“A keen sense of the era and delightful characters that keep readers coming back for more!” –RT Book Reviews on An Accidental Countess

The Riskies are happy to welcome back Michelle Willingham, to talk to us about her new direction–into the Victorian era! We’ll have three winners this weekend, as Michelle is giving away copies of The Accidental Countess, The Accidental Princess, and a free download of her Undone story An Accidental Seduction!

Riskies: Welcome back, Michelle! You have your Victorian hat on this time. Tell us about your new series…

Michelle: Every author has a “book of her heart,” and for me that was The Accidental Countess! I kept beating down publisher’s doors, trying to sell my first Irish medieval, and in the meantime I wrote a more traditional setting of Victorian England. So The Accidental Countess was technically the second book I ever wrote. I kept trying to sell it, but the heroine was a little too “snarky” for many folks. She was a joy to write, and how often do you get a heroine who considers poisoning the hero on the first page because he forgot he was married to her? I had far too much fun. I wrote it for myself and didn’t worry about the rules. I simply wanted to be entertained. I didn’t have a clue who the villain was until the last chapter, and I think that made the suspense plot believable. It took me selling another 4 books before I offered Countess to Harlequin, and even then my editor wanted to hold off on the release date. She asked me to write a connecting book which became The Accidental Princess. I knew the heroine of Countess had a sister, but she was off at finishing school and I didn’t know much about her. I decided to do a secret royalty story, along the lines of a Gothic romance. I wanted a true fairy tale with a possible prince and a woman who was trapped in the rigid life of a Victorian lady. Since neither heroine ever dreamed she would become a Princess or a Countess, that’s how the “Accidental” part was born!

Last, my editor wanted me to write a connected novella for the Harlequin Historical Undone line. I ended up writing a prequel, telling how the hero and heroine in Countess actually got married, and that was the story of An Accidental Seduction. The novella has its own happy ending, but then Countess starts about 3 months later, and their marriage is tested to the limit…

Riskies: What was the inspiration for these books?

Michelle: The Accidental Countess reminds me a bit of The Bourne Identity with a hero who doesn’t know what happened during 3 months of his life. Unfortunately, he happened to elope during that period, and he remembers nothing about his wife! The story is about falling in love all over again. The Accidental Princess was inspired by all the Victoria Holt fairytale romances I read as a teenager, and it’s a Cinderella reversal where the hero is a common soldier who may or may not be a prince. I was able to incorporate elements of Titanic with the developing romance continuing on board a steam ship bound for Germany. I loved researching the interiors of Victorian steam ships, and they were incredibly luxurious with chandeliers, ballrooms, and promenade decks.

Riskies: I love the recipes on your website! (especially the yummy-sounding sugar gingerbread). How does that fit into the story?

Michelle: The heroine of Countess is a Cinderella figure whose family suffered through poverty, and she had to cook for the family in order to survive. In the book, I wanted to include some of Emily’s recipes, so I consulted some historical cookbooks, made some of my own changes, and tested some of the recipes. It was fun, and I ended up finding a favorite gingerbread recipe for Christmas as a result! Technically the title is “Molasses Cookies” but there’s a tablespoon of ginger in the recipe, so that makes it a perfect gingerbread cookie dough. The recipes are here on my website!

Riskies: What other research did you have to do? Was it a challenge to change gears from the Medieval era to the Victorian?

Michelle: The etiquette and clothing of Victorian England are completely different from Medieval times! Also, I found the pacing of the romance was very different–more subtle, but it could definitely be scandalous in its own way! Out of all the research I really enjoyed learning about steam ships the most (used in The Accidental Princess). I visited the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia and asked for primary source photographs of ships from 1855. I used The Great Eastern ship as a model for my boat. Although my ship was only traveling from London to Bremerhaven, in my mind it could also make transatlantic voyages. Okay, so there was a little creative license there, but I wanted the more luxurious interiors!

Riskies: These covers are gorgeous! Do they reflect the stories?

Michelle: It’s a good thing I have nothing to do with covers because otherwise there would be stick people on the front! Princess is probably my favorite of the 3, because the heroine truly is a strong woman. I love the expression on her face, as though she’s already behaving like a princess. Countess had a bit of controversy surrounding the cover. Originally, the woman was lifting her skirt and baring her stocking. The art department ended up nixing the scandalous leg, and I’m glad. I like the gorgeous dresses! Overall, I would say they’re a good representation of the stories.

Riskies: What’s next for you?

Michelle: In September this year, my last book in the MacEgan Brothers miniseries will be published. Surrender to the Irish Warrior tells the story of Trahern MacEgan, and it was the most challenging book I’ve ever written. The heroine is the survivor of a brutal tragedy, and the two of them have to heal their broken lives and find love in each other. It took a lot of emotional energy out of me, but in the end I think it came out well.

Thanks so much for letting me visit again! I’d like to offer 3 prizes today–a free download of An Accidental Seduction, and signed copies of The Accidental Princess and The Accidental Countess. For a chance to win, just post a comment or a question and tell me what’s your favorite fairytale?

(Warning: this is going to be a post that depends a lot on you, because I am interested to see what everyone thinks!) Often when I’m wasting my time, er, doing valuable research online I love to read blogs about fashion, beauty products, opera and ballet, jazz, all sorts of things, and I especially love blogs about movies. (Even though this means my Netflix account is totally out of control because of it). One of my favorite movie blogs is the Self Styled Siren, a wonderfully witty and intelligent look at classic movies. She recently had a fascinating post called “Unearthing the Uncool”.

This post started with a statement the Siren made on Facebook: “It is much easier to proclaim dislike for a popular movie than to admit liking an uncool movie,” which sparked a fascinating stream of comments and proclamations of love for movies and actors that are generally deemed “uncool.” (For instance, the Siren defends the 1940 Pride and Prejudice, stuff like Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Stewart Granger, and, gasp!, even Kevin Costner). I myself have a deep and abiding love for movie musicals, like The Sound of Music, Brigadoon, and Camelot, that others often hoot at derisively. (you know who you are, haters!). I know this is also true in literary fiction, and that in mysteries some sub-genres are looked at as “cooler” than others, so I started to wonder if this could apply to romance novels. We definitely don’t seem to have that “cool”/”uncool” divide that movies do, though I suppose there are genres or authors that have a cooler reputation than others. Is it “cool” to admit to liking old-skool stuff like Whitney My Love? (I think I just came to reading historicals too late, when tastes had changed, to get into them. I had very different romantic fantasies). Is it “uncool” to admit we can’t really get into, say, urban fantasy, which seems very cool (as I mostly can’t, much as I want to!)?

Traditional Regencies certainly used to be “uncool,” considered by some to be dry books for stereotypical grannies (I had someone tell me once I couldn’t possibly write them, I looked too young! Which was flattering, of course, but kinda made me want to get all lecture-y on them about the intelligence and variety of trads. Ditto for a friend of my mine who ONE TIME read a Regency, didn’t like it–even though she couldn’t remember the title–and decided they were all like that one). But now that they’re obscure and out-of-print and all that, maybe they’re like some little indie band out of Austin. And on some book blogs there are often threads like “books you like that no one else has read” or “books everyone liked that you hated,” which I guess can be sort of like cool/uncool. Mostly, though, romance genres seem to be pretty much anything goes. If I don’t like something, someone else will, and vice versa, and I like it that way. The variety is what makes it fun.

So I am sending it to you! Do you think there is that “coolness” factor in romance fiction? If so, what would it be? And what movies do you love that others make fun of?

(p.s. I have not seen that movie The Enchanted Cottage, but I totally want to! I mean, look at that poster. People were whispering about them! The whole town!)

One thing I love about February around here is that it’s big book sale month! There are 3 library sales (one is HUGE), and a couple private schools (which also include bake sales, yum). I always find treasures at these sales (even if they’re just treasures to me!), and it’s so much fun to dig around on the tables and in boxes, never knowing what’s going to show up. I already hit one sale last weekend, and found almost a complete set of Will Durant’s Story of Civilization (for $1 a volume!), stuff like The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance and Life in Medieval France, as well as oddities like an intriguing memoir called Love is a Mix Tape, a book of watercolors of Louisiana plantation houses from the 1950s, and some Heyer hardbacks in like-new condition. And this isn’t even the BIG library sale (which is on February 20).

I also like February because it’s Valentine’s Day, which means more stuff about romance novels in papers and magazines, and lots and lots of chocolate in the stores. It’s also release month for me this year, and not just Countess of Scandal! If you’re in the UK, Harlequin is releasing my Renaissance Trilogy in their “Super Historical” line, starting this month with A Notorious Woman. See more about it here…

And yesterday marks the birthday of actor John Philip Kemble, scion of the famous theatrical family and brother of Sarah Siddons! I’ve been fiddling about with a Georgian theater story myself, and thus reading lots about the subject, so this was a nice find. (And thanks to Elena for recommending the book Fashionable Acts! It’s great).

John Philip Kemble was born February 1, 1757 at Prescot in Lancashire, the second child of actor-manager Roger Kemble. His mother was Catholic, and thus he was educated at the Sedgley Park Catholic seminary, and at the English college at Douai, with the expectation that he would become a priest. He found he had no vocation, though, and returned to England to join the theatrical company of Crump and Chamberlain, debuting as the title role of Theodosius at Wolverhampton on January 8, 1776. In 1778 he joined the York company of Tate Wilkinson, making a splash in roles like “Wakefield” in The Recruiting Officer, Macbeth (in Hull on October 30), and in York as “Orestes” in Distresset Mother. In 1781 he obtained a “star” engagement in Dublin, appearing there as Hamlet in November. He was a big hit in Ireland, as Hamlet, Raymond in The Count of Narbonne (a play from Castle of Otranto).

By 1783 his acclaim, along with the immense fame of his sister Mrs. Siddons, landed him an engagement at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he debuted as Hamlet on September 30. His greatest role there was Macbeth, and he also got rave reviews opposite his sister in Edward Moore’s The Gamester. They went on to play together in numerous productions, including Othello, Julia, The Carmelite, and Kemble own adaptation of Philip Massinger’s A Maid of Honor. In 1787 he married the actress (and widow of an actor) Priscilla Hopkins Brereton, and soon after was appointed manager of Drury Lane, which gave him the opportunity to indulge his own vision of the plays they presented (and to take whatever parts he fancied, including a wide variety of Shakespearean characters). He resigned this position in 1802, and in 1803 became manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (which he had bough a sixth share in for a high price). The theater burned in September 1808, and the rise in ticket prices after its re-opening led to the Old Price Riots, which suspended performances for over 3 months and nearly ruined Kemble financially (he was saved by a loan, later made a gift, of 10,000 pounds by the Duke of Cumberland). He retired from the stage after a last performance of his best-known role, Coriolanus, in 1817. He died in Lausanne in 1823.

In 1785, the critic Richard Sharp wrote to his friend, the actor John Henderson, after viewing a performance by Kemble: “I went, as promised to see the new ‘Hamlet,’ whose provincial fame had excited your curiosity as well as mine…yet Nature, though she has been bountiful to him in figure and feature, has denied him a voice; of course he could not exemplify his own direction for the players to ‘speak the speech trippingly on the tongue,’ and now and then he was as deliberate in his delivery as if he had been reading prayers and had waited for the response. He is a very handsome man, almost tall and almost large, with features of a sensible but fixed and tragic cast; his action is graceful, though somewhat formal, which you will find it hard to believe yet it is true. Very careful study appears in all he says and all he does; but there is more singularity and ingenuity than simplicity and fire.”

Some sources for this post I found were:
Herschel Baker, John Philip Kemble: The Actor in His Theater
Linda Kelly, The Kemble Era: John Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons and the London Stage
(And a book I really like, but which is about John Philip Kemble’s great-niece, a stage star in her own right who married an American plantation owner: Fanny Kemble’s Civil Wars, by Catherine Clinton)

What have been some of your best book sale finds?? Seen any good plays lately?

The winner of Countess of Scandal is…Caroline Storer! Please send your snail mail address to laurelmckee7551@yahoo.com to claim your prize….