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Monthly Archives: August 2010

To Beach His Own

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Don’t tell my son, but–I’m looking forward to school beginning again September 8th.

See, right now, my son is at Camp Mom, which means he’s with me All Day. THE ENTIRE DAY. I love the guy, but there’s only so much Naruto, Yu-Gi Oh, One Piece and Deathnote plots I can comprehend (my son likes manga. A lot.)

And although there are pockets of the day where I can write, theoretically, it’s awfully hard to get into the groove when you might be asked to unearth snacks or locate a clean pair of shorts, or something.

So–despite my doing great while in Minnesota, I haven’t touched writing since I returned to Brooklyn.

Before then, however, we are heading to the Jersey Shore (where I definitely won’t be writing!), where I can sit on the beach slathered in SPF 50+ and read. Bliss!

And I am hoping to fit in some last-minute summer treats, such as frozen custard on the boardwalk, chilled chardonnay on the deck, a frothy novel that I’ll forget five minutes after reading The End, tank tops, flip-flops and this summer’s best pop song (Katy Perry‘s “Teenage Dream” has not left my head since I first heard it).

What are your favorite summer treats? What are you doing before the onset of fall?

Megan

PS: The guy is the actor from the “Teenage Dream” video. Rowr.

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Dreams

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Last night I dreamed I was in a car crash, nothing serious, just an annoying fender bender, but it felt very real.

Then, today, when I drove to the post office … nothing happened. Did the dream make me more careful? Or, did the dream mean nothing at all, but it was one of those rare ones that I remembered? It certainly made a change from the ones where I’m looking for a bathroom and when I find one it has glass walls and is situated on Paddingston Station in London during rush hour.

I often wish I could dream plots, because I have so much trouble with them. The closest I’ve got is having things click into place as I’m falling asleep and my brain is doing whatever it does at that point–beginning some sort of unwinding process that may be part of the dream process.

But years, decades ago, before I even thought of writing I had an extraordinarily vivid dream which was entirely third person, in that it wasn’t about me but I was the observer.Now, on the occasions when I revisit the dream, I’m the incompetent manipulator. I suspect it was the plot of a book I read or started reading and never finished, so if anyone can identify it, that would be fascinating. On the other hand, the plot devices might be from any number of books.

The heroine is a courtesan in late-ish nineteenth century … somewhere. Not England, not the Regency, somewhere eastern European. Her current official lover is an officer who is not always around because he’s engaged in some sort of futile military silliness but he comes into town occasionally and usually finds her with a drawing room full of lefties and poets and intellectuals. I borrowed bits of this for Dedication, my first book; I think it may also have its origins in minor characters in Tolstoy.

So he falls in love with a sweet young thing who the family want him to marry as his duty etc. (Kitty and Levin in Anna Karenina? Who knows). He tells the heroine, who isn’t too pleased, and asks if she’ll return a necklace he gave her. Because, and he really shouldn’t have done this, he gave her the family jewels (pause for other English people to recover from their merriment). She doesn’t say yes but she doesn’t say no either, and at this point I get stuck.

In some versions of the dream, she stages a grand revenge when she flings the necklace at his feet at the opera in front of the fiancee. And I think that probably is from an opera, but I don’t think I’d ever write a heroine who behaves badly in such an unsubtle way. Or, in other versions, it becomes A Scandal in Bohemia, which features the fascinating adventuress Irene Adler:

To Holmes, she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex…

In other words, she’s smarter than the male protagonists and surrenders the necklace only when a reciprocal sacrifice has been made. At this point I surrender to my usual plotting technique (if it can be described as such) and start considering other characters: the newspaper editor who is the heroine’s rebound affair; the fiancee–does she have any idea what lover boy has been up to? If there’s a revolution, which sometimes there is, who is on which side?

And I must digress here and ponder the photograph in which Irene Adler and the King of Bohemia appeared, and how it was enough to throw the whole delicate balance of Europe into disarray. Was it, gasp, a naughty photograph? Is that why Holmes wanted to keep it, to while away the long hours when Watson was tending to his mostly neglected patients?

Anyway, let’s talk about dreams. Have you dreamed things that have happened? Do you dream about characters when you’re reading or writing a book? Do you recognize “my” plot?

In this special All Contests All The Time edition, there’s still a few days to enter the contest on my site, and a new one where I ask for help in vampire terminology at Supernatural Underground. Also you can enter to win a copy of Jane and the Damned at Goodreads.

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Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

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When Nora Roberts gives a speech or a workshop and entertains questions at the end, one of her friends always pipes up, “Where do you get your ideas?” She groans and nods her head in that way she does, and gives some witty response.

Because this is the unanswerable question, isn’t it? We writers have no idea where our story ideas come from.

Last Monday I turned in Book 3 of the Soldiers Series and so this is idea time for me. I may have said this before, but I don’t have lots of story ideas like some writers. Mine come one book at a time and never easily. I need to come up with a story idea for the next book, though, the book connected to The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor, Leo’s story. Leo is the youngest son of the Fitzmanning miscellany and all I knew of him from the anthology was that he loved horses. I’d always kinda figured I’d make him own a horse farm.

But Deb’s Diamonds hero also is involved with horses, so my editor thought one book with horses was enough. Now what do I do?

If he has to lose his horse farm, I’ll make him lose it in some horrible, dramatic way at the beginning of the story (glimmer of an idea…..)

Some time ago, I watched the old, Depression era movie My Man Godfrey which is about a down-and-out vagrant who becomes a wealthy family’s butler, but he really was once a wealthy society man himself. Great movie. Maybe a Regency version of the movie could become Leo’s story!

No. Not with his loving siblings, but maybe I could make Leo down-and-out, a dissipated rake, tortured after the loss of his farm. (Leo’s starting to come to life, but I don’t have a heroine…)


Then the other night I after watching my current favorite TV show, Say Yes To The Dress, a new show came on. Left At The Altar. This show tells the real life stories of men and women who were literally left at the altar, their spouse to be runs out at the last moment.

How devastating!
How perfect!

I’ll make Leo leave his bride at the altar. (But I still don’t know who she is….)

Of course, I need a “hook.” I talked about hooks in last week’s Diane’s Blog, those classic romance plots we see over and over again. Leo’s story certainly is shaping up to be Reunion Story, but I’m toying with making it a Woman In Jeopardy story, too. Leo has to save the bride he once jilted….

Problem is…I still don’t know who the heroine is or why she was jilted.

But I’m getting there! The idea is taking shape. And the answer to the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” is here, there, and everywhere! (and way too many from TV)

Sooooo, do you have any ideas for who my heroine should be???

Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress may appear on your bookstore shelves this week. I wonder who will have the first sighting?

Join me on Thursday at Diane’s Blog when I’ll take you to a Tank Museum! And stop by Pink Heart Society today for Male on Monday with Michelle Willingham and me.

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Michelle Willingham and Diane Gaston – New Books!

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Diane here.
Michelle Willingham and I both have Harlequin Historicals arriving in bookstores by Sept 1, if not a few days before (check your favorite store!). We’re each giving away one copy of the September books, so be sure to leave a comment!

Michelle’s September release is Surrender to an Irish Warrior.

Praise for Michelle’s RITA nominated, Taming Her Irish Warrior:
“Kudos to Michelle Willingham….Always true to her characters, Michelle Willingham writes an ending that will steal the heart with its imagery, emotion and romance”–Medieval Book Reviews

My September release is Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress.

Praise for Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress:
“Engaging characters,
action/adventure and sweet love add to the depth of these stories, which
demonstrate how war changes people — and the world.”–RT
Bookreviews

Michelle, it is so good to have you back with the Riskies! Tell us about Surrender to an Irish Warrior.

Michelle: Surrender to an Irish Warrior is the last book in my MacEgan Brothers series. It’s about an Irish warrior, Trahern MacEgan, who wants to avenge the death of his betrothed wife. Along the way, he rescues Morren O’Reilly, a woman who was attacked by the same Viking raiders. In Morren, he finds healing and redemption.

Diane: Oh, I love a rescue story. In Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress, Book 2 of my Three Soldiers Series, Allan Landon and Marian Pallant meet when he rescues her on the battlefield of Waterloo and takes her to Hougoumont for safety, only to have to rescue her again when the French set fire to the Hougoumont chateau. But, after that Allan and Marian take turns rescuing each other.




We always ask this. Was there anything risky about your book?

Michelle: Definitely! This was one of the most frightening books I’ve ever written, because I tried to keep it true to the time period. Vikings were known to attack women, and Morren was one of their victims. It’s the first time I wrote about a rape survivor, and although the opening is dark, it left me the chance to give them both of them an incredibly happy ending. It also gave me the chance to do a “family reunion” of all the MacEgan Brothers at the end.

Diane: Each of my Soldiers Series starts out with an almost-rape at the pillaging of Badajoz; I suppose it was risky that the perpetrator goes unpunished (Allan hates that) in this book. Instead he just causes more trouble for everyone. What I felt risky about, though, was making up a fictitious protest demonstration that Marian organized and Allan must prevent. Did I make it credible? I guess the readers will tell me.

What interesting research did you come across while writing this book (maybe we can contrast the different time periods here)?

Michelle: The Viking system of justice was fascinating. I learned that men convicted of a serious offense, like murder, were made into outlaws and could be killed by any member of their tribe with no consequences.

Diane: I learned a lot about the British system of justice during that post-Napoleonic war period. In its way it was also brutal. Habeas Corpus was suspended and anyone could arrested with no reason given. Any protest against the government was seen as a treasonous act. In a way, government could do what it wanted with protesters and have no consequences for it.

What’s next for you?

Michelle: I am starting a Scottish medieval series, set around the Braveheart era (Robert the Bruce, William Wallace, etc.). The first book, Claimed by the Highlander will be released in the spring of 2011.

Diane: Oh, I so admire you for taking on the challenge of yet another historical era. I’m sticking with the Regency, though. What’s next for me is the last book in the Three Soldiers Series, Gabriel’s story, as yet untitled and unscheduled, but probably due out in the spring of 2011. Maybe both our books will be released the same month then, too!

Now, a question from both of us. If you could be rescued by any sort of hero, what kind of man would it be? Medieval warrior? Handsome English soldier? Ruthless billionaire? (Or ask us whatever you want!) Post a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Surrender to an Irish Warrior or Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress.

Michelle and I are together again for Male On Monday at the Pink Heart Society, tomorrow, Aug 23, when, I, of course will be back here at Risky Regencies. Thursday, I’m at Diane’s Blog!

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