First, with apologies for the tardiness, here is the winner of the Risky Book Contest from earlier this month:
glossaria
Watch your email!
Second, Happy Holidays to all the Riskies and the wonderful Risky readers! Here is a picture of roses (Sally Anne) that I took a while back.
Roses!
Judith Ivory’s Black Silk is one of my all time favorite historicals. At the time I read Black Silk, Ivory’s books were not available in eBooks. There were terrible, horrible, cheap POD versions — with newsprint quality paper and ink that was smeared… I returned the copy that arrived with a crooked cover and located a used mass market paperback.
Ivory’s books are now available as eBooks, as I came to learn on Twitter. I immediately purchased everything (including the Judy Cuevas books) and I added the audio book to a couple of them. Set that aside for a moment, while I gush about Ivory …
I LOVED LOVED LOVED The Proposition even with the cheesy ending. I’m in the middle of The Beast right now (in audio) and well. Judith Ivory. Her writing is lovely, and she does what I miss so much in historicals and that I strive to do in my own writing, which is tell as story as if the HEA is not a given. My personal description of this goes like this: A Romance written as if it were not a Romance.
Aside: I said this once on a loop and got a tremendous, even vicious, push back. Not that any of the disagreement came close to changing my mind. I still believe that a Romance that is written as if it’s not a Romance will have far, far more tension.
Also, especially now that I’m not traditionally publishing, I really don’t care about the prevailing beliefs about what sells. A lot of those beliefs are wrong. Sure, it’s crucial to know what’s happening in the market, but even so, I get to decide what I write, and I get to write exactly the way I want, entirely in line with the stories I want to tell.
Because, and, yes, another aside, when I am gone from this world, I want to have written the stories that speak to me, without compromise in the way I’ve told them. (This is NOT the same thing as not listening to editorial advice. Editorial advice is crucial.) If that means I sell fewer copies, I am at peace with that.
When This Is A Romance permeates every aspect of the story, there’s a very real risk of the book being too familiar. Tired, even. The Insta-Love trope is a predominant approach these days. I don’t necessarily mind it. There are lots of such stories that are great books, too. But there’s an awful lot that don’t distinguish themselves.
Yes, this is another aside.
Too often I feel I’m getting a Romance where sexual attraction is the container of the story … such that it is present from the start. Even stories where the hero and heroine, ostensibly, do not like each other, they are powerfully attracted underneath. Again, I’m not saying this should never be done. I’m just saying, it’s now really really common. Plus, well, I guess I also think there are lots of authors who aren’t challenging this. You have to be really, really good to make such a story extraordinary.
This leads to stories where something else delays bringing together the sexual and the commitment to the person they love. Often, this ends up being “I’m not worthy.” A flavor, if you will, of “I’m in your ass, saving your life.” Again, it’s possible to pull this off, but you have to be good. Really good. (P.S. I read that book and liked it better than SBTB. But that review started a meme/trope/Romance inside joke.)
Anyway, one of the things Ivory does so well is to give us characters who, despite any attraction, have lives that allow us to see exactly how they might walk away from this potential relationship. And that possibility is credible. Even when you know it’s a Romance and there will be an HEA.
Right. OK, so when I was on my Ivory spree, I clicked Add the Audio Narration because I’ve been listening to some audio books, and I am finding a place in my commute and certain other moments where an audio book fits quite nicely. I just finished listening to a Romantic Suspense audio book (not an ACX DIY book) by a favorite author, and I loathed the narrator from the start.
Loathed. The. Narrator.
She read the book as if she felt contempt for the work she was reading. The male voices were phony and contrived and because she was trying (and failing) to roughen and deepen her voice for the male characters, they were all the same. That production wasn’t as bad as the production for A Darker Crimson (my first paranormal, audio rights not mine at the time) which was just horrific, I’m sad to say. Terrible narrator. Terrible production values.
I started listening to the audio book for Ivory’s The Beast, and the narrator is wonderful. She never sounds strained or phony, and I’m just so struck by how very, very good this reading is.
So. Here are my questions to you. Do you listen to audio books? What are your thoughts, pet peeves, loves, hates about them? Have you read Ivory?
Is this:
The Historical Thesaurus of English
For those of you who don’t already know about this, I’ll wait here while you go check it out.
Decades in the making. Linked with the OED. This is a word lover’s paradise. I’ve already emailed my thanks to the University of Glasgow for this.
I about cried when I found this. Seriously. I was overcome with emotion. When I raxed up from my faint, I bawled like a baby.
Sorry. I spent several lovely moments clicking between the thesaurus and the OED on the word cry.
At the moment, I am in between historical releases. That is to say, I am working on My Immortals Book 7–No title yet. My next project will be another historical novella for a second anthology with Grace Burrowes, Miranda Neville, and Shana Galen. I believe the anthology title will be Dancing in the Duke’s Arms, and we’re targeting a summer release. We’ve chosen a cover image already, but I have yet to write a word. Even though I have a story idea I’m really excited about.
My point, really, is that I have my head in the paranormal world not the Regency historical world. If I were to noodle around with my historical idea I’d end up with Dancing in the Demon Duke’s Arms. In the meantime, however, I have released my individual novella from Christmas in the Duke’s Arms. Here’s the cover:
And here is where you can buy it, if you don’t have the anthology:
Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Google Play | Kobo | All Romance
It’s early days in my story process — seeing as how I haven’t started writing yet, and it’s entirely possible my story will end up completely different. I’m planning a heroine who is considered peculiar and unmarriageable because she never forgets a fact, and she knows lots of them. The hero will figure out what’s up with her and fall madly in love. The end. I’m telling you that’s more than I usually start with. I have a period book that is, more or less, a Farmer’s Almanack, and she’ll have read and remembered it all, so I’ll be referring to that quite a lot. The challenge, naturally, will be making sure her knowledge is period accurate. I foresee Google Books Advanced Search in my future.
I’m not a plotter, so I have to be careful about doing too much planning, or, perhaps another way to think about it is I need not to be wedded to any plot points that might come up before I start writing. I never know what the plot is until I’m done. Truth. So, though I would like to tell you all that my story will be about thus and such, the truth is, I have no idea. I’ll find out about halfway through the story. Possibly later.
For you readers out there, does the idea of an author having no idea what the book is about before she starts writing make you anxious?
Today, The Riskies welcome a guest post from historical romance author Georgie Lee. In addition to her fascinating post, she’s offering a giveaway, so make sure you enter!
Before we get started, here’s a little bit about Georgie:
Georgie Lee
A lifelong history buff, award winning author Georgie Lee hasn’t given up hope that she will one day inherit a title and a manor house. Until then, she fulfills her dreams of lords, ladies and a season in London through her stories. When not writing, she can be found reading non-fiction history or watching any movie with a costume and an accent. Please visit georgie-lee.com to learn more about Georgie and her books.
Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog | Website
In my latest novel, A Debt Paid in Marriage, a pistol plays an important role in both the beginning of the story when the heroine sneaks into the hero’s house and threatens him, only to discover him naked in the bath, and in the turning point at the end, which I won’t describe since I don’t want to spoil it. The pistol in question is a Royal Navy issued flintlock pistol known as the British Sea Service pistol. The army had its own version of this pistol which contained only minor variations.
The Board of Ordinance oversaw the manufacture and distribution of these pistols which were issued from the early 1700s until 1815. The pistols were assembled in the Tower armory but the pieces came from various sources. Made of brass, steel and wood, the user loaded it by ramming the ball and black powder down the nine or twelve inch barrel. The length of the barrel depended on the year it was made, with earlier versions being longer and later versions being shorter. It was a solid weapon meant for use in close fighting during boarding. However, the user only got one shot. Afterwards, it was pretty good for whacking the enemy but not much else, unless a seaman could find a place to hunker down and reload, which, in the heat of battle, wasn’t likely.
The fact that the pistols were government issue did not mean that they were accurate or safe. They weren’t. Flintlocks had a bad habit of misfiring and the harsh sea air aboard ship could wreck havoc on their springs and hammers. The phrase “a flash in the pan” came about in reference to misfires. A flash in the pan is when the flint ignites the gunpowder, or charge as it was known, in the pan but does not fire the ball. With the enemy bearing down on you, this would not be a good thing.
Officers usually had their own weapons especially made for them, but many weren’t above using the standard issue Sea Service pistol. In the painting Nelson Boarding the ‘San Josef’ at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent by George Jones held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11984.html) you can see Admiral Nelson holding a Sea Service pistol. Thousands of the pistols remained in circulation for decades after they were no longer issued and it wasn’t just the British who used them. The weapon ended up in several countries, including America, as various enemies captured British supply ships during the numerous wars. Even the East India Company preferred the pistols.
The heyday of the Sea Service pistol would come to an end in the mid 18th century when flintlocks were replaced by percussion cap pistols. However, the Sea Service still remained as many were changed into the less hazardous, but no more accurate percussion cap design. The pistol was a workhouse and a staple of life aboard ship. One of these pistols also plays an integral part in the plot of A Debt Paid in Marriage. After learning about the history of this firearm, I hope you will check out A Debt Paid in Marriage, my March 1, 2015 release from Harlequin Historical.
A Debt Paid In Honor
Laura Townsend’s plan to reclaim her family’s merchandise backfires when she creeps into moneylender Philip Rathbone’s house and threatens him with a pistol, only to find him reclining naked in his bath!
The last thing she expects is to see this guarded widower on her doorstep a couple of days later armed with a very surprising proposal. A marriage of convenience may be Laura’s chance to reclaim her future, but she won’t settle for anything less than true passion. Can she hope to find it in Philip’s arms?
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Harlequin
To thank Risky Regencies for allowing me to join them today, and to thank you for stopping by, I am giving away an ebook copy of Rescued from Ruin. This is the book where the hero from A Debt Paid in Marriage first makes his appearance. Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. It is open to international entries. Good luck!
Cover of Restored From Ruin