Getting to the Bottom of Things!

by Anna Campbell

I went looking for a line of nice male rear ends to illustrate this post - and do you know what? I couldn't find one! Plenty of girls but no guys! Clearly we need to man (or woman!) the barricades of sexual equality, girls!

Anyway, I thought the elephants illustrated my point well enough although nowhere near as prettily!

Actually this isn't anything about nicely shaped rear ends! It's about taking your story to its most basic elements so when people ask you about it, you can answer them without stuttering or spending an hour recounting the whole plot. I've tried that - the glazed eyes have to be seen to be believed!

By the way, stop press, thanks to Avon, I've got another ARC to give away today! Yes, comment on this post and you can win an advance reader copy of MY RECKLESS SURRENDER! Get commenting, people!

Double stop press! I couldn't find a line but I did find a very nice single example of getting to the bottom of things! For your viewing pleasure, ladies!

Just recently a friend of mine emailed me in a panic because she needed an article for a newsletter and for various reasons that were nobody's fault, the person she'd lined up couldn't do it. Could I help? I was having the day from the proverbial but because she's a friend, I put something quick together about MY RECKLESS SURRENDER.

And I realized that sometimes it helps not to over-think stuff!

One of the wonderful things about promoting CAPTIVE OF SIN, my last book, was that just before it came out, I worked out that it was a classic marriage of convenience story in Regency noir guise. Nice little soundbite to deliver when people asked - and intriguing enough to get readers interested in the story which is just what you want.


MY RECKLESS SURRENDER is about a dangerous seduction in Regency London which is an OK description as far as it goes but I want something to draw a reader in. I stewed and stewed about what I could say about this book - we all know the popular themes in romance. Secret baby. Cinderella (actually there's elements of that in this story). Marriage of convenience. Revenge plot. Fish out of water. Friends into lovers. There's a stack of them - and I think we've covered most of them in Bandita blogs at some stage.

Anyway, writing this piece for my friend while juggling various tradesmen (none of whom looked like the guy in the photo, sadly!), I sat down to do a quick description of MY RECKLESS SURRENDER and I automatically described it as a 'ticking bomb romance'.

Diana Carrick makes a deal with the devil which will give her everything she’s ever wanted. To make her dreams come true, she agrees to commit what she believes is a victimless crime and seduce the notorious rake Tarquin Vale, the Earl of Ashcroft.

But of course, there's no such thing as a victimless crime...

Tarquin and Diana find themselves caught in a liaison that is nothing like either expected and which plumbs dangerously profound emotional depths. With every moment, Diana is trapped more inescapably between her deception and her growing love for this man who is nothing like the careless, heartless rake she expected. Her secrets threaten to destroy both of them, but she’s gone too far now to retreat.

I love ticking bomb plots! You know, the ones where the readers know more than either the hero or heroine and are just waiting on tenterhooks for that moment of revelation where everything blows sky high. Then of course, the characters need to gird their loins (nothing like that moment when the characters gird their loins!) and deal with the fall-out which takes all their courage and strength and love. Great high-stakes romance!

I’ve seen my first review for MY RECKLESS SURRENDER and it’s a beauty. Romantic Times Book Reviews chose the book as a June Top Pick and called the story ‘enthralling’, ‘complex’ and ‘passionate’ and finished the review by saying “Quite a book!”

Clearly they like ticking bomb romance plots too!

So thinking back over one of the books you've read recently, how would you describe the story at its most basic level? For example, Annie West's wonderful FORGOTTEN MISTRESS, SECRET LOVE-CHILD (which recently hit the USA Today list - huzzah!) is an amnesia/secret baby story with a dash of Cinderella thrown in. CLAIMING THE COURTESAN is Beauty and the Beast. Christine's debut SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER is friends into lovers. So how would you describe your recent reading?

Don't forget there's an ARC of MY RECKLESS SURRENDER, now christened a ticking bomb romance, up for grabs! Good luck!Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/historicals
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Debut author Lisa Cooke in the lair

sponsored by Donna MacMeans




I've known Lisa for several years and knew that if her everyday humor and charm were captured in a book - she'd have a hit on her hands. I didn't have long to wait. Lisa's debut book, TEXAS HOLD HIM, hit the bookshelves this month. Romantic Times Bookreviews says "It's a luscious, fast-paced adventure with appealing characters and great scenery." Luscious. I like that. Please join me in welcoming Lisa Cooke to the lair.



Thanks for inviting me to thap gump today! I’m so excited to be here and to talk about my new release, TEXAS HOLD HIM. I love historical romances, and my favorites are definitely the ones that add humor to the mix. When I write a book, I always think about what types of personalities will give the best potential for a passionate romance and a giggle or two (or three or four).

The hero in TEXAS HOLD HIM is a Texan (of course) named Dyer Straights and a Southern belle who needs a sizable amount of money to pay a blackmailer so she can save her sick father from prison. Dyer is the best gambler on the Mississippi and Lottie agrees to give him a night in his bed in exchange for poker lessons. The ensuing scenes were a blast to write. Lottie had never handled cards in her life and her questioning of the logic of the game exasperates the hero to no end. Of course, there’s much more to the book than poker games, but the banter between my hero and heroine entertained me enormously as I tapped away at my keyboard.

My next book is a story about an 1890’s Appalachian midwife who suddenly finds herself with three fiancés. A MIDWIFE CRISIS will be released in February of 2010 with Leisure historicals. And yes, it’s got a few giggles in it as well, or did you already figure that out by the title?

Luckily, I found an editor who loves humor as much as I do. When Leah Hultenschmidt of Dorchester Publishing called me this summer, I almost fainted. I remember looking at the caller ID and seeing “Dorchester” and thinking, they must have the wrong number. When she told me she wanted TEXAS HOLD HIM, I could have swallowed my tongue. I’ll never forget her telling me that I had impressed her and Alicia Condon (senior editor). Then she added, “Well, actually, you’ve impressed quite a few people here.” What a cool thing to hear on a hot summer day. She said she laughed out loud at the poker lesson scenes. When I heard that, I knew I’d found my editor
match from Heaven.

So, how about you? Do you enjoy a good chuckle when you read, or do you prefer serious stories? Is it something that changes according to your mood or do you pretty much stick to one type of book?

Leave a comment and you might win a copy of TEXAS HOLD HIM for yourself. Anyone up for a few lessons from a sexy riverboat gambler?
Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!



Hey - if any of you are headed for the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando, Florida this week, be sure to stop by and visit Lisa, Christie, and I. To read more about TEXAS HOLD HIM, visit Lisa's website at www.lisahistoricals.com
Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/historicals
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Ruthless Rhymes

by Christine Wells

I'm often asked why I chose to write historical romances and why I set them in England.

English history has fascinated me ever since I can remember. I suspect it's something to do with the glamour of royalty, the political power struggle between kings and subjects and the fun of discovering the origin of so many traditions and expressions that endure throughout the English-speaking world today.

It was my father who first introduced me to this wonderfully rich world of history. When I was very young, he would tell me enthralling tales about English kings and queens, great battles and epic struggles for the crown. He had a way of making history come alive that I can only strive to emulate in my novels.

I'll never forget the way he disillusioned me about some of the innocent-seeming nursery rhymes I grew up with!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

Sounds delightful, doesn't it? But there's quite a bloody history to that little verse. It referred to the reign of Queen Mary, Henry VIII's daughter, during which she put many Protestants to torture and death. Silver bells were thumbscrews, cockle shells were instruments attached to the genitals. (Ouch!) Pretty maids referred to the Maiden, a forerunner of the guillotine, used for more efficient beheading. It seems the plain old executioner's axe didn't do the job in one go a lot of the time. Yikes!

Baa Baa Black Sheep was a protest about wool taxes. Pop Goes the Weasel is thought to be about many a poor man's habit of pawning his Sunday coat to pay for his pleasures, then redeeming it in time for church on Sunday. "Weasel and stoat" was Cockney rhyming slang for coat, and to "pop" was to pawn.

Old Mother Hubbard is actually about Cardinal Wolsey's failure to secure Henry VIII a divorce from Katherine of Aragon. It's interesting that so many rhymes seem to come from Tudor times.

And for a more obscure reference, did you know that Little Miss Muffet actually existed? Her name was Patience and her stepfather was a famous entomologist who wrote the first catalogue of British insects. One of his spiders escaped while poor Patience was eating her breakfast, and so the nursery rhyme came about.

What was your favourite nursery rhyme as a child? Do you know any nursery rhymes with interesting backgrounds? If you're a reader of historicals, what attracts you to that era? One lucky reader will win a signed copy of THE DANGEROUS DUKE!Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/historicals
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