Well, my Christmas In July Writing Extravaganza is almost over (yay!). The Christmas Regency novella (a Diamonds of Welbourne Manor spin-off, watch for it next year!) is done and being hacked into shape, and my goal is to finish the Elizabethan Christmas “Undone” story before I leave for RWA on the 14th. (Maybe if I post this goal here, it will come true). But after trying to think about presents and carols and snow in the middle of 4th of July fireworks and 95 degree weather, my brain is tired. Or maybe just lazy. Either way, it’s hard to think of a good blog topic. So here, in no particular order, is a list of What I’ve Been Thinking About Lately (besides Christmas…)

1) TV. I have only very basic cable, so I am always late to TV show parties. Mad Men, Deadwood, etc–I had to wait for Netflix, but now I love them. And right now I am loving True Blood. What a crazy, wacked-out, fantastic show. It sort of reminds me of the sadly-departed Deadwood in that it has a similar dark, gritty atmosphere of weird humor mixed with the gore (even though the settings are very different). But now I have to wait for season 2. (Please tell me there is more Eric in season 2!!!)

2) Sports. I’m not much for sports usually, but there are 3 I enjoy–soccer, bicycling, and tennis. Lucky for me I’ve had 2 out of the 3 in the last week! The Tour de France started, and despite the return of Lance Armstrong (and the fact that he finished a surprising 3rd place after Monday’s stage 3, and has an entirely undiminished ego) my money is still on his Astana teammate Alberto Contador.

In tennis, of course, there was Wimbledon. Despite the fact that my true love (one of them, anyway) Rafa Nadal was not there, that Federer/Roddick match was a classic.

3) Books, of course! I’ve been reading Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 (thanks to Andrea Pickens’s excellent rec!). I’m only about 1/4 of the way through right now, but I have to say the first chapter, “The Patricians,” is an excellent portrait of the old aristocratic mindset and responsibilities and privileges. Dukes, earls, marquesses, etc simply did not look at the world like everyone else, and it’s a good thing to remember when creating such a hero. (And I loved the anecdote about the fiery 1st Marchioness of Salisbury, who was responsible for revitalizing the ancient Cecil line, which had gone downhill since Elizabethan times, and who hunted every day until her death at 85, despite being blind and having to be tied to her saddle. A groom would ride beside her, and shout out when she approached a fence, “Jump, dammit, my lady, jump!” And her beautiful daughter-in-law, the 2nd marchioness, had the Duke of Wellington as a devoted admirer. He gave her flags captured at Waterloo to hang in the entrance hall of Hatfield, and wore the coat of the Hatfield Hounds on campaign).

For fun, I’m reading a YA novel by Jacqueline Kolosov, The Red Queen’s Daughter, about Mary Seymour, daughter of Katherine Parr and a magician. (The real Mary probably died in infancy, after her mother’s death in childbirth, though no one knows for sure. In this story she grows up, finds her magic, and goes to the court of Queen Elizabeth). And I just finished our own Risky Carolyn’s My Forbidden Desire, which I stayed up until after 1 in the morning to finish (even though I had work the next day!). Go and read it right now!! (Though Carolyn tells me the next story is not the one I was hoping for, but that’s okay–for now).

4) The RWA conference! It’s impossible to pack light for this, but this year seems more ridiculous than ever. One costume (for the Beau Monde Soiree Wednesday night) along with all the accessories, plus 3 evening gowns, plus 4 day dresses, plus some casual stuff, plus shoes and bags and jewelry. My luggage is taking on Duchess of Windsor proportions here. But I can’t wait to be there!

And BTW, if you are going to RWA be sure and join us (the Riskies) for a drink on Saturday afternoon at 4ish, in harry’s Pub in the Marriott…

What are you thinking about today?

Risky Regencies is thrilled to welcome back Nicola Cornick, to tell us all about her new trilogy from HQN! (Out May, June, and July) For more information on these and upcoming stories, you can check out her website here–and be sure and comment on today’s post for a chance to win a copy of The Scandals of an Innocent!

Thank you so much for inviting me to visit the Riskies today. It’s always such a pleasure to visit this blog! Amanda very kindly invited me along to talk about my new Regency series, The Brides of Fortune, the first two books of which are currently in the shops. And as this is Risky Regencies I thought I should focus on what is risky and different in these stories!

The idea for the overall Brides of Fortune trilogy was sparked by something I read in the newspapers. Even though I write historical fiction I get a lot of my ideas from contemporary papers and magazines. That in itself is a risky if rewarding approach because you have to make sure that in taking a modern idea and adapting it to a Regency context you aren’t doing anything anachronistic. But the more I research, the more I realize that there are so many themes and ideas that are fundamentally the same now as they were in the Regency period and perhaps throughout history. One of these was the idea of the rights and laws associated with the title of Lord of the Manor. This sparked the Brides of Fortune series. A couple of years ago I read about a village in England where someone had bought the title of Lord of the Manor and then discovered that he could impose lots of ancient taxes on the villagers. He started to charge them for walking their dogs on the village green and for parking their cars when they went shopping. Naturally there was uproar with the villagers rebelling. I thought this would be great idea to explore in a Regency series and so the Brides of Fortune trilogy was born! Sir Montague Fortune imposes an ancient tax on the villagers that means that every lady has to marry or lose half of her dowry. Penniless gentlemen come flocking to the village and so Fortune’s Folly becomes the marriage mart of England!

The first book in the series is called The Confessions of a Duchess and it tells the story of Laura, Dowager Duchess of Cole, who featured in my previous book for HQN, Unmasked. After Unmasked came out I had so many emails from readers asking for Laura’s story that I couldn’t resist. Confessions of a Duchess is set four years after Unmasked and Laura has retired to live quietly in the country with her young daughter Hattie. Then her former lover, Dexter Anstruther, comes back into Laura’s life and turns everything upside down. Dexter and Laura parted on bad terms and now he has to marry a rich heiress to save his family but despite knowing that he has to marry for duty, Dexter finds it hard to resist his attraction to Laura. There are so many secrets keeping them apart and so many reasons why they cannot be together, not least that Laura is eight years Dexter’s senior and she thinks that to have a toy boy lover is totally scandalous! I absolutely loved writing a book with an age difference between the hero and heroine. Laura is quite a risky heroine – she’s a former highwaywoman for a start and as Dexter works for the government to keep law and order, he’s not that thrilled when he finds out!

This month the second book is out and it is called The Scandals of an Innocent. The trilogy heroines are all friends and this is Alice’s story. Alice is a former housemaid who inherited her late employer’s money so she is struggling with the snobbish attitudes of some members of society towards her – they look down on her socially even though they’d quite like to have her fortune! One of Fortune Folly’s penniless adventurers, Miles Vickery, decides to blackmail Alice into marriage and sets out to seduce her. Miles is an out and out rake, a real scoundrel, but Alice is determined to reform him so it is a battle of hearts. I have to confess that Miles is probably my favorite of the trilogy heroes! Although I love heroes who have integrity and a strong code of honor, I am a total sucker for rake heroes and Miles is a very, very bad boy indeed. He totally does not want to reform and fights really hard against it but Alice is no pampered society miss, she’s got a tough background, and she’s not going to just let Miles walk in and take what he wants! The risky thing about this book… Alice’s rose tattoo! Tattoos for women were rare during the Regency period and not at all the done thing for a respectable female. In her fabulous series about Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies my fellow Word Wench Andrea Pickens also has heroines with tattoos, which perfectly fits the racy ambiance of her lady spies! In Alice’s case it’s yet another thing that marks her out as deeply unrespectable!

And for book 3, The Undoing of a Lady, the risk I took, I think, was to create a heroine, Lizzie Scarlet, who is so outrageous that I suspect some readers may feel she goes too far. Lizzie starts the book off by exercising her droit de seigneur over the hero and goes on from there! It can be difficult to write a young heroine who is a bad girl and yet who still commands a reader’s sympathy. My editor described Lizzie’s characterization as “brave” which made me very nervous! Hopefully to understand Lizzie and her background will be to love her. She is right on the edge of control – just when you think she couldn’t possibly behave in a worse fashion she goes off and does something even more shocking. But I loved Lizzie to bits and felt enormous compassion for her (after all, being the half sister of the wicked village squire and his even more appalling brother is no picnic!) So I hope that readers will love her too. And she does have a very, very strong man as her hero – he needs to be!

I hope that in Fortune’s Folly I have created a “Regency world” that readers can step into. There is an e-book prequel to the series, The Secrets of a Courtesan, which is available to download from e-harlequin. It sets the scene and introduces some of the characters and is also a steamy love story! And I deliberately left a few story threads loose at the end of The Undoing of a Lady because I don’t think I wanted to let go of the Fortune’s Folly trilogy completely. I have a sneaking feeling I will want to go back there sometime and find out what has happened to a few of the characters! In the meantime I’m working on a new series for HQN. The first book is set in London and the Arctic. Now that really is risky!

If you’re going to the RWA conference in Washington DC (only about 10 days away now!) be sure and join the Riskies (Diane, Amanda, Carolyn, Janet, and Megan) for a drink and a “coze” before the awards ceremony on Saturday! 4:00 in Harry’s Pub at the Marriott Wardman hotel. Hope we see you there!!!

I decided what this Risky birthday needs is a party! But where to have it, who to invite, what to serve, and most importantly what to wear??? These are big questions–it’s not every month we turn 4.

First of all, I know who not to invite. The Mad Men characters for a start. Sure, they wear fabulous clothes and would bring great booze, but then they would just sit around smoking and being all bitter and passive-aggressive and full of sub-text. I might try and borrow one of Betty’s dresses, though. She might be a terrible mother, but that girl can really dress.

Not the crazed Bon Temps crew, either. No dirt-eating orgies, please. (But Eric can come to the party. Which means we have to have it at night, natch).

And not Byron and Caro Lamb (or any of his other women, especially that wet blanket Lady Byron. I don’t want any stabbings or broken furniture. No poetry, either)

We could invite Jane Austen (though she’d probably just sit there and make fun of everyone’s outfits); the Brontes (I bet Emily won’t come); Emma Hamilton (she would bring the good-looking men); Madame du Barry and Diane Poitiers (ditto); the Duchess of Devonshire and her sister (they can run the card-playing). And maybe Julia Child–I bet she would be awesome, and bring something yummy to eat. And whoever else wants to come!

So now, where to have it? I love that scene in the movie Marie Antoinette where they have the outdoor supper under the tent, so we’ll have it at the Temple of Love at the Petit Trianon. (Which means we have to invite Marie Antoinette and her crew, I guess).

We’ll have champagne, 10 different kinds of tea, and cupcakes! (But nothing from Cake Wrecks…) We’ll have music, too, something to dance to.

But that is all just the beginning! Who would you invite to be your guest at the party (because you are all invited, of course). What would you wear? What sorts of food and music should we have? And to 1 commenter I will give a Harlequin anniversary tote bag and calendar, plus a signed copy of Spirited Brides.

Happy Birthday to us, and to you, our wonderful readers! And here’s to many more…

Amy Kathryn, you’ve won an autographed copy of The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker! Send your snail mail address to us at riskies@yahoo.com