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Monthly Archives: December 2013

New Release! And Giveaway!

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Running from Scandal by Amanda McCabeI had a new book release this weekend!!!  (I know, another one!  It’s been a crazy book autumn, but now you will have a break from me until April, when my second Amanda Carmack mystery, Murder at Westminster Abbey, comes out…).  This month it’s Running From Scandal, book two of the Bancrofts of Barton Park duet.

The past is always hot on your heels… 

 Emma Bancroft used to pride herself on her sensible nature, but good sense flew out the window during her first Season in London! Her reputation and her belief in true love in tatters, she reluctantly returns home to Barton Park.  

 David Marton is trying to live a quiet life—until Emma comes sweeping back. With whispers of scandal all about her, he knows she will never be the right woman for him, but sometimes temptation is just too hard to resist…. 

When I was working on book one (The Runaway Countess, the story of Emma’s sister Jane and her estranged husband), I knew Emma would be the heroine of book two, but I wasn’t sure who her hero would be.  I loved her free-spirited, digging-in-the-dirt exuberance, and wasn’t sure who would match her!  She followed her heart, which didn’t always lead her down the right path.  Then I noticed the sparks she had with the seemingly strait-laced neighbor, David Marton, and thought…what if???

BringingUpBabyI loved spending time with Emma and David!  Their romance was inspired by the 193os screwball comedies I love so much.  Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth, The Lady Eve…all deliciously frothy and fun stories of madcap heroines teaching too-serious heroes how to have fun, while the heroes give the heroines stability and security in love.  I also fell in love with David’s daughter Beatrice, who does not want a new mama–until the right one comes along.

“Including a darling little girl, meddling relatives, and a bit of suspense, McCabe’s story charms readers and gives them an enjoyable read…”  –RT BookReviews

(Read an excerpt at my blog to see Emma and David’s meeting!)

What are some of your favorite romantic movies, with character pairings you love???  (One commenter wins a signed copy of Running From Scandal!)

And don’t forget the Harlequin Historical Advent Calendar contest, running all this month!  My day is the 6th…visit me at my website that day for a chance to enter…

Order from Amazon

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Best of the Year!

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Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone!!!  I hope you all have lots of fun plans for tonight, and a great plan for a fresh new start in 2014.  I am actually feeling a bit under the weather, so instead of sequins and champagne I may stick with tea, flannel pajamas, and my new “Downton Abbey” DVDs, which sounds like a party to me!

I like to take a look back at the year and remember some of my favorite reads.  Here are a few books that have stayed in my mind.  (As usual, most of them end up not being romances!  I can’t read a romance novel while I’m writing one, and since i always seem to be on a deadline it doesn’t leave much time for them.  But, as you will see, I did find a few…)

I read a lot of good historical fiction!  Such as:

Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle–a story of Queen Catherine Parr.  Of course we all know how it’s going to end (spoiler: not well), but I love Catherine Parr, and this book was a great, suspenseful page-turner

QueensGambitCover

Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan–a story of Marie Van Goethem, the model for Degas’s famous “Little Dancer” sculpture, a vivid, fascinating look at the real bohemian life of late 19th century Paris.  One of my favorites of the year!

Painted Girls

Queen’s Vow by CW Gortner (one of the best authors of Tudor-era fiction, IMO)–the story of Isabella of Castile, one that paints her as a real person, not the easily-vilified figure we often think of now

QueensVowCover

Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani–a posh boarding school for young ladies in the early 1930s, with the Depression crowding in on their world, and a headstrong, independent, lonely 15 year old exiled from her family.  I loved the “voice” of the narrator and the world she painted for us!

YonaRidingCover

The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett–how could I not love this one??  It centers around bookstores and antiquarian manuscripts!  There’s also lost love, new love, and a variety of eccentric characters, moving from 1995, to the Victorians, to Shakespeare.  Just read it already!!!

BookmansTale

I also read some great non-fiction!

Two books about queens I knew about, but didn’t actually know much about–and they turned out to be much more complex than I thought.  Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir and Queen Anne by Anne Somerset…

ElizOfYork

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The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine by Jenny Uglow–I love finding stories of historical figures I’ve never “met” before!  Sarah Losh was an early Victorian heiress from Cumbria, from a large, fascinating family, and also an amateur antiquarian and architect.

PineconeCover

I did find a couple of romance novels to rave about, too!!!  (I’ve been reading romance for soooo long, I think it just takes longer for me to lose myself in a story now.  So when I do, i know it’s very, very good…)

For the Love of a Soldier by Victoria Morgan–gambling!  A heroine disguised as a boy!  A hero suffering from PTSD from the Charge of the Light Brigade!  I ate it up…

MorganCover

Rumors That Ruined a Lady by Marguerite Kaye–a scandal-ridden heroine, saved by the hero from an opium den!  Fab opening, and the story just races on from there.

RumorsKaye

I haven’t seen many new movies this year (have a lot to catch up on!), but I loved Joss Whedon’s charming Much Ado About Nothing, and I just saw American Hustle last weekend.  I may have to see it again…

MuchA

AmricanHustle

What was your favorite from 2013???  What are you looking forward to in 2014?

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She Doesn’t Look A Day Over 230…

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Happy birthday week, Jane Austen!!!  She would be 238, but I think she looks much, much younger–and so do her books. 🙂  All this week we’re going to be celebrating the big day with fun posts and great prizes.  I have a set of Austen notebooks to give away, plus will throw in a copy of either my December Harlequin Historical release, Running From Scandal, or an ebook of my Regency Christmas novella A Partridge in a Pear Tree (or both!!)

December 16 is a big birthday in history.  Not only was Austen born then, but so was Beethoven.  And Katherine of Aragon.  And my own mom!  There were also two other English women authors, from around Austen’s time though not as well known as her.

ElizabethCarterElizabeth Carter, poet, translator, and member of the Bluestocking Circle, was born Dec. 16, 1717.  Like Jane, she was the daughter of a clergyman, from Deal.  Her father encouraged her in her love of study, and she learned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and the sciences at a young age.  She made a tidy little fortune on her translations, especially her 1756 Works of Epicetus, which earned her 1000 pounds on subscription.  She was friends with Samuel Johnson, sometimes editing his periodical The Rambler, as well as sister bluestockings like Hannah More and Eliza Montagu.  Emma Hamilton called her “[as] I imagine, the most learned female who ever lived”.  But Francis, Lord Napier, wrote to Emma calling Carter “”a fine old Slut, though bearing not the least resemblance to a Woman. She had more the appearance of a fat Priest of the Church of Rome than an English woman.”  (eek!)  She died in 1806.

 

Mary Russell Mitford was also born December 16, 1787.  Her life could almost have been the subject of a novel as well, since she was a put-upon, long-suffering heroine!  Her father, a doctor, managed to blow through the fortune his parents left me, plus an astonishing 20,000 pounds Mary drew as a lottery prize when she was ten years old.  They had to sell their comfortable properties and move from rental to rental, penniless, until Mary was old enough to make money on her writings.  She worked in many mediums (drama, poetry, novels, translations), and was prolific and popular, but her earnings couldn’t keep up with her father’s spending.

Mary RussellHer most popular works were a series of stories called Our Village, published between 1824 and 1835.  Lucky for her, her friends (among them the Brownings) secured a civil list pension for her in 1837 and her father died soon after, leaving her to retire to a comfortable cottage in Swallowfield.  She died there in 1855.

 

 

 

 

Who are some of your favorite writers, besides Austen???  How would you celebrate her birthday this week??

Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways | 10 Replies

Christmas 1564

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It’s been a…challenging week around here, with ice, snow, and illness all around!  so I thought I would re-post something I wrote a few years ago on the release of my Christmas-set Elizabethan book, The Winter Queen (still available in ebook!).  I had so much fun research about all the great parties they had around the 12 Days of Christmas, thought you might enjoy a glimpse at it, too!

And yesterday I visited The Pink Heart Society blog, talking about my newest boyfriend–Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane!  I list all the reasons everyone else should love him, too.  And you can comment for a chance to win a copy of Running From Scandal…

 

One thing I learned as I researched my  book The Winter Queen  is that the Elizabethans really, really knew how to party at the holidays! The Christmas season (Christmastide) ran 12 days, from December 24 (Christmas Eve) to January 6 (Twelfth Day), and each day was filled with feasting, gift-giving (it was a huge status thing at Court to see what gift the Queen gave you, and to seek favor by what you gave her), pageants, masquerades, dancing, a St. Stephen’s Day fox-hunt, and lots of general silliness. (One of the games was called Snapdragon, and involved a bow of raisins covered in brandy and set alight. The players had to snatch the raisins from the flames and eat them without being burned. I think the brandy was heavily imbibed before this games as well, and I can guarantee this won’t be something we’re trying at my house this year!)

Later in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she mostly kept Christmas at Greenwich, or sometimes at Hampton Court or Nonsuch Palace, but in the year my story is set, 1564, she spent the holiday at Whitehall in London. Elizabeth had only been queen for 6 years and was 31 years old, so hers was a young Court full of high spirits. This was also the coldest winter in memory, so cold the Thames froze through and there was a Frost Fair complete with skating, food and merchandise booths on the ice, and sledding. It was fun to imagine this scene, and put my characters (Lady Rosamund Ramsey, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and Anton Gustavson, Swedish diplomat and excellent ice-skater) into the action!

Even though there were no Christmas trees or stockings hung by the fire, I was surprised to find we would recognize many of the traditional decorations of the time! Anything that was still green in December would be used–holly, ivy, yew, bay. The Yule log was lit on Christmas Eve using a bit of last year’s log saved for the purpose. It was brought in by the men of the household, decorated with wreaths and ribbons, and set ablaze so everyone could gather around and tell tales of Christmases past.

Food was also just as big a part of the holiday as it is now! Roast meats were favorites (pork, beef, chicken, fricaseed, cooked in broths, roasted, baked into pies), along with stewed vegetables and fine whit manchet bread with fresh butter and cheese. Elizabeth was a light eater, especially compared with her father, but she was a great lover of sweets. These could include candied flowers, hard candies in syrup (called suckets, eaten with special sucket spoons), Portugese figs, Spanish oranges, tarts, gingerbread, and figgy pudding. The feast often ended with a spectacular piece of sugar art called (incongrously) subtleties. In 1564, this was a recreation of Whitehall itself in candy, complete with a sugar Thames. (At least they could work off the feasting in skating and sledding…)

A couple fun reads on Christmas in this period are Maria Hubert’s Christmas in Shakespeare’s England and Hugh Douglas’s A Right Royal Christmas, as well as Alison Sim’s Food and Feast in Tudor England and Liza Picard’s Elizabeth’s London. At my website I have lots more info on the period, as well as some Renaissance Christmas recipes (let me know if you decide to try the roast peacock!)

Posted in Former Riskies, History | 2 Replies