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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.

Muses and Taxes

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Short post today and I don’t have great excuses, just TAXES. I procastinated. Again. And I as I sorted through the myriad of boxes where I put the records, not in anything like organized folders, I swore that next year will be better. Again.

Anyway, I have a 10:30 am appointment with the accountant so I gotta rush.

As I was searching for all the receipts of books I’ve purchased in the last year, a goodly number of those being research books, I recalled that I’m supposed to write an article for next month’s Wet Noodle Posse Ezine
 called “Ten Tips on Feeding Your Muse.”

I have a few ideas about this, like getting a good night’s sleep (something taxes do not fascilitate) or going to see Washinton DC’s Cherry Blossoms in the Tidal Basin (they peaked yesterday!) I’m not sure I have ten of them, and if I do they are probably in a dozen different boxes upstairs.

So Risky Regencies readers, what are your favorite ways of feeding your muse, that creature who goes on a hunger strike once in a while and leaves you staring blankly at the computer monitor, hands unmoving on the keyboard?

Gotta go. (Yipes, I’ll probably be late!) When I get back, I’ll be looking for at least ten tips on how you feed your muse. I promise to give Risky Regencies credit!

Cheers!, Diane

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Good News Monday

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Yesterday the RITA and Golden Heart finalists were notified so it was a day of joy for many who received “the call” themselves or whose friends excitedly made their announcements.

The RITA and Golden Heart are Romance Writers of America’s highest awards for excellence in the romance genre. The RITA is for books published in 2006 and the Golden Heart is for unpublished manuscripts from aspiring romance writers. The winners of the awards are announced in July at a glitzy ceremony at the annual Romance Writers of America annual conference. I am so lucky to have experienced this excitement at its absolute fullest – winning the Golden Heart in 2003 and the RITA in 2006, so I know exactly how wonderful this recognition can be.

There was no RITA category for Best Regency this year, but Regency era romance did very well anyway! In the Long and Short Historical categories, I am figuring all but two were set in the Regency era, and one of those was set in 1750, pretty close.

Very special congratulations to Pam Rosenthal, one of our frequent visitors to Risky Regencies. Pam’s The Slightest Provocation is a RITA finalist for Best Long Historical. Hooray, Pam!!!


Another pal of mine, Tracy Anne Warren is a Long Historical finalist, as well, for The Husband Trap. The Husband Trap is also up for a RITA for Best First Book. What a thrill for Tracy!

Mary Jo Putney is also a finalist for Best Long Historical for The Marriage Spell. Mary Jo was one of the first published authors I met when I started writing and she has always been very encouraging and helpful to me.


Julia Quinn is there in Long Historical, too, for On the Way to the Wedding. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Julia at an RWA booksigning. She has hoards of very loyal fans, let me tell you!


Eloisa James’ Taming the Duke is a finalist in the Best Short Historical category. Eloisa is another author who has always been friendly and nice to me, ever since I met her years ago at the RWA conference when her first book created such a splash.

Here are the Historical finalists for the RITA:
Long Historical
Surrender by Pamela Clare
Lady of Sin by Madeline Hunter
The Marriage Spell by Mary Jo Putney
On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn
The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal
The Husband Trap by Tracy Anne Warren

Short Historical
The Barefoot Princess by Christina Dodd
She’s No Princess by Laura Lee Guhrke
A Duke of Her Own by Lorraine Heath
The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James
Devil In Winter by Lisa Kleypas
Scandal In Spring by Lisa Kleypas
The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn
The Devil’s Waltz by Anne Stuart

You can’t receive a higher romance award than the RITAs, in my opinion, but the Golden Heart contest is special in its own right. When you are trying so hard to break into publishing, there are few high spots. Mostly you endure a series of rejections until that magic moment when “the Call” comes that an editor wants to buy your book. Finaling in the Golden Heart is a huge boost. It doesn’t always lead to a sale, like it did for me, but it helps you get closer and it lets you know you do write excellent stories!

In 2003 when I was a Golden Heart finalist a yahoo loop was started for all the finalists as it is every year. But in 2003, the group just bonded in a special way and remain a strong support for each other even now, four years later. We named ourselves The Wet Noodle Posse. The Wet Noodle Posse made a great showing in the announcements yesterday!

Terry McLaughlin’s Make Believe Cowboy is a RITA finalist for Best Long Contemporary.
Stephanie Rowe’s Date Me Baby One More Time is a RITA finalist in Best Paranormal.
Mary Fechter’s Beneath the Surface is a Golden Heart finalist for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance.
Ramona Thompson’s Accidental Truth is a Golden Heart finalist for Best Inspirational.
Theresa Ragan’s Return of the Rose is a Golden Heart finalist for Best Paranormal
Trish Milburn’s Coven and her The Wishing Tree are Golden Heart finalists for Best Young Adult Romance.

What a happy happy day!! Congratulations to all the finalists and may you enjoy well-deserved recognition of fine work!

Diane won the 2003 Golden Heart for the manuscript that became The Mysterious Miss M and the 2006 RITA for Best Regency for A Reputable Rake.

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300 and the Regency

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What does the movie 300 have to do with the Regency period? Other than my eager anticipation, that is. I’ve now seen the move THREE times and, needless to say, I LOVED it. Not only was it visually stunning (and I’m not referring to the Spartan abs; one quickly accepts the undress as costume), it was marvelously acted (Gerard Butler was superlative. He totally inhabited the role of Leonidas), and quite emotional. It also was very violent. I talked my friend Katie in to seeing the movie with me by saying, “The violence is so stylized, Katie, it won’t bother you.” Then watching the movie with her, I suddenly saw the blood and carnage. There are reasons it is rated R.
For those who may not know, 300 is based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller. It tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, when 300 Spartans sacrificed their lives battling the largest Persian army ever assembled. This battle is considered a pivotal event in history preserving Western Civilization. The movie was filmed against a blue screen; the setting and special effects were computer generated, making it a whole new movie-going experience. This is, however, a Risky Regency blog. So what does 300 have to do with the Regency?

1. Regency education included studying Greek and Roman texts. I could imagine Regency boys reading Herodotus’s history of the Battle of Thermopylae and being as enthralled as the young guys in the movie theater. After the movie, one of them said, “That was awesome!”
2. I also imagine that military men in the Regency studied the Battle. King Leonidas chose the High Gates, a narrow passage through the mountains, as the best place on which to fight the Persians. The terrain gave the massively outnumbered Spartans enough advantage to cause huge Persian losses. Wellington also used terrain to advantage. He picked the location of Waterloo for its advantage and at a crucial moment in the battle hid his troops behind a hill, surprising the French and helping to turn the battle around to victory.
3. The Spartan’s use of the phalanx formation, forming a line of shields and spears that made them impenetrable by the attacking Persians. In the Napoleonic Wars, when infantry formed squares, they were similarly impenetrable. At Waterloo, Wellington’s squares held over onslaught after onslaught by French cavalry.
4. After the Persian King Xerxes won at Thermopylae, his army pillaged Athens and destroyed its temple. The Parthenon replaced that temple. During the Regency, Lord Elgin rescued (purloined??) the marble friezes and took them back to England hoping in vain, to earn a fortune for them. The Elgin Marbles remain in the British Museum, and, coincidentally, 300 premiered in London March 14.
5. In 1823 Lord Byron traveled to Greece to join the movement for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Before he could participate in battle, though, he died of fever. In his Don Juan canto, he wrote about Thermopylae:

Must we but weep o’er days more blest?
Must we but blush? — Our fathers bled.
Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred grant but three,
To make a new Thermopylae.–Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 86
On March 20 on the Wet Noodle Posse blog and the Warner Women blog, I’m going to talk about what the movie 300 can teach us about story-telling.
About love scenes
About minor characters
About theme

Have you seen 300 yet? What did you think? Can you think of any other connection to the Regency?

Remember this day, men, for it will be yours for all time–King Leonidas

Diane

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Interview with Richard Cerqueira, Cover Model, Part 2

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Richard Cerqueira returns to tell us more about being a Romance cover model. Below is the picture that is our contest prize! On the right is Comanche Temptation, Richard’s first and favorite cover.

1.Can you walk us through a photo shoot for a romance cover? How much direction are you given? How much is up to you to invent?

Sure, I get a call from the booking agent asking about my availability and the length of my hair. Sounds funny but the hair length is often a deciding factor whether you are right for the hero or not. Once that’s determined I am given an idea as to what kind of shoot it will be, that is will I be an aristocrat in a tuxedo, or a cowboy out on the range, or some Tarzan like figure saving the damsel in distress. One reason we are made privy to this information is that we often use some of our own clothes for a book cover shoot. In the instances that we need to be bare-chested or even more scantily clad we get to know if we need to be tan, and maybe watch the salt consumption the day before to be nice and lean for the camera.

So, come the day of the shoot, the female model and I get into our costumes if so required, and we are shown some pictures and/or sketches made by the artist or art director to give us an idea of what they will be looking for. At the shoot, there may be as little as two people (photographer and a model) or there may as many as eight people (two models, photographer, photographer’s assistant, art director, book author, and the artist). We shoot typically in front of a plain photographic paper backdrop; it’s up to the artist to add in the scenery. The photographer then sets up the lighting using a light meter and sets up a fan in the instances where they need wind tousled hair. Once that is all set up we assume our positions, the photographer then tells us to adjust ourselves to make the best use of the light and a test shot is taken. Before the advent of digital photography, this test shot was done with a Polaroid, now a digital camera can have the shot for all to see instantaneously on a large computer monitor and it can also be seen by an artist or art director across the globe in real time. That test shot will let everyone know if the lighting is right, once that is in check we go at it.

Again, since I started modeling things have changed for the better thanks to digital photography. In the past we took at least three rolls of film to make sure we got the shot, now we might take five pictures and get what they are looking for. It is up to us, the models, to play with the decided pose to capture the shot. The photographer, artist and/or art director will often guide us if they are looking for something special. Sometimes they end up doing something that is nothing like what was originally conceptualized and it turns out being the winning shot; at times, the models come up with the pose. Working with models that are more experienced makes the shoot go much quicker. Typically a book cover photo session takes no more than an hour, but there have been times that it has taken as long as two. It might not seem like much time, but in order to get those hot photos you often have to put yourself in to some unnatural positions and hold them there for long periods of time; I have often left a shoot feeling pretty worn out.

2. What do you think constitutes a good romance cover? What standard are you aiming for when you step in front of the camera?

The models chosen should accurately depict the books heroes. I have done more than one cover where I am not so sure that I was the right man for the job, I did it anyway, and the clients were happy, so that’s all that matters. I think that in the case of a couple they have to look good together, they have to make a good and convincing couple. Then there is the lighting, in art, lighting is everything, a book cover’s image is no different. When I do a cover I try to convey as much passion as I can, the covers usually need a hero who is both strong but human, it’s up to me as a model to pass that along to the photograph. The less the photographer has to direct me the better job I am doing; it’s what I strive for.

3. Tell us what is next for you. Do you have anything exciting coming up for yourself?

Actually, I do have something very exciting coming up, my brother and I participated in a reality show called Bullrun that will start to air on Spike TV March 13th @ 10 pm EST. The show is based on super exclusive road-rally across the USA. We are up against eleven other teams and are all competing for a $200,000 cash prize. The contestants were required to rally across America as well as compete in challenges that tested our cars, skills, and wits; think The Amazing Race meets The Cannonball Run. We shot for 3 weeks and covered over 4000 miles through nine states.

It was an unforgettable experience and I can’t wait until it airs! Its like nothing that has ever been done before, we had a crew of over 200 people and enough equipment rigs to fill a town! Spike TV has already begun running promos and the advertising campaign blitz will be soon to follow. The Spike TV website has information, pictures, and videos of us and the other contestants. www.spiketv.com. I have also made a Myspace page with some info about me, nothing very elaborate but it has some home pictures of me and some stuff from the upcoming show. www.myspace.com/xjguy

Thanks for you and your reader’s interest in me.
Richard

Bullrun premieres on Spike TV March 13 at 10 pm

Prize winner will be announced tomorrow. The prize may take some time to be delivered. Richard broke his thumb in a skiing mishap and can’t sign his name!–He’s been doing our interview with a broken thumb!
Thanks, Richard!!

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Interview with Richard Cerqueira, Cover Model, Part 1

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Welcome Richard Cerqueira, our Risky guest.

After Richard’s hand appeared on the cover of The Wagering Widow, he agreed to do an interview for Risky Regencies. Richard has done many Romance covers, both contemporary and historical. When his image showed up on Not Quite a Lady, Louise Allen’s January Mills & Boon Historical, the same image as the inside cover of Wagering Widow, the time for the interview seemed right. And how right it was! Tomorrow, in Part 2 of the interview Richard will have some exciting news about his latest venture.

Richard is offering an autographed picture of an actual Romance cover photo shoot to one lucky contest winner. The image will appear in tomorrow’s blog. Make a comment on the blog to enter (a real comment, not a generic one) to enter. Deadline is midnight March 12 EDT.One winner will be picked at random and announced on Tuesday, March 13.

Here’s Richard Cerqueira:

1. Tell us a little about yourself – where you grew up, your life now – anything you wish to tell.

I was born in Elmhurst, Queens NY. My father was born in Portugal, and my mother was born in Brazil. I have a brother who is three years my junior and a sister who is only seven years old. As far as hobbies, I love to ski, I am a car fanatic and I love to create things; as such, I enjoy occupying my spare time with anything that has to do with designing, and fabricating. I am especially fond of home improvements and automotive customization. After attending an all boys high school, I enrolled as a full time student at St. John’s University where I was a pre-med and fine arts student. I graduated with a BS in biology and a minor in fine art… I earned a master’s degree in cellular biology from Adelphi University… I have also completed several acting courses at three different drama schools in NYC. By the way, I am an Aries, born on April 17.

2. How did you get started modeling for romance novel covers?

I was basically invited. At the time of my first cover, I was a fledgling TV actor and a part time mainstream model working on runways, and posing for fashion and fitness magazines. I was doing skits on most of the then novelty daytime TV talk shows. Often acting wasn’t even involved; duties varied from dressing like an Egyptian slave carrying Cybil Shepard (Cleopatra) out to Rosie O’Donnell’s stage, to getting in bed with a sexy female model on the Ricki Lake Show while pretending to be a stuck-up lover that had very little to be stuck up about. On one of the shows that I worked on a nearly daily basis, The Richard Bey Show, Mr. Curvin Krout, a former Ford Models talent scout got in touch with the show’s producers and informed them that he was interested in working with me. In no time, he had me meet with a Media Photo Group studio rep, and about a week later, I did my first cover with Pino himself (the artist responsible for Fabio’s fame). After that, one cover just led to another.

3. Most romance novelists have to keep a day job to pay the bills. Are you able to make your living through your modeling or do you have other employment as well?

There was a time that I only modeled and worked on TV shows and made a pretty good living doing so, nowadays I am no longer a full time model and rarely do any other modeling other than for the book covers; I do it more for fun than anything else. As such, I have a few occupations where I make a living. I am a senior loan officer at a bank, where I help people obtain mortgages and refinancing for their homes. I also own a business called Performance Utility Vehicles, where I design and manufacture specialty automotive components catering to Jeep vehicles.

4. How does modeling for a romance cover differ from other modeling?

Modeling for romance novel covers is much quicker and, dare I say, easier. For one thing, I get to pose with a beautiful girl nearly every time, that’s always a bonus. The shoots typically last only an hour and they do not require much planning nor do they ruin one’s whole day; you can easily hold down a regular job, do a photo shoot on your lunch break and go back to work with no one more the wiser.

5. What is it like for you to depict characters from different time periods?

It’s like “acting-lite”, since we have to look convincingly like the character we have been hired to portray, but we don’t have to speak or memorize any lines. I love it, lets me be all those things that I always thought about when I was “growing up”.

Continued, Monday March 12, when Richard describes a romance cover photo shoot and makes his exciting announcement.

Richard will try to pop in to answer questions, so ask away!

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