Author Archives: megan

Book Quirks

Updated on December 4, 2009 by megan

As if December weren’t busy enough, what with the gift-buying, early gift-returning, holiday decorating, partying, etc., this year the Framptons have been engrossed in the NYC middle school process; it’s like applying to college, only the kids are shorter and there’s no money involved.

So I haven’t done any writing.

I have been reading, however, and finding time to get coffee with friends. This morning, I was with a friend who happened to mention–not knowing what it would do to my psyche–that his wife often picks up books HE’S reading, with bookmarks and everything, and starts reading them herself. And then he proceeded to laugh at me as I noticeably freaked out at even the thought.

I accept that having to have a bookmark is my own idiosyncrasy that is not a dealbreaker for most people. But this one? OMG, I can’t BELIEVE it’s not cause for divorce (it doesn’t bother my friend, but oddly enough, it bothers his wife, because her dad does the same thing. She can’t help herself, though). If my husband did that to me–hoo boy. And it’s not just because I’m an only child! Is it?

Some people are end-readers; they have to know how the story finishes even before they’ve finished with the story. Some people have to read in order of a series (me!); others feel as though they have to finish reading a series, even if the author has swerved from what made them love the series in the first place along the way (Diana Gabaldon often comes up in this discussion). Some won’t stop reading a book, even if they don’t like it, because they feel compelled to finish. Some will give a book a certain amount of pages, or chapters, to prove itself or they’ll put it down.

What are your reading quirks? Does it bug you when people dog-ear pages, or crack the spines?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 15 Replies

Thankful

Updated on November 27, 2009 by megan

My son (who’s 10) wrote this in school on Wednesday, and I thought I would share it with you all. Hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely day yesterday, filled with turkey, and pie, and family.

I’m Thankful For Life

I’m thankful for the rivers,

And all the snakes that slither

Through the trees that I’m thankful for also.

I’m thankful for the bugs,

The wasps, and the slugs,

And I don’t care if they’re gross or slimy.

I’ll make friends with a frog,

Or a serpent in the bog,

And it doesn’t matter if it’s grimy.

I’m thankful for the monkeys

And the lions that are funky

That live in the shiny Savannah,

And when the gibbons swing inters

The look at the chimpanzees,

Eating their yellow bananas.

I’m thankful for the skunks,

And the grey and black punks,

Who are usually known as raccoons.

And the mice who eat rice, and the rats who have lice,

And the capybaras who eat lemon-flavored macaroons.

I’m thankful for fish,

That flip and swish,

In the water and squirt and swim,

And the squids and sharks,

And the seals that bark,

And the swordfish that’s surprisingly thin.

I’m thankful for chickens and ducks,

And pigs, who flop in the much,

And the cows, who always say moo.

I like the horses and mules,

Who make all the rules,

I appreciate the brown turkeys, too.

I’m thankful for mountains,

And volcanoes that spew,

And I even like cells,

And viruses, too.

Parasites are coo,

And crabs ain’t no fool,

And I love all the salmon

In their little school.

I adore kittycats,

And tortoises that are fat,

And I’m thankful for anything that’s living.

Especially my family, and I hope

That everything

In this planet has

A marvelous Thanksgiving.

Me, too.

Megan

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 10 Replies

Plodding Along

Updated on November 13, 2009 by megan

Recently, I returned to writing a story that is just so much fun, way sillier and more delicious than my usual stuff (closer to my posts here, I suppose). The thing is, I am trying a new way of writing, working with a relatively final synopsis as a plot guidepost as I write rather than flying into the mist.

Have I mentioned I am a curmudgeon when it comes to change? A long time ago, I had this quote hung up in my kitchen, just to remind myself:

“Change is, by definition, unsettling.”

So anyway. Changing my process is deeply disturbing to me, yet necessary.

I’ve got a sort-of working synopsis now, and a first chapter, but am stumped as to where to go from here. Let me lay out my options:

1. Heroine spies totally foxy hero from across the ballroom.
2. Totally Foxy Hero (TFH) is unimpressed with heroine. But bored. And doesn’t like it when someone else makes fun of her. So decides, maybe, to make her his project for the Season.
3. Heroine has secret identity. TFH will not discover secret identity until way later in the book, causing the all-important black moment.
4. Heroine has to work on secret identity work.
5. TFH and Heroine have to run into each other, even though he is Man About Town and she is a girl on her third Season.

So what do I do? How do I get them together? I don’t want to lay out all the mundane details of her secret identity life–it involves writing, of all boring to describe things–and I want to get them all hot and bothered as soon as possible. I wrote a scene where her Horrid Mother demands Heroine at least try to get betrothed, but it’s not sitting right in my brain.

Got any ideas? Apologies for the lackluster post, this and the state of my kitchen floor is about all that’s in my head right now. And you didn’t need to read about mopping.

Megan

Anthea Lawson

Updated on November 8, 2009 by megan

Today, the Riskies welcome Anthea Lawson! And answer the question below to be entered to win a copy of Passionate.

Anthea Lawson is the pseudonym of a husband-wife writing team whose romances are set in early Victorian England, with a touch of travel to exotic locales. Their second novel, ALL HE DESIRES, has just been released. Their debut novel, PASSIONATE, was nominated for a Best First Book RITA in 2009. Visit their website, http://www.anthealawson.com for all their latest news!

About ALL HE DESIRES:
Far from home and her noble relatives, Miss Caroline Huntington has been injured in a fall from her horse. Called to her side, Alex Trentham knows he must assist her, though he has not practiced as a physician for a long while. Just to see so lovely a woman in a state of undress is a hard test of his self-control. Caroline is all that is warm and feminine, beautiful and pure.

Brave to a fault, she does not flinch under his hands, and soon she is on the mend. Alex struggles to hide his feelings, knowing that his dark past shadows any hope of a future. But Caroline’s radiant innocence is dangerous to a worldly man, and she seems achingly eager to experience all the pleasure he could show her…

“I find this to be a wonderful example of historical romance. Ms. Lawson tells a powerful love story and draws the reader in within the first chapter. This tale comes with a high recommendation from this reviewer.” – Coffee Time Romance
“This husband-and-wife team’s second novel sweeps from the shores of Crete to the streets of London… readers will enjoy the characters and the beautiful descriptions in this nice tale.” –Romantic Times

Please welcome Anthea Lawson:

Q. You two are a couple, AND you write together. What the hell? Are you trying to make all us squabbling married couples look bad? And how do you do it?
Writing together is not squabble-fee, but we’re used to creative collaboration from many years playing in a band, producing CDs and doing other other fun, creative projects together. Each of us brings very different strengths to the process, and we’ve learned to respect our unique talents. When we disagree over something while writing, that is just a signal to search for something better that pleases both of us.

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start as a character, a setting, or some other element?
Anthea had the first sentence in her head months before we began writing — “Caroline Huntington was falling.” We also knew we wanted to set the first part of the book on the Isle of Crete. Also, we wanted a moody and dark hero with a haunted past. Things just unfolded from there.

Q. What fascinates you most about the early Victorian period?
The English were all over the globe, invincible in their sense of Empire. Add the burgeoning industrial revolution, the everyman scientist, and you have rich ground to plant all kinds of stories.

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?
We had a little over a year to write this book. Being under a contract deadline was totally different from being able to work at our leisure, like we did with our first novel. ALL HE DESIRES was more stressful to write because of that, plus we were working on deepening the the emotions in our writing. There was (and is) so much left to learn about writing great romances. Our editor left the publishing house partway through, and that also made things a little more complicated.

Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?
Our heroine appears briefly in our first book, PASSIONATE — she’s the sister of that book’s hero. She was an interesting, spunky character, and we had a hunch we’d want to write about her. After that, we spent time figuring out a hero that would be an impossible and stubborn match for her. 🙂

Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?
We got to find out more about erotic Roman frescoes! That was fun. (We posted on this the other day at the Naughty & Spice blog for those interested in reading more.) We also got to immerse ourselves in the history and culture of Crete — though only in a virtual sense. One of our dreams is to be able to travel for extended periods to the exotic places we like to write about.

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you’ve taken in this book? How do you feel about it?
We really wanted to increase the emotional intensity of the story and explore some deeper emotions. We gave our hero a tortured past that he refuses to talk about. His story is slowly revealed to both the reader and the Heroine. Moving him emotionally to a place where he could love freely felt risky. There was definitely some worry that the event that triggered his self-exile from England would be a problem for readers, but so far it seems to not be an issue.

Q. Is there anything you wanted to include in the book that you (or your CPs or editor) felt was too controversial and left out?
One of the best things about working with our publisher was the freedom we had to write the story we wanted. Since we work as a team, the book really has a lot of editing complete before we turn it in. The things we thought might be controversial we left in.

Q. What are you working on next?
We’re working on a series set against the glittering backdrop of 19th century musical celebrity. We’ve been professional musicians for many years, and its so much fun to capture the excitement of performing and make it part of the story. Music is a language of emotion and there is a lot that goes on backstage. We are about half-way through the first novel and we think readers will love this story. The romance is really working.

Q. Is there anything else you would like readers to know about you or your books?
Our first novel, PASSIONATE, was nominated for a 2009 RITA Best First Book. It’s not in most stores now (most romances have only a couple of months on store shelves) but it is available through Amazon, Powell’s, Borders, and other on-line retailers. If you like All He Desires, we would encourage you to give the first novel a read, too!

In fact, to help facilitate that, we’ll be giving away a copy of PASSIONATE to one lucky commenter. So tell us, what kind of risks do you think work – or don’t work – in historical romance?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Anthea Lawson | 26 Replies

Menage A Deux

Updated on November 6, 2009 by megan

Gah. I had a good topic (not a great one, but a good one) for today, but thanks to the combination of the World Series, early mornings, touring middle schools for the ten year-old, back spasms, etc., I am in no mood. None at all. Except a bad one.

BUT I am writing a synopsis, this one hopefully with actual plot and stuff, and I’ve been reading some great stuff, including the first in Jim Butcher‘s Codex Alera series. I was astounded that Butcher is as adept in science fiction/fantasy as he is with his Harry Dresden series, which I guess is urban fantasy. Despite the same words, the two genres are quite distinct, and I was expecting the Codex Alera series to be a second banana to Dresden. But it’s not. There are a few authors who can write equally well in different genres –I’d say Anne Stuart, Barbara Hambly, Lois McMaster Bujold; I know many would cite Nora Roberts, with her J.D. Robb pseudonym, as well (I haven’t read Roberts, and read one Robb only, so I can’t comment myself).

So here’s your question today: What other genre would you like to see your favorite Regency author tackle (me, I think Amanda would SPARKLE at YA!)? Which are your favorite two-or-more-genre authors? And what should I do to shove this bad mood off my back (the spasming back, natch)?

Megan

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 8 Replies