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Category: Writing

Posts in which we talk about the writing craft and process

Books, eBooks, and Audio Books, Plus Ivory, Plus Writing

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Judith Ivory’s Black Silk is one of my all time favorite historicals. At the time I read Black Silk, Ivory’s books were not available in eBooks. There were terrible, horrible, cheap POD versions — with newsprint quality paper and ink that was smeared… I returned the copy that arrived with a crooked cover and located a used mass market paperback.

Ivory’s books are now available as eBooks, as  I came to learn on Twitter. I immediately purchased everything (including the Judy Cuevas books) and I added the audio book to a couple of them. Set that aside for a moment, while I gush about Ivory …

I LOVED LOVED LOVED The Proposition even with the cheesy ending. I’m in the middle of The Beast right now (in audio) and well. Judith Ivory. Her writing is lovely, and she does what I miss so much in historicals and that I strive to do in my own writing, which is tell as story as if the HEA is not a given. My personal description of this goes like this: A Romance written as if it were not a Romance.

Aside: I said this once on a loop and got a tremendous, even vicious, push back. Not that any of the disagreement came close to changing my mind. I still believe that a Romance that is written as if it’s not a Romance will have far, far more tension.

Also, especially now that I’m not traditionally publishing, I really don’t care about the prevailing beliefs about what sells. A lot of those beliefs are wrong. Sure, it’s crucial to know what’s happening in the market, but even so, I get to decide what I write, and I get to write exactly the way I want, entirely in line with the stories I want to tell.

Because, and, yes, another aside, when I am gone from this world, I want to have written the stories that speak to me, without compromise in the way I’ve told them. (This is NOT the same thing as not listening to editorial advice. Editorial advice is crucial.) If that means I sell fewer copies, I am at peace with that.

When This Is A Romance permeates every aspect of the story, there’s a very real risk of the book being too familiar. Tired, even. The Insta-Love trope is a predominant approach these days. I don’t necessarily mind it. There are lots of such stories that are great books, too. But there’s an awful lot that don’t distinguish themselves.

Yes, this is another aside.

Too often I feel I’m getting a Romance where sexual attraction is the container of the story … such that it is present from the start. Even stories where the hero and heroine, ostensibly, do not like each other, they are powerfully attracted underneath. Again, I’m not saying this should never be done. I’m just saying, it’s now really really common. Plus, well, I guess I also think there are lots of authors who aren’t challenging this. You have to be really, really good to make such a story extraordinary.

This leads to stories where something else delays bringing together the sexual and the commitment to the person they love. Often, this ends up being “I’m not worthy.” A flavor, if you will, of “I’m in your ass, saving your life.” Again, it’s possible to pull this off, but you have to be good. Really good. (P.S. I read that book and liked it better than SBTB. But that review started a meme/trope/Romance inside joke.)

Anyway, one of the things Ivory does so well is to give us characters who, despite any attraction, have lives that allow us to see exactly how they might walk away from this potential relationship. And that possibility is credible. Even when you know it’s a Romance and there will be an HEA.

Right. OK, so when I was on my Ivory spree, I clicked Add the Audio Narration because I’ve been listening to some audio books, and I am finding a place in my commute and certain other moments where an audio book fits quite nicely. I just finished listening to a Romantic Suspense audio book (not an ACX DIY book) by a favorite author, and I loathed the narrator from the start.

Loathed. The. Narrator.

She read the book as if she felt contempt for the work she was reading. The male voices were phony and contrived and because she was trying (and failing) to roughen and deepen her voice for the male characters, they were all the same. That production wasn’t as bad as the production for A Darker Crimson (my first paranormal, audio rights not mine at the time) which was just horrific, I’m sad to say. Terrible narrator. Terrible production values.

I started listening to the audio book for Ivory’s The Beast, and the narrator is wonderful. She never sounds strained or phony, and I’m just so struck by how very, very good this reading is.

So. Here are my questions to you. Do you listen to audio books? What are your thoughts, pet peeves, loves, hates about them? Have you read Ivory?

 

 

Posted in Former Riskies, Risky Book Talk, Risky Regencies, Writing | Tagged , , | 5 Replies

My New Favorite . . .

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Is this:

The Historical Thesaurus of English

For those of you who don’t already know about this, I’ll wait here while you go check it out.

Decades in the making. Linked with the OED. This is a word lover’s paradise. I’ve already emailed my thanks to the University of Glasgow for this.

I about cried when I found this. Seriously.  I was overcome with emotion. When I raxed up from my faint, I bawled like a baby.

Sorry. I spent several lovely moments clicking between the thesaurus and the OED on the word cry.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Former Riskies, History, Research, Writing | Tagged | Leave a reply

In Betweens

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At the moment, I am in between historical releases. That is to say, I am working on My Immortals Book 7–No title yet. My next project will be another historical novella for a second anthology with Grace Burrowes, Miranda Neville, and Shana Galen. I believe the anthology title will be Dancing in the Duke’s Arms, and we’re targeting a summer release. We’ve chosen a cover image already, but I have yet to write a word. Even though I have a story idea I’m really excited about.

My point, really, is that I have my head in the paranormal world not the Regency historical world. If I were to noodle around with my historical idea I’d end up with Dancing in the Demon Duke’s Arms. In the meantime, however, I have released my individual novella from Christmas in the Duke’s Arms. Here’s the cover:

In the Duke's Arms by Carolyn JewelAnd here is where you can buy it, if you don’t have the anthology:

Amazon | iBooks | Nook | Google Play | Kobo | All Romance

It’s early days in my story process — seeing as how I haven’t started writing yet, and it’s entirely possible my story will end up completely different. I’m planning a heroine who is considered peculiar and unmarriageable because she never forgets a fact, and she knows lots of them. The hero will figure out what’s up with her and fall madly in love. The end. I’m telling you that’s more than I usually start with. I have a period book that is, more or less, a Farmer’s Almanack, and she’ll have read and remembered it all, so I’ll be referring to that quite a lot. The challenge, naturally, will be making sure her knowledge is period accurate. I foresee Google Books Advanced Search in my future.

I’m not a plotter, so I have to be careful about doing too much planning, or, perhaps another way to think about it is I need not to be wedded to any plot points that might come up before I start writing. I never know what the plot is until I’m done. Truth. So, though I would like to tell you all that my story will be about thus and such, the truth is, I have no idea. I’ll find out about halfway through the story. Possibly later.

For you readers out there, does the idea of an author having no idea what the book is about before she starts writing make you anxious?

Posted in Former Riskies, Research, Writing | Tagged , , | 4 Replies

Research More Research: The Dukeries, Cheese, A Flycatcher, and Cows

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I’m busy working on a historical novella for an anthology that will be out this June. I have no idea what my story will be titled yet, but the anthology title is Dancing in The Duke’s Arms. It’s a spin off, if you will, from the Christmas anthology Christmas in The Duke’s Arms. The same authors are participating: Grace Burrowes, Miranda Neville, Shana Galen, and me.

We chose Nottinghamshire as the location for our first anthology, and as we were discussing the follow up, we decided we would set the stories in the in real life location of The Dukeries, so called because there are four ducal estates located here, and they are more or less contiguous.

Wikipedia has a sufficient explanation. But The Dukeries – Sherwood Forest has a more picturesque one. Not one, not two, but FOUR ducal estates. And so, our anthology will have a surfeit of dukes and ducal estates.

Every book has its own ethos that requires research. For me, with my uniquely Carolyn style of writing, it works like this: Huh. Everyone is sitting around having tea and this is kind of boring. I wonder what local specialty they’re eating? The answer to that turned out to be Colwick Cheese. This cheese was long a specialty of Nottinghamshire. There were websites that implied this was a newer cheese not from our period, but Google and Advanced Google Book Search demonstrated that this was incorrect. British regulations around the turn of the 20th century did result in the disappearance of this cheese. But recently, it’s had a revival. Originally, the cheese was made by pouring spoiled milk into cheesecloth and letting it hang outside until all the water dripped out. The cheese formed a kind of bowl. It was often served with cream, fruit, or preserves in the bowl, and, though I can’t confirm the period part of this, sometimes the additions were savory.

And so, I had my interesting addition to tea. You’ll notice, on that website, a link called Red Poll. This is a kind of cow. It is, not surprisingly, red. This breed of cow is a good milk producer and I found a great deal of information praising this local cow. Why, since it turns out my heroine loves estate management, she could have Red Polls! However, it did not take long to discover that this breed was established well after the Regency, and so it was not possible for my story. But, it turns out she could have another red cow, the Red Leicester. Well, OK! I have learned some very interesting things about cows that I did not know before.

From there, I needed to describe the heroine’s house. I knew (don’t ask why, I just knew, OK?) that she lived in a house with lots of trees shading it and that there was a vine on the house. All right then. What kind of vines do they have in Nottinghamshire? Because, what if it’s not just ivy? More searches and before long I had found the Nottingham Flycatcher. This was perfect because it was known for growing on the walls of Nottingham Castle. Nottingham Flycatcher has a fragrant scent and attracts lots of moths and insects to the nectar. Perfect! This, too, could grow on my heroine’s house, and when the windows were open in the summer, rooms would surely smell lovely. I know this is true because right now this minute there is jasmine blooming on our deck and when the windows are open and a breeze comes along, the kitchen smells faintly of jasmine. I was saddened to learn that Nottingham Flycatcher is now extinct in Nottinghamshire. In the 1930’s the Flycatcher was removed from Nottingham Castle during renovations. It doesn’t appear to be entirely extinct, but I also learned that fully 98% of Britain’s wildflower habitat is gone. That is tragic.

As I’ve continued to write, the story no longer opens at the heroine’s house, and now I have to decide whether to move the Nottingham Flycatcher to my duke’s estate. Then it turned out that my heroine, while visiting the duke’s estate, is going to walk along the driveway and count trees. (Really, don’t ask. Maybe that won’t even stick. It’s too early to tell.) So, what kind of trees? I knew that lime trees are a common tree. Many period descriptions of estate reference driveways lined with lime trees. So. What do these lime trees look like? Somehow, I didn’t think they were the kind of lime trees that grow limes, and indeed, they are not. British Lime trees are very tall and beautiful and give loads of shade. There are lots of images of magical lime tree avenues. Like this one at Clumber Park. This is especially awesome because Clumber Park is one of the four estates of the Dukeries. It doesn’t even matter that those lime trees weren’t planted until 1840. My duke planted his way earlier. It’s called fiction for a reason.

And so, here I am madly writing a novella and having the best time ever researching cheese, and cows, and lime trees, and flycatchers. There will be more moments like this as I write because that’s just how I roll.

Posted in Former Riskies, Research, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Replies

Dancing in The Duke’s Arms – Plus a Contest

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EDITED TO ADD: Thanks you to all the contestants. I have decided that all the timely commenters are winners. I will be emailing you!

I’ve been blogging about the research I did for my story in the upcoming anthology Dancing in The Duke’s Arms. My research included such topics as songs, cheese, cattle, and plants. From that you might conclude my story is about a singing dairy maid who moonlights as an herbalist. But you would be wrong. (INORITE???!??)

To celebrate I will send five winners a mystery prize(s).  For each prize(s), I will spend at least $15.00 US. If you hang out here, you probably know that I have impeccable taste except when I am odd or just plain weird. There’s just no telling.  To enter, check out the rules below and follow the instructions.

Unsuitable?


My story,  An Unsuitable Duchess, is all done and final, and you can pre-order the anthology now for $3.99. After June 26th, the price will be higher.  Links below! Fun fact: I A/B tested two versions of my title. A Suitable Duchess faced off against An Unsuitable Duchess. Although I kind of liked the suitable title, I suspected unsuitable would win. And it did. In a landslide. It wasn’t even close. So. Unsuitable it is!

Cover of Dancing in The Duke's Arms, an anthology. A couple is dancing outside. He gazes fondly at her, she is perhaps a little shy. They are outside because it is summer and who doesn't want to dance outside with handsome duke?

Dancing Dukes!

The anthology includes four original novellas by Grace Burrowes, Shana Galen, Miranda Neville, and me. Print will be available shortly.

Why Do Dukes Fall in Love?

Every summer the cream of society gathers at the Dukeries, named for the ducal estates concentrated in one small corner of Nottinghamshire. While the entertainments include parties, balls, and a famous boat race, the ducal hosts and their guests find adventure, passion, and happy ever afters.

Pre-Order Dancing In The Duke’s Arms

Amazon | Barnes&Noble | iBooks | Google Play | Kobo

More about the anthology

The anthology comes in at over 125,000 words. You’ll get four romantic, thrilling, and steamy stories for four wonderful authors. The on sale date is June 26th.

May I Have This Duke? by Grace Burrowes

The governess is determined to leave, but the duke’s plans for her dance to a different—and far lovelier—tune!

The trouble with houseparties….

Gerard Hammersley, Duke of Hardcastle, is dragooned by an old friend into attending a house party, though Hardcastle refuses to fall prey to the matchmakers who relish such gatherings. He recruits his nephew’s prim, prickly governess, Miss Ellen MacHugh, to preserve him from being compromised by the conniving debutantes, and offers in exchange to deflect the drunken viscounts who plague Ellen.

Is that they must end.

Ellen agrees to Hardcastle’s scheme for two reasons. First, she’s been attracted to His Grace since the day she laid eyes on him, and knows that behind Hardcastle’s lack of charm lies a ferociously loyal and faithful heart. Second, she’s departing from Hardcastle’s household at the conclusion of the house party, and two weeks safeguarding His Grace’s bachelorhood is as much pleasure—and as much torment—as she can endure before she leaves him.

Read an excerpt from May I Have This Duke?

DUCHESS OF SCANDAL by Miranda Neville

She was too wild, he was too proud…

When the Duke and Duchess of Linton meet after years of estrangement, they may discover they were made for each other after all.

Too Many Scandals

After months of marriage, the Duke of Linton agreed to live apart from his wife. Thrown together due to a scheduling error, Linton finds Althea still has the power to make his heart race. Linton seems different from the critical, indifferent man she married. But though she burns for him as a lover, can she trust him to be the husband she needs?

Read an excerpt from Duchess of Scandal

WAITING FOR A DUKE LIKE YOU by Shana Galen

When Princess Vivienne of Glynaven’s family is massacred, she escapes to England only to be pursued by assassins. The Duke of Wyndover comes to her aid, but is he the man she’s been waiting for?

There’s no such thing as the perfect hero…

Nathan Cauley, tenth Duke of Wyndover, is so handsome ladies swoon—literally swoon. His blond hair and blue eyes certainly draw attention at the Duke of Sedgemere’s house party, but Nathan doesn’t want a fawning young miss for his duchess. He stumbles upon a bedraggled woman sleeping under Sedgemere’s bridge, and his protective instincts stir. When he recognizes her as the princess he fell in love with eight years before, he’s determined to win not only her affections but her heart.

Or is there?

After revolutionaries massacre Princess Vivienne’s family, she and the head of her guard flee to England. Before they can reach London to beg asylum, assassins kill the last of her defenders. Vivienne is alone and on the run when the Duke of Wyndover comes to her rescue. She barely remembers meeting him years before, and isn’t comfortable with gentlemen who are more attractive than she is. Nathan is more than a pretty face, though, and when the assassins return, he might just prove to be the duke Vivienne has been waiting for.

More about Shana’s story. Read an excerpt

AN UNSUITABLE DUCHESS by Carolyn Jewel

The Duke of Stoke Teversault would like to marry, but the woman his heart has settled on would make an unsuitable duchess.

The Duke of Stoke Teversault has well earned his reputation for bloodless calculation. Indeed, recently widowed Georgina Lark has no idea he’s loved her since before her late husband swept her off her feet. Stoke Teversault means to keep it that way. The cold and forbidding duke and the blithe and open Georgina could not be less suited in any capacity. And yet, when Georgina and her sister arrive at his home, his ice-bound heart may melt away.

Georgina Lark has never thought of the Duke of Stoke Teversault as a man capable of inducing passion in anyone. He’s long disapproved of her, but she will be forever grateful to him for his assistance after her husband died. It’s been a year since she’s realized he’s not the man she thought. Can she convince him to open his heart to her?

Read chapter 1

The Rules and How to Enter

Void where prohibited. Must be 18 to enter. No purchase necessary. All prizes will be awarded. If a winner does not contact me within 10 days of notification, an alternate winner will be selected. Relatives or employees of Carolyn Jewel are ineligible. Winner chosen at random using the contest plugin “And The Winner Is.” International OK! Multiple comments disallowed. Contest closes at 11:59:59 PM Eastern on Friday June 12 (That’s this blog’s time zone.) Make sure you leave a valid email in the email box for your comment.

To enter: Leave a comment to this post in which you tell me the best book you’ve read recently. (I’m looking for recommendations!)

Go!

Posted in Former Riskies, Giveaways, Risky Book Talk, Writing | Tagged , , |