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Foreign Affairs

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A very nice thing happened this week. Joelle, a “huge fan” (as she describes herself) from France, emailed to tell me that the French edition of The Mysterious Miss M is being released in August and she sent me a jpg of the book cover. Joelle has read my books in English and it was très généreux of Joelle to take the time to tell me about this exciting event, it gave me the idea of showing off my foreign covers.

Harlequin Mills & Boon has world-wide distribution and their authors might have their books released over and over again in different countries. I haven’t yet had the pleasure of one of my books to be released in Japan (can’t wait for that one) but they’ve come out in Italy, Germany, Australia, and now France! My Diane Perkins books will even appear in other countries-Spain and Norway.

The covers are all different, and sometimes the titles are altered in the translation.

My first foreign sales were to Italy. I remember years ago when I traveled to Italy with my friend Susan, I had just started writing romance. I searched bookstores for a romance in Italian, but only found them on newstands. I purchased an Italian Harlequin then, and now my own books have appeared on their newstands. Molto ironico!

The Mysterious Miss M

A Reputable Rake

I am supposed to receive copies of each foreign edition, but that does not always happen. So far, I have the whole set of German releases. One of the first reviewers I contacted to review The Mysterious Miss M was Kris Alice Hohls, who now is publishing a romance review magazine Love Letter. Kris liked Miss M so much she convinced Cora, the German branch of Harlequin, to release it as a single title book. The others came out in their series lines.

The Mysterious Miss M

The Wagering Widow

A Reputable Rake

I love those German covers, with all their bursting emotion.

The most elegant covers, however, are the Australian ones. In Australia, my books were released in a two-books-in-one format, paired with another Regency author. It has been so difficult to find good images of these books and I only had Lords & Ladies to scan.

The Mysterious Miss M in Regency Scandals

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The Wagering Widow in Regency Rakes

A Reputable Rake in Lords & Ladies

(Don’t you think the titles for these last two should be reversed?)

So far one of my Diane Perkins books has been released in Spain. This is not my favorite cover–much too contemporary and generic–but it has to be my favorite foreign title.


La Impostora (The Improper Wife)

I tell you, this is all part of the fun of being a romance author!
For more fun go to Romance Novel TV. Click on the RWA 2007 tab and on Girl’s Night Out. If you look quick you’ll see me!

Also hurry over to DianeGaston.com. Only one more day to enter my contest to win copies of The Mysterious Miss M for you and a friend.

To be a winner every month, sign up for our Risky Regency newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com (Put NEWSLETTER in subject line). The newsletter is a prize in itself!

Au revoir! Arrivederci! Auf Wiedersehen! Adiós! G’day, mate!

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Megan and Amanda Chat About Amanda’s New Book!

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Megan: So, what made you think of this story?
Amanda: Well–Romeo and Juliet! Or the Zeffirelli movie version of it. Along with movies like A Dangeous Beauty and Casanova. I love the aesthetics of Renaissance Italy, the clothes, the villas, the whole juxtaposition of violence and feuds with the most amazing art and learning. And Venice is so romantic and mysterious! Julietta and Marc just seemed to belong there.
Megan: And what made you change your writing venue from Regency England to 16th century Venice?
Amanda: The Regency well had run dry! After the books and novellas at Signet, I had a very hard time getting excited about any Regency ideas. But I’ve always been interested in the Renaissance (being a complete history geek). The tremendous optimism of the time period, the advances in science and exploration, the rise of humanism and art–not just in terms of technique, but in what it meant to be an Artist. What it meant to really be human. Tremendously exciting. (Plus those great gowns!). And now even the Regency well is refilling with new ideas!
Megan: How did you do your research?
Amanda: I read a lot! (Plus forced myself to watch those movies over and over again. It was terrible, but anything for my craft…) I also found a great treasure at a book sale just as I was starting this story–a reproduction of a 16th century souvenir book full of colored sketches of Venice during Carnival. Masked revelers pelting each other with eggshells full of perfume, dance barges on the Grand Canal, sword duels, the Marriage of the Sea ceremony. It was a great inspiration, many of those scenes found their way into the A Notorious Woman! Masked balls at the Piazza San Marco, for instance. Some other great sources were Cohn’s Women in the Street: Essays on Sex and Power in Renaissance Italy; Ruggiero’s Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of the Renaissance; Wills’ Venice: Lion City; and Newton’s The Dress of the Venetians, 1495-1525. (These are just a few).
Megan: What’s with the codpieces? How did they work exactly?
Amanda: Heh heh, you said ‘codpieces’!! (Sorry, immature moment there. Ahem). In short (ha! short!), a codpiece is a flap or pouch attached to the front of trousers/hose, held closed by string ties or buttons. At first, anyway, this was a matter of modesty–hose were very snug, open at the crotch, with a man’s, er, equipment loose under the doublet. As doublets got shorter, this was just not going to work anymore, and the codpiece became a thing of vanity. They became padded to emphasize the genital area, weirdly shaped. To see some examples, you can go here. (BTW, in Middle English, cod or codd means “bag”. Get it? Tee hee).
Megan: It seemed as if you might be thinking of continuing this with one of the other characters; do you have plans to go on with the series?
Amanda: When I first wrote this story, I didn’t mean to set up sequels! But, as characters sometimes do, Nicolai and then Balthazar caught my imagination. They needed their own stories! Their own heroines! I had also been thinking of another character for a while, a beautiful French assassin, et voila! She turned out to be a great match for Nicolai (even though she tried to kill him in the past. Oops). Balthazar was a bit tougher to matchmake for–he’s handsome but, well, complicated. He has to go to the Caribbean to find his love (and no, it’s not Elizabeth Swann!). I also may have to go there, and do in-depth research on beaches and pina coladas for this book…
Megan: Your heroine is a perfumier (is that the right word??). What’s your favorite scent?
Amanda: I love perfume, and read way too many perfume blogs! (Check out this and this). Unfortunately, I seem to have a weird body chemistry that makes scents I love in the bottle (like Chanel #5 and Joy) smell like motor oil when I put them on. But I have two stand-bys–Evelyn by Crabtree & Evelyn (a summery rose smell!) and Coco Mademoiselle for special occasions (why this works and #5 doesn’t, I dunno). It was so much fun to research Renaissance methods and styles of perfume bottles.
Megan: Are there real people who were the inspirations behind Julietta and Marc?
Amanda: I wish there was a Marc! As for Julietta–I guess she is a bit like me (sadly not the tall part). Most of my heroines are either something like me or something like how I wish I was. Or a mix. And heroes are guys I wish I could meet.
Megan: What are you working on now?
Amanda: I just started working on a Regency-set story (book #2 in the upcoming “Muses of Mayfair”–Clio’s story), which is set in Sicily. After that, on to Balthazar’s Caribbean story!
Megan: In your writing, do you feel you’re taking risks? How?
Amanda: I think trying an Italian Renaissance setting was a risk. And some editors felt the story was too “dark” (even though no one dies or gets tortured or anything!!). I was lucky Harlequin loved it, and saw the potential! Sometimes there are stories we just have to tell, and this was one for me. Also, I find myself drawn more to experienced, more complex heroines lately, women who are making their own way in a dangerous world. (Julietta owns a perfume shop, and dabbles in some alchemy on the side; Marguerite, Nicolai’s lady, is a spy/assassin; Balthazar’s heroine, Kate, runs a tavern in Santo Domingo). They’re more of a match for the heroes, LOL!
Megan: Is there anything you wanted to include in this book that you (or your CPs or editor) felt was too controversial and left out?
Amanda: Originally, there was more about Julietta’s alchemical experiments! But it was cut due to word count constraints. I do tend to ramble on when not given perimeters! They did let me keep the Greek fire, which I really enjoyed…
Be sure and comment for the chance to win a signed copy of A Notorious Woman, on shelves now! Winner will be announced Monday morning. And sign up for the Risky newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com, to get news of upcoming interviews and contests, and other fun stuff!

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That’s Entertainment!

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Today, my Son and I are taking a nearly four-hour bus ride, from Providence, RI, back to New York City. In this case, I thank goodness for Nintendo, and its all-powerful DS, which will entertain my son for most of the time we are on the bus. What did mothers do in past years without electronics?!? Besides curse their childrens’ names, of course.

We’ve spent this week at my father’s house on Cape Cod, MA. Dad lives a very Regency gentleman kind of life: He gets up, has his hot beverage, potters about in his yard, reads (a lot!), visits the local gossip spot (in his case, the Swap Shop, where he volunteers his time), sends and receives mail, and opines on the news of the day.

I’ve been able to write in the evenings, because both the Son and the Father go to bed around nine o’clock. It’s so still and peaceful here, and you can actually see the stars, a non-occurence in Brooklyn, where I live.

Vacation means many different things to many people; for me, although I don’t have a full-time job, it is a rare opportunity to relax. My favorite vacation is one where I actually forget what time it is, and almost feel as if I’ve gotten enough sleep (and mid-afternoon naps are the norm, not an anomaly).

It’s getting to be that time for a lot of us; what is your ideal vacation? Where are you going this year? And most importantly, what books are you bringing?

Megan
PS: No pix, ’cause I’m on dial-up. Perhaps later, when I am back in the land of the internet cable.

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