Hello! I’m back from a wonderful, wonderful vacation (more on that later) and now bravely facing the overgrown lawn and garden, hundreds of emails and mountains of laundry–along with celebrating the 3rd anniversary of the Riskies and our amazing makeover. 🙂
Being near the end of the week, I’m at risk of echoing what other Riskies have already said, but I can only say that the most delightful thing about this blog and our lovely community is the shared passions for history, the Regency, romance and the writing journey itself.
Looking back at this year, I’ve enjoyed writing all sorts of posts. Here are some of my favorites.
In Heroines and Heroes, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I blogged about the actors I use for inspiration for my characters and how they did or didn’t translate to cover art. I hope you all found the insight into that process entertaining!
I always love to share research tidbits, especially in matters military, such as in Roughing It. This is the perfect place for it…where else can one debate the 
potential hotness of the Duke of Wellington without being thought a complete lunatic? (Of course since visiting Monticello I’m considering the potential hotness of Thomas Jefferson, but that’s another post.)
Sometimes I like talking about topics related to romance, such as How much should we care? (about romance being dissed in the media) or Tortured or trite? (on romance conflicts that involve PTSD, addition and other serious trauma). I always love to hear all your viewpoints, even if (perhaps especially if) they don’t match my own. I like having my world expanded and you all have helped to do that one way or another. Thank you!
Many of you have already told us which sorts of posts you enjoy and what you’d like to see more of, but do please feel free to add more! And let me know which sorts of posts of mine you enjoy most.
To a commenter chosen at random, I will send:
– a copy of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE
– plus your choice of one of my earliest releases, either LORD LANGDON’S KISS or HIS BLUSHING BRIDE (an anthology with Regina Scott and Alice Holden).
Remember, prizes will be awarded at the end of this week so feel free to visit earlier posts as well.
Thanks again for making this such a delightful community!
I would love to discuss more about new and popular trends in romance. Find out which sub genres are fading and which are flooding the market.
Blogger will not let me read the links to your old posts but I have to say that I have enjoyed many of the different subjects I’ve read about on your blog. I do enjoy all the pictures that you post also. So many times it is something that I haven’t seen before.
I loved Tortured and Trite, but I like reading all of your stuff.
Maureen, it’s not Blogger, it was me! I coded the links incorrectly but they are fixed now. So sorry about that–can I blame it on post-conference/post-vacation brain? 🙂
Jane, we can surely talk about trends but while I can’t speak for the other Riskies, I’m not sure I am a good authority for that. I am not a fast writer so it’s hard for me to jump on bandwagons; my approach, such as it is, is to try to see which of my many story ideas might suit the market at any point in time. But it’s a lot of guessing in any case.
Perhaps it’s a sign of just how shallow I am that I’m always up for a discussion of romance novel cover images. Not to judge romance books by their covers is one of the first lessons learned. Elena’s discussion of the images submitted versus the images that resulted was quite eye opening (instead of Bryn Terfel you got Seth Rogen). I guess I find the topic so interesting because I still don’t understand how the Powers That Be decide on what sells versus what doesn’t, and why some books get such scrumptious covers (see “The Hourglass” by Barbara Metzger) and some look like rejects from Cosmopolitan magazine (see Elizabeth Hoyt’s latest).
I loved your blogs about heroes/heroines and the actors/actresses you used as inspiration. Perhaps we could do more discussing of book covers and the good, bad, and the ugly of them. I have always thought it was terrible that authors don’t have more control over their book covers because a cover is the “face” of your story.
Love your posts. Keep ’em coming!
Regency research and the glimpses it provides into life at that time is always interesting. I also like when historical tidbits are related to our lives today. And I love being able to relate to the daily juggle/struggle of family, work, and demands of the muse.
Speaking of book covers, there are some funny (terrible?) examples on today’s Smart B**ches, Trashy Books!
Loved the discussions of Tortured and Trite. And the cover images fiascos were great.
And I always love to hear how writers’ every day lives go and HOW they find the time and energy and inspiration to write. I NEED that kind of information on a daily basis!
In fact, I would love to see more about how you immerse yourself in the world of your stories when surrounded by the modern world!
I loved Tortured or Trite because my favorite hero is a tortured one, especially one battling internal demons.
I’d love to hear about how your research has effected the direction of the story you are working on. Do you gather all your information ahead of time or as you go along? Does that make a big difference?
Keep writing Elena!
I like the post about the heroes of your stories and the inspiration behind them. I also love to hear about the research you do. I always learn something nw.
That’s new not nw….whew..long day. lol
I like the Tortured and Trife post too. I love reading most of the post. I love most of the book covers but I mostly go by blurbs before buying a book.
This post reminded me of why I love this blog so much. I mean, where else could I admit to thinking the Duke of Wellington was hot?
I enjoyed the heroines and heroes posts, sobering as it was to see how much can get lost in translation with the art department!
Welcome back Elena! There’s always so much work to do coming back from vacation that you need an another vacation after all the work catching up! I haven’t done a vacation in years. When the kids were younger, it felt like a vacation was too much work!
Pictures and pictures! Too the history that goes with them. I never can learn enough. I’m just so into learning all this culture within the historical romances.
Too, I do love to read about whats new out there. We need reads until your next one is out!
Oh heck, I like them all. . . but sure love the pic of Colin Firth there too, especially for very early on a Saturday morning. . . practically woke up to him! 😉
Lois
your blogs about heroes/heroines and the actors/actresses you used as inspiration are very interesting; keep on doing what you do.
I’m awed by Elena’s insightful posts, and in particular how she’s brave enough to balance analysis of her technique with writing into the void.
Thomas Jefferson, oh yeah, baby. And he could garden too.
Everyone, thanks so much for the encouraging words. Also for new ideas for future posts!
Based on the discussion of Wellington and Jefferson maybe we need to blog sometime about Hot Dead Guys. 🙂
Elena, I just LOVE your Heroines and Heroes posts… I love discussions about covers, and how they came about — and what fun to compare the original pics and the final illustrations!
Cara