Category: Writing

Posts in which we talk about the writing craft and process

You Stupid Galatians

Updated on September 21, 2015 by Mary Blayney

There is no doubt that the outside world seeps into our stories — even in a Regency. You have only to look at Mary Balogh’s excellent Survivor series to see that. Her characters are all recovering from various injuries that are a result of the Peninsular wars, from blindness to classic PTSD trauma. She makes it work in her Regency world but every reader has to make the comparison with today’s veterans.

The impact on my writing is not quite as obvious. At least I don’t think it is. So I am going to share one with you. And want to know yours as a writer and a reader.

When I started writing Lovers Kiss in 2006 I was enjoying a Bible Study class led by one of the most amazing women I know, Marika Ullanowicz. She brought a fascinating, often unconventional perspective to whatever we studied and many of her thoughts and the resulting discussions made their way into Lover’s Kiss.

The most enduring is the phrase “You stupid Galatians.” The King James Bible as well as the New American Bible translates the phrase from the Greek as “You Senseless Galatians” (3:1) but Marika suggested that we look at the literal translation which is — ta da — Stupid. We all laughed at this and discussed how that was so much more Paul than the more temperate word “senseless.”

So the phrase “stupid Galatians” became the ultimate insult the resident and aging vicar used as he searched through the night for lost sheep, a sure sign of his age and the need for him to retire. Michael Garrett finds him out wandering one evening and as Michael escorts the vicar home they have the same discussion re the translation of the word and the vicar’s conviction that stupid is much more appropriate.

When they reach the vicar’s home Michael leaves the old man in the care of the housekeeper and as he departs Michael says to her “Do tell him I am sorry he found no lost sheep tonight.”

The housekeeper responds, “Oh, but he did. He found you.” And that is the first step on Michael’s road “home” and the current series I am working on where Michael Garret is now the Vicar of Pennsford and dealing with both stupid Galatians and lost sheep.

But I digress. In the current wip “Stupid Galatians” has become his family’s most forceful condemnation referring always to someone who is on the wrong path and totally unaware.

That’s a long story for a short phrase but a favorite of mine. Tell me, authors, what parts of your world have made their way into your historicals, or contemporaries? And as a reader tell us about a book that has connected most directly to something in your world?

Posted in Writing | 2 Replies

Fall Forward

Updated on September 10, 2015 by Elena Greene

I’ve been even more busy than usual lately, so my apologies for not having a Regency-related post. I recently delivered my oldest back to college and my youngest just started back at high school. It’s been a maelstrom of back to school shopping, helping to plan the children and youth programs for this year at my UU church, plus redecorating my youngest’s bedroom. She was finally ready to let go of the ladybugs and butterflies I painted on her walls before she was born. The walls are now the color of strawberry ice cream–so cheerful! Painting over the murals made us a little weepy (we took lots of pictures). It was also a challenge, requiring 4 coats in some places, but it was also a lot of fun and we’re both thrilled with how it turned out.

Writing, however, has still been on the back burner. Last February, I posted about Going Home, the need to take some time to deal with a situation that has been affecting my writing for a long time. Unfortunately, the situation is ongoing but I’ve grown stronger and recently I started doing some CPR on my writing career.

Due to some rather boring problems related to European VAT tax laws, I had unpublished my ebooks from every place except Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I’ve resolved the problems and recently republished all my titles at Apple and Kobo and hope to get them out to other sites as well.

I’m also working on plans to get back to the writing itself. Although taking a break was the right thing at the time and my situation is still challenging, at this point any work I do will be an empowering act, even if it’s a few hours a week at a coffee shop.

I’m also looking forward to the usual pleasures of the season: apple picking, fresh apple cider, baking with pumpkin, fall foliage.

Anyone else looking forward to fall? Any transitions in your lives?

Elena

Posted in Writing | 1 Reply

A Day Out of Time.

Updated on August 31, 2015 by Mary Blayney

Fun is the word whenever I welcome Lavinia Kent to the Riskies. Lavinia is a good friend of mine and though we write in the same genre we are miles apart in our approach to the period. I tend toward the traditional and Lavinia writes hot in about a hundred different shades. I love what she has to say here. Read on and see what you think.

Belly dancers. Pirates garbed in black. Fairies with flower wings. Woodland warriors with full wolf masks. Friars, satyrs and pixies. A steampunk gentleman.

What do any of these things have to do with the other?

A glorious afternoon spent at the Renaissance Festival answers that question. Do any of these things belong there? No – and Yes, Yes, Yes. I love the anachronism of the Festival. I love the joy people take in their costumes even when they make no sense. Few of the costumes are directly related to England under Henry the Eighth. Somehow it just doesn’t matter.

Some of the garb is timely to the basic period but still the differences can be great, the costumes differing by centuries.

As I sat and watched the people go by, I considered how to make them work for the period, what story to tell to make each piece fit. Why was that group wearing hats of fabulously colored ribbons? Was somebody throwing a masquerade and required that all the guests come dressed that way?

And why was a party of pirates walking down the center of the street and nobody reacting? Was a prodigal son returning and all his friends chose to dress in a similar fashion to make him feel at home?

And where did the belly dancers come from? Were they heading to some other foreign land and after a great storm came to shore on England’s coast in all their bells and scarves? Or did some crusader knight return with a retinue of fair dancers who didn’t know how to dress for the English winter?

And the steampunk gentleman? Clearly a time traveller lost by a century or two now doing his best to fit in.

For each passerby I could find a story and a reason.

And that made me think about my own writing. I’ve always acknowledged that I am research light. I love the characters and the story more than the facts. But, and it’s a BIG but, I work hard to not get anything wrong. I may skim over a detail, if I can’t find a ready source, but if I put a goldfish in the pond I do the work to be sure that goldfish or koi had already arrived from China. And I’ve spent countless hours looking up words to see when they came in to use and whether they were used the same way they are now.

So why do I love the anachronisms of the Festival? Because the inspiration I find in them. And the same is true in my writing. I love the challenge of explaining why my heroine’s viewpoints might not be traditional for the age, why she knows more (or less) than the other women around her. It’s fascinating to explain why an elderly woman clings to the corsets of fifty years before.

I don’t like it when history is wrong, but there is something wonderful when an author can add an oddity and make it work. I worked along the lines of this premise when creating Ruby, Madame Rouge in my Bound and Determined series. I wanted to create a multi-faceted woman who could run a successful brothel, go to church with her grandparents and put on the airs of any great lady plus she had to know about textiles and how to sum a patron up by the cloth of his trousers.

I am not going to give all the secrets of her past, but I will say that having a duke for a father and his well bred, but not quite well enough bred, mistress for a mother was an easy place to start.

And then came the fun of figuring out how to bring each heroine to Madame Rouge’s house. Surely no true lady would ever visit such a place – or would she?

What would make each individual make the choice to do something so out character?Answering those questions is what makes the writing such fun and hopefully the reading as well. I’ve had a different answer in each of books, Mastering the Marquess and Bound by Bliss and in my September novella, Sarah’s Surrender, I work to find one more, to explain why a gentleman would ever bring his love of years before to such a scandalous establishment as Madame Rouges.

What sparks your imagination? As a reader are you curious about what inspiration lurks behind the title?

Finally, thank you for having me. I always love the chance to stop by Risky Regencies.

Thank you , Lavinia. We all enjoy having you with us!

Posted in Regency, Research, Writing | 7 Replies

What a Character!

Updated on August 17, 2015 by Mary Blayney

As I begin the series that has been the subject of the occasional post here on Risky Regencies, I’ve been thinking about my hero and heroine, John and Mimi, and what makes them the unique and intriguing people they are. I’ve got it now but I won’t spoil the fun by talking about it when you can read about them before too long.

In the process of working it out I gave some thought to my past characters and what they have in common.

Anyone who knows me can guess that the key element they all share is “honor at the core of their being.” Though I could argue that Mia in COURTESAN’S KISS was right on the edge of honorable. She was just a bit too manipulative and selfish. Hopefully her loving relationship with her half-sister and her difficult youth made her behavior understandable and acceptable. And, in the end, of course, love conquers all.

At the other extreme of honor at the core has to be Michael Garret, the continuing character (not the hero) in the series I am writing now and the hero of LOVER’S KISS. Michael abandoned his religious training and joined the army rather than accept a living that would have made him a puppet. Even as a spy (see TRAITOR’S KISS) he knew the cost of his work and helped his colleagues whenever the need arose, even when it threatened his own safety. He is settled now, responding fully to his call as a vicar (though an unconventional one) and finds great joy in the world around him. (And yes, Michael looks a lot like Liam Neeson.)

But there is one other element that my characters share and it’s what makes them unique in their world. Almost all of them defy the social norm in some way. Michael as an unconventional vicar. Mia, in her extreme, way insisting that she would become a courtesan.

Then there is Lady Olivia, the daughter of a duke, who loves the kitchen, especially baking. Her brother, Lord David, decides to go into business despite the fact that gentlemen did not. The list goes on and includes either the hero or heroine and sometimes both in my “Kiss series” (Check out my website for titles and details: MaryBlayney.com)

So now what I am wondering is what element your favorite characters share whether you be reader or writer? I bet I know what Diane Gaston will say.

Posted in Regency, Writing | 5 Replies

Strong Heroines of All Kinds

Updated on July 10, 2015 by Elena Greene

I’ve been streaming Star Trek: Voyager on Netflix a lot lately. Although the series (like all the Star Trek series) had some uneven writing, I do love the strong female characters, including Captain Kathryn Janeway.

Some Star Trek fans hated her, but I’m with Sara Eileen Hames, who wrote this blog post on the TOR website: “Janeway Doesn’t Deserve this Shit”.

Hames quotes one of the more egregious bits of snark she has read about Janeway:

“What they needed was a take charge, dynamic female Captain, what they gave us was a moralizing, overly-liberal pushover all too willing to throw her crew’s life away for no reason at all if it made her seem superior and at least as interested in prancing around in frilly dresses on the holodeck as she is in leading her crew.”

So there it is—her worst offence is taking a little free time from her stressful job to enjoy a romance holo-novel. The horror!

And not just any romance, but a historical romance featuring a governess. How cool is that?

Here’s something Hames herself wrote that sums up how I feel:

“Janeway is a strong female character to rock all strong female characters: A leader who is female-gendered, in touch with her sense of gender, and yet invested with a non-gendered position of highest responsibility which she executes with capability and compassion.”

In other words, everything that is most frightening to the fan-boys who admire Kirk’s girl-on-every-planet exploits. (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Kirk, but he does fall in love rather easily…)

Here’s another reason I love Janeway. She’s older than your average kickass heroine. While I enjoy heroines like The Avengers’ Black Widow, as played by Scarlett Johansson, and though they are interesting characters in their own right, they can also be perceived as serving the purpose of appealing to the fantasies of teenaged boys (and less evolved older men). Captain Janeway is sexy but her purpose is to captain a starship.

Likewise, a good romance heroine has more to her than beauty. She may or may not be physically tough, but she always has strength of character, like Jane Austen’s heroines who refuse to cave in to pressure and marry men not worthy of them.

It’s been far too long since I’ve had much time to read, so my favorite examples of strong historical romance heroines are from older books: Alys from Mary Jo Putney’s The Rake and the Reformer, who works as a land steward and supports the hero in battling his alcoholism, and Melanthe from Laura Kinsale’s For My Lady’s Heart, who is outwardly tough as nails while hiding heartbreaking secrets.

I hope at some point to have time to read more for pleasure, so help me out. Which historical romances have you read recently that feature particularly strong heroines?

Elena

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged Captain Janeway, Star Trek Voyage, strong heroines | 1 Reply