Author Archives: Diane Gaston

About Diane Gaston

Diane Gaston is the RITA award-winning author of Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical and Mills and Boon, with books that feature the darker side of the Regency. Formerly a mental health social worker, she is happiest now when deep in the psyches of soldiers, rakes and women who don’t always act like ladies.

Culloden Memories

Updated on February 10, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Today marks the 266th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle to be fought on British soil and the battle that ended the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.

In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie gathered forces from Ireland, the Highlands and Lowlands to fight for the restoration of the English monarchy to the Stuarts. His forces, exhausted from a long march and short on rations met those of the Duke of Cumberland on the Culloden Moor on April 16, 1746. The battle was bloody and short, lasting only an hour. The Jacobite forces were decimated, the wounded slaughtered, and the survivors hunted down, imprisoned and executed. This harsh treatment of the enemy earned the Duke of Cumberland the name of “The Butcher.”

Bonnie Prince Charlie was pursued throughout Scotland with a price on his head of £30,000, but he managed to escape and make his way back to France. Subsequent to the battle, efforts were made to break up the clan system and highland dress was forbidden.

Ironically, it was a visit by George IV in 1822 that would restore a sense of Scottish identity and unify the Highlanders and Lowlanders in the common symbol of the kilt and tartan.

During the Regency there would still be a few people alive who endured the battle first-hand and others whose grandparents or parents were alive then. I wonder what the Regency era aristocracy knew of the battle. Did they think of it as we might WWII? What did the Scots think? Did they harbor resentment for what happened 60 years before?

I suspect for the Scots, emotions about the battle still ran high. A few years ago I mentioned to two friends of mine, both of Scottish descent and both writing Scottish Historicals, that my great great paternal grandmother was a Campbell. Well, this did not impress them at all. It turns out that the Campbells fought on the English side of the Battle of Culloden. My friends still considered them traitors.

What do you think Regency era Englishmen and Scots thought about each other and about the battle?

(Take a peek at my new bookcover and enter my website contest!)

The Death of Lord Byron

Updated on February 10, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Last week marked the 188th anniversary of Lord Byron‘s death on April 19, 1824, in Missolonghi, Greece.

Byron had sailed to Greece to lend his support to the fight for Greek independence. Byron used some of his own funds for the rebel forces and even assumed command of part of the rebel army even though he had no military experience. Before the expedition could sail for the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, Byron fell ill. He was treated with bloodletting, as was the treatment of the day, and he probably contracted sepsis from the unsterilized equipment. On this date he died of a violent fever.

One wonders why Byron embarked on this trip to Greece in the first place. Did he fancy himself a rebel hero, able to lead armies to victory? Was it ego? Or was it a genuine desire to help, like Sean Penn in Haiti or George Clooney in the Sudan, Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck for the Congo?

After Byron’s death his friends commissioned a statue which they wanted to place in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. The Abbey refused it, due to Byron’s notorious reputation, as did the British Museum and other places. The statue finally found a place in Trinity College’s Wren Library where it stands today.

I think of Byron as the first superstar. In 1814 his poem, The Corsair, sold ten thousand copies on the first day; twenty-five thousand in the first month and this was without the internet!!!! He received hundreds of letters from women fans, including some that invited sexual encounters. Just like fans today, the women rhapsodized about his portrait as well as his poems.

I think my 19th century ink drawing (shown here) is of Byron and I like to fancy that a lovesick fan drew it.

Many of Byron’s fan letters allude to understanding his wounded soul. A man with a dark side greatly in need of reforming became known as a Byronic hero. We still adore such heroes in our romance novels today, don’t we?

No matter what one might think of his character, Byron was a great poet, deserving of the lasting fame his work has achieved.
An example:

So We’ll Go No More A-roving
By Lord Byron

So, We’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have a rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

If you had been a young Regency lady, do you think you would have been one of Byron’s swooning fans? Do you have a favorite Byron poem or a favorite line from a Byron poem?

Don’t forget to enter my new contest for a chance to win the Diamonds of Welbourne Manor series!

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged Lord Byron | 6 Replies

Guest Author! Anne Gracie and The Autumn Bride

Updated on February 10, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Diane here to welcome back fabulous Australian author Anne Gracie who is here to talk about her latest, The Autumn Bride. Anne is the award-winning author of Regency Historical Romance (and a few others).

Anne and I have mutual friends in Australia. When her first book, A Gallant Waif, was a RITA finalist in 2000, and Anne came to the Romance Writers of America conference, we were supposed to meet and have a little chat, but we kept missing each other. It was only on the last day we managed a quick hello.

I’m delighted to have Anne as our guest today and to manage a “virtual” chat about The Autumn Bride, which has received some wonderful reviews.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly starred review: Gracie . . . charms and entices with this launch of the Regency-era Chance Sisters series. . . . Layers of secrets and deft characterization make for a deep, rich story that will leave readers starry-eyed.

Romantic Times, 4 1/2 stars: Readers will want to take a a chance on this delightful, heartwarming series about sisters of the heart, family, friends, and the fun and passion of romance. Gracie lifts readers’ spirits, creating a delightful cast of characters, tender moments and lighthearted repartee designed to tug at the heart. Keep a hankie handy for tears of laughter and joy.

Nightowl Reviews: I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a book quite this much. . . . I predict The Autumn Bride is going to be “THE” book to add to the TBR list of Historical Romance fans everywhere.

Giveaway

Anne will be giving away a copy of The Autumn Bride to one lucky commenter chosen at random.

Interview

1. Welcome, Anne. Tell us about The Autumn Bride.

This is the first book in a series about four young women, all orphans, who come together and form a kind of a family, When their situation goes from bad to worse, Abby, my heroine, climbs through the window of a nearby mansion hoping to find something to steal. Instead she finds a bedridden aristocratic old lady at the mercy of her neglectful, rapacious servants. The four girls move in with Lady Beatrice, pretending to be her nieces and sacking the servants. All goes well until Lady Beatrice’s nephew Max returns after nine years in the Far East. He’s not impressed to find his aunt under the sway of these impostors.

It’s a rags-to-riches, feel-good, fun story with a dark undertow. But mostly it’s about the joy of friendship, second chances, sisterhood — and love.

2. I love the premise and the concept of a hodgepodge family of women coming together. How did you come up with the idea of creating such a family, rather than one with traditional biological ties?

Thanks, Diane, I did have fun with it. And I’m from a family of four siblings, though these days we live very far from each other.

But I often like to write about people who’ve “fallen through the cracks” of Regency society — well born, but cut adrift from society through scandal, poverty, being orphaned, or through some other personal catastrophe. I’ve had a hero who was sent to sea at the age of seven, a heroine who travelled with the army, the son of an English lord who grew up on the streets of Naples, a heroine who grew up on the streets of Cairo, dressed as a boy and lots more. My stories are about their journey back — back to family, and back to the kind of society that should have been their birthright.

I also think that people today can identify with the idea of “sisters of the heart” — or as we say today, girlfriends. I think many of us are closer to our girlfriends than we are to our blood relatives.

Australian Cover

3. What is risky about The Autumn Bride?

There are a few risky things — firstly the hero didn’t make his entrance for quite a few chapters. I was a bit worried that readers wouldn’t like that, but sometimes you have to write the book the way it needs to be written, and I loved the relationship that developed between the four girls and the feisty, bedridden Lady Beatrice. Luckily, a lot of readers feel the same.

Then there was my heroine’s risk when she climbs through the window of a mansion intending to steal, risking hanging or transportation. Here’s an excerpt:

The sash window was stiff, but she managed to push it up some more. She leaned in, listened, checked. Not a sound. A bedchamber. She could see the heavy hangings of the bed, an ornate wardrobe, a dressing table. No sign of life.
She swung one leg over the sill, heaved and she was in. She crouched a moment in the darkness, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, breathing deeply until her racing heart slowed.
Now to seek what she had come for. She crept toward the dressing table.
“Have you come to kill me?” The hoarse whisper coming out of the darkness almost stopped Abby’s heart. She swung around, scanning the room, braced to flee. Nothing moved, only shadows lit by the faint shimmer of moonlight from the windows where she’d pulled back the curtains. No sign of anyone.
“I said, have you come to kill me?” It came from the bed. Sounding more irritated than frightened.
“No, of course not!” Abby whispered back. She tiptoed closer to the bed, straining her eyes in the darkness. What she’d taken for a bundle of clothes piled on the bed was an old woman lying awkwardly, fallen between her pillows, her bedclothes rumpled in a twist.
“You’re a gel. Wearing breeches, but I can still tell you’re a gel.”
“Yes.” Abby waited. If the woman screamed or tried to raise the alarm she’d dive out of the window. It was risky, but better than being hanged or transported.
“You’re not here to kill me?”
“No.”
“Pity.”
Abby blinked. “Pity?”

4. Did you come across any interesting research when writing this book?

Not really — this story is more about characters than facts. Mostly the new research I did was about the district Lady Beatrice and the girls lived in, which centuries before had been a rich area filled with mansions, but in the Regency era was in decline, and starting to be redeveloped. Just like it happens today.

5. What is next for you?

I’m writing the second story in the series, and it’s more conventional in that the hero is on the page from the start. But the community of characters that’s in the first book is continuing, too. I really love the world of this story and I’m having a lot of fun with it.

Thanks Diane for letting me come and play with the Riskies.
Here’s a question for readers: “Is there anyone in your life that you consider ‘family’ even if they aren’t?”

I’ll give a copy of The Autumn Bride to one lucky commenter.

Diane here again. Anne will be back to answer any questions and to respond to comments, but, remember, she’ll be sleeping part of the time we’ll be awake, because she’s on the other side of the world!

Posted in Giveaways, Interviews | Tagged Anne Gracie, The Autumn Bride | 39 Replies

Another Retreat…

Updated on February 9, 2013 by Diane Gaston

I’m just getting caught up on Risky Regencies posts (and everything else), because I, like Elena, have been to a Retreat. Mine was more conference-like–Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat, always titled In The Company of Writers.

The WRW Retreat is more conference-like, because there are workshops and speakers but it is also retreat-like, because we dress casually and the number of attendees stays small, about 110 this year. No paddling on a lake, like Elena could do, but lots and lots of mixing with friends, old and new.

As in other years, the agents and editors attending are always asked what is selling these days; what is hot.

Contemporaries, especially small town stories and romances, are doing well, apparently. But all agreed that a good book will find its home and as soon as someone declares something won’t sell, a wonderful book will burst out and become the next big trend. They said it was much more important to feel passionate about the book you are writing than to try to write to trends.

One of the editors said that Regency remains an appeal because readers feel they know the time period and are comfortable there.

Mary Jo Putney talked about her 29 years in publishing and about her return to the Regency genre after writing some contemporaries, fantasies, and YA. Mary Jo also very much advocated writing what you are passionate about and, in the past, she took some big chances with her career to do just that.

What I took away from all this, was how important it is to write a book you are passionate about, no matter what the genre or subgenre.

Speaking of Mary Jo, she said her new release, No Longer A Gentleman, is on bookstore shelves. If you’ve purchased the book before today, check to see if page 362 is missing. A printing error left out page 362 in the first printed books. Ebooks are complete. Go to Mary Jo’s website for the text of the missing page.

Speaking of subgenres. Amanda’s blog yesterday was posted late. Go there and read all about The Taming of The Rogue, Amanda’s latest. Look at its fabulous cover and post a comment for a chance to win a signed copy!

What do you think? Can you tell if the author is passionate about the book you are reading?

Come to Diane’s Blog on Thursday for more about the WRW Retreat.

Posted in Writing | Tagged Mary Jo Putney, writers' retreat | 3 Replies

My Buddy

Updated on February 9, 2013 by Diane Gaston

I am just starting my next book and am in that situation where the plot is rudimentary and still fluid. I can keep or change any of my plot elements or my characters.

This is a gaming hell story, a gaming hell being a private and illegal establishment for the purpose of card-playing and other games of chance such as Hazard, a dice game, and Faro, a game of chance which does use cards. You can read more about gambling in Regency England here.

In writing the first chapter, I realized (through the suggestion of my brilliant writing friends, Darlene Gardner and Lisa Dyson) that I needed more….I needed to give my hero a buddy.

How did we realize this? In my first draft of my first chapter, my hero thought back to an incident in his past, but that passage put the reader in his thoughts for too long and it slowed down the pace. We realized it would be better if he could tell someone about this incident and that’s how the idea of giving him a friend came about.

The friend character serves a useful purpose in Romance for this very reason. The friend gives the hero or heroine someone to talk to, so that information can be given to the reader in an interesting, natural way.

Michael Hauge (Story Mastery) calls the friend a reflection character who is commonly used to support the hero in the achievement of his goal. Hauge would say that the reflection character sees the hero’s “essence,” his true-self, which we want him to achieve by the end of the book, and by so doing, shows the reader the hero’s essence as well.

I also think that the friend character can illuminate the hero’s character by being the total opposite. Think of Bingley in Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is uncomfortable among the people at the Assembly, but Bingley is friendly and eager to enjoy himself. Bingley believes only the good in people and Darcy is wary of others, more certain that their motives are not good ones. Bingley is also easily led, but Darcy is firm in his opinions and decisive in his actions.

For readers, the glimpse of a buddy can be very intriguing. How many of us have emailed authors to ask when the hero’s friend will have his own book? I still get emails asking about the hero’s friends in The Marriage Bargain, my 2005 Diane Perkins book. (You’ll see them someday!!!! I don’t know when…)

Almost all my heroes have had buddies, and most of the buddies went on to have romances of their own, so it will be fun to create this new friend for my new hero. I already have an image of him….actor/model Raphaello Balzo.

Now aren’t you intrigued????

Do you like your Regency heroes to have buddies? Is there anything that annoys you about the “buddy” character?

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged buddies | 9 Replies