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Tag Archives: Megan Frampton

Dark Friday

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Today is a sad day of remembrance, and there are plenty of well-written tributes to what today means. I was in New York City that day, and it is etched forever in my memory. But I don’t feel as though it is appropriate for me to go on and on about what it meant, because you guys know already (and see above, plenty of well-written tributes).

***

So today I’m gonna talk about something totally frivolous: Fall fashion. Specifically, the turn in beauty towards darker colors. This morning, I met a friend for coffee, and he had a birthday present for me (aww!). It was an OPI nail polish shade I’d twittered about, their line of matte shades. This one is Lincoln Park After Dark, which I also have on my toes (the regular glossy version, and it’s kinda chipped, but I am wearing socks for the first time in ages ’cause it’s cold, so you can’t see).

Last fall, fashion mags and blogs were talking about black lipstick, a trend I TOTALLY would have jumped on 20 years ago. Not so much now. Not many people rocked the trend in real life, makes sense given how perfect the rest of you has to look to make it look okay, but once again, they’re saying black lipgloss is in style.

I love the return of fall–and today in New York, it’s really fall-like, kinda rainy and dreary and cold (hence the socks. I hate wearing socks). Sweaters, and pumpkins, and dark, intense colors (the same friend said once I like to wear “dark bruise” colors, I think). I won’t be wearing black lipstick, but I am definitely putting away some of my brighter colors in favor of the dark.
What is the most outrageous beauty trend you’ve tried–or been tempted to try? What’s your favorite thing about fall?

Megan

PS: If you are in the New York City area and want to attend a special book event at SiriusXM on Monday, here are the deets: SiriusXM will be taping a “Book Radio Presents” special with our three hosts— Pia Lindström, Maggie Linton and Kim Alexander—and leading women’s fiction authors Jennifer Weiner, Julie Buxbaum and Lucinda Rosenfeld. Blogger Ron Hogan will join us for a roundtable discussion, interview, Q & A and reading with these three leading contemporary women authors to talk about live, love, the meaning of best friends/friendship and other themes from their books. Doors open 1:30 pm, we will tape the interview/broadcast from 2:00 – 3:00 pm, and then have a reception from 3:00 – 4:00 pm. Please RSVP to Hillary Schupf, Hillary.schupf@siriusxm.com and bring photo ID for security desk.

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Happy Birthday to Us

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My birthday present to you! My bookcover for Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady coming Dec 2009 from Harlequin Historical. I LOVE this cover

My real Risky Regencies birthday is April 17, because I joined this lovely group on April 17, 2006, but, the Queen doesn’t celebrate her birthday on the anniversary of her birth, so why should I? I choose to celebrate with my other Riskies.

I was so creative. I called my first blog “My First Time by Diane Gaston Perkins” (I was still writing for Warner Forever as Diane Perkins at the time). I talked about why I think the Regency is so popular as a Romance genre. And I sounded reasonably intelligent! Who knew?

Risky Regencies came about when there were still Signet and Zebra Traditional Regencies, but we all knew they would not last. Janet, Amanda, Elena, and Cara were innovating, trying to give the subgenre new life. It was a risk, but that was the reason to name the blog Risky Regencies.

I decided to see what these Riskies chose to write about for their first times.

Janet’s first blog was, as you might expect, extremely witty with creative surprises, telling what was risky about her first book, Dedication.

Megan talks about her risky Regency, A Singular Lady, in the sassy slightly self-depreciating style we’ve come to love, admitting she made mistakes with titles.

Cara’s first blog was about cards! She talks about the idea that became My Lady Gamester. (I still miss Cara, so I’m including her here!)

Amanda’s first real blog (after a brief one about covers, citing both a movie and fashion, natch) was a cute Jane Austen quiz. We’ve had lots of quizzes since.

Elena does another thing we’ve repeated often–talking about other books and authors we admire. Elena will be blogging on Sept 26. Yay!!!

And finally our newest Risky, Carolyn, who started her time here with a quirky introduction in Regency-speak and her first real blog about The Regency Ottoman Empire. What could be more Risky than that???

Like the Regency genre, we’re still evolving. I love the community we’ve become, and that includes our commenters!

Do you have any Risky Regency blogs you remember? What ones have stuck in your memory?

My prize, awarded at the end of the month, like Janet’s, is a DVD: 1815 The Battle Of Waterloo. It is a documentary released by Kultur.com that I used in writing my Three Soldiers Series (and ordered twice because I forgot I already owned it). If you don’t win you can order your own from Amazon.

My website is updated! And there is a new contest there.
And I’m now on Twitter as well as Facebook.

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Happy Birthday, a joke and a PRIZE

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What is a Risky Regency? Who writes Risky Regencies? What are the challenges, pitfalls, and benefits of writing Risky Regencies?

And so began the Risky Regencies in August, 2005. At that point the lineup was Amanda, Elena, Megan, and me, plus Cara King (now writing YA–or what? Tell us, Cara), Laurie Bishop (now writing contemporaries–calling Laurie, where are you now?).

Megan and I talked about starting a blog when we were at the RWA National conference in Reno, NV in 2005 since we both had books coming out around the same time, and the others came on board too.

I met Elena at the airport waiting for a cab (a very frustrating experience since we could see the hotel but not get to it–Reno is not a place designed for walking. It is a place designed for gambling, period). We had a long discussion about sex and Regencies.

That was a pretty interesting conference for me, my first book about to come out, after a couple of years trying to sell a Golden Heart final ms. that no one wanted, and having my first meeting with my agent. Also I felt stoned the entire time at Reno and it was because extra oxygen was pumped into the hotel (to encourage reckless behavior?) which is why I told my agent-to-be this joke and she still signed me on:

What is the difference between an alligator?
“?”
An alligator swims in the water and walks on the land. Now, what is the difference between a shark?
“?”
A shark doesn’t have a difference. It only swims. What is the difference between a shark and an alligator?
“?”
An alligator has a difference and a shark doesn’t.

Yeah, I know. If you want to see some authentic Regency jokes, go to the joke section at Prints George (a great place to buy reproduction prints) and don’t blame me if you think they’re disgusting.

Four years is a long time for a blog to survive and we couldn’t have done it without you. It’s been wonderful seeing our traffic increase and making new friends.

So, the PRIZE. A $25 Amazon gift certificate, and to be entered for it, tell us your favorite joke; or tell us how long you’ve followed us and how you found us, which sort of posts you enjoy, and what you’d like to see more of. The winner will be announced at the end of the month.

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Hooray For Libraries!

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This week, my local library system announced that the city’s budget will allow for libraries to remain open six days a week. Whew!

One indicator of the current economy has been the massive upswing in library use; people who’ve been laid off are heading to the library for internet and computer access, people aren’t buying books as much, kids need a place to go if their parents’ jobs have changed or their caregiver has had to go to work again.

And, of course, library budgets have been threatened because of the economy.

So when the Brooklyn Public Library asked for donations to help keep the library’s doors opened, I ponied up what I could and crossed my fingers. Where else can I get a steady stream of new books, DVDs and books for my son? Judging by the amount of traffic I see going into my local branch, and by how many people wanted The Reader ahead of me (hurry up, all 327 of you!), I would say the library’s usage is thriving. So I was hoping the membership would also hear the call. And the city’s mayor, not a stupid guy, made sure the library was taken care of in the budget. Again, whew.

The library is a great leveller; people of all ethnicities, age and gender congregate there. And while you might think the one thing they have in common is literacy, that is not always the case; my son and I spent many hours there before he could read.

I know from our books that the library in Regency times offered some of the same services, subscribing to the papers so people didn’t have to pay for an individual subscription, getting the latest ‘horrid novel’ so a young lady needn’t spend her pin money on it.

How about you? How has the economy affected your town or city’s cultural spots? Do you visit the library as often as I seem to? What is your secret library tip (mine is to get cookbooks out of the library first to test-drive the recipes; that way, if you like the book, you can buy, but cookbooks can be super-pricy, and you’re not sure you’ll like until you try)?

Thanks,

Megan

PS: The top pic is the main branch of my library, which is just gorgeous.

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New York New York. It’s a Wonderful Town

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Greetings from the Big Apple!

Amanda and I are having a wonderful time. We arrived in NYC Thursday and had dinner with fellow regency author, Andrea Pickens and afterward the three of us went to Lincoln Center to see American Ballet Theatre‘s Le Corsaire.

Friday we went to the Metropolitan Museum and spent lots of time looking at 18th and 19th century paintings and sculpture. Then Andrea and our very own Risky, Megan joined us for lunch and a long tour of the decorative arts section of the museum. Here’s just one example of the sort of items we oohed and aahed over.

Friday night Amanda and I attended a special viewing of the Heart of a Woman exhibit, celebrating 60 years of Harlequin books cover art. My favorite cover was an old one, Love Me and Die. We met Max Ginsberg, cover artist for many of the past Harlequin covers. On display were several of his works, all worthy of being hung in art galleries as fine art.

Saturday was Book Expo America, where Amanda and I signed The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. Deb Marlowe, the third author of our anthology, was supposed to come with us but she got sick and couldn’t travel to NYC. We missed her!

Harlequin treated us very well, though, and in no time at all we gave away every copy of our book that the publisher provided.

Sunday we went to The Strand Bookstore where Amanda and I bought lots of research books. Our friend Kwana (who took the booksigning photo above) went with us, but she only bought a couple of books. Kwana had also gone to Book Expo and came back with three totebags full of free books. Amanda and I did not get any free books at BEA.

Megan and Kwana joined us for dinner. Also with us was my good friend, Hope Tarr, whom I haven’t really seen since she moved from DC to NYC.

Tonight is Lady Jane’s Salon where Amanda and I will be reading excerpts from The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. All our New York friends, Megan, Andrea, Kwana, Hope, and others will be there too.

Wish us luck on our readings!

Do you have a favorite place in New York City? Or one place in the city you would most like to see? (Mine is the Metropolitan Museum!)

I can’t wait to welcome our newest Risky, coming this Wednesday, June 3!

Winner of Elizabeth Roll’s Lord Braybrook’s Penniless Bride will be announced tonight.

The Unlacing of Miss Leigh, my Undone short estory, hit number one on the Harlequin eBook Best Seller list again last week!

Stay tuned to discover if Deb Marlowe’s An Improper Aristocrat or my The Vanishing Viscountess or Scandalizing the Ton won the Desert Rose Golden Quill contest. Winners should be announced today!

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