Last Friday, I turned the finished final manuscript of The Duke’s Guide to Correct Behavior in to my agent. It is due to my editor on April 1 (quick plug: it’ll be out November 25 of this year from Avon, in both print and digital).

It was both arduous and delightful to write, if that makes any sense, since it was often hard to keep moving forward, but once I really got to know my characters, the words just poured out.

I don’t know how many changes it will undergo once it’s been revised, but this is my heroine’s first viewing of the hero:

He was tall, and very, very, very handsome. Extremely male. No, entirely and absolutely virile. That was the word. Virile with all of its connotations that brought the pink to her own cheeks. At least she better matched the room.

Goodness. She’d seen pictures of gods and soldiers and kings and other leaders of men, but she’d never actually felt the impulse to follow one of them anywhere.
This one, though, she might consider following, even though that way led to things that a young lady should not be thinking of. Especially a respectful governess who needed to make a good impression.

He had dark hair, straight, brushing his collar in an unkempt way that nonetheless looked utterly dashing. His eyebrows were straight black slashes over his eyes, dark brown, which were intently gazing at her as though he could see to her soul.

And if he could, he knew what she was thinking about him, so that could be problematic.

The sharp planes of his chiseled face were further accentuated by the stubble on his cheeks, giving him an even more dangerous look. The Dangerous Duke sounded like a character from a gothic novel. And he looked like just the sort of man who would lure women to do Dangerous Things.

And I got a new author photo, above, where I look both sorta like myself and yet also not too blotchy and hideous (thank you, photoshop!).

While I wait for revisions, I’ve been reading (as usual), and cleaning, and taking care of things that totally fell by the wayside while I was writing. I am so looking forward to Spring! And plotting out the next book…

Megan

I was crazy about horses growing up, a passion I never really got the chance to put into practice. I’ve ridden a few times at friends’ houses, and on vacation two summers ago my daughter and I went on an hour-long trail ride, but that’s it.

But one of my favorite parts of writing historical romance is getting to be that horse-crazy child again. For my Regency heroes and heroines, horses provide basic transportation. And most of the time, my love for horses finds its way into my characters to one degree or another. James in A Marriage of Inconvenience breeds Arabians. Will and Anna in The Sergeant’s Lady both get a chance to ride a beautiful Spanish mare named Dulcinea.

My current WIP is set in America in 1815, so I did a little research into whether familiar American breeds of today like the Quarter Horse, the American Saddlebred, the Tennessee Walker, and the Morgan existed yet. And for the most part the answer was yes, although they weren’t yet firmly codified with breed standards and closed stud books.

Henry, my hero, is an accomplished horseman, fit and athletic. Over the course of my plot, he needs a horse that’s steady and enduring for a long journey, but also fleet-footed and nimble when needed for an action scene. So I decided to put him on a new American horse bred from a mixture of Spanish Barbs and English stock, including Thoroughbreds–a practical, sturdy horse good for everyday riding, but also speedy over short distances. In other words, a Quarter Horse, or as they were known at that early date, a Quarter Running Horse. (The name comes from the short quarter-mile races these horses excelled at.)

The modern Quarter Horse runs the gamut from a beefy, muscle-bound creature shown for looks in halter classes to slender racehorses who greatly resemble Thoroughbreds. I’m picturing Henry’s horse as something like this barrel racer–wiry, compact, and nimble.

My heroine Therese, on the other hand, had neither the necessity nor the opportunity to learn to ride before she has to when called upon to escape cross-country for the “road romance” portion of my plot. So she needs a horse that’s above all else gentle, good-natured, and smooth-gaited. Fortunately for her, there was a horse around in the early 19th century known simply as the “American Horse” noted for its smooth “ambling” gaits. Its modern descendants include the Tennessee Walking Horse, the American Saddlebred, and the Missouri Fox Trotter, so I imagine Therese’s horse as looking a bit like this Fox Trotter:

Are you a horse lover? If you found yourself living in the Regency era, what kind of horse would you ride? Or would you stick to carriages and leave the driving to your trusty coachman?