And the winner is…….
Cynthia!
You win a signed copy of Courtesan’s Kiss by Mary Blayney
Cynthia, email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your mailing address.
Congratulations!
The Riskies
And the winner is…….
Cynthia!
You win a signed copy of Courtesan’s Kiss by Mary Blayney
Cynthia, email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your mailing address.
Congratulations!
The Riskies
This week I am slightly obsessed by What. To. Pack. For. Orlando. Orlando, as most of you reading this will know, is where the Romance Writers of America is holding its annual conference. NEXT WEEK.
Each year I tell myself I’m not going to buy anything for the conference, just make do with my old conference clothes (worn only once or twice), but inevitably I wander into Macys (virtually or for real) and devour the sales racks. I found some pretty blouses I couldn’t resist and some great light-weight sweaters from Land’s End for chilly conference rooms. I’m all set.
And I might as well announce here that I will be signing copies of the September book, Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Lady at the Literacy Booksigning! Get your signed copy early and do something good for Literacy.
Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Lady is Book 2 of my Three Soldiers Series. I’m working on Book 3, Gabriel’s story as we speak. I hope to bring it to an end before leaving for the conference next Monday.
In Gabriel’s story, my heroine, Emmaline must travel around England with Gabe, so she had to pack a bag, too, right? just like I will be doing…I had to imagine what she would take with her.
Emmaline is not of the aristocracy, so her clothing would be more functional than elaborate. It is summer, so a nice shawl should be enough for cool nights (she wouldn’t need any clothes for the “hot” nights!).
She’d have one bag she could carry herself- a portmanteau. My imagination has her carrying a portmanteau made of sturdy cloth, like the carpet bags of the Post Civil War South, but I couldn’t find any Regency era images, so she might have carried a leather valise similar to this. (This is a handmade reproduction. You can actually purchase one like it at River Ridge Leather)
What would she pack? Here’s my guess:
1 Pretty dress, suitable for impressing Gabriel.
1 Traveling dress in a fabric that can be brushed off to clean it.
1-2 other dresses in lightweight fabric.
1 pair Half boots for travel
1 pair of slippers for other
2 pairs of gloves, one for traveling, one for “good”
2 bonnets, one for travel, one for “good”
2 shifts/chemises, one to wear, one to launder
2 corsets? Or maybe she would only have one. It might take up too much room in the portmanteau.
Hairbrush, comb, hairpins
Tooth brush and tooth powder
Bar of soap
Small bottle of scent -lavender, I think.
Clothes brush
Reticule
Okay, what am I missing? What else might she need?
Tonight here I’ll announce the winner of Mary Blayney’s Courtesan’s Kiss. Tomorrow at Diane’s Blog, I’ll announce my winner of my two week Blog Contest for a signed copy of Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady (still time to enter – just leave a comment)
And next Monday I’ll be on the road to Orlando!
Welcome back my good friend, Mary Blayney, who is here today to talk about her latest book, Courtesan’s Kiss, in bookstores NOW! I already have my copy on my Kindle and have started the book. This is a terrific story!
Mary is giving away a signed copy of Courtesan’s Kiss to one lucky commenter chosen at random.
With the fourth in the Pennistan series Blayney crafts a powerful story with an outspoken modern heroine … who wins readers’ hearts. All of Blayney’s characters leap from the pages into fully realized people you care about….the twists and depth of emotion turn something ordinary into the unforgettable.”
— Kathe Robin, RT Book Reviews
Welcome, Mary! We are delighted to have you back at Risky Regencies.Tell us about Courtesan’s Kiss and how it fits into the Pennistan family saga?
Literally, COURTESAN’S KISS fits into the sage as the fourth in the series with one to books still to go. But it brings the family on stage in a whole new way.
Being the second son (with two more after him) David Pennistan went off to sea at a young age. His ship sank in the Gulf of Mexico and for seven years he was presumed lost. It was an amazingly happy day when he showed up at Pennford, older but otherwise healthy.
He will not talk about his years away, but it is clear to everyone that his experience changed him. In LOVER’S KISS we first meet David as the estate manager for his brother, the duke. As the years pass, David’s ambition pushes him to leave home and work to further the family name and fortune by building a mill. He sees manufacturing as the key to wealth in the future and does his best to convince the duke to support his efforts and to base the Pennistan wealth in more than land.
And that brings us to the opening of COURTESAN’S KISS.
What inspired this story? Was it a character, a setting, a situation, a theme?
And where is the courtesan, you ask?
Yeah, Mary. Where is the courtesan?
Mia Castellano is giving serious thought to becoming a courtesan and she is definitely the inspiration for this story. An important secondary character in STRANGER’S KISS, Mia is now being shunned by the ton after her engagement ends. On her way to visit her guardian, at said guardian’s insistence, Mia is tired of people telling her what to do and how to do it.
We’re all about “risky” at Risky Regencies. What sort of creative risk did you take with Courtesan’s Kiss? Mia and David are as different as two people can be. I wasn’t sure that they would be attracted to each other at all and even if they were, would they have what it takes to make a life together? As I wrote I realized that the two of them were alike in one significant way and that made all things possible.
What interesting research did you come across when writing this book?
During research, I came across exactly the sort of mill that David wanted to build – the Quarry Bank Mill in Styal near Manchester. It is still in existence and operated by the largest water wheel in the world. It was built and originally owned by Samuel Greg and by 1832 it was the largest cotton spinning business in the UK.
Quarry Bank Mill remains an historical site in Manchester, not only because of the size of the water wheel, but also because Greg provided housing and educational opportunities for the young workers. It was great to find out that this concept was not just the brain child of a twenty-first century writer.
Also I had great fun researching “angling with a fly” what we call fly-fishing and was delighted to read classic book on the subject – THE COMPLETE ANGLER and give author Izaak Walton a mention in the book.
What’s next for you?
For Bantam I am working on the last book in the Pennistan series, Jessup’s story. ONE MORE KISS is the title. It takes place in Birmingham and the central theme is forgiveness and reconciliation. Jess meets Lydia Chernov, a widow, who is being threatened by her husband’s family. In the process of helping Lydia, they fall in love, but both have a view of family that must change before they can be happy together.
Before that comes out in 2011 I am one of five authors with a novella in a Berkley anthology entitled THE OTHER SIDE, out at the end of November, 2010. Maybe I can visit again then. . .
You bet you can, Mary!
And what Mary is not telling you is that the other four authors of the Berkley anthology are J.D. Robb, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas. I’ve had a peek at part of Mary’s story in this one and it is going to be wonderful!
Who doesn’t like a courtesan story? What makes courtesan stories so popular these days? Do you have any other questions for Mary? Here’s your chance.
Remember one lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Courtesan’s Kiss!
I’m returning home today after a wonderful week in England, and I want to show you some pictures of where I’ve been.
I’ve enjoyed reading about Amanda and Carolyn’s conference experience, but I think I can safely say that the conference I attended last weekend, the RNA Conference in Greenwich, London, had the best conference location ever! The weather was hot and sunny (I found it refreshing after the hot mugginess of Washington, DC) but the nights were awful. We stayed in student accommodation where the windows would only crack open and we would compare notes in the morning on how we kept cool. My technique? Have a cool shower and sleep on the wet towel.
We had a celebratory dinner in the Trafalgar Inn, which Dickens attended for whitebait suppers, and about which he wrote in My Mutual Friend.
I met some lovely people at the conference. Here’s Susannah Kearsley signing, and me with Lucy Inglis who writes the amazing Georgian London blog.
Here’s the Thames in the evening. I spent most of the time in Greenwich but went to the London Museum where I saw, among other wonderful things, the front door of Newgate Prison and a fantastic recreation of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
After the conference I traveled to Hampshire where I stayed with friends who happily took me to Chawton where we visited both Chawton Museum, Jane Austen’s home, and Chawton House, a gorgeous Elizabethan-Jacobean mansion which is now a library of women’s literature from the sixteenth to nineteenth century. Sadly we couldn’t take pictures inside.
Chawton House was one of the properties owned by Jane’s brother Edward, who was adopted by the Knight family and inherited their estate. He lived in Godmersham, Kent, but provided his mother and sisters with the permanent home of the cottage in the village.
We also went to Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried, and the magnificent Salisbury Cathedral. Here’s a 13th century carving from Salisbury that depicts an African man, almost certainly a cathedral workers\ who was immortalized by his colleagues. Who was he? How did he end up in Salisbury?
I’m also blogging today at Supernatural Underground and showing off more of my photos.
Remember A Damned Good Contest is still open!