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Tag Archives: Dedication

News for the new year

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As usual I’m about a week late with everything but I’ve been thinking a bit about new year’s resolutions. If I make them, which I don’t, it’s something like:

  • Write more regularly
  • Maintain a life outside writing
  • Eat less/better, exercise and all that good stuff
  • Write real letters to people

All of which are pretty basic and ongoing. So what do I anticipate happening in 2012? First, I have Dedication coming out from Loose-Id, a rewritten version because everyone complained about the breakneck ending and with more sex, although the original had quite a lot. It was originally published as a trad Regency by Signet in 2005 and astonishingly had two bondage scenes and some fairly grown up sort of sex–well, what did they have to lose?–the line was ending.

I’m currently working on revisions of Hidden Paradise, an erotic romance about an Austen scholar who participates in a very glamorous, sexy and cleaned-up Regency living experience, with a cover that proudly proclaims purple passion. After pondering all the fascinating options available to Regency women at a country house party (croquet! embroidery! viewing the family portraits!) I figured out that the only really interesting activity was sex, so that’s what the book is about. That will release in November.

I also have some self-pubbed projects in mind although you can pretty much count on the bottom falling out of the self-pub industry as soon as I come on board. More about those later…

I was thinking that traditionally the old year/new year is represented by extremes of youth and age, so here’s a picture that does just that. My father, who is heading for 101, my brother, and a very new baby that belongs to a neighbor’s daughter. My father didn’t eat the baby although he looks as though he’s going to. I love this pic because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photograph before (and certainly not in my family although we’re not big photo takers) which includes two people a century apart in age.

So happy new year everyone. If you’re planning new year’s resolutions, good luck with them.

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Happy birthday to us!

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Happy birthday and may we live long and prosper.

Megan and I started this blog in August of 2005 because we both had books coming out that fall, from the now defunct Signet Regency line. Between us we managed to kill it off. Megan, splutter, had a hero with dirty boots and a sex scene that was a sex scene without gallons of virginal blood, a misplaced hymen, or life-threatening trauma for the heroine. Mine was Dedication, my first attempt to crack the romance code, and between us we thought we’d better storm the internet.

So in six years, what has changed in romance?

1. It’s no longer absolutely necessary to bend over backward (so to speak) to preserve your heroine’s virginity even if she has been married several times and/or captaining a pirate ship since adolescence.

2. The hero no longer has to get the cherry.

3. The heroine is allowed to enjoy sex with partners other than the hero.

4. The heroine no longer has to think herself plain or undergo a miraculous makeover.

5. There are at least three 30-something hot single Dukes now available for every female with heroine pretensions in Regency London and 80% of those women are expensive courtesans.

And what hasn’t changed much?

1. Sadly there are still marriages made with one, other, or both insisting that it’s “in name only.” (p.s. it never works).

2. Characters still spend a lot of time leaning on mantelpieces*, drinking tea*, wearing riding hats with jaunty feathers (female), wearing underwear (female), eating historically incorrect scones, drinking historically incorrect whiskey, and using Edwardian slang because it sounds English.
* I own the copyright to these two activities, particularly if they are done concurrently. Please contact me for terms if you wish to use them in your book.

3. Sex for recreational purposes only is still tricky. Here is a quick checklist to make sure your characters are having sex for the right reason:

  • Traumatized by Waterloo (male)
  • Traumatized by Waterloo (female)
  • I am a hot 30-something Duke and I can do whatever I want to, so there
  • Traumatized by previous consummated marriages
  • Traumatized by previous unconsummated marriages
  • To improve morale on the pirate ship

And now, the big news. At least I think it’s the big news because I have a feeling I’ve announced it somewhere already. LooseId will be bringing out a new edition of Dedication sometime in 2012–I don’t have a release date yet. It will have all the sex I really wanted to put in the first time around but which was just inferred–and may even include flashback sex!

So to celebrate I am giving away one of my precious copies of the Signet Regency Dedication and we also have two $20 Amazon gift certificates to spread around. I’ll give one away today and the other to anyone who comments during our birthday week. So please check out our other birthday posts if you haven’t already.

What do you think has changed in romance over the last six years?

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What makes a Regency regency?

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I’m guest blogging today over at Loveisanexplodingcigar.com (don’t you love that blog name?) on what makes a hot book hot–please come on over and visit. You have to register, but Riskies’ readers are the smartest, so you can do it…and you could win a copy of one of my books, including the now hard-to-find Dedication, the only Signet Regency with bondage.

Pimping over, I thought I might do a complementary post today on what makes a Regency regency.

Think about it. Consider your favorite Regency reads and what makes them successful as giving a feel for the age. Which books float your boat, rock your curricle and make you think, yes, this is what it must have been like. This rings true.

And why? Or how? I entered a contest once where a judge gravely told me that I should have the characters mention Prinny and Hessian boots to give it a period feel.

I tend to like writers whose work is full of careful details (although not necessarily the Hessians and Prinny) and who can include, but go beyond, the life of the ton in London. I like dialogue that flows and characters who have real concerns, passions, and occupations. I like the history to be right but not obtrusive. I like a world that I can immerse myself in, and am sad to leave once the book is over

Off the top of my head, The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal, An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan, and anything by Naomi Novik (whose history is certainly right in her own worldview!).

How about you?

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