Posts in which we or our guests offer a giveaway.
I’m delighted to announce the winner of Margaret Evans Porter’s giveaway from her guest interview last week. Kristen H is the winner of a print copy of Margaret’s newly reissued romance, The Proposal!! Congratulations, Kristen. We’ll put Margaret in touch with you to work out the details. And thank you, everyone else, for your great comments and for participating. Margaret enjoyed visiting with us and sends her best regards to all.
Today the Riskies welcome guest Margaret Evans Porter! Margaret and I have been friends since early days in my career, and I was a huge fan of her work even before that. The Proposal is one of my absolute favorites among her books, so I am very excited that a new edition will be released tomorrow!! Margaret is offering a print copy of The Proposal to a randomly chosen winner among those who comment by the end of this week, so please share your thoughts with us below after visiting here. And read on to find out about a new project she has coming out next month, as well!
Margaret Evans Porter
Margaret is the author of 11 novels and 2 novellas published in hardcover, paperback, digital editions, and in translation. She earned the Best New Regency Author award from Romantic Times Magazine with her first book, and later novels received multiple award nominations. She has also published nonfiction, poetry, and her photography, and is a trained actress who has worked on stage and in film and television. All this and she is also a historian and an avid gardener! But I should let HER tell you.
What’s the premise of The Proposal?
A: In 1797, Sophie Pinnock, a botanical artist and the widow of a famous landscape designer, is employed by the Earl of Bevington to alter the ground of his newly inherited castle in Gloucestershire. She would much prefer to restore the gardens to their original state than replace them. After many years living in Portugal, her employer has returned to England to claim his title.
Where did the idea for this particular story come from?
Margaret’s garden
A: It was the dead of winter in New England, the world was buried under snow–much like this winter! My coping mechanism was to design new rose beds that would feature historic period roses from Medieval times to the Regency and Victorian eras. I had recently spent time at a Gloucestershire castle. I ended up with a 2-book contract as well as an expanded garden!
Where did you turn for research?
A: I had already amassed a collection of historic gardening guides and price lists from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuties. My mother is a rose gardener, so I was raised with historic roses and books about them. On trips to England I visited intact gardens from earlier times.
What aspects of the research itself most intrigued you?
A: There was a raging debate about landscape design at that very time, when Humphrey Repton was altering many formal gardens to conform with his more “natural” style–popular with some people, and criticised by others. I was able to rely on primary sources, like the Red Books that Repton created for his clients (Sophie provides her clients with Blue Books!) And I’m always happy when I can wander through English gardens, so that was particularly appealing to me.
Do you have a favorite scene in this book?
A: I managed to include a scene in which Sophie debates Humphrey Repton himself, because–quite conveniently–he had clients in the neighborhood.
What would you say is “risky” about this book?
A: It seems “risky” to us nowadays, the concept of a female businesswoman in the late 18th century or Regency. But there is so much precedent! Many a widow, through financial necessity or entrepreneurial desire, took on responsibility for her late husband’s businesses. I think it’s a disservice to these women to bury the record of their achievements, and in some cases their innovations–Mrs. Eleanor Coade, who developed Coade stone, Hester Bateman the Silversmith, Rolinda Sharples the artist, Mrs. Sarah Baker the theatre proprietress who developed the theatres of southeast England. These are the notable names, but how many more must there have been that we do not know?
Another aspect of “risk” concerns opium addiction, and to a lesser extent, attitudes and suspicions about sexual orientation. Both of which have an effect upon the secondary mystery plot.
How long have you been writing?
A: I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a crayon in my fist. I became a publisher-editor-author at age 9 or 10 when I founded a class newspaper. My family is packed with writers, so it wasn’t an unusual path for me to follow. My mother, who taught me to read quite young, says she always knew I would be a writer.
What aspects of your own personality show up in your stories?
Rose from Margaret’s Garden
I’m everywhere. I create gardens and grow roses–so does Sophie in The Proposal. I performed on stage for many years, and studied dance–I’ve written novels featuring an actress, a dancer, and an opera singer. Like Oriana in Improper Advances, I play the mandolin. I mine the places in Britain or Ireland where I’ve studied, lived and/or travelled and use them as settings for my stories. My dogs turn up in books as members of my characters’ households.
Do you find that your training in theater is helpful to you as a writer?
A: It’s immensely helpful, in a variety of ways. Performing period plays immersed me in the idiom of past times, I was speaking dialogue uttered by the people who lived in the eras about which I write. From a very young age I was required to do intensive character biographies, creating backstories for the people I was portraying–this often required in-depth research into social customs, education, upbringing, styles of speech, popular books and music. And of course I was wearing costumes–corsets, petticoats, full skirts, strange shoes–and carrying fans and having my hair dressed and so on. Those experiences were extremely valuable, as you might imagine!
Which book, if any, was the most difficult for you to write, and why?
I would say my new historical biographical novel, A Pledge of Better Times, for several reasons. It is entirely fact-based, all the characters were real people of the late Stuart court–monarchs and aristocrats. 
Historical events provided the structure, the research was intense and took place over many years between other commitments. (For example, my productivity suffered a little during my 2 terms in the state legislature. But some sections of the novel were written surreptitiously during boring floor debates!) I don’t remember that any of my Regencies or historicals were difficult to write, although I did have to manage a very quick turnaround on an option book proposal while visiting friends in England. Almost every character in that book, Improper Advances, except the hero and heroine, were historical persons, so my fictional story needed to tie in with historical reality.
You now have a second website (www.margaretporter.com) for your mainstream historical novels, featuring real people from history. Your April release, A Pledge of Better Times, is the first of these. Tell us a little bit about this new direction in your writing?
A: In my youth I read many YA biographical historical novels, and my ambition to write mainstream historical novels dates from that time. It took a long time for the right story to find me–that of Lady Diana de Vere, and of Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St. Albans (bastard son of King Charles II and actress Nell Gwyn). It was sparked by some genealogical research, and caught fire after I became acquainted with a direct descendant of theirs. I spent years carrying out the research all round London–at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court and the Tower–as well as in Holland at The Hague and Paleis Het Loo. And Versailles. This book also features the development of formal gardens!
A Pledge of Better Times, will be available in print and as an ebook in April. It has just been named one of the “Books to Read in 2015” by the Book Drunkard blog–very exciting.
Where can readers go to get in touch or learn more about your books?
Website: www.margaretevansporter.com
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorMargaretEvansPorter
@MargaretAuthor on Twitter.
Risky readers, don’t forget to post a comment if you’d like a chance to win a print copy of The Proposal! Margaret Evans Porter, thanks so much for visiting with us today!
The Proposal:
When a lonely young widow and a mysterious earl clash over a neglected castle garden, suspicion and secrets threaten a blossoming love.
“Part romance, part mystery, a highly entertaining read.” –M.K. Tod, author of Lies Told in Silence
“Very sensual…lush in detail. Her characters have as much depth as the settings, and the gardens provide a wonderful backdrop for a tender love story.” –Affaire de Coeur
“Decidedly different…totally believable and deeply heartfelt.” –Rendezvous
Print on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Proposal-Margaret-Evans-Porter/dp/0990742091
Kindle on Amazon:
Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Rose Lerner, who’s here to talk about her latest release, True Pretenses, and give away a copy to one lucky commenter!
Never steal a heart unless you can afford to lose your own.
Through sheer force of will, Ash Cohen raised himself and his younger brother from the London slums to become the best of confidence men. He’s heartbroken to learn Rafe wants out of the life, but determined to grant his brother his wish.
It seems simple: find a lonely, wealthy woman. If he can get her to fall in love with Rafe, his brother will be set. There’s just one problem—Ash can’t take his eyes off her.
Heiress Lydia Reeve is immediately drawn to the kind, unassuming stranger who asks to tour her family’s portrait gallery. And if she married, she could use the money from her dowry for her philanthropic schemes. The attraction seems mutual and oh so serendipitous—until she realizes Ash is determined to matchmake for his younger brother.
When Lydia’s passionate kiss puts Rafe’s future at risk, Ash is forced to reveal a terrible family secret. Rafe disappears, and Lydia asks Ash to marry her instead. Leaving Ash to wonder—did he choose the perfect woman for his brother, or for himself?
Warning: Contains secrets and pies.
And now here’s Rose:
True Pretenses is your second book in a village-set series. Did you find writing it easier or harder than a stand-alone?
Definitely easier. Having an established world meant there were so many things I didn’t have to stop and think about. I already had a map of Lively St. Lemeston, for example (you can see it on my Lively St. Lemeston Pinterest board).
However, the two books were pretty loosely linked (if you’ve read Sweet Disorder, the heroine of True Pretenses is the daughter of Nick’s mom’s political archnemesis Lord Wheatcroft). So as far as writing characters and plot was concerned, it didn’t make too much difference.
What was your inspiration for this book?
I was watching Mark Ruffalo movies after The Avengers came out. One of them was a movie called “The Brothers Bloom” in which he and Adrien Brody are good-looking Jewish con artist brothers. The ending of the movie upset me so much that I had to fix it.
The basic set-up of the movie is that Adrien Brody wants to go straight, so Mark Ruffalo tries to set him up with Rachel Weisz, an endearingly eccentric heiress. Something that I realized while turning it over in my mind was that Mark Ruffalo set his brother up with someone exactly like him. Now, this is not an uncommon plotline, but usually it’s leading to either (A) “I set you up with a mini-me because I’m in love with you myself” or (B) “I arbitrarily decided you would be perfect with this person and pressured you into dating them and then HORRIBLY BETRAYED YOU by falling in love with them myself” (cf. Dan/Blair on Gossip Girl. Blair, Serena would have been FINE with you guys dating if you hadn’t gone ON AND ON about how she and Dan should get back together first, and tricked them into going on a weird Valentine’s Day date, and planted old people in the restaurant to talk about how great marrying your high school sweetheart is, and and and).
I went with option (B) for obvious reasons. Delicious angst! BUT with a happy ending, UNLIKE “The Brothers Bloom”. (Seriously, I love the movie, watch it, but BE WARNED.)
Did you learn anything that surprised you in your research? (I’m particularly interested in how you researched your hero’s background, since he’s not your typical Regency hero on several levels.)
I was surprised by how many Jews were involved in the Regency criminal world! Apparently most London fences were Ashkenazi Jews, for example, who had immigrated from the Netherlands and still had the connections to offload hot items there.
The word “swindler”, which my hero Ash uses to describe himself (“confidence man” is first attested in 1849, and in the US), entered the English language in the 1760s probably as a borrowing from Yiddish. (See a summary of the debate here. When it first came into use, the word had a much narrower meaning in bankruptcy fraud.)
I almost hesitate to share that because I don’t want to contribute to anti-Semitic stereotypes, but on the other hand, I don’t think that erasing Jewish criminals in favor of imagining an all-Englishborn all-Gentile underworld is any better.
Some books that were helpful to me in building Ash’s backstory were The Jews of Georgian England by Todd Endelman, The Regency Underworld by Donald Low (especially the chapter “Nurseries of Crime” about child criminals), The Big Con by David Maurer (a very entertaining history of American con artists that provided the blueprint for most modern heist stories and requires no background knowledge to enjoy), and A Vocabulary of the Flash Language (1819) by James Hardy Vaux, which not only teaches slang terms, but indirectly demonstrates a lot about London criminal culture and practice.
What was the most difficult part of the book to write?
Ash and Lydia are both very different from me! They don’t like reading fiction, they live in the moment, they get a thrill from taking risks, in their hearts they don’t really care about the rules, they aren’t cranky and enjoy crowds. There were a lot of times where I was writing them and thinking Ugh I would hate this SO MUCH but I guess it doesn’t really bother Ash.
Read any good books lately?
I feel like I’ve read ONLY good books lately! I think as I get older I get better and better at knowing my own taste and avoiding books I won’t enjoy. A few standouts: A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev, Jeannie Lin’s new steampunk Gunpowder Alchemy, and Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress by Theresa Romain (yay for a Bath setting!).
What do you do when you’re not writing or reading?
Apart from working at my day job (cooking), mostly watching TV with my BFF. Fiction is my jam, and TV is fiction you can enjoy in real time with someone else! At the moment we’re obsessed with Leverage and enjoying The 100, Selfie, Forever, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and an embarrassing number of others.
What’s next for you?
The third Lively St. Lemeston book comes out in January 2016! It’s called Listen to the Moon and it’s about Toogood (Nick’s impassive valet) and Sukey (Phoebe’s snarky maid) from Sweet Disorder. I’m writing it now and I can’t wait to share it with everyone!
———-
Thanks for visiting today, Rose!
If you’d like a chance to win a copy of True Pretenses, comment and tell us who your favorite fictional criminal is.
Also, note that the first Lively St Lemeston book, Sweet Disorder, is on sale for $0.99 at all retailers through tomorrow, January 20. And last but not least, Rose is giving away a con artist gift basket on her blog.
Congratulations to all our winners!
The winner of Lord Langdon’s Kiss by Elena Greene is Library Pat.
The winner of Poetic Justice by Alicia Rasley is Susan/DC.
The winner of The Rake and the Wallflower by Allison Lane is Maribelle.
The winner of A Perilous Journey by Gail Eastwood is Melody Gonser.
The winner of Gabriella by Brenda Hiatt is Barbara Literski.
The winner of The Rake and the Spinster by Lynn Kerstan is Edea Baldwin.
Winners, Elena Greene will email you to coordinate giving you your prizes.
Thanks to everyone for visiting the Regency Masquerades Ball! We’ve all had a lovely time. 🙂
For anyone who hasn’t yet purchased the Regency Masquerades set and would like to, get it now while it’s still at the introductory price of 99 cents!
Regency Masquerades is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Kobo Books. Buy now for just 99 cents!
Meet the hero and heroine of Daring Deception by Brenda Hiatt, Book #1 in Regency Masquerades, six sparkling Regency romances in one ebook–currently 99 cents!
At the ballroom door…
Master of Ceremonies: Ah, the lady and gentleman just arriving—what a well-matched couple! Judging by the way they move, their fine figures and what I can see of their faces beneath their masks, they are a handsome pair. But… Oh, it appears I was mistaken. They have not come here together after all, for I see no sign of interaction between them. In fact, is that scorn I see gleaming in the lady’s eyes as she gazes upon the gentleman before her? Hm. I do love a good mystery.
“Good evening and welcome. Sir, if I might have your name?”
Gentleman: “Seabrooke.”
Master of Ceremonies: “Ah! Allow me to congratulate you, my lord, on your recent elevation to earl. A fitting reward, I should say. The heroism of Major Gavin Alexander against Napoleon’s forces has been widely celebrated.
Gentleman: “Yes, well, I’ve discovered some rewards come rather dearly bought.”
Master of Ceremonies: Hm. No doubt he means the injury he sustained in his last skirmish—though I see his limp is but slight now. Still, it was thoughtless of me to mention it, I suppose. At least his identity gives me a clue as to why the lady is regarding him with distaste. Lord Seabrooke’s reputation with the fair sex is far from spotless.
(Bows the earl toward the ballroom and turns to the lady.) “Madam?”
Lady: “Miss Frederica Chesterton. However–”
Master of Ceremonies: “Miss Chesterton! Then I perceive my congratulations must be expressed to both you and Lord Seabrooke. I saw news of your betrothal in the papers Thursday last.”
Clearly my first surmise was correct and they have come to the ball together after all. But why did Lord Seabrooke seem so startled just now by the sound of her name? And he continues to regard her most intently—curiously, even. Odd, that.
Lady: “If you please, sir, as I was about to say, I am attending incognito tonight. You see, my formal debut is still some days off and it is not generally known that I am already arrived in Town. Tonight’s masquerade is a practice run, as it were.”
Master of Ceremonies: “Of course, madam! A very clever plan, if I may say so. And perhaps, by pretending to be strangers, you and your betrothed will get to know each other better before your nuptials.”
Gentleman: “No pretence will be necessary. As it happens, Miss Chesterton are only now meeting for the first time. Our betrothal was…handled by proxy.”
Master of Ceremonies: So, a marriage of expediency! I do recall hearing that the Seabrooke title came encumbered by debts, but if so, the earl has kept up appearances remarkably well. So much so that most concluded that the rumors were just that. But perhaps not?
“Then I very much hope you will find this an evening of pleasant discoveries about each other. Ah, it appears the music is about to start…”
From behind a Greek-inspired column…
Brenda Hiatt here, vicariously enjoying the festivities… It’s small wonder if Miss Chesterton seems a bit familiar to Lord Seabrooke, for unbeknownst to him, they have indeed met before this evening. In fact, he knows his betrothed quite well—in the guise of frumpy, bespectacled Miss Cherrystone, whom he hired as live-in nanny to his little ward, Christabel. Of course, Miss Chesterton is well aware of this, as she has intentionally infiltrated his household in hopes of proving him a scoundrel and fortune hunter, so that her brother will allow her to cry off this travesty of a betrothal. Interestingly, although Lord Seabrooke and “Cherry,” as Christabel has dubbed her, often lock horns, both are coming to rather enjoy their verbal sparring matches. Though what will happen to their budding friendship when the lovely Miss Chesterton’s deception is revealed, I don’t like to think…
“A first rate book that no Regency reader should miss. It will warm the cockles of your heart.” (Romance Reviews)
Read Gavin and Frederica’s story in Daring Deception, one of six sparkling Regencies in Regency Masquerades, an ebook set which also includes books by Lynn Kerstan, Allison Lane, Gail Eastwood, Alicia Rasley and Elena Greene. Regency Masquerades is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Kobo Books. Buy now for just 99 cents!
For updates and news on Regency Masquerades and the authors in the set, like us on Facebook.
And now for a giveaway!
He lost a wager . . . but won a treasure.
Due to a lost wager, the Duke of Ravenham is obliged to bring a pretty little nobody from the country into fashion among the high-sticklers of London Society. Ravenham would never refuse a debt of honor, no matter how unorthodox, so he overlooks Miss Gordon’s vulgar relations to do what is necessary, escorting the unsophisticated chit to balls, etc. But what he expects to be an irksome duty turns out to be something quite different as he falls under the spell of his protege’s innocent charm. When he lost that wager, he definitely never counted on losing his heart as well!
First impressions can be deceiving.
Miss Gabriella Gordon only came to London at her mother’s and sister’s insistence, for she’d much rather assist in running her father’s veterinary practice than attempt to fit into fashionable society. No sooner has she arrived in London than the exalted (and exceedingly handsome) Duke of Ravenham comes to call. The reason is less than flattering, however: due to a lost wager, the Duke is forced to bring Gabriella into fashion, a “favor” she would certainly refuse if her family would let her. But the more time she spends in the dashing Duke’s company, the more conflicted she feels— particularly when she discovers they have more in common than she ever dared dream.
“With all the elan and grace of a reigning Regency beauty, talented new author Brenda Hiatt makes a wonderful debut in this most demanding of the romance subgenres.” – Romantic Times
Do you most enjoy the anticipation of when a secret will out, or the actual moment of truth? (Examples?) Comment for a chance to win an e-copy of Gabriella in the format of your choice! All winners will be announced on Sunday.