Announcing the release of ROYAL PAINS

As I scramble to meet my next deadline, I thought I'd share this with my fellow hoydens and our readers:

As of March 1, my third nonfiction title about scandalous royals,

ROYAL PAINS:
A Rogues’ Gallery of Brats, Brutes, and Bad Seeds

is now available wherever books (and e-books) are sold!

In a world where sibling rivalry knows no bounds and excess is never enough,
meet some of history’s boldest, baddest, and bawdiest royals

The bad seeds on the family trees of the most powerful royal houses of Europe often became the rottenest of apples. In an effort to stave off wrinkles, sixteenth-century Hungarian Countess Erzsébet Báthory bathed in the blood of virgins, and for kicks and giggles devised even more ingenious forms of torture than the über-violent autocrats Vlad (the Impaler) Dracula and Ivan the Terrible had ever imagined. Lettice Knollys strove to mimic the appearance of her cousin Elizabeth I and even stole her man. The Duke of Cumberland’s sexcapades and subsequent clandestine marriage led to a law that still binds England’s royal family. And the libidinous Pauline Bonaparte scandalized her imperial brother by having herself sculpted nearly nude and commissioning a golden drinking goblet fashioned in the shape of her breast.

Chock-full of shocking scenes, titillating tales, and wildly wicked nobles, Royal Pains is a rollicking compendium of the most infamous, capricious, and insatiable bluebloods of Europe.

***

Praise for Leslie Carroll’s 2010 title, Notorious Royal Marriages

“For those who tackled Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, and can’t get enough of the scandal surrounding Henry VIII’s wives, [Notorious Royal Marriages is] the perfect companion book.”—The New Yorker

“Carroll writes with verve and wit about the passionate—and occasionally perilous—events that occur when royals wed.”—Chicago Tribune (5 stars)

And here's a link to my March 7, 2011 appearance on Burlington Vermont's CBS affliate, WCAX/TV:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=14200643

Dishing the Servant Dirt

My latest book, Mr. Bishop and the Actress, is about servants, more or less. The hero and heroine are upper servants, and their relationship with their employers is almost as strong as their relationship with each other. In her fabulous review at Dear Author, Jennie said,

*It’s a strange world we live in where romances featuring vampires, angels and werewolves (or possibly even a vampire/angel/werewolf hybrid) are de rigeur, but a simple historical romance between two commoners has to be hunted down or purchased from international sources.

I'm much more interested in commoners than dukes, and I've been researching servants for several years; servants were the largest workforce in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Just recently, from an entry in the 1901 census, I found out that my maternal grandmother was in service before she married.

But today I want to talk about a truly extraordinary master-servant relationship that historians have tiptoed around a bit, and with good reason--that of Hannah Cullwick (1833-1909) and her master, Arthur Munby (1828-1910). Hannah wrote a diary, published in 1984 by Virago Press, UK (now out of print) that gives an extraordinarily detailed account of the everyday life of a Victorian servant.

But it's more than that.

Hannah wrote the diary at the instigation of her lover-employer-husband Arthur Mumby, who had a fetish for working class women and a form of mysophilia--in other words, he got off on dirt, specifically women getting dirty. So a passage like this would get Arthur all hot and bothered:

Lighted the fire. Brush'd the grates. Clean'd the hall & steps & flags on my knees. Swept & dusted the rooms. Got breakfast up. Made the beds & emptied the slops. Cleaned & wash'd up...Cleaned the stairs & the pantry on my knees. Clean'd the knives & got dinner. Clean'd 3 pairs of boots. Clean'd away after dinner & began the preserving about ½ past 3 & kept on till 11, leaving off only to get the supper & have my tea...Went to bed very tired & dirty.

Boots, by the way, figure rather largely in their relationship.

Hannah took great pride in her strength and endurance, choosing always to remain at the bottom of the Victorian servant food chain, as a maid of all work. A lawyer and amateur artist, poet, and anthropologist, Munby had a huge collection of photographs and other records of working women that he bequeathed to Trinity College Cambridge. You can see some of his pictures of female pit workers in Wigan here, photographed in a studio, but with authentic dirt intact.

Hannah met Munby in 1854 and he followed her around from one position to another, watching her beat carpets and so on, and she was fired from at least one household because of his interest in her--this was a period, of course, when women servants were not allowed to have gentleman followers. Working at boarding houses rather than private houses gave her greater freedom. Eventually he hired her in 1872 and they married secretly the following year. But to all intents and purposes she was still his servant, and Munby's friends--who included Ruskin, Rosetti, and Browning--had no idea of the true relationship, one that seems to have been classic BDSM.

For freedom & true lowliness, there's nothing like being a maid of all work (1872)

She wore a locking chain around her neck, for which Munby had the key, and a leather strap on one wrist as a sign of his ownership. Munby liked her to dress up in various disguises--as a man, a chimney sweep, in blackface. She referred to him as "Massa."

But she had an extraordinarily strong sense of independence outside their fantasy life. She insisted, even after marriage, on receiving wages and keeping her own name, and she left him in 1877, although he continued to visit her, but presumably on her terms.

Here's an excerpt from the movie On My Knees based on Hannah's diaries with Melora Creager of Rasputina--very haunting, particularly the soundtrack. The BBC also made a documentary but you can't view the excerpts in the US, which is a pity because the series on underground Victorian sexuality looks fascinating.

I'm fascinated by Hannah who had such courage--at least, that's the way I see it--to follow her own instincts. What do you think?

*Find Mr. Bishop and the Actress at bookdepository.com (free shipping worldwide), Amazon Kindle, or enter a contest at Pam Rosenthal's site (and do watch the wonderful video while you're there).

Love Scenes & Details

As I've blogged about before my attitude toward writing love scenes has evolved in the twenty some years I've been writing. When I first began co-writing Regency romances with my mom, under the name Anthea Malcolm, my friends teased me that our books started very chaste and slowly got more explicit. In our first book, The Widow’s Gambit, the characters barely embraced. In the second, The Courting of Philippa, there were more detailed kisses. In the third, Frivolous Pretence, which focused on an estranged married couple, there was an actual sex scene, though it faded to black. Our fifth book, A Touch of Scandal, had ex-lovers who resumed an illicit affair. Sex scenes were part of the story. I told my mom she had to write them. Our sixth book, An Improper Proposal, was a marriage of convenience story. My mom said, “You have to write one of the sex scenes this time.” I wrote my first draft of the scene on a day when my mom was out shopping. And (this is true, thought it sounds so funny now), I turned down the screen on my computer, so I couldn’t look at the words as I typed them. When my mom got home that night, I said, “Okay, I wrote the scene. Go look at it and tell me what you think. But I don’t want to be there when you read it.”

Oddly enough, after that first scene I stopped being embarrassed about writing sex scenes. I got to find them quite a fun challenge, especially trying to make each one true to those particular characters and that stage in their relationship. But when I wrote Secrets of a Lady, it was quite obvious to me that after the opening interrupted sex scene, Charles and Mélanie were too focused on finding the Carevalo Ring and getting their son back to be stop to have sex. On top of the fact that their relationship is so strained that Charles finds it difficult even to look Mel in the face let alone make love to her. In fact one of the reasons I had Mélanie be attacked fairly early in the story is to break through some of the distance between them so that Charles at least touches her. Their physical contact slowly increases through their desperate adventures in search of the ring and Colin, though they don't actually even kiss on the lips again.

In Beneath a Silent Moon, (which thematically is in many ways all about sex), Charles and Mélanie do make love fairly early in the story. When I wrote the scene, I automatically faded to black without thinking about it. I did the same with a later love scene in the book. When I posted one of those scenes as an excerpt on my website, I called it an "almost love scene". Some commentators responded that it actually was a love scene. Which I guess depends upon one's definition of a love scene and how explicit it needs to be.

My upcoming release Vienna Waltz is also a book very much about sex with all the romantic intrigue going on at the Congress of Vienna. There are several pairs of real life ex-lovers in the book such as Tsarina Elisabeth and Polish Prince Adam Czartoryski and Prince Metternich and Wilhelmine, Duchess of Sagan. On a revision, I realized I needed to make their love affairs more vivid, so I added moments where the characters remember moments and images from their love affairs. I wanted to use tangible, sensual imagery to bring those past love affairs to life. But the actual love scenes in Vienna Waltz between the hero and heroine (Malcolm and Suzanne who are basically alter-egos of Charles and Melanie) still fade to black.

Then in my current WIP, a sequel to Vienna Waltz set around the battle of Waterloo, I got to a love scene where without even thinking about it I didn't fade to black. It still isn't a very detailed scene, but somehow I knew instinctively that it was important to show how the scene progressed. I surprised myself, because I thought I was done writing love scenes with any detail. When I paused to think about it, I realized that in that scene the dynamic between the two characters was changing and shifting so much through out the scene and the very fact that they made love was so momentous that it was important to see how the scene played out.

How do you feel about sex scenes in the books you read? What makes them work or not? How detailed do you like them to be? Do you think some scenes require more detail than others because of plot and character dynamics? Writers, how do you approach writing sex scenes? Do you enjoy writing them or find them a chore? How much detail do you go into? Does the amount of detail very with the situation of the characters and plot? Has your approach to them changed through the years or with the type of books you write?

Is that a new cover, why yes it is!

No history today, just a little bit of whoo-hooing over my new cover. This showed up on Valentine's Day in my email. Best V-Day presie ever. Makes me want to say inappropriately lewd things about about how hard my publisher rocks my world.

Love the pose, and adore that garter . . .

The rough draft had a higher neckline on the gown (and no cleavage) and her hair was a bit on the skimpy, Regency side. How they fixed those issues, I have no idea, but I clearly need to sacrifice a goat to the Photoshop gods they've got working in the art department (or maybe take them a nice bottle of Napa Zin this summer when we're all in NY).

Given how high they've set the bar, I can't wait to see what they come up with for book three, LOL! Maybe I'll finally convince them to give me a long-haired hero. *grin*

I may need to have this one made into a necklace or a pin. It deserves some serious flaunting.

Lady Lavender: The post-publication glow

After many long months of angst and annoyance, I’m happy to report that my new book, Lady Lavender, is at last on the shelves! Angst and Annoyance because it’s been three years since my previous book (Templar Knight, Forbidden Bride) was published, and I have the sweat and frown-lines to document each and every month of the interim period.

But no matter, the novel is here and I am celebrating.

Lady Lavender is a western historical romance about an immigrant French woman on the frontier trying to grow lavender (yes, they grew it in Oregon) to support herself and her 4-year-old daughter. The problem is the Oregon Central Railroad and the dishy exec it sends to gobble up her land, and her lavender field, by laying shiny steel rails right down the middle of it.

Hence, a romance blooms. For me, the “romance” derives not only from Jeanne and Colonel Halliday and their struggles, but from the early 1900's, when my mother was a young woman raised on a ranch in Douglas County, Oregon. I’ve visited the old Banning homestead, seen the barn my grandfather built - still standing but listing badly after all these decades. I’ve researched the Deer Creek School where my mother and her brother and sister went to school, tramped over the hills and meadows where she rode her horse and picnicked, and reveled in the feel of the land, the smell of the trees, and the whispers of long-ago stories.

The tiny town of Dixonville, Oregon, is the setting for my very first book, Western Rose (and most of my 16 subsequent works). Now there’s only a moss-kissed split rail fence and a post office - general store, but then . . .

Then it was alive with stories handed down from my grandmother and grandfather, Leora and Claude Banning, which grew into wild tales and imaginings about dramatic confrontations, dangerous exploits, and enduring love stories. And ended up as the characters in my stories. Western Rose, for instance, was based on the rather oddball courtship of my grandparents, both of whom grew up on Douglas County ranches.

Now I have a Big Fat Confession to make: recently I re-read this first work, Western Rose, and found that I still like it! I also re-read a later work, The Ranger and the Redhead. Ditto. O frabjous day!

Maybe I’ll work up the courage to re-read Lady Lavender. In the meantime, I’ve fallen in love with yet another story from that era and my favorite Oregon setting, and . . .

Historical Romance March Madness

Coming Soon: Historical Romance March Madness

Some people might think of March as the month for basketball tournaments and St. Patrick’s Day, but starting this year March will be known for a celebration of historical romance readers and writers. From Tuesday, March 1st through Thursday, March 31st, come interact with some of your favorite authors, meet new ones, and enter to win 40+ prizes as Ashley March hosts the 1st Annual March Madness Blog Party at www.ashleymarch.com/blog.

A fantastic line-up of historical romance authors will be guest blogging with giveaways every single day, and a special daily feature will highlight romance community sites, reviewers, and bloggers who support historical romance.
In addition to the recent releases, upcoming books, and ARCs given away by historical romance authors each day, historical romance readers will also have a chance at winning:

1. A bundle of 5 historical romances every Sunday.
2. 8 Victorian lady postcards
3. 8  “Do you know the way to Pemberley?” postcards
4. 8 “Well behaved women rarely make history” medieval postcards
5. A “Romance Reader & Proud of It” tote bag
6. Two secret prizes (to be announced during the month)
7. A Grand Prize package of historical romance books and a Victorian-styled lovebirds necklace

Aspiring historical romance writers also have a couple of things to be excited about:

1. Kris Kennedy’s agent, Barbara Poelle of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency, has generously agreed to give away a partial critique to the writer she believes has the best 3-sentence written pitch. One of Kris Kennedy’s books will also be given away, as an example of the type of work Barbara loves.

2. Ashley March will provide a full critique of another aspiring historical writer’s completed novel.

Rules of Eligibility

Daily Author Giveaways

To enter to win one of the books given away daily by our guest authors, simply reply with a relevant comment. A winner will be chosen randomly from all participants. Authors will decide whether the giveaway will be open to US and international residents; this information will be posted at the bottom of each blog.

Historical Romance Reader Prizes

1. Each Sunday, all the daily participants’ names from the last week will be gathered and one random winner will be drawn to receive a bundle of 5 historical romance books. To increase your chances of winning, make you sure you post a relevant comment on each blog. This includes guest author blogs and Featured Romance Site of the Day blogs. (Note: More than one comment on a post will not increase your chances of winning.) These prizes will be open to US and international residents.

2. The 3 packages of historical-themed postcards will be given away randomly throughout the month. To enter to win, you must post a relevant comment on the blog announcing each random giveaway. These prizes will be open to US and international residents.

3. The 2 secret prizes will be announced randomly during the month, with the rules contained in the individual blog posts. These prizes will be open to US and international residents.

4. The winner of the “Romance Reader & Proud of It” tote bag will be the first person to correctly answer a set of trivia questions about historical romance books and authors. Hints will be provided in the form of an online scavenger hunt. The trivia contest will be presented on a random day during the month. This prize will be open to US and international residents.

5. On April 1st, all the daily participants’ names from the entire month of March will be gathered and one random winner will be drawn to receive the Grand Prize. To increase your chances of winning, make sure you post a relevant comment on guest author blogs and Featured Romance Site of the Day blogs. (Note: Posts for other giveaways such as the postcards, tote bag, and aspiring writer prizes will not be counted.) This prize will be open to US and international residents.

Aspiring Historical Romance Writer Prizes

The rules for the partial critique & giveaway and full critique will be posted with the individual blogs announcing the contests. Make sure you visit daily to find out when each contest opens!

Our thanks to all of you who read, write, and support historical romance. We look forward to seeing you soon at the 1st Annual March Madness Blog Party!

Date
Guest Author
Featured Site
Other Prizes

Tuesday 3/1
Elizabeth Hoyt
The Season for Romance

Wednesday 3/2
Courtney Milan
Beck’s Book Picks

Thursday 3/3
Lori Brighton
Coffee Time Romance

Friday 3/4
Vicky Dreiling
The Romance Reviews

Saturday 3/5
Delilah Marvelle
Romance Bandits

Sunday 3/6
Mary Wine
Book Fare Delights
Book Bundle

Monday 3/7
Robyn DeHart
Romance Novel News

Tuesday 3/8
Katy Madison
Smexy Books

Wednesday 3/9
Laura Lee Guhrke
Not Another Romance Blog

Thursday 3/10
Margaret Rowe
Seductive Musings

Friday 3/11
Anne Mallory
Fiction Vixen

Saturday 3/12
Julie Anne Long
Cheeky Reads

Sunday 3/13
Sara Lindsey
Romance Writer’s Revenge
Book Bundle

Monday 3/14
Melissa Mayhue
Unusual Historicals

Tuesday 3/15
Julianne MacLean
The Book Pushers

Wednesday 3/16
Leigh Michaels
Edwardian Promenade

Thursday 3/17
Kris Kennedy
Novel Thoughts & Booktalk

Friday 3/18
Emma Wildes
Love Romance Passion

Saturday 3/19
Katharine Ashe
Book Binge

Sunday 3/20
Kate Noble
Deserted Island Keepers
Book Bundle

Monday 3/21
Eileen Dreyer
Romantic Crush Junkies

Tuesday 3/22
Elizabeth Essex
Dear Author

Wednesday 3/23
Lecia Cornwall
Night Owl Romance

Thursday 3/24
Maya Rodale
The Book Lovers

Friday 3/25
Madeline Hunter
The Romance Dish

Saturday 3/26
Kieran Kramer
Book Lurve

Sunday 3/27
Erica Ridley
History Hoydens
Book Bundle

Monday 3/28
Shana Galen
Jaunty Quills

Tuesday 3/29
Monica Burns
Book Thingo

Wednesday 3/30
Stefanie Sloane
Get Lost in a Story

Thursday 3/31
Sarah MacLean
Buried by Books

Friday 4/1
Grand Prize

The Hostess's Dilemma

The Hostess’s Dilemma, or When to Throw the Party

Whenever I start plotting a historical novel, I always ask myself whether I want to include genuine historical events. If answer is yes, then I figure out when they occurred because I’ll have to schedule everything in my book around them. Sometimes this is so easy that it feels like inviting your best friends over for an al fresco dinner. Sometimes it’s so hard that it’s worse than including the in-laws from hell in your holiday at the beach – and you’ll rethink the entire party!

THE SHADOW GUARD, my April release, is set in a thinly-disguised version of Alexandria, Virginia – a town with a very rich history.

George Washington is Alexandria’s most famous son. Every year, the city graciously accepts the United States’ announcement of a three-day holiday in his honor and throws him the country’s biggest birthday party. There’s a parade with fife and drums – whose grand marshal this year was a naval commander – various races, cooking competitions, and more. Best of all to Washington’s ears, there’s a Birthnight Ball – the same festivity that honored Georgian monarchs – where twenty-first century people twirl in eighteenth century dances.

But “President’s Birthday” isn’t on George Washington’s Birthday. Yes, I know it’s on the Third Monday in February, the official Federal holiday. That’s very close to February 22nd, the day the history books say when George was born. But it’s not when Mary Washington, George’s remarkable mother, said he was born.

Does “President’s Birthday” have anything to do with Abraham Lincoln? He’s another great American president who was born in February. But he popped into the universe on February 12th in the Year of our Lord 1809, which hardly falls close to the Third Monday in February.

So what happened? The conversion from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, that’s what.

The Julian calendar was originally invented to stop politicians from messing around with the civil calendar. It seems that their terms of office ran from January 1st to December 31st (using our names for the months and days) – but the top guy got to say how many days were in any month while he was in office. You can guess what happened: Years started changing length in strange and wacky ways. Julius Caesar wasn’t above being the beneficiary of those political plums – but he also liked cleaning up the calendar. (Somehow I suspect his spin doctoring instincts approved of being the guy who put the harvest festival back at harvest time, and so on.)

After that, the Christians and later the Muslims enjoyed the fruit of his labors. The Berber calendar still use the old Latin names for months.

There was one big problem: The solar calendar actually has approximately 365 – and a quarter days. The Julian calendar doesn’t deal well with that quarter day and by the 1500s, the Catholic church wasn’t able to schedule some of its big festivals very well. (Remember what I said about parties? Right.)

Pope Gregory XIII therefore called on the greatest minds available to come up with a solution. In 1582, he enacted their recommendation in the most solemn form available, a papal bull. Unfortunately, this is the same bit of language that usually wraps up pieces of Catholic dogma – and it didn’t help the new calendar’s chances of acceptance. For one thing, this was the height of the Protestant Reformation, when anything coming out of Rome was automatically tested with a sword by half of Europe. (Heck, not even all of the Spanish and Portugese empires implemented it right away, because communications were so slow.)

Even so, the Protestant countries slowly adopted the Gregorian calendar, one by one, throughout the seventeenth century. This was usually a straightforward process but sometimes it took years. Sweden needed decades, for example.

Britain held out longer – until 1752, when it finally changed over. By that time, the young George Washington was twenty-one years old in frontier Virginia.

As far as young George was concerned, he’d been born on February 11th, following a calendar where the New Year started on March 25th, the festival of the Incarnation of Christ. (According to Pepys, this made it the civil calendar. Any similarity to the vernal equinox and the old pagan calendar was probably not discussed in polite Virginia society at the time.)

His twenty-first year was a particularly hectic one. In the spring, he surveyed lands in present-day West Virginia. Then Lawrence, his older brother and mentor, died and George began his career as a great landowner. He also became a major in the militia, with an appointment as adjutant for Virginia’s southern district. Then January 1st, 1753 became New Year’s Day and February 22nd became George Washington’s new official birthday.

George remained a traditionalist: He celebrated February 11th for his birthday party, even if he noted it “O.S.” for “Old Style” in his letters and diary, rather than “N.S.” for “New Style.”

Time passed and he became a Great Man. After the Declaration of Independence, his birthday was celebrated as a holiday instead of King George III’s. General Washington graciously accepted the public festivities on February 22nd – and celebrated privately with close friends and family on February 11th. (The fellow sure knew how to party, didn’t he?)

His hometown of Alexandria remained with the Julian calendar throughout his lifetime. His neighbors threw America’s first president a spectacular birthday ball on February 11, 1798, the minute George Washington retired from public life.

Eleven years later – on February 12, 1809 – Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. Still, the most popular American president, his birthday was first celebrated in 1874 by Buffalo, New York.

In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act provided one Federal holiday in February for U.S. citizens, instead of the two holidays in many states. Personally, I think George Washington’s party-going ghost might have been a little disappointed. On the other hand, his frugal side might be pleased.

But if those congressmen had looked at when Lincoln and Washington’s mothers had celebrated their birthdays, they might have found a simpler solution. After all, February 11th and 12th are very close together.

What’s the oddest date you ever stumbled across during your research? Have you ever had difficulty fitting the date of an actual historical event – or series of events – into your book?