If it’s Saturday, I must be packing to hop on the Eurostar to head to London! What I’m doing there…

Stepping back to the 16th century at the Tower

Watching Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe! (and also wishing I had tickets to the RSC’s sold-out Hamlet with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart)

Visiting Bath for the day (tea at the Pump Room!)

And hopefully taking in museums and eating fish-and-chips in fun pubs

Cheerio, and see you next week!

So, last week was the season premier of Gossip Girl, IMO the second greatest show on TV right now (behind only the sublime Mad Men. When Pushing Daisies comes back on, it may drop to third. We’ll see). The premier was great. Hamptons summer fabulosity, complete with beaches, tea on the lawn, croquet, and a big snooty party! Serena and Dan back together! Nate having a torrid affair with an older married woman! Lots of Blair and Chuck bickering (my favorite)!

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!

As you read this, hopefully I am just stepping off the plane in Paris! I’ll be gone for the next two weeks, but will be dropping in at Internet cafes to check in on Risky events.

So, what will I be up to this week?

Touristy fun things, like the Eiffel Tower

Shopping for pastries, chocolates, perfume, and cute little soft t-shirts at Petite Bateau (which I may not be able to fit into after the pastries…)

Looking at art at the Louvre, the Orsay, and the Marmottan

Researching new writing projects at Versailles, the Carnavalet, and the Conciergerie

And probably some wandering around in parks eating Nutella crepes.

Au revoir for now, mes amis!

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”)