The Inside Joke

I have a confession to make. I put inside jokes in all my books. I can't help myself. They amuse me. I am writing along and I put them in and then I spend a few minutes doing the "Do I? or Don't I?" back and forth.

And they usually always end up in the final book. I realized I have always done this as I was rereading and cleaning up my first three books ( Brazen Angel, Brazen Heiress and Brazen Temptress) for their digital re-release. I was reading Brazen Angel and came to the following lines, where my plucky heroine, Sophia is admiring a sword that one of her mark's owns. Lord Selmar makes the mistake of offering it to her to hold and admire.

Sophia didn't need any urging. She slipped her hand into the hilt. To her surprise she found it fit. Balanced and deceptively lightweight, the blade molded to her grip as if it had been made for her. She twisted her arm back and forth, the sword moving gracefully like an extension of her arm.

Selmar grinned. "I thought you would find that amusing. It was made for a lady. A pirate of some note."

"A pirate's blade," Sophia repeated. She knew the rumors well enough to know better than to provoke Selmar, but she didn't have all night to view his collections. She had business to finish.

"Is it sharp?" she asked, eyeing the edge.

"Very," he cautioned. "I keep all the blades in my collection well-honed. Best you hand it back to me."

"Not just yet." She stepped back, pointing the deadly weapon at his chest.

Now this scene is to most anyone else, just another scene where the Brazen Angel is robbing another aristocratic, but not to me. Or my critique group. When I wrote this scene and brought it to my critique group at the time, they howled with laughter because they caught the joke.

You see, the first book I ever wrote (and which currently lives under my stairs) was a Restoration set swashbuckler, The Spanish Blade. Are you starting to see the joke? Yes, the sword Sophia is about to steal is my original Spanish Blade.

The joke still makes me smile.

Now something to make you smile that it is Monday. A blog contest. Over the next ten weeks, I'll be giving away prize packets of author swag as well as a signed book from the always wonderful, Julia Quinn. And I'll throw in an autographed copy of one of my books. That makes me smile and I hope it does you.

To enter:

1) Leave a comment below and let me know if you'd like to hear about more about the inside jokes from my books.

and/or

2) Tweet the following: Get the inside joke from @ElizBoyle's Brazen Angel & enter to win a signed book by Julia Quinn! No Joke! http://elizabethboyle.com/blog/?p=2022

Do both and you are entered twice! I'll give you all until midnight, PT, Saturday, March 3rd to get your entries in.

Make sure to check back here Monday, March 5th to find out if you won. You'll have a week to claim your prize.

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