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Posts in which we or our guests offer a giveaway.

Interview with Laurie Bishop, author of LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE!

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As a child growing up on a dairy farm, Laurie Bishop spent countless hours reading anything she could find—from Greek, Roman, and Norse myths to Robert Frost’s poetry. Then she picked up her grandmother’s copy of Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, which began her love affair with the Regency period. Laurie won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart competition for THE BEST LAID PLANS. Today Laurie lives in her native upstate New York. She has a master’s degree in human services and counseling and is employed in social work, but her favorite job is collaborating at night with her marvelous cat and writing partner, Tojo. Learn more at www.lauriebishop.com


Praise for LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE!

“Bishop builds the story nicely as Alex’s heart of ice begins to melt and Cora learns what the pangs of love mean. With an unruly cast, tension throughout and some surprising twists, this novel is a perfect fit for Regency lovers.” — Romantic Times Bookclub 4 Stars

“For a sweet and charming regency that combines all the elements of your favorite fairy-tale and your favorite Jane Austen, look no further than Lord Ryburn’s Apprentice.” — Valarie Pelissero, for Rakehell Reviews Read the review

“Laurie Bishop continues to please with her lighthearted romances, engaging characters, and puzzles to untangle…” —Jane Bowers, for Romance Reviews Today Read the review

The Interview

Q. How did you think of writing this particular book? Did it start with a character, a setting, or some other element?

It started with a character. The character was an elderly gentlewoman, childless, who felt unfulfilled and bored–until she hit upon the idea of taking in a ward. The rest of the story came from this.

Q. How long did it take? Was this an easy or difficult book to write?

The book was a challenge to write as I had a limited window of time for completion. Fortunately, once I had developed the characters, the story came with little difficulty. Well, there was a little brain cudgeling! And the research, of course.

Q. Tell me more about your characters. What or who inspired them?

The elderly woman was Lady Estcott. I suppose I was thinking of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, only lady Estcott was not, at least initially, motivated by revenge–and her enemy was not the entire male sex! I will leave it for the reader to discover the rest.

The heroine, Miss Marland, was more difficult as I chose to make her an innocent young woman with a modest disposition. The challenge was in making her an interesting individual in her own right. She became a person of high intelligence, with an aptitude for music and a strong sense of honor and duty, who evolves from wanting only to better her own position to being motivated to protect those she loves. Lord Ryburn, experienced, dutiful and yet proud, is into a gentleman who, although having a reputation with the ladies, is motivated to protect his eccentric family. Both hero and heroine developed pretty much equally from story demands and the evolution of their characters.

Q. Did you run across anything new and unusual while researching this book?

In this story I paid a lot of attention to London life, and it is important to me to have the details I use be correct. I researched the map of London of the period, period drawings of famous locations as Hyde Park, Park Street and Almack’s (both outside and in). I read a portion of a Victorian diary narrating the details of the writer’s come-out at Almacks. Overall, I searched for the ways in which the middle classes and the upper classes contrasted. I found it interesting how the different London parks were used–the different characteristics, who frequented them, which ones were exclusive, and when.

Q. What do you think is the greatest creative risk you’ve taken in this book?
How do you feel about it?

That would be the characters. As I mentioned before, Miss Marland was a challenge to me. I do think she came out quite well! And I also needed to make Lord Ryburn sympathetic, given his motivation to protect his Great Aunt and the rest of his family from the possible repercussions of Miss Marland’s introduction to the family.

Q. What are you working on now?

At the moment I am deviating from the Regency genre and writing a romantic suspense! No, I do not plan to stay away from the Regency period in the future, but this is a story I have been wanting to tell for a long time.

I have ideas for future Regencies that I want to write, so I will be looking forward to them, and the opportunity to bring them to Regency fans. We shall see what the future holds! Thank you so much to everyone who is a fan of the Regency genre and helps to keep this short time in history alive. I am quite sure that we always shall.

Posted in Giveaways, Interviews, Risky Book Talk | Tagged , | 3 Replies

How Risky Would You Be?

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Comment on today’s post for the chance to win a copy of Laurie Bishop’s January release, LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE. Comments may be posted to the end of today, Saturday, January 14th!

Whoa…here we are, near the end! I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of something half as intelligent as the other ladies, and I finally decided that, since we are about “Risky Regencies” after all, I should do something with Risky Characters.

It is almost expected that the characters of a traditional regency should be genteel—respectable if not of nobility. (Yes—I already hear the disagreement, but I’m speaking in general, not of the notable and exciting exceptions). Okey-doke. Let’s do this….

Here are some ideas for some Regency characters that would not typically make your average hero or heroine.

During the Regency, the poor were moving from the country to town largely due to the effect of enclosure, the law that gave ownership of the land to a few and therefore ended the common ownership of land by a community. With no land for sustenance farming, the city seemed the best place to survive. Of course, the conditions of the poor in the city were very bad indeed, BUT there were things you could do to make a living.

If you were at all educated with acceptable personal appearance, habits, and ambition, you might become a maid or manservant in a good household. These jobs were difficult, but there were much, much worse things you could do. Other jobs were as shop assistants, trade apprentices, street sellers, street sweepers, and joining the navy (voluntarily or otherwise). There were seamstresses who worked for long hours in poor conditions, rat catchers (who killed rats bare-handed, or sold them at the local pub for use in a rat-pit—to be the prey of ferocious dogs, for entertainment), and scavengers.

Still worse was the use of children in a variety of trades—children sold into trade as orphans or by their parents—and some of the uses children were put to could be very unsavory indeed. There were, of course, the chimney sweeps, which everyone has heard of. There were also children who were put into prostitution or to work as pickpockets.

Of course, many adults turned to illegal means to survive, of which prostitution and thievery were only two. I mentioned grave-robbing in an earlier post, for instance. Gambling was epidemic—men, and sometimes women, would bet on anything, even their own lives. And there was an assortment of scams—rather like an early version of the Internet.

One scam I can think of was one where a woman of ill repute teamed up with a male partner or two and would seduce a gentleman into coming to her chamber. Likely he was drunk, but be as it may, he would be assaulted, handily dispatched, and when he came to he would discover all of his possessions and his clothing gone.

Then there were characters who would live the life of a gentleman, charming their way through life with empty pockets, living on loans and outrunning their creditors, sometimes getting lucky at a gaming table and sometimes spending time in prison, sometimes seducing a daughter of some man of moderate fortune, and counting on luck to see them through.

We must not forget the high-class courtesans, of course…and some of them lived, and survived, very well—but many did not continue in good circumstances as age took its toll.

Let me get to the point of this monologue…a question. If you could chose your character from any walk of life except that of a well born someone…who would that character, male or female, be? Do you have any idea how your character might escape his or her position? It would be very difficult, but we have the means to find a way for our characters!

Alternate question: If you had to be one of these persons, who would you be? Or, who might you have been in a previous life?

Pick your poison…er, your question!

Laurie
LORD RYBURN’S APPRENTICE
Signet January 2006

P.S. You can still comment on earlier posts until the end of today, to win books by other Riskies. And don’t forget to enter the Treasure Hunt!

Posted in Giveaways, Regency | 18 Replies

Conversion Kit

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Risky Regencies Blog Party! Comment on this post to get the chance to win a copy of Megan Frampton’s A Singular Lady. And don’t forget to enter the Treasure Hunt, too!

It’s a question that comes up over and over again on romance reader message boards, at booksignings, anywhere romance readers are likely to get into discussion: If you could choose just one book for a non-romance reader to read, which one would it be?

So I pose the question to you, only more specifically: If you could pick just one Regency romance to give to an interested, non-romance reading friend, which one would it be? And why?

Would it be Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen? Do you think Austen is ‘cheating’ since it’s a literary classic? Or would you dig out The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer from your keeper pile?
Perhaps you’d press a copy of Flowers From The Storm by Laura Kinsale into her hands (preferably the new un-Fabio edition). Or maybe you’d withdraw a Carla Kelly from the rare book vault, maybe Reforming Lord Ragsdale (my favorite) or Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand, but only if your friend handed over some stocks or the deed to her house to make sure she’d return them.

Since I’m writing this, and don’t have to choose just one, I’d pick either Mary Balogh’s The Notorious Rake or Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. Both are filled with passion, incredible, compelling characters, a believable, deep romance and page-turning drama.

So . . . what’s your pick? And why? And have you ever done it, and with what success?

Thanks for playing!

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

P.S. Don’t forget you can still comment on any of the previous posts this week to win books by other Risky Regencies. Also, be sure to enter the Treasure Hunt for the Grand Prize!

Posted in Giveaways, Reading, Regency | 21 Replies

New Year’s Resolutions of the Regency

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Comment on today’s post to win a copy of Amanda McCabe’s 2005 Regency The Star of India! (Plus a cover flat of A Tangled Web, the non-Hello Kitty version, thrown in)

By this time, nearly two weeks after the start of 2006, most people (okay, me) have probably already slacked off on their New Year’s Resolutions. I resolved to run every morning, go to more yoga classes, eat more leafy green veggies and less candy, read more “good for me” literature, spend less time online. Yada yada yada. Now, here I sit with a bag full of Hershey’s Nuggets searching for goodies on Ebay.

I’m not sure if resolutions were a big part of Regency life, but I did start wondering–if they were, what would all our favorite people of the period (fictional and real-life) resolve to do? For instance, some of Austen’s characters:
Elizabeth Bennett–resolve to be less proud (or prejudiced?) and emulate her sister Jane more in her dealings with people
Mr. Darcy–ditto (except for the Jane bit)
Emma Woodhouse–make no more matches. After she sees the new girl in town settled.
Mary Crawford–steer clear of clueless future vicars
Jane Fairfax–take a loooong, solitary vacation on the Continent, courtesy of her late aunt-in-law’s jewels
Catherine Norland–read fewer horrid novels and more Fordyce’s Sermons. Just as soon as she sees what’s behind the locked door in Chapter Ten…

Of course, this can be done for all manner of people. Caro Lamb–hmm, maybe she’d resolve on less waltzing, or maybe moving out of her in-laws’ house. Byron could resolve to stick to his diet of boiled potatoes (if only he had heard of Atkins…). Your task–should you choose to accept is–is to let us know what your favorite character/figure might have as their New Year’s resolution. For instance, Prinny maybe. Or Emma Hamilton and Admiral Nelson. Harriette Wilson, Prinny, the Patronesses of Almack’s, Sarah Siddons, Percy and Mary Shelley. What would they desire for 2006? (Or 1806, as the case may be!)

You can find more info on the prize at http://ammandamccabe.tripod.com

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen, Regency | 15 Replies

Who’s your favorite Mr. Darcy?

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BLOG PARTY DAILY CONTEST! Comment on this post for the chance to win a copy of Elena Greene’s September release, LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE. (Comments may be posted through Saturday, January 14.)

I’m feeling very self-indulgent today. My New Year’s resolutions don’t allow me to pig out on chocolate, so I’ll treat myself and everyone to some eye-candy instead.

So here they are. As many cinematic Mr. Darcys as I could find. Enjoy!

Laurence Olivier (above left), playing Darcy opposite Greer Garson in the 1940’s version. Elegance and arrogance—almost (but not quite) good enough to distract me from the ridiculous leftover “Gone with the Wind” costumes worn by the actresses!

David Rintoul (right), playing opposite Elizabeth Garvie in the 1985 BBC production. I have to admit, he looked good but his acting was so very stiff, so haughty (not even softening much at the end) that I felt they could have substituted one of those lifesize cardboard figures (the sort you often see of Lord of the Rings characters, etc…)

Colin Firth (left), playing opposite Jennifer Ehle in the 1995 A&E version. The first Darcy to really work for me—kind of like my first love. What a gorgeous man, with such speaking eyes and such a sexy voice….

Ahem, moving along.

Orlando Seale (right), playing opposite Kam Heskin in “Pride & Prejudice: A Latter Day Comedy” (2003). I once caught a few minutes of this Mormon reinterpretation, couldn’t watch it all, but it looked cute. As does he. If anyone has seen the whole movie, I’d love to hear your opinions!

Martin Henderson (left), starring with Aishwarya Rai in the Bollywood production “Bride & Prejudice” (2004). Intriguing, definitely on my “must rent sometime” list. Has anyone seen this? What did you think?

Matthew McFadyen (right), opposite Keira Knightley in the recent Working Title Films adaptation. Not a pretty boy, and a new interpretation of Darcy, showing a shyness and a vulnerability that I found very appealing. His performance grew on me even more on the second viewing of the film. I don’t know, Colin may just have to move over…

So who is your favorite Darcy? And why? The guest with the most original and/or passionate answer will win a copy of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE.

Don’t forget you can still comment on the earlier posts to win books by Janet Mullany and Cara King. And be sure to enter the Treasure Hunt for a grand prize including books by all the Riskies!

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, 2005 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award nominee
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Giveaways, Jane Austen | Tagged , | 32 Replies