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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.

Winners and Losers – The Oscars

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Ah, the weekend of the Oscars, always a not-to-be-missed event. Oh the suspense, the celebrities, the FASHION!

I’ll leave the fashion to our Risky fashionista, Amanda.

Young Victoria’s costume designer won, speaking of fashion.

Much as I like Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, I yearned for Hugh Jackman…but then, don’t I always? At least I got a brief Gerard Butler fix. He was subdued and very handsome.

Cute moment when Gerard meets Gabourey Sidibe on the Red Carpet.

I could have done without the dance performance, not Gerard, the one during the Oscars….

I haven’t seen hardly any of the movies nominated, but that never prevents me from having my opinions and my favorites.

For example, I was disappointed Christopher Plummer did not win, and very happy Mo’Nique won. Her performance reminded me of people I once knew in my social worker days. And I suppose I’ve loved Christopher Plummer every since The Sound of Music, not to mention his performance as Wellington in Waterloo.

And, of course, I would have liked Colin Firth to win. I mean, he was DARCY…but the Best Actor category was filled with great actors. They all should have won.

Carey Mulligan! Kitty Bennett in the “other” Pride & Prejudice. I knew she wouldn’t win, but how great to see her there. It was nice for Sandra Bullock to win. She gave such a good speech.

Kathryn Bigelow! First time for a woman to win Best Director. What a remarkable film for a woman to direct. Nice to see Barbara Striesand, too. She looks good!

And BEST PICTURE!! The Hurt Locker. To win over Avatar was remarkable.

I think the distribution of wins over so many wonderful films was pretty well balanced. It really was a great year for movies, I think. I’m inspired to go to the cinema postehaste and to hone my Netflix membership.

I just finished judging my RITA books (The Romance Writers of America’s “Oscars”). Like the Oscars, I suspect there will be many wonderful finalists, all deserving to win. I also think there will be several books that don’t make the finals that are also wonderful, but not to everyone’s taste. (Friends of mine HATED Avatar, for example). You just can’t avoid subjective scoring. That is why I always say that not reaching the finals doesn’t mean you haven’t written a great book.

Now that I’ve finished my RITA books, I get to start on Venetia! Don’t forget. This Wednesday Carolyn kicks off our very first Risky Regency Read Along. We’re supposed to read Chapters 1 to 7 of Venetia by Wednesday, March 17 so we can DISCUSS. I am so very sure this will be lots of fun. Who doesn’t love talking about a book with other friends who’ve read the same book?

We’re even going to guest visit at Sue Grimshaw’s Borders True Romance Blog Saturday March 13 to talk about the Read Along. Sue Grimshaw, Borders Books Romance buyer, is such a constant and enthusiastic supporter of Romance. Visit her blog and see what she’s offering this week.

Sue has a day Janet will enjoy. Thurday is Male Romance Cover Review day!
This month my Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady is available on MillsandBoon.co.uk or you can pre-order at a discount at Bookdepository.com. And A Reputable Rake is released in the UK in an anthology, Regency High Society Affairs, v 13, also at Book Depository. A Reputable Rake is my RITA winner!

What did you think of the Academy Awards? Were there any disappointments for you? Didn’t you think Gerard Butler looked handsome?

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Remembering Dick Francis

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Beloved mystery suspense author Dick Francis died on Valentine’s Day at the age of 89. Francis, a former jockey to the Queen Mother, is a wonderful example of how one can reinvent one’s life, even after bitter disappointment. When he was 37, he lost the Grand National, steeplechase’s most prestigious race when his horse collapsed momentarily right near the finish line. It was the last race of his career. Here is the video of that event:

Forced to retire because of multiple injuries, Francis began to write, first an autobiography, then a racing column, finally fiction. Because his books always included some aspect of racing, Francis found a way to remain involved in the world he loved. He also gained more success and fame than he ever could have done as a jockey.

I discovered Dick Francis’s books in the 1990s, after I had finished my Masters in Social Work and suddenly had time on my hands. Mine was not a straight line back to reading Romance, you see, but Dick Francis was an important step along the way, because what I loved about his books is what I love about Historical Romance.

I didn’t really care about the mystery in his books, but I loved his heroes. Heroes like Sid Halley, who were brave, good, honorable, but flawed men who generally did what was right. (Sid Halley, by the way, was the hero of four books and shared some of Francis’s history. He, too, had been a jockey forced to retire because of injuries.) I am certain Francis’s heroes have influenced how I create mine.

I also loved the worlds he created so vividly they made me feel as if I were a part of them. Francis recreated the world of racing, but the principles are the same. I try to write as accurately and as authentically as he did. Mostly, I try to make the Regency come alive for readers like his racing world came alive for me.

In the 1990s, still before I started writing, Dick Francis came to a bookstore near us for a book signing. It was a small neighborhood Waldens Books, when small neighborhood bookstores still existed. I dragged my husband, son (about age 9 at the time and thoroughly bored), and our friend Virginia. I had never been to a book signing before and had never met an author. The line snaked around the store and it took a couple of hours to get to the head of it.

Francis seemed old and frail even then, a slight figure of a man who looked like a mild wind could topple him over. At my instigation, Virginia presented him with a list of his books in the Library of Congress collection (now easily accessible online) and he was surprised and pleased.

Dick Francis’s was a long life, well-lived. I am grateful the world had such a man and I’m grateful that he gave us so many wonderful stories. I am glad I met him. And I’m glad for what he taught me about creating heroes and creating a fictional world that seems real.

Have you read Dick Francis? Which books are your favorite? (mine were Driving Force and the Sid Halley books, Odds Against and Whiphand)
What non-Romance authors have been your favorites or have influenced you in some way?

**Tonite at 9 pm on PBS American Experience is showing a biography of Dolley Madison. You know, the First Lady who saved George Washington’s portrait when those pesky English soldiers burned the White House. Loretta Chase and Susan Holloway Scott on the Two Nerdy History Girls Blog did a blog called “Dressing Dolley Madison” with a link to a video of the costume designer for the Dolley Madison show. Take a peek. It is so interesting. (Amanda, tell your modiste about this!)**

I have a new contest at my website. And a re-release of my RITA winner, A Reputable Rake in the UK anthology Regency High Society Affairs, v 13

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Winning the Bronze

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Jane Austen (“our” Jane Austen, not the real one) clued me in to the ArtsJournal website, which gathers interesting articles about the Arts from all over. Besides such fascinating topics as how insomnia shrinks the brain or, correspondingly, how napping makes you smarter, this article caught my eye, Why You’re Better Off Winning A Bronze Medal Than A Silver.


The logic is quite understandable. From the article:

“Third-place winners have upward thoughts (“at least I won”) that increase satisfaction, researchers have found, whereas those who come in second tend to have downward “if only” thoughts that decrease happiness.”

I think just being an Olympic athlete is a great achievement.

This got me thinking about the Romance Writing contests that abound at this time of year. Not only RWA’s Golden Heart for unpublished manuscripts and the RITA for published, but the RWA chapter contests, like my home chapter’s Marlene Contest. Does the logic fit romance contests? I actively used contests to reach my writing goals, both when unpublished and published and I’ve been successful at both, winning both of RWA’s top prizes, the Golden Heart and the RITA.


For the published author contests, like the RITA, the Holt, NRCA, Golden Quill, etc., there is typically only one winner. Reaching finalist status does feel like an achievement, like winning the Bronze. Same is true for the Golden Heart.

But when I was entering lots and lots of unpublished contests, my feelings were different. If I was lucky enough to make the finals, I always prayed that I would at least get second place. To me, the Bronze merely meant my manuscript wasn’t good enough.

Now isn’t that silly?

The more rational part of me knows that, like in the Olympics where some events are measured in fractions of seconds, there may not be much difference between first place and third. I also know that reaching the finals is some validation of one’s writing skill, but not reaching the finals does not mean your manuscript isn’t just as good. Like figure skating, there is a subjective element. If your manuscript doesn’t reach the finals, then it may mean you got judges who subjectively scored it lower than other judges might have. I know I missed the finals on some unpublished contests because judges scored me low for what they assumed were errors in research, which, in fact, were not. These things happen, just like in some events of the Olympics, where judges might make mistakes because they know only what they subjectively see.

So, have you writers out there entered any contests this contest season? What are your hopes for the contests? What have you entered in the past? Have contests made you feel encouraged or discouraged about writing?

For readers, does it make a difference to you to know a book has won a contest? Does it make it more likely for you to read it, or does it make little difference? What contests mean the most to you, if any?

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Janet’s Improper Relations

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Diane here, with the absolute delight of interviewing Riskies own Janet Mullany about her Little Black Dress release, Improper Relations, released today! If you haven’t already, hurry over to Book Depository (with its free shipping) or any UK book vendor and order this book.

I read Improper Relations and I am absolutely in awe. I don’t think I’ve read anyone who reminded me more of Georgette Heyer, except Janet writes like Heyer after a few drinks.


But don’t just listen to me. Here’s a review of Improper Relations

What I continue to love about Janet Mullany’s books is how she manages to convincingly tell her story in first person from both her hero and her heroine’s perspective. The first person narrative gives an extremely refreshing take on the insanity which populates the plot; from the way her heroine observes the foibles of her own family, to the slowly beautiful dance it takes the hero to discover he’s in love. I can’t wait to see where she goes next–Stacey, Publisher’s Weekly, Beyond the Book.

Janet will give away a signed copy of Improper Relations to one lucky commenter chosen at random. Without further ado, here’s Janet!

Janet, what were you doing? Channeling a very naughty Georgette Heyer? Tell us about Improper Relations!I brought a conversation at a conference to a total embarrassed stop when I told a group of writers (who I’d never met before) that I really wasn’t very interested in men because relationships between women were so much more interesting and that’s what I was currently writing about! To clarify my out-of-the-closet confession, I wanted to write a romance where a friendship between two women is as central to the book as the romantic relationship itself, and loyalty, to the friend or the husband, cause the conflict that drive the plot. And I have to admit I really wanted to start a book with the sentence: My story begins with a marriage.

You did such a clever job of tying all the threads together. It made me very curious about your plotting process. Did you figure it all out ahead of time? Or did you fly by the seat of your pants?
A bit of both. I sold it on proposal, so I knew roughly what was going to happen, but I trusted to luck about how everything would tie in. There was a character, a rather horrible old lady, who appeared quite early on and she turned out be very significant later. I blogged about that at the Riskies after I’d written a scene with her in the middle of the night as an example of trusting your instincts when writing, which I really did with this book. I tend to spend a lot of time thinking about fixing to get ready etc. to write and my first drafts are usually very clean, which is just as well.

Your voice is so distinct. Were there any writers in particular who inspired your style?
I’ve read a lot, but mostly outside romance. I write romance because I think what I write fits in with the genre (which is huge, there’s room for a lot of variants and niches!) so I don’t think I ever fell into the trap of writing as though I were writing a romance (does that make sense?). I don’t analyze what I do a lot, but I’ve always been able to make people laugh. Apparently John Cleese realized that his repressed anger was the inspiration for Monty Python sketches that involved people shut up together shouting at each other (The Argument Sketch here). I tend to like getting groups of people behaving badly together, and I don’t quite know what that says about me (it was at the core of my last book, A Most Lamentable Comedy, where they were all engaged in amateur theatricals in the country). The huge resolution scene in Improper Relations has about six to ten people coming in and out of a room at an inn.

I didn’t see any special research in Improper Relations. Was there any?
Uh. No. Originally Shad, the hero, started off as a military officer, but I was reading Nelson: A Personal History, by Christopher Hibbert (wonderful historian) while I was writing it and so he became a naval man.

What is risky about Improper Relations?
I don’t think it is a particularly risky book, to be honest, other than in style and structure. It’s all very conventional stuff, but I think the risk comes in the delivery. With all my books, either readers are going to get it or they’re going to be confused–I hope more of the former than the latter! If there is an element of risk, it’s in having a heroine who allows herself to be manipulated by someone she loves–and it’s not the hero or another man, it’s her best friend. Oh, and the hero and heroine end up in bed at the end of the book and go to sleep instead of having a boinkfest. I wanted them to fade into domestic tranquillity.

I’m in awe about how you included just about every Regency cliché there is. How did you do that?
I had a sort of shopping list of things I wanted to include, as well as the first sentence! I wanted to do a marriage of convenience because I thought the sex would be interesting to write about; I also wanted a duel, a Vauxhall Garden scene, the heroine to be transformed by a makeover into a ravishing beauty, a John Thorpe, a Wickham … I make absolutely no secret of the fact that I’m writing for my own pleasure and entertainment. And, yes, there’s sex in this, but sex as practiced by uptight Georgian people in an era where men married good girls and had sex for procreation, and paid bad girls for anything else. So great sex in marriage is a delightful, if worrying, surprise.

What amazingly clever, wickedly irreverent, riotously funny book is next for you?
My next Little Black Dress book, for spring 2011, is going to be called Mr. Bishop and the Actress–it’s funny that with all three of the books for Little Black Dress the title has come first or very early in the process. And I hope it’s all of the above! I don’t know if this is generally known outside England, but if you tack on “…as the actress said to the bishop” to an innocent statement, it immediately makes it obscene. For instance, “Do you think it will snow today?” “Yes, we’re supposed to get six inches … as the actress said to the bishop.” (The same thing works with fortune cookies, if you add “in bed.”) Possibly Shad and Charlotte (hero and heroine of Improper Relations) will appear as secondary characters.

In April, I have a Loose-Id e-novella, Reader, I Married Him, a dirty version of Jane Eyre, and then in October I have Jane & the Damned from HarperCollins and my novella which may or may not be called Little to Hex Her, based on Emma, in the anthology Bespelling Jane with Mary Balogh, Susan Krinard, and Colleen Gleason.

I can’t wait!

Remember, everyone, comment for a chance to win a copy of Improper Relations. Ask Janet a question or see how many Regency conventions we can list. What are your favorites?

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