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Monthly Archives: April 2011

The Riskies Welcome Andrea Penrose!

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Cara Elliott (aka Andrea Pickens, aka Andrea DaRif) is a longtime visitor to the Riskies, but today we welcome her new persona, historical mystery author Andrea Penrose! Comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Sweet Revenge, and be sure and visit Andrea’s website for more behind-the scenes info and fun contests…

Welcome (back) to the Riskies, Andrea! Tell us about your new book–and your new persona.

Sweet Revenge is my debut into historical mystery–a world I love as a reader as well as a writer. And my publisher thought a new genre needed a new name (oh, don’t ask!) so here I am, wearing my Andrea Penrose chipstraw bonnet…

I chose to set the new series in the Regency because, as we all know, it was a world experiencing change in so many facets of life–political, social, artistic, scientific, economic. Add the intrigue of the Napoleonic Wars, and what better setting is there for a mystery series? For me it presents a wonderful change to explore themes and issues that are true to the era but also resonate with modern readers: Here’s a small taste of the story:
Lady Arianna Hadley’s desire to discover her father’s murderer has brought her back to London from exile in the Caribbean. Masquerading as a male chef, she is working in one of London’s aristocratic households. But when the Prince Regent is taken ill after consuming Arianna’s special chocolate dessert, she finds herself at the center of a scandal. Because of his expertise in chocolate, the eccentric Earl of Saybrook is asked to investigate the crime. But during his first interrogation of Arianna, someone tries to assassinate both of them, and it quickly becomes clear that something very sinister is afoot within the highest circles of government. They each have very different reasons for wanting to uncover the truth, yet to have any chance of doing so they must become allies. Trust Treachery. Arianna must assume yet another identity as their search takes them from the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair to the slums of St. Giles. And their reluctant alliance is tested in more ways than one as it becomes clear that someone is looking to plunge England into chaos…

What is the inspiration behind the story?

Actually, if I told you that I’d give away the mystery! But the inspiration for my heroine–the series is tagged “A Lady Arianna Regency Mystery”–came in a roundabout way. Several years ago, for my “real” job, I interviewed the head of a gourmet French chocolate company, which was founded by Marie Antoinette’s personal physician, and was fascinated to discover someamazing tidbits about the Regency and chocolate. I worked on a story idea that never saw the light of day, but was always determined to find a way to weave that chocolate research into a book. When I started to create Arianna, her Caribbean background suddenly made an expertise in chocolate a perfect ingredient to her character.

Did you run across any interesting research tidbits you can share?

Oh, don’t get me started! There’s a lot of real history woven into the plot, based on discoveries that surprised me. Researching chocolate provided a number of “delicious” little discoveries. Marie Antoinette complained about the unpleasant taste of her medicines, so her physician came up with the idea of mixing it into a solid form of chocolate–a pistole or wafer-like disc that the queen is said to have adored. (The company, Debauve & Gallet, still offers Pistoles de Marie Antoinette. A 1.7 lb box costs the princely sum of $200. Her favorite flavor was said to be almond milk). And Napoleon commissioned a chocolate treat to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Friedland.

What are some of the challenges of switching genres?

In romance, love is at the heart of the story–it’s primarily about the two main characters, and how they overcome obstacles, bot exterior and interior, to come together. For me, the core element of mystery is the idea of justice. So the characters in the story see themselves and those around them not just through a personal prism, but through the lens of conundrum. This adds a different slant to creating personas, but I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of seeing things from a new perspective.

Since this is a romance novel blog, we have to ask–is there romance in the story??

Yes, there is! It would be pretty hard for me to write a book without having a relationship be a core element of the story, because I really enjoy exploring the interaction between people. So I felt I got to do with the best of both worlds in creating a mystery with a romance.

The hero and heroine start out as very reluctant allies, and then it becomes–complicated. They are both loners, with a lot of conflicted feelings about their past, and I enjoyed being able to thread in more ambivalence into their interaction than I might be able to do in a romance. And since the relationship will carry on for a number of books (I hope!) it allows me to wrap a lot more layers around their cores. I’m looking forward to slowly revealing who they are. (Hey, they constantly surprise me, which is part of the fun!)

What’s next for Andrea Penrose? And what about Cara Elliott?

This year is a little crazy for me, in a very good way! In february I finished off my Cara Elliott “Circle of Sin” trilogy (To Surrender to a Rogue is a RITA nominee!), and in November Cara has a new trilogy debuting. Too Wicked to Wed begins the “Lords of Midnight” which stars 3 hardbitten rogues who are tamed by love.

As for Andrea, The Cocoa Conspiracy, the second LadyArianna mystery, will hit the shelves in December. It’s set at the Congress of Vienna, and once again chocolate does play a small part in the plot. In my research I discovered…but that would be spoiling the fun! I hope you’ll enjoy Arianna and Saybrook’s adventures through the Regency world.


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Victorian Tuesday

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I finally got to catch the new Jane Eyre movie this weekend, after waiting weeks for it to open here, and I am so glad I did. I enjoyed it very much–despite the fact that many aspects of the story had to be cut (as they always do for feature-length films), I thought the atmosphere and complexity of the characters was still there, as well as the dark intensity. Highly recommended! (My favorite Jane Eyre is still the old Timothy Dalton version, but this might be a close second. I’ll need to see it again to make sure…)

It was also very timely for me, since I’m deep into the first book of a new Laurel McKee series, this one set in the early Victorian era (1840s) and centering around two families who are old enemies, one a ducal family and one a family with underworld connections (and having done quite a bit of research now on the Victorian underworld, I can only say–I thought the Elizabethans were naughty, but those Victorians were nasty. Maybe it’s the whole hidden/repressed thing the Victorians had going on, where the Elizabethans had it all out there for everyone to see. The contrast is fascinating). You’ll be hearing a lot more about my research on this period later (I’ve never done a Victorian setting before, and I’m really loving being immersed in this new world), but for now let’s do what I always like to do–look at some clothes!

One reason this story ended up being set in the early Victorian period rather than the later 1860s-70s-80s was the fashion. I love the gowns of this decade (and was inspired a lot by the costumes and general aesthetics of the movie Young Victoria–my heroine, Lily, looks a lot like Emily Blunt in my mind, and she also has a great wardrobe!), before things get a little high-Victorian excessive. But I have to remember in the love scenes that there are a lot more underclothes to deal with….

So let’s look at some of the images from my Victorian Research File. I especially love that red gown–my heroine is definitely going to wear that one!













Also this week, I’m enjoying watching the new Upstairs Downstairs (though I keep getting the naughty housemaid and the naughty younger sister mixed up–why do they look so much alike?) and reading Giles Tremlett’s new bio of Catherine of Aragon, as well as working on the WIP and getting ready to go to Kansas City in a couple of weeks to see a Princess Di fashion exhibit (as well as watching the new royal wedding?). What are you doing this week? What do you think of fashion, the Victorian era, Upstairs Downstairs, or anything else in the world??

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What’s in a Name?

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Lord Byron, 1788 to 1824. The man died 187 years ago. If I go to Google and search on Bryon, just the man’s title, nearly all the hits are about him. Here’s a link: search for Byron Note, if you will, that ALL the images that show up on this search result are, in fact, of Lord Byron. If you click on the images link, you’ll see that Lord Byron is STILL the predominant Byron image with some posers in there. (Who do they think they are?)

That’s a powerful name. For us in the English speaking world that’s something.

Since April is National Poetry Month, here’s a little Bryon, first the familiar, then something perhaps a little less familiar.

 

She walks in beauty, like the night
   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
   Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
   Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
   But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
   A heart whose love is innocent!

The Destruction of Sennacherib

 Lord Byron
   The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

   Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

   For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!

   And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

   And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

   And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Sometimes it feels as if Byron is the only poet of the Regency, his legacy and wicked personal history looms so large. But of course there was that Wordsworth fellow who wrote a poem or two, and his sister Dorothy. Not to mention Keats and Shelly. But what about this one?

Perplexity: A Poem

Elizabeth Hands

Ye tender young virgins attend to my lay,
   My heart is divided in twain;
My Collin is beautiful, witty, and gay,
   And Damon’s a kind-hearted swain.

Whenever my lovely young Collin I meet,
   What pleasures arise in my breast;
The dear gentle swain looks so charming and sweet,
   I fancy I love him the best.

But when my dear Damon does to me complain,
   So tender, so loving and kind,
My bosom is softened to hear the fond swain,
   And Collin slips out of my mind.

Whenever my Damon repeats his soft tale,
   My heart overflows with delight;
But when my dear Collin appears in the vale,
   I languish away at the sight.

’Tis Collin alone shall possess my fond heart,
   Now Damon for ever adieu;
But can I? — I cannot from Damon thus part!
   He’s loved me so long, and so true.

My heart to my Damon I’ll instantly bind,
   And on him will fix all my care;
But, O should I be to my Collin unkind,
   He surely will die with despair.

How happy, how happy with Damon I’d been,
   If Collin I never had knew;
As happy with Collin, if I’d never seen
   My Damon, so tender and true.

 I particularly like this last poem because it works so well to explode the very prevalent notion we seem to have that women of the period were dis-passionate creatures who would NEVER have two lovers and be unable to so delightfully decide between them. And hint, all the while, of passion.

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Interview with Isobel Carr

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Let’s Give a Big Risky Welcome to Isobel Carr!

Today I’m thrilled have Isobel Carr visiting the Riskies to tell us about her new book, Ripe for Pleasure, dish some secrets and give away some books.

Welcome to the Riskies Isobel!

About Isobel Carr

Isobel is originally from Boulder Creek, California, but she’s lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland) since finishing undergrad at Hollins College in Virginia and moving “home” for graduate school. Her BA is in philosophy and English (wrote her thesis on the Absurd Skeptical Hero as the living embodiment of the existentialist), but she minored in creative writing and history. She won the Intro Journals Award when she was an undergraduate, and went on to study poetry at San Francisco State University under Frances Mayes (yes, as in Under the Tuscan Sun).

After finishing graduate school, it became painfully clear that a job in the arts wasn’t going to pay enough to eat, so she set about looking for a “real” job and ended up putting the analytical skills she learned as a philosophy major to work as an international trade consultant (basically, she fights with lawyers for a living). When not doing that, Isobel is usually writing, though very occasionally she still takes a day to go to a historical re-enactment . . . in the name of research of course.

Currently, she lives in a 1916 bungalow in Oakland, California with her Mastiff, Clancy, a crowntail betta named Nigel, and Nigel’s minions, the kuhli loaches (who can’t be told apart, and thus do not get names). If you’re ever at The Heart and Dagger by Lake Merritt and you see a woman with a giant, dark-brindle dog, say hi. There’s a 99.9% chance it’s Isobel.

http://www.isobelcarr.com/ You can find her as Isobel Carr on both FaceBook and Twitter.

Ripe for Pleasure

London’s most sensual former courtesan, Viola Whedon, is incapable of being seduced-she does the seducing. Until she meets Leonidas Vaughn. Her salacious memoirs have made her the target of half the lords in England, and Vaughn is the only man she can turn to. When he promises to protect her-and to make her beg for his touch-the alluring beauty finds both offers impossible to refuse.

Leonidas Vaughn secretly believes Viola possesses a fortune given to his family by the King of France. So the strong and sexy Vaughn charms his way into Viola’s life . . . and her bed. But when their arrangement is consummated, he’ll experience pleasure far beyond his wildest fantasies-and realize his heart may need the most protection of all.

Carr is a born storyteller. — RT Book Reviews

Buy Ripe For Pleasure
ISBN-10: 0446572756

Read an Excerpt (pdf)

1. Tell us about your book (or the series)

RIPE FOR PLEASURE is the first book in the LEAGUE OF SECOND SONS series. I’ve always been intrigued by younger sons. Wellington was a younger son. So was Nelson. So was Charles James Fox. And so is Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy L. Sayers’s brilliant books, which I was reading at the time. These guys have to find something to DO with themselves. They have to make their own way (to a certain extent). I just think they have more scope than a man who’s fated to inherit a title and money, but has to wait in the wings for his father to die before he actually has any power (there’s a reason why kings and princes rarely get on).

I was watching THE LIBERTINE, and loving the sexy carriage ride after the opening monologue. The whole idea of abducting a wife, of her being complicit in it, got me thinking about the profound changes caused by the Marriage Act of 1753. If you could no longer easily abscond with an heiress, what might you do to better your odds? Who would you rely on? A club, made up entirely of younger sons, seemed ideal (and utterly practical).

Everything just kind of fed into the idea (because, really, it all feeds the beast one way or another). I’d been kicking around the idea of using the lost fortune the King of France sent to support Bonnie Prince Charlie in a book, and I’d also been toying with a courtesan heroine who was publishing her memoir, a la Harriette Wilson. I ended up combining all my ideas into one plot and calling it NO GENTLEMAN (because really, the hero is behaving very badly at the outset, when he’s planning on seducing the heroine and stealing a fortune out from under her). We lost the title due to another author’s series already having something quite similar in the works [shakes fist at Eileen Dryer], but I love the titles we hit upon for the series. So sexy, and unusual enough that I think they stand out in a sea of “How to F*ck a Duke” titles (as my editor calls them, LOL!).

So in RIPE FOR PLEASURE, we have Lord Leonidas Vaughn, new owner of his grandfather’s hunting box, frantic to keep it, but without the fortune to maintain it. He finds hints of Jacobite treason in the family tree and sets out to find the missing money. It’s not fun and games for him. He HAS to find it, or he’ll have to sell the estate he loves.

The last known whereabouts (per the letters he finds) are a house in London. A house that now belongs to a retired courtesan who’s making the male half of the ton miserable with her memoir. Leo sees the perfect opening to insinuate himself into her life and hunt for the treasure . . .

2. I hear you have a cute little dog who inspired one of the characters in RIPE FOR PLEASURE. Is that true?

I’m not sure “cute” is the word most people would use for my 170lb drool machine, but I think he’s cute, LOL! My friend Jess calls him a handsome beast, and my mom calls him disgusting. The truth is somewhere in-between.

Clancy is a 2 year-old Mastiff mix (momma was a Bullmastiff and daddy was a Neapolitan Mastiff), and he does seem to have the magical ability to make other people want to own a giant breed . . . after I got him, my best friend and her husband went and got a girl from the same litter, and then my sister did the same. Last Thanksgiving my best friend from college came to visit, and he promptly went home to Manhattan and got a Giant Schnauzer puppy. There’s just something undeniably awesome about having a person-sized dog. They’re so huggable. And boy do you feel safe!

The mastiff in RIPE FOR PLEASURE is probably more like a combo of my boy’s sisters and the Staffordshire Terrier I had before him, but yes, still inspired by “my” dogs. Clancy is super mellow, while his sisters are bit more obvious about being “on guard” (but when we have them all together, the girls are the second line of defense, and he’s clearly expected to meet whatever bogyman they’re identified head-on).

3. A lot of our readers probably already know about your expertise in period clothing, but could you tell us about that anyway? How’d you get into the area and what do you think led to the development of your expertise in that instead of something like, uh, doorknobs?

Well, those who know my secret, alternative identity might, LOL! But I imagine my background is new to a lot of people. I grew up doing historical re-enactments of all kinds, so costumes and history were simply an everyday part of life. There were always events to go to, new costumes to be made, and weekly “stitch and bitch” sessions (frequently accompanied by costume dramas). My first solo costume project came when I was twelve. I’d picked out a 12th century Spanish gown and my mom just laughed and said, “You want it, you make it.” So I did. After college, I fell in with a group of truly crazy re-enactors who wanted everything to be uber-period. They researched period sewing techniques and made all their costumes by hand. They made their own trim. They made their own hook and eyes. I tried to resist, but eventually I succumbed, and I couldn’t be happier. I LOVE hand sewing, though I don’t really have time to costume right now. *sigh*


4. What’s the strangest or most surprising historical fact you’ve learned? Bonus points if the answer is Risky!

Hmmmmmmmmmm. So many options . . . but the “riskiest” is probably the stuff in “Aristotle’s Masterpiece”. There are recipes for tonics to purge “moles” and bring on menses. Basically, it’s an 18th century morning after pill.

The most surprising, and annoying, historical fact is that scones are Victorian! Oh, the word was in use, but a scone in late-Georgian/Regency England was a type of Scottish griddle cake (peasant food)

5. If you had a bazillion dollars, what would you buy me? (I would buy you the V&A, just so you have a benchmark.)

Well, if you’re getting me the V&A, I’ll get you the Kyoto Costume Institute, and then we can join forces, move them both to San Francisco, and make the mean girls at the MET cry.

Give Away!

I’ll be giving away 5 copies of RIPE FOR PLEASURE here on Risky Regencies today. Let’s make it simple: What the title of the second book in the LEAGUE OF SECOND SONS series (answer can be found on my website or on Amazon)?

So, leave a comment folks!

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The Case Against Dukes

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That was Then, This is Now

Last week I blogged in support of dukes. You can read that post here. But the gist of my argument had a fairly narrow focus, in that I blogged about people who complain that dukes in stories far out number real dukes during the Regency.

This week I take up the opposite case, and that’s in spite of the number of people who anticipated this in the comments.

The Real, the Hyper-Real and the Meta-Real

Genre fiction has several challenges one of which is home grown. Focusing on Romance as the genre of choice for this discussion, when a writer is working with some set of known parameters (a happy ending, say) then BY DEFINITION the reader knows that certain terrible things, even if threatened, will not actually happen. Neither the hero or the heroine will die. The obstacles in the path to love WILL be resolved.

Because of this, a Romance writer has to be even more adept at crafting those elements of the story so that they rise above the trope (or don’t fall into cliche, take your pick) and still give readers the satisfaction they expect from a Romance.

Let’s Get Historical

In Regency Historical Romance, the world is typically a rarefied one. The characters tend to be socially comfortable, and given the gender/class/economic divisions and that emergence of a true middle class is several years down the road, the characters tend to be the economic and social elite and the men tend to wield more power than the women.

That is, the heroes are wealthy and the women marry up into a strata and to a husband that offers them protection that is economic, physical and emotional. The women are made safe in all these realms while the hero tends to be made safe in the emotional realm since he’s usually already safe economically and physically and almost always safe socially.

Why Dukes?

Readers love that social imbalance of power and the rise of a heroine into that balance. The hero is powerful in all the things that will offer a heroine safety during a time when women were dependent on men for their safety. He’s Prince Charming and his heroine is going to democratize him. Within that socially elite setting the nobleman is almost (but not exclusively) the only option for the hero.

Trouble On the Horizon

Part of any story is the adept use of contrasts. The hero needs to be socially and economically powerful. A nobleman pretty much fits the bill. So, says the author. My hero must be UBER powerful so he better be a duke! (Because, rats, there’s only one Prince and that job is filled, and there’s only one King, and he’s incapacitated.)

And right there’s the problem that so many pointed out in last week’s comments. My Hero must be the MOST powerful so he’s a duke! Yay! Duke. And that’s all the thought that goes into it. He’s a duke the way a 21st century rich man drives a Lamborghini. Because it’s a symbol.

If all a writer does is pick the symbols and nothing more, that way lies tedium.

And that, my friends, is why it can feel like there are too many dukes.


Now What?

I adore a well done duke. I really do. But I want him to actually be a duke. I don’t want his nobility to be just a symbol.

What about you?

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