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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!

Amanda is taking Tuesday off for a little pre-4th of July picnic prep, but Michelle Willingham is filling in with a post about Scotland and her exciting new release, Tempted By The Highland Warrior!!  Comment for a chance to win a copy.  See you next week…

Visiting Scotland for Research
When I was contracted to write a Highlander series, I knew I had to visit Scotland. In my mind, I envisioned tartan-clad heroes riding across the hills, with their claymores drawn. I pictured William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and of course, the eternal Highlander as we drove on those narrow, winding roads.

It’s a stunning land, full of wild beauty. But during our days there, it rained every single day. At the time, I was a little frustrated. I had wanted to hike through the mountains of Glencoe, seeing the mountains in all their glory. Instead, I saw fog and clouds, blocking our view. Our windshield wipers got a great workout, and every time we stopped the car to take a picture, both of us were fighting off the rain.

But when the rain stopped and the mists rose, the landscape left behind was breathtaking. It was a haunting place where I could feel the stories. We visited the infamous Loch Ness (and yes, I did look for the Loch Ness Monster like everyone else), but what drew my eye was Urquhart Castle. Although there were fortifications there as early as 460 AD, the first castle was likely built in the 13th century. It was there during the time of William Wallace and it provided the perfect research location on what a castle might look like during the era I was researching.
As you approach the main gate, there was once a portcullis to counteract the effects of a battering ram. Two guard towers were on either side, and a small deck made of timber allowed the defenders to pour hot oil on the invaders or attack from above.
Inside, although the floors have all rotted away, you can see the upper floor was divided into several rooms, one of which was used as a banquet all to serve honored guests. Music and feasting were part of the tradition of Urquhart Castle, which were held by the Comyn, Durward, Gordon, and Grant families. Boats could travel along Loch Ness, bringing news to the castle inhabitants or bringing items to trade.
The castle was captured by Edward I of England in 1296 and was transferred through different families until it was almost destroyed in 1609 by Williamite forces who were holding the castle against the Jacobites. By destroying it themselves, they ensured that it wouldn’t fall into enemy hands (a strange move, but one that worked). It remained a ruin and is now owned by the state.
When I was writing my MacKinloch Clan series, Urquhart Castle provided a wonderful inspiration for the settings of the different books. My newest release, Tempted by the Highland Warrior features a mute Highlander who grew up as a prisoner-of-war. He’s in love with Lady Marguerite de Montpierre, the daughter of the Duc D’Avignois. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story of two lovers who are worlds apart and try desperately to be together.
Today I’m giving away a signed copy of the book (or Kindle if you prefer) to one lucky commenter. Just tell me— what’s the weather like in your part of the world?
Learn more about Michelle Willingham’s books by visiting her website at: http://www.michellewillingham.comor interact with her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/michellewillinghamfans) or Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/michellewilling)

ByronSo I am taking a little break between working on the WIP and looking at pics of Michelle Obama’s clothes to wish Lord Byron a happy birthday!  He was born on this day in 1788, which would make him–225.  I doubt very much he would like the idea of being quite so old and no doubt very decrepit by now….

Here is one of my favorite of his poems, Stanzas for Music (I think I just really love those opening lines).  What are some of your own favorites??

 

There be none of Beauty’s daughters

 With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
       Is thy sweet voice to me:
When, as if its sound were causing
The charmed ocean’s pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lull’d winds seem dreaming:
   And the midnight moon is weaving
       Her bright chain o’er the deep;
Whose breast is gently heaving,
       As an infant’s asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee,
To listen and adore thee;
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell of Summer’s ocean.

 

Posted in Regency | 1 Reply

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday last week.  I ate too much junk food and drank too many weirdly concocted cocktails, but I think I have recovered now…

At the moment I am 1) working on a new Regency-set romance for Harlequin.  It’s been a while since I dipped into the Regency world, and this is a new sort of story for me (a marriage-in-trouble plot) so I am enjoying it! and 2) I am researching and plotting the first in my new Elizabethan-set mystery series for NAL! (I have a new pen name too–Amanda Carmack).  The catalyst for the story is the death of Lady Jane Grey.  Even though my story starts in 1557, on the eve of Elizabeth becoming queen, I’ve had to research Jane’s tragedy as well.  And I found out that today, July 10, in 1553, she began her short-lived reign.

Jane was born in 1536 or ’37, the eldest of 3 daughters of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and his wife Lady Frances Brandon (the daughter of Henry VIII”s sister Mary, dowager Queen of France, and her husband Henry Brandon).  Jane was very well-educated, speaking Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as modern languages like Italian and French.  She was a devout and committed Protestant, corresponding with European theologians like Bullinger.  She would prefer to hide away with her books rather than join in her party-loving family’s ways, and often complained about her strict upbringing (like in this letter to Roger Ascham):


“For when I am in the presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand or go, eat, drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing anything else, I must do it as it were in such weight, measure and number, even so perfectly as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips and bobs and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) … that I think myself in hell.”

But her quiet life wouldn’t last.  On May 21, 1553 she was married against her will to Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland (King Edward’s chief advisor).  Her sister Katherine was also married to Lord Herbert, heir to the Earl of Pembroke, and Guildford’s sister Katherine to Henry Hastings, heir to Earl of Huntingdon.  It was a lavish ceremony, and widely perceived to be a consolidation of power since things were about to change.

In the Third Act of Succession, passed by Henry VIII and Parliament in 1544, Henry restored his “illegitimate” daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the succession, after his young son Edward.  But in 1553 Edward knew he was dying.  He was a devout Protestant like Jane, and his ardently Catholic sister Mary was his heir.  He drafted his will to leave the throne to the descendants of his aunt Mary (ie Frances and her daughters), and it was signed by 102 nobles.  Edward intended to have this declaration passed when Parliament met again in September, but he died July 6.  His death was kept a secret until Jane was told she was queen on July 9 (legend has it she wept and refused), and was taken to the Tower with her husband and officially proclaimed queen to the bewildered public on July 10.

But her claim was weak from the start.  (Legal experts of the time said a king could not contravene an Act of Parliament without passing a new one.  Plus it was pretty clear Henry’s daughter should have precedence over his great-niece).  Northumberland also made a key miscalculation when he didn’t move fast enough to capture Mary.  After years of living quietly (except for bitter quarrels with her brother over religion), she surprised everyone by escaping and putting up a stiff fight.  She was helped by the fact that the public saw her as the rightful heir, and the tide quickly turned against Queen Jane.  Mary was proclaimed queen on July 19 among much rejoicing, she entered London on August 3, and Northumberland was executed on August 22.

Mary at first was merciful to her cousin, and even released Jane’s father.  It was thought that eventually Jane would be released as well, and left to live a quiet country life with her books.  Until the Wyatt rebellion, which used Jane as a figurehead and which her father foolishly supported.  Jane was executed on February 12, 1554, a deeply sad day which sets in motion the plot of my own book…

Jane became a romantic legend after this, a Protestant martyr and “sweet young thing” (though many of her letters show that she was a pretty normal, though very precocious, sulky adolescent).  For more info on her short, complicated life, I really liked Eric Ives’s Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery (2009) and Leanda de Lisle’s The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey (2008).  Jane’s sisters had equally sad lives, trapped by their situations of birth into unhappiness.

Are you interested in Jane’s sad life?  Who are some of your heroines this summer??

Posted in Research | Tagged | 2 Replies

So my big news this week is–I am engaged!!!  No plans are set in stone yet, but we’re thinking something small in December, so something with a “winter wonderland” sort of theme.  White flowers, sparkles, maybe a fur stole, stuff like that.  (He says I just have to tell him when and where to show up and what to wear, the rest is up to me.  I hope he will not rue those words).

If you have read any of my Risky posts in the past, you probably know what my #1 concern is–the dress.  There are so many inspirations out there, I think it will be hard to narrow it all down!  There are Georgian gowns:

Victorian gowns:

Regency gowns (like these belonging to Princess Charlotte and Betsey Bonaparte):

1920s gowns:

1950s gowns:

Royal gowns (including American royalty like Jackie Kennedy!):

And modern gowns I can’t afford, like this Oscar de la Renta:

I will choose one soon, I’m sure (mainly because there isn’t much time to waffle!), and in the meantime I am pinning these on my Pinterest boards.

What did you wear at your wedding?  What suggestions do you have for me??  (and watch for historical info on rings, bouquets, cakes, etc in the near future…)

Posted in Research | Tagged , | 17 Replies

Diamonds Are Forever

Outrageous Confessions of Lady Deborah, my latest release, is what I would call a Regency with a definite twist. My heroine writes hugely popular erotic novels for a living. I know, I know but I had the idea for this book long before THAT book went viral. Elliot, my hero, is a soldier turned housebreaker. They meet when Elliot falls off a drainpipe while making his escape after robbing a country house, and lands on Deborah who is wandering the grounds in the middle of the night. If you want to know why she is doing this I’m afraid you’ll have to read the book. Anyway, the loot that Elliot has snaffled is a blue diamond, rectangular in shape and strangely faceted, at about one hundred carats, half the size of the original from which it was cut. Elliot’s ill-gotten booty is in fact part of the stolen French crown jewels.
Louis XIV acquired the French Blue stone in 1678. He had the diamond cut and set in gold, and wore it around his neck. The next Louis had the diamond reset again and turned it into the Order of the Golden Fleece, which the next Louis, the unfortunate XVI wore only occasionally. In 1792, while Louis and Marie-Antoinette were awaiting their fate, the French crown jewels were stolen. Most of the pieces were recovered, but the French Blue disappeared without trace.
I first read about this diamond when I was researching for my last book, Rake with a Frozen Heart. I abandoned the overly-complex crime caper which was originally at the centre of that story, but I filed away my research. Then Elliot, my housebreaker hero, popped into my mind, and I remembered the French Blue story. Waste not, want not, as my gran was fond of saying (usually when trying to make me clear my plate!).
According to legend, the French Blue turned up in England in the early part of the Nineteenth century. Some say it was cut into two before it left France, some that it was never stolen but appropriated by the revolutionary Danton, who used it to bribe the Duke of Brunswick, and that it was he who had it cut.

Caroline, Brunswick’s daughter, was the despised wife of the Prince Regent. So appalled was Prinny by her lack of personal hygiene that he managed to force himself to do his marital duty just the once.
The prince was not generous to poor Caroline, who was forced to sell many of her jewels in order to support herself, and it has been argued that the French Blue was one of them. In 1812, there is evidence that a jeweller called Daniel Eliason owned a diamond which resembled the French Blue. Did he buy it from Caroline, or from one of the original thieves? Strangely enough, there is evidence that Caroline’s husband, the Prince Regent, also had a diamond very similar to the French Blue. Was this the other half or the original? What we do know is that diamond disappeared when the prince, by this time King George IV, died.

Outrageous Confessions of Lady Deborah is set in 1817. I have chosen to believe that the original French Blue diamond was cut in half by the French thieves, and that Deborah’s relative from whom Elliot steals it, acquired it by nefarious means from them. The ‘real’ French Blue, which is known as the Hope Diamond, has had a chequered path through history, with a reputation for bringing death or tragedy to its wearer. Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV was reputed to have been torn to pieces by wild dogs. Louis himself died of a festering wound. Louis XVI, as we know, ended up on the guillotine. Various owners have been murdered, died in freak accidents, or committed suicide, though since it was donated to the Smithsonian, where it now resides, the curse has lain dormant. For Elliot, it’s a lucky stone, because it brings him Deborah. The path of true love is by no means straightforward for my hero and heroine, but it’s fun, sexy, and ultimately rewarding journey.

Do you believe in lucky charms? What’s yours? I have a signed copy of Deborah and Elliot’s story to give away. Just leave a comment for a chance to win. 

Outrageous Confessions of Lady Deborah is out now in the UK, US and Canada. Here is the blurb:
JUST WHO IS LADY DEBORAH? I am the Dowager Countess of Kinsail, and I have enough secrets to scandalise you for life. I will never reveal the truth of my soul-destroying marriage – some things are too dark to be told. But at least no one can guess that I, a famously icy-hearted widow, am also the authoress of the shamelessly voluptuous romances currently shocking the ton…! Only now I have a new secret identity, one that I will risk my life to keep – accomplice to Elliot Marchmont, gentleman, ex-solider and notorious London thief. This adventurer’s expert touch ignites in me a passion so intoxicating that surviving our blistering affair unscathed will be near impossible…
And here’s what the Romantic Timessaid about it when they gave it four stars:
Daring. Dangerous. Delightful. Kaye’s new Regency romance is a riveting and thrilling adventure between a writer and a thief, both bent on revenge, and neither expecting to find love at last. Kaye has another winner on her hands, with an original plot, lots of sizzling passion and enough nail-biting action to satisfy every fan.
There’s excerpts, background and more about my books on www.margueritekaye.com.
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