Oh, this is a week of ANTICIPATION for me!

First, I am eagerly awaiting the Risky Regencies very first COVER MODEL Interview!! Coming March 11 and 12

When my The Wagering Widow came out Feb 2006, the publicist for Richard Cerqueira, romance novel cover model, contacted me to let me know Richard’s hand was on the cover–and a much better image on the inside! I did some promotion for Richard at the Romantic Times Convention last year and he almost-almost-joined me for a booksigning on Long Island at Side Street Books in Patchogue (alas, he was out of town that day).

Now he has agreed to be interviewed here at Risky Regencies! He’s going to tell us all about the nitty gritty of doing a romance shoot and he’s also got some exciting news to share about his life….

Richard also will kindly offer us a prize: an autographed photo of him at a Romance Cover Shoot. Wait until you see it!!

But before next Sunday….. the days will finally be counted down and the wait over.

Gerard Butler’s new move 300 will be released this Friday, March 9 and I will have seen it!

The movie is the cinematic recreation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300, telling of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. A small force of 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas (Butler) hold back an invasion of the huge Persian army for three days. The brave 300 fight to the death, ultimately losing the battle, but because of them, the Persian army sustained astronomical losses, Greece was never conquered, and Western Civilization was preserved!

The movie, as you can imagine, will be very violent, but the innovative cinematography promises to present the images in a unique form. Like in the movie Sin City, Zack Snyder filmed the actors against a blue screen, computer generating the setting details afterward. To learn more about 300 and to view some amazing movie trailers, go to the 300 internet site

What, besides it being Diane’s latest obsession, connects the movie 300 to the Regency Period?
That is your question of the day, my friends!!!

Ha ha! You think I’m done but there is more anticipation in my beating little heart.

EHarlequin is going to post their Readers Choice Awards on March 14. My A Reputable Rake is up for Favorite Historical and Mistletoe Kisses is up for Favorite Anthology.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to go to eHarlequin and vote for your favorites. You will have to sign in or register, but that is an easy matter (just look for the little sign-in icon in the upper right corner). Vote HERE.

I’m not done yet.

By now you know that my Innocence and Impropriety is in bookstores this month. (I’ve only told you a million times!) Now I am anxiously awaiting its Reviews.

So far the reviews have been positive. Check out the ones on Amazon.com and Romance Reviews Today.

But more are due any day now…..

I’ll be Blogging about Innocence and Impropriety and the writing life on Romance Vagabonds on Wednesday, March 7. They call themselves “just a ragtag bunch of writers…” Just my kind of folks, I say!!!

And that is ALL I have to look forward to…….except doing taxes, but that is a whole other kind of anticipation!

Question Number 2 of the day: What are you looking forward to?

Cheers!
Diane

Barbara Metzger is a hard act to follow, so what better to do than show a shark.

This is one of my favorite paintings- Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, painted in 1778, the first of Copley’s “History Paintings.”

One copy of the painting (there are two, I believe) hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. I can remember seeing it when a child and now every time I go to the gallery, I must stop by and look at it.

It is a huge painting, a glorious and fearsome sight! I love the drama and emotion of it. The composition is ideal, making the eye travel from the highest figure with the pole to poor Watson, so bright in his nakedness and the shark, so sinister and murky.

The painting depicts a real event that took place in Havana, Cuba. Brook Watson, a 14 year old orphaned crewman, went for a swim and was attacked by a shark. In the painting, Copley successfully makes us wonder if his shipmates could save Watson. They did, although he lost a leg. Watson went on to become a London merchant and even served as mayor of London in 1796.

John Singleton Copley was an American who was urged to move to London by Joshua Reynolds and another American artist, Benjamin West. He and his family settled in London at the dawn of the American Revolution. Watson and the Shark was the painting that brought Copley his membership in the Royal Academy. By “our period” Copley’s works were no longer receiving critical acclaim, although he continued to live and work in England. He died in 1815.

Watson and the Shark appeared in the first book I ever wrote, an unpublished romantic suspense about a mental health social worker (I followed the advice of “write what you know”) who finds her favorite client dead of apparent suicide. The police detective charged with investigating the death believes her that the death was murder, not suicide. A print of Watson and the Shark hung in her office, as a reminder to clients that no matter how desperate and hopeless life becomes, there is always hope. (And, no, I did not have a print of Watson and the Shark in my office in the mental health center)

My pal Colleen Gleason (remember her book The Rest Falls Away and her interview here) told me about this wonderful website that offers art images free of any copyright restraints. I found the painting’s image there.

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/index.php

Whoo hoo! I expect we can have fun with this site!

Have you any painting or other piece of art that has affected you in some special way? Can you find it on Athenaeum?

Cheers!
Diane

Countdown to release of Innocence and Impropriety – 9 days
Countdown to Gerard Butler in 300 – 18 days

I have absolutely nothing to say today, so I thought I’d treat you to some Regency pictures in honor of St. Valentine’s Day.

All these pictures are from http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/rgnclfil.html
a site that will occupy you for hours.

How might our Regency Lady and Gentleman, budding lovers, occupy themselves on St. Valentine’s Day?

Maybe they will go up in a balloon

Or go ice skating

Maybe they will attend a ball and dance.

Or be very naughty and play some parlor games.

Our Regency Lady and Gentleman have great passion for each other, so they must share a lovely kiss.

And, last of all, maybe all this Valentine’s day activity will lead to a hasty trip to Gretna Green!

If I lived in the Regency, I would probably be too repressed for the parlor game and much too scared for the balloon ride. I’d be too cold ice skating, so that leaves me to dance! (And to dream of a kiss like the lovely one depicted here…and maybe an elopement to Gretna Green)

If you lived in the Regency, how would you like to spend your Valentine’s Day?

May all your days be filled with love,
Diane

Seton asked me to explain my “Strip Piquet” scene in The Wagering Widow.

For the one or two of you who may not have read The Wagering Widow by Diane Gaston, my alter ego, this book told the story of Emily and Guy who enter into a hasty marriage, each thinking the other would provide them financial security and both discovering that they have not a feather to fly with. Guy needs money to save his crumbling estate and the people who depend on him; Emily needs money to escape a marriage to this gambler like her father. Both turn to one London gaming hell to gamble their way to a fortune. Emily wears a disguise, but Guy recognizes his wife immediately, even though his shy, timid wife masquerades as Lady Widow. She does not know he has guessed her identity when he proposes a private game of piquet. They play “strip piquet” losing one piece of clothing for every hand lost.

I loved the idea of “strip poker” for my characters, but poker was not a Regency era game. For Guy and Emily, I needed a card game of both skill and chance for them to play, a game that could lead to a loss of clothing….and more.

I’d first heard of Piquet when reading Georgette Heyer’s Faro’s Daughter. It seemed the perfect game, so I went looking on the Internet for instructions on how to play Piquet.

I found several sites willing to explain the game of Piquet, a card game that has been in existence since 1650. The problem was, I could not understand any of them. The instructions talked about exchanges of cards, declarations, winning tricks, making Repique and piquet, crossing the Rubicon, a partie and on and on. Players were requires to call out their points and remember them. All the terminology was in French.

My husband is not a card player so I had no one to play the game with to try to learn these incomprehensible rules and French words, by attempting to follow the rules. I kept reading site after site to try to find one that really explained the game enough so I could make my characters play it.

I finally discovered Meggiesoft Games, an online card game site which had a computer version of Piquet with a 30 day free download. I downloaded the game, took the tutorial which actually showed what to do, and I played the game over and over and over until I felt like I understood it. I even used the computer game to provide the details for the Strip Piquet scene. I played on the computer and recorded what cards Emily and Guy were holding as they were removing shoes, stockings, dress, shirt, corset, pantaloons……

Meggiesoft Games also had a game called German Whist, a two player version of Whist that helped me understand and write the games of whist in The Wagering Widow. I was a little wary of downloading to my computer but I had no problems at all with the site or its products. Pretty soon I was playing Piquet and Whist when I should have been writing.

Madame Bisou is the owner of the gaming hell where Emily and Guy play their seductive game of Piquet. Madame Bisou appears again in A Reputable Rake, along with Sloane, who was the villain in A Wagering Widow but who becomes a reformed rake in the next book. Madame Bisou also appears in Innocence and Impropriety by Diane Gaston, the love story for Rose from A Reputable Rake.

Innocence and Impropriety is available now from eHarlequin.com in North America and Mills and Boon in the UK. If you prefer to wait for it to appear at your local bookstore, it will arrive March 1.

My websites are in transition and may not be up to date, but if you want to read an excerpt, there is one at Amazon.com.

There you go, Seton. My explanation of Strip Piquet. In Innocence and Impropriety, you will visit Vauxhall Gardens and the King’s Theatre, as well as returning to Madame Bisou’s.

Cheers, Everyone!
Diane