We have a winner for Isabel Roman's KISS OF SCANDAL guest blog. A free copy goes to:
MMW!
Contact Carrie to provide your mailing address. The book must be claimed by next Sunday or another winner will be drawn. Please stop back later to let us know what you thought! Congratulations!
Margaret Mallory is giving away signed copies of her Nov 24th release, KNIGHT OF PLEASURE, the second of her "All the King's Men" series from Grand Central. See her contest page for details!
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SCOUNDREL'S KISS, Carrie Lofty's Spanish-set medieval romance, received its first review. Working Girl Reviews says: "Reading this extremely well plotted novel was much like watching a really great action adventure movie. Add to that elements of betrayal and deception, a few well placed love scenes, and political intrigue and you have a genuine nail-biting, can't-put-downable reading experience." SCOUNDREL'S KISS hits the shelves on January 5th and is available for pre-order.
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Join us Sunday when Unusual Historicals welcomes the return of RITA-nominated husband and wife team Anthea Lawson. They'll be chatting about their November 3rd release ALL HE DESIRES, set in Crete and London! They'll also be giving away a copy. Don't miss it!
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We'll also draw the winner of Isabel Roman's 19th century Russian romance, KISS OF SCANDAL. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.
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And stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Amanda McCabe, Elizabeth Lane, Jennifer Linforth, and Margaret Mallory will be our guests. We hope you'll join us!
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Have a good weekend! Remember, you don't have to be an Unusual Historicals contributor to submit good news to the weekend announcements. If it has to do with unusual historicals, we'd love to shout it out to the world! Send announcements to Carrie. See you next week...
Today we're helping one of our long-time contributors, Isabel Roman, celebrate the release of her latest historical romance. KISS OF SCANDAL is set in mid-19th century St. Petersburg. Although release by Ravenous Romance, the print version is available exclusively through Home Shopping Network.
Isabel has stopped by to answer a few questions about this very unusual romance! Here's the blurb:
In the wreckage of a friend's death, Countess Katria Markova finds her perfectly ordered life irrevocably altered. Russian politics proves more dangerous than the front lines of war, and when her fiancé's future is threatened by rumors of treason, their cat-and-mouse game ends. In its place, a political game, one that puts their very lives at stake, begins.
Count Nikolai Orlov will do anything to clear his brother's name. Anything but put Katria in harm's way. Attracted to her from the moment they met, he's spent their time together breaking the wall that surrounds her heart. He wants the passionate woman beneath, wants to shatter her cool exterior.
With her life in danger, Nikolai's only course of action is to exact revenge. From the snowy streets of St. Petersburg to the River Neva's icy depths, they search for the answers to clear Nikolai. But in their search, will they lose each other?
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What made you pick 1855 Russia?
It's a little known time period and yet offers an enormous amount of history and intrigue. Who isn't curious about the life of the tsars? The Russian Royal Court? The glamour and gilt of the era? I wanted to take a peek into court life, and since Tsar Nicholas II has been done a bunch of times, I went further back to his great-grandfather, Tsar Nicholas I.
Did you have to make any adjustments with your characters living in Russia as opposed to England or America, where most romances of this time period take place in?
Absolutely! Russian culture is very different than Western culture. They have a different way of viewing life and life experiences. And I did my best to ensure my characters were in the Russian head space. I took my examples from Russian friends, history, and lots and lots of research. Lots of research.
How do you view the Western characterization verses Russian characterization?
Tsarist Russians are more pragmatic in their actions, they seem to take action faster when it came to their own personal intrigue. And there are many intrigues, personal, political, a combination thereof. It's what their life--or the lives of the upper classes---revolved around. I found there are two distinct styles of Russians--those who will manipulate you around and around, and those who will simply shoot you between the eyes. Many in between, as with all cultures, but those are the main two.
What are some themes in KISS OF SCANDAL?
Murder, betrayal, the sharp knife of scandal, control and love, romance, and sex. What more could you ask for?
For an historical romance suspense, you kept a lot of action through the story. How do you accomplish this in an historical setting?
The first thing I have to say about that is that it isn't easy! I'm all about the car chases and shootouts, the contemporary action movie. But to move all that to the carriages and sleighs and six-shooters of 1855 is tricky. Still, it's not like they didn't have all that 150+ years ago, you just have to be careful how and when you use it. I often take a potential action scene and see how it plays out in a contemporary movie (I see movie scenes in my head). Then I go further and see how it fits in whenever I'm writing. It's harder, I don't have the luxury of a lot of today's sequences, but it makes for a more challenging scene, and (I think!) a better and more well-rounded one.
The bottom line is that whether you're writing contemporary or historical, the action scene needs to transport the reader through and into the adrenaline rush.
Reviews:
4 Cups from Coffee Time Romance
"This remarkable story paints a vivid picture of life in the Russian court with all its intrigues and dangers. The characters are well written and their emotions are brought to life. The action is fast paced and believable. You will enjoy this story."
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Thanks, Isabel! We were happy to have you stop by today! Leave a comment or question for Isabel and be entered into a drawing for a PDF version of KISS OF SCANDAL. We'll draw a winner one week from today. Void where prohibited. Good luck!
This week on Excerpt Thursday we're featuring Isabel Roman, whose Ravenous Romance novel KISS OF SCANDAL is set in mid-19th century St. Petersburg. Please join us Sunday when Isabel will be answering questions and giving away a PDF of it. Here's the blurb:
In the wreckage of a friend's death, Countess Katria Markova finds her perfectly ordered life irrevocably altered. Russian politics proves more dangerous than the front lines of war, and when her fiancé's future is threatened by rumors of treason, their cat-and-mouse game ends. In its place, a political game, one that puts their very lives at stake, begins.
Count Nikolai Orlov will do anything to clear his brother's name. Anything but put Katria in harm's way. Attracted to her from the moment they met, he's spent their time together breaking the wall that surrounds her heart. He wants the passionate woman beneath, wants to shatter her cool exterior.
With her life in danger, Nikolai's only course of action is to exact revenge. From the snowy streets of St. Petersburg to the River Neva's icy depths, they search for the answers to clear Nikolai. But in their search, will they lose each other?
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His nearly black eyes seemed to look through her and discover her secrets. Beyond that, his confidence was arrogant, but not, she sensed, unwarranted. Katria knew many arrogant nobles, men and women. In Nikolai, she knew it wasn't misplaced. But she'd never tell him so.
Recognition passed between them at their first meeting. It had been a connection she couldn't explain even now. She'd known his brother, Peter, for years, but hadn't met Nikolai until a few months ago when he returned from Austria.
That meeting changed everything she'd ever thought about herself and her life, awakened apart of her she hadn't known slept. Sharpened her senses. Even made her reckless in her desire for Nikolai.
"I'll see you soon, Uncle," she said, squeezing his arm. Katria moved into the crowd with her well-practiced smile. She nodded in greeting to those she passed and stopped to receive a compliment on her attire or a bit of gossip. Her mind, however, still mused over Nikolai.
It had taken her years and many near misses to assert a semblance of control over her own life. Her father used her ruthlessly. Viktor had promised her at age fifteen to one of the tsar's favorite ministers. The minister had been a diseased old man of sixty-eight, and she'd been saved only when he died mere weeks later. Since then, she'd maneuvered around her father's machinations, skillfully avoiding unwelcome marriages.
Control was what she wanted, and Nikolai was uncontrollable. Her feelings toward him represented a seismic shift in the way she considered her future. Her carefully constructed façade cracked just enough to peer out at him.
Somehow Anatoli knew it, too, when he'd introduced them. One day, she'd ask her uncle about that introduction.
By Isabel Roman
1855 Russia. Nuff said.
Seriously, though, researching anything in nineteenth century Russia is near impossible because everything is in Russian! To overcome that hurdle, I had to rely heavily on Wikipedia, encyclopedias and tourist books. I even called the Foy line. Twice!
Now I understand why most historicals take place in England or some English speaking area. However, writing in an unusual locale can be very exciting. Most readers want to be transported to somewhere exotic, mysterious, and new. Most places that fit that bill are non-English speaking so finding out historical detail can be extremely challenging.
Pulling the curtain back just enough to look out the window, Katria watched the city pass by. Several people braved the icy sidewalks to shop along Nevsky Prospekt. Even with the shortages caused by the Turkish ships blockading the city, the shop owners always had wares to sell. They passed Trinity Square, rounding Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt.
Fashion presented its own problems. Anything worn in England or France was readily available, but in Russia? Well, if I squinted hard enough, through a microscope at the one or two paintings of balls, I could tell the clothing sorta looked like standard French fashion. Luckily, I was right, and found a couple sources to verify that they followed the French in fashion at least.
Alexander Palace is a great resource, even though they concentrate mostly on Nicholas II, not Nicholas I, the tsar during the Crimean War, which is when KISS OF SCANDAL is set. I got lucky in that I centered my story around a major historical figure and major event. A lot of what I needed, I found out through reading about Tsar Nicholas I. If there was no major historical figure/event? Find one and research that, then extrapolate as much as possible.
It wasn't difficult to find Nicholas. The state rooms were half empty, so Nikolai followed the long line of people to where the tsar held court. He wasn't surprised the masses parted for him, but he was surprised when Nicholas wordlessly gestured to a private salon.
Researching an unusual time frame in history is a challenge and invigorating, but for most of us sane writer's (I do not necessarily fall into this category) it's tedious, time consuming, and frustrating. Everyday life is probably the most frustrating aspect. It's pretty easy to find information on battles, battle tactics and all things military, but everyday life in a particular city can get rather iffy. When writing a historical there are times when I was forced to make an educated guess. So I took what you know of the rest of the world, of the city I wrote in, St. Petersburg, and see what the differences were.
Slipping them into the folio, he drew back the curtain and watched the Winter Palace. The columns passed by and he tried to guess what rooms hid behind the multi-layered façade. The night was clear and the moon reflected off the snow, illuminating the gilt. Courtiers came and went, none sending his carriage more than a passing glance.
They rounded the Palace to where the Third Section offices lay. A pair of guards stood beside the one door in the Palace with little obvious activity. Barely waiting for the horses to stop, Constantine leapt from the carriage and headed for the door.
Margaret Mallory is giving away signed copies of her Nov 24th release, KNIGHT OF PLEASURE, the second of her "All the King's Men" series from Grand Central. See her contest page for details! 
SCOUNDREL'S KISS, Carrie Lofty's Spanish-set medieval romance, received its first review. Working Girl Reviews says: "Reading this extremely well plotted novel was much like watching a really great action adventure movie. Add to that elements of betrayal and deception, a few well placed love scenes, and political intrigue and you have a genuine nail-biting, can't-put-downable reading experience." SCOUNDREL'S KISS hits the shelves on January 5th and is available for pre-order.
Now I understand why most historicals take place in England or some English speaking area. However, writing in an unusual locale can be very exciting. Most readers want to be transported to somewhere exotic, mysterious, and new. Most places that fit that bill are non-English speaking so finding out historical detail can be extremely challenging.