Ann Stephens's Blog, page 9

Speak the Speech, I pray You

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you—trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines…use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness."  — Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2

I studied a lot of drama in college, and later used what I had learned in several community theater productions.  I'm lucky to live in a good 'theatre' town, with several non-profit companies that cover everything from Euripides to musicals to original works.  Although the acting bug stopped biting me awhile ago, I loved nearly every moment of rehearsal and performance, not least because I had the chance to appear in some wonderful productions.

Plays differ from movies in a lot of ways, but one of the biggest contrasts is, as one of my favorite directors used to say, "Movies move, plays talk."  Film, based on photography, depends on images to tell a story. Theater, defined by the presence of actors and audience in the same space at the same time, depends on dialogue.

While I write books, not plays, and have an array of writing devices to use in story-telling, I still love good verbal interplay between characters. Whether as a writer or a reader, I demand a lot of a character's speech (and since narrative can go inside someone's head, their thoughts).

A character's vocabulary and grammar can inform the reader of his or her background, social or educational level, and relationship with other people in the room in the space of a few words. Our speech is influenced by our gender, our mood at the moment, and our basic natures.  So is a believable fictional character's.

One of my favorite series is the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries by Anne Perry.  Thomas, although the son of a gamekeeper, speaks like a member of the upper class. This works because Perry explains that as a boy, he was permitted to share lessons with the son of his father's employer. That's only one example. A cowboy from Texas won't have the same accent or slang as a Boston-raised lawyer, even if they both went to Harvard.

Suppose a character alters her accent to fit into her current workplace or social circle.  She may still use expressions she learned in childhood, like Eliza Doolittle at tea with Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady — or my old acting professor. Bill is a New Orleans native who needed to tame his accent in order to increase the range of roles he could get. It always cracked us up when he would say, with perfect standard pronunciation, "I am fixing to go down to the store. Do you all want something?"

One of the biggest aspects of a character's speech and thought is gender.  Men aren't as verbal as woman, and unless it's in an area they are trained to observe, they often don't notice details. A hero who identifies the designer and exact color of the heroine's dress is not going to come off as realistic. Yes, some heterosexual men can identify colors like puce or burnt sienna, if they're artists like my stepmother's brother. But most men will say "purple" or "brown", like my hubby.

Male or female, a believable character will mirror real life in how they address others.  We don't speak to our supervisors the same way we do our toddlers (tempting as that may be on occasion). Depending on the time and place, it can be inappropriate for a man to swear at, or in the presence of, ladies — and ladies might be prohibited from using anything stronger than 'lud' or 'darn'. Of course, even a proper gentleman and lady involved in certain intimate activities might use crude language with their partners, to their mutual enjoyment.  Context and motivation are key reasons behind a writer's word choice.

Do you have any favorite conversations between characters in your books? I'd love to hear about them.

And as an extra bonus, I'll send out a wee little prize related to Her Scottish Groom to the first person who identifies the actors pictured at the top if this post, along with their best-known science fiction roles. Hint: the photo is from a British production of Hamlet.

Tagged: Anne Perry, Dialogue, Postaweek 2011, romance novels, Theatre, Writing

I Hereby Resolve….Not

Image via Wikipedia

January. Bitter cold. Gray skies and white snow-covered ground. The Christmas lights are down, the bills have come in and it's time to buckle down and work on those resolutions. Kill me now.

Instead of making resolutions this year, I'm joining several other writers to set up goals for myself. Real, concrete, measurable goals that will leave me with something to show for my efforts in 2011.

I never did like resolutions. The day always came when I ate the cookie or spaced off the exercise regimen. Then that little voice would start in: "See? You can't do this after all. You should have known better than to try."  If I could, I'd beat the Internal Naysayer to death with the toilet brush. If I have learned one thing, it is that everyone fails at something, sometime. Accept this.  Then get back up, brush yourself off and remind yourself of why you made that resolution to begin with.

Why did you want to go to that yoga class three times a week? Did you want a stronger, more flexible body? To get toned up in time for bathing suit season? To relieve stress? The answer to 'why?' is the goal. It doesn't matter if the resolution involves a diet, a budget, a class or time spent with loved ones. The reason why you made it is what you want to accomplish.

In 2011, I want to finish my WIP and hopefully one more book after that. Why? Because then I'll have two manuscripts to submit to agents and editors. And if they sell, cha-ching! Money and another publishing credit. Put in those terms, why would I not work on my goal every day??

Back to that failure thing. Life isn't going to stop throwing curve balls (or hairballs, car problems, and extra reports) just because we want to go to yoga class, set aside money for a new car or meet a minimum word count.  The goal will still be there when the phone call or last minute-snafu has been taken care of. True, life does throw things at us that are so monumental all our goals need to be reassessed. But I'm talking about day to day nuisances, not catastrophes. Maybe there is so much going on in your life that a small adjustment is needed in your daily or weekly goals, say two times a week at yoga class instead of three. Just don't give up your goal completely! Remember why you wanted to reach it in the first place.

I'm tracking my progress toward my goals this year in a $6 desk calendar.  On the days when I miss my word count goal, I write down why. For some comfort, I note what I do accomplish every day, writing-related or not. I can literally see where my time goes and keep myself on track.

Meeting a goal give a sense of accomplishment as well as the tangible benefit you wanted in the first place. We all deserve that feeling of success. Go for it!

What would you like to do in 2011?

Tagged: Postaweek 2011, Writers Resources, writing routine

Your Grandpa did What?

Ever wondered what a chandler is (other than a character on Friends)? What exactly does an apothecary do? And what is a cordwainer?? Here are half a dozen occupations that once filled important needs.

Weaver: In 1719, an English weaver with the help of an apprentice might make 14 or 15 shillings a week, equivalent to around £100 today, but many weavers had only their own hands to depend on. The first experiments with power looms were attempted in the late 18th century, and by 1820 textile mills sprang up in both Europe and America, replacing the work of thousands who worked from their cottages.

Basketmaker: Made from a variety of materials, households relied on baskets to carry and store things well into the nineteenth century. The basket maker could choose from a variety of reeds or wood, depending on his or her locale.  Starting with reeds, willow branches or six-foot long strips of ash, hickory or cedar, he or she peeled them into long ribbons with a knife, then wove them between the spokes that made the basket's frame.

Chandler: Prior to electricity, chandlers filled a crucial need.  The earliest candles were tallow-based, which created a reek so severe that their manufacture was banned within the city limits of Paris by the Middle Ages.  The highest quality candles in the nineteenth century came from beeswax or spermaceti (crystallized sperm whale oil), poured into metal molds until it cooled and hardened.  They burned brighter and smelled better than the old-fashioned tallow candles.

Apothecary: In the days before Walgreens, you might consult an apothecary when your home remedies failed.  Armed with mortar, pestle and a variety of ingredients from rose petals to mercury salts, they attempted to treat disease and infection. Professionally trained doctors and surgeons existed of course, but they were expensive (wow, some things don't change) and before germ theory was accepted, their remedies might not be any more effective.

Cordwainer: The coolest name of an occupation ever! It is is the medieval term for shoemaker, specifically one who works only with new leather to make new shoes or boots.  Thus they differentiated themselves from cobblers, who repaired used leather items. Although the term had fallen into disuse in common speech by the nineteenth century, the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers was founded before 1272 in London and still exists.

Linen draper: No, not someone who made curtains. A draper did specialize in the sale of wool and other cloth, however.  Even the wealthy would visit the linen draper's to purchase new material, then carry it to a modiste or tailor to make it into dresses or a suit.

What is the strangest occupation you've ever heard of or read about?

Tagged: Apothecary, chandler, Linen Draper, London, Weaver, Worshipful Company of Cordwainers

My Friend EDNA

I was introduced to EDNA the first time I ever read my work aloud to a critique group.  Despite my shaking hands and voice, the other writers received my first effort well. (I still belong to this group because its attitude is that 1. any writer willing to learn deserves respect, and 2. all writers can learn more about the craft.) Of course I made awful mistakes — passive verbs, telling instead of showing, and…the dreaded Info Dump. Instead of starting out with a good hook, I detailed the background of each character. I now know that readers do want background info, just not in great whacking chunks at the book's beginning.

At the end of the evening, the group's moderator took me aside and pressed a page of handwritten notes into my hand.  "Read these," she ordered quietly. "They'll help you balance your writing."  The moderator is now my friend and mentor, Sally J. Walker, and the piece of paper introduced me to EDNA: Exposition, Description, Narration and Action/Dialogue.  These are four types of fiction and each helps pull a reader into the story.  It was the first writing lesson I ever learned and remains one of the most valuable.

I could go on for pages about each mode  — in fact, Sally teaches an entire course about them, but here they are in a nutshell, with definitions from my trusty Merriam-Webster.

Exposition: One of the definitions of the word is "discourse designed to convey information".  When writing, exposition provides information the reader must have in order to make sense of the rest of the book.  It can be information about a character's background, or about a situation unfamiliar to readers. In an example of the latter, the heroine of my first book reflects on how the laws of her day prevent her from claiming her inheritance

Description: "…an account that presents a picture to a person who reads or hears it."  Or a sound, smell, taste or touch.  Description tells the reader what a character observes with his or her physical senses.  Good description draws readers in so they can visualize characters and imagine themselves inside the story.  Words like "click", "clash", "stench", "fragrance", "vinegary", "sticky", "tickle", and "sting" conjure up concrete sensations.

Narration: Probably the least used mode, because its purpose is to summarize the passage of time or an event.  It is still necessary! Narration allows a writer to skip over days or weeks when no action occurs that affects the story.  Here is a masterful example from "The Hobbit": "Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway. They stayed long in that house, fourteen days at least, and they found it hard to leave…Yet there is little to tell about their stay."

Action/Dialogue: Yes, action is when characters are doing stuff and dialogue is when they're talking.  The point is that the characters are actively doing something in the story to move it forward, which is why action and dialogue are linked.  "To talk" is a verb, just like "to run" or "to carry". Or "to think", "to ponder" and "to plot". Mental activity is still doing something.  Actions and conversations show  the characters' personalities and motivations and advance the story, so as long as there aren't pages and pages of it, the reader is interested and again, drawn into the book.

The key is balance.  Long passages of any one type of prose will numb the reader's mind, even if it's a complicated action sequence.  Even a single sentence of description or exposition can give the reader a break from a kaleidoscope of action and refresh them enough to go on.  Similarly, passages of description need to be broken up with action or dialogue, or telescoped with narrative before the reader gets bored.

I still have Sally's notes, although I've had to transpose them because I wore out the original page she gave me.  And yes, I still check my pages to be sure they have at least three of the four kinds of prose on each page.  It's never wise to ignore EDNA.

Tagged: Action, Description, Dialogue, Exposition, Narration, Postaweek 2011, Writers Resources, Writing

Happy New Year

Happy 2011 to all my readers! I'm participating in WordPress' Post A Week 2011 campaign. While I did well posting most weeks of last year, this will be (I hope) a fun way to keep the momentum going.  Blogging can be fun, but it's sometimes hard to think of good topics. Therefore I'll see if The DailyPost, and the community of other bloggers with similar goals will help me along the way. Hopefully having done this for a year now, I can encourage others (and maybe get some help when I need it).

If you already read my blog, I hope you'll post comments and likes, too. One of the most exciting things about writing is connecting with readers.

May the new year be good to you and your loved ones!

Tagged: New Year, Postaweek 2011, Wordpress

Cabined, Cribbed, Confined: Girlhood in the Gilded Age

One of the biggest challenges of placing Her Scottish Groom in the Victorian era was the development of the heroine, Diantha. I had her basic characteristics from the start.  Quiet and shy by nature, she prefers to avoid outright conflict in favor of tact.  As the book opens, her attempts to assert herself have been firmly squelched by her social-climbing parents. Like many real-life couples in the late nineteenth century, they want only mold their child into the ideal female of the time: passive, subservient and sadly, ignorant. I'm kind of proud of her growth as she takes responsibility for her new position as an aristocrat's wife, and for her own happiness.

Like many females of that age, Diantha learned to keep her opinions and true nature hidden as she grew up.  Ironically, wealth could limit a girl's opportunities for education.  For females on both sides of the Atlantic, society considered good breeding and a good education antithetical to each other.  In reading modern biographies of women in the Gilded Age, along with essays and articles from that time, what struck me again and again was the emphasis on restricting women physically, mentally and even emotionally.  Writers from straight fiction to mystery to romance successfully overcome this challenge by creating heroines with unusual backgrounds or unconventional personalities.  But from reading parts of nineteenth century diaries and letters I have learned that even women who conformed to social pressure harbored strong opinions and great passion beneath a docile surface.  That is where Diantha came from.

In both America and England, girls were raised with the ideal of a 'perfect lady', too fragile for any activity more strenuous that horseback riding or dancing.  The thousands of women who spent hours laboring as servants, in factories or mines and on farms and ranches were not, of course, real ladies. (Insert eyeroll here.) An upper-class girl's education depended on the whims of her parents. Some encouraged serious study, but too many families subscribed to the belief that the rigors of a masculine education would undermine a girl's health.  Diantha studied mathematics with her brothers, but only because it pleased her father to permit it. Some young ladies attended finishing school, which provided no more than lessons in deportment and a smattering of music and languages. Even finding reading material on one's own could be problematic. Men could and did forbid their wives and daughters to read newspapers and some books.  Like Diantha, women read the forbidden material anyway, in secret.

One of the more tragic consequences of keeping young women in a state of almost total ignorance was their lack of knowledge about even the basic mechanics of sex.  At most, proper courtship allowed a kiss on the hand and some meaningful glances under the eye of a chaperone.   (I suspect there was a great deal of improper courting going on, however.) Those restrictions led to some miserable wedding nights, and not just for the bride.  In the first chapter of Her Scottish Groom, the lack of spirit he has observed in his fiancee so far has filled the hero with misgivings.  Like many men confronted with the prospect of marriage with a poorly educated teenager, he assumes he will only find physical and emotional satisfaction with a mistress.

One of my favorite things about this book is Diantha's learning curve.  As she gains confidence in her abilities, she becomes braver, more assertive and even sexier — until she's faced not only with her greatest fear, but with her husband's impenetrable heart.

Tagged: Etiquette, Gilded Age, Her Scottish Groom, Victorian era, Women

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

As the rush of activities for Christmas slows down for our family (and I hope for you), I turn on some Christmas carols and look around at my home and loved ones.  I'm typing in view of our Christmas tree, filled with beloved ornaments.  A cup of tea is steeping that I will enjoy soon.  My oldest is home following her finals and my youngest has only a half-day of school left before her vacation starts.  Ah yes, the joys of hearth and home during the holidays….

My carols are competing with two televisions, the buzz of texts to a boyfriend, and a discussion between a sixteen-year-old and a twenty-one-year old about the likelihood that an American equivalent of Hogwarts exists. Dirty laundry waits for its turn to go into the washer and dryer by the basement door, because its owner is watching one of the aforementioned TVs. The decorations in the entryway are competing for space with a book bag, shoes, and boots while I ponder whether the Christmas dinner I planned will include enough food for the boyfriend and my aunt and uncle, invited to join us by my mother (thankfully, she informed me of this before Christmas Day itself).

The pile of cards needing stamps catches my eye, as does the cat snoozing in a previously cat-hair-free spot on our tree skirt.  There's some additional baking to do as well. And I just realized that I can't remember where I put some of our gifts. Wrapping paper and ribbons cover the basement floor because the last person that used them didn't put it away.

Oh, and I just realized that I need to research the British East India Company for my WIP, possibly resulting in some major rewriting.

The most wonderful time of the year? YEAH, BABY!!!

Tagged: Christmas, Family, Traditions

Beyond Kilts and Claymores

The archetype of a Scottish romance hero is a Highland warrior wielding a sword in defense of his lady and his clan in the centuries before the Battle of Culloden in 1745.  Those are some of my favorite heroes ever! Take a look at Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) from the first Highlander movie.  Sooo masculine and yummy!

But what about Scotsmen from other times, or from the Lowlands? I have the blessing (or misfortune) of characters that arise in my mind with their era and nationality firmly intact.  This realization hit me while working on the book now entitled Her Scottish Groom.  Although I originally intended him to be English, the book's hero would not stop speaking with a Scotsman's burr.  (Obviously HSG wasn't the working title of the book, lol!) Another challenge was that the characters for this book were creatures of the Gilded Age.

Her Scottish Groom takes place in 1875, when Kieran, Lord Rossburn is forced into marriage with the quiet daughter of an American shipping magnate.  Culloden is over 100 years in the past.  Aristocratic families all over Scotland sent their sons to school at Eton or Harrow. Throughout the Victorian era, Scotsmen served the British Empire in roles from soldier and sailor to Prime Minister.  (William Gladstone, who led Her Majesty's government four times, was born in Liverpool but both his parents were Scots — a fact he pointed out with pride.)  Robert Burns' poetry and Sir Walter Scott's novels still preserved Scottish pride in its culture and history decades after their deaths, while in science and technology, Victorian Scots blazed many trails. At the University of Edinburgh's medical school, Joseph Lister developed antiseptic methods of surgery and argued for the acceptance of the germ theory of disease.  James Clerk Maxwell formulated the electromagnetic theory of physics and predicted the discovery of radio waves.  Future founder of the Labour Party Kier Hardie was a 20-year-old miner in 1875, and Patrick Geddes, a pioneer of town planning and the study of ecology, was 22.

The steelworks and shipyards of Glasgow and the banking and mercantile business of Edinburgh provided most of Scotland's employment opportunities in the late 19rh century, making life harder in north and west of Scotland.  After a brief period of prosperity during the Napoleonic Wars, when kelp burning, weaving and fishing provided jobs, the potato blight that ravaged Ireland entered Scotland in 1846.  This drastically affected the Highland crofters who depended on them for food and income.  Clearances, the forced emigration of tenants by Scottish estate owners, also continued in the 19th century, while other tenants left the area for jobs in the south.  While the fictional Rossburn estate of Duncarie is just east of the Highland line, it also suffers from the effects of famine and low employment.  It is his family's only estate, giving the hero a close bond to its crofters.

Like any good Highlander, Kieran Rossburn knows he must honor his obligations to his people, even at the cost of his own happiness.  He just has to use a business plan instead of a blade.  And like any smart lassie, Diantha knows a true hero when she sees one.  Especially when he fills out a kilt as well as Kieran does. (Oh come on! You didn't think I'd pass up a chance to put my gorgeous Scottish hero in a kilt at least once, did you?)

Thanks for stopping by to read about a different Scotland than we see in most romance novels. What unusual time period or place would you like to read about in a romance?

Tagged: Her Scottish Groom

Hitting on Readers: The First Line

In some ways, going to a bookstore reminds me of going to a bar hoping to meet someone. You figure you'll indulge in something you enjoy, and will hopefully meet somebody you'd like to get to know better. Or you might rediscover an old flame. I scope out all the most attractive guys…um, covers…and approach the one I like best.  Good looks aren't everything, though. If the pickup line is lame, I'll find somebody else with more originality.  I want a book to hook me from the first sentence.

The first line of a book is its pickup line.  It has been my experience that authors have little say in what's on the front or back of their books, so that opening sentence is the first chance our own words have to impress the reader. It has to count, to intrigue the reader enough to keep reading.  It should set the tone of a book, or at least make the reader want to know more about hero or heroine.  Cause as a writer, I am totally hoping some nice reader will want to pick me up and take me home.

Even before a book hits the shelves, the first line must catch the attention of an agent or editor.  If that publishing professional got a good night's sleep, lost a pound the day before and is having a good hair day, and thus feels up to adding yet another manuscript to an already enormous list waiting to be read, a writer has maybe five pages to convince him or her that this book should be printed or digitized. An opening sentence that is just words on a page will not induce a pro to read on.  One that is poorly phrased or grammatically incorrect (unless it's dialogue that fits a character) raises the fear that other sentences in the manuscript will be just as bad.

It's said that J.R.R. Tolkien simply jotted down the first line of The Hobbit while grading essays:  "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."  While the passive construction might be criticized today, it was acceptable in the 1930s.  And if you read it aloud, there is an irresistible rhythm to those words, compared an active version like "A hobbit lived in a hole in the ground."  Lucky JRRT.  It takes me several tries to come up with a decent opening line.

There are a lot of common mistakes writers make with opening lines. Weather reports, geography lessons, "Hi, my name is ______", and cameo scenes are some of the errors we all make.  In my case, it's because I usually struggle to find exactly were my backstory ends and the book starts.  Or which character should start the story.

In a Weather Report, the opening line is something like "It was a warm spring day in Gopher Gulch, with just enough wind to cool the brow of Bob Manlyman as he trudged along the dirt road."  This is just me, but I prefer an active opening:  "A spaceship swooped down from the bright April sky and disgorged a furious alien that pointed a disintegration gun straight at Bob's heart."  Now there's something at stake.

The Geography Lesson is similar to the Weather Report, except it describes the surrounding area instead: "Brill Court, the estate of Lord Manlyman, nestled into the rolling  landscape."  Pretty, but how does this matter to the rest of story? Does Lord M. love his estate? Does he hate it? Has he just gambled it away?  "Lord Manlyman swallowed the lump in his throat as his gaze swept over his home one last time."  Aha, emotion!  Now the reader wonders why Lord M. has a lump in his throat  and why he's leaving his home.

And the introductory opening, which one of the writers in my crit group refers to as the Call Me Ahab approach.  I make this error a lot.  "Lady Sophronia Girlygirl lifted her head at the sound of approaching footsteps."  Aside from the boring approaching footsteps, we don't (as I have been reminded often) need to know Sophronia's entire name and title in the first few words.  There's an entire book after the first line in which I can provide that information.

The original opening scene of my current WIP took place in the dress shop where the heroine works and she interacted with two secondary characters I was never going to use again.  What was I thinking? I replaced it with "Alix fingered her reticule as she inhaled the savory aroma of fresh-baked meat pies."  The character is now on her way home to her daughter, a location and character that will play a big part in the story.

A good first line presents the hero or heroine's immediate quandary and their response to it.  It gives a sense of immediacy and action, even if the character is only thinking about a problem.  It must make the reader want to read more. The hook in my first book, To be Seduced, starts with "He had picked a prodigious cold day to abduct someone."  The opening to my second proved a greater challenge, as I wanted to open it in the heroine's perspective.  Her Scottish Groom (March 2011) takes place in the late Victorian era, when upper-class females were often kept in a state of submission and ignorance.  I had to keep my heroine true to her time and upbringing even as she acted against them. So I came up with this: "Tonight called for some act of rebellion, no matter how insignificant."

Here are some of my favorite examples from different genres. I like them because they are brief and vivid:

"The small boys came early to the hanging." — Ken Follett, Pillars of the Earth (Prologue)

"Matrimony. The very word was menacing." — Nicole Jordan, To Pleasure a Lady

"For seven days we had been tempest-tossed." — Johann Wyss, Swiss Family Robinson

It is possible for a long sentence with involved clauses to start a book, of course. Consider one of the best hooks that ever opened a romance novel:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a good

wife".  — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Is there an opening line from a book that has stayed with you? What are some of your favorite first sentences?

Tagged: Her Scottish Groom, Hooks, Jane Austen, Johann Wyss, Ken Follett, Nicle Jordan, To be Seduced

Books for my Stocking

'Tis the season for romance!  It's time for another of my unscientific and completely subjective lists of upcoming and new books that pique my interest.  I'd be happy to find any of the books below in my stocking.

His Christmas Pleasure, by Cathy Maxwell: Abigail Montrose takes her future into her own hands and rejects the husband (and thirteen stepchildren) her father has selected for her.  Instead, she elopes with a mysterious (and sexy) baron. Both Abigail and Andres believe they will have a satisfactory marriage of convenience, only to find that they develop deeper feelings for one another.  I look forward to seeing what Maxwell does with this story. November 2010

How to Woo a Reluctant Lady, by Sabrina Jeffries: The most recent of the Sharpe family series, this book centers on Lady Minerva Sharpe's reluctance to acquiesce to her grandmother's demands that she marry.  This historical sounds like it mixes romance with a good mystery, as the hero selected by Minerva to parade as her betrothed has a double life.  The pairing of a proactive heroine and a wily hero sounds like a great way to while away a winter's night. January 2011

A Most Scandalous Engagement, by Gayle Callen: The heroine, now a respected member of the ton, loses her reputation when a single outrageous episode in her past is brought to light. She turns to a trusted childhood friend to help her, but he has wanted her for years and won't rest until he gains her heart.  'Hero-worshiping-heroine-for-ages' is one of my favorite tropes, so I am really excited about this one. November 2011

The Perfect Mistress, by Victoria Alexander: Julia Winterset has inherited a decidedly racy book that has aroused the seductive instincts of not one, but three men. Publication would ruin the Earl of Mountdale's family name.  Take one overbearing nobleman and match him with a stubborn widow in a story told with Alexander's humor and historic accuracy. I'll have to wait till January for this one, but I bet it's worth it. January 2011

A Taste of Desire, by Beverley Kendall: In the second volume dealing with siblings Missy and Thomas Armstrong, outspoken beauty Amelia Bertram inadvertently wounds Thomas' pride in a very, shall we say, personal area.  The outraged nobleman takes Amelia off to his country estate with the intention of teaching her a lesson in manners, which become lessons in mutual desire.  I have high hopes for Thomas' story. January 2011

What books are you looking forward to in the next couple of months? I'd love to get more ideas for my TBR pile.

And check it out! I'm celebrating St. Andrew's Day today at SOS Aloha!

Tagged: Beverley Kendall, Cathy Maxwell, Gayle Callen, romance, romance novels, Sabrina Jeffries