And now…by popular demand…and against the express wishes of my cat…I bring you the almost complete Part the First of
THE RIME OF THE VULCAN MARINER:

(N.B: the beginning of this appeared in an earlier post.)

It is a space-age mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
“By thy verdant skin and too-sharp ears,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

The star bar’s doors are opened wide,
And I’m expected in;
My skirt is small, my hair is tall,
And Kirk will buy me gin.”

He holds her with his skinny hand,
“The Enterprise–” quoth he.
“Hold off! unhand me, blue-shirt loon!”
But Spock cannot agree.

He holds her with his mental meld–
The busty babe stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Vulcan hath her will.

With Captain Kirk forgotten now,
She listens full of fear;
And thus spake on with logic cool,
The man with pointy ear.

“The ship was cleared, no Klingon feared,
Steadily did we warp
Beyond the Earth, beyond the moon,
Beyond Tau Ceti Four.

“The ship that’s trapp’d in solar heft
Is quite a sight to see.
It shines so bright, that time’s not right
And muons all go free.

“Higher and higher every day,
Till every moment’s noon–“
The leggy babe then missed the rest,
For she heard a tribble croon.

“Jim Kirk hath paced into the bar,
Yellow his tunic’s sheen;
Quaffing a glass of Scotty’s best —
I know not, but it’s green.”

The guest-star fair, she tore her hair,
Yet she cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake that half-Vulcan man,
The space-age Mariner.

“And now the Klingons came, and they
Were tyrannous and strong:
They struck us from their ships with wings,
Which to Romulans once belonged.

With failing shields and flagging warp,
As who pursued with phasers sharp
Beholds the bridge dissolve to quarks
With wormholes straight ahead,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
Into the sun we fled.

And now there came the photon blow,
And it did wondrous hurt:
And tongues of fire made us a pyre
As red as Scotty’s shirt.

And while we stewed, the Klingon crew
Did fire unending blows:
They knocked out Rand and Sulu too–
And singed the captain’s clothes.

They hit us here, they hit us there,
Till only pain we felt:
Off chairs we fell, for, truth to tell,
We have not one seat belt.

Some good news for those of us who enjoy the shorter “traditional” Regencies! Signet/NAL is going to start re-releasing some older titles next year, in the form of of two-stories-in-one-volume omnibuses. Coming in Fall 2009 (just in time for Halloween!) you can find my two “ghost Regencies” One Touch of Magic and A Loving Spirit. In the meantime, look for the holiday anthology A Regency Homespun Christmas in October!

“Composing gives me great pleasure…there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound” –Clara Schumann

And today is the 189th birthday of composer and pianist Clara Wieck Schumann, who was born September 13, 1819 in Leipzig. Her father (a rather, er, difficult man who was eventually divorced from her mother, a singer) was a renowned piano teacher. Early on he saw his daughter’s talent, and Clara gave her first concert at the age of 7 playing duets with him. She gave her first solo concert at the age of 11 before going on tour. She was known for playing her own compositions as well as Chopin, Mendelssohn, Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. (She performed for Goethe, and gained in him a new fan. He presented her with a medal inscribed “For the gifted artist Clara Wieck”)

Riskies: Hello, Christine! Welcome back to Risky Regencies. Tell us about your new book, The Dangeroue Duke. Where did the inspiration for this story come from?

Christine: First of all, let me say how delighted I am to be with you all here at Risky Regencies today. I read this blog often. You’re all so knowledgeable and often in surprising ways! Thank you for inviting me.

And here’s the blurb for The Dangerous Duke:

When Lady Kate Fairchild threatens to publish a tell-all politcal diary if her brother isn;t released from jail, she meets a formidable adversary in Max, the Duke of Lyle. Max believes Kate’s brother knows the whereabouts of the rebels who burned his family home. Stealing the diary, he spirits Kate off to a country estate, ransoming her for her brother’s cooperation. But the wrong diary has ended up in Max’s hands–a sizzling account of Kate’s affair with a fantasy lover. And when Max discovers Kate’s sensual desires, he can’t resist exploting them in every way…

I’m talking about this a bit more on our historical author chat on the Berkley/Jove Bulletin Board, but most of the inspiration for this book came from snippets I’ve learned in the course of my research. I wanted to explore the way a woman might wield power in the Regency era. As in any era, there were a lot of women who were heavily involved in politics, even though they couldn’t vote. They filled that ‘woman behind the man’ role, and it’s not stretching the imagination to assume that some of these women were far more intelligent and politically astute than the men they supported.

Lady Kate, my heroine, is comfortable in that politcal arena and her family has influence, which is why her late husband, an aspiring politician, married her. But when Kate is widowed, she’s left without that figurehead. She has to step out and wield that power she has in her own right to save her brother from unjust imprisonment.

As for many historical writers, the story of courtesan Harriette Wilson demanding payment from her former clients to keep their names out of her tell-all memoirs captured my imagination.

So I ended up with a politcal diary full of secrets Kate uses to threaten the government (having exhausted all legal avenues, of course!) and an erotic diary, which was her solace during a loveless marriage.

Lyle desperately wants that political diary. But the two volumes get mixed up with, um, interesting results!

You can read Kate’s diary (edited by Lyle) here.

Riskies: And the hero sounds wonderfully tormented! Tell us a little more about him. Is this your favorite “hero type”?

Christine: Lyle doesn’t think he’s tormented at all, LOL! Others might disagree, however. He’s a man who entered the secret service through neccesity, not out of the thrill of it or even from a desire to save his country, though that is part of what keeps him there. He does what has to be done and his mantra has always been ‘the end justifies the means.’

And then a fire at a family gathering kills the heirs who stand between him and the dukedom. His last case is to find the perpetrators, and then he is going to retire to assume the many duties of his office. But now he has to learn to be a civilian, and it isn’t easy. The last thing he wants is to fall in love with a troublesome woman who has made herself his enemy! But the driving need to earn Kate’s love is what forces him to change.

I do seem to be gravitating toward big alpha men at the moment, but it’s not a conscious decision. It depends on what the story demands. Lyle is incredibly tough, except when it comes to kate wrapping him around her finger!

Riskies: What was the research like for this book?

Christine: It was quite eclectic–from the political and social climate surrounding the first inklings of the Industrial Revolution, and the little we know or surmise about agents, to female boxing in the Regency. I wrote a small article for the Regency Reader about women’s boxing, and I will put it on my website. Or if anyone is interested I can email them more information.

Riskies: What’s next for you?

Christine: I am so excited about my next project, Wicked Little Game! I won’t talk about it too much yet, but it has a wonderfully tortured, big, dark hero and a heroine who is one of the most interesting and difficult women I’ve written. There’s a teaser in the back of The Dangerous Duke under it’s working title Indecent Proposal.

Riskies: And now for something else! Some fun questions I found in designer interviews in “Elle” magazine. 🙂

What’s your favorite color?
Christine: Red!
Riskies: What’s your favorite junk food?
Christine: I have to name just one?? Chocolate chip cookies
Riskies: Who are your favorite fantasy dinner-party guests?
Christine: Dorothy Parker, Georgette Heyer, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Richard Armitage (well, you did say fantasy, right? LOL)
Riskies: At age 7, you wanted to be…
Christine: A brain surgeon! What was I thinking?
Riskies: Whose diary would you most like to read?
Christine: My grandmother’s. I regret not asking her more about her youth before she died.
Riskies: If you weren’t writing historical romance, what would you like to write?
Christine: I’m not sure. Maybe romantic comedy or romantic suspense. I don’t think I’m likely to make the switch, though. I love writing historicals!

Thank you for having me here, Riskies! It’s been a pleasure. And to all your readers–do you like your historical heroes dangerous? What about your heroines? Do you like the idea of a woman finding her own power in the Regency era, even if she might not be as physically strong as her mal counterparts?

And I’ll be giving away two signed copies of The Dangerous Duke to lucky commenters!