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Monthly Archives: June 2006

REGENCY AUTHOR UPDATES

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Risky Regencies is your trusty Regency Emporium, serving all your Regency needs. Our readers asked for author updates, and so what do we have for you today? Author Updates!

So grab a cup of tea, pull up a cozy chair, and find out what Regency authors are up to…

VICTORIA HINSHAW tells us she’s been recharging her batteries — thinking, playing with lots of different ideas for plots and characters, and catching up on all the reading she missed while writing three books a year for Zebra. She has a Regency historical in the works, and has also been working on a fictional biography of Princess Charlotte. (I’ve noticed a couple other Regency writers have been going the nonfiction route in one form or another — hmm…is this a trend? Or just three individual writers making individual choices?)

What Victoria Hinshaw was too modest to mention (but we know anyway — ha!) is that her 2005 books have been doing extremely well with the recent contests. ASK JANE (Zebra Regency, April 2005) finalled in several prestigious contests, and won the Golden Quill Award for Best Regency. (That’s the contest our own Elena won in the historical category — so we know it’s a good contest.) 🙂 And with her August release LEAST LIKELY LOVERS, Vicky is competing against Diane and Cara for the Booksellers’ Best Award. (And we still like her! How’s that for professionalism?)

JENNA MINDEL reports, “Here’s what I’m up to now…I’ve been working on a contemporary Inspirational romance set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.” She’s also a RITA finalist for her Regency Miss Whitlow’s Turn!

DOROTHY McFALLS “feels blessed to have landed firmly at Venus Press.” She’s obviously been very busy, with FOUR titles out this year, all different subgenres! Lady Sophia’s Midnight Seduction, a short erotic Regency; Neptune’s Lair and its sequel Marked, which are paranormal erotic suspense; and The Huntress, contemporary mainstream. Wow! Plus her Signet Regency, The Marriage List, is a finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Award. For details on all these projects, visit http://www.dorothymcfalls.com

JO ANN FERGUSON is still writing Regencies. She just turned one in to her editor at Signet where she’s writing as Jocelyn Kelley. She’s been writing the medieval series “The Ladies of St. Jude’s Abbey” as Jocelyn Kelley for the past two years. A Moonlit Knight came out in May and My Lady Knight is scheduled for January 2007. Then she returns to Regencies when the Regency-historical trilogy “The Nethercott Tales” are published by Signet Eclipse. For those of you who enjoyed the Priscilla Flanders mystery series from Zebra Regency, look for these books about the three Nethercott sisters that have suspense elements along with ghostly paranormal. The first book in the series (with a working title of The Mistress School) is scheduled for July 2007 to be followed by Gentleman’s Master. She’s also still writing for ImaJinn as J.A. Ferguson. In 2006, she’s got Luck of the Irish (a leprechaun story), Sworn Upon Fire (an alternate world futuristic), and The Wrong Christmas Carol (an angel Christmas story) coming out.

ANDREA PICKENS/ANDREA DaRIF has been busy with a new series for Warner Forever, the “Hellion Heroes.” The first book, The Spy Wore Silk, is out in March 2007. This is what she says about it: “At first blush, Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young ladies is the very pattern card of a proper boarding school. But looks can be deceiving, along with music, art, dancing, and the social graces, the students–all streetwise orphans chosen for their toughness and intelligence–are being molded into an elit fighting force. England’s secret weapon. When a critical government document is stolen from Whitehall, the student known only as Siena is given the assignment to keep it from falling into enemies’ hands…”

So, what have your other favorite Regency authors been up to? Check here every Sunday to find out! And if there’s a certain author you’d love to have an update on, let us know!

The Riskies

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What Amanda Is Doing Now

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If I told RR every project I have in the works, it would take a triple-length post, I think! I have a confession to make–my name is Amanda, and I am a researchaholic. I’m addicted to libraries, to the papery smell, the quiet, the cool air, everything. Give me a desk tucked behind some stacks and a pile of history books, and you won’t see me for weeks. It was a favorite method of my parents when I was a kid. I’m also very easily distracted by stray factoids I come across in researching, so lack of ideas is never my problem. The problem is stopping with the research and starting on, you know, writing a book.

So, I’ll just let you know about my Top Two (okay, Top Three) projects of the moment, ones that are actually sitting on various editors’ desks and not just a gleam in my eye and a bunch of research titles on my Barnes and Noble receipts.

1) Historical fiction number one, working title Tincture of Secrets. This one is set in Florence and Venice in the 1470s. Our heroine, Isabella, wants to be an artist. And, lucky for her, her cousin happens to be Botticelli’s favorite model–but she also happens to get Isabella mixed up with the Medici, right at the height of the bloody Pazzi Conspiracy. Art, murder, revenge, gondolas–what else does a story need???

2) Historical fiction number two, working title Fortune’s Fools (thanks, Cara!). No gondolas here–it’s set in Elizabethan England, early 1580s. Penelope was a Maid of Honor to the Queen, until her naughtiness got her exiled to rebellious Lancashire. There she meets a young Shakespeare, a Catholic conspiracy, a new love–and gets set on a path to the Tower.

3) And, since this is Risky REGENCIES, a Regency historical called The Alabaster Goddess, Book One of the Muses of Mayfair. An aristocratic thief, archaelogical high jinks, a mysterious artifact (the titular goddess), and a hero and heroine on a collision course with fate–and each other. No gondolas here, either, but then you never know what might happen in Book Two… 🙂

And that’s what Amanda is doing on her summer vacation!

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Frampton Comes Alive (And Reveals All)

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Even though I have been a voracious reader for eons (I’m older than I look), I never dreamed of becoming a writer. Now I can’t imagine NOT being a writer, even if I only ever publish one book.

That book, A Singular Lady, was also the first book I ever wrote (I know, I was exceedingly lucky to get it published).

So since then I’ve been trying to learn how to:

a. write faster.
b. write better.
c. write better, faster, more-plotted books.

The results? Not bad, although the ultimate affirmation–a second offer of publication–hasn’t happened yet. But meanwhile, here are my Wondrous Works In Progress:

After A Singular Lady, I wrote Mothering Heights, a mom-lit contemporary. It tells the story of a Brooklyn mom (like me) with a son (ditto) whose husband leaves her penniless, health-insurance-less, and alone (not like me, although the Sensitive Husband has problems reading the story because of the similarities). That is finished, and is in the hands of an editor, who is considering it. Word on the street is that she really likes it, but has concerns about its needs for some editorial revision (did I mention a plot is not my strong suit?). The best thing that happens is that I get an offer for it, but it needs revision; the second-best is that they reject it, but say if I revise, I can resubmit; the worst, natch, is that it gets rejected outright. But no matter what happens with it, I don’t regret writing it a bit, since it was in a new genre and in a new POV (first-person).

I’m also in the process of revising a Regency-set historical titled Lessons In Love, about a Greek-English widow who discovers she was never really married, and who is forced into a situation she does not want in order to survive. The hero is a wealthy bastard–literally, an illegitimate man whose wealth and good looks have given him entre into society. And there are some lessons. And some love. Once I am happy with the revision, I will pass it along to my agent, who will try to work her magic on it, and get it sold.


My next project will be a much darker Regency-set historical involving opium addiction, virgin auctions, vicar’s daughters, and thinking that you kill everyone you’ve ever loved. Oh, and hero looks a lot like my constant and ongoing obsession, Clive Owen (otherwise known as Mr. Broody).

So that’s it for me–thanks for the opportunity to talk about myself, because goodness knows, I don’t do that enough.

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

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Janet peels away the layers…

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Or, what I’m doing at the moment.

My next book (and you have no idea what a thrill it is to be able to say that), finally has a working title–The Chronicles of Miss Wellesley-Clegg with the Occasional Scribbles of Mr. Inigo Linsley–and will be out (probably) in October 2007 (Avon). It’s a Regency chicklit, and here’s an excerpt, a series of letters written and discarded by the hero to the heroine after she’s discovered why he really proposed to her:

Madam,
I do not deserve the censure you have heaped upon me. Consider that you are so depraved as to accept from gentlemen you barely know offers of marriage in water-closets and

Dear Miss Wellesley-Clegg,
Despite the offence you caused me today when you slandered my person, I shall deign to forgive you as you come from Trade and cannot

My dear Miss Wellesley-Clegg,
I shall forgive your for your impertinence towards me this afternoon, for a mere woman cannot be expected to understand the delicacies of the responsibilities thrust upon a gentleman

Dearest Miss Wellesley-Clegg,
It is indeed regrettable that I may have caused you inadvertent distress when I revealed my

Dear Philomena,
I do not wish to injure your maidenly modesty further by addressing you so, and regret deeply any indelicacy I may have shown when

Dearest Philomena,
Say I may call you thus. I cannot forget the look on your face, the contempt in your eyes, and I am to blame

Sweet Philomena,
Forgive me. I am a callous brute and you the gentlest and most lovely of women

Philomena,
Sweet beautiful Philomena, forgive me for the hurt I inflicted upon you so unthinkingly. I cannot eat for thinking of you, and were it not but three hours since we parted, I am sure I should toss restless all night on a bed of agony.
I lo…

Also in the works, an erotic historical set in the very early 1800s (technically the Georgian, not Regency period). an erotic novella based on Miss Bates which exists mainly as a collection of postits stuck into a copy of Emma, a couple of things to rewrite, and an idea for a Christmas novella that’s a sequel to Dedication (except I don’t think Christmas Regency collections exist any more). Not a to-do list as impressive as Cara’s or (either) Diane’s, but I try…

Janet

P.S. the artwork is something I came across while looking for something appropriate for my post on the Cult of Virginity a couple of weeks ago. Tasteful!

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What Elena’s up to now

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When Santa asked for an update on our projects, I had mixed feelings. I love that someone cares enough to ask, don’t get me wrong! But I also have to admit something: I’ve been wandering for a while.

After completing LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, I started work on a historical romance with a Regency balloonist as the hero. I thought it would be fun, but instead it soon felt like pushing a boulder uphill. I switched gears to work on a different story that I believed was more “high concept”, only to find the going slow on that one, too. Then not long ago the market seemed to call for something darker than what I was writing. Then sexier–plot setups where the sex starts from the get-go, whereas most of my couples would take about half the book to get to that point.

After desperately mulling around the 15-20 story germs in my idea file, I realized I’d allowed fears about marketability to suck the joy out of the writing. By some wonderful serendipity, around the same time the Smart Bitches blog posted some words of wisdom from Laura Kinsale. And many of her words resonated with me.

“I began to write because I loved to write. That is still the only way.”

I realized this was true for me as well. So I went into Deep Think Mode, looked back over my list of story ideas and asked myself which one I really wanted to write. And I got not one but two answers, so here’s what I’m working on now.

Project #1: Completing the balloonist story. I guess I like closure and having looked back over the partial draft I wonder why I thought it was so bad. Galloping lack of self-confidence, I guess.

Project #2: Character and plot brainstorming on a story I don’t feel comfortable describing yet. In my rational mind, I know perfectly well that the Riskies and our guests would probably say, “Go ahead and write this story” but my insecure inner artist will assume you’re just being nice.

Anyway, the mojo is back. I am enjoying the process of writing again, even if it will take a bit longer for me to get another book completed.

Thanks again for asking about this, Santa!

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, Romantic Times Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com

P.S. The image above is a cartoon published by McCleary, A Balloon Tete-a-tete, c. 1820. Since the speech bubbles aren’t clear in this picture, I’ll let you know that the lady is exclaiming “How it rises!” and the gentleman, “It ascends exquisitely!!”

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