Back to Top

Monthly Archives: October 2005

Reader Mail!

Updated on by

No, this isn’t about the upcoming new movie adaptation of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, even though I’m eagerly looking forward to it.

It’s about reader mail and its effect on the writer.

First I have to say I’ve enjoyed all the reader mail I’ve received so far. Most of the letters I’ve gotten were from people who enjoyed my books, along with a few from people who just wanted to share something they loved about the Regency. Even when readers don’t care for my books, it’s fascinating to find out what they are thinking. This one, from a reader I won’t name, is no exception!

—

Elena Greene:

My Lion roars his disgust, as to (sic) I after wading thru page after page of explicit sex in Saving Lord Verwood which I just finished. Yuk!

You are an excellent writer and the plot was good keeping one’s interest. I know explicit sex (leaving nothing to the imagination) seems to be the in thing. Surely with your writing ability you do not need to pander to or wallow in the antics that go on in the bedroom. Hopefully the trend will turn again toward decency.

With kindest thoughts I remain a Regency reader.

(name excluded)

P.S. Would you really want your young daughters to read such trash?

—

Initially, I felt a bit stunned by this letter. I’d never received anything like it before, and it wasn’t as if I were the first author to put a sex scene into a traditional Regency. But mostly, I wondered whether I’d slept through writing all those pages and pages of “explicit sex”! Had the copy editor gone wild with it? I reopened the book and looked through and yes, the love scenes were there, just as I’d written them, not particularly graphic at all.

The adult part of me (that sometimes thinks it’s in charge) shook off the label of “trash”. I don’t write with the intent of offending anyone, but I know I can’t please everyone either. I am not writing children’s fiction, so the postscript didn’t shame me the way it was clearly intended to. So I exchanged some emails with my critique partners and we all laughed it off.

However, there’s another part of me–the subconscious mind, the muse, the inner artist child–call it what you want, it’s the place ideas come from. That part of me wants desperately to please everyone. Soon after receiving this letter, I reached the wedding night scene in LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE and found myself battling a fierce writer’s block. Finally until I realized that I was trying to write a scene that would 1) show, in a tender and realistic way, how the hero/heroine had overcome the problems of their earlier unhappy marriages and 2) not offend readers like this one. Rather impossible!

So the adult side of me counseled the kid. I told myself that one person’s spice is another’s poison and I had to be true to my voice and my characters. I also reminded myself that this particular reader had forced herself to read it, “page after page”! Perhaps writing the letter was just a way of easing her conscience over enjoying it?

Anyway, so far readers and reviewers are praising LDM. If at some point there are those who disagree, I can deal with it. Sometimes feedback may lead me to change my future work, but sometimes it just clarifies who I am as a writer.

So, my fellow authors, how do you deal with less-than-positive reader mail?

And readers, do please keep those emails and letters coming!

Elena 🙂
www.elenagreene.com/

Posted in Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged , | 10 Replies

Regency Gambling and Card Games

Updated on by

Ah . . . Regency gambling. Dice, horse races, and most of all — card playing. What’s not to love?

For both writers and readers, gambling scenes hold the promise that anything can happen. Fortunes (and brides) won or lost on the turn of a card . . . men arrested for playing illegal games like hazard or faro . . . duels that originate with allegations of cheating . . . ladies who lose their reputations for gambling too deeply, or for visiting a gaming hell . . .

Even the games have fabulous names: bizarre names like piquet, loo, basset, E-O, Pope Joan, vingt-un, cassino, quadrille, lansquenet, faro; names that hint at what goes on in the game, like commerce and speculation; and a few games that are still played today under the same names, like whist and cribbage.

Authors: have you used card games (or other forms of gambling) in your novels? What challenges did you face in doing so? Did you find yourself writing less or more detail about the actual gambling than you originally intended?

Everybody: which are your favorite gambling or card-playing scenes in Regency-set fiction? Which works do you think succeed best in this area? Or are there scenes in Regency-set films or television which you think have great gambling scenes?

Have you ever played Regency card or dice games? Which ones? Did you love them . . . hate them . . . become desperately addicted, and lose the family estate . . . or find yourself eating your chocolate coins instead? 🙂

Cara
Cara King — www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Signet Regency, November 2005

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged , | 10 Replies

Interview with Laurie Bishop, Author of WHEN HORSES FLY!

Updated on by

As a child growing up on a dairy farm, Laurie Bishop spent countless hours reading anything she could find—from Greek, Roman, and Norse myths to Robert Frost’s poetry. Then she picked up her grandmother’s copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which began her love affair with the Regency period. Laurie won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart competition for The Best Laid Plans. Today Laurie lives in her native upstate New York. She has a master’s degree in human services and counseling and is employed in social work, but her favorite job is collaborating at night with her four cats and writing partners–Kato, Pooka, Slipper and Kramer. Learn more at www.lauriebishop.com/.

Praise for WHEN HORSES FLY!

“Bishop builds the story nicely as Alex’s heart of ice begins to melt and Cora learns what the pangs of love mean. With an unruly cast, tension throughout and some surprising twists, this novel is a perfect fit for Regency lovers.” — Romantic Times Bookclub 4 Stars

The Interview

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?

This book originated with a scene that popped into my head pretty much of whole cloth–the heroine disembarking from a public coach in a strange place, clearly alone and poor, and encountering the hero very abruptly–by falling on him!Her attention is quickly drawn from this embarrassment to the realization that the coach is leaving with all that she possesses in the world on board. The heroine is on her way to her new position, caring for an aged cousin. The gentleman is the cousin’s son, who is not in favor of her intrusion.

The short answer is that I began with both a character and a scene.

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?

I believe it took me approximately six months to finish. I wish I’d had more time, actually–I do need to create a good deal of the story as I write, even though I start from an outline, and I did have a struggle in the middle of the book to break through a block. That’s a lesson–you never know exactly how much time you need. I’m happy with the end result, however!

Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?

Cora was inspired, in retrospect, by Jane Eyre–a post-Regency character, but I could apply her situation to Cora easily enough. Cora is not as outwardly meek as Jane and is more proactive, but Jane Eyre was the seed.

As for Alexander–I didn’t create him after anyone that I can think of, but he has some of the moodiness of Heathcliff in WUTHERING HEIGHTS, although he is much better behaved! He suffers from paternal rejection and from living in the shadow of a favored (and deceased) brother, so that would produce some of Heathcliff’s angst. Anyway, I do have to keep some secrets about Alex for now…

Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?

I enjoyed researching the history of the area, the southeast coast of England–specifically, the vicinity of Beachy Head, Birling Gap, and East Dean. All of these places are real, and there is a very interesting history of smuggling associated with East Dean and Birling Gap. I took an author’s license to create Lord Wintercroft’s “castle” and the specific caves mentioned in the story, but the setting is authentic. I’d love to see East Dean someday–I understand that it is relatively unchanged, and still has its pub, the Tiger.

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you’ve taken in this book? How do you feel about it?

My reverend is a flawed character. I can’t elaborate without revealing too much of the plot, I’m afraid. I’m very satisfied with how this worked–both in terms of realistic character development and in the turn of the story.

Q. How do you feel this book compares with your previous Regencies?

WHEN HORSES FLY is more like DECEIVING MISS DEARBORN than THE BEST LAID PLANS. It is more of a drama and isn’t meant as a comedy–although there are a few laughs in it (I hope!).

I’d love to write a comedy again, but that is something that starts with the characters and the premise. Some stories aren’t meant to be comedies. But I retain whatever makes up my voice–dialog, style, and etcetera–in my opinion, anyway! As much as possible I always strive for a period style–a rhythm and a structure that reflects the 19th century style–within certain limits. And…I have a lot of fun doing it.

Q. What are you working on now?

I am in a resting and well-filling phase at the moment, doing research, considering ideas. My next book will either be a historical or possibly a contemporary romantic suspense–so you can see I have a lot to mull over. As for writing, I am journaling and doing short sketches to solidify my ideas.

Whatever I decide upon, it will be a book of my heart. And I’ll be sure to let you know when I do!

Thanks so much for the interview! It’s been fun.

Laurie

Posted in Interviews, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , | 8 Replies

It’s Not About The Romance, Stupid!

Updated on by


Here’s a thing I discovered when writing my first book, A Singular Lady: writing about the gentle progression towards love is really, really boring.
The only way to make a romance novel come alive is to write about everything but the romance. In other words, take two people whose circumstances, situation, personalities, etc., would normally compel them to stay as far away from each other as possible and take them on a journey, a slow, inexorable climb to the inevitable HEA. Make it as hard on them as possible. As my pal William Shakespeare likes to say,

For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.

Bill, you got that right. Make them suffer. Make your characters stare down into the pit of despair that is their future, and pull them back only when it seems their fall is inevitable. That is what makes a compelling romance. The stuff that writers sometimes focus on–the first kiss, the first fondle, in Janet’s case, the first bondage–that is circumstantial. It happens because it has to happen, because circumstances dictate that your characters fall in love even though every single thing in their lives seems to point to the other person as being the worst possible person to fall in love with. It shouldn’t be the focus of the book, it should be an unavoidable event, caused by the characters themselves, not the need for massive boinking. A great romance novel isn’t about the romance, or even lust. It’s about making your characters complete. And with completion comes love.

Megan

Posted in Writing | Tagged | 3 Replies

odds n ends

Updated on by

Have you ever come across anything that is so bizarre in your research and then not been able to find it again? Yet it’s stuck in your mind?
I read an article a year or so ago which I thought was on the Australian Jane Austen site (a fun place to visit, www.jasa.net.au, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for so maybe it wasn’t there after all). It was an article about how a regency gentleman hired a mistress. Apparently he sent his friends in, like a boy scout field trip with a difference, to approach the lady and barter terms. I don’t know why this was considered delicate or appropriate–presumably his friends didn’t test the merchandise (unless you’re writing an erotic regency historical, in which case there are lots of possibilities).
As you’ve probably guessed, I’m a terrible researcher who doesn’t bookmark nearly enough.
Unfortunately so often these odd bits and pieces could make great stories.
And the other bizarre factoid of the day: there’s a truly ghastly movie starring Barbara Streisand called “On a clear day you can see for ever.” As far as I could tell, it was about a woman who’s a sort of plain Jane in the present, but who has a time-travel experience or something where her fingernails grow about two inches, her accent goes funny, she acquires another inch or so of make-up, her hair curls like Harpo’s, and she becomes a regency beauty. Now the interesting thing was her dress was based on the one Empress Josephine wears in the portrait used for Susan Carroll’s book (there should have been an easier way to say that) in Amanda’s posting on covers. It looked, apart from its polyester-like quality, pretty good–no visible back zipper, and somehow she managed to stay in it, always a plus in something really low cut (although Todd may disagree).
And the point of this post? Well, none, really.
And “Jane Eyre” was published on this date in 1847.

Janet

Posted in Frivolity | Tagged , , , | 3 Replies