Happy Tuesday, everyone! What have I been doing this week, since I am free of deadlines (free, I tell you!), at least for the moment? Well, I have been sitting around watching season 3 DVDs of True Blood, trying out some kickboxing classes (and trying to figure out how to write an awesome kickboxing Regency duchess heroine–I’m pretty sure that won’t work out though), starting to get ready for RWA (less than three weeks away now, ack! At least I did remember to take my gown to the tailor), going to the movies, and getting caught up on reading. More on that later.

I was also thinking about Janet’s post last week about reviews, and about various things I’ve been seeing around on-line concerning yet more thinly-veiled misogyny masquerading as high-brow readership (Ew! Romance! Only old ladies and stupid people read those!). (for example, see this great post on AAR, Top Ten Cliches About Romance Novels I Never Want To Hear Again). I’ve been reading and writing romance for a long time, and bad reviews and snarky comments mostly roll off me by now (no time for them–deadlines and all that), but they still can piss me off when I take time to think about it (so I try not to).

One of the books I was reading this weekend was Tina Fey’s Bossypants, and she had this to say, which struck me as great advice for women no matter what artistic or business endeavor we’re pursuing. (Sorry for the long excerpt, but she says it way better than I could!):

“…whenever someone says to me “Jerry Lewis says women aren’t funny,” or “Christopher Hitchens says women aren’t funny,” or “Rick Fenderman says women aren’t funny…Do you have anything to say to that?”

Yes. We don’t f****** care if you like it.

I don’t say it out loud, of course, because Jerry Lewis is a great philanthropist, Hitchens is very sick, and the third guy I made up.

Unless one of those men is my boss, which none of them is, it’s irrelevant. My hat goes off to them. It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good. I don’t like Chinese food, but I don’t write articles to prove it doesn’t exist.

So my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism or ageism or lookism or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: “Is this person between me and what I want to do?” If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you’re in charge, don’t hire the people who were jerky to you.

If the answer is yes, you have a more difficult road ahead of you. I suggest you model your strategy after the old Sesame Street piece “Over! Under! Through!” (If you’re under forty you might not remember this film. It taught the concepts of “over” “under” and “through” by filming toddlers crawling around an abandoned construction site. They don’t show it anymore because someone has since realized that’s nuts)…

Again, don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions. Go “Over! Under! Through!” and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.”

So yeah, this book is hilarious and you should totally read it (though how can someone not like Chinese food??). Also she’s right, and that is now my new motto. Over Under Through. (Plus a cynical laugh and knowing look when someone tries to disparage romance fiction seems to work wonders)

What have you been doing with your time this week?? What is your strategy for dealing with annoying people?

Winner of Sally MacKenzie’s The Naked King is…..

Jessica (commenter number one)

Congratulations!

Jessica, you had an email address on your Blogger account so look for an email from Sally MacKenzie, who will need your snail mail address.

Thanks, everyone, for making Sally feel so welcome.

The Riskies

Congratulations to the winner of a signed copy of Stefanie Sloane’s The Devil in Disguise

Anthony James Craven, the Earl of Wickham, is dubbed Lord of Wicked for good reason. He lives and breathes seduction – until he mistakenly beds the wrong woman and is forced to marry the sensible, reserved Melissa Goodly. He intends to offer Melissa security and position, nothing more. Once they marry, Melissa cannot understand why her devastatingly attractive husband does not come to her bed. The more he pushes her away, the more she is resolved to turn the tables and open her shuttered heart to love. And though Anthony tries to resist the sensual siren that his wife has become, his plans for a companionable relationship are unravelling in the most pleasurable way…

Today’s guest is Bronwen Evans who’s here to talk about her book INVITATION TO RUIN. Bronwen, congrats on your debut. Did you always intend INVITATION TO RUIN to be the first of a three book series, and what are the challenges of writing a series?

Thanks for having me over today. My INVITATION TO… series was always going to have at least four books, but I’ve had a few readers ask for Cassandra’s book – can I redeem her? That’s a challenge and I’m thinking about it. So maybe there will be five books. I’m only contracted for two, so we will have to wait and see how sales of book one go.

As a reader I love series romances, so it’s only natural that I wanted to write a series. Thankfully, I love plotting. Part of the fun of writing a series, for me, is plotting out the overarching story and then each individual book before I start writing them. I think that’s important because readers want to see all the characters continue on through the books, so you have to understand how they are going to interact and enrich the stories.

The challenge in writing a series is to have enough interesting and engaging secondary characters that make the reader want to read their story’s too. Stephanie Laurens (one of my favorite Regency authors) did this really well. The Cynster books are still my all-time favorite series. The secondary characters in each book were very compelling. They needed a book of their own.

Already I have fans wanting Rufus Knight, Viscount Strathmore, and Richard Craven, Anthony’s twin brother’s stories.

Tell us your “call” story.

It all seemed to happen fairly quickly. I finished INVITATION TO RUIN at the end of October 2009. It was my first completed manuscript. Although I had been trying to write for a few years, I had never finished a book before – loads of half completed books – would be writers, don’t do that – you can’t sell what isn’t finished! So I didn’t have any expectations for the book. I sent off a query letter to two editors who I thought might be interested in the book and three agents. I got a full request from all of them BUT in the mean time (there is a lesson here – don’t send out queries until the book is polished and ready) my critique partners suggested some changes (and they were right) to one chapter that meant re-writing the last five chapters.

So instead of sending the full, I sent the first three chapters, hoping nobody noticed. My reasoning was, why hurry the re-write if they weren’t interested. Blow me; four came back asking for the rest, one agent declined. It was now about 15th December 2009, and I was coming up for my Christmas break. I thought, I’ll finish the last remaining chapters in my break, and send in on 3rd January. However, Megan Records from Kensington rang me in New Zealand on the 20th December, chasing the rest of the book saying, “I think I want to buy it.” I could not believe it – I was so excited and nervous – three chapters do not make a book!

I came clean and told her the situation. She was happy to wait. On 1st January 2010 I sent the finished book to everyone and on 3rd January, Melissa Jeglinski at The Knight Agency offered me representation (she’d come to the RWNZ 2009 Conference and I’d pitched to her) and on 7th January 2010 I had a two book deal from Megan. It was a dream run and it happened so fast my head was spinning. I still can’t quite believe it.

Needless to say I’ve fallen on my feet with both Megan and Melissa. It gets confusing sometimes – Megan and Melissa. I call them my M&M’s – sweeties.

What is it that attracts you to the Regency?
I’ve always loved reading Regency. The vibrancy and vividness of the period is appealing. The customs, behavior, clothes, houses, peers of the realm, ballrooms, virgins, absurd rules which everyone loves to break, the rakes, the clever women who try and mold the world to their ends, even when all the rules are stacked against them. As an author all of the above makes it so much fun to write. The period is so stifled and yet so risqué. It’s a writers dream come true.

Besides, I think my voice suits Regency. At my very first RWNZ conference, Paula Eykelhof, (Senior Editor HMB) told me to write what I love reading. So I did. She was right of course.

What don’t you like about the Regency?

Well, I suspect the reality of the time period was nothing like fiction. War, disease, poverty, lack of personal comforts and the fact woman had very little, if any rights, would make it a terrible time to have lived. Especially for intelligent women. You’d have limited or no control over your life.

One of your subplots involves the abolitionist movement. Would you like to tell us about the research you did.

I remember watching the movie, Amazing Grace, about William Wilberforce and I thought it interesting that in all the Regency period books I had read, no one mentioned slavery, yet it went on in England. Also, I thought about women’s rights or lack of them during the Regency period, and thought it would be interesting to have a heroine understand the concept of slavery and how it applied in her case and to others. The next step was obviously to have a hero whose background was in slave trading.

The movie Amazing Grace talked about the about the Anti-Slave Trade Act that was passed in 1807, making it illegal for British ships to carry slaves. I did a lot more research through books etc The Act was a very astute political move. Keeping most happy. It made England look as though they were trying to halt the trade, yet still allowed slavery to continue. England didn’t abolish slavery until 1833.

Still, some information took a lot of digging. I found out the largest slave trading port was at Bristol. Some of the hardest information to ascertain, was things like the price of slaves in England.

Tell us about being a twin and how you use that in your books.
I don’t really know what it’s like not to be a twin. Leigh has always been with me and is always experiencing life at the exact same time as me. That’s good and bad. You always have someone to discuss issues with and to experience important events in your life.

I wondered what it would have been like having a twin, but not being with them while growing up. How would I be different, how would that affect our relationship. Hence, Anthony, my hero, is brought up by his evil father and looks like his father. Richard is brought up by his gentler mother and looks like his mother. As they didn’t understand genetic in those days, Anthony assumes that as he looks like his father, he must be evil too. While Richard, looking like his mother must be an angel.

RT’s review describes your book as having “…a tortured hero that will delight the reader as much as he delights the heroine. A strong heroine, some wonderful secondary characters and a villain who is truly evil …” Which of these characters did you most enjoy writing?

I loved writing all of them because each of them was integral to the story and the emotional journey of the hero and heroine. Writing Anthony was emotional. To have his upbringing, to have suffered like he has, yet still be capable of love – he was such a wonderful character. Melissa was the perfect woman to help him. Intelligent, compassionate, and she has such a big heart. Philip, the villain I made completely evil. I gave Philip the exact same childhood background as Anthony, to show how someone can overcome their upbringing if they are strong enough. Anthony turned his back on evil, while Philip embraced it.

Tell us a bit about the next book in the series and when it’s coming out.

INVITATION TO SCANDAL is Rufus Knight, Viscount Strathmore’s book. He’s Anthony’s friend who works for the Crown. In INVITATION TO RUIN, Rufus asks for Anthony’s help to stop a white slavery ring. In INVITATION TO SCANDAL, Rufus is trying to atone for his father’s past. His father died amid rumors of treason, and Rufus is determined to learn the truth by catching a French spy using a Kent smuggling operation. But when Rufus discovers the true identity of the smuggler, he faces his biggest conundrum, what’s truly important in life, love or honor? INVITATION TO SCANDAL is due for release in 2012. After that look out for Richard Craven and Madeline Knight – Rufus’s sisters – story.

Thanks for having me over at Risky Regencies, it’s been fun. Leave a comment or answer the following question and go in the draw to win a signed copy of my book.

Q: What is Anthony’s middle name? Hint – read the first chapter excerpt of INVITATION TO RUIN.

I’m going to be speaking at NOLA Stars one day workshop on June 11 on just this very topic and although I have some ideas I’d love to hear yours.

Remember the Duke of Slut and the Regency Police?

For me the divide between Regency Fantasyland and history is becoming even wider and I think that’s a shame. Did all the hot young dukes in London really own private distilleries from whence they obtained their never ending supply of whiskey? Apparently they did, but that’s not my point. Really. We’ve created an alternate history with its own conventions and characteristics but I think providing this comfort zone is a mistake. Don’t we read historicals to go to a time and place unlike our own and wonder at the differences in manners and behavior we find there?

From a structural crafty point of view, I think the conflict established by the standards of the time regarding love and marriage should provide as much tension as anything else the hero/heroine might do or feel. The emotions should bridge the gap of two centuries and those emotions, since we write romance, should be what makes us identify with the characters. We must make the assumption that falling in love is pretty much the same whenever/wherever you live.

What do you think? Do you enjoy those familiar points of reference, or do you want to feel that shiver down your spine when you realize that you are indeed in a different country?