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?

Apologies for the delay in posting!

Anyway, onto the talk. Last week, I flew to LA for the Romantic Times Conference, and on the flight out, the airplane showed The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. A beautiful cast, on paper at least.

My flight companion Liz Maverick and I watched it, without the sound, and found it as execrably horrible as most, if not all, reviewers had said.

(Worse even was today when I realized Jolie affects this weird faintly European accent. Ugh!) There was zero charisma between the two of them, and we didn’t buy it for a second that either would fall in love with the other. Here is their first meet:

Now, we’ve all got our favorite swoony they MUST get together moments from book and film; why do some pairings work and others absolutely do not? It’s so hard to gauge, which is where good authors have to come in; for example, I’ve just finished reading Elizabeth Hoyt‘s Notorious Pleasures where, on the first page, the heroine meets the purported hero while he is in the middle of schtupping a married woman. And, somehow, Hoyt convinces us that those two–Lady Perfect and Lord Shameless, as each tag the other–are perfect together.

In one of my favorite meetings, North & South‘s Margaret Hale meets John Thornton for the first time. She’s brave enough to stand up to him–and his temper–and even though during this scene it’s hard to imagine it, it’s not impossible to imagine that by the end they’ll have fallen in love.

What is similar between Margaret and John is their passionate protection of people, even if during this scene they are diametrically opposed.

But in The Tourist–to come back to that atrocity–there is no question, at their first meeting, that Depp’s character will do absolutely whatever Jolie’s character wants him to. There’s no tension, no will they, won’t they? about it.

It’s the question that keeps us reading or watching–will they or won’t they?–even when we can predict the outcome (reading romance, and all).

Who are your most electric pairings on screen or in book?

Megan Frampton

Too Many Dukes? Or Not Enough to Go Around?

There’s this pernicious statement that keeps popping up among authors of historical romance to the effect that In Real Life there were only a very small number of dukes and that historical romance as a genre has more dukes than ever existed in the entire universe and isn’t that just completely unrealistic?

I get a little hot under the collar every time I hear (read) someone say that because it misses the ENTIRE POINT. Which I will get to after I point out a few things.

A population explosion

Every genre of fiction is over-populated with its principal archetypes. There sure are a lot of detectives in mysteries. And Romantic Suspense seems to be dealing with an absolute deluge of serial killers. Throw in Thrillers and maybe you should be wondering about your neighbors. Because if you aren’t the serial killer on your block, then sure as heck someone else is. Right? Is he REALLY just taking out the garbage or is that body parts? And dukes in historical romance! You can’t swing a dead cat in 1815 without hitting a duke.

Give ’em The Boot!

If we follow the logic of the argument against dukes in historical romance, then we should ask the other genres to stop with the detectives and sleuths and serial killers. And elves, let’s do something about them too, because you know what? There are too damn many elves in High Fantasy. Don’t get me started on the dragons. Those don’t even really exist and they’re all over the place. They should leave town with the hero raised in poverty who is actually the King’s long lost son AND HE CAN DO MAGIC!!!

A Book is An Island

Here’s my problem with statements like there are too many dukes. It conflates the world of a book with the world of every other similar book. But each book, each story, is a world unto itself. That story is an island unto itself and when the bell tolls, it’s only for that book. In this book in which the hero is a duke, it doesn’t matter if there is another fictional duke in another book. It just doesn’t.

It’s up to the author to make him real in the story in which he is the hero.

Let’s Keep our Arguments Straight
The argument against dukes in historical romance conflates cliche and familiar tropes with the fictional world of the book. Those are two separate problems. A reader might well decide she’s tired of dukes in stories and wish for a story without one. But that is not the same problem as pointing out there are more fictional dukes than there ever have been IRL. That last one, in my opinion, is a big so what?

A duke in a story is a cliche if and only if he is written badly and without care. A story that doesn’t somewhere in its guts think about why the hero is a duke and then use that in subtle and non-subtle ways is a book that will probably feel cliche. And it won’t be because the hero is a duke. It will be because the author was lazy,

It’s also not the same problem as wishing there were historical romances without dukes. And, I’m happy to say, there are.

What do you think? Are you tired of dukes?