alternate history, innovation, delicious fashion, repression and open expression and all kinds of cool literary types.

It has its foundation in the Victorian period, but as I discovered, its roots are firmly planted in the Regency: See, one of the first and best examples of steampunk (sans the romance part) was first written by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling in The Difference Engine. The Difference Engine describes what would have happened if inventor Charles Babbage had succeeded in building a mechanical computer, which he did work on in real life. With–wait for the Regency connection!–Lord Byron‘s daugher, the Hon. Augusta Ada Byron (known as Ada), later the Countess of Lovelace.

The first steampunk commercial fiction is just being released, most notably Gail Carriger‘s Soulless, which has vampires, parasols, Queen Victoria, murder and tea-drinking (I am so excited to read this!). Coming at the end of this year is my friend Liz Maverick‘s Crimson & Steam, while Meljean Brook‘s first Iron Seas book comes out in Fall 2010.

But since we’re talking Regency over here, what would you twist to make a Regency-set steampunk romance? Does the period suit what I’ve described? What alternate histories are your favorites?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan, steampunk | 19 Replies

Betsy, uncharmed by Charm City

Updated on October 8, 2009 by Janet Mullany

Blogger Madeleine Conway at That Reading/Writing Thing had some very nice things to say about A Most Lamentable Comedy, including this statement:

… her cast of secondary characters, however improbable, also have that unmistakeable air of coming from some research that amply demonstrates that old cliché about truth, fiction and strangeness.

Quite often here at the Riskies I like to explore the oddities of history that I’ve discovered and when Diane blogged earlier this week about Napoleon, I was inspired to dig into the scattered and messy files of my memory to write about Betsy Bonaparte (1785-1879), Baltimore girl who made good–for a time. She was a rich merchant’s daughter who married Bonaparte’s younger brother Jerome Bonaparte in 1803.

Big brother, who had his eyes on further conquest of Europe through his siblings’ significant marriages, was not amused and ordered Jerome back to France–without his blushing bride. Poor Betsy, pregnant and alone, took refuge in London where she gave birth to their son Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte aka Bo. Big brother Napoleon, not particularly bothered by such trifling matters as bigamy, married his troublesome younger brother off to a German princess, Catherina of Wurtemburg.

Betsy and baby Bo returned to Baltimore where she was notorious for her European connections and her fashion, which was a bit much by federal American standards. Rosalie Calvert, mistress of Riversdale House, Maryland, met Betsy Bonaparte in 1804 at a party hosted by Robert Smith, Jefferson’s secretary of the navy, and commented that she …was wearing a dress so transparent that you could see the color and shape of her thighs and more! Several ladies made a point of leaving the room and one informed the belle that if she did not change her manner of dressing, she would never be asked anywhere again.

Another guest gave a similar account: She [Madame Bonaparte] has made a great noise here, and mobs of boys have crowded round her splendid equipage to see what I hope will not often be seen in this country, an almost naked woman. An elegant and select party was given to her by Mrs. Robt. Smith; her appearance was such that it threw all the company into confusion and no one dared to look at her but by stealth.

Betsy was finally granted a pension by Napoleon, but never the title she wanted so much, and in 1815 a divorce by the state of Maryland , and set her hopes on Bo making a grand European marriage. Bo was not interested, becoming a lawyer and marrying a local heiress. Mama was not pleased.

It was impossible to bend my talents and my ambition to the obscure destiny of a Baltimore housekeeper, and it was absurd to attempt it after I had married the brother of an emperor. . . . When I first heard that my son could condescend to marry anyone in Baltimore, I nearly went mad. . . . I repeat, that I would have starved, died, rather than have married in Baltimore. . . .

In 1855, when the Bonapartes were again in power in France, Bo was offered the title of Duke of Sartene. He turned it down. Ironically, her widowed sister in law Marianne Patterson married Richard Wellesley, the older brother of the Duke of Wellington. Poor Betsy, surrounded by family members either turning down or effortlessly achieving the greatness she craved!

Betsy, disillusioned and alone (she never remarried) spent the rest of her life amassing money and at the time of her death, having outlived Bo by nine years, had an estate worth $1, 500,000. She’s buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore. Her life inspired a play, Glorious Betsy, by Rida Johnson Young, which was made into a movie in 1928 and again as Hearts Divided (1936).