I’m just back from Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat in beautiful Harpers Ferry*, West VA, one of the writing highlights of my year.

On Thursday, April 26, I had the pleasure of transporting guest speaker Julia Quinn and her sister and workshop speaker, Emily Cotler of Waxcreative Design, from the DC area to Harpers Ferry. On the way we had a very pleasant dinner together and lots of time to talk. Both of these ladies are just so pleasant and friendly. I’m delighted I had the time to spend with them.

On Friday, Apr 27, we went to Boonesboro, MD, to Turn the Page Bookstore Cafe, Bruce Wilder’s (Nora Roberts’ husband) bookstore for a mega-author booksigning. Here’s a photo of Julia and me and Lisa Gardner, another of the guest speakers. Lisa, by the way, is a doll, inside and out, and has the most captivating eyes. Lisa also speaks without notes and with great poise. Madeline Hunter (whom I had the privlege to introduce) was the third guest speaker and was also at the signing. If you can believe it, all three ladies speeches involved lists of various sorts and all were great. Synergy happens!

Back to the signing. I sat next to Michelle Willingham who is a brand new Harlequin Historical author with her first book, an Irish Medevial called Her Irish Warrior. I was signing Innocence and Impropriety.

We were right at the doorway where the visitors entered. They were our captive audience and we had the best time chatting with them! Here is one of the happy customers who bought our books. And another treat! My friend Toni stopped by. In all there were about 100 visitors who came to the signing.

Just to prove Michelle and I really were at Turn the Page, here we are with Nora (that’s her husband Bruce in the background looking harried)

After the signing it was back to Hilltop House, the old hotel that WRW takes over totally for the Retreat. The workshops were fabulous. Emily Cotler did two workshops on website design, including critquing three members’ websites. It was fascinating! The agents and editors do a variety of workshops, but one is our American Author workshop, a take off on American Idol, only kinder. Members volunteer to have the first pages of their manuscripts read out loud and three editors, Kate Duffy, Jennifer Enderlin, and Tracy Farrell, respond with their impressions. They don’t always agree, either. Another workshop I attended was with Sue Grimshaw, the Romance buyer for the Borders Group and she talked about the marketing side of books. Another workshop speaker was Michelle Buonfiglio of Romance Buy The Book, who made an exciting announcement. Her column and blog will soon exclusively be on LifetimeTV.com! Check her site for details.

On Sunday morning Nora Roberts entertained us with a talk about the difficulties in publishing that she faced at the beginning of her career which were not so different than the ones we face today. As always, the serious message of her talk was delivered with wit and humor. Nora also answers questions. One thing I love about Nora is that she always makes it clear that there is no one right way to write a book. Whatever way works for you is fine. She also stresses that the only thing the author truly has control over is writing the book. So all the periphery we worry about should not distract us from writing a good book.

Even though I love the workshops and the speakers, my favorite part of the Retreat is the time I spend with old friends and the opportunity to make new friends. At the end of it all, that is what gives me that happy sigh when I drive back home.

Do you have any questions about our Retreat? Are there any get-togethers you attend that leave you with that happy sigh at the end?

Cheers,
Diane (who has NOT unpacked yet!)

*Photo of Hilltop House courtesy of WRW’s website

“…burn, burn, burn, like fabulous roman candles, like spiders across the stars…”

I’m writing this post from an Internet cafe in Santa Fe, where I’ve come for a much-needed vacation (all that writing–196 pages so far!–and Dancing With the Stars Cardio Workout-ing wears a person out!). This morning I went to the museum at the Palace of the Governors, to see a display of the original manuscript–a 120 foot scroll, see pic–of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. It’s touring the country for the 5oth anniversary of publication.

When I was in high school, my friends and I considered ourselves quite artsy and bohemian, far above jocks and cheerleaders and their ilk! 🙂 We loved books like Tender is the Night (1920s bohemianism), Dharma Bums, The Journey to the East, and On the Road. Stories of free spirits living wild lives, wandering the world. Now, when I look at OTR, I see how tiresomely foolish the characters, Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty (thinly fictionalized versions of Kerouac and his friend Neal Cassady) really are. But I still like the crazy crash-up of sex, drugs, jazz, energy, and freedom. (Mostly because I only have to live it vicariously, then go back to being my boring self!!)

What were some of your favorite books in high school? How do they hold up for you now?

Last week I blogged about how I was about to spend a weekend as a housemaid/lady at Riversdale House Museum’s Ladies Regency weekend. I’m happy to report I had a great time and I now know what theorem painting* is, how to quarter a chicken, and how to play Haymarket (a dice game) and Sept (a card game pronounced set–it’s French for seven), although Faro had me stumped.

Here are some of us in our finery on the steps of the house (note the original sandstone pillars and solid mahogany front doors)–I’m in the middle of the back row wearing blue-gray. The lady to my right with the red gloves drove down from Pennsylvania wearing stays! To my left are writers Kristina Cook (whom I laced into her stays) and Sally McKenzie, and Katherine Spivey who is the Museum’s official Rosalie Calvert (and sometimes impersonates Dolley Madison whom Rosalie loathed).

And we’re finally having good weather at last–I’d been afraid of how I’d keep warm in my silk and was planning to wear a strange assortment of long underwear beneath it, but it was a beautiful sunny weekend. Spring is finally here, and summer is just around the corner, and this coming weekend I’ll be going to the WRW Retreat in Harpers Ferry. Then in July there’s National.

What are you doing this spring and summer? Share your plans with us!

* Nothing to do with math. Creating artwork, usually of fruit and flowers, on velvet with stencils.

Sign up for my newsletter at www.janetmullany.com and I’ll send you one of my short stories!

I recently finished CLANDESTINE, by one of my favorite authors, Julia Ross (aka Jean Ross Ewing). As usual I adored her lush, poetic prose, the depth of her characterizations, the intrigue and the elegant sensuality.

CLANDESTINE is set in 1829, near the end of Prinny’s reign as George IV. I haven’t discovered a name for this period that is used in conjunction with 19th romance novels, which are usually categorized either Regency or Victorian. Some of the details, such as women’s clothing, are different and there are subtle social changes evident, yet a lot of it still feels “Regency.” One of my favorite romances ever, Laura Kinsale’s FLOWERS FROM THE STORM, is also set in this time period.

I find the period between 1820-1830 interesting to read. I would also like someday to write stories for the foundlings from LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE. Since the oldest of the foundlings would only be 17 in 1820 I am clearly headed for that date range and beyond.

I have to admit I’m ambivalent about the Victoria era. Some aspects of Victorian womanhood really bother me: “chloroform and forceps” childbirth, corseting that pierces internal organs (thereby unfairly giving all corsets a bad name). On the other hand, it is the time of the Brontes and I’ve also enjoyed modern romance novels set in that time period such as Kinsale’s SHADOW AND THE STAR and Judith Ivory’s SLEEPING BEAUTY.

For me, the Victorian romance works if the characters don’t form a life that is typically Victorian. If they end up somewhat on the edge of society or living a rather Bohemian lifestyle, I can imagine them happy much more so than if they toe the line. It’s different from a Georgian or a Regency in which I can accept (but don’t require) that the couple’s marriage be fully accepted within society.

At the other end of the Regency we have Georgian novels. When I was reading Georgette Heyer as a kid I knew her books had varied settings but at the time I didn’t put them in categories marked “Georgian” or “Regency.” It wasn’t until I started writing my own Regencies that I discovered the official Regency was 1811-1820 or that Jane Austen started writing well before that time. Now I’m glad to see more Georgian-set novels coming out, because I enjoy them and also because I have a few (still very embryonic) ideas for Georgian-set romances myself.

So now to my survey:

1) When did you know the Regency was 1811-20? Is there a broader date range you consider the “Regency” in terms of the reading experience?
2) How do you feel about that period between the Regency and the Victorian (1820-1837)? Do you enjoy books set in that period?
3) Do you enjoy earlier Georgian-set romance?
4) What do you think of the Victorian era and Victorian-set romance?

Let me know what you think!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

We all have traumatic formative experiences as children. If you don’t mind me getting personal here, sharing my pain and showing my (metaphorical) scars, then…then I will.

(I can feel the love of all the Risky readers buoying me up, giving me courage to go on.)

When I was a kid, I… (Hard to say, for the misery, the shame.) I — I learned all the secrets of The Empire Strikes Back before I saw the movie. All of them.

I still haven’t recovered from that. (As you can see.)

It really hurt my enjoyment of the film, too, because I kept waiting for this to happen, and that to happen, and then for So-and-So to dramatically intone those terrible words (which I already knew)…

Around the same time, I found a copy of Diana Wynne Jones’s Charmed Life in a lovely little shop, on a lovely little day.

It had one of the prettiest covers I’d ever seen. It was paperback, so I could afford to buy it. And it was by one of my favorite authors!

I bought it. I loved it.

Tragically, this very pretty American paperback edition gave away a major secret on the back cover. This was a piece of information which was not known to the main characters until near the end of the book — but I didn’t realize they didn’t know it!

Ever since then, I’ve been spoiler-averse. I’m not on the extreme edge — I watch most previews in movie theaters, for example (though sometimes I close my eyes and ears and hum) — but if I know I’m going to read a book, I never read the blurb on the back…and when I’m watching television and a voice says “Next time, on Lost,” I turn it off, or hit the mute button and look away.

So…how about you?

Do you read the blurb on a book’s back-cover, or on the inner flap? Do you peek at the ending, to see if it ends happily?

Do you watch a TV show’s scenes from next time? Do you hide your eyes during movie previews?

Do you seek out spoilers online?

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER, which has a back cover that gives away some but not all of the plot