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Author Archives: megan

Sports Geek

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Business out of the way first: I am in the final 100 pages of revising my manuscript to send to my *NEW* agent, that should be to her very, very soon (my MIL is in town, so it’s hard to revise heaving bosoms, so it’s a mite delayed).

But tonight, I plan to Sports Geek out, only there are TWO events happening simultaneously:

The sixth game of the Boston Celtics vs. the Detroit Pistons (basketball, folks) and the finals of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I am so torn! Tall, thin men versus words! How do I choose?!?

Basketball is my favorite sport (to watch–I’ve never played), and I am usually a Knicks fan, but this year, for a variety of reasons, I am rooting for my hometown Celtics.

But then–oh, be still my beating heart–there’s a site where you can see if you would have advanced through the first round of the Spelling Bee, on through to the finals (I’ve made it through the first round, thank you very much, although I don’t have enough time today to see if I make it further).

But basketball! With people that look like this, all mean and intense and TALL and focused:

I think I will be flipping between the two, hardly the only one out there, I am sure.

Do you like sports? What teams do you root for? What Regency pastime would you like to try? Which of your obsessions surprise people when they discover it?

Megan

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To Have And To Hold

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Okay, so I freely admit to being a little compulsive when it comes to certain things: I won’t start reading a book unless I have a bookmark in hand. And it can’t be just any bookmark; the bookmark has to suit the book, using my own idiosyncratic categorization system (IOW, mystery bookmarks do not get put with mysteries; it’s far more complicated than that).

So I know it’s a little nutty to be so obsessive about the way the books are organized, but I am, and they are. I spent some time a few weeks ago getting *my* books in order. My father-in-law, a former contractor, built me a bookshelf specially for my paperbacks, and he accommodated my heinous habit of double-stacking. I had thrown the books in there when I first got the shelf, and only now have gotten to organize it the way I wanted to.

But now? Now is BLISS!

I’m posting pictures, which is really about as exciting as seeing stills of someone singing, but IT’S WHAT I’M BLOGGING ABOUT, PEOPLE! Which might say something about how exciting this topic is also, but I digress.

So I organized these pbs not alphabetically, but in a more Frampton-specific fashion: Friends (Myretta Robens, Carolyn Jewel, Tracy MacNish, Meljean Brook, Colleen Gleason) are at eye-level with Loretta Chase (an annual dinner friend) and Eloisa James (a ‘gave me a blurb, says hi at conferences’ friend). The Riskies‘ books are, of course, mixed in there also but that darn Jane Lockwood had to come out in trade pb, which screwed me up a little. I know there are more friends up there, but that is off the top of my head. As everything is.

Anne Stuart‘s books are both back and front because I think I must have about sixty of them, and I am KEEPING them ALL!

Books I want to read are in front, keepers are in the back. Collections are always together–Lee Child, Bernard Cornwell, Mary Balogh–regardless of whether I’ve read them all or just some.

And the reward? Every time I look at my bookcase, it feels like a little piece of zen is unleashed in my heart. I cannot overstate just how delightful and amazing it is to have space for the books, and that they are put away just the way I like them (the last pic is of non-romance, since I have a sizeable noir bleeding into gritty mystery collection, too).

Do you organize your books? How do you do it? Do you think about it a lot, or just have “R” and “TBR” piles?

Megan

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Accessible Beauty

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Brace yourselves–I have an actual topic today!


As we might have mentioned, Amanda and I are presenting a workshop at this summer’s Beau Monde Conference entitled, Keeping It Real: Making Your Historical Characters Come Alive. Here’s the brief description:

Just because you’re writing in a distant time period doesn’t mean your characters should be distant to your readers. Join award-winning historical authors Amanda McCabe and Megan Frampton as they discuss how to make your characters come alive through dialogue, attitudes, description and actions, while still remaining true to the period.

Amanda and I will be working on the outline/presentation in upcoming months, and when I saw this article, I realized there were some aspects of ‘keeping it real’ I hadn’t thought of:


Hollywood’s Changing Face of Beauty
From Greta Garbo to Kate Hudson, How Beauty Has Changed in America

The article says that while classic beauties were popular before, quirkier, more “accessible” beauty is what Americans find attractive.

Which, of course, led me to consider what readers find attractive in heroines. If you’re Of A Certain Reading Age, you likely read a lot of those ’80s romances where the heroine was beyond gorgeous: Perfect hair, perfect skin, perfect teeth (!–we are reading about English people, remember). The thing that usually wasn’t perfect about them was how they didn’t know they were perfect. Or something lame and punting like that.

Now our heroines have flaws, flaws that make them more real: Their hair is too curly, their hips are too big, their mouths are too wide, their eyes are just plain brown, they are too short or too tall, or whatever. We, as readers, want to read about women who are like us, not perfect goddesses on pedestals.

What do you think our changing attitudes about beauty reveal about us? Do you find Angelina, the Jessicas, Jennifer, Megan F(ox)–not me!, Halle, et al stunning? What do you like about those old romances in terms of their heroines’ descriptions? What do you like about current heroines’ looks?

Thanks for your comments!

Megan

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Mother’s Day Wishes

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Mother’s Day is this Sunday. And since companies have been deluging us with advertising reminding us all of this fact since April, I won’t ask if you mailed a card/figured out a gift/unplugged your phone.

I am a mother (And a daughter of a mother, for that matter). And, like a lot of mothers, what I really want for Mother’s Day is some sleep, the freedom to take a nap (or two!). Maybe read uninterrupted by requests to get a glass of water, find someone’s keys, weigh in on what Pokemon I’d like to be, or watch a sports highlight. Bliss.

It’s hard, I think, for one day to bear the load of gratitude children and husbands and partners want to bestow on mothers–I know I always feel an inordinate amount of pressure to make sure my mother-in-law has a great day, and that I get some fun myself.

But, since we can, let’s just imagine what we’d like best for a treat. I’ll start:

an ARC of Loretta Chase‘s Your Scandalous Ways.

That bookcase, above (it only costs $3,990).

A Pucci scarf.

Not having to wait until December to see the movie version of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer‘s brilliant YA vampire book.

Iced coffee and a cupcake with my best friend, the Picky Vegetarian, who lives in Portland, OR.

. . . And an extravagant gift certificate to Amazon.

What are you longing for ? What are you doing for your mom? If you’re a mom, what are you hoping for this Sunday?

Megan

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Books Are Inspiring!

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As anyone who’s paid even passing interest to my posts lately knows, I’ve just moved. After 13 years of being in the same apartment.

So writing? No, not so much lately.

But I have set up my office, sort of; when Amanda was visiting, she helped me lug boxes of research and Regency books up to the second floor, where I sit typing now. Last week, I managed to get them onto the shelves.

I have a lot of books, especially for someone who admits she’s not much of a researcher. What I do get from my vast collection, however, is inspiration; for example, I have a book I snagged from my dad’s even vaster collection:

The Hell-Fire Club by Donald McCormick

I haven’t even opened it (mostly ’cause it smells funny, the way old paperbacks do), but how inspiring is it, even from the cover? The top line on the book reads “The Weird Story of the Amorous Knights of Wycombe.” Come on, how awesome would it be if one of our heroines snuck into the Hellfire Club? Or the hero was a member?

I also have on my shelf a book I’ve mentioned here before, the Regency Underworld by Donald A. Low (do you smell a trend? Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be writing about a traditional debutante and her Season anytime soon. My new agent likes it that I’m edgy, which is cool).

Another book that will be way useful, when I actually open it, is The Great North Road by Frank Morley, which my dad (my research partner) left notes in after writing me a huge document on all roads leading to London (I am writing a “Road To . . .” series, so my characters are traveling to and fro).

Mostly, though, I sit here and look up and smile because the two shelves look like they belong to a Regency Author’, which is what I am.

What are your favorite history books? Besides the Regency, which are your favorite periods to know about?

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