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.

Naming Games

Updated on May 19, 2014 by diane

We’ve done a lot of talking about names at Risky Regencies over the years (see here, here, and here), but here I go again!

I have a few rules for myself when I’m naming characters. Guidelines, really.

1. The names have to have a pleasant rhythm. For example, Emily Galightly doesn’t do it for me, but Hugh Westleigh (hero of A Lady of Notoriety) has a nice sound to my ear.

2. The names need to be historically accurate, or at least seem historically accurate. No modern sorts of names like Savannah or Brooklyn, both of which make a Top 50 Girl Baby Name list for 2014.

3. Absolutely no female characters who have traditionally male names. This is one of my pettest peeves and I see it in contemporary romance too often for my taste. It’s just confusing!! So no names like Addison or Taylor for my heroines, even though those, too, made the list of Top 50 Girl Baby Names.

4. Vary the character names so that none are inadvertently similar. No Harry or Herbert if there is a Hal, for example. Same with surnames. No Goodman if there is a Jackman.

5. Try not to use the names of real people, especially real people who are in the news. My editors flagged a name I’d chosen that turned out to be the name of an English entertainer. Now I’ve learned to Google the name to see if I’ve chosen one that would be recognizable.

It seems like I use different websites with each book to help me select names. For first names, I google “girls names of the 1800s” or “boys names of the 1800s.”

Here are some websites to use for surnames or tital names or both:
http://www.thepeerage.com/surname_index_G.htm
http://surnames.behindthename.com/names/usage/english

The name of the lady in the portrait by Lawrence is Lady Selina Meade. Now that’s a great name!

Do you have any naming rules or pet peeves?

Posted in Regency, Risky Regencies, Writing | Tagged Names | 6 Replies

Regency Heroine Types

Updated on May 12, 2014 by diane

I have been doing a bit of thinking on this topic. I trolled the internet to see what others wrote, but didn’t find anything that delineated the types in the way I was thinking of them.

We see certain Regency heroines over and over and marvel at how authors can make them fresh and new.

Here’s what I came up with:

The Governess.
Tried and true from Jane Eyre to Megan’s upcoming The Duke’s Guide to Correct Behavior. The governess is often a genteel young woman who has fallen on hard times and has to accept employment that basically robs her of any social status at all. She is neither servant nor noble. It is the hero who comes to her rescue and frees her from her dismal fate. In a way she is a Cinderella figure. Just thought of that this moment.
My Born To Scandal is a governess story and my homage to Jane Eyre.

The Debutante.
The classic traditional Regency heroine. I used to love to read the Signets and Zebras about the young woman making her come-out and attending Almack’s for the first time. Her task, of course, was to make a good match and often it was not the man with the high title who ultimately won her heart.

The Bluestocking.
A bookish heroine who is more interested in her field of expertise than in the marriage mart. I have yet to write one of these heroines, because my imagination has yet to go in that direction.

The Fallen Woman.
I’d place courtesan heroines or heroines ruined by scandal in this category. She is a woman who, perhaps, once had a fine reputation but has lost it and this can either free her to take charge of her life or trap her in a worse situation. My The Mysterious Miss M fits this description, as does the heroine in Scandalizing the Ton. I’m returning to this type of heroine in A Lady of Notoriety, due out in paperback June 17.

The Feisty Heroine.
I think of this heroine as the one who defies all convention and protests to want things that, in my mind, only a modern woman would expect. You can tell this is not one of my favorites, but I do think that readers can love this heroine if she is done well. About the closest I’ve come, I think, is in Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress.

The Hard Times Heroine.
This would be the heroine who needs to marry well in order to save her family or to escape something worse. My Wagering Widow was one, and looking through my books list I’ve written different versions of this heroine several times – . One of my favorite old Regencies had one of these heroines, The Last Frost Fair by Jo Freeman.

The Commoner.
This heroine is not a typical choice for a Regency Historical. She is not from the aristocracy. She is a commoner, like my French heroine in Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy or Innocence and Impropriety.

You might also be interested in Mary Balogh’s discussion of Regency heroines.

And, for fun, here is a Regency Heroine Quiz to discover which type you are.

Do you have other Regency Heroine types to add? Let me know!

Posted in Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged Joy Freeman The Last Frost Fair, Regency heroines | 3 Replies

Missing Monday

Updated on May 5, 2014 by diane

I fully intended to do a blog on Regency Heroines today, but, alas, I am deep in family visits and never had a chance to do the topic justice. But I want you all to put your thinking caps on and come up with types of Regency Heroines you like to see in books.

In the meantime, here are some images for inspiration:

See you all next week!

Posted in Regency | 1 Reply

Regency Heroes redux redux

Updated on April 28, 2014 by diane

Based on last weeks blog, here’s my new list of Regency heroes (in no particular order):

(from my list)
Soldiers
Dukes
Rakes
Corinthians
Impoverished Lords

(from my brilliant blog readers and Elena)
Thieves/Highwaymen
Professor (bookish hero)
Unexpected Heir
Beau (stylish, clever, witty)
Rogue (makes his own rules)
Carla Kelly’s Beta heroes (as katie called them, in a class all their own)
Wellington (courtesy of the Wellington-obsessed Kristine Hughes of Number One London)
Beastly Hero (wounded man, angry at the world)

Any additions?

When I craft a hero, I don’t always know what type he will be. For my upcoming A Lady of Notoriety (read an excerpt here), I had already come up with the hero, Hugh Westleigh, for book one in the Masquerade Club series, A Reputation for Notoriety. In that book Hugh was a hot-head younger brother tending toward seeing the world in black and white. I was not thinking of him as a hero of book three, because, at that time, I thought I was writing a two book series.

Then I had the idea of a book for the heroine, the “lady” of the title–Lady Faville, the sort-of villainess of A Marriage of Notoriety.

I’m writing another series, this time about three sisters whose situation is very similar to the Dashwood sisters in Sense and Sensibility, but their scandalous solutions are quite different than the Dashwoods. This time the story ideas start with the heroines and I simply must come up with heroes who match them. This hero of book one seems to be an unexpected heir/rogue/beastly hero.

Next week I’m going to tackle Regency Heroine archetypes. Put your thinking caps on!

Posted in Regency, Writing | Tagged archetypes, Regency heroes | 3 Replies

Regency Heroes Redux

Updated on April 21, 2014 by diane

Susanna’s blog post on Friday got me thinking about heroes. I, too, look for images of my heroes and I think the idea of looking at videos of actors is brilliant.

In 2006 I wrote a blog about Regency Heroes, where I pretty much gushed about my favorite type of Regency hero, the soldier, but there are other types which recur in Regency Historicals (including some I’ve written!)

Soldiers.These are my favorite Regency heroes, who, of course, fought in the Napoleonic War, especially at Waterloo. They have strength and bravery. They also have damage from the war, some way the war affected them emotionally, like we talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in soldiers today. Why should our soldiers be much different than Napoleonic War soldiers?

Dukes. Dukes in Regency romance, to me, are the “Harlequin Presents” heroes of their time. Harlequin Presents heroes are powerful, wealthy, commanding and seductive. They are used to having their own way–the quintessential Alpha hero. I haven’t written about a duke…yet.

Rakes. We must not forget rakes, those bad boys who have disreputable reputations, but who also have a keen sense of integrity that is all their own. These heroes are fun to write about, which I certainly did in my RITA winner, A Reputable Rake.

Corinthians. A Corinthian is a sporting man. In Regency romance he is the one who is a member of the Four-in-Hand club, meaning he drives his own carriages. He also might ride to hounds, spar with Gentleman Jack in the man’s boxing academy, or fence at Angelo’s fencing club in the same building.

Impoverished Lords. I didn’t know any other way to describe this hero. He has a title or is heir to one or is the younger son, and he lacks money to support his estate or to simply support himself or, in the case of The Mysterious Miss M, support the woman he loves. For the sake of people this hero cares about, he must contemplate stooping to desperate measures.

Of course, we often mix up our heroes, having impoverished lords who were soldiers, or dukes who are Corinthians. That’s part of the fun of it.

Can you think of any other Regency hero types? Which is your favorite?

Posted in Risky Regencies | 13 Replies