Congrats, Maureen! You’ve won a copy of The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy.
Thanks for dropping by, everyone.
Posts in which we or our guests offer a giveaway.
Congrats, Maureen! You’ve won a copy of The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy.
Thanks for dropping by, everyone.
It’s a historic day–actually two days ago it was a historic day when the digital, rewritten, heated up (but it was always hot) new version of Dedication was released.
Isn’t it a fabulous cover? You can buy it here and watch the book trailer here.
Just for giggles, I’m reposting excerpts from the original Riskies interview from 2005 when the first edition (strangely a Signet Regency–a trad!) was released, when this blog was a mere infant. Updated comments in this color.
Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?
The first scene–that of a man knocking at the door of a London house early in the morning– came into my head strongly enough that I was able to build the plot and characters from there. I don’t know why it works this way for me, but it does. Heck I wish it still did. Somehow that was very evocative.It’s one of those classic beginnings, like the hero leaves town and/or the stranger comes into town: think about how many books are constructed like that.
Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?
It took years, the luxury of the first book! It was a much revised book, but it was always easy to write. It began first as a single-title regency set historical, and had a rather convoluted plot. Adam was a codebreaker for English intelligence, and Fabienne his major suspect as a spy. I also had the villain eaten by Adam’s pigs, something I’ve always regretted losing. I had a near miss with an editor who suggested I drop the spy plot and make it more a comedy of manners, so I revised it and she rejected it via form letter (one of those character building moments). It was never was a comedy of manners, and it continued to bomb until it won the 2004 Royal Ascot Contest (sponsored by the Beau Monde) and Signet made me an offer for it later that year. I had to chop off 20k words, so the subplot almost disappeared, but at least almost all the sex stayed intact! Then I got the rights back and dithered around with it, missing the phenomenon of self-pubbing by selling to Loose-Id. I rewrote fairly extensively and restored some of the subplot and expanded upon the sex. I repaired, I hope, the gaping hole near the end which reviewers kindly attributed to the drastic shortening of the book; it wasn’t. It was a combination of me galloping to the finish line and being a lousy plotter. Anyway, with this version you get, er, more bang for your buck.
Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?
I’ve no idea where Fabienne and Adam came from. I think they were based on what I didn’t want to write about or read about. I was interested in characters who had had experience in life, including good relationships with other partners, friends, and family, and who had not been holding grudges or harboring revenge plans for decades. In other words, fairly complex and healthy people, who were mature enough to solve their own problems but were also human enough to make mistakes. So that’s how I ended up with a heroine in her late 30s and a hero in his early 40s, both widowed. And that was really unusual seven years ago, amazing though it may seem. I had to have a hero of a certain age with viable sperm, it’s central to the plot, but I think he’s one of the sexiest men I’ve written (glasses, cries a lot, nice hands–my sorta guy). And in this version I could actually show Fabienne with one of her lovers, something that was only hinted at in the original version, because in 2005 only minor female characters had an adventurous love life and they usually had to pay for it by coming to a sticky end. Sadly, the double standard is still with us, I think.
So the contest–I’ve told you about Adam, my favorite hero. Now tell me about your favorite sort of hero. Easy. I’m giving away two downloads of Dedication as prizes!
The fine print: You must include a “safe” version of your email address, eg riskies at yahoo dot com in your post. I will announce the winners here on Saturday morning, giving you two full days to tell your friends about this fantabulous contest. I will email the winners directly to ask about formats. If I don’t hear back from you within a week you’re toast. Sorry! 18 and over.
Anna and Jana F, you’re the winners!
I have Anna’s email address and Jana, you need to send yours to riskies AT yahoo.com, please. And heck, now we’re blessed with the new and unimproved blogger and it’s a whole new learning experience.
Maggie Robinson is one of the funniest and most delightful people I know and her books are terrific. She kindly sent me a copy of her latest which I devoured and loved–hot and funny with a kernel of sense and feeling. What more can you ask for? Here’s the official blurb for Master of Sin:
Maggie Robinson’s Courtesan Court series is historical romance at its most wickedly inventive and shamelessly sexy. In the fourth and final novel, an expert in the art of pleasure tries to reform himself but finds one woman impossible to resist.
Andrew Rossiter has used his gorgeous body and angelic face for all they’re worth—shocking the proper, seducing the willing, and pleasuring the wealthy. But with a young son depending on him for rescue, suddenly discretion is far more important than desire. He’ll have to quench his desires—fast. And he’ll have to find somewhere his scandalous reputation hasn’t yet reached…
Miss Gemma Peartree seems like a plain, virginal governess—or so she hopes. No matter how many sparks fly between them, she has too much to hide to catch Andrew’s eye. But with a stormy Scottish winter driving them together, it will be hard to keep her secrets. Especially when Andrew feels he has found the woman who can restore his soul—one kiss at a time…
Andrew Rossiter is introduced as a quasi-villain in Mistress by Marriage. He is the “bad man” from the heroine Caroline Christie’s past, but he does a good deed and then goes off to Italy, where he gets in a major spot of trouble. Gemma Peartree makes her first appearance in Master of Sin, though she lived on Jane Street when she was a girl.
Did you always intend that they should have their own book?
Honestly, if I’d known how insistent Andrew was going to be about becoming one of my heroes, I would have given him much less baggage. It was pretty tricky making his conversion to respectability convincing–he’d literally done and seen it all before he met his heroine. Andrew is extremely damaged, and the love of a good woman really isn’t quite enough.
The book has a very unusual setting. Tell us about it and about the research you did.
Oh, I immersed myself in wonderful YouTube clips of the Outer Hebrides with haunting Celtic music and read a great book called Sea Room. Ultimately I made up an island, and it became so real to me I wish I could visit it!
What’s your favorite scene?
I really love when a frazzled Andrew encounters Gemma for the first time. She doesn’t seem like she’s Andrew’s type at all, which makes her perfect for him, as he’s trying to reform.
Andrew was beginning to suspect Edward Christie had the last laugh after all, giving him just what he asked for. Andrew had wanted private, he’d wanted simple. He’d suggested the Western Isles himself, having had a romantic notion about them since he was a boy and read of Viking raids. He doubted any factor of Edward’s had actually seen the place—the purchase had been accomplished in too short a time. Someone had been sold a bill of goods. And Andrew now had to live with the consequences.
He tiptoed down the hallway as quietly as he ever had eluding a suspicious wife or husband, coming at last to the kitchen. A raggedy serving girl dressed in what appeared to be stray Tartans and tablecloths was bent over an empty fireplace, a pitiful pile of sticks on the hearth. At the sound of his footstep on the bare slate floor she turned and shrieked.
Some of Andrew’s childhood Gaelic had come back to him the further north he’d come. Immersion with the village women earlier had helped a bit. “Gabh mo leithsceal.” Excuse me.
“Does bloody anyone in this bloody place speak any bloody English?” the girl muttered.
She looked like a street urchin. Her brown hair was a nest, her pointed, unfashionably brown face was smudged and her brown skirts muddied. She was so very brown. Surely she couldn’t be—
“Miss Peartree?” Andrew asked, praying not.
The little wren’s mouth hung open like a baby bird waiting to be fed. Then she looked like she tasted the worm. “Oh, good lord. Mr. Rossiter?” She curtseyed, nearly tripping on twigs.
What’s your writing process?
Ha ha ha. Process? I don’t need no stinkin’ process. I get up very early every day with only the faintest idea of where I’m going, no matter what it says in the synopsis, and peck away until noontime. I try to write consecutively, but sometimes I get struck by inspiration and get ahead of myself. I tend to tinker and refine as I go, so that when I’m finished, I really am finished. I usually reread from beginning to end several times during the writing to make sure I haven’t lost any threads (and because my memory is shot, LOL) Revisions thus far have been mercifully light–I love my editor.
What’s next for you?
I have a new Brava trilogy debuting late this year, starting with Lord Gray’s List on November 27. The books are all loosely connected by a newspaper, The London List, which features ads and gossip–kind of like a Regency Craigslist and the National Enquirer combined. In fact, the working title was Lord Craig’s List, but the Kensington marketing department got a little nervous that prostitution and murder scandals might be an unwise association. 🙂 The other books are Captain Durant’s Countess and Lady Anne’s Lover, coming in 2013.
Thanks so much to the Riskies for having me here today! I have a signed HARDCOVER edition of Master of Sin for one commenter (no geographical restrictions–my post office loves me). And the fine print: you must include a “safe” version of your email e.g., riskies at yahoo dot com so we can contact you and/or plan to check back here on Monday when the winner will be announced. If we don’t hear back in a week, we’ll choose someone else.
Tell me, if you were stuck on a remote Scottish island in the middle of winter, what would you do to pass the time? Hero optional. 😉
Diane here to welcome back fabulous Australian author Anne Gracie who is here to talk about her latest, The Autumn Bride. Anne is the award-winning author of Regency Historical Romance (and a few others).
Anne and I have mutual friends in Australia. When her first book, A Gallant Waif, was a RITA finalist in 2000, and Anne came to the Romance Writers of America conference, we were supposed to meet and have a little chat, but we kept missing each other. It was only on the last day we managed a quick hello.
I’m delighted to have Anne as our guest today and to manage a “virtual” chat about The Autumn Bride, which has received some wonderful reviews.
Publishers Weekly starred review: Gracie . . . charms and entices with this launch of the Regency-era Chance Sisters series. . . . Layers of secrets and deft characterization make for a deep, rich story that will leave readers starry-eyed.
Romantic Times, 4 1/2 stars: Readers will want to take a a chance on this delightful, heartwarming series about sisters of the heart, family, friends, and the fun and passion of romance. Gracie lifts readers’ spirits, creating a delightful cast of characters, tender moments and lighthearted repartee designed to tug at the heart. Keep a hankie handy for tears of laughter and joy.
Nightowl Reviews: I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a book quite this much. . . . I predict The Autumn Bride is going to be “THE” book to add to the TBR list of Historical Romance fans everywhere.
Anne will be giving away a copy of The Autumn Bride to one lucky commenter chosen at random.
1. Welcome, Anne. Tell us about The Autumn Bride.
This is the first book in a series about four young women, all orphans, who come together and form a kind of a family, When their situation goes from bad to worse, Abby, my heroine, climbs through the window of a nearby mansion hoping to find something to steal. Instead she finds a bedridden aristocratic old lady at the mercy of her neglectful, rapacious servants. The four girls move in with Lady Beatrice, pretending to be her nieces and sacking the servants. All goes well until Lady Beatrice’s nephew Max returns after nine years in the Far East. He’s not impressed to find his aunt under the sway of these impostors.
It’s a rags-to-riches, feel-good, fun story with a dark undertow. But mostly it’s about the joy of friendship, second chances, sisterhood — and love.
2. I love the premise and the concept of a hodgepodge family of women coming together. How did you come up with the idea of creating such a family, rather than one with traditional biological ties?
Thanks, Diane, I did have fun with it. And I’m from a family of four siblings, though these days we live very far from each other.
But I often like to write about people who’ve “fallen through the cracks” of Regency society — well born, but cut adrift from society through scandal, poverty, being orphaned, or through some other personal catastrophe. I’ve had a hero who was sent to sea at the age of seven, a heroine who travelled with the army, the son of an English lord who grew up on the streets of Naples, a heroine who grew up on the streets of Cairo, dressed as a boy and lots more. My stories are about their journey back — back to family, and back to the kind of society that should have been their birthright.
I also think that people today can identify with the idea of “sisters of the heart” — or as we say today, girlfriends. I think many of us are closer to our girlfriends than we are to our blood relatives.
Australian Cover
3. What is risky about The Autumn Bride?
There are a few risky things — firstly the hero didn’t make his entrance for quite a few chapters. I was a bit worried that readers wouldn’t like that, but sometimes you have to write the book the way it needs to be written, and I loved the relationship that developed between the four girls and the feisty, bedridden Lady Beatrice. Luckily, a lot of readers feel the same.
Then there was my heroine’s risk when she climbs through the window of a mansion intending to steal, risking hanging or transportation. Here’s an excerpt:
The sash window was stiff, but she managed to push it up some more. She leaned in, listened, checked. Not a sound. A bedchamber. She could see the heavy hangings of the bed, an ornate wardrobe, a dressing table. No sign of life.
She swung one leg over the sill, heaved and she was in. She crouched a moment in the darkness, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, breathing deeply until her racing heart slowed.
Now to seek what she had come for. She crept toward the dressing table.
“Have you come to kill me?” The hoarse whisper coming out of the darkness almost stopped Abby’s heart. She swung around, scanning the room, braced to flee. Nothing moved, only shadows lit by the faint shimmer of moonlight from the windows where she’d pulled back the curtains. No sign of anyone.
“I said, have you come to kill me?” It came from the bed. Sounding more irritated than frightened.
“No, of course not!” Abby whispered back. She tiptoed closer to the bed, straining her eyes in the darkness. What she’d taken for a bundle of clothes piled on the bed was an old woman lying awkwardly, fallen between her pillows, her bedclothes rumpled in a twist.
“You’re a gel. Wearing breeches, but I can still tell you’re a gel.”
“Yes.” Abby waited. If the woman screamed or tried to raise the alarm she’d dive out of the window. It was risky, but better than being hanged or transported.
“You’re not here to kill me?”
“No.”
“Pity.”
Abby blinked. “Pity?”
4. Did you come across any interesting research when writing this book?
Not really — this story is more about characters than facts. Mostly the new research I did was about the district Lady Beatrice and the girls lived in, which centuries before had been a rich area filled with mansions, but in the Regency era was in decline, and starting to be redeveloped. Just like it happens today.
5. What is next for you?
I’m writing the second story in the series, and it’s more conventional in that the hero is on the page from the start. But the community of characters that’s in the first book is continuing, too. I really love the world of this story and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Thanks Diane for letting me come and play with the Riskies.
Here’s a question for readers: “Is there anyone in your life that you consider ‘family’ even if they aren’t?”
I’ll give a copy of The Autumn Bride to one lucky commenter.
Diane here again. Anne will be back to answer any questions and to respond to comments, but, remember, she’ll be sleeping part of the time we’ll be awake, because she’s on the other side of the world!