Last Friday, I turned the finished final manuscript of The Duke’s Guide to Correct Behavior in to my agent. It is due to my editor on April 1 (quick plug: it’ll be out November 25 of this year from Avon, in both print and digital).

It was both arduous and delightful to write, if that makes any sense, since it was often hard to keep moving forward, but once I really got to know my characters, the words just poured out.

I don’t know how many changes it will undergo once it’s been revised, but this is my heroine’s first viewing of the hero:

He was tall, and very, very, very handsome. Extremely male. No, entirely and absolutely virile. That was the word. Virile with all of its connotations that brought the pink to her own cheeks. At least she better matched the room.

Goodness. She’d seen pictures of gods and soldiers and kings and other leaders of men, but she’d never actually felt the impulse to follow one of them anywhere.
This one, though, she might consider following, even though that way led to things that a young lady should not be thinking of. Especially a respectful governess who needed to make a good impression.

He had dark hair, straight, brushing his collar in an unkempt way that nonetheless looked utterly dashing. His eyebrows were straight black slashes over his eyes, dark brown, which were intently gazing at her as though he could see to her soul.

And if he could, he knew what she was thinking about him, so that could be problematic.

The sharp planes of his chiseled face were further accentuated by the stubble on his cheeks, giving him an even more dangerous look. The Dangerous Duke sounded like a character from a gothic novel. And he looked like just the sort of man who would lure women to do Dangerous Things.

And I got a new author photo, above, where I look both sorta like myself and yet also not too blotchy and hideous (thank you, photoshop!).

While I wait for revisions, I’ve been reading (as usual), and cleaning, and taking care of things that totally fell by the wayside while I was writing. I am so looking forward to Spring! And plotting out the next book…

Megan

This past week, my book What Not to Bare was included in a Barnes & Noble post titled 4 Romance Novels Too Sexy to Read in Public. Which was awesome, since of course that is bound to pique people’s interest, particularly people who might not normally pick up a historical romance.

And while I would like to proudly read whatever I want to in public, the truth is I am grateful for e-readers, and am happy I can read whatever I like without anyone judging me. Because while the content might be awesome, the truth is that some of our covers are pretty egregious. Just think of the original covers for two of the best (if not the actual best) historical romances out there–Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels and Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm.

Blech! I like them now, because they are so awful and over-the-top, and I seem to have shed some shame as I’ m advancing in years, but imagine how people who first bought them must have felt, and have had to explain that the books inside were brilliant, even if the covers weren’t.

The worst thing about e-readers is when you have the size magnified, because of that age thing, and you can tell someone is glancing over at what you’re reading while on the subway, and you’re at a really salacious part of the book, and you have to turn off the e-reader for a bit. Not that that’s ever happened to me.

Have you ever felt judged for the books you read?

Megan