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Author Archives: Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

About Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Writer (as Amanda McCabe, Laurel McKee, Amanda Carmack), history geek, yoga enthusiast, pet owner!

It is I, Bertram St. James, Regency Time-Traveler Extraordinaire, here to tell you about the deliciously exciting Risky Regencies Treasure Hunt!

Enter now! Answer the six questions that follow, “e-mail” them to the “e-mail address” provided, and you will be entered to win literary treasure!

How do you find the answers to these questions? It is excessively simple. Just search this “blog.” Have delirious fun while doing so. Indeed, become so distracted by all this fun that you almost forget to put on your cravat.

Oh, very well. Having all that fun is not actually a prerequisite for winning. (The prize-winner shall be the entrant with the greatest number of correct answers. If there is a tie, the winner shall be picked at random from those entries which contain the most correct answers.) Of course, anyone finding all six correct answers will have all the fun that I described above — and quite possibly so much more.

The best part of all this? The triumphant winner (who shan’t be paraded by chariot through the streets of Rome crowned with laurel, but really ought to be, if you ask me) will win many books written by the Risky Regencies authors — you are guaranteed at least six free autographed books (personally inscribed with your name) — and most likely more than six. You will also win a variety of delightful Regency-themed or English-themed items, which may include tea, or bookmarks, or who knows what else!

You have through Saturday, Jan 14, 2006 to enter. Email your answers to elailah@yahoo.com (you cannot post your answers on this “blog” for reasons that are so obvious that even I can figure them out).

And the questions (drum roll, please):

  1. If Megan could be any character from a Regency romance, which character would it be?
  2. What is Janet’s favorite museum in the city of Bath?
  3. What Regency era pastry recipe did Elena recreate for her Regency Tea and booksigning?
  4. What product was once marketed to worried consumers when the fear of Grave Robbers was prominent?
  5. Which Jane Austen movie heartthrobs won the top votes in the Risky Regencies poll in each of the three categories: (a) hottest, (b) most loveable, and (c) most marriageable? (You must name the character AND the actor for each!)
  6. What two Christmas novellas did Amanda write for Signet? And which one contains her personal favorite couple of her own creating? (Name the couple for bonus points!)

Best of British luck to you all!

Bertram St. James, Exquisite

Welcome to the Risky Regencies Blog Party! Thanks for coming. Do come in, have a seat, have a glass of claret or a cup of tea.

In addition to mingling with other guests and your six hostesses (and of course me, Bertram St. James, Regency time-traveler extraordinaire), you have the chance to win prizes. Six daily prizes will be awarded, one for each day from Monday through Saturday, with a grand prize at the end of the week to the winner of the Treasure Hunt.

1. To be eligible for a daily prize, just submit a comment on any or all of the posts which appear each day from Monday through Saturday (January 9 through 14). The winning comment will be chosen based on its creativity, originality, or truthfulness — or perhaps on whether it made that day’s hostess snort with laughter.

2. You may continue to comment after the “day” of the post — all comments will be eligible for a prize, as long as they appear before the end of Saturday, January 14.

3. It is possible to win on multiple days.

4. Hedgehogs are eligible for prizes, but only if do not leave footprints in the blog.

5. Information about the Treasure Hunt rules and grand prize appear in the post entitled TREASURE HUNT.

6. Isn’t my waistcoat too beautiful for words?

7. The hostesses and their families are not eligible for prizes, although of course they are allowed to chatter as much as they want. They will anyway.

8. Tea is allowed to post comments as much as it likes, but only if it is real tea. It may have milk in it, or even sugar or honey, or a bit of lemon — but no mango, no vermicelli, no pantheon of primates.

9. All the prize winners will be announced next week — so do check back to see if you’ve won!

10. Gentlemen are encouraged to join in the fun. Bounders and cads, however, are not welcome. (You know who you are.)

11. Questions? Just ask by leaving a comment on this post! (To comment, you will need to be registered with the entity known as “Blogger” or “Blogspot” — but this process is free, and ever so delightful.)

Now, to the party!

Bertie the Beau, Regency Exquisite

Happy Boxing Day, all Risky Regency readers! I hope Santa brought you just what you asked for. 🙂 And I also hope you aren’t quite as brain-fogged as I am, after a weekend of food, drink, and family festivities/quarrels (they are sometimes so hard to tell apart!).

All this week, the Riskies are going to be doing a sort of “year in review” thing. What were some of our favorite reads of 2005? What were some of YOURS? I’m starting off with my own “best of” list. One quick note (or three)–I didn’t count any of the Riskies’ books on my list, because that would have been the whole list. I didn’t count non-romances, contemporary romances, or anything but historicals. And I tried to stick to Regency-set books, but a few others crept in. 🙂

Amanda’s Favorite Historical Romance Reads of 2005 (in no particular order):
1) Susan Carroll’s The Dark Queen and The Courtesan (okay, not Regency-set, but these books were wonderful. Had to count them)
2) Loretta Chase’s Mr. Impossible
3) Myretta Robens’ Once Upon a Sofa
4) Kate Huntington’s To Tempt a Gentleman
5) Cheryl Sawyer’s The Chase
6) Gaelen Foley’s One Night for Sin
7) MJ Putney’s Stolen Magic (possibly the first time I’ve ever read a story where the hero was a unicorn)
8) Shana Abe’s The Smoke Thief (ditto above, only dragons)
9) Barbara Metzger’s Ace of Hearts
10) Liz Carlyle’s The Devil to Pay
11) Diane Perkins’ The Marriage Bargain
12) Jude Morgan’s Passion (breaking my own rule here–this is not really romance, but great historical fiction about women of the Romantic period. I was totally engrossed in this story)
13) I’ve just started reading Julia Justiss’ The Courtesan, but so far it is shaping up to be a great read

And that’s it for 2005! I didn’t read as much romance this year as I have in the past, but most of what I read was great. What were some of your own favorites?

Posted in Reading | 4 Replies



With all the holiday family-togetherness, and talking here about what a Regency Christmas might be like (no crowded malls! no animatronic Santas singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer!), I started considering romances which also feature relationships other than the main, h/h thing. Namely–family relationships.

We do see them a lot. You know, the ones where 30 siblings find their perfect loves in 30 books and have a big, happy reunion at the end of Book #30. My own family gatherings are seldom like this, and I imagine most family gatherings in the Regency weren’t, either. With my own family, someone is always not speaking to someone else. Someone gets drunk and cries and/or shrieks. The dog eats pizza and throws up on the carpet. My cousin’s kid takes his diaper off and runs around naked. You get the picture. It’s not so pretty. Hmm-now that I think about it, family reunions in the Regency probably weren’t like THAT, either. Georgian, maybe. 🙂

But there are books (even ones in mega-series!) that can capture the timeless best of families and friends. Their loyalty, their unconditional love, the way they might pick on you mercilessly but God help any outsider who dares to do the same. Family problems and stories never really get solved–they just go on and on, and we learn to live with them, and they become part of us. Some authors have captured these dynamics so well. Mary Balogh’s “Slightly” series. Mary Jo Putney’s Rogues. Gaelen Foley’s Knights. To name just a very few. (I’m sure I could find more if my shelves weren’t blocked by a Christmas tree and a heap of presents waiting to be wrapped). Jane Austen, of course, was ALL about family dynamics, and no one (with the probable exception of Shakespeare) had a greater grasp on the timeless give- and-take exasperation of relatives.

In my own books, I have lots of friends who have “made” families together, a few sisters, a couple of brothers, a mother or two. An aunt and uncle who are surrogate parents. Strangely, I find it harder to write about brothers than sisters, even though I have no sisters of my own. Families have made my characters who they are. They teach them how to love–or not to love!

What are some of your favorite “family” books or series? Why do you love them? Or hate them?

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged | 6 Replies

Is it Tuesday already???  Wow.  I have been working on two projects lately, plus planning a new one, plus trying to have some summer fun, so the week has really crept up on me.  So…what else have I been thinking about lately?

1) Winners!  The winner from my post last week launching One Naughty Night is…Lisa Wolff!  Email me at amccabe7551 AT yahoo.com with your mailing info and I will get a signed copy mailed out to you ASAP

2) Blogs and reviews.  Both good (yay!) and not-so-good (sad!).  It seems like the first week or so when a book is out brings several of them to my inbox every day.  Yesterday I was at the Grand Central Forever blog talking about how being a theater geek led me to the St. Claire family…

3) Watching “Call Me Maybe” takeoffs on YouTube

4) Which led me to “irrational celebrity hate lists” (not sure how).  We all have at least one, right?  Mine happens to be Kristin Stewart.  Ugh.  She just seems to stomp around looking profoundly angry that designers have thrown free clothes at her…

5) Maybe that means we also have irrational hate lists for character types?  The dotty old dowager?  The ditzy best friend?  Hmm.

6) Reading, of course.  I just finished Amor Towles’s amazing Rules of Civility, and now I can’t decide what to read next.  Any suggestions??

Who is on your irrational celebrity hate list??

 

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