Amanda is out of town for a few days, but she has bribed, er persuaded, her friend Kae Elle Wheeler (a brand new author!) to fill in for the day! Comment for a chance to win a free download of The Wronged Princess…..
I am flattered beyond words to be invited as a guest blogger for the Risky Regency followers by my very VERY good friend, Amanda McCabe. While I do not write Regency, I am, an avid reader and fan of the period. I also have written my own small series of historical, dated just prior to Regency, late 18th century.
I am actually the resident historical romance reviewer for Book End Babes, and have been since 2007. I loveRegency romance. Some of the stories make me want to dive into a Delorean Time Machine to be whisked back in time as a heroine in one of Suzanne Enoch or Teresa Medieros outrageous plots. Take Charming the Prince for example. This little Cinderella story was so cute, I actually bought several copies to loan out, making sure I kept one available for myself to read when the notion struck. (I’ve read it six times).
The same goes for Ms. Enoch’s London’s Perfect Scoundrel. That hero was so messed up you could not help but fall in love with him when he turned the corner, determined to make the heroine his own. The same could be said for Lady Rogue.
I’m sure you are probably thinking that those are the only two authors I read. NOT! Other favorites include, but are not limited to, Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn, Victoria Alexander, Madeline…well, I’m sure you get the picture. (Including my good friend, Amanda).
My question is, what constitutes the allure to this particular time period that is so enthralling for a reader? I have a theory (it’s my own, of course). Europe—UK, France, Spain, etc. holds such a rich history. Not that, we in the US don’t as well, but theirs is just so jam packed with Royalty, diverse culture, tradition—long long looooong standing tradition. Hundreds of years worth tradition. I mean, think about it—200 years versus 1000 years!
I think Jayne Ann Krentz must touch on this very thing in her futuristic “Jayne Castle” line where the world as we know it has been closed off to the characters. So that in a sense she’s given the US that same allure to the characters in her books as we do with the Regency period, if that makes any sense. Regardless, there are other fun things about the Regency period that draw my interest. The clothes, of course. The dialogue has to be quite clever. But I think my favorite enticement is the way the characters have to gage the attention of their men, somehow avoiding risk to their reputations. Because, if their reputations are compromised, it is extremely dire. So how the author has hero step up becomes important. And if he’s the one who did the sullying—better yet, if someone else sullied, how does the hero move past that hurdle for his true love—andconvince the reader it’s ‘till death do us part’.
Not an easy task. (This is why I have my staples that I read over and over. The Wicked Widow—Amanda Quick; To Love a Thief—Julie Anne Long).
In addition, I love the moving pictures in my head when I read and write period romance. I love the twist on a fun fairy tale. You know—like when Cinderella’s shoe fits one of her evil stepsisters. The Wronged Princess – Book I. Or when one of the stepsisters takes out a horde of villains and has to deal with Prince Charming’s irresistible cousin, Sir Arnald. The Unlikely Heroine – Book II.And what if the batting-eyed sister overhears the man she’s had a deep-seated crush on for years tell his father “I would ne’er marry a woman who could cause an avalanche in the Pyrenees Mountains.” (Well, she was devastated, I can tell you.) The Surprising Enchantress – Book III.
La! I have a feeling that I am “preaching to the choir,” so I shall wrap up by saying, thank you for having me. Au revoir!
Bio: Kathy L Wheeler, while an avid reader, as stated, also writes Contemporary Romance. Her debut novel Quotable is due out June 6th through Soul Mate Publishing. An active member of the OKRWA, she has a novella The Color of Betrayal, tbr June 13, through Wild Rose Press as part of the Tales of the Scrimshaw Doll series.
Currently, The Wronged Princess – Book I, and The Unlikely Heroine — Book II are now available
No, really, this is the way I feel after massive cleaning, sorting, throwing out of items in preparation for some fairly substantial work to be done on my house.
This is a portrait of Mrs. Jane Ebrell when she was 87 by provincial artist John Walters of Denbigh, one of the servants at Erddig, a national trust property dating from the 18th century whose owners liked to commission servants’ portraits (and later photographs), embellished with poems. Mrs. Ebrell, a former housemaid, was hired as a Spider Catcher, possibly as a way for the family to support her in her later years. (I have been dealing with monumental spider webs.)
To dignifie our Servants’ Hall
Here comes the Mother, of us all:
For seventy years, or near have passed her,
since spider-brusher to the Master;
When busied then, from room to room,
She drove the dust, with burhs, and broom
Anyd by the virtues of her mop
To all uncleanness, put a stop:
But changing her housemaiden state,
She took our coachman, for a mate;
To whom she prov’d an useful gip,
And brought us forth a second whip:
Morever, this, oft, when she spoke,
Her tongue, was midwife, to a joke,
And making many an happy hit,
Stands here recorded for a wit:
O! may she, yet some years, survive,
And breed her Grandchildren to drive!
She certainly sounds better at cleaning than me. (And to whichever member of the Yorke family of Erddig wrote the poem, don’t give up your day job.) I’ve mentioned Erddig before as it is such a rich source of servant info, but I may not have told you what an excellent cake shop it has–other food is sold there, but I ate only cake. The walls of the cake shop are hung with photos of the house as it was before restoration by the National Trust. This is Philip Yorke, the last private owner of Erddig, in the one habitable room of the house before he deeded it to the National Trust (note: no electricity!). It was a real mess with subsiding floors (built over a coal mine, something I borrowed for The Rules of Gentility), buckets scattered throughout the house to catch leaks from the roof–just horrible. Happily major restoration, funded by the Coal Board and sale of some of the land, put it to rights and it’s now one of the most popular stately homes in England.
But back to my humble home–any tips for surviving renovation? If I were in the Regency and wealthy I’d just take off to one of my other houses, leaving my faithful butler in charge. Sadly that is not the case. The best tip I’ve had so far is to eat out as much as possible and label the boxes.
And a small reminder that (1) The Malorie Phoenix is now 99 cents for kindle and (2) I’d love some amazon reviews. If you’re a legit blogger/reviewer, please contact me.
Before I announce the winner of A Perilous Journey by Gail Eastwood, I’d like to share some fun stuff I’ve learned about the history of ballooning while working on my next story, which features a Waterloo veteran turned aeronaut.
Fun Fact #1
The first creatures to fly in a balloon were a cockerel, a duck and a sheep. They ascended in a Montgolfiere (hot air balloon, named after the brothers who invented it) in 1783, with an audience that included Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. I have heard that the sheep was taken to live on Marie Antoinette’s farm, but I haven’t been able to verify that story.
Hot air balloons were kept aloft by burning straw, old shoes and rancid meat, which must have had a delightful smell. Because there were no fuels at the time that could burn for long flights, hydrogen balloons became more popular for a time.
Fun Fact #2
The first unmanned hydrogen balloon, created by the scientist Jacques Charles, took off in 1783, after the first hot air balloon flights. On landing it was said to have been destroyed by peasants with pitchforks who were frightened by the strange creature that hissed and spewed noxious gas. Pure hydrogen is odorless, but the process of creating it involved pouring “vitriolic” (sulfuric) acid over iron shavings. When I consulted a chemist, she told me that the process would have been imperfect. She concurred with my guess that the result may have smelled like rotten eggs.
Fun Fact #3
The first aeronauts to cross the English channel were a Frenchman, Blanchard, and an American, Dr. Jeffries. They departed from England on the 7th of January, 1795. They found themselves losing altitude over the water, possibly because the balloon was overloaded or because the cold had cooled the hydrogen, or a combination of the two. To avoid landing in the Channel, they had to ditch all non-essential items. This included most of their clothing.
Fun Fact #4
Blanchard’s and Jeffries’ problems were not over with crossing the Channel. They began to descend again over dense woods south of Calais. As landing in trees is not advisable, they once again had to lighten the load. Since they had ditched just about everything, they decided to pee their way out of danger!
I hope this was interesting. Which (if any) of these facts do you think I’m using in my own balloonist story?
And now for the winner of Gail Eastwood’s giveaway…
Congratulations to Ruth!
Please email me at elena @ elenagreene.com (no spaces) to let me know whether you prefer Nook or Kindle, and which email address you’d like Gail to use in setting up your order.
Shoot. Apologies to my fellow Riskies and our readers for bailing out last weekend on my post.
See, there was this Memorial Day weekend, and things to do, and words to write, and I’ve been feeling about as interesting as a rock. A BORING rock, so I haven’t come up with any kinds of fascinating blog topics.
But back to the writing of words–I am about halfway done with writing the first draft of The Hero’s Return, and I’m having a whole lotta fun. The thing is, though, I have no idea if it hangs together at all as a book rather than close to 40K worth of words. I hope to gain perspective, but it’s like looking too close at yourself in the mirror: You see your pores, and your blotches, and how much your eyebrows need plucking (yes, I know that’s me. Maybe it’s you, too?), but you don’t see your whole FACE.
Here’s a bit of what I’ve written:
She saw him swallow, and open his mouth, but he said nothing. She felt her insides flood with warmth as his eyes grew predatory again, not in a hunter kind of way, but in a ‘I am about to kiss you again’ type of way.
And she wanted it. At this moment, with this man, she wanted this kiss.
Perhaps later she would regret it—she knew she would, in fact—but for right now, it was all that mattered.
Next up is one of the black moments, not the ultimate black moments, but a middling black moment. Maybe it’s slate-gray? Anyway. I hope to top 40K words over the weekend, and then onto the house party section (right now the hero and heroine are traveling alone together. Yes, I know it’s not something the heroine would do; yes, I do make it somewhat justifiable). Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! And that your face is GORGEOUS close up.
Today our Risky Regencies guest is Sally MacKenzie, here to talk about her latest book, Bedding Lord Ned. Bedding Lord Ned is the first of three books in Sally’s new Duchess in Love series and it has already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly:
Mackenzie (The Naked King) launches the Duchess of Love Regency trilogy with an engaging tale that balances greed, jealousy, and malice with humor and sweetness….readers will cheer as each villain’s deceit is revealed and both justice and romance are served.
Sally will be giving away a signed copy of Bedding Lord Ned to one lucky commenter, chosen at random.
Welcome back, Sally!
Thanks so much for inviting me to stop by. It’s always fun to spend time with the Riskies!
Tell us about Bedding Lord Ned and your new non-Naked Duchess in Love series!
The first thing to know is the “Duchess of Love” is the ton’s nickname for Venus Valentine, the Duchess of Greycliffe. Venus has been a matchmaker since she was young enough to realize there was a difference between boys and girls, but the matches that most challenge her are those of her three sons. Bedding Lord Ned is the story of her efforts to bring Ned, her second son, together with his childhood friend Ellie Bowman.
When Ellie arrives at the duchess’s annual Valentine house party, she’s decided to give up any hope of marrying Ned. She’s loved him since she was a girl–even before he married her best friend–and she’d hoped, after she helped him through his year of mourning at the death of his wife and son in childbirth, he’d choose her for his second wife. But Cicely died four years ago, and Ned seems no closer to remarrying. Ellie wants children; it’s time for her to move on. This year she’ll put aside her dreams of Ned and find a husband from the other men the duchess has invited. She just needs to convince her heart of that–and to persuade the duchess’s thieving cat to stop stealing her red silk drawers and depositing them under Ned’s bed.
When Ned arrives at the house party, he’s decided to finally cooperate with his mother’s matchmaking efforts. He wants a family; he needs an heir. Ergo, he must consign his past to the past and get a wife–and the woman his mother seems to have selected for him even looks like his lost love. But his old friend Ellie is behaving strangely, and Reggie, Mama’s cat, keeps bringing him a pair of shocking red underwear. This outrageous, alluring scrap of silk couldn’t be good, old Ellie’s, could it? Suddenly his respectable childhood friend is invading his dreams in an utterly scandalous manner.
Admit it. The reason Bedding Lord Ned received a starred review from Publishers Weekly was because of the cat. Tell us about the use of cats as a plot device!
LOL! I’m sure that’s true. The funny thing is, I have no cats–or any pets–of my own. (I have four sons, but that’s a whole different story.) I think I’m inspired by the great Georgette Heyer’s use of pets in her books–loved, loved, loved those.
I’m not one of those writers that comes skipping, full of glee, to start a new book. Frankly, I am not bristling with ideas. I look at the blank screen in horror and get a suffocating feeling of panic when I think about the 400 some pages I have yet to fill. So I’m always scrambling around a bit trying to come up with an opening scene.
Enter Sir Reginald–Reggie–the duchess’s cat–and a pair of red silk drawers. (More on those later.) Reggie was born as a way to get the story going, but then he sort of took over–I guess that’s what cats do? I turns out he’s as much a matchmaker, in his own way, as the duchess.
Another funny thing about Reggie. When my editor showed me the cover for Bedding Lord Ned, there was an animal tugging on the girl’s dress, but it wasn’t a cat–it was a dog! I had a brief–a very brief–thought of transforming Reggie, but quickly realized I’d have to completely rewrite the book to do that. So, voila and hallelujah, the cover was changed.
Seriously, what has it been like to end a popular series, like the Naked series, and embark on something new?
The Naked series was tons of fun–it comprises seven novels and two novellas. I even came to embrace being “the Naked writer.” But all good things must come to an end. For one thing, I’d pretty much run through the peerage. Perhaps I could have wandered into other territory–I must admit The Naked Butler still calls to me–but I also think it was time to try something new.
The Duchess of Love books are planned as a series as opposed to the Naked world which grew haphazardly. Well, “planned” is a relative word–I’m what they call a “pantser” rather than a plotter. There’s a prequel novella and then a trilogy of books–one for each of the duchess’s sons. The books cover a relatively short period of time from February to perhaps November–Bedding Lord Ned happens over a matter of days in February–and intertwine a bit.
All that said, I think the Duchess of Love stories will be the same kind of read as the Naked books. I’m still having fun exploring family relationships with a touch–well, perhaps a generous helping–of humor.
How did you introduce the new series?
We tried something new with The Duchess of Love series–or at least, new for me and I think my publisher: we kicked it off with an e-novella prequel–titledThe Duchess of Love–that released April 24. But don’t worry if you haven’t made the jump to an e-reader–the novella is included in the back of the print version of Bedding Lord Ned.
The Duchess of Love is set thirty years before Bedding Lord Ned and is the story of how the duchess meets her duke. As a little bit of a nod to my Naked world, the duke first sees Venus when she’s skinny dipping in a pond on the property he’s recently inherited and is visiting for the first time. He thinks she’s drowning and rushes in to save her. It’s a mistaken identity, love at almost first sight story which includes a dog and some marauding caterpillars. (The caterpillar scene was based on a real life disaster that spelled the end of my Dwarf Mugo Pines.)
I hadn’t planned to write the novella, actually. In my original synopsis, the duchess was a widow. But when my agent suggested this prequel, I went with it. Of course, once I’d met the duke, I couldn’t kill him off. And since the duke was still alive, that meant the eldest son was “demoted” to heir apparent which changed his story quite a lot. But since I’m a pantser and not a plotter, it was all good.
Did you come across any interesting research when writing Bedding Lord Ned?
The first thing I needed to determine was whether cats do steal things. I did a little googling and came across this mention of a British underwear stealing feline. And in looking for that article while writing this blog, I came across this video:
Also in the interesting video department, I’ve got a scene where Ellie is skating on a pond and the ice cracks. She doesn’t actually fall in, but I wanted to research how Ned should best save her and found this video by a very dedicated Canadian scientist:
Finally, whenever I include objects in a story, I like to have a picture of what the thing might look like. When my husband and I were in London in the fall of 2010, I was fascinated with the decorative details on everyday objects like chairs, candelabra, andirons, and the like. At the silent auction at last year’s Beau Monde mini conference, I won a very heavy, very large paperback book, The Treasure Houses of Britainwith the subtitle “Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting.” It is full of photographs, some of which came in very helpful when I was writing the scenes where the house party guests go hunting for paper hearts in the dungeon.
What is risky about Bedding Lord Ned?
I always say I’m not really a researcher. Some authors come to writing Regencies with a strong historical bent; I came because I’d read scads of Regencies, starting with Georgette Heyer when I was around middle school age. The Regency is a bit of my imaginative playground. I want to get things right–or at least not wrong–but I’m not a historian.
The Beau Monde chapter of RWA is a great place to get lots of–sometimes an overwhelming amount of–good information. And one topic that pops up from time to time is underwear: what did–or didn’t–they wear under those dresses? Some sources seem to say they went commando. (Hilarious print from 1815 I found when checking my terminology, which I got to from this article about a “True Scotsman.”
Ergo, I was very worried about those red silk drawers. Were they going to be like waving a red flag in front of a bull? (Alas, not a period expression.) But, as I say, I’m not a writer who’s bristling with ideas or thrilled with the blank page. I’d actually tried starting the book in an entirely different way–and that had been a complete disaster. So my muse was giving me these red silk drawers; I couldn’t afford to turn up my nose at them.
And then when my husband and I were in England, we visited the Sir John Soane’s Museum. I bought The Soanes at Home, and in it I discovered Mrs. Soane, who died in 1815, had a pair of long cotton drawers! If Mrs. Soane had drawers, I decided Ellie could, too. And once I felt somewhat confident about that, I was willing to finesse the red silk part. And it’s a good thing, because what began as a way to start the story, ended up–like Reggie–taking over much more of the book than I’d intended.
What is next?
I’m finishing up Jack’s–the third son’s–book (where you’ll find a dog named Shakespeare). And I’ll be starting Ash’s book as soon as I catch my breath. No firm release dates yet on Jack’s and Ash’s stories. Oh, and our third son is getting married in August, so that will take some of my attention, too!
Now I have a question for all of you. Dog or cat? Are there really dog people and cat people? And what do you think of pets in books?
So far, including the Naked books, I’ve had cats, dogs, a talking parrot, and a mischievous monkey. And maybe some others I’ve forgotten. Ash’s book will have a pet, too, but I haven’t yet decided what it will be. Any suggestions? It has to be something that will look fetching on the cover.
Answer Sally’s questions or make a comment or ask a question of your own for a chance to win a signed copy of Bedding Lord Ned. We’ll pick a winner Monday June 3 around midnight.
