Sally MacKenzie's Blog, page 14
May 20, 2011
The Naked King--chapter 2, 5th "bite"
Chapter 2 (cont.)
"Betrothed?" All three women spoke together in the same tone of incredulity. They were like a damn Greek chorus. Three pairs of eyes goggled at him now.
"I'm sure you didn't tell me you were betrothed, Anne." Miss Strange's tone was an odd mix of confusion and horror. "I would have remembered if you had. And your father didn't mention it in his letter." She paused, her brow wrinkling. "At least, I don't think he did. I grant you he ran on so about his silly antiquities I did skim a lot of his missive."
Anne tried to tug her fingers out of his grasp, but he wasn't about to let her go. "I didn't tell you, Cousin, because Mr. Parker-Roth and I aren't--ouch!"
She glared at him accusatorily; he smiled. He was sorry to have squeezed her so hard, but he couldn't let her ruin his attempt to save her reputation. Couldn't she comprehend? All they had to do was fabricate something remotely plausible. Lady Dunlee might doubt their story--most likely would doubt it--but she couldn't know for certain what the truth was. He and Anne would have all Season to convince her and the ton of their devotion.
He lifted Anne's fingers to brush his lips over them--and smiled a little more as she blushed and tried again to snatch them out of his grasp. This charade might even be pleasant. And should it--as it likely would--end in matrimony... Well, he'd been thinking just this evening--or was it this morning?--that he needed to give in and look about for a bride. He'd just turned thirty, he'd narrowly escaped a marriage trap two months ago, and his older brother and younger sister were both wed and busily procreating. Hell, after his second bottle of brandy, he'd admitted to himself he didn't much care to live out his life as old Uncle Stephen.
Not that he'd be given that opportunity, of course. When he'd been home for his nephew's christening, Mama had been hinting--rather more than hinting--that he should embrace the joys of matrimony sooner rather than later, and with John and Jane both taken care of, she would turn the complete focus of her marital machinations on him--Nick was still too young, the lucky dog.
He'd laughed when he'd watched her drag John up for the Season year after year and push eligible young ladies into his path--he would not be laughing so heartily if he were Mama's victim. Frankly, he'd been a little surprised she hadn't followed him to London when he'd left the Priory after the christening. Thank God for baby Jack. But he had little doubt the joys of grandmotherhood would not supplant the duties of motherhood--as Mama saw them--forever.
May 19, 2011
The Naked King--chapter 2, 4th "bite"
Chapter 2 (cont.)
"No. I mean I didn't." Lady Anne's complexion got even redder. "That is, he kissed me."
The silence that followed this announcement was deafening.
"So the beast forced himself on you?" Miss Strange choked on the words. Two pairs of feminine eyes--Lady Anne had the grace to examine the floor at her feet--swiveled toward him.
"Er..." If he remembered correctly Lady Anne had been a very willing participant in that kiss. Surely he remembered correctly? He wasn't that drunk--he'd never been so drunk as to take liberties with an unwilling woman.
"No, of course he didn't force himself on me, Cousin," Lady Anne said, her cheeks still bright red. "Don't be ridiculous."
Miss Strange patted Anne on the shoulder. "There, there. No need to be embarrassed. It's not your fault." She glared at him. "Everyone knows men are all too often driven by their baser instincts."
Anne stepped away from her cousin's touch. "You sound like the worst horrid novel, Clorinda. Mr. Parker-Roth did not attack me." She shrugged one shoulder, looking most uncomfortable, but compelled by honor to tell the truth. "He may have initiated the encounter, but I didn't exactly struggle."
Not exactly. He bit back a smile. Not at all.
He cleared his throat, bringing the ladies' attention back to him. He couldn't let Anne dig herself deeper into a hole. A hole? Ha. He felt parson's mousetrap yawning before him like a bottomless abyss, but there was no way to avoid it now; they might as well step in with as much grace as they could.
"Of course you weren't struggling, dear heart." Three jaws dropped at the endearment. "Why would you?" He moved to take her hand in both of his before turning to the other women. "My apologies, ladies, for letting passion rule my better judgment, but I'm afraid it's been so long since I've seen my betrothed, I couldn't contain my happiness."
May 18, 2011
The Naked King--chapter 2, 3rd "bite"
Chapter 2 (cont.)
Lady Anne moaned--and not with suppressed desire. No matter. The sound, throaty and deep, caused his eager cock to grow another inch.
Blast it, this was most definitely not the time or place to entertain salacious thoughts concerning Lady Anne. They were in a very sticky situation. Lady Dunlee was by far the biggest gossip in London if not in all of England.
Miss Strange's jaw had dropped almost to her slippers, and her throat worked exactly as if she were indeed a heron trying to swallow a large fish whole. "Ah, ah."
"I fell." Lady Anne had found her lovely voice again. "I wasn't...there was nothing..." She took a deep breath and scowled at Lady Dunlee. "It was all your cat's fault."
Good God, didn't Anne realize she was teetering on the edge of social annihilation by accusing the woman's pet of misbehavior? It was akin to jumping in front of a speeding carriage. Lady Dunlee could--and likely would--take instant umbrage and flatten Anne's reputation with just a well chosen word or two.
He cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should sit down and discuss the matter over a nice, calming dish of tea." He'd prefer a large glass of brandy, but even his sodden brain knew he dare not ask for that. At least his dimensions had subsided sufficiently so he could risk Lady Dunlee's scrutiny long enough to take a seat. In fact, other pains were overtaking the ache in his crotch. His shoulder and hip throbbed from where he'd landed on the pavement and his head threatened to explode. His knees felt a touch wobbly and his stomach was considering revolt.
The ladies ignored him.
Lady Dunlee had swelled up like an angry feline. "How can you possibly say Miss Whiskers is to blame for your sins?"
"Because she is to blame." Lady Anne clasped her hands as though to keep from strangling Lady Dunlee. "And they aren't sins."
Lady Dunlee's eyebrows disappeared into her hair. "Rolling around on the ground in passionate--"
Anne cut her off. "The entire incident was an accident. If your cat hadn't darted past just then, Harry would not have taken off after her and pulled Mr. Parker-Roth backward, causing us both to fall."
"Ah." Lady Dunlee's lips pulled into a rather dangerous smile. "And I suppose Miss Whisker's presence somehow compelled you to kiss and caress Mr. Parker-Roth before your dog pulled you over?"
May 17, 2011
The Naked King--chapter 2, 2nd "bite"
Chapter 2 (cont.)
Lust shot directly to his, er, brain, so he momentarily lost track of the conversation. Fortunately instinct prompted him to step quickly behind a chair, shielding his telltale bit from Lady Dunlee's sharp eyes.
Lady Dunlee had misconstrued the scene, of course, but he wished she'd had the right of it. He was more than willing to let Lady Anne have her wicked way with his poor self.
How wicked would her way be? Mmm, that was an interesting question to contemplate. If her imagination faltered, his was more than adequate for the task. Much more. It was currently producing a number of delicious images, completely inappropriate for his present location. But if he and Anne were in his bedchamber--
"Mr. Parker-Roth, did I just hear you groan?" Damned if Lady Dunlee's eyes didn't drop to his nether regions, still well hidden behind the wing chair.
"I don't believe so, madam, but I do have a touch of the headache."
The blasted woman kept her eyes focused on where his unruly cock was misbehaving and arched a brow. "I bet you do."
She couldn't see through the chair, could she? He felt a hot flush sweep up his neck, but he did his best to ignore it. At least this corner of the room was too shadowy for his heightened color to be easily discerned...he hoped. He glanced at Anne.
She appeared to be too mortified or too furious to form a coherent sentence. Her mouth was open, but only strangled sounds emerged.
Unfortunately, Miss Strange's voice was working perfectly. "Anne, were you actually on the ground with a man?" She might as well have said "soul eating devil."
Her voice drilled right between his eyes. He rubbed the spot with his index and middle finger and leaned a little more against the chair. At a guess, Miss Strange was not a huge admirer of the male of the species. Not surprising. He couldn't imagine any of his sex admiring her. She looked like an elderly heron, all stiff and angular, with a long neck and beak-like nose. She wore her gray hair in a bun so tight her watery blue eyes bulged.
"Oh, yes." Lady Dunlee wasn't even trying to hide her glee. She glanced at him again before dropping her voice to a stage whisper. "Lady Anne's skirts were up around her knees, and Mr. Parker-Roth's hands were on her"--she dropped her voice even lower--"derriere."
May 16, 2011
The Naked King--chapter 2 begins
As promised, I'll be posting chapter 2 of my June release, The Naked King, in 14 bites--today is the first installment. If you haven't read chapter 1, you can find it here. And don't forget about my contest and Kensington's contest. The details here and here.
*****
Chapter 2
Stephen rubbed his temples and tried surreptitiously to lean against a sturdy wingback chair in Lord Crane's bookroom. Tiny devils with sledgehammers were banging away on the inside of his forehead and the high-pitched yammering around him only added to his misery. He'd give his damn fortune to be back in his bedchamber, curtains drawn, icepack on his head. But he was, for all his faults, a gentleman. He couldn't leave Lady Anne to face the music--or screeching--alone.
He glanced over at her. She looked more than capable of defending herself. At the moment she was glaring at her elderly cousin Miss Clorinda Strange and Lady Dunlee, her mouth set in a tight line, her brows almost meeting over her nose. He'd swear her nostrils flared. If he were closer to her, he'd probably see green sparks shooting from her eyes.
"Cousin Clorinda, Lady Dunlee, you are making far too much of this incident."
"Far too much?" Lady Dunlee sniffed and raised her eyebrows. "I don't see how one can make 'far too much' of a lady disporting herself with abandon in a public square--and with the King of Hearts, no less." She shot him a pointed look. He smiled back as blandly as possible.
"Anne." Miss Strange was scowling. She'd not looked pleased when they'd interrupted her--she'd been perusing some large, musty tome when Lady Dunlee had burst in, dragging them along in her wake. "Is this true?"
Lady Anne turned a lovely shade of red. "Of course not. I was not disporting myself with"--Zeus, she turned even redder--"I wasn't disporting myself at all."
Damn, he'd like to disport himself with the lady in a private room, on a large, soft bed. Odd. He'd never been drawn to bespectacled spinsters dressed in sacks before, but there was something about this spinster... She'd been delightful in the square. Shy, hesitant, yet curious, too--quite the contrast from her prickly behavior up to that point.
"Oh, no?" Lady Dunlee said. "I saw you in Mr. Parker-Roth's arms. You were running your hands over his chest before you kissed him and threw him down on the ground to have your wicked way with him."
May 13, 2011
Selling by accident
I decided I wanted to be a writer in about 5th grade. I read a story I'd written to the class and they laughed! I was hooked. But that was back in the days of typewriters, and I wasn't a very good typist. Still, I sought out writing opportunities wherever I found them, mostly writing short pieces--a poem in a free local paper, articles in my college magazine. When I graduated--after a brief stint in law school--I went to work writing federal regulations for the USDA school nutrition programs. (Anyone remember ketchup as a vegetable?) I started writing a book, and I had an essay published in The Washington Post.
And then I had kids. Thinking back, it wasn't my four sons that stalled my writing career. Until the youngest was 5, I was still writing. I had an article published in Parents magazine and was writing--and submitting--picture book texts. I even collected a number of "good" rejection slips. No, I think it was taking over both the neighborhood summer swim team and the cub scout pack at the same time that did me in. That and hitting the peak carpool years--with four sons in almost every possible kid activity, I lived in my minivan. If laptops had been invented then--and I'm not sure they had--I didn't have one.
I believe getting published requires a lot of work, dedication, perseverance, some talent--and a dash of luck. When my oldest son was getting ready to apply to college, I started looking ahead to what I would do when I didn't need to be a hands on mom 24/7. I looked back at all the effort I'd put into writing, and I decided it was time--maybe past time--to see if I could make my dream of publication come true.
I read all the old writing magazines I'd saved. I made myself sit down and write all the way to "The End" and then revise and write some more. Finally I joined the Romance Writers of America to get access to the Beau Monde chapter and all their Regency expertise. And I stumbled onto the Writing Regency loop.
The deadline for entering the Golden Heart--RWA's big contest for unpublished writers--was coming up, and the "loopers" were beating the bushes for manuscripts. If the Regency category (this is the old, short Regency category that's no longer around) didn't get a minimum of 25 entries, it would be cancelled--and not for the first time. Well, I had this manuscript. Susannah Carleton, author of a number of published Regencies, helped me write my first ever synopsis, and I sent in my entry. And here's where the dash of luck comes in--I made the finals. (I've come to realize that reading tastes differ wildly, so if I'd gotten a different group of judges, I might not have done well at all.)
Editors judge the final round. One of those editors so liked The Naked Duke that she got my contact information from RWA and called me out of the blue. The rest, as they say, is history.
Monday I'll start putting up Chapter 2 of The Naked King--Chapter 1 is already up on my web site. And don't forget to enter my contest. Details are in Tuesday's (May 10) blog.
May 12, 2011
Naked character connections
I'll confess that my Naked world was born partly from panic. I sold The Naked Duke by accident. I was ecstatic, but I also now had a two book contract, which meant I had to write another book...on deadline. Ulp. I didn't take note of the exact date that I started the Duke, but I'm guessing it took me 3 to 4 years, writing in fits and starts, to complete. I had less than 9 months to write book 2.
I had a little bit of that "deer in the headlights" feeling.
I also had two male characters--the duke's friends. Hmm. I was first drawn to Robbie, the Earl of Westbrooke. I'd already identified his heroine--Lady Elizabeth, the duke's sister. But Lizzie was only 17, in her first Season, and while by Regency standards she was old enough to marry, my modern sensibilities wanted her to be older. So that left Major Charles Draysmith--he became The Naked Marquis. (Actually, he was going to be an earl when his brother died, but then my publisher and I decided these would be the Naked noble books and I already had an earl--Robbie--waiting for his story, so I had to "promote" Charles's brother to marquis before I killed him off.)
Then it turned out Emma Peterson, Charles's heroine, had a very interesting sister, Meg. Meg became the heroine of The Naked Gentleman. And John Parker-Roth, Meg's hero, had five siblings. I haven't--yet--written all their stories.
Here's a sort of scorecard of Naked heroes and heroines:
The Naked Duke: James Runyon, Duke of Alvord, and Sarah Hamilton, American
The Naked Marquis: Charles Draysmith, Marquis of Knightsdale (duke's friend) and Emma Peterson, vicar's daughter
The Naked Earl: Robbie Hamilton, Earl of Westbrooke (duke's friend and Sarah's cousin) and Lizzie Runyon (duke's sister)
The Naked Gentleman: John Parker-Roth (earl's friend) and Meg Peterson (Emma's sister)
The Naked Baron: David Wilton, Baron Dawson, and Lady Grace Belmont (stood John Parker-Roth up at altar years before Gentleman)
The Naked Viscount: Edmund Smyth, Viscount Motton, and Jane Parker-Roth (John's sister)
The Naked King: Stephen Parker-Roth (John's brother) and Lady Anne Marston
There are also two Naked novellas connected to the Naked world: "The Naked Laird" in Lords of Desire and "The Naked Prince" in An Invitation to Sin. "The Naked Laird" happens during The Naked Baron, at the house party hosted by Viscount Motton. "The Naked Prince" occurs a few months before The Naked King and is somewhat of a prequel. Part of that story involves the "prince" trying to keep Stephen from being trapped into marriage by an unsuitable female.
Tomorrow, the how I accidently sold the Duke.
May 11, 2011
A Naked chronology
When I started writing my first book, The Naked Duke, I knew I wanted to set my stories after the Napoleonic Wars--I'm just not a fan of wartime. So the Duke occurs in 1816. The second book, The Naked Marquis, happens a few months later. And the third book...well, the heroine of The Naked Earl is Lizzie, the Naked duke's sister. She was only 17 in the Duke, and while that would be a perfectly acceptable age to marry in Regency times, it was too young for my modern tastes. She had to grow up--so that pushed The Naked Earl off to 1819. Once I had this basic timeline established, I worked forward or backward depending on who the characters were in my new stories.
So here is the rough chronology of the books. And don't worry--they don't have to be read in any particular order. I didn't actually write them in the order they "happened."
1816, roughly concurrently: The Naked Duke, The Naked Baron, and "The Naked Laird" in Lords of Desire
1816, a few months later: The Naked Marquis
1819, roughly concurrently: The Naked Earl, The Naked Viscount
1820: The Naked Gentleman
1821, February: "The Naked Prince" in An Invitation to Sin
1821, April: The Naked King
Tomorrow, how the Naked characters connect.
May 10, 2011
A Naked noble contest!
1. Send me an email at writesally@comcast.net. In the subject line put "Contest" and then the Naked book you'd most like to win. So if you want to win The Naked Duke, for example, your subject line should read: Contest--The Naked Duke. That way I can easily separate out all the contest entries.
2. In the body of the email, give me your snail mail address so if you win I don't have to chase you down after the fact.
3. Bonus entries! Tweet about the contest or post about it on your Facebook page or blog to earn bonus entries. Here's a sample tweet: "Be a Naked winner with @Sally_MacKenzie! Visit http://tinyurl.com/5we7v7q to enter. Please RT!" Be sure to tell me about your tweets/posts in your email entry, so I can tally up your bonuses!
4. If you'd like to tell me why you want to win that particular Naked book or what you love about the Naked series, that's good, too. I might add an extra winner.
5. If you enter the contest, I'll save your email address so I can send you a reminder when the next book comes out. I might even, at some point, use the email addresses to send out a quarterly newsletter. So you won't get much email from me--and I'll never share your email address with anyone--but if you never ever want to hear from me, you probably shouldn't enter the contest.
Since the Kensington contest runs until June 15 (see yesterday's postcard post), I'll do the same. Then I'll pick winners, one for each of my books. I'll even pick winners of the novellas. (If you want to win one of those you can put the title of the novella or the title of the anthology in the subject line.) You're only eligible to win one book--I want to spread the Naked love around.
And if you want to learn more about the Naked nobles, keep stopping by. I'll be posting something every day until The Naked King is out in the world.
May 9, 2011
Naked postcard
Isn't this cool? My publisher designed this to promote The Naked King and all the other Naked nobles. If you click on each book, it will take you to that page on their site. And did you notice? If you go to the Kensington Facebook page by June 15 and tell them why you love me (blush!), you might win a signed copy of the whole Naked series!
It's less than a month until the King's official release date, and in celebration I'll be posting something here every day, Monday through Friday, until June 7. Stop by tomorrow for my own contest announcement!
