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Another Retreat…

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I’m just getting caught up on Risky Regencies posts (and everything else), because I, like Elena, have been to a Retreat. Mine was more conference-like–Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat, always titled In The Company of Writers.

The WRW Retreat is more conference-like, because there are workshops and speakers but it is also retreat-like, because we dress casually and the number of attendees stays small, about 110 this year.  No paddling on a lake, like Elena could do, but lots and lots of mixing with friends, old and new.

As in other years, the agents and editors attending are always asked what is selling these days; what is hot.

Contemporaries, especially small town stories and romances, are doing well, apparently. But all agreed that a good book will find its home and as soon as someone declares something won’t sell, a wonderful book will burst out and become the next big trend. They said it was much more important to feel passionate about the book you are writing than to try to write to trends.

One of the editors said that Regency remains an appeal because readers feel they know the time period and are comfortable there.

Mary Jo Putney talked about her 29 years in publishing and about her return to the Regency genre after writing some contemporaries, fantasies, and YA. Mary Jo also very much advocated writing what you are passionate about and, in the past, she took some big chances with her career to do just that.

What I took away from all this, was how important it is to write a book you are passionate about, no matter what the genre or subgenre.

Speaking of Mary Jo, she said her new release, No Longer A Gentleman, is on bookstore shelves. If you’ve purchased the book before today, check to see if page 362 is missing. A printing error left out page 362 in the first printed books. Ebooks are complete. Go to Mary Jo’s website for the text of the missing page.

Speaking of subgenres. Amanda’s blog yesterday was posted late. Go there and read all about The Taming of The Rogue, Amanda’s latest. Look at its fabulous cover and post a comment for a chance to win a signed copy!

What do you think? Can you tell if the author is passionate about the book you are reading?

Come to Diane’s Blog on Thursday for more about the WRW Retreat.

 

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Meeting Mary Jo Putney

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Today I’m going to the Library of Congress to hear Mary Jo Putney speak to the Library of Congress Professional Association’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum about her new YA series featuring a group of young mage’s from an alternate Regency world. I gushed about the first book in this series, Dark Mirror, here last May. The second in the series, Dark Passage, is out this month.

Mary Jo has been an important influence in my own writing. Years ago, my friend Helen (who happens to be the present Coordinator of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum) insisted I read The Rake and The Reformer, the book I credit with sparking my love of Regency Romance.

The Rake and the Reformer, 1989, (Re-written and released as The Rake in 1998) still appears on readers’ Favorite Regencies lists, as it would on mine. I loved the strong characters and emotions in that book, as well as the treatment of the very contemporary issue of alcoholism.

After reading the Rake and the Reformer, I promptly searched for, and eventually found, Mary Jo’s first Regency, The Diabolical Baron, and discovered Reggie, the hero of The Rake and the Reformer as the villain. (I used that device myself in The Wagering Widow and my own “Rake” book,A Reputable Rake.)

I went on to read every Mary Jo Putney book I could get my hands on. I loved her complex characters and her creative inclusion of things, like blood transfusion in Shattered Rainbows and opium addiction in The Bargain.

Another early influence from Mary Jo was her essay in Dangerous Men, Adventurous Women, “Welcome To The Dark Side.” This whole book was a revelation to me and I loved Mary Jo’s scholarly take on the appeal of a dark hero.

I admire Mary Jo for her willingness to try new things, to switch from her very popular Regencies to Contemporaries and Fantasy and now her YA fantasies. What’s even better, she’s returned to the Regency again with her Lost Lords series, as creative as ever.

Once early on in my writing life, Mary Jo spoke at the Library of Congress Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum about world building and I attended. I was so honored to be included when the Library employees took her to lunch—I had an “in” then, too. My husband was friends with the woman who was then the coordinator.

I’m expecting to go to lunch this time, too, and, I promise you, I’m equally as thrilled!

Which Mary Jo Putney book is your favorite?

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Meeting Mary Jo Putney

Updated on by

Today I’m going to the Library of Congress to hear Mary Jo Putney speak to the Library of Congress Professional Association’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum about her new YA series featuring a group of young mage’s from an alternate Regency world. I gushed about the first book in this series, Dark Mirror, here last May. The second in the series, Dark Passage, is out this month.

Mary Jo has been an important influence in my own writing. Years ago, my friend Helen (who happens to be the present Coordinator of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum) insisted I read The Rake and The Reformer, the book I credit with sparking my love of Regency Romance.

The Rake and the Reformer, 1989, (Re-written and released as The Rake in 1998) still appears on readers’ Favorite Regencies lists, as it would on mine. I loved the strong characters and emotions in that book, as well as the treatment of the very contemporary issue of alcoholism.

After reading the Rake and the Reformer, I promptly searched for, and eventually found, Mary Jo’s first Regency, The Diabolical Baron, and discovered Reggie, the hero of The Rake and the Reformer as the villain. (I used that device myself in The Wagering Widow and my own “Rake” book,A Reputable Rake.)

I went on to read every Mary Jo Putney book I could get my hands on. I loved her complex characters and her creative inclusion of things, like blood transfusion in Shattered Rainbows and opium addiction in The Bargain.

Another early influence from Mary Jo was her essay in Dangerous Men, Adventurous Women, “Welcome To The Dark Side.” This whole book was a revelation to me and I loved Mary Jo’s scholarly take on the appeal of a dark hero.

I admire Mary Jo for her willingness to try new things, to switch from her very popular Regencies to Contemporaries and Fantasy and now her YA fantasies. What’s even better, she’s returned to the Regency again with her Lost Lords series, as creative as ever.

Once early on in my writing life, Mary Jo spoke at the Library of Congress Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum about world building and I attended. I was so honored to be included when the Library employees took her to lunch—I had an “in” then, too. My husband was friends with the woman who was then the coordinator.

I’m expecting to go to lunch this time, too, and, I promise you, I’m equally as thrilled!

Which Mary Jo Putney book is your favorite?

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Who Knew?

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I recently visited the MOST (Milton J Rubinstein Museum of Science and Technology) in Syracuse, NY, where there was an exhibit on the history of human flight. It began with some information on early ballooning, interesting though familiar since I’ve read a lot of books on the subject. But there was also a section devoted to Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) who invented what was said to be the first glider in 1804.

Sir George Cayley has been called the Father of Aviation. He was the first to identify the four forces that influence flight: weight, lift, drag and thrust and designed (though never built, of course) the first airplane. The picture here is of his 1804 glider. He continued to work with gliders, designing a biplane with “flappers”, which was flown in 1849 and the first manned glider, which was flown in 1853. There’s a story that the pilot was Cayley’s coachman, and that afterwards he said, “Please, Sir George, I wish to give notice, I was hired to drive and not to fly.”

This all made me think of Laura Kinsale’s MIDSUMMER MOON, in which the heroine invents a manned glider. I can’t locate my copy (I think I loaned it to a friend) and I can’t remember if there was an author’s note. In any case, what I learned at the MOST confirms that the heroine’s invention was not out of line with what real inventors were working on during the general time period.

I love when things like this are used in books, such as the blood transfusion in Mary Jo Putney’s SHATTERED RAINBOWS (which does have a useful historical note). IMHO it’s important that the cool bit of research support the overall story, which in both these cases it does.


Have you learned anything new or unusual recently through reading historical fiction? Through visiting a museum or exhibit? Any interesting bits of research you’d like to see used in fiction?

Elena

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Mary Jo Putney!!!

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Today our guest author is none other than MARY JO PUTNEY!! I’ve already gushed about Mary Jo in my Monday blog, but today Mary Jo is here to discuss her newest book, Loving a Lost Lord. Mary Jo will be giving away a signed copy of Loving a Lost Lord to one lucky commenter, so join the party and ask the incomparable Mary Jo Putney what you’ve always wanted to know.
Diane

STARRED REVIEW “The enchanting first Lost Lords novel confirms bestseller Putney as a major force in historical romance. . . . Entrancing characters and a superb plot line catapult this tale into stand-alone status.”– Publisher’s Weekly

RR: Welcome, Mary Jo!

MJP: Let’s hear it for historicals!

RR. Tell us about Loving a Lost Lord.

MJP: LALL is the first of my new Regency historical series. The “lost lords” of the series are men who met at the Westerfield Academy, a school for boys of “good birth and bad behavior.” The school was founded by an eccentric duke’s daughter, and her students are boys who didn’t fit into the rigid expectations of their class. The very first student who sparked the school’s founding was Adam Darshan Lawford, the half-Hindu boy who was wrenched away from his mother after he became the Duke of Ashford.

LALL begins when three of Ashton’s friends report to Lady Agnes Westerfield that Adam has been killed in the explosion of an experimental steam yacht in Scotland. When she learns that his body hasn’t been found, she sends them north to see if they can bring him home for proper burial.

Meanwhile, far in the north, newly orphaned Mariah Clarke could really used a husband as protection against an unwanted suitor, and when a battered man washes up on her beach with no memory, it seems too good an opportunity to pass up….

And it goes on from there. It’s one of my more over-the-top stories!

STARRED REVIEW “Compelling, flawless prose, gentle humor, exotic elements (courtesy of Adam’s half-Hindi heritage), and irresistible characters caught in a sweet, sensual dilemma will leave readers smiling, breathless, and anxiously awaiting the next adventure in Putney’s new “Lost Lords” series. Readers who loved Putney’s “Fallen Angels” series are in for a rare treat; fortunately, there are more delicacies to come! Putney (A Distant Magic) writes some of the most sensitive, exquisite historicals in the field.”–Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

RR: Loving a Lost Lord marks your return to the Regency era. Can you tell us something about your writer’s journey that brought you back to the Regency?

MJP: The vast majority of my thirty plus books have been set in the Regency, but several years back, I felt that I was on the verge of burnout, so I wrote several contemporaries and then paranormal historicals. Now that I’ve recharged my batteries, I’ve come home.

But the issue of burnout hasn’t gone away, even if it’s temporarily in abeyance. I’ve had people ask me if editorial pressure made me do the fantasy historicals, and the answer is no. I love writing history, fantasy, and romance together. But the combination isn’t as commercially viable as straight historicals, so that’s what I’m doing.

However—I’m delighted to report that recently sold a young adult fantasy historical series to St. Martin’s Press. That will give the chance to get my fantasy fix. I just have to learn to write faster!

RR: What is risky about this book?

MJP: It’s far from my riskiest book, actually. I mean, it starts with the hero presumed dead and he’s a half-Hindu duke, but that’s pretty conservative for me. No alcoholics, epileptics, or abused characters in sight. Definitely middle of the road. I hope long time readers aren’t disappointed.

TOP PICK “If you loved the Fallen Angels, you’ll adore the Lost Lords: men who formed unbreakable bonds while at a school for boys of “good birth and bad behavior.” Only the incomparable Putney could bring them to life and have readers yearning to be close to such dynamic heroes and the women who tame them”–Kathe Robin, RT Book Reviews

RR: Did you come across any interesting research in writing this book?

MJP: This isn’t one of my highest research books. The previous book, A Distant Magic, was hugely research intensive since it was built around the 18th century British abolition movement. I’ve found that after a book like that, I need something simpler on the next book so I can recover.

So LALL is a fairly standard Regency setting—1812, England and Scotland. But I did find some very cool material on diving bells when Ashton’s friends take a salvage ship out to try to recover the wreckage of the sunken steam yacht. Did you know that diving bells were first described by Aristotle, and Alexander the Great went down in one? A bell is heavy and water tight, and it’s lowered directly into the water. The pressure of the air trapped inside keeps water from rising in the bell unless it goes fairly deep.

To quote Wikipedia: “A diving bell was used to salvage more than 50 cannons from the Swedish warship Vasa in the period immediately following its sinking in 1628.” That’s some serious salvage! By the time of the Regency, fresh air could be maintained in the bell with a hose and a pump, so divers could stay under water for quite some time.

Sorry to run on, but you really shouldn’t ask a Regency writer about research!

RR: Precisely why we asked! What is next for you?

MJP: I’ve finished the second Lost Lords book. The hero is Randall, who shows up in LALL, and the book is scheduled for May 2010. Kensington has also bought rights to one of my Fallen Angels books, and it’s scheduled for early 2010. I have at least four other potential heroes I’d like to write about, so this is a pretty open ended series.

In January 2010, I’m part of a paranormal Grail anthology called Chalice of Roses with Jo Beverley, Barbara Samuel, and Karen Harbaugh. (This is the third paranormal anthology the four of us have done together.)

And in Very Cool news, I found this week that Loving A Lost Lord made the extended New York Times list as well as the USAToday list. It’s great that readers still enjoy Regency historicals after all these years!

RR: Wow!! That’s terrific! But not surprising.

Thanks so much for having me here—

Mary Jo Putney

Okay Risky Readers, now’s your chance to ask Mary Jo a question, or make a comment. You might be the one chosen to win a signed copy of Loving a Lost Lord.

Visit Mary Jo often on her website or on her blog, Word Wenches.

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