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Author Archives: Janet Mullany

The Scandalous Ms. Kelly

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A big Riskies welcome to Christie Kelley who’s here to talk about her October release SCANDAL OF THE SEASON and to whom I’m grateful for saving me from independent thought today. She’ll be giving away a signed copy to one person who comments, so please post a question or comment.

I’ve known Christie just about as long as I’ve been writing. She’s my critique partner and one of the best plotters I know. When Christie was starting this book, she posed the innocent question to the critique group: Can you think of a good reason why the hero’s mother should run a brothel? Much hilarity ensued.

Kelley’s fresh and vibrant romances are emotional, fast-paced and intriguing. Her originality captivates readers and grabs their attention. She gifts everyone with a holiday-set story that’s a little bit Hans Christian Andersen merged with all of her sensual storytelling ability. 4 stars, Kathe Robin, Romantic Times

This book sparkles like diamonds and dazzles like rubies. The Reading Reviewer

This is book number four in your series about a group of women who’ve vowed never to marry, although it reads very well as a stand alone. Do you miss your characters when a book is finished?

I don’t normally because they pop up as secondary characters in the next book. I did just finish writing the last of the Spinster Club series. It was difficult to finish because these characters have been part of my life since 2004 when I first started writing EVERY NIGHT I’M YOURS. All the spinsters wanted more “on screen” time in the last book as if to get their last words in.

Who did you visualize as Somerton when you were writing him, or who would you cast in the movie?

What an easy question! As soon as I started writing Somerton as a secondary character I visualized Jensen Ackles from Supernatural. He was my perfect Somerton in looks and character.

What’s your favorite scene in the book?

I don’t want to give too much away but it’s when my heroine, Victoria does something completely selfless because she loves Somerton. She gets hurt in the process and he can’t understand why she did it. She tells him she loves him and didn’t want to see him hurt. The fact that someone would do something for him because of love just about breaks him. I love it!

What was the most difficult part for you to write?

I had too much plot in this book. It just wasn’t working. Thankfully, my other critique partner, Kathy Love speed read the book and we replotted a few things. After two weeks of rewriting I was able to kill some of the external plot that was taking over the book. I guess that what I get for not being a plotter.

Which writers have influenced you?

Jane Austen for one. But I didn’t really discover her until college. I grew up reading modern historical romances so I think I was most influenced by Johanna Lindsey.

What’s next for you?

The final Spinster Club book, ONE NIGHT SCANDAL, will be a June 2011 release. Right now, I’m busy writing a proposal for a shorter series based on a very minor character in SCANDAL OF THE SEASON.

Thanks, Christie, and let’s chat!

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An Etiquette Guide

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Good morning! Today I’m going to talk about some of the research I did for JANE AND THE DAMNED which released a few days ago and I’m going to give away two copies of the book. I’ll announce the names of the winners on Monday, so please feel free to comment on yesterday’s post about BESPELLING JANE AUSTEN too.

So who were the Damned in Georgian England? They were the fashionable vampires who were regarded with awe and envy and lust by the ton, and were the favored companions of the Prince of Wales who later became the Prince Regent. Because being fed upon–the euphemism for the Damned’s feeding was dining–was intensely pleasurable for mortals, and because dining was inevitably accompanied by skillful sexual activity (they had had centuries of practice) without any risk of pregnancy and disease, their parties were legendary.

Naturally, etiquette books regarding correct behavior with the Damned became best sellers and I was fortunate enough to acquire a copy of this guide from 1795:

The Gentlewoman’s Guide to

The Damned

being a guide to the Manners, Habits, and Pleasures of the Fashionable Immortals; including a full Set of Instructions for those who are invited to Dine; and Useful Instructions on Matters of Dress and Deportment and Methods of Revival the Morning After

It’s an extraordinary record of social behavior, with some information I found very useful. For instance:

It is advised that a Lady’s gown should display the neck and shoulders in as revealing a way as possible without actually resorting to Vulgarity, which the Damned abhor, for those areas of the person are naturally of greatest interest to them.

And

It is unwise to speculate upon the true age of one of the Damned. Generally one should converse on the weather, fashion, and politics.

It appears the Damned did actually provide food for their human guests, as both courtesy and as a matter of practicality to keep up the strength of those who would later provide them with their dinner:

For a guest to remark upon the lack of appetite displayed by the Fashionable Immortal Host is considered Impolite; moreover, a guest is supposed to dine heartily, for the menu will have been prepared with the utmost consideration, as providing the most pleasure for the Damned themselves.

This advice was given for the actual dining experience:

While in the Transport of Sensual Delight which accompanies the Host’s Dining, a lady should remove her necklace, for the teeth of the Damned enjoy Remarkable Sensitivity at such a time. She may also, if she wishes, remove her gloves.

As for the morning after, when the fashionable lady might feel a little wobbly from blood loss, the guide advises that

…although many consider a glass of wine with a drop of Immortal blood dissolved in it to be infinitely superior to any Apothecary’s Brew, the blood will most probably be provided by a fledgling, a lesser member of the society of the Damned. It is most uncivil to refuse on the grounds of the fledgling’s rank, and consider that even a drop of fledgling blood will bring Improvement to the Complexion and Brightness to the Eyes.

What recommendations would you have for an etiquette guide to those consorting with Regency-era vampires?

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Bespelling Jane Austen

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… these multitalented authors cleverly twist the classics into delightful, scary, funny and original paranormal romances that only original, witty and wise authors could pull off. Romantic Times Book Reviews

…a superb Emma retelling with a wonderful paranormal twist. And She Reads

For more, visit twiceashungry.com.

Welcome to my big fat Regency paranormal celebration weekend. Today I’m talking about BESPELLING JANE AUSTEN which hit the shelves just a few days ago and giving away two copies. Tomorrow I’ll be back to talk about JANE AND THE DAMNED, also with copies as prizes.

I loved writing this novella, Little To Hex Her, and I was very lucky that Susan Krinard and I share the same agent, which is how I was invited to join the anthology. I also love that this cover gives me an automatic boost up the publishing ladder by defining me, along with the others who are the genuine article, as a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Talk about a field promotion ….

This book represents a lot of firsts for me. First novella, first paranormal, first contemporary, first public appearance as someone doing terrible things to poor Jane Austen. Mary’s is Victorian set, Colleen’s is a Gardella-inspired Regency, and Susan and I wrote contemporaries to balance things out. I was really hoping that no one else would want to base theirs on Emma, which has long been my favorite Austen, although I’ve been having a fling with Mansfield Park which I blogged about a couple of years ago.

What do I love about Emma? Certainly neither its heroine nor hero; Knightley gets my worst in bed Austen hero award; and Emma herself is clueless and as terrified of the world outside her safe little provincial circle as her father is. Because Austen is so brilliant she can enchant you with a book where she admitted herself that the heroine is someone not many will like. But it’s the details, the delineations of class and village life, the interwoven relationships, the minor characters, that fascinate me: who knows what and when, how Austen carefully drops clues and hints. Pam Rosenthal, with whom I’ve had many conversations about Emma (no, really, this is what writers do) pointed out that the book works as a mystery as well as being full of mysteries in its own right.

So it was a real joy to slice and dice and translate Austen. I decided to set the story in Washington, DC because I live near there and I decided Emma should live in the classic art deco Kennedy-Warren Apartments. Emma runs a paranormal dating agency; matchmaking is her job, even if it’s one she doesn’t feel completely at home with.

As well as inheriting my sister’s job for a year, I’d also inherited her apartment in a gem of an art deco building a stone’s throw from the zoo at Woodley Park. At first I’d thought the strange whooping sounds that woke me at dawn were the gargoyles, until I realized they were the gibbons greeting the new day. I loved the apartment with its huge windows and elegant parquet floors.

I loved the marble and mosaics and gilding of the lobby, the wrought iron splendor of the dignified slow elevator. I even loved the gargoyles, particularly after I’d drawn the blinds.

There was only one problem with the place, and here he was ambling across the lobby, sporting a toolbelt and carrying a toilet plunger.

“Yo, Woodhouse,” said George I-hate-my-first-name Knightley. Despite his disguise as a janitor, he was the owner of the building. He enjoyed the occasional spot of maintenance as relaxation from the world of high finance—”it keeps me humble.”

Humble! As though any member of that renowned and ancient family of wizards even knew the meaning of the word.

“Hi George,” I returned, and had the pleasure of seeing him scowl.

The Kennedy-Warren doesn’t have any gargoyles, but the Cathedral, in the same neighborhood, certainly does.

Since the building where Emma lives is so important to the story, let’s talk about buildings! I’ll pick two winners who respond to the following question:

Which buildings do you love or are inspired by?

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Regional accents in England

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No sooner said than done, Carolyn!

I was wondering what to post about today because I’m all in a tizzy with Jane and the Damned and Bespelling Jane Austen released two days ago and I still haven’t gloated over them on a shelf in a store (although I may do so today even though it’s pouring with rain). I’m going to spend the entire weekend talking about them and giving away copies so I hope you’ll stop by.

So … regional accents. I’ve frankly never seen such bizarre treatments of regional accents as in romance, where a sort of one-size-fits all generic vaguely Cockney reigns, unless the character is Scottish, in which case he or she assumes the one-size-fits all generic Scottish accent. What complicates matters is that we know accents change over time. We don’t really know how people spoke two centuries ago. Should we care? Yes. Should we try to make them sound “right”? Yes, because an accent, or rather, the way someone speaks reveals a lot about them, not only where they grew up, but also their education, their background, and everything else that goes into defining their place in the English class system–and their role in your book.

Take a look, and listen, at Sounds Familiar? at the wonderful British Library website. This demonstrates particular pronunciations and dialects of the twentieth century, after radio and TV dulled things down a bit. It’s more likely in pre-industrial revolution England that there would be even more accents; I visited an area in the Midlands one time where there were subtle changes in accents every five miles or so.

Another good source may be IDEA, International Dialects & Accents of England, which I’ve just discovered (I’m at work with a computer that has no sound).

Yes, but … this is a huge scholarly research area. How did our characters speak? My theory–and it’s only a theory, and it’s mine (suppresses inner John Cleese)–is that it’s quite likely our aristos talked one way with their peers, but could lapse into local dialects when at home in the country. Why? Children were raised by servants, not by their parents. My sole source for this theory is Kipling’s Stalky & Co., a book about a group of cool, subversive, inventive boys at a public school in the late nineteenth century. They adopt the lingua franca of a Devonshire accent when they visit the local village; one of them, of Anglo-Irish descent, had his native accent bullied out of him when he joined the school.

We know that the Londoners of the Regency probably used the interchangeable Vs and Ws of Dicken’s characters, because Dickens was writing the dialect of his youth.

So how do we differentiate the way the lord speaks from his valet? If the valet was particularly ambitious, they might sound pretty much alike. It’s more a question of diction, vocabulary, phrasing, than anything else.

I find attempts to duplicate dialect are really annoying, particularly those generic Scottish ones. You don’t want your reader to have to slow down deciphering dialogue. Also, I don’t know how attuned the American ear is to English dialects anyway–I know that I can just about tell a southern US accent from a Boston one and I’ve been here for years.

Now you can hear me all over the place–I narrate my book trailer, for instance, and I have soundbites on my website (and a new contest, while you’re there). If you have the RWA conference tape to which Carolyn referred, you’ll hear me and Miranda Neville, who also has a new release this month and will visit weekend after next. Can you tell the difference between us? She’s much posher than I am. I have more of a multipurpose, upper lower middle class southeastern urban accent.

The pic I used for this post is also from the British Library site, which has a whole wonderful section on cookbooks and recipes from the past, very useful stuff. Enjoy.

What do you think about simulated dialects in books?

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