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Author Archives: diane

About diane

Diane Gaston is the RITA award-winning author of Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical and Mills and Boon, with books that feature the darker side of the Regency. Formerly a mental health social worker, she is happiest now when deep in the psyches of soldiers, rakes and women who don’t always act like ladies.

Diane Talks about The Vanishing Viscountesss

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Today the Risky Regencies interview one of their own. Diane has a new release, The Vanishing Viscountess, out this month in North America from Harlequin Historical and the UK from Mills & Boon.

Diane will randomly select one lucky commenter to receive a special prize–the Mills & Boon version of The Vanishing Viscountess. Mills & Boon selected The Vanishing Viscountess to be a special release celebrating the 100th birthday of Mills & Boon. This edition has a gold embossed cover, special interview features, and a bonus book—The Mysterious Miss M

The Vanishing Viscountess truly is a beautiful love story. Filled with danger, passion and love. Immediately one is swept away in this exciting road adventure.–MP, Barnes & Noble reader review

1. Diane, welcome to the Risky Regencies interview. Tell us about The Vanishing Viscountess

First of all, thank you so much for having me at your wonderful Risky Regencies blog. I feel right at home here! But let me talk about my book.

The Vanishing Viscountess is the Marquess of Tannerton’s story. Remember Tanner from Innocence and Impropriety? While writing I&I, I made a deal with him. If he stopped trying to take over Flynn and Rose’s story, I’d write him a story of his own. I got back at him, though. In Innocence & Impropriety, Tanner depended upon his money, title, and connections to solve all his problems. In his own story, I stripped him of all those trappings and made him survive using his wits and resourcefulness.

I gave Tanner a damsel in distress, a fugitive from the law, the Vanishing Viscountess, Marlena Parronley, unjustly accused of murder and on the run. Tanner rescues her from a shipwreck and insists upon escorting her to safety in Scotland, even though he has very little money and must pretend not to be a marquis. Tanner and Marlena must travel across Great Britain from the Anglesey coast to Edinburgh, Scotland without Tanner’s use of his title, his connections, or his wealth.

And, of course, danger pursues them the whole way.

2. How did you get the idea for this story?

Besides from Tanner himself, whose character was imbedded in my mind, I’d been fascinated by news accounts of real shipwrecks that I’d read in my Annual Registers, a set of books of the time period that are a little like almanacs (I own 1810 to 1820, but they are in terrible shape). The Annual Registers contain summaries of the proceedings of parliament, lists of marriages and births of peers, and month-by-month selection of news stories of the previous year. (You can find an online copy of The Annual Register of 1814 here ).

Sadly in all of the accounts I’ve read of shipwrecks around the English coast, all the women and children died.

I like to start my books with something exciting if I can and a shipwreck seemed to fit the bill. From Tanner and a shipwreck the rest of the story just grew.

3. What was risky about this story?

This was my first “Road Story” plot. When I conceived the idea for Tanner’s story, I didn’t realize I was writing a Road Story. It meant I had to research many settings, not just one, because the characters travel to a different place almost every day. I also had to come up with a believable route and find realistic places the characters could stop. I had to make certain that I described the terrain in a realistic way. I used Google Maps and Google Earth to help me. I wrote about this for the January 2008 RT. You can also read more about it and find my Google Map on my website here.

Another thing that I think was risky was that my heroine, Marlena, withholds information from Tanner, even as they become lovers. I hope that I gave her sufficient motivation for virtually lying to Tanner. I’ll have to see what readers think.

4. You always tell us that you write about the Regency Underworld, the seamy side of the Regency. How was The Vanishing Viscountess the seamy side when your hero is a Marquis and your heroine a Viscountess?

It is always a challenge to me to include a “Regency Underworld” element to my stories. In The Vanishing Viscountess, I tried to put Tanner and Marlena in situations lords and ladies do not usually face, like surviving a shipwreck, being the victims of wreckers, traveling as ordinary people, having to buy and wear ordinary clothes. I also give readers a glimpse of the seamier side of being a servant in the backstory of the secondary heroine, Fia, who has been coerced into her employer’s bed.

5. What’s next?
My next book is Scandalizing the Ton, scheduled for release in October 2008.

It is my Regency Paparazzi story! I got to wondering what it would be like for a Regency lady to be hounded by the press, like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or Paris Hilton are today. And what if the Regency lady became pregnant and no one knew who the father of the baby was, like poor Anna Nicole Smith? My heroine, though, has done nothing to bring this media attention onto herself. She only had one brief moment of indiscretion.

Readers briefly met the hero of Scandalizing the Ton in Innocence and Impropriety and he is mentioned in The Vanishing Viscountess. The hero is Tanner’s friend Adrian Pomroy, now Viscount Cavanley, and even he does not know who the father of the baby is….


I couldn’t put it down. What a story! It grabs you and doesn’t let go. Emotion, love, danger, sensual beautiful love scenes, and realism to the max… who could ask for more? A super-keeper of a book. This is one of Diane’s best, and I’ve read all of them!–MK, Barnes & Noble reader review

I hope you all will put The Vanishing Viscountess on the top of your TBR piles and make it a New Year’s resolution to read it. Be sure to let me know what you think of it.

Cheers!

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Where in Williamsburg Can You Buy Diane’s Book?

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After Christmas we spent a few days visiting my in-laws in Williamsburg, Virginia, and this time we actually took a stroll down historic Duke of Gloucester Street to see the Christmas decorations. The weather was beautiful!

I knew from doing the booksigning that the Barnes & Noble in Historic Williamsburg didn’t carry Harlequin Historicals, but emboldened by discovering my book in two local Northern Virginia bookstores, I set out on a quest to see where in Williamsburg I might find The Vanishing Viscountess on the shelf.

The answer? NOWHERE

After our walk in Colonial Williamsburg, we drove to the Barnes and Noble in “New Town” (a nearby trendy new shopping center/residential complex that is supposed to mimic a city street, except the fake rocks beneath the lamposts play Christmas music). No Harlequin Historicals there. In fact, they only had a very small Romance section tucked away in a corner beyond the manga and the sci fi. Why stores limit their Romance sections is beyond me. You would think they would love the genre which sells almost 50% of all mass market books.

But I digress.

I begged for us to make one more stop–A Books A Million store in a perfectly ordinary shopping center in Williamsburg. Surely they would carry Harlequin Historicals–But they didn’t. By this time my husband and in-laws just wanted to get home to eat some dinner, so they wouldn’t take me to check the local Walmart, which I was almost sure would have The Vanishing Viscountess.

I love writing for Mills & Boon Historical/Harlequin Historical. I think Harlequin Mills & Boon produce wonderful books and innovative ones. They are not at all afraid of taking a chance on new time periods and settings, like Amanda’s A Notorious Woman, or on “the Regency underworld,” my little niche. They continued to print Westerns when the other publishers wouldn’t touch them.

The Harlequin Historical line was almost discontinued in 2003-2004. Instead, Harlequin turned the acquisition over to Mills & Boon Historical, which has done wonders with the bookcovers and has increased the number of books released per month. To save the line, however, they also limited distribution to only their best selling venues.

This means you don’t see Harlequin Historicals in grocery stores or lots of places that carry the other Harlequin lines. Obviously, not every big bookstore sells them, either. If a bookstore does sell them, they are typically with the other Harlequin lines and are usually on a bottom shelf. You have to work hard to find Amanda’s and my books in a bookstore.

Most of our Riskie readers are familiar with ordering books online , but if you want to buy a Harlequin Historical in a bookstore and you can’t find it, there is something you can do.

Ask.

Ask a clerk if they have the book buried in a bottom shelf. If they don’t, ask the clerk to order a copy. All of the bookstores that did not carry The Vanishing Viscountess told me they could order it for me.

And if you do see Harlequin Historicals in a bookstore, do us a favor and turn some of them out so they catch the browsers’ eyes.


Everyone have a very safe and happy New Year’s holiday! This is not one of my favorite holidays, because of the whole drinking and driving thing and because my kids will be “out there” where people are drinking and driving. My husband, the cats, and I will stay at home and watch TV and maybe have champagne. However you celebrate…stay safe!

And let me know if you see my book on a bookstore shelf. Oh, Michelle Willingham’s latest Harlequin Historical is out in January, too, so also look for hers. We’ll be interviewing her this month.

Today I’m off to see PS I Love You…again! Yippee.

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Megan’s Missing — Maybe Make a Movie

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Megan’s not missing, but I needed the alliteration. She’s merely stuck in New Jersey and unable to blog today. So I thought it would be a good idea to go to a movie.

Like PS I Love You (I can’t believe that a Gerard Butler movie has been out for one week and I haven’t seen it yet. )

Or Sweeney Todd with the versatile Johnny Depp (Is there nothing Depp cannot do?)

Or Keira Knightly and dreamy James McAvoy in Atonement

Or Juno or Enchantment or National Treasure or The Golden Compass or….several more. This is a great week for movies. Have you seen any of these yet? (I haven’t seen a one, but I might get to PS I Love You tomorrow!)

If you could go to the movies tonight, which movie would you see?

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Merry Christmas Eve

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Merry Christmas Eve!

I’m a happy little elf. My family are all well and we’re together. My niece and nephew are also in town, so we’ll see them for Christmas dinner at my sister’s house. I don’t have to cook (yay!). I’ll do dishes, but, since I’m convinced in a past life I was a Regency scullery maid in a fine English country house, dishes are no problem at all.

Other nice things….

Cataromance gave The Vanishing Viscountess 4.5 Stars! Here’s part of what the reviewer, the wonderful Debby, said:

“Looking for a book with passion, love, action, danger and surprises? Look no further; The Vanishing Viscountess is perfect for you. Diane Gaston will grab your emotion with this one. “

Oh that feels GOOD!

(here’s the whole review)

In my last-minute Christmas shopping expeditions I’ve visited two bookstores and in both, The Vanishing Viscountess was on the shelf! Over a week early. I turned them out so my hero’s bare chest showed to best advantage.


I also received my author copies of the UK edition of The Vanishing Viscountess. This is a special edition released to celebrate Mills & Boon’s 100th Birthday. Its embossed in gold and is as thick as a Diana Gabaldon book because it contains a free bonus book–The Mysterious Miss M.

You can order the UK version of The Vanishing Viscountess, if you are so inclined, either through Amazon.ca
Or Amazon.co.uk

And my little Christmas gift to you, a poem written by John Clare (1793-1864), an English poet who grew up in extreme rural poverty in Northamptonshire, rising from the working class to write some celebrated poetry, only to fall back into obscurity and madness at the end of his life. In recent years there’s been a renewed interest in his poetry.

I love this poem for its vivid description of an old English country Christmas.
(Warning. It’s long)


Christmas Time by John Clare

Glad Christmas comes, and every hearth
Makes room to give him welcome now,
E’en want will dry its tears in mirth,
And crown him with a holly bough;
Though tramping ‘neath a winter sky,
O’er snowy paths and rimy stiles,
The housewife sets her spinning by
To bid him welcome with her smiles.

Each house is swept the day before,
And windows stuck with evergreens,
The snow is besom’d from the door,
And comfort the crowns the cottage scenes.
Gilt holly, with its thorny pricks,
And yew and box, with berries small,
These deck the unused candlesticks,
And pictures hanging by the wall.

Neighbors resume their annual cheer,
Wishing, with smiles and spirits high,
Glad Christmas and a happy year
To every morning passer-by;
Milkmaids their Christmas journeys go,
Accompanied with favour’d swain;
And children pace the crumpling snow,
To taste their granny’s cake again.

The shepherd, now no more afraid,
Since custom doth the chance bestow,
Starts up to kiss the giggling maid
Beneath the branch of mistletoe
That ‘neath each cottage beam is seen,
With pearl-like berries shining gay;
The shadow still of what hath been,
Which fashion yearly fades away.

The singing waits — a merry throng,
At early morn, with simple skill,
Yet imitate the angel’s song
And chaunt their Christmas ditty still;
And, ‘mid the storm that dies and swells
By fits, in hummings softly steals
The music of the village bells,
Ringing around their merry peals.

When this is past, a merry crew,
Bedecked in masks and ribbons gay,
The Morris Dance, their sports renew,
And act their winter evening play.
The clown turned king, for penny praise,
Storms with the actor’s strut and swell,
And harlequin, a laugh to raise,
Wears his hunch-back and tinkling bell.

And oft for pence and spicy ale,
With winter nosegays pinned before,
The wassail-singer tells her tale,
And drawls her Christmas carols o’er.
While ‘prentice boy, with ruddy face,
And rime-bepowdered dancing locks,
From door to door, with happy face,
Runs round to claim his “Christmas-box.”

The block upon the fire is put,
To sanction custom’s old desires,
And many a fagot’s bands are cut
For the old farmer’s Christmas fires;
Where loud-tongued gladness joins the throng,
And Winter meets the warmth of May,
Till, feeling soon the heat too strong,
He rubs his shins and draws away.

While snows the window-panes bedim,
The fire curls up a sunny charm,
Where, creaming o’er the pitcher’s rim,
The flowering ale is set to warm.
Mirth full of joy as summer bees
Sits there its pleasures to impart,
And children, ‘tween their parents’ knees,
Sing scraps of carols off by heart.

And some, to view the winter weathers,
Climb up the window seat with glee,
Likening the snow to falling feathers,
In fancy’s infant ecstacy;
Laughing, with superstitious love,
O’er visions wild that youth supplies,
Of people pulling geese above,
And keeping Christmas in the skies.

As though the homestead trees were drest,
In lieu of snow, with dancing leaves,
As though the sun-dried martin’s nest,
Instead of ic’cles hung the eves;
The children hail the happy day —
As if the snow were April’s grass,
And pleased, as ‘neath the warmth of May,
Sport o’er the water froze to glass.

Thou day of happy sound and mirth,
That long with childish memory stays,
How blest around the cottage hearth,
I met thee in my younger days,
Harping, with rapture’s dreaming joys,
On presents which thy coming found,
The welcome sight of little toys,
The Christmas gift of cousins round.

About the glowing hearth at night,
The harmless laugh and winter tale
Go round; while parting friends delight
To toast each other o’er their ale.
The cotter oft with quiet zeal
Will, musing, o’er his bible lean;
While, in the dark the lovers steal,
To kiss and toy behind the screen.

Old customs! Oh! I love the sound,
However simple they may be;
Whate’er with time hath sanction found,
Is welcome, and is dear to me,
Pride grows above simplicity,
And spurns them from her haughty mind;
And soon the poet’s song will be
The only refuge they can find.

I feel like I can see these people and I’m sharing their day!

I wish our whole Risky family a happy holiday, filled with the joy, and peace, and love, and hope that is symbolized in this day. You all are a very precious gift to me!

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Stuff Diane Has Read

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First of all, let me tell you why Megan has been absent from the blog for two weeks. Sadly, her father passed away, very unexpectedly.

Our Riskies community knew Megan’s father through her eyes and most movingly from the Mother’s Day tribute she gave to him here . Wasn’t this blog post voted a Megan favorite? For good reason.

Megan assures us she is doing well, but our hearts go out to her and her family. Her dad was only 65, so it feels like he’s been snatched from her way too soon.

Megan’s personal blog has been keeping us informed. For those who wish to offer condolences, why don’t you leave a message for Megan there? I do encourage you to scroll down on Megan’s blog and read about the amazing man who was her father (or click here).


Very special thanks to Myretta Robens, Regency author and friend to Megan, who graciously jumped in to blog about Pride & Prejudice last Friday. We’re still getting comments!

Megan will return to the Riskies when she is able, maybe even by Friday. In the meantime, hugs to her from all of us.

This week we’re talking about our favorite reads of the year.

Sigh.

Compared to the other Riskies and, I’m sure, our entire Riskies community, I am definitely the least well read. I just don’t read many books at all and I rarely keep track and I have a horrible memory. So this is a hard blog.


I can say that of the fiction I’ve read two of my very favorites are Amanda’s A Notorious Woman and Janet’s Rules of Gentility. A Notorious Woman had the rich atmosphere of Venice and was an exotic and different read for me. Rules of Gentility was sooooo clever, sparkling and bright. I’m proud as I can be that my fellow Riskies wrote such wonderful books.

I’ve been mostly reading nonfiction this year, reading for research and inspiration. My favorite book about the Regency (well, BEFORE the Regency) was Paula Byrne’s biography of Perdita. I knew virtually nothing about Mary Robinson and I found her life very remarkable. Lovely to know that there were strong, complex, talented, surviving women in that time period!

I’ve also been reading some other sorts of books for research, books about psychic ability. I’ve read Allison Dubois’s books, We Are Their Heaven and Don’t Kiss Them Goodbye. The TV series Medium is based on Allison Dubois’s life. Verrry interesting.


Because Amanda saw it on a library shelf, I also read Terry Iacuzzo’s Small Mediums At Large: The True Tale of a Family of Psychics. Really fascinating!

I’ve read a couple more books in the same vein. Why? you ask. Well, I have this idea for books which include what I consider “real” psychic phenomena-clairvoyance, psychic healing, mediums, telepathy. Real, as opposed to things like vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters.

Hee hee. I’ll bet my reading list is unique!
What have you been reading this year? Have you read any of these books? What did you think of Rules of Gentility and A Notorious Woman?
What books are you buying for gifts? I’m thinking of buying The Dangerous Book for Boys for my son…who is an adult.

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