Author Archives: Janet Mullany

Hands Across the Water, Part One

Updated on February 11, 2009 by Janet Mullany

While Elena’s away, the members of the UK Historical Romance Blog bravely offered to cross the Atlantic and take over on a Wednesday–in fact, there are so many of them, and they’re such a talkative lot, they’ll be visiting again on March 4. So, a warm welcome ladies, and take it away…

Hi! It’s great to be here on the Risky Regencies blog. We’re a group of British Regency writers and we got together a few years ago to chat about our favourite genre. We run the Historical Romance UK blog so please drop by and visit us! And if you sign up for our monthly email newsletter, you can enter more competitions to win books and goodies. Just send a blank e-mail here and we’ll do the rest!

Ever since the Riskies invited us to blog we’ve been thinking about the differences between Regencies in the US and in the motherland, which largely depend on which publisher we’re with. Here are our thoughts, together with some information about us and our books, and of course there are plenty of competitions for you to enter, too! What better for February than some Regencies to win?! Unless otherwise stated, the closing date for our competitions on this Risky blog is 28th February.

Amanda Grange: I write a lot of Jane Austen inspired novels – Mr Darcy’s Diary, Mr Knightley’s Diary, Captain Wentworth’s Diary, Edmund Bertram’s Diary and Colonel Brandon’s Diary – which retell Jane Austen’s stories from the heroes’ point of view. This kind of book is very popular on both sides of the Atlantic, but the UK books tend to stay closer to Austen in style and tone. A lot of the US books take Jane Austen’s characters into new territory, exploring their sex lives, and giving them more dramatic storylines, whereas my books aim to be as close to Austen as I can get them. I particularly liked writing the backstories for Wentworth and Brandon, whereas the US books tend to focus more on continuations.

Visit Amanda’s website to enter a competition to win a hardback copy of Colonel Brandon’s Diary and a trade paperback of Lord Deverill’s Secret. Just email Amanda with the answer to these questions, which can be found on her site: What is the name of the heroine in Lord Deverill’s Secret? And what is the name of Colonel Brandon’s first love?

Jane Odiwe: It’s lovely to be invited over to the Risky Regencies Blog!I’m an English author with an American publisher, Sourcebooks Inc. and find my inspiration from the wonderful novels of Jane Austen. Lydia Bennet’s Story, a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, appealed to me because I saw a challenge in developing a secondary character. I like the idea of telling the stories that Jane Austen didn’t relate and it was during a trip to Brighton that I started to wonder how Lydia and George Wickham came together before eloping. As I walked along the seafront I could imagine the balls and the promenades against the backdrop of fashion, scandal and frivolous living at the Marine Pavilion. I wanted to write a comic novel,and I thought with Lydia there would be plenty of opportunity for laughs.

Willoughby’s Return is my next sequel. I wanted to know how Marianne would fare in her marriage to the much older Colonel Brandon and how she might react if a former love, Mr Willoughby, returned to the neighbourhood. Margaret, another secondary character from Sense and Sensibility, is eighteen in this novel and I wanted to give her more of a heroine’s role,intertwining her story with that of her sister’s. Some of the story takes place in London with several of Austen’s characters like Mrs Jennings and Lucy Steele reappearing. I love to write scenes with these wonderfully humorous characters.

Having an American publisher means they are very open to scenes which Austen might not have written herself; and there are a range of sequels that Sourcebooks produce from those with no sex to the very steamy! My books have mild references to love-making and contain double entendres, but remain true to the Austen spirit. I am writing for a British and American audience, some of whom are Austen experts and some not, but I like to be meticulous in research and detail, reflecting the themes that Austen wrote about herself.

Monica Fairview: Yes, I think the expectations of Jane Austen fans in the US and the UK are quite different. I recently read a quote from Virginia Woolf which I loved. She says “anyone who has the temerity to write about Jane Austen is aware… that there are twenty-five elderly gentlemen living in the neighbourhood of London who resent any slight upon her genius as if it were an insult to the chastity of their aunts.”
Of course, no one thinks that way today, but a hint of Jane Austen as untouchable still lingers in the UK. I think US Austen fans demand a lot, too, but they are willing to tolerate more creative licence.

My Austen-inspired novel, The Other Mr. Darcy, is coming out in June 2009 in the UK, and will be published later in the US by Sourcebooks. The Other Mr. Darcy deals with cross-cultural issues. It features an American main character along with the woman everyone loves to hate in Pride and Prejudice, Miss Caroline Bingley. My hero, Robert Darcy, is a Boston Brahmin, (though the term wasn’t used until after the Regency) so he has his own ideas of what constitutes a “gentleman.” Obviously his ideas are going to clash with Miss Bingley’s. I had great fun writing the novel, which I hope is in the spirit of Jane Austen, if not in the letter.

Louise Allen: my last book was the final title in my six part Those Scandalous Ravenhursts series, out along with numbers four and five this year. I thought I had got to grips with writing a series, but I soon discovered I had a lot to learn when I embarked on my current project – writing two stories as part of a, yet untitled, eight-part Regency continuity for HMB. My fellow authors for that project are Christine Merrill, Gayle Wilson and Julia Justiss from the States and Margaret McPhee and Annie Burroughs from the UK.

Thank goodness for email, is all I can say, I don’t know how we could have created all our intertwining plots and characters without it. I’m lucky enough to be close enough to London to go and check out oak trees in Hyde Park (for kissing behind) or whether a certain square is just right for someone’s hero’s town house while the others contribute fascinating research on Romany life and curses, Cornish smugglers, the American navy or keep our tangled stories straight.

It doesn’t matter which country you’re in, I’ve decided – historical romance writers are all sisters under the skin. My aim is to create heroes and heroines who will reach out to a 21st century reader while staying true to their Regency world: find out more at my website.

To win signed copies of the first 3 Ravenhurst titles e-mail me and tell me why you love Regencies to be entered into my prize draw. Passion… from the past into the present.

Amanda: I write other types of Regency as well as Austen inspired novels. Books like Lord Deverill’s Secret and Harstairs House are closer to Georgette Heyer in feel, with an adventure as well as a romance.

Lord Deverill’s Secret takes place in Brighton, with visits to the races and the Pavilion, and Harstairs House is set on the Cornish coast. I think the closest equivalent in the US would be the trad Regency, although US trads don’t seem to have as much adventure as the UK trads.

Jane Jackson: My books have never been traditional regencies – mainly because my stories are set in Cornwall – or at least begin there before travelling to countries served by the Packet Ships, and few young ladies would ever have managed to get to London for the Season. That said, Truro and Penzance had their own Assembly Rooms, their own circulating libraries and gentlemen’s clubs.

We had our own mini-Season here in Cornwall, where the daughters of the gentry would attend parties, balls and suppers with the express purpose of meeting eligible gentlemen. It was simply done on a smaller scale. My stories are adventure romance. We have such a rich and dramatic heritage here in Cornwall that I will run out of time before I run out of inspiration.

Visit Jane’s website to enter a competition to win a copy of either of my most recent books, Devil’s Prize or Bonded Heart (you choose). Just answer this question: What is the name of the village featured in both stories? Send your answer to me via the Get in Touch link on my website. Good Luck!

Kate Tremayne: Like Jane Jackson’s the Loveday series of novels are set in Cornwall where the family have their estate at Trevowan and a shipyard on an inlet of the River Fowey. Again they are not standard regencies as I am now writing book ten in the series that covers the lives, romances, conflicts, rivalry and adventures of four sets of Loveday cousins. The series has been reviewed as being a sweeping family drama in the tradition of Poldark with the mystery and suspense of Daphne du Maurier and an emotional intensity that transcends time. The novels weave through adventures and drama involving the French Revolution to the Napoleonic wars, smuggling, highway robbery, the criminal underworld and theatrical world of London, transportation to Botany Bay and a visit to Virginia involving a scandal involving their American kin.

Adam Loveday, the first book in the series, is rich in drama and passion, filled with memorable and feisty characters, with the atmosphere and flavour of Georgian England. The childhood rivalry between Adam and his elder twin St John continues to govern their fated passions and chequered fortunes. St John has become a dissolute wastrel but Adam, with a talent for ship design and a thirst for adventure, has fierce family pride in the family estate and yard. He will never accept St John as the rightful heir. St John is equally determined that Adam will never get his heart’s desire: the estate, the shipyard – and Meriel Sawle, the seductive daughter of the local innkeeper. whose violent family are infamous in the smuggling trade.

I can’t think of an American equivalent but if any of you know of something similar in the US, please let me know!

Visit Kate’s website to enter a competition to win a copy of Adam Loveday. Just email Kate with the answer to this question, which can be found on her site: What is the name of the Loveday estate in Cornwall?

Kate Allan: After writing Perfidy and Perfection, a Jane Austen inspired Regency rom com, I have been interested to see a handful of Regency rom coms appearing in the US and hope this is a trend that will continue. My other Regencies are all romantic adventures. I like setting my stories in different parts of the UK and making sure the local detail is correct as possible. One difference between Regencies published in the UK and those in the US is the level of historical realism that is required by publishers here. My next novel, which should be out at the end of this year, is set in Cornwall and the hero is a ex-smuggler back for revenge of those who betrayed him. It is a little darker in tone than my previous books. It is grey and raining throughout the whole novel and the sun only comes out at the very end.

Monica: Like Kate, I’m very fond of Regency romantic comedy. In my opinion, a comic touch is important to Regency. If you look at both Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, who laid the foundation for Regency romance, comedy is at the heart of both. I think of my novel An Improper Suitor as a comedy of manners, though it also has an element of suspense and adventure to it. Generally in the UK there is still a hearty tradition of adventure attached to Regency romances, following Heyer, whereas in the US there’s been a drift towards longer historicals that are more spicy and more relationship-focused.

Well, that’s all from us for now. We’ll be back again in March, when the rest of Historical Romance UK will be talking about their take on the similarities and differences between UK and US Regencies.

If you’d like to buy any of the UK published books and can’t find them in the US, The Book Depository delivers them free worldwide.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Amanda Grange, historical romance UK blog, Jane Jackson, Jane Odiwe, Kate Allan, Kate Tremayne, Louise Allen, Monica Fairview | 25 Replies

Meet Eliza Knight

Updated on February 8, 2009 by Janet Mullany

A big Riskies welcome to Eliza Knight, who’s offering a free copy of her e-novella Her Captain Returns to one lucky commentor today. Eliza is the author of multiple sizzling historical romances and Highlander time travel erotic romance novellas published by The Wild Rose Press. She is a freelance copy editor, Newsletter Editor for Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and President of the Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. Eliza is the author of the award-winning blog History Undressed and has published numerous articles in various newsletters. She presents workshops on history, researching techniques and writing craft, to writing groups online.

How could anything considered sinful feel so good?

That is what Miss Corinne Claymore asked herself as she gave into the titillating suggestions of Captain Ryder Montgomery. Corinne never knew what she was getting into with her innocent flirtations with Ryder. Scandal ensues as they are discovered in an amorous embrace in the gardens at Lady Covington’s ball. Corinne finds herself not only married to Ryder, but abandoned. A short letter tells her he will be gone for several years …

Thank you Risky Regencies for having me today!

In light of my recent Regency release, Her Captain Returns, part of my Men of the Sea series, I thought I would take today to talk about Royal Navy Captains in the Regency era. Let us travel through the hero of my novella, Captain Ryder Montgomery’s training, and life at sea.

Ryder was born the second son of an earl, and from his earliest days, had a penchant for the sea. It was only natural for him to join the navy at the age of thirteen as a mid-shipman. He certainly did his share of scrubbing the deck and tying knots, but when he was a little older he was allowed to take care of the log line, and sometimes delegate sailing duties. By the age of twenty, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and by 23, was Captain of his own ship, HMS Conqueror.

Ryder himself was only flogged once, but several of his shipmates were flogged regularly. What for, you ask? Ryder himself was given ten lashes for neglect of duty. Ever hear the term poor salt on a wound? Well that’s exactly what the ship’s surgeon did when he was taken there after his punishment… We must remember, poor Ryder was only fourteen at the time, and he wasn’t exactly neglecting on purpose, he was in fact heaving his guts out from dinner the night before.

Food on the ship wasn’t exactly appetizing, although, most sailors were excited to have regular meals, as when they were on land, eating three times a day wasn’t always a guarantee. The main staples of a navy diet, included salted meat, which was sometimes so rancid it was inedible by some, and even when boiled for hours the meat could still be as hard as a rock, unless they hadn’t been at sea very long and “fresh meat” in the form of livestock was onboard. This would be made into a stew with whatever fresh or dried veggies were available and rice or oats. Instead of bread, they had ships biscuits that were either filled with weevils. Sounds tasty! For breakfast it was porridge sweetened with molasses. To drink, if the fresh water had already turned a slimy green, they had watered down ale, watered down wine or watered down rum.

As a member of the crew, Ryder slept in a hammock twenty inches from the next hammock. When he became a captain he got his own room aboard the ship, but had a hammock placed inside, as he found after ten years at sea, it was much easier to sleep on.

The life of a Naval Officer wasn’t all pomp and squalor. While most of them lived privileged lives, they had to earn it. Some were second or third sons of the nobility, and some were sons of well to do merchants. And there were even those who were born at the bottom of the barrel and made their way to the top.

During the Regency era, a ship’s captain could become quite wealthy. How? Was the king paying well? The salary for a seaman was meager, and for a captain also wasn’t opulent—most would try to marry for money. No, most captain’s made their riches from other captains, especially during the Napoleonic campaigns. When a ship’s captain commandeered another ship, the whole crew shared in the spoils.

Officers in the military were well respected by the people, and since most came from well to-do families, they often hob-nobbed with the rich and the aristocrats.

In Her Captain Returns, Ryder ends up going away on a mission for several years, and isn’t allowed contact with anyone outside, including his wife. One of the things I wanted to illustrate in this story, was how hard it was for the wife of a man of the sea. Just as it is today with a military wife, it was much the same back then, except they didn’t have television to see what was happening, and their news stories were a lot more delayed. A wife may have still been receiving correspondence from her husband, only to learn he’d been dead for two months.

To end this blog, I leave you with a couple of fun naval terms:

Bitter End – Have you heard the phrase “faithful to the bitter end”? Well, it is a naval term! The wooden or iron posts sticking through a ships deck were called a bitt. Turning a line around them was called, the bitter end.

Chewing the Fat – Remember my description of the nasty meat? Well some men would chew on it for hours, and referred to it as, chewing the fat.

He knows the ropes – Nowadays this means someone is pretty skilled at what they’re doing. Back in the day though, it meant literally, novice and that all he knew were the ropes.

Took the wind out of his sails – this originally described a battle move where one ship would get so close to the other it would take the wind away, and slow down the opposing ship.

Your comment or question will enter you into a drawing to win a copy of Her Captain Returns, so come and chat with Eliza!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Eliza Knight, Her Captain's Return, navy life | 23 Replies

Newsletters and other promotional devices

Updated on February 5, 2009 by Janet Mullany

I’m over at the History Hoydens today, talking about sewing boxes and embroidery–or at least I think I will be, since I have notes but nothing written yet.

I woke up today thinking that I really should send out my allegedly quarterly newsletter. It really depends what you mean by quarterly. Sometimes my quarters are only about two months long, and sometimes, as now, they span the seasons. Because I’m a great believer in only sending out a newsletter when I have something to say, and for long chunks of time I don’t.
I can’t produce giggly writerly stuff about what my family and/or cat is doing (mostly asleep) and my fabulous writerly life (because I don’t seem to have that sort of life), and exciting places I’ve visited (because generally I don’t go anywhere). And, oh, yeah, sign up here.

And at the moment I do have something to say, which is that I’m getting a new website from designer Haven Rich, who gave us this beauteous new Riskies blog–we’ve just started work and I’m very excited about it. When it goes live on May 1 I’ll have a contest. And there’s more, like a book coming out in August, and sneak peeks and so on.

Now the Riskies newsletter always has something to say–that’s how you get advance warning on guests, contests, and special topics for the month–and I squeeze it out every month from yahoo (which really don’t like you to send great chunks of mail). What, you’re not signed up for the Riskies newsletter? Good heavens. Sign up now, please. Send an email to riskies @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) and put newsletter in the subject line. (We’re still getting lots of mail from people who want bank account information and/or prayers or something else I’m not likely to release, and I don’t want to miss you.)

There are a couple of newsletters I find really informative and which I’d like to share with you:

The Jane Austen Center. This is a fabulous resource with both scholarly and fun articles about Austen, Bath, and her times and, if you browse around the site, you can spend large amounts of money (still, even now the dollar is stronger) in the gift shop which does indeed ship worldwide.

Book Marketing Experts–written by a team who are the leaders in book marketing online and who really understand the Internet and how web sites and newfangled things like Twitter work.

And nothing to do with the Regency or writing, but just incredibly entertaining, Cartalk’s Time Kill Weekly, which always includes a lame joke and, they, like me, have a rather fluid sense of time.

What do you think makes a good newsletter, and which ones do you enjoy?

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 7 Replies

Making yourself write

Updated on January 29, 2009 by Janet Mullany

… and liking it, by golly.

I’m the last person I thought would be blogging on the writer’s life (whatever that is), but I got such lovely responses last week from my blog about putting back the joy I thought I’d continue in the same vein.

So, today I started making my list of things to do. This is my alleged writing day when I don’t go into the day job. Funnily enough it fills up with all sorts of oddities–purely because I let it, but also it’s unrealistic for me to sit down at my desk and write for eight hours or so straight. I know some people can do it, but even when I was in my writing addiction phase I’d, oh, you know, take bathroom breaks, eat, drink tea.

So the other things on my list today were as follows:

Help local chapter find workshop location. Done.

Reschedule storm door installation. Possibly done.

Don’t drink too much coffee. It’s my latest treat. I may have some decaff later.

Do laundry. Done.

Tame shoes. Bought online, hurt me although they look incredibly comfortable, can’t return them, but I love the look of them. So I’m wearing a strange assortment of socks and liners.

Rip up carpeting on basement stairs. Postpone. I know it will become a massive job for unforeseen factors–cleaning, pulling up every single tack, discovering that a new paint job is needed, picking the paint color, painting (at least two coats) spending hours on eBay looking for substitute carpeting… oh, sorry, this is about writing, isn’t it?

We are all blessed with a zillion distractions.

I think it’s a question of finding a rhythm that suits you, whether you use a kitchen timer, unplug your internet connection (oops, I have wireless), or use a rewards system. Don’t stress it because you know you’ll get stuck in a morass of agony–oh my god, I’ve been online for an hour following link after link…

Make it a pleasant experience–my office is the warmest room in the house and that’s a definite plus. I have a nice selection of music. I can look out of the window. And most important, I can shut the door.

I limit my online access but I must share with you the following links. This is the funniest complaint about online food, with pictures, that I’ve seen. And talking of the undead, check this out–the latest Jane Austen, uh, tribute (thanks to Smart Bitches for the link). And the Cake Wrecks blog is always a joy.

What are your tricks for keeping writing or doing whatever must be done and which should be, but isn’t always, its own reward? Do you use bribery (if I write X thousand words then I can…) or teeth-gritting or what?

Do share!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Cake Wrecks, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, rewards | 8 Replies

Byron, birthdays, and putting back the joy

Updated on January 22, 2009 by Janet Mullany

Happy birthday, Byron, 221 years old today! I’m blogging about him on Delle Jacobs‘ In Search of Heroes blog today (or possibly later today, as Blogger has been a bad boy–doubtless in Byron’s honor–and Delle and I are three hours apart), so come on over and visit.

It’s also the birthday of my dad, the Old Man who is not a Tree, who is a mere 98 years old. He was born the year the Titanic sank. He remembers traveling alone on a train when he was very small, and being given chocolate by soldiers on their way to the front in World War One. I’m sorry I don’t have a digital image of him.

A few weeks ago, at the beginning of the new year, we talked about various things we intended to do this year, and one of the big issues that a lot of us were interested in was how to put the joy back in writing. I suspect that this could cover several posts, but I’ll get the ball rolling here. And not only writing–this could apply to any sort of creative endeavor, something to which you’ve made a commitment but which now seems stale.

Let me get personal on you here. When I first started writing, it was an amazing experience. I’d come home from work and produce a few thousand words every evening, more on the weekends–I wrote 14k words one weekend. I’m not saying they were good words, but they were prolific and they were there, and that’s half the battle. I dreamed and daydreamed about my characters. I wrote whole scenes in my head and typed them up, word for word. My subconscious kicked in at the drop of a hat. I developed a sort of ritual of placing my fingertips on the keyboard and breathing. Then I wrote and wrote. My mantra at the time was just do it (not very original, but it worked).

Smugly, I acknowledged that I wasn’t one of those writers–the ones who were always complaining about having to write and doing anything–housework, even–to avoid writing.

And then I became one of those writers. What happened?

Part of the problem (don’t kill me, please) was getting published. For one thing, it’s really easy to get all tied up in the niceties of marketing and promotion. If you want to get some perspective on this, read this article by Julie Ann Long on the Tao of Publishing, based on the presentation she and her agent made at nationals in San Francisco last year. I realized fairly recently (duh) that the success of your book (in print publishing, at least) is determined by your print run, a number chosen by your publisher and completely outside your control. Unless you’re one of the rare exceptions and your book takes off, with or without your efforts, leading to multiple print runs, you won’t make the bestseller lists.

Also, once you’re published, you find yourself up against all sorts of expectations, or perceived expectations–those of your readers, your agent, your editor. You must keep writing about the Regency, you must write the same sort of books; yes, you may long to write about reindeer breeders in fifth century Lapland, but at the moment it’s just Not Hot, so write it in your spare time. (What spare time?! I’m too busy blogging, pricing promotional items online, googling myself, and handing out bookmarks to strangers!)

Also something from the past may come to bite you on the ass as we say in the Regency. In my case, it was something I heard all the time during my formative years: that if you enjoy doing something, you won’t like it if you do it as a job. This is in direct contrast to the mantra of the 1980s (and beyond?) that you should do something you love and the money will come.

I did my best to disprove the family theory by doing jobs that I did indeed love, but writing was a different matter, and I had to really struggle with this. One thing that helped was looking at the theory in perspective; this was the theory of my parents and their generation. At least three of them wanted to be professional musicians but found that circumstances–being the only one in the family with a job during the Great Depression, World War II–made it impossible for them to fulfil their dream. One of them was talked out of it by her jealous sister. And musicians generally have to grab the opportunity at a time when they’re at the peak of their physical dexterity and mental alertness; a year or two can make all the difference.

Whereas writers… well, I was a late bloomer. I’m not someone who wanted to be a writer all their life. I’m not making any great claims to mental alertness either, but it’s a different process.

And the bottom line–I refuse to accept this theory that was drummed into me along with other dubious advice from my family. I will trust my instincts (a good rule for writing too).

That helped, and strangely enough, just writing–just doing it–helps. I finished my revisions for A Most Lamentable Comedy (August, 2009), and that helped me get back into the swing. I’m started a new partial, and that’s always fun, by participating in a BIAW (book in a week) with my local chapter. My agent told me she liked my idea for my next Little Black Dress book (I posted a short excerpt last week). Oh, and I got an advance check, and that always cheers me up, even if I’ve spent it several times already. I’ve decided early what I’m going to do for promotion in August so I can concentrate on writing now.

So yes, you can put the joy back in. I feel it’s presumptious to give advice to people without contracts, but I will say that now is when you can get really good at writing; hone your voice; play around with different conventions and historical periods. Have fun. Build inventory, because you may be the one who introduces romance’s next trend, hot love among the reindeer herds in fifth century Lapland. Determine to have fun throughout the process. Rejections–and I get a lot, honestly, still–are an evolutionary process to find the house and agent who are right for you and your style.