Due to a mixup we actually have announced two winners for HER WARRIOR KING by Michelle Willingham.
Tracey and Santa, you lucky ducks, please email us at riskies@yahoo.com to claim your prizes.
And we thank Michelle for being so gracious about our little snafu!
Like many writers, I’ve been following the recent news about Cassie Edwards, historical romance author whose works contain many passages that are strikingly similar to those in various published works. The list includes but is not limited to nonfiction books about Native Americans, an article about black-footed ferrets in Defenders of Wildlife magazine and the 1930 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge. You can read a summary of the story at The New York Times or read in detail at Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, the blog which originally identified the issue.
I don’t want to discuss the specifics of this case or whether these examples constitute plagiarism. You can read the side by side excerpts for yourself at Smart Bitches and join in the discussion there. (You can also read about the authors of Edwards’s sources at Dear Author.)
What I’d like to talk about here at the Riskies are some of the issues raised during the ensuing discussion.
A number of people have made statements to the effect that if only Cassie Edwards had acknowledged her sources, everything would be OK. I think they are missing the point. As historical novelists we are supposed to do the research then weave the things we’ve learned into our stories through our characters’ POV and in our own author voices. IN OUR OWN WORDS.
Some bloggers are suggesting novelists should include footnotes and bibliographies. I actually agree with Signet’s statement that such things are not required in popular fiction the way they are in academic works. The point, again, is that in popular fiction we shouldn’t be copying anything. At most we might use a brief quote (attributed) to establish the tone at the beginning of a chapter, or have a character quote some period poetry or read a headline (again, this can be attributed right within the text).
Footnotes in romance? I don’t know how well it works but I can’t help thinking it would yank me as a reader right out of the story. I can’t help picturing a sexy scene in which the hero is removing the heroine’s corset, with a footnote to the effect that “description of heroine’s undergarments based on THE HISTORY OF UNDERCLOTHES by C. Willet and Phillis Cunnington”. 🙂
Actually, I’ve seen a footnote in a romance, just once. A Loretta Chase book had a footnote cross-referencing another of her books in the same series. I don’t doubt it was some marketing person’s idea. Loretta Chase writes so well I can’t imagine her wanting to distract the reader with such a thing.
I’ve also heard that Susan Johnson uses footnotes for historical information in her novels. I haven’t read any of her work so I can’t comment on how well those footnotes would work for me. Some of her fans say they enjoy them.
History Geek that I am, I do love Author’s Notes that clarify which parts of a book are based on historical fact and list sources for further reading. I wrote such an Author’s Note in LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, listing CORAM’S CHILDREN by Ruth K. McClure as my source for details of London’s Foundling Hospital. For my current mess-in-progress, I’m likely to credit some of my sources for the Napoleonic Wars and the history of ballooning.
But to list every reference I use to create my Regencies? Nah. I’ve read so many books on the Regency, many of which cover similar ground, that by now I couldn’t say whether I gleaned well-known facts about the Regency from Carolly Erickson’s OUR TEMPTESTUOUS DAY or THE AGE OF ELEGANCE by Sir Arthur Bryant or a number of other histories of the period.
Thinking about it further, I do give credit to all my references in one way. Within the Beau Monde (RWA’s Regency chapter) we share an annotated bibliography called the Regency Realm. By now it has over 1000 entries for books, magazines and other sources we all use to create our stories. I know this because I’m the one who maintains it.
Anyway, do you think novelists have an obligation to credit all their sources and how? What do you think of the idea of footnotes in fiction? Bibliographies? Author’s Notes?
And before we start discussing this, a gentle caution that we keep the discussion polite. On other blogs discussion has occasionally crossed the line into personal attacks on individuals involved. I know most (probably all) of us know better but just had to say it anyway.
Elena
www.elenagreene.com
Welcome to a special meeting of Risky Regencies’ Jane Austen Movie Club!
Today we’re discussing the newest adaptation of Persuasion, which aired in the US this past Sunday on PBS, and in the UK last year.
First, here’s some Knowledge to Impress your Friends With: contrary to what some people assume, this Persuasion is not a BBC production. The upcoming new Sense and Sensibility is BBC, but the other three new adaptations (Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park) are ITV.
Or actually, to be quite correct: this Persuasion was produced by Clerkenwell Films and WGBH, and distributed by ITV and PBS. 🙂
Now that that sticky mess is out of the way, please turn off your cell phones and pagers, place your tray tables in their upright position, and tell us what you thought of the new Persuasion!
(By the way, here’s an interview with Sally Hawkins, the new Anne Elliot. A rather ordinary interview, in my opinion, but see what you think.)
To aid discussion, here’s a cast list and some of the other major credits. As I love noticing folks who’ve worked on other historical adaptations, I’ve put some “you’ve seen him in this” tidbits in purple.
Director: Adrian Shergold
Screenplay: Simon Burke
Burke’s screenwriting credits include the 1997 miniseries of Tom Jones and some of the Cadfael series.
CAST:
Sally Hawkins — Anne Elliot
Hawkins played Mary Shelley in the 2003 TV Byron which starred Jonny Lee Miller.
Anthony Head — Sir Walter Elliot
Julia Davis — Elizabeth Elliot
Amanda Hale — Mary Musgrove
Rupert Penry-Jones — Captain Wentworth
Penry-Jones played St John Rivers in the Samantha Morton/Ciaran Hinds Jane Eyre.
Alice Krige — Lady Russell
Krige played Mary Shelley in 1988’s Haunted Summer, and the beautiful marquesa in Sharpe’s Honour.
Michael Fenton Stevens — Mr. Shepherd
Mary Stockley — Mrs. Clay
Peter Wight — Admiral Croft
Wight played Mr. Gardiner in the 2005 (Keira Knightley) Pride and Prejudice. 
Marion Bailey — Mrs. Croft
Jennifer Higham — Louisa Musgrove
Rosamund Stephen — Henrietta Musgrove
Stephen played Miss de Bourgh in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.
Stella Gonet — Mrs. Musgrove
Sam Hazeldine — Charles Musgrove
Nicholas Farrell — Mr. Musgrove
Farrell played Fenner in Sharpe’s Regiment, Edmund Bertram in the 1983 BBC Mansfield Park, and Henry Thornton in Amazing Grace. 
Joseph Mawle — Captain Harville
Finlay Robertson — James Benwick
Tobias Menzies — William Elliot
Maisie Dimbleby — Mrs. Smith
Sarah Buckland — Nurse Rooke
So, what did you think???
All opinions welcome! (Though do be polite!)
And be sure to stop by here on the next two Tuesdays, when we’ll be discussing the new Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park!
Cara
Cara King, who reads and writes books, and would sleep on them too if she were a cat
I recently finished ON WRITING by Stephen King (one down on the TBR list!) and I highly recommend it to fellow writers. I suspect even non-writers might be intrigued by King’s insights into the insane business of fiction writing.
For anyone who has not read it, the book has two main elements: memoirs of King’s own journey as a writer including the story of his comeback to writing after his horrific accident in 1999, along with practical and entertaining advice on the craft. Both make good reading. His advice on adverbs alone cracked me up:
They’re like dandelions. If you have one on your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day..fifty the day after that..and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely and profligately covered with dandelions.
But I’ve been writing long enough that advice like this is not new. What I did find most useful are his ideas on how to deal with reader reaction and critical feedback.
You can’t please all of the readers all of the time; you can’t please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time.
I ought to print this out and tack it up somewhere in my writing space. Just for those moments when my work gets slammed by a reader on Amazon or on an online review site and I forget that for each online bashing I can show at least 10 positive reviews.
The concept that struck me most in ON WRITING is King’s concept of an “ideal reader”. He writes:
I think that every novelist has a single ideal reader; that at various points during the composition of a story, the writer is thinking, “I wonder what he/she will think when he/she reads this part?” For me that first reader is my wife, Tabitha.
The Ideal Reader is the personification of your target audience. Someone who enjoys the genre and the type of stories you write, someone who “gets” you at your personal best but is also smart enough to know when you have fallen short.
I don’t think I have a single Ideal Reader. My critique partners are great but none of them love the Regency enough that I would write with them in mind. Failing an Ideal Reader, I’m all too prone to let the wrong people into my head when I’m writing: my mother, the nun who taught me in 1st grade, the random wacko on Amazon, the lady who wrote at length to chastise me about all the “pages and pages of explicit sex” in SAVING LORD VERWOOD (though she did say she forced herself to read the whole thing!). Having an Ideal Reader might help.
What would my Ideal Reader be like? She must love the Regency, relish a nice dollop of historical detail along with the romance, not have rigid expectations about whether she wants a sweet or sensual book, and enjoy reading about flawed characters.
Perhaps I am my own Ideal Reader. Pretending I’m writing just for myself often helps me through rough patches. But it is hard to judge my own work while I’m writing it and taking the time to let a manuscript rest is hard given publishing pressures. Thinking of a reader outside myself might be the better way.
Maybe, when I’m driving myself crazy trying to please too many different readers, I should just think about the Riskies and friends here. I’ll have to try that next time Mrs. Grundy gets in my head!
My fellow writers, what do you think? Do you write with an Ideal Reader in mind? What is she or he like?
For readers, whose Ideal Reader do you think you might be?
Elena
www.elenagreene.com
I thought I’d try something a bit different today — an offbeat introduction to a new Regency author, shorter and sillier than our formal interviews (er, I mean the introduction, not the author!) and hopefully fun.
Many of you have probably seen Georgie Lee’s comments on our blog — well, her first Regency, Lady’s Wager, has just been published by Cerridwen Cotillion, and you all know how I love any sort of Regency gambling! (In this particular wager, if the heroine loses, she has to get married — and that’s always great fun.) So let’s get to know Georgie Lee a little better!
So, Georgie, how did you feel when you sold your first book?
Excited, and somewhat terrified. I’ve heard many authors describe their first sale experience but until I went through it, the contract, the edits, the nail biting countdown to release day, I had no idea the trials awaiting me. However, the feelings of accomplishment and pride that came with selling Lady’s Wager made all the other stresses and headaches worth it and I can’t wait to do it again.
What’s one big difference between writing for Hollywood, and writing novels?
Well, so far neither has made me rich but there is still time (haa-haa). It was an adjustment moving from screenwriting to novels and it took a while to make the switch. In screenwriting, a writer provides the director with a dialogue blueprint and the end result is someone else’s vision. Writing a novel made me responsible for everything and it took a while to get the hang of scene descriptions and sensory details. My first draft of Lady’s Wager was difficult to read because I hadn’t learned how to move characters through a scene without constantly using the word “and”. However, after a couple of drafts I got the hang of it and my writing greatly improved.
Why do you like writing in the Regency period?
I’ve always loved the manners and the elegance of the Regency. I know those manners covered up what could be a very harsh society but the delight of romances is the ability to enjoy a time period without the ugly reality. Also, writing in the Regency is like being a screenwriter during the golden age of Hollywood. Back then, characters couldn’t always say everything they wanted to say, especially if it was racy. As a result, writers came up with very clever dialogue and scenes to suggest what the characters were forbidden to express.
What’s your favorite Jane Austen novel?
Persuasion. Unlike many of Austen’s other characters, such as Emma and Elizabeth, who are self-confident, Anne lacks self-confidence at the beginning and must learn to believe in herself and her opinion. I think we all feel a lack of self-confidence at times and so we can easily identify with Anne. Also, it’s touching to watch her change and grow and to see her growth rewarded with a second chance at love.
Non-Jane Austen Regency Romance?
His Lordship’s Swan by Martha Kirkland. It was one of the first Regencies I read and I love the heroine’s spunk and the way her defiance of convention catches the hero’s attention. I enjoy strong female characters who don’t conform to social expectations and this non-conformist attitude is one of the defining features of Charlotte, the heroine of Lady’s Wager.
What’s your favorite period movie?
Where do I begin? I love so many period movies, from Dangerous Beauty to An Ideal Husband, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility to Elizabeth. However, my all time favorite is Gone with the Wind. I first saw it in junior high, and Scarlett O’Hara’s determination to succeed combined with her devil may care attitude and her belief in the promise of tomorrow really spoke to me. About ten years ago I was finally able to see it in a theatre and it was like seeing it for the first time.
If you had to marry one Jane Austen hero, which would it 
be?
Mr. Darcy. In a lot of ways he reminds me of my husband. Both of them are reserved and somewhat shy, which can sometime be mistaken for pride, and both are devoted to those they love.
Thanks for joining us, Georgie! (Okay, you’re married to Mr. Darcy…does that mean I have to hate you?) 🙂
And if anyone wants to know more about Lady’s Wager or about Cotillion Regencies, just go to Cotillion’s Georgie Lee page.
And remember to stop by Risky Regencies next Tuesday to discuss the new adaptation of Persuasion! (When any of the new Austens air on PBS, we’ll discuss them here the following Tuesday.)
Cara
Cara King, author of her own little gambling book