Tag Archives: Jane Austen

Discoveries

Updated on July 19, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Here we are now in Day 27 of 100+ temps, so I am staying in the AC and drinking lots and lots of iced tea. But I’m also on my “try new things” campaign, which meant I went out on a date with a new man last night (definitely something different!) and am going back to yoga class today for the first time since the surgery. Every day feels more and more “normal” again, and I love it. I’m also on a blog tour with authors Paula Quinn and Sue-Ellen Welfonder (look at my blog for dates–lots and lots of giveaways!)

While I’m trying to stay cool, I’m also making my way through a huge TBR pile of both fiction and non-fiction. One of the books I forgot I bought is Jonathan Downs’s Discovery at Rosetta: The Stone That Unlocked the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt. If you’re read some of my posts here, or my “Muses of Mayfair” series, you know I’m fascinated by archaeology and ancient myths, so I happily settled down to read this last week. And I found out July 19 is the anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone….

The Rosetta Stone is a pretty dull-looking black granite stele inscribed with a decree issued by Ptolemy V in 196 BC, but it’s inconspicuous appearance belies its enormous importance–since it’s inscribed with the decree in 3 different scripts (ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic script, and ancient Greek) it was the key to beginning to understand hieroglyphs, which had been a mystery before that.

Originally displayed in a temple, it eventually found itself part of the building materials of Fort Julien near Rashid (Rosetta), where it was discovered by a French soldier in 1799. Luckily Napoleon had taken not only military to Egypt, but a group of 167 scholars and experts known as the Comission des Sciences des Arts to study the history and culture of the region. (This group had a long and colorful experience in Egypt, but that’s another story…). The stone fell into British hands in 1801 and has been in the British Museum since 1802. The first translation of the Greek text appeared in 1803, but it was 20 years before Jean-Francois Champollion announced the initial decipherment of the hieroglyphs. Like many objects, it’s a source of conflict to this day…

For more information, you can visit the Britsh Museum’s site (but I warn you–this site can be a total time suck!)
What are some of your favorite things you’ve come across in museums? How are you staying out of the heat this summer??

Christine Merrill’s Winners

Updated on July 19, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Congratulations to…….

Artemis!!

You have won a signed copy of Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess.

And to….

Na!!

You have won a signed copy of Lady Drusilla’s Road to Ruin

Ladies, email us at riskies@yahoo.com

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen | 3 Replies

Carolyn’s Read Along

Updated on July 18, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Short post today because I have spotty internet access!

I started To Wed a Stranger by Edith Layton in order to prepare for Carolyn’s Risky Read-Along. I intended to read a little each day, like I usually do, and I expected to be behind in my reading as I usually am.

But I literally could not put this book down. I can’t wait for the Read-Along to begin!

While I was poking around the internet for information about Edith Layton, I came across this write-up on Wikipedia. Subject: Regency Novel: “Georgette Heyer, Barbara Metzger, Joan Smith, Marion Chesney, Mary Balogh, Jo Beverley, Nancy Butler, Lisa Kleypas, Stephanie Laurens…. Amanda McCabe and Julia Quinn.”

Our Amanda in such exalted company!!!! Now that’s just where she belongs.

What was the last book you read that you could not put down?

Are you prepared for the Risky Read-Along?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Edith Layton, Jane Austen, Risky Read Along | 6 Replies

Christine Merrill Talks About Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess

Updated on July 17, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Today the Riskies welcome Christine Merrill, a fellow Harlequin Historical author, whose Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess is in bookstores this month and available online.

“Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess was an entertaining historical romance with a gothic touch, a plot with some twists and turns and a nice romance…”–The Bookaholic Cat

“I enjoyed this book…It was sexy, dark and satisfying. 4 stars.”–Red Hot Books

Christine will give away one copy of Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess and one copy of Lady Drusilla’s Road to Ruin to two lucky commenters chosen at random.

Welcome, Christine! Tell us about Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess.
In Miss Winthorpe’s Elopement, my hero, Adam, had an unfortunate past with his best friend Tim’s wife. I think I had half a plan that Tim and Claire would rekindle their relationship in a second book and live happily ever after. But the more I learned about her, the more natural it seemed for her to die in a mysterious fall down the stairs, and for Tim to be the prime suspect in her murder.

Daphne is Claire’s cousin, and was one of the few people who was genuinely fond of her. She insinuates herself into the household to find out the truth. But she doesn’t count on having real feelings for the children she’s pretending to care for, or her attraction to Tim.

What captivated you most about this story?
I wanted to do a Gothic, with a governess heroine and a brooding hero. And if possible I wanted to work in as many of the old conventions, with Daphne sneaking around an old dark house, barefoot and in a nightgown, in the thrall of a hero who might kiss or kill her. But I wanted a heroine who wasn’t quite as spineless as the ones I remember from my youthful reading. I was plotting it out about six months before I could work it into the writing schedule, and had a lot of fun creating my version of the stories I read back in the 70’s.

What is Risky about Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess?
It’s really a pretty dark story, and the characters are not always likeable. I know that Tim Colton has a marshmallow center, and loves his kids. But he’s pretty messed up through most of the book, bitter, suicidal, and definitely capable of murder. Although Daphne grows to be a better woman by the end of the book, she’s been listening to the advice given by the faithless Claire, and begins as a shallow, willful brat. The first love scene between them can hardly be called that. But I don’t think either one of them is capable of love at that point.

Did you discover anything interesting when you were researching the story?
My hero is a botanist, and I assumed he would have his own glass house. But I wasn’t totally sure what that entailed, or what would be grown there. I learned that English gardening was a pretty sophisticated pastime, with fruits forced out of season, all the way back in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. John Nash, a popular architect of the Regency period, did some very nice conservatories and orangeries and Thomas Hopper redid the conservatory at Carlton house.
Tim Colton’s imaginary glass house is a bit more functional then that. But it would have had a glass ceiling and some very nice cast iron columns to support the windows.

I understand you also have a book out this month in the Uk. Tell us about that one.
This month’s UK book is Lady Drusilla’s Road to Ruin. It’s the second book in the Ladies in Disgrace trilogy which will be out in the US in spring of next year. John Hendricks was personal secretary to the hero in the first book, Lady Folbroke’s Delicious Deception, and he’s leaving London broken hearted, drunk and unemployed.

Drusilla is headed north on same the mail coach, trying to rescue her little sister from a disastrous elopement with a dancing master. When she hires John to help her, she learns how much fun it can be to lose one’s reputation on the road to Gretna Green.

What is next for you?
I’ve just started working on a new book with an actor hero. Jack, who is a bit of a con man, is pretending to be a member of the nobility, trying to marry an heiress for her money. He ends up with Cynthia, who thinks she is tricking him into marriage and is trying to get his nonexistent fortune.
They end up joining forces against common enemies, and repairing the fortunes of both their families by any conniving and underhanded means possible. They are both totally devious. I think they make a lovely couple.

Anyone still have a taste for Gothics? Do you have a favorite? And what can be done to buck up all those too stupid to live Gothic heroines of the 70’s?

Two lucky commenters will win today! One, Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess; One, Lady Drusilla’s Road to Ruin

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Christine Merrill, Jane Austen | 14 Replies

Skipping the sex scenes

Updated on July 16, 2011 by Elena Greene

First, due to popular request, here’s a pic from a few years ago when my children and I trick or treated as Hermione, her cat Crookshanks and Professor McGonagall.

Now back to my regularly scheduled post…

I’ve heard some readers say they skip sex scenes, but I’ve never done so. Once I’ve decided to read a book, I want to take it all in the way the author intended it. Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll miss something. At an RWA workshop given by Julia Ross, she said something to the effect that if readers skipped her sex scenes, they’d have no idea what was going on. That’s how it should be. Sex scenes should not be skippable!

Sometimes I’ve found my attention wandering while reading a sex scene, though usually this happens in a book in which I’m already losing interest and may not finish. This happens if the hero and heroine seem like a generic romance couple. I love deep characterization and I don’t believe one can isolate the body from the mind from the heart. To me, sex scenes are a way to show the whole tangle, and that’s what makes them so much fun to read and write. In a well-written sex scene, the sex is never just a physical act and the characters remain true to themselves. That makes the sex more real and more exciting. What they do can be inventive or not; it just has to make sense for them.

So maybe some readers skip sex scenes when the characterization falters. On the other hand, I’ve heard some of the sex-scene-skippers say they just don’t want to be in someone else’s bedroom. I think that’s a matter of reading style. If you like to read about the hero and heroine, you might feel like an intruder. When I’m reading romance, I want to be the heroine and fall in love with the hero. So I don’t feel like an unwanted third party, even if the scene is in the hero’s point of view (which I really like reading and writing sometimes).

How about you? Do you ever skip sex scenes? Why or why not? Do you like sex scenes written in heroine or hero point of view, or either?

Elena

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen, sex scenes | 8 Replies