Weekly Announcements - 23 July 2010

Congratulations to Unusual Historicals reader E. D. Walker who just sold her paranormal historical, THE BEAUTY'S BEAST, to Noble Romance Publishing's Sweetheart Line. The story draws from fairy tale elements, as well as Marie de France's medieval lais, "Bisclavret." More details as they are announced.

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Jeannie Lin has the cover for her upcoming Harlequin Historicals Undone short story, "THE TAMING OF MEI LIN," which is set during the Tang Dynasty and linked to BUTTERFLY SWORDS. Click here to read more about it, including an excerpt.

When a corrupt local official wants to take Mei Lin as, not second, but third wife, she rebels and makes an outrageous declaration--she'll only marry a man if he can defeat her in a swordfight. She has managed to fend off the local thugs and village hopefuls, but then a tall, mysterious stranger comes into town...

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Next week is the RWA National Conference! You will find the following Unusual Historicals contributors in attendance: Zoe Archer, Lila DiPasqua, Blythe Gifford, Jeannie Lin, Carrie Lofty, Margaret Mallory, Isabel Roman, and Michelle Styles. Here are some workshops and events where you can find us:

Wednesday, July 28th, at the "Readers for Life" Booksigning: Blythe Gifford, Carrie Lofty, Margaret Mallory, and Michelle Styles.

Thursday, July 29th at 4:30: "The Tiny Art of Elevator Pitches: How to Craft Them and How to Use Them" with speaker Carrie Lofty. Learn techniques to creating an elevator pitch that is concise, effective, and memorable.

Friday, July 30th at 2:00: "Selling the Hard Sell" with speaker Jeannie Linn. An author who sold that hard-sell novel (BUTTERFLY SWORDS) discusses how she used marketing perspective to get from slush pile to sale.

Friday, July 30th at 3:15: "Beyond Britain: Writing, Selling and Promoting Unusual Historicals" with speakers Zoe Archer, Jade Lee, Carrie Lofty, Kevan Lyon, and Sherry Thomas. Join an agent and four authors who successfully sold books set in unusual times and places as they offer techniques and advice for those interested in writing unusual historicals.

Saturday, July 31st at 8:30AM: "Dress for Historical Success" with speakers Elisabeth Burke, Isobel Carr, Peg Herring, Coralie Jensen, Julia Justiss, Jade Lee, Jeannie Lin, Pam Nowak, and Judy Ridgley. Authors put in hundreds of hours researching the correct clothing styles for their stories. This fashion show features costumes from a variety of time periods and will educate attendees on how to achieve historical accuracy in costume.

Also make sure to stop in the publishers' signings for free books by many of our authors, and root for RITA-nominated contributors and former guests of Unusual Historicals: Carla Capshaw (Best First Book and Best Inspirational for THE GLADIATOR, set in ancient Rome), Margaret Mallory (Best Historical Romance for KNIGHT OF PLEASURE, set in medieval Wales), and Sherry Thomas (Best Historical Romance for NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, set in 1890s Kashmir). Best of luck, ladies!

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Join us Sunday when Steeple Hill Love Inspired author Carla Capshaw will be here to chat about her latest Roman-set inspirational romance, THE PROTECTOR. She'll be giving away a signed copy to one lucky commenter! Hope you join us then.

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We'll also draw the winner of Moira Rogers' A SAFE HARBOR, a paranormal romance set during the Great Depression. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

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Stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Hope Tarr, Frances Hunter, Donna Russo Morin and Liz Fichera will be our guests. Join us!

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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...

Weekly Announcements - 23 Apr 2010

Carrie Lofty now has a shiny brand new Fracebook fan page. Check it out!

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Congratulations to Lindsay Townsend, whose sweet historical romantic suspense novella SECRET TREASURE, set in the Greek Isles just before WWII, is now available as both an audio book! And paired with Lindsey's "Holiday in Bologna," it's also published as an e-book duo called SUMMER DUET. in Here's the blurb:

The Greek island of Rhodes: luxurious and hot, beloved haunt of the Sun God, steeped in the mysteries of the past. In the late 1930s during the gathering storm-clouds of war, it is a dangerous place to fall in love.

When pretty, passionate Eve Burnett meets the darkly intriguing Julio Falcone, she is torn. As a man, Julio is powerfully attractive. As a policeman, he is bound to be a Fascist. Her brother, David, who is missing, is connected to the Greek Partisans who wish to liberate Rhodes from their Italian overlords.

Now, as David appears at their parents' house soon after Julio makes Eve's acquaintance, Eve is compelled to hide her brother and a mysterious gold statuette. The Fascists are looking for him and this secret treasure. Soon, Eve realizes that she may be forced to choose between the man she loves and the ultimate safety of her family.

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How many Unusual Historical authors and readers are going to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention next week? Please check in by letting us know in the comments. And consider stopping by our workshop panel "Beyond Regency and Scotland" on Wednesday, April 28 at 5pm. Moderated by Kristina Cook, who writes Edwardian romances, the panel features Zoe Archer, Blythe Gifford, Jade Lee, Carrie Lofty, Sherry Thomas, and Kensington editor Megan Records. We hope you'll come out to show your support!

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Join us Sunday when Cheryl Pierson will be here to chat about her Western romances, including FIRE EYES and her holiday-themed short story "A Night for Miracles." If you're in the mood for a good Western, please join us then.

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We'll also draw the winner of STARLIGHT & PROMISES from Cat Lindler's guest appearance last Sunday. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

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Stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Michelle Styles, Blythe Gifford, Ali Katz, and Diane Whiteside will be our guests. 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...

Weekly Announcements - 27 Mar 2010

All of our heartfelt congratulations go out to the former Unusual Historicals guest authors whose books were recently nominated for the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award for published works. Those writers include Carla Capshaw for THE GLADIATOR (Best First Book and Best Inspirational Romance), Sherry Thomas for NOT QUITE A HUSBAND (Best Historical Romance), Michelle Willingham for TAMING HER IRISH WARRIOR (Best Historical Romance), and Tessa Dare for SURRENDER OF A SIREN (Best Regency Historical Romance).

And we're so proud of our very own Margaret Mallory, whose KNIGHT OF PLEASURE was also nominated in the Best Historical Romance category!

That means locations as diverse as Wales, Ireland, the Virgin Islands, Pakistan, and ancient Rome all made the cut this year. You have to admit that we're seeing wonderful progress! Congratulations to all the finalists and best of luck!

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The cover to Carrie Lofty's SONG OF SEDUCTION was featured twice in the latest issue of Romantic Times, once as an ad and once in this cute write-up for Carina Press. (Click to enlarge.) I'm especially amused at being declared "established"! Here's the newly-released and official cover blurb:

Tormented by guilt. Haunted by scandal.
Freed by love.
Austria, 1804

Eight years ago, composer Arie De Voss claimed his late mentor's final symphony as his own and became an icon. But fame has a price: fear of discovery now poisons his attempts to compose a redemptive masterpiece. Until a new muse appears, intoxicating and inspiring him...

Mathilda Heidel renounced her own musical gift to marry, seeking a quiet life to escape the shame surrounding her birth. Sudden widowhood finds her tempted by song once more. An unexpected introduction to her idol, Arie De Voss, renews Mathilda's passion for the violin--and ignites a passion for the man himself.

But when lust and lies reach a crescendo, Arie will be forced to choose: love or truth?

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Join us Sunday when Deborah Schneider will be here to chat about her latest Western romance PROMISE ME. She'll also be giving away a copy. Don't miss it!

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We'll also draw the winner of JAZZ BABY from Lorelie Brown's guest appearance last Sunday. You still have time to leave a comment or question for your chance to win.

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Stay with us through the coming weeks when we'll be featuring the best unusual historical authors! Jennifer Blake, P.L. Parker, Cat Lindler, and Cheryl Pierson will be our guests. 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...

NOT QUITE A HUSBAND Winner!

We have a winner for Sherry Thomas's NOT QUITE A HUSBAND guest blog. A free copy goes to:

VIOLET!

Contact Sherry to give her your 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!

Weekly Announcements - 12 June 09

Michelle Styles has learned about another foreign sale, this time for VIKING WARRIOR, UNWILLING WIFE to Italy. It's due to be released as Il Sole di Mezzanotte in July. Here's a purchase link--check it out if only for the snazzy, evocative cover.

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Join us Sunday when Zebra Debut author Sarah Parr will be here to talk about her first romance, RENEGADE, set 1762 Constantinople!

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We'll also draw the winner of Sherry Thomas's NOT QUITE A HUSBAND. There's still time to leave a comment for your shot at winning!

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Have a good weekend! If you have an announcement to make for next week, email Carrie. See you next week...

Guest Author: Sherry Thomas

This week we're welcoming successful new historical author Sherry Thomas as she celebrates the release of her latest romance, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND.

Their marriage lasted only slightly longer than the honeymoon--to no one's surprise, not even Bryony Asquith's. A man as talented, handsome, and sought after by society as Leo Marsden couldn't possibly want to spend his entire life with a woman who rebelled against propriety by becoming a doctor. Why, then, three years after their annulment and half a world away, does he track her down at her clinic in the remotest corner of India?

Leo has no reason to think Bryony could ever forgive him for the way he treated her, but he won't rest until he's delivered an urgent message from her sister--and fulfilled his duty by escorting her safely back to England. But as they risk their lives for each other on the journey home, will the biggest danger be the treacherous war around them--or their rekindling passion?

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Who are you and what are you doing here?

Uhhh, sorry, wrong blog. Wait, wait, hold on a minute. This is the Unusual Historicals blog: I'm at the right place. Look, I even have an invitation. Oh, crap. Where's my invite?

Everybody here writes unusual historicals. Do you?

Well, umm, actually, I mostly write the usual stuff. Double-crossing heiresses, fallen femme fatale cooks, turn-of-the-century time period. You know, stuff that everybody does.

Everybody doesn't. There are very few romances set around the turn of the century.

You are kidding. It's an ab fab period. There were cool technologies: Telegraphy was the 19th century internet and having a private car is like having a private space vehicle today. There was globalization: You wouldn't believe how much international trade went on. (It all screeched to a halt in the first half of the 20th century because of the two wars and took decades to build back up to turn-of-the-century levels). And there were multiplying freedoms for women--they traveled, they worked, they obtained higher education in droves, they enjoyed rights to their own properties even if they are married.

Why aren't more books set in this period?

Beats us. So it says here you've a new book out, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, set in India?

::looks around surreptitiously::

Actually it's set in--::clears throat nervously::--Pakistan.

Of course there was no Pakistan in 1897. It was all Imperial India, or the British Raj, if you will. More specifically, my book is set in the North-West Frontier, a rugged, austere, and beautiful country in the Hindu Kush mountains. It was the frontier not only in the sense of the difficulty of the physical terrain, which is similar to the terrain in Afghanistan that has proved such a headache for NATO (and the USSR in the 80s), but also in the sense that it was the end of the reach of British power. Beyond reared the roof of the world--the Pamirs, the Karakoram, and the Himalayas.

The British had been happy to hold the plains of India and Kashmir. But with Russia's relentless territorial growth in the 19th century, the British were increasingly alarmed that it was going to expand right to the gates of India--perhaps even into India itself. So the British countered by extending its own sphere of influence northward, to hold certain key positions which, if captured by the Russians, would give them strategy footholds for sweeping south into India Proper.

The Pashtun tribes of the frontier, however, did not like foreign overlords. And in the summer of 1897, tensions came to a boil.

An itinerant imam, by the sobriquet of the Mad Fakir, traveled the villages of the Upper Swat Valley. He performed miracles and invited the populace to follow him as he drove out the British from their land. He inspired a fierce rebellion that took the British military encampment in the Swat Valley entirely by surprise. They were surrounded and sieged in for a week, until relief columns arrived from the south.

(And if Swat Valley sounds familiar to anyone, it's because history repeats itself and Swat is again a dangerous place to be: it has been very much in the news in the past year as a fierce battleground between the Pakistan Army and the Taliban.)

Wow, cool! Did you set out to set NOT QUITE A HUSBAND in an in-the-news hot spot?

Nope, completely by chance. I sold my editor a book set somewhere in the deserts--I figured, broiling days, freezing nights, bandits, so romantic. But unfortunately I couldn't find a suitably sandy trouble spot at the end of the 19th century. Searched for colonial conflicts all around the globe and ended up in the North-West Frontier of India in the end.

My editor, however, still refers to "the deserts" even after we'd been going back and forth in revision a while!


And what were your characters doing in the North-West Frontier province to be caught in the cross hairs? Is he an officer in the army?

No, not at all. He is a mathematician. He's traveled all the way to the North-West Frontier to find the woman who used to be his wife--their marriage has been annulled--and to escort her back to England, because her father lies dying in London.

And what follows is a journey both physical and metaphorical. And though there be malaria--have I mentioned malaria yet?--dreadful terrain, and deadly rebellion, there is nothing as perilous as secrets of the heart.

Well, maybe you do belong here then, with other folks who write unusual romances. But sorry lady, your time's up. Good-bye and get moving.

Okay, okay, I'm going. But thanks anyway, for having me. You guys are really nice--and you smell good too!

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Thanks, Sherry! I wear Chanel No. 5, if you must know.

Now dear reader, you're frothing at the mouth for this book, aren't you? Let us hear from you! Question? Comment? Sock them to us for your chance to win a copy of NOT QUITE A HUSBAND. I'll draw a winner next Sunday, so good luck!

Weekly Announcements - 5 June 09

Congratulations to Jennifer Mueller, whose HISTORY LESSONS, which was featured on Unusual Historicals recently, is going to print from Phaze Publishing. More details to come!

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Michelle Styles' TAKEN BY THE VIKING has been translated into Italian as La Magnifica Preda. In addition, VIKING WARRIOR, UNWILLING WIFE has been translated into Spanish as La pasión de un guerrero. Congratulations, Michelle!

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Carrie Lofty is being featured along with 15 other Zebra Debut authors as part of a massive summer contest hosted by Kimberly Killion. Go check it out!

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Join us Sunday when historical sensation Sherry Thomas will be here to talk about her latest release, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, set in 1897 India!

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We'll also draw the winner of Georgia Evans's BLOODY GOOD. There's still time to leave a comment for your shot at winning!

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Have a good weekend! If you have an announcement to make for next week, email Carrie. See you next week...

Thursday Excerpt: Sherry Thomas

Thursdays on Unusual Historicals mean excerpts! This week we're featuring a sample of Sherry Thomas's latest release, NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, set in 1897 India! Sherry will be joining us on Sunday for a Q&A, where we'll be offering the chance to win a free copy. Be sure to stop back!

Their marriage lasted only slightly longer than the honeymoon--to no one's surprise, not even Bryony Asquith's. A man as talented, handsome, and sought after by society as Leo Marsden couldn't possibly want to spend his entire life with a woman who rebelled against propriety by becoming a doctor. Why, then, three years after their annulment and half a world away, does he track her down at her clinic in the remotest corner of India?

Leo has no reason to think Bryony could ever forgive him for the way he treated her, but he won't rest until he's delivered an urgent message from her sister--and fulfilled his duty by escorting her safely back to England. But as they risk their lives for each other on the journey home, will the biggest danger be the treacherous war around them--or their rekindling passion?

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Bryony felt it in her stomach, the keen pitch of interest around the table, including her own--she had no idea what he could possibly say. But he was in no hurry to gratify the collective curiosity. With great leisure, he finished the remainder of the cake on his plate.

He reached for his glass of whiskey. Instead of lifting it, however, he only turned it a few degrees by its base. For the first time, she noticed the condition of his hands. When they'd been married, he'd had very fine, gentlemanly hands. Today his fingers were rough and chapped, with faint cuts and bruises along his knuckles.

But then he smiled at his audience and she forgot all about his hands, for it was a smile that conquered, as sweet as it was merciless. With that smile came a light in his eyes, an irresistible light: This was the Leo who had taken London by storm.

"It's a long story," he said, taking a sip of Mr. Braeburn's whiskey, "so I will tell only a very condensed version of it.

"Mrs. Marsden and I grew up on adjacent properties in the Cotswold. But the Cotswold, as fair as it is, plays almost no part in this tale. Because it was not in green, unpolluted countryside that we fell in love, but in gray, sooty London. Love at first sight, of course, a hunger of the soul that could not be denied."

Bryony trembled somewhere inside. This was not their story, but her story, the determined spinster felled by the magnificence and charm of the gorgeous young thing.

He glanced at her. "You were the moon of my existence; your moods dictated the tides of my heart."

The tides of her own heart surged at his words, even though they were nothing but lies.

"I don't believe I had moods," she said severely.

"No, of course not. 'Thou art more lovely and more temperate'--and the tides of my heart only rose ever higher to crash against the levee of my self-possession. For I loved you most intemperately, my dear Mrs. Marsden."

Beside her Mrs. Braeburn blushed, her eyes bright. Bryony was furious at Leo, for his facile words, and even more so at herself, for the painful pleasure that trickled into her drop by drop.

"Our wedding was the happiest hour of my life, that we would belong to each other always. The church was filled with hyacinths and camellias, and the crowd overflowed to the steps, for the whole world wanted to see who had at last captured your lofty heart.

"But alas, I had not truly captured your lofty heart, had I? I but held it for a moment. And soon there was trouble in Paradise. One day, you said to me, 'My hair has turned white. It is a sign I must wander far and away. Find me then, if you can. Then and only then will I be yours again.'"

Her heart pounded. How did he know that she had indeed taken her hair turning white as a sign that the time had come for her to leave? No, he did not know. He'd made it up out of whole cloth. But even Mr. Braeburn was now spellbound by this ridiculous tale. She had forgotten how hypnotic Leo could be, when he wished to beguile a crowd.

"And so I have searched. From the poles to the tropics, from the shores of China to the shores of Nova Scotia. Our wedding photograph in hand, I have asked crowds pale, red, brown, and black, 'I seek an English lady doctor, my lost beloved. Have you seen her?'"

He looked into her eyes, and she could not look away, as mesmerized as the hapless Braeburns.

"And now I have found you at last." He raised his glass. "To the beginning of the rest of our lives."