Author Archives: Cara King

What Cara’s Been Doing

Updated on March 12, 2013 by Cara King

To continue this week of updates on what we Riskies have been up to…

CARA PROJECT #1: A light-hearted Regency romance that’s a bit of a Cinderella story. My heroine Ruth (yes, she’s a poor parson’s daughter!) is clever and witty and quite underappreciated. She’s also stuck in the middle of the most lonesome part of Norfolk (full of pretty flint churches, like the Norfolk church pictured here). As she’s a proper young lady, she can’t escape except through marriage:

She could not travel without a husband, and she was not likely to find a husband while living in a nowhere part of England known only as “take the smaller road north from Little Ellingham, pass the village of Ipsham, and stop before you reach a large herd of sheep.”

There were few men in this corner of the world, and most of them owned more canes than teeth. And even if eligible gentlemen ever appeared–if they were lost, for instance–she knew they still wouldn’t want to marry her.

She had sense enough to know that men wanted more than just sense in a wife. They wanted a pretty face and a docile spirit, sparkling conversation and at least some semblance of a bosom.

This project is currently being considered by an editor at a publisher that will remain nameless, lest I jinx myself. (Knock wood, fingers crossed, et cetera.)

CARA PROJECT #2: Another Regency, this novel borders on farce, and is set in Bath, beautiful Bath. (My heroine will of course visit the Upper Rooms, pictured here — the photo’s from the movie of “Persuasion.”) My youthful heroine, Essie, has far more enthusiasm than prudence:

“I shall be so good, you will not even know me! I promise not to gossip, or get into scrapes, or complain about anything. That is, I shall certainly try,” she amended, recalling that she was also not to make promises she could not keep.

If the aforementioned publisher buys Project 1, then they will hopefully want Project 2 as well — which will be a lot of fun to write. (It’s only just begun, as the song says…)

CARA PROJECT #3: I have a young adult novel — partly a romance — that I am currently shopping about. This is about the adventures of a high school student who starts dating a college guy — and not just your average college guy, but an engineering student at a nearby technical college.

You could hardly call me cute. Stick-figure skinny is more like it. You ever heard of those things called breasts? Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, my knowledge is entirely theoretical. It’s not like I’ve ever actually owned a pair.

( You may notice that this heroine has a similar problem to Ruth in Project #1! Ah, the concerns that span the ages…)

CARA PROJECT #4: I have begun a new young adult novel, this one with a paranormal twist. I can’t say any more — my muse has sworn me to secrecy…

Well, that’s (most of) what I’m up to, barring a few science fiction short stories, and a play I want to write. (What was that? Did someone say I’m writing in too many genres? No, surely not.) 🙂

Well, here’s a question for those of you who’ve actually read this far (or just skipped to the end): what young adult novels (if any) did you love when you were a teen? (Or which do you love now, if you are a teen, or if you’re still reading YA, as I am?)

Cara
Cara King — www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Booksellers’ Best Finalist for Best Regency of 2005!

Author Updates

Updated on March 12, 2013 by Cara King

Ah, writing. Not always the smoothest-sailing of careers, but one that has many perks — such as an excuse to put a picture of Wentworth in one’s blog post, because he’s writing, and therefore not off-topic at all.

With the demise of Signet and Zebra’s traditional Regency lines, most of their Regency authors had decisions to make regarding their futures. (Certain course changes were made, some large, some small). Santa recently asked what we Riskies were each working on now, and what certain other Regency authors were currently writing. (Answers are coming, Santa!)

This made me wonder — are there any other particular Signet or Zebra Regency authors that any of you are curious about? We Riskies are exceedingly well-connected — we all have vouchers for Almack’s, after all (although I’m not sure how certain persons got one — I suspect blackmail was involved). So if you all let us know which traditional Regency authors you want updates on, we can use our extensive networks of spies and informants to obtain this information for you.

So — which authors do you want updates on? Please share!

Cara

Posted in Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged Signet Regency authors, Zebra Regency authors | 3 Replies

Cara’s signing!

Updated on March 9, 2013 by Cara King

Well, here I am in Regency dress at last weekend’s signing! (I’m not sure why the picture’s so blurry — sorry!) On the down side, I never got my hair right — it looks totally non-Regency (the curl fell out — surprise surprise).

On the up side, I found some cool gloves at the last minute (though they really ought to extend to above the elbow, of course, which they don’t — in fact, they almost look like wrist-length gloves here, they’ve slid down so far) and my nice fan (which Todd painted for me, also at the last minute). Kind chapter-mates in LARA (Los Angeles Romance Authors, my local RWA chapter) tied me into my dress. And also bought some of my books. I love LARA!

There were eight other authors signing, and it was a lot of fun! We chatted and bought each other’s books and joked about copy-editing mistakes and had a great time. And the signing went by so fast that before I got a chance to buy everyone’s books that I meant to, everyone had gone! (Well, that’s what I get for spending too much time fussing with my pens and chocolate and gloves and hair, and trying to fish out the bobby pins that kept falling down my bodice.) 🙂

If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see some little rectangles lined up next to my book — those are the Regency chocolates that I gave away. Okay, they aren’t actually Regency chocolates — such did not exist, after all! — they’re Hershey’s Miniatures, covered with Regency pictures. Todd designed them, and they turned out fantastic! Milk chocolate bore the picture of my heroine’s face, dark chocolate had her playing cards, and the other two flavors had miscellaneous Regency-era pictures.

So, here are today’s questions:

1) If you’re an author, and someone asks you to sign your book for them, do you write something inane in the front of it, wishing you could think of something clever to write? Or do you write something clever? Or what? Or are you too experienced or too sensible to worry about these things??? (Is it just me???)

2) If you’re a reader (and we’re all readers, even those of us who are also writers), have you ever met an author you admire and said something inane while trying to say something clever? (Or is it just me???) 🙂

Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER — finalist for the Booksellers’ Best Award for Best Regency of 2005

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged book signings | 13 Replies

Cara’s signing on Sunday

Updated on March 8, 2013 by Cara King

If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area this Sunday, June 11, you might want to stop by the Encino Barnes and Noble sometime between 12:30 and 2 pm, when ten different authors will be signing their books — including me, Cara! The signing also features Christie Ridgway, Elda Minger, Charlotte Maclay, and a lot of other authors, who will be signing books that range from Regency (me) to chick-lit to mystery to category romance, and more!

There will be lots of fun, free chocolate, great books, and maybe even me in Regency costume. 🙂

More info is at: www.losangelesromanceauthors.com. The store is on the corner of Ventura Blvd and Hayvenhurst, in the Valley, for sure! (I can make that joke, by the way, because I’m a native Valley Girl. So it’s okay. Honest.)

Cara
Cara King — author of MY LADY GAMESTER — which is really good, honest, read it, you’ll like it

Posted in Risky Book Talk | Tagged book signings, My Lady Gamester | 6 Replies

Things Cara drank in England

Updated on March 1, 2013 by Cara King

Because I am jet-lagged, this post will be weird. I apologize in advance.

I’m having my morning tea right now. This will hopefully help my jet-lag. (I just returned from England, which means an eight-hour time difference). Plus, the night before the flight, I only got about three hours sleep. Why? Tea. I had a lovely afternoon tea at Richoux in London, but I guess the afternoon caffeine was too much for my system. So tea hurteth, and tea cureth. Tea giveth, and tea taketh away.

Did I mention this post will be weird? Yes, it’s a tour of things Cara drank while in England. Or, in some cases, didn’t drink.

When I was in England, I drank a lot of cider. I love hard cider. I don’t know why. I can’t drink wine (it gives me migraines.) I hate beer. I never liked hard liquor. But cider is just beautiful. Cider dances in the brain and on the tongue.

I did say I was weird today, right???

Speaking of things Cara didn’t drink…

On the flight back, for some reason the flight attendants tried to dehydrate me. And this was on Virgin Atlantic, which in that past I’ve always been very impressed by!!! But this time, instead of coming around frequently to give us liquids to drink, they instead came around with food accompanied by NOTHING to drink. No water. No soda. No nothing. And no liquids in between. They did this multiple times. I still have the headache.

So, what gives, Virgin Airlines??? Did you suddenly decide that water costs too much???

I did complain. The flight attendants took this as a personal criticism (which I found very odd) and just told me that there was water in the galley. They told me this eight hours into the flight. Telling me this earlier would have been nice. And they never did tell me where the galley was. Or explain the logic behind giving one a tray full of food, and then expecting one to somehow get up (which is impossible with the tray table down, of course — and where am I supposed to put the food???) and get water from the galley. And if we all did this, think of the chaos!!! No, not a workable system.

And so I say again: what gives, Virgin Atlantic??? Are you trying to make me switch my loyalties to British Airways or American Airlines, despite your cool seatback entertainment systems with twenty movies to choose from??? Because it’s working. Watching movies is cool, but having no headache is still cooler.

Cara (who had a very good time in England, actually)

Posted in Research | Tagged cider, tea | 10 Replies