Harlequin Party, RWA 2010

The dance floor was small, but lively!

Beverly Jenkins does air electric guitar.

My new cover flashed on the screen! Then I waited fifteen minutes, camera in hand, until it came up again, so I could take a picture.

More dancing.

"i like my body when it is with your body," e.e. cummings,

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like,slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric fur,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

--e.e. cummings

RWA 2010 - Friday afternoon pics

Christopher Rowe, Diana Peterfreund, Gwenda Bond.

Vivian Arend and her hat.

Maria Snyder and Mindy Klasky.

Passionate Ink Party Picspam - RWA 2010

eHarlequin Pajama Party!

Leia Rice, Amanda Berry, Jeannie Lin.

RWA 2010 - The Swan & Dolphin

The conference hotel is very, very scenic.

RWA 2010, Wednesday, Literacy Autographing

Flying sure does make me tired. I spent most of yesterday feeling very slow and inefficient at everything, and eventually gave up and went back to my room and slept. I feel much better now!

Here are some pictures of folks that I took at the beginning and end of the signing, when I had a little time to wander around and see people myself.

Luckily, for the Literacy Autographing, all I had to do was sit down and talk to people. I can do that for a while even while tired. But the best part of the signing? Leia Rice had her e-reader, and I got to sign The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover with a stylus! I've signed my first e-book! Alas, the photo doesn't show my autograph very well. But I am still thrilled.

My editor stopped by and I got to chat with her; I also got to meet, for the first time, a representative from the German publisher of The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover in translation. It was lovely to be able to tell her in person how much I like the edition's dust jacket.

Also, I got to sit next to Beverly Jenkins! That was really cool.

Top 5 Marriage of Convenience Novels

This post was originally written for Monkey Bear Reviews.

#

My Five Favorite Marriage of Convenience Novels

It was really difficult to make this list! The "marriage of convenience" is one of my favorite romance novel plots. I made the rule for myself that for my list of five, I would not choose more than one novel by a single author, so that helped a lot, particularly since Jo Beverley and Mary Balogh have written quite a few Marriage of Convenience novels. (Do I love Marriage of Convenience novels because two of my favorite romance writers have written so many, or do I love those authors because they've written so many Marriage of Convenience novels? *ponders* *head begins to hurt*)

Anyway. Here's my list. They're not in any particular order.

A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer: I chose this one in particular (I also like Heyer’s The Convenient Marriage) because of the class and money issues that are embedded in the story, making the conflict much more rich. The hero is in love with someone else when he learns he must instead marry an heiress for her money. The heiress is diffident, plump, and plain. Conflict! Atypical heroine! Learning to live with each other! A friend of mine once compared this novel to Jane Austen's Persuasion, which happens to be my favorite Austen novel, so that might be part of my liking for it as well.

Christmas Angel by Jo Beverley: this is one of my favorites by Jo Beverley overall, as well as a favorite Marriage of Convenience story. The thing I like best about it is the negotiation. I know that sounds odd when talking about a romance novel. But in this story, the heroine has two children from a previous marriage, and the hero actually talks to her about how he’d like to contribute to raising them, down to how to discipline their children; they discuss all manner of practical things that will relate to their future life together. This is so rare in historical romances I’ve read that I am still in awe of it. To me, that’s about a thousand times more romantic than, say, wild sex on a beach.

Dancing with Clara by Mary Balogh: Balogh has written numerous Marriage of Convenience stories, so choosing one was difficult. I finally chose this one because the hero, Freddie, is such a mess. He marries Clara for her money, and Clara marries him knowing that he’s marrying her for her money. After a lovely honeymoon, Freddie freaks out and runs away to drink and whore his way across London. He and Clara must struggle through his behavior and the reasons behind it to establish their relationship on a firm footing. Their story feels very realistic to me emotionally and is completely involving, especially given that this was a category-length Signet Regency Romance, and thus very short.

The Wedding Journey by Carla Kelly: Kelly’s books are almost all category-length, and this is no exception. It’s also one of my favorite Carla Kelly books (and she is one of my favorite writers). It’s unusual among this list because the hero was already in love with the heroine before the story began; he’d just never told her. He marries her under the guise of protecting her when her father dies. They’re both ordinary people living not-so-ordinary lives; Jesse is an Army surgeon, Nell the daughter of a common soldier, and they must travel across Spain alone in the middle of a war, facing a whole range of gritty dangers. The chief thing I love about the story is the heroine’s calm practicality and the hero’s shy-but-strong personality. As an added bonus, the book is rich with historical detail about the English army during the Peninsular Campaign.

Beast by Judith Ivory: this book is very different from the others on my list. It’s set in the early twentieth century, and the prose is much more stylistically elaborate than most other romance novels. For me, it’s also a bonus that besides being a Marriage of Convenience, it’s also a Beauty and the Beast story. Two great tastes that taste great together! What I love most about the book is that neither of the protagonists is really a nice person. Love isn’t enough. They each have conquer their own vanities and insecurities in order to make their relationship work.

Looking over what I’ve written, it’s pretty clear to me that “working at the relationship” is something I value highly in a romance novel. I think that’s because when the relationship is the conflict, it’s integral to the story in a way that a pasted-on suspense plot cannot be. And working at the relationship is what the Marriage of Convenience novel is all about.

Literacy Autographing at RWA 2010 Pics

Vivienne Westlake and Beverly Jenkins.

Madeline Hunter and Elizabeth Hoyt.

K.A. Mitchell.

Louise Edwards and and Liz Scheier.

Suzanne Enoch.

Meagan Hatfield.



Per RWA, "The 2010 Readers for Life Literacy Autographing was a huge success with approximately 3,600 attendees and 500 participating authors. This two-hour event raised $55,000 for literacy, with the proceeds going to ProLiteracy Worldwide, Orlando’s Adult Literacy League, and the Nashville Adult Literacy Council."

Win a Kindle2! at the Literacy Autographing, RWA 2010 National Conference

At the "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing tonight (5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, Pacific Exhibit Hall at the Dolphin Hotel), I'm participating in a Signature Scavenger Hunt to give away a Kindle2. It's part of the festivities in Orlando, Florida for the 30th Annual Romance Writers of America Conference.

To enter, visit the Romance Diva authors listed below at the Literacy signing, obtain a Scavenger Hunt sheet from one of them, and acquire all the signatures. Leave the sheet with the last one you visit. You'll then be entered in a drawing for the Kindle2 at the end of the night. By participating in this giveaway, you give these authors permission to add your email to their mailing lists.

My list of participants is helpfully alphabetical, since the authors are seated in alphabetical order at the signing.

Gina Ardito
Amanda Berry
Teresa D'Amario
Sabrina Darby
Ella Drake
Louisa Edwards
Karen Erickson
Victoria Janssen
Natasha Moore
Kristen Painter
Sarah Parr
Kate Pearce
Robin L. Rotham
Liz Talley
Kimberley Troutte

I hope to see you there! I'll have a pile of author scavenger hunt sheets, some bookmarks for The Duke & The Pirate Queen, and possibly chocolate.

If you can't attend the conference, check out my blog post from yesterday which features information about the annual Romance Divas' Not-Going-To-Conference Conference.

I will hopefully be blogging from the conference, but likely on an irregular schedule.

RWA Nationals Tomorrow!

I'm leaving for RWA Nationals in Orlando tomorrow.


I'm bringing:

1. Business cards;

2. Bookmarks and postcards for The Duke and The Pirate Queen;

3. A list of cell phone numbers, and dates and times of parties and rendezvous;

4. A book to read (yes, really!); and

5. Fuchsia lipstick.

Also some clothing and toiletries, if you were worried.

Here are some a couple of events where you might be able to find me:
Wednesday, July 28, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, Pacific Exhibit Hall at the Dolphin Hotel: "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing

Thursday, July 29, 10:00 pm – 1:00 am, Oceanic 1: The eHarlequin Pajama Party.

ALSO:



Not forking out the dough for the RWA Conference this year, with evening wear, suits, high heels and whatever "business casual" means?

Not to worry! Romance Divas is hosting the

Not Going to Conference Conference...

The Conference You Don't Have to Get Out of Bed For!

From July 28-31, come hang out with some terrific, savvy authors -- and you don't even have to brush your teeth (although, seriously, good dental hygiene gets you extra points.)

We'll be hosting panels on:

--The Power of Three: A crit group tell-all (Paranormal): Crystal Jordan& Patti O'Shea & Dayna Hart/Rowan Larke.

--The Lolitas of Steamed! Present Writing the Steampunk Romance -more than leather corsets and brass goggles! Marie-Claude Bourque & Theresa Meyers.

--Whips, Chains, Slings, Oh My: It Really Isn’t About the Toys (BDSM Erotica): James Buchanan & Joey Hill.

--The Great Big YA Panel: Rhonda Stapleton & Shannon Delany & Kiersten White & Carrie Ryan & Linda Gerber & Saundra Mitchell & Lara Zielin & Brenna Yovanoff.

Register for free at Romance Divas, then come join us on the forums for the discussions, as well as some terrific prizes, including critiques of synopses, chapters, and proposals; books both print and electronic; design services; a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card; and more.

Five Blogging Inspirations

Never run out of things to blog about! Order inspiration by phone for only $19.95!

1. Blog about My Five Favorite.... This could be your five favorite romance novel plots, or your five favorite movies of all time, or your five favorite reviews of your work, or anything really. I'm doing that right now. *cue Twilight Zone theme* ...I suppose you could also do "My Six Favorite..." or "My Seventeen Favorite...."

2. Blog about your News. Don't have any? Are you sure? You don't have to have made a recent sale. You can blog about the accomplishment of finishing writing a story. Or finishing reading a book. Or passing your driver's test. Or finding topics to blog about. It's okay to write about something other than your writing or reading every once in a while.

3. Be inspired by pictures. Collect a folder of pictures, either print or digital, and use them to get you started. Bonus points if you include the picture in the post.

4. Use the Headline technique. Visit CNN.com or any site that has lots of headlines (this also works with magazine covers). Choose some headlines that appeal to you. The object isn't to comment directly on the headlines, but to see how you can make the ideas or topic of them relate to your writing and/or reading.

5. Post links. You know all those useful links you've been collecting? Post them, preferably in some sort of topic-related group, or with commentary that helps link (heh) them together. You won't be the only one who thinks they're useful.

Suggestions?


Related Post:
Writers Never Run Out of Blog Topics.

Love & Mysteries

“Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve the problem. It stacks the cards, and in nine cases out of ten, it eliminates at least two useful suspects. The only effective love interest is that which creates a personal hazard for the detective - but which, at the same time, you instinctively feel to be a mere episode. A really good detective never gets married.”

--Raymond Chandler, "Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel" (essay, 1949), first published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962)

Charles Sorley, "When you see millions of the mouthless dead"

When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you'll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, 'They are dead.' Then add thereto,
'Yet many a better one has died before.'
Then, scanning all the o'ercrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.

--Charles Sorley (1895-1915)

Bearded Heroes

I'm a guest today at the Novelists, Inc. blog on "Five Ways of Thinking About a Writer's Conference."

As for my own personal blog, I've been wondering something. Where are all the romance heroes with beards? Or even moustaches?

I'm thinking about this because Maxime, hero of The Duke & the Pirate Queen, has a beard. The man on the book's cover does not have a beard; I've rarely seen moustaches, much less beards, on the covers of romance novels. Or on the characters inside romance novels. Or even in erotic novels, for that matter.

I recently read The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne; it's a historical set during the French Revolution. For most of the novel, the hero is bearded, or more accurately, stubbled. It's part of his disguise. I believe, though, in "normal" life he is cleanshaven.

Three major characters in my World War One-set novel The Moonlight Mistress (Pascal Fournier, Noel Ashby, and Gabriel Meyer) have moustaches. In that case, I considered their facial hair to be an important part of the historical worldbuilding; it's early in the war, and they don't yet have the gas mask issue that led some soldiers to shave. But also, I like moustaches. Again, the man on the book's cover does not have a moustache, though I am pretty sure he represents Pascal. Maybe there's some kind of marketing thing going on with all these cleanshaven men. Or maybe models just don't tend to have facial hair.

I wonder why that is? Facial hair, I suspect, is more commmon in historical romance set in certain periods when, well, facial hair would be more common. Is there more facial hair in Western Romance? I can't bring examples to mind. Does this trend hold over time?

Do readers just not want to imagine the scratchiness?

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

When to Submit.

How do you know if you're ready to submit a story or novel to an editor?

When's the deadline?

Have you proofread? Have you put "the end" at the end? Then it's time. Go for it.

Okay, so I'm being a little facetious. But not entirely. More than once I have used a deadline (perhaps adjusted to account for mailing time) to inspire me to finish a story. Or I've used a deadline as a goal. After that, I trust myself to get it done in time.

Trusting yourself isn't something you learn automatically. Well, you might trust yourself automatically, but if you don't have the experience to back it up, your trust in yourself might not be useful.

I'm not being very useful, am I?

I can't help it. Writing cannot be turned into a tidy set of rules. Trying to turn the psychology of writing into tidy rules is even worse. But "know yourself" is a good one.

Know when you've gotten as far as you can get on a story in the time you have. And then submit it.

Eroticism in To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney

I recently read Patricia Gaffney's To Have and To Hold for the first time. If I'd only read the first section of the book (a bit less than half), I could easily interpret it as an erotic novel, though one without much explicit sex. To explain why I think that, first I have to talk about the book as a whole.

There's a lot of discussion of this novel mostly because of its hero, aristocrat Sebastian Verlaine. Sebastian enacts a "forced seduction" of the heroine, Rachel Wade, who was imprisoned for ten years for the death of her abusive husband. Sebastian later allows his acquaintances to verbally torment Rachel; if Sebastian had not acted at the last minute, he would have tacitly allowed her to be raped by one of them. However, after and because of these actions on Sebastian's part, a switch flips in his personality and he becomes the Rake Reformed who's hoping to be Redeemed. From then on he is, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way as a romantic hero; "He had two immediate goals: to make her laugh and to make her come."

I am vastly simplifying. It's difficult to do otherwise with this complex and rewarding novel, which I'm still thinking about (I'll no doubt have more to say a few months from now). Sebastian still has flaws in the book's second section but, well, I can sum up his character shift by saying he gives her a puppy. And a conservatory. Both of these are things Rachel desperately desires and was denied while in prison; he responds to her deep needs with deep acuity.

In return, Rachel gives him a copy of an opera libretto which he truly loves. Throughout, she can often interpret the motives behind his actions. She becomes an expert on him. I think part of her skill at interpreting him is that she suffers from PTSD, because of her experiences with her husband and in prison; she's hyperattentive to people who might be threats. However, she is also easily devastated by kindness and tenderness; after Sebastian's reversal, she gives him her trust, which to me is much more impressive than Sebastian's reform. The second section is the epitome of romantic fantasy; ultimate trust and ultimate knowledge of the other.

In both sections, Sebastian is extremely attuned to Rachel: first cruelly, then kindly; first focused on his own gratification through her, secondly on her gratification. But back to the eroticism. Rachel's sexual desires are shut away for the first part of the novel. She cannot fully access that part of her until Sebastian changes, so I feel her true journey towards wholeness happens more in the second section than the first, when her erotic feelings are tightly bound up with emotional/romantic feelings (something our society perceives as normal for women).

Therefore, I looked at Sebastian's erotic journey. At first, he can sense the barriers between him and Rachel. The only way he can allow himself to think of removing those barriers is with sex; he's a dissipated rake; seduction is what he does. He cannot change his character except through sex. He thus makes her into an erotic object, and seeks to break her down to his level. "Her passivity irked him." "He felt pity for her, and curiosity, and an undeniably lurid sense of anticipation." "She was in his power, a virtual slave. The situation was unquestionably provocative, but it ought to have been more so, more stimulating. He hadn't really gotten to her yet. She simply didn't care enough." "Because of her reserve, touching her seemed a daring encroachment, almost like the breaking of a taboo. But wasn't that what made her irresistible?" "...that master-servant simulation had piquant sexual overtones he found stimulating."

Then Sebastian begins to lose his emotional distance and is having trouble seeing her merely as an erotic object. He has to work harder at it. "He entertained himself by imagining her in lewd sexual situations, but the man in his fantasies was always himself; when he tried to put a deviant or a pervert in them with her, someone who hurt her or degraded her--someone other than himself--the fantasies evaporated, leaving him with a bad taste in the mouth."

His feelings of distaste lead him into a little more self-awareness, and realization that he wants more from her than her body. He's beginning to get the idea that there will be a form of exchange between them. "...he'd seen a change coming in himself for a while now. Out of boredom and cynicism, he was starting to become nasty. He didn't approve of it, but in some ways he saw it as inevitable...But the older he got, the less fun he was having. It took more every day to divert him, and lately he'd begun moving gradually, with misgivings, into excess. There were no vices and few depravities he hadn't tasted, with differing degrees of satisfaction. He worried that when he ran out, he would choose a few favorites and indulge in them until they killed him...he had some idea that if he could possess her, the essence of what he lacked and she had would be his. He would appropriate it." "...he alternated between wanting to save her and wanting to push her to her limit."

He doesn't go about seduction very well at all. His thoughts here are far from romantic. But his analysis of his seductive maneuvers made me think of erotica, the sort with a psychological bent. "Her silence and her manner--completely withdrawn--suggested that their first time together was not going to be particularly transcendent, and that his best course would be simply to get it over with. That was one way. Another would be to exploit her provocative unwillingness, use it to heighten his pleasure--and hers, too, if she would let it. For the hundredth time he wondered what her husband had done to her. Since he didn't know and she wouldn't tell him, it seemed he had no choice but to enjoy her in any way he liked...He considered stopping everything and letting her go, but only for a split second, before the thought flew off to wherever bad ideas go."

After the forced seduction (I use that term rather than rape because this is a novel, and a fantasy scenario), Gaffney complicates the encounter further with Rachel's thoughts. "She understood why her fear of him had diminished...It was because she'd discovered from the most intimate experience that, unlike her husband, he was not thoroughly corrupt. He spoke of the "piquancy" of her unwillingness, and she didn't doubt that he found it so, but he had never hurt her, not really, and she knew with a bone-deep certainty that he never would. His methods of coercion were subtler, and maybe it was sophistry to say that therefore they were kinder. But she had been used by men in both ways now, brutally and gently, and she could say without equivocation that she much preferred Sebastian's."

After they've been intimate, Sebastian tries to regain the self he was before, by encouraging himself to separate from her emotionally. While his acquaintances torment Rachel with invasive questions, he picks at the piano keys. "The unimaginativeness of his friends' preoccupations ought not to have surprised him, but it did. Had they always been this shallow and insipid? This vicious? What made him think he was any different from them?" "...this was different. This was worse. He was letting it happen, watching it grow more beastly by the minute, because he wasn't testing her anymore. He was testing himself." "The worst for Sebastian was recognizing his own soft, mocking tone in Sully's despicable cadence. He felt physically sick." "He felt the tear down the middle of himself widening, and that was wrong; it should have been narrowing. He'd just done a thing to make himself whole again."

And then emotion breaks through, and Sebastian changes. "He heard a snap in his head, exactly like a bone breaking, and at once the eerie fugue state evaporated. His past and his future had broken cleanly in two. This, now, was the present, a violent limbo he had to smash his way out of to survive."

The rest of the novel is all about emotional intimacy; even the sex scenes are about emotional intimacy. But in the first section, the sex and erotic thoughts are deeply tied with the hero's journey to self-awareness, and the heroine's journey towards feeling sexual desire through trust and intimacy.

Comments?

Women in WWI Picspam

Women served in many capacities during World War One.

Nurses.


VADs.


Drivers.



Radio Corps.


Fundraisers.


Factory Workers.