Social Movements: The Bohemians

By Jennifer Linforth

Degenerates are not always criminals. Anarchist and pronounced lunatics; They are often authors and artists ~ Max Nordan, Degeneration

I have spent the last three years in a dark and foreboding world far below the Paris streets. I have been wholly absorbed in researching the undergrounds of society to bring to life a little known man who was not a tight-tooshed Scotsman in a tiny white half-mask, but an ardent (yet completely insane) gentleman who lurked behind a full black mask and hid his murderously vengeful habits in the counter-culture of Paris.

You may all step away to read Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera now. I'll wait...

No social movement was more prevalent in Paris of the late 19th century where my debut historical romance, Madrigal: A Novel of Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera is set then that of the Bohemian. The Bohemian movement was a counter culture effort to reject the values of mainstream Paris and mock the upwardly mobile bourgeoisie. While the Bohemian moment is not something overly prevalent in Leroux's original novel (or mine) it was a culture that influenced Paris in the Victorian era—whether you were a journalist, lawyer, aristocrat or artist. Those involved were not the upper class or the deviants of the underground, but the writers, students and artists who contented themselves with ignoring the social ladder-climbing around them.

The terms boheme and bohemian came to denote a generation that hated money and the work ethic. Bohemians were portrayed as vagabonds, misfits, drunks, philosophers and narcissists. The lifestyle was associated with idleness. Public opinion of the Bohemian movement was solidified after du Mauier's best selling novel of Bohemian culture: Trilby was published in 1894. (Ironically, this body of work closely resembles Leroux's original novel in other cultural ways mostly in the views of Svengali the Austria Jew, a social deviant who seduces a young singer and molds her to be the gem of society.)

Bohemians lived by their own sets of rules--they were wanderers of the most extreme extent. Social values were not their concern. Their lives were carefree events filled with drink, merriment, the arts and sexual freedom. They usually did not work, but poured themselves into living solely for the sake of art and literature. Renouncing private property made them glaringly different from the bourgeoisie that desired nothing more than to achieve the status of the aristocracy. Members of the culture shared this life with others in communal camps, an area I have had great delight in exploring in my body of works. Who can resist a vagabond who carries all his wealth with him and hangs his hat wherever the road may take him? What stories must they have?

The daily routine for a Bohemian might be to rise and work on a painting or poem. But the goal was not to be productive, rather to enjoy the salons, seek the latest sexual encounter and simply enjoy one’s company. You could spot a Bohemian (if the long hair and pockets overflowing with all they owned did not give it away) by their out of date fashions and clothes in glaring colors.

Bohemians were not just men; women joined the movement too. For women, it was the allure of freedom that called to them. Women of the mindset did not want to be ruled by marriage and it took a great deal for them to leave behind the stability that such a life might have offered. It was harder to break the ties with their former lives because women were encouraged to be respectable and upstanding individuals. These Grisettes were young women usually of the countryside who headed to Paris to find work--but Bohemia found them. They were carefree and longed for the best of both worlds: the money of the upper class and the thrill of being considered an equal in the eyes of the Bohemian man.

Though there are plenty of types of Bohemian cultures found in the 21st century, I think it would be fascinating to explore Bohemia of 19th Century Paris. Perhaps pour some absinthe from my earlier blog and wander to the Opera Garnier for a show. Then, drunk with daring, head toward the Cour de Miracles to see Paris culture in all its opposite glory.

Anyone up for a ride? What social movement would you like to see first hand?

(Photo by Adolphe-William Bouguereau: The Bohemian 1890, Oil on canvas, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts)

Social Movements: Revolution

By Christine Koehler

Nothing says social change quite like revolution--not the social revolutions of the 1960s, but the kind mired in bloodshed and death. Revolution is from the Latin revolutio meaning a turnaround. A quick Wikipedia search shows a huge list of revolutions and rebellions through the ages. Pretty cool to look through.

England during the 1600s saw two major revolutions, one bloody and one not so much. The English Civil war was waged between Parliament (ruled by Cromwell) and King Charles I. Parliament and Cromwell were extremely conservative in thought and deed--it was considered a better alternative to outright military dictatorship--so the nobility tolerated it. Barely.

It was during this time that theatre was disbanded, and the roll of the church enjoyed a resurgence. Ironically enough, the Act of Uniformity which passed in 1559 declaring only the Church of England the only English church was dissolved. Other religions could practice so long as they paid tithes to the national church, now known as Presbyterian.

Cromwell also 'allowed' Jews to return to England. Seeing how they'd contributed to the economic superiority of Holland, he wished the same for his depressed country. Since he tolerated other religions, this seemed to fall in that purview.

The second revolution was The Glorious Revolution, or Revolution of 1688, that overthrew Catholic James II. While not entirely bloodless, it was less so than other rebellions, revolutions, and outright wars fought on the island.

James dismissed Protestant clergy, members of Parliament, and heads of office. He tried and hanged scores who protested his 'papish ways', and yet the country tolerated it so long as the throne passed to his Protestant daughter, Mary. And then he fathered a son. Things looked grim for the Protestant nation.

Of course he was also a total autocrat. In this time of change, that wasn't to be tolerated any more than his religion. On June 30, 1688, a group of Protestant nobles, known as the Immortal Seven, invited the Prince of Orange to come to England with an army. By September, it was clear William sought to invade. Believing that his own army would be adequate, James refused the assistance of Louis XIV. When William landed, many Protestants defected. James' army was in ruin.

James didn't last three full years on the throne.

Never again would Catholicism regain its major foothold in England, and never again would a monarch hold absolute power. In fact, Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in Parliament for over 100 years. They were also denied commissions and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or marry a Catholic, thus ensuring the Protestant succession.

To be fair, my first exposure to this last revolution was a brief intro in Errol Flynn's Captain Blood.

References:
The Open Door
The Glorious Revolution Org
InfoPlease
Oliver Cromwell Org

Taken by the Viking Winner!

We have a winner for Michelle Styles's Taken by the Viking giveaway: CrystalGB! Contact Michelle 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 of her book! Congratulations!

Release Party: The Scorpion & the Seducer

This week we welcome our long-time contributor Bonnie Vanak as she celebrates the release of her latest Dorchester novel, The Scorpion & the Seducer. And we're doing a little something different for the Q&A...

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Jasmine Tristan was no stranger to the upper crust of English society. And yet, though adopted by a viscount, she was called the "Brown Scorpion" and knew the cruel sting of isolation. When her anger won out, her mother voiced fears. Was Jasmine truly bad at her core, like her sultan father from whom they'd fled? How could she be, when with Lord Thomas Claradon she'd known a moment of pure beauty? Their kiss had been scorching as a desert sun. But like a sandstorm, it was misdirecting: Thomas's mother's disdain and his loyalty to family and duty put him forever out of reach. Only a return to her birthplace, a quest to find her roots, would bring Jasmine the answer--and it would prove that true love could triumph over ignorance, passion over prejudice.

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Hi, readers! Rather than talking about my latest Egyptian historical, The Scorpion & the Seducer, I thought I'd interview Lord Thomas Claradon, the book's hero, and let him say a few words Egypt, prejudice and the love of his life.

Bonnie: Hi Thomas. I thought we could chat about some items in the book and...

Thomas: Excuse me, but before I do this, I must lodge one complaint, Bonnie. Are you aware that you left me, shall we say, SUSPENDED, during a crucial love scene while you were writing The Scorpion & the Seducer? Do you have any idea of what that does to a fellow?

Bonnie: Well, life happens when you're a writer. The dog needed to be fed and...

Thomas: Right in the middle of the love scene? You abandoned us at the height of passion for your canine? Thank you very much.

Bonnie: Cut the sarcasm. Look, you have several love scenes in the book and that was only one, and...

Thomas: A dog. She interrupted me to feed her dog.

Bonnie: Ok, sorry! Let's move on, starting with Egypt. In the last half of the book, you visit Egypt with Jasmine, the heroine. You visit the al-Hajid camp in the desert to buy Arabian horses, you sail the Nile to a few ancient ruins, and end up visiting the Theodore Davis's 1908 excavation at the Valley of Kings. All this is happening while an assassin is chasing Jasmine, and makes several attempts on her life. What was the most thrilling moment for you in Egypt?

Thomas: When I indulging my lady love's passion for the very first time and you left me SUSPENDED there, unable to proceed, because of your dog.

Bonnie: You have a one-track mind, you know? Is that all you think about--sex?

Thomas: It is when a fellow is abandoned when he's with the love of his life and he desires to bring her pleasure. I wanted to be so gentle and tender with her. It was her first time, after all, and she was slightly afraid. I had to woo away her fears and arouse her passion. It was a union of souls and spirit, very special for both of us and at that critical moment you abandoned us for your dog.

Bonnie: Moving along! Tell me what attracted you to Jasmine.

Thomas: Ever since I was a child, I secretly admired Jasmine, after she punched me in the face when I called her an ugly old mare.

Bonnie: That was in The Panther & the Pyramid.

Thomas: Yes. I admired her for her spirit, her individuality, and her courage.

Bonnie: And your father punished you severely for letting her punch you. He whipped you.

Thomas: I shall never forget that. He wanted to teach me a lesson that Egyptians like Jasmine are my inferiors and I should never let an inferior best me. But love overcomes even the harshest punishment. I’d suffer a hundred lashes to be with my beautiful Jasmine.

Bonnie: Aww, that's so romantic! Your family and your friends are snobs, you know. They're upper class aristocrats and they view Jasmine as a dark-skinned Egyptian who is "mentally and morally deficient."

Thomas, sighing: Yes, that's why my mother called her the Brown Scorpion. It was extraordinarily difficult, trying to make them see reason and beyond her skin color. It did keep us apart.

Bonnie: I did love how you yelled at your friends for mocking her after she fled the ballroom and you stood up to them. That took guts. Was that one of the biggest challenges for you in The Scorpion & the Seducer?

Thomas: It was a challenge, but far greater was trying to convince Jasmine I was not among those who discriminated against her. I tracked her down to the park to apologize for my mother's abhorrent behavior at the ball.

Bonnie: Oh, I do like that scene. That's when you tell Jasmine: "What a rare, beautiful flower you are, Jas. Such lovely skin, like rich honey. When I see you I think of exotic lands and hot desert sun, not the coldness of England."

Thomas, quietly: Because she is exactly that to me. No matter what others shall call her or mock her, I shall defend and love her to my dying breath.

Bonnie: I knew you would. That's why I set you up with Jasmine. She needed someone very special. You proved it in the desert when you saved her from the scorpions. I am curious about how you liked living in Egypt at the al-Hajid camp, when you visited to purchase their Arabians. At the camp, Jasmine discovers her true heritage and she seems to fit in. But you're very English. Did you have a problem with adjusting to living in the desert and forsaking tea every day?

Thomas: I rather like the strong Arabic coffee. Egypt fascinates me and her people have a wealth of culture and history. But I must admit, my favorite thing about Egypt was Jasmine. I rather enjoyed it when she belly danced for me. She is simply exquisite.

Bonnie: You really are in love, you know that? Ok, I have just one more questions…what? Jasmine? What are you doing here?

:::Jasmine appears. Thomas's eyes light up::::

Thomas: My love... :::They kiss passionately::::

Bonnie: Excuse me, Thomas, but hey--I am NOT done here!

Jasmine: You interrupted us during a critical moment when you were writing us, Bonnie, so it's only fair we interrupt you.

Bonnie: But, what I have one question, Thomas? Thomas?

Thomas, kissing Jasmine: Mmmmmmm.

Bonnie: Sigh. Sorry readers. Romance characters. Always, they have a mind of their own!

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Bonnie Vanak's THE SCORPION AND THE SEDUCER is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, and in bookstores everywhere on April 29. Leave a comment and you'll be eligible to win a rare copy of Bonnie's first Egyptian historical, THE FALCON AND THE DOVE, signed by the author and cover model John DeSalvo. John was the cover model for Falcon. Just leave a comment or ask a question for your chance to win.

Thursday 13: Causes of the Viking Age

By Michelle Styles

The Vikings gave their name to an entire age--generally held to be between 793 AD and 1066 AD. But what were the causes and why did they suddenly burst on the world stage?

1. Environment: the Scandinavian land mass has little arable land, but lots of waterways, and trees.

2. A growing population

3. Land hunger: this is thought to be a secondary cause as the initial Viking activity was raids rather than land settlement.

4. Advent of sea worthy ships: there was great technological innovation just prior to the Viking age, in particular in large scale serpent or dragon boats.

5. Lack of food self-sufficiency

6. Climate change

7. Desire for trade: the Vikings needed other goods

8. Desire for plunder and quick wealth

9. Relatively poor sea defences, particularly in Britain.

10. The Anglo-Saxon Christians could not conceive anyone attacking a church.

11. Changes in the social structure: a consolidation of power among fewer and fewer of the Scando elite, leading to dissatisfied royal exiles who thirsted for a way to return to power.

12. The warrior culture which rewarded wealth acquired through conquest

13. A desire for adventure

Social Movements: Victorian Medievalism

By Sandra Schwab

It's not quite clear exactly whose fault it was. It might have been James MacPherson and his Ossian books, or Thomas Percy and his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, all published in the 1760s (though to be fair, these publications were at first much more popular and influential on the continent). It might have been Horace Walpole and all the other writers of gothic novels. It might have been the antiquarians who started to become interested in medieval life and medieval objects in the late 18th century.

Sir Walter Scott, whose historical novels filled with knights, adventure and romance (Ivanhoe anybody?), certainly has to shoulder a large part of the blame.


Whoever or whatever it was: from the late 18th century onwards the British rediscovered the Middle Ages--with a vengeance! At first it was all quite innocent: one enjoyed a gothic novel or two; an old ballad, perhaps; if you were rich, you might have fancied putting some fake ruins in your gardens, or why not have your country estate remodelled in the neo-gothic style? Add to that portraits of people in (fake) armour and other sort of medieval clothing, and the odd collector of medieval knick-knack.

The two black-and-white drawings are from Punch.

But then somebody got it into his head that these outward trappings were simply not enough. No, on top of these one ought to revive the spirit of the Middle Ages, the great ideals of "the days of old when knights were bold" (or at least what were thought to be the ideals of the knights of old)--in one word: CHIVALRY. As a result of this, the ideal of masculinity radically changed in the course of the 19th century: a man had to be tough, brave, show no sign of cowardice, save / protect women and children, and meet death without flinching.

The Victorian Age saw an immense production of history books, ballads, novels, music and paintings that celebrated this chivalric ideal and thus taught it to whole generations of boys and young men. It proved to be so influential that at the beginning of the 20th century the founder of the boyscout movement, Baden-Powell, claimed that the boyscouts were the modern descendants of the knights of old:

You Patrol Leaders and Scouts are therefore very like the knights and their retainers, especially if you keep your honour ever before you in the first place, and do your best to help other people [...] Your motto is, 'Be Prepared' to do this, and the motto of the knights was a similar one, 'Be Always Ready.'

The knights of old were particularly attentive in respect and courtesy to women. When walking with a lady or child, a Scout should always have her on his left side, so that his right is free to protect her.

(Both quotations are from an abridged version of Scouting for Boys, which was first published in 1908.)

Protect her from what? we might ask. For even in the early 20th century it wasn't all that likely that a dragon would hide behind some bushes in the park, waiting to snatch a tasty little woman. As you can see from this example, the medieval revival and the romanticized version of the Middle Ages offered the opportunity to glorify old genderroles--this became particularly important towards the end of the century when these old genderroles came under increasing attack and women started to demand more rights.

St. George and Princess Sabra
(Whom he has saved from the ghastly dragon)
By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Social Movements: Victorian Workhouse

By Anne Whitfield

In 1834, the Commission's report resulted in the Poor Law Amendment Act which was intended to end to all out-relief for the able bodied. The 15,000 or so parishes in England and Wales were formed into Poor Law Unions, each with its own union workhouse. A similar scheme was introduced in Ireland in 1838, while in 1845 Scotland set up a separate and somewhat different system.

Each Poor Law Union was managed by a locally elected Board of Guardians and the whole system was administered by a central Poor Law Commission. In the late 1830s, hundreds of new union workhouse buildings were erected across the country. The Commission's original proposal to have separate establishments for different types of pauper (the old, the able-bodied, children etc.) was soon abandoned and a single "general mixed workhouse" became the norm. The new buildings were specially designed to segregate the different categories of inmate. The first purpose-built workhouse to be erected under the new scheme was at Abingdon in 1835.

Part of Article 34 of the Workhouse Rules states that:

Any pauper who shall neglect to observe such of the regulations herein contained as are applicable to and binding on him:

Or who shall make any noise when silence is ordered to be kept

Or shall use obscene or profane language

Or shall by word or deed insult or revile any person

Or shall threaten to strike or to assault any person

Or shall not duly cleanse his person

Or shall refuse or neglect to work, after having been required to do so

Or shall pretend sickness

Or shall play at cards or other games of chance

Or shall enter or attempt to enter, without permission, the ward or yard appropriated to any class of paupers other than that to which he belongs

Or shall misbehave in going to, at, or returning from public worship out of the workhouse, or at prayers in the workhouse

Or shall return after the appointed time of absence, when allowed to quit the workhouse temporarily

Or shall wilfully disobey any lawful order of any officer of the workhouse shall be deemed disorderly

"In the Workhouse, Christmas Day"

It is Christmas Day in the workhouse, and the cold, bare walls are bright
With garlands of green and holly, and the place is a pleasant sight:
For with clean-washed hands and faces in a long and hungry line
The paupers sit at the table, for this is the hour they dine
And the Guardians and their ladies, although the wind is east
Have come in their furs and wrappers to watch their charges feast;
To smile and be condescending, put pudding on pauper plates,To be hosts at the workhouse banquet they've paid for — on the rates.

George Sims, 1847–1922

The end of the system was a long time in coming. In 1905 the government had set up a Royal Commission on the 'Poor law and the Unemployed'. However, its members were unable to agree on recommendations. So in 1909 two further reports – the Majority and the Minority versions – appeared. One favoured a thorough reform of the existing system, the other the complete abolition of the Poor Law, although no action was taken on either. However, the introduction of the old age pension in 1908 and unemployment insurance schemes in 1911 began to provide the basis for a new approach to social welfare.

In 1913 a new and perhaps more compassionate Poor Law Act was passed. This emerged from greater public awareness of workhouse conditions, a changing attitude to poverty, the extension of the franchise, the implementation of the 1906 Liberal government budget, and the foundation of the Welfare State. Henceforth the workhouse was to be known as the 'Poor Law Institution', and the name ‘Union Workhouse’ ceased to exist, at least in theory. Among the many new regulations was one stating that "all children under 3 shall be placed in separate institutions, free from the taint of the Workhouse." As there were only 12 such children in the whole of the Gower Union, it was thought locally that the cost would be prohibitive.

The Poor Law system, which had begun in 1601 in the reign of Elizabeth I and had evolved over the years, began to be dismantled by the Local Government Act of 1929, which came into effect on 31 March 1930, under which the responsibilities of the Boards of Guardians were handed over to County Boroughs and County Councils. But the absolute end of the system did not come until the National Assistance Act of 1948, which made provision of assistance a national obligation.


More information on workhouses can be found at these websites.
http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses
http://www.judandk.force9.co.uk/workhouse.html
http://victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/poorlawov.html
http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/poor/workmenu.shtml

Social Movements: Religious Upheaval in Ancient Egypt

By Jean Adams

Ancient Egyptian's lives were ruled by the gods. They infused every part of Egyptian life. So imagine the upheaval when the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten, forbade the worship of all the gods who had nurtured Egyptians for about 2,000 years, in favor of his favorite god, Aten.

He had the temples of Amun and the pantheon of gods closed, and the estates of the priests of Amun confiscated. Temples were toppled and their names chiselled out in favor of his god.

The people of Egypt were left high and dry with no gods to worship other than a new god they barely knew. Egyptian religion and culture was thrown into chaos for seventeen years. He also moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to a barren desert wasteland two hundred miles to the north, called Ahketaten (Horizon of the Aten).

This is the background of my upcoming romance ETERNAL HEARTS, due out this year from Highland Press.

Akhenaten reigned more than 3,500 years ago, in the eighteenth dynasty, and apart from making major, but rather short-lived, changes to various aspects of Egyptian culture, the most notable was his religious revolution. Akhenaten also made major changes in the ancient Egyptian art style, and presented himself in a very different manner from any of his predecessors. Some say he had a sense of humor, others that he had one of several diseases.

Akhenaten's strange appearance and mysterious behavior, as well as his connection with Nefertiti and with the "boy king" Tutankhamun, have made him the subject of much passion and controversy in the last century or so.

Akhenaten is all things to all people. To some he was a fanatical lunatic, to some he comes across as a strange, eccentric young man whose behavior was strongly influenced by his mother. To others he was a Christ-like visionary and a mentor of Moses. You must admit it poses interesting questions, especially since Moses was 500 years or so later.

Akhenaten's great royal wife was the very beautiful Nefertiti. Her name means "A Beautiful Woman Has Come". Akhenaten and Nefertiti had six daughters who died very young, probably victims of a plague that was running rampant in Ahketaten at the time.

The nature of Akhenaten's religious revolution is well established--he overthrew Egyptian polytheism in favor of the worship of a single god, Aten--but the reason behind it is still unknown.

When historians first began to study Akhenaten in the late 1800s, the first thing that naturally came to everyone's mind was that Akhenaten was divinely inspired. Many disagree. Although Akhenaten's religion centered on one god, the physical sun disk, his major emphasis was on the Aten's visibility, tangibility, and undeniable "realness". Akhenaten placed no emphasis on faith.

Many believe Akhenaten's reasons for his religious reform were political. By the time of his reign, the god Amun had risen to such a high status that the priests of Amun had become even more wealthy and powerful than the pharaohs.

The reasons for Akhenaten's revolution still remain a mystery and probably always will. Until further evidence can be uncovered, it will be impossible to know just what motivated his unusual behavior.

In my book I've opted for the most popular belief. That Akhenaten was a madman, but not too mad. I wanted him to at least have some humanity with touch of madness around the edges. We'll never really know, but he was a great family man who loved his little daughters.

I hope he would approve of my depiction.

Broken Hero Winner!

We have a winner for Anne Whitfield's Broken Hero giveaway: KAMMIE! Contact Anne 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 of her book! Congratulations!

Release Party: US Release of Taken by the Viking

Michelle Styles is back with us today to celebrate the North American release of Taken by the Viking. Regular readers of this blog will recall that she dropped by last October when Taken by the Viking was released in the UK. Taken by the Viking is May 08 release for harlequin Historical which means that it is probably in the shops this week. You can read an excerpt here.

A Viking Raid

They claimed they came in peace, but soon Lindisfarne was aflame. Annis of Birdoswald fled in fear, but she could not escape the Norse warriors.

An Honorable Captor

One man protected her--Haakon Haroldson. The dark, arrogant Viking swept Annis back to his homeland, taking her away from all she held dear.

A New Life--As His Mistress!

Now Annis must choose between the lowly work that befits a captive, or a life of sinful pleasure in the Viking's arms!

Why the different release date?

That is decision for the editors and is entirely dependant on the needs of the line. One of the big problems at the moment is that they have such a strong stable of authors writing unusual historical that publishing slots are tight. I am a UK author and that means my home market is the UK. Other authors such as Michelle Willingham or Blythe Gifford are US authors, and their work is released first in the North American market. Publishing slots are much available for Georgian/Regency/Victorian. The big reason for this is sales. People keep saying that they want choice, but the books sold reflect the desire for the Regency time period, particularly in the UK. Harlequin Historical are committed to providing the variety of time periods as much as possible but are seeing the growth in sales more in the Regency.

What has been its reception so far?

I have been very pleased with the reviews. For example, The Romantic Times gave Taken a four-star rating and said it was an awesome story with jump off the page characters. And its reception seems to have been good in the UK. The original plan was going to be to wait and release the Vikings one after another in North America, but they decided to change that after seeing the UK sales.

Your cover is lovely. Was it created specifically for the book?

Yes, Taken by the Viking's cover was created specifically for the book, as was the inside cover. My editor told me that they had used one of the top Presents artists as they wanted a certain feel about it. Joanne Carr recently said on Romance Vagabonds that they mainly work with New York artists, so the vast majority of NA retail covers are fresh artwork. But Harlequin does have a large stock of images and these can be used around the world. Basically, the marketing department is trying to create a certain feel with a book, and if they can do it with existing stock, they will. For example, the UK cover for Sold & Seduced was the inside cover of Lyn Randall's Warrior or Wife, but it was such a lovely picture that it deserved to be on a front cover.

Do you find writing Vikings more difficult than Romans?

There are different challenges. The Romans were far more literate than Vikings and left a larger body of work, so we actually have far more concrete information. The Vikings really left a few brief runes. We know about them comes from mentions by often hostile monks, and the Icelandic sagas. The most famous of the sagas--the Prose and Poetic eddas were written after the Viking age has ended and it is unclear how far the traditions actually go back. Add to this the various Victorian myths--for example horns on helmets--and it can be hard to separate fact from fiction. Luckily, the archaeological record does provide a few clues as well.

The other thing about Vikings is that they were uber alpha. They lived in a warrior society and so this has to be reflected in the story. One comment I keep getting from my editors is to make my heroes more alpha and that the reader knows it was a violent time.

Did anything surprise you in the research?

I think the thing that surprised me most was how much Tolkien and Richard Wagner drew on the sagas when they were creating their masterpieces. It is very strange to be reading a list of dwarfs and come across the names of Gandalf, Thorin, Bombur, Dain, Gloin etc.

Are there any more Vikings in your future?

My next book out in the UK (June 08). Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife is the second book about the jaarls of Lindisfarne. And I am nearly finished with the first draft of the third book. I am not sure how many more after that as it depends on what else is happening. I know that I want to write several more early Victorians and I have an idea for a late Georgian. But I do like writing about the time period and looking at the possibilities behind the myth.

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Thank you to Michelle for being here. Michelle is offering a copy of Taken by the Viking (or something from her back list) to one lucky poster. Just leave a comment or a question. Be sure to check back next week and see if you have won!

To help get the ball rolling here is a question: what do you think about uber alpha heroes/warrior heroes? Do you like them or do you prefer something more urbane?

Weekly Announcements - 19 April 08

Anna C. Bowling will be moderating and participating in a panel on romance publishing at the Charter Oak Romance Writers monthly meeting today in South Glastonbury, CT.

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Anne Whitfield's Broken Hero received a 4 1/2 from Long & Short:

This timely work considers the impact of war on everyday lives and emotions. Compassion and sympathy are to be found throughout, but also friendship and honor. Bravery is no stranger - and is often to be found in the minor characters, in less overt ways - from the injured themselves, to some of the dedicated staff. The story is in no way predictable.

Make sure to leave a comment on Anne's Q&A from Sunday for your chance to win a copy of Broken Hero. The drawing is tomorrow.

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Carrie Lofty's debut, What a Scoundrel Wants, is available for pre-order on Amazon. She also talked about her inspiration for the book (Christian Slater and the Disney Robin Hood) over at Shiloh Walker's blog.

Oh, and if you'd like a little bit of harmless fun, stop by for her try at a Greek billionaire romance...

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Join us Sunday when Michelle Styles will be discussing Taken by the Viking, available in the US as of May 1st, and giving away a free copy!

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

Social Movements: Romance Pride

By Anna C. Bowling

In 1972, editor Nancy Coffey picked the thickest manuscript from the slush pile and took it home because of its size. The title was The Flame and the Flower, the author was Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, and the age of the modern historical romance had begun. Those of us who read and write historical romance in all its permutations owe much to that fateful delve into the slush. Whether or not Woodiwiss is to one's taste, whether the alpha male provokes happy sighs or makes one recoil, and whether "forced seduction" is a fancier term for a much uglier word, one can argue this is where "those books" began.

Certainly, romantic tales set in times past have been in existence since somewhere around one day after the first novelist found the first reader. Serge and Anne Golon treated readers to the adventures of Angelique, Dame Barbara Cartland stunned booksellers with a truly remarkable number of titles, and Georgette Heyer flung open the doors that led to the popularity of the traditional Regency. Anya Seton regaled readers with the fictionalized tale of legendary real life lovers in her classic Katherine and added an eerie twist in A Green Darkness. Still, the advent of Kathleen Woodiwiss' debut brought in a new age for those who loved to read and write historical romance and a genre was born.

As with anything new, the critics soon followed. The new genre became "those books." Bodice rippers. Porn for women, though some of the founding mothers of the genre were actually founding fathers. (Jennifer Wilde, anybody?) Interchangeable, unrealistic sex scenes strung together for bored housewives. Very little could be farther from the truth, and such comments often did (and still do) come from those who have not read much if any of the genre. As more women began to take a new look at their work in and outside of the home, the heroines of historical romance novels embraced a variety of roles and eras. A heroine might be a middle Eastern princess, a pioneer woman, Viking maiden, member of any number of royal Courts, a pirate or privateer, among only a few, and could very well go to the ends of the world to secure her own happy ending, complete with a strong hero only she can tame.

Some sniggered at the covers, though the talents of artists such as Pino Danei and Elaine Duillo created lush, vivid or ethereal images to draw the eye across a bookstore aisle. When illustrator Elaine Duillo first spotted a headshot of Italian model Fabio Lanzoni, "those covers" came into full bloom. While some readers proudly displayed their covers, others preferred to take a more discreet tactic and cover the cover, perhaps one of the inspirations for the stepback cover that offers the best of both worlds.

While much has changed in the genre and the readership, the core is still the same. We read and we write for love, adventure, enjoyment, healing, respite, excitement, hope and as many other reasons as there are individuals. Nothing to be ashamed of there. Read those romances proudly, guys and gals.

Social Movements: Surrealism

By Vicki Gaia

Artists tend to explore the shifts of social moods. They express their opinions through their imagery. And if it's good art, then it makes a person question their own perceptions. One of my favorite art movements is Surrealism. Founded in the early 1920's in Paris, this movement explored the imagery of the subconscious mind. Based on Freudianism, the surrealists tapped into the rudimentary beginnings of psychology before the subconscious became a household word.

I had the chance to see the "Surrealism USA" art exhibit. It wasn't until the thirties that surrealism caught on in the United States. "The America of the twenties, capitalist and materialist, did not fit the Surrealists' revolutionary aspirations, which was reaffirmed in isme au service de la Revolution. Yet within ten years, Surrealism would become a major artistic trend in the United States, influencing American fashion and design." (Isabelle Dervaux - exhibition book - Surrealism USA)

Major art movements develop from societies open to new ideas and thoughts. It's not surprising that Europe led the art world until World War II. During the war, European artists fled to America, especially New York. These artists had a major influence on American artists. I wrote about this in Fragments of Light. Claire O'Neill is an artist living in New York. She's enamored by the European artists, many of them well-known. Her style changes as she meets her mentors and explores new ways of painting. Here's an excerpt:

The French surrealists and the American artists gathered in their familiar circle of friends, language an obstacle to the two groups co-mingling. Richard spoke impeccable French and conversed with Marc Chagall in the corner. Claire's French was not as polished, but passable, and she spent time with many of the French artists, enjoying their viewpoint of the modern. She'd hoped to pick up useful techniques to incorporate into her work. Richard appeared comfortable with Chagall, comfortable with foreigners in general. Without their cafes, bars and meeting places for spontaneous gatherings, these exile artists felt alienated, and many suffered financial hardships. Claire understood Richard's empathy for these expatriates, experiencing his own alienation.

Turning away, she concentrated on the painting in front of her, an otherworldly landscape of oddly shaped images, juxtaposed at odd angles, but strangely balanced. The solitary landscape evoked a spiritual response to the horrors of war. Yves Tanguy's painting held mastery. Reality and imagination merged. Flirting with surrealism, Tanguy retained his unique vision and garnered Claire's respect.

After the war, New York became the new art mecca. "...exiled artists began returning to Europe after the war, the major galleries that had promoted the movement closed, and Abstract Expressionism emerge as the dominant tendency, all of which signaled the end of Surrealism's heyday in America." (Isabelle Dervaux - exhibition book - Surrealism USA)

I'll leave you with images of paintings by Salvador Dali. Many of the American surrealists dream-like and fantasy imagery was influenced by Dali.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Salvador+Dali&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&um=1

Happy Reading!
Vicki Gaia

Social Movements: Fight for your right to vote

By Delia DeLeest

On January 5, 1925, Nellie Taloe Ross became the first woman governor in the history of the United States. The Democratic party of Wyoming nominated her during a special election after the death of her husband, William Ross, who had been the previous governor. Despite the fact that she refused to actively campaign for election, she easily beat her Republican opposition.

What makes Mrs. Ross' ascension to the governorship so exciting was that, up until less than five years earlier, women hadn't even been allowed to vote.
Women's right to vote was first seriously brought up in July, 1848 at the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. Both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were both in attendance, along with a young woman named Charlotte Woodward. In 1920, when women's right to vote was a national fact, Ms. Woodward, the eighty one year old sole surviving attendant of that convention, proudly cast her vote for president.

The race riots of the 1960's were not something new. Women of the early twentieth century experienced much the same in their fight to win equal rights. In 1913, Woodward Wilson's inauguration day, eight thousand suffragettes marched in protest, it was watched by half a million observers and two hundred people were injured in the violence that broke out. A second protest during Wilson's second inauguration was less violent.

After World War I, many more women became active in the suffrage movement. While the men had been off fighting the war, the women were doing their part to keep the country moving. After working in factories, managing money and supporting their families, many women felt they were entitled to the right to say how the government should be run. In response to the anti-suffrage faction's reasoning that women were unwilling and incapable of making wise voting decisions, writer and suffragette, Alice Duer Miller, wrote a tongue-in-cheek response:

Why We Don't Want Men to Vote
-Because man's place is in the army
-Because no really manly man wants to settle any questions otherwise than by fighting about it
-Because if men should adopt peaceable methods, women will no longer look up to them
-Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms and drums
-Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government*

The suffrage movement's efforts paid off when, on August 18, 1920 Tennessee legislator, Harry Burn, who had previously voted anti-suffrage, cast the deciding vote in favor of suffrage at the urgings of his mother. After a very close vote, it was appropriate that the final decision was made under the influence of a woman, one of the strongest people in the world, a mother.

And whatever became of Nellie Tayloe Ross? After a failed attempt at reelection in 1926, she went on to become the vice chairman of the Democratic party. In May of 1933, Franklin Roosevelt appointed her first female director of the U.S. Mint. She died in 1977 at the age of 101, which would have made her able to join in the bra burning protests of the 1970's, had she been so inclined.

*Information gleaned from About.com:woman's history

Social Movements: The Newsboys' Strike

By Eliza Tucker

This is a busy week for a lot of our members (have fun at Romantic Times, ladies!), so I'm posting again!

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Socialist movement gained momentum throughout the Western world. Unions and labor parties sprung up, comprised of working- and middle-class people who were tired of eighty-hour work weeks, low pay, and minimal occupational support. While men and women began to demand better treatment, children toiled, tucked into windowless hovels.

In 1899, ten thousand of New York City's homeless kids locked themselves into lives identical to adults', complete with full days of sweatshop work with little to no time devoted to schooling or play. The most prodigious of these urchins learned to read and took independent jobs as street vendors, messengers, and newspaper boys and girls.

Newspaper sales increased during the Spanish-American War, but the costs of supporting field reporters and running the press had risen. During the war, New York's media moguls had raised the wholesale prices of their papers from fifty cents per hundred papers to sixty cents per hundred, without raising the customer's price.

The price hike cost the newsies, mostly orphans and runaways between the ages of six and fifteen, an average of fifty cents a week. In a time when a bed in a lodging-house could be bought for ten cents a night, and meals for six cents a piece, the price increase hit the children on fundamental levels. While magnates like Joseph Pulitzer (the New York World) and William Randolph Hearst (the New York Journal) decided to go back on their initial promise of lowering the price after the war, the kids took a cue from the adults and went on strike.

This seems to be the season for strikes. Although the Brooklyn and New York street railway strike has subsided and peace once more reigns, the newsboys and messenger boys of the great city have gone on strike. The newsboys refuse to handle the New York World and Journal (newspapers) unless they are allowed a larger margin of profit, and the messenger boys insist on shorter hours and better pay.

These strikes, while they cause some annoyance and inconvenience, are hardly worthy of serious thought in comparison with the dreadful struggle that is taking place in Cleveland. In that city, a street railway strike has assumed such terrible proportions that the strikers have gone to the length of using dynamite to blow up cars with passengers in them.

-- The Great Round World, vol. XI, The Great Round World Company, New York, 1899.

World and Journal newsies stopped selling papers from July 19 through August 2. Overshadowed by the Cleveland railway strike, the papers' editors "laughed off the children's strike--at first. But they found themselves outsmarted and outnumbered as the newsies succeeded in organizing a metropolitan boycott of the Hearst and Pulitzer dailies. Led by the Brooklyn Union District Master Workboy, Spot Conlon, attired in his pink suspenders, the Brooklyn boys marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to join forces with their Manhattan comrades. Together, the boys not only shut down street circulation of the afternoon Journals and Worlds in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Long Island City, and up and down the Atlantic seaboard, but they enlisted the public in their crusade by staging a series of parades, open-air rallies, and a huge mass meeting at the New Irving Hall." (The Chief: the Life of William Randolph Hearst, by David Nasaw, Houghton Mifflin Books, 2000).

The children put a severe dent in the papers' circulation: the World alone suffered a sales decrease from 360,000 to 125,000 during the two-week strike (Big Town, Big Time, by David Nasaw, New York Daily News, 1999).

The editors took notice. Instead of lowering the distribution price, they offered the kids an acceptable compromise: the ability to return unsold papers at the end of the day. This policy may sound familiar to those of us involved in the publishing industry--major publishers allow booksellers to return remainders.

The Newsboys' Strike garnered the notice of then-governor Theodore Roosevelt, who eventually championed child labor reform

A Sinful Alliance Winner

We have a winner for Amanda McCabe's A Sinful Alliance giveaway: JANE! Contact Amanda 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 of her book! Congratulations!

Release Party: Broken Hero

This week we welcome long-time contributor Anne Whitfield to celebrate the release of her newest book, Broken Hero. The print version is now available on Amazon.

Audrey Pearson's life changed dramatically when WWII broke out and her large home, Twelve Pines on the East Yorkshire coast, became a convalescence home for wounded soldiers. Her life is no longer lavish with entertainment, beautiful clothes and surrounded by a loving family. Soldiers, physically and mentally wounded now fill her home. The smell of disinfectant replaces her mother’s perfume and gone are the friends and acquaintances--instead nurses roam the hallways.

Captain Jake Harding, a doctor training in psychiatry arrives at Twelve Pines. Audrey immediately finds herself attracted to the Captain, but he is remote towards her. Puzzled by his cold behaviour, Audrey tries to learn more about the handsome Captain. He reveals that he's lost a wife and baby in childbirth and refuses to ever remarry. However, despite this, Audrey believes she can change his mind and make him aware he doesn't have to spend his life alone.

The ice around Jake's heart begins to melt. For years he has rejected the possibility of finding love again because of the pain it caused him before, but the beautiful Audrey shows him her love and she needs someone to love her in return.

Could he honestly walk away from her, from the love that could be his?

***

Is this your first book to be set in World War II?

Yes. I've long been fascinated by the whole era. How much changed in such a short time. I read a lot of articles and found a BBC website which is full of people's experiences in WWII and found that so amazing to read. Those generations (which included my own parents) had to endure so much, fear, shortages, death, threat of invasion, etc. Their bravery really inspired me to write Broken Hero.

Do you plan to write another World War II novel?

Yes, I do. I'm not sure when, as I have other projects planned and started, but it is on my list.

What's next for Anne Whitfield?

I have another historical novel coming out in paperback next month, Her Shadowed Heart, a Victorian family drama novel. Also another historical novel, Woodland Daughter, to be released in July. So it's another busy year for me, which is wonderful.

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Here's an excerpt:

From downstairs they heard the commotion of the emptying cellar.

"I'd better check that everyone is all right," Jake said, but didn't move. He reached out and took one of her hands. "We need to talk I think."

"We do?" She tried to pretend she didn't know his meaning. From his sad expression, she knew it wouldn't be a talk she'd want to have. He was regretting his actions already. Well, she wasn't ashamed. She knew she loved him.

"Audrey, I can't be what you want."

Her chest squeezed, but she raised her chin in challenge. "You haven't tried, so how do you know?"

"You want a good man to love you. You deserve a man's love, the right man for you."

"And what if you are the right man for me?"

"I'm not. You mustn't think I am." He ran his hands through his hair. "You're young and beautiful, there's many a man who'd love you--"

"Don't patronise me." She tossed her head, angered by his attempts to brush her aside again.

"I'm not, honestly. You're wonderful, and I wish I could be the man you need."

"But you are! If you just allow yourself to be." She reached out for him, only he backed away, shaking his head.

"I won't. Audrey. I'll never marry again. I couldn't stand it. I couldn't cope with the responsibility of loving someone again, of the possible pain..."

"But I love you." There, she had said the words.

He looked appalled. "You can't."

"Don't tell me how I feel."

"You don't know what love is!"

"I'm speaking from the heart, Jake. I'm not one of those girls who plays with men's feelings. I love you like I've never loved anyone else before."

He backed away, shaking his head, his eyes haunted. "No. I won't do this."

"What we shared in my bedroom was special. It was meant. You can't deny that."

Jake gave a mocking laugh. "It was a kiss, Audrey. A simple kiss that men and women share in times of need. It leads to sex. You don't have to be in love to have sex."

"No. I won't listen to you."

"It's true. Don't make it out to be more than it was."

"Why are you so certain that it meant nothing?"

"Because I know the difference."

She felt sick. "So you wanted s-sex? Just any woman would do…"

He wiped a hand over his tormented face. "No, I didn't mean...Damn, this isn't what I meant to say. Listen to me--"

"I won't listen to you, not until you really know what you're saying. Not until you really know what you want."

"I don't want love, Audrey."

Emotion clogged her throat. "Are-Are you saying you can never love me or any woman ever again?"

"Yes, I am."

"Why?" she croaked. Lord, could there be a pain any worse than this?

"I don't want to love another woman again, not ever." He closed his eyes momentarily. "I wanted to die after Marianne, I nearly did. I can't do it again, Audrey, I can't suffer such…such anguish as that again..."

People were coming up the stairs and their chatter filtering up, drove Jake away. With a last glance at her, his eyes sending his apology, he went to meet the others and resume his role of doctor and caretaker of their reason.

But what of your reason, Jake? Audrey inwardly cried. Who will save you from your self-imposed loneliness?

***

To win a signed copy of Broken Hero, leave a comment or question. The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday. Be sure to check back next week to find out who has won!

Weekly Announcements - 11 April 08

The is the last few weeks have been quiet, but we do have an announcement or two:

For the 10th anniversary of AAR, Sandra Schwab has written a romance parody, which went online last week. "The Rose in the Storm" is the gripping tale of the horrible, fearsome Viking Freagar the Dark (friends call him Rafe), an unfortunate pig (well, it's not really a pig), the beautiful Rosa, and of what happened one evening on the banks of the river Pregel in East-Prussia on a really, really cold and stormy night in 1807.

Moreover, to further celebrate the release of her new novel, BEWITCHED, Sandra is doing an online reading of the prologue and parts of chapter 1 on her podcast: Enjoy!

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Carrie Lofty now has the cover for her December Zebra Debut, What a Scoundrel Wants. You can read the back cover copy here.

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Michelle Styles also has a new cover, this time for Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife, a June release from Harlequin Mills & Boon.

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Join us Sunday when Anne Whitfield will be discussing Broken Hero, her newest release, and giving away a free copy!

We'll also draw the winner for Amanda McCabe's A Sinful Alliance. Don't miss out! Leave a comment for your chance to win.

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

Social Movements: English Restoration

By Christine Koehler

The 17th century saw great change, and between Charles I and Charles II's reign saw the most change. Civil War raged across the land, taking all the reform and compromise Elizabeth I brought to Catholics and Protestants and destroying it.

Theaters were closed by a law supported by Cromwell and his fellow Puritans even before the execution of Charles I. The Globe Theater closed in 1642 when Parliament issued an ordinance halting all stage plays. It never opened again, and was demolished in 1644.

In 1647 stricter rules were put into place on all play houses, and in 1648 every structure where a play was preformed was destroyed and all players were seized and whipped. Anyone caught attending a play was fined five shillings.

In 1660, the year Charles II returned to England as monarch and theaters reopened.

Or should I say were allowed to open. They had to build them first. Charles II granted exclusive play-staging rights, Royal patents, to the King's Company--Thomas Killigrew and the Duke's Company--William Davenant. Both companies raced for performance rights to the previous generation's Jacobean and Caroline plays. Until their economic success was assured, no new plays could be produced.

Then they built theaters on Drury Lane (King's Company) and Dorset Gardens (Duke's Company). Both theaters were designed by Christopher Wren ad both looked similar because of this.

Women were allowed to perform onstage for the first time. I could find no conclusive reason for this, other than it seems the Restoration wanted to distance itself as much as possible from the Protectorate.

Samuel Pepys, a renowned diarist from the middle to late 1600s, refers to visiting the playhouse in order to watch or re-watch the performance of some particular actress. He very much he enjoyed these experiences.

It was during this time that actors/actresses became celebrities. Audiences flocked to see their favorite stars (or one of the King's many mistresses, Nell Gwyn).

The 'Restoration comedy' became widely popular, was extremely bawdy, and in direct opposition to Puritanical beliefs. It's best remembered not for specific wondrous plays but for its sexual explicitness, something Charles II, and consequentially his nobles, encouraged.

First staged in 1697, The Provok'd Wife is both a parody and a social commentary on the new regime.

The Brutes have a terrible relationship. Lady Brute married for money, Sir John for sex, and now he has been driven to drink and she to dreams of adultery. Flanked by a squadron of drunken rakes, debauched aristocrats, and lascivious French maids, the Brutes turn the town into a battlefield of love and infidelity, armed to the teeth with their dazzling, sharp-honed wit.

Sir John: If I could but catch her adulterating, I might be divorced from her by law.
Heartfree: And so pay her a yearly pension, to be a distinguished cuckold.
Source

The very fact that playwrights got away with this shows how much things changed between one decade and the next. Not only are they in business again, they're writing about the new regime, and living to tell the tale. Sure it had sex, but if you want someone's attention, say it with sex.

Bewitched Winner!

We have a winner for Sandra Schwab's Bewitched giveaway: Karin A! Contact Sandy to give her your address. The book must be claimed by Sunday or another winner will be drawn. Please stop back later to let us know what you thought of her book! Congratulations!

Guest Blogger: Amanda McCabe

I've arrived back from my weekend in Chicago to find myself behind in almost all respects. Forgive the lateness of our Sunday promos and help me welcome author Amanda McCabe! Her newest release, A Sinful Alliance, is available now from Harlequin.

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The baseborn daughter of a courtesan and a lord, Marguerite was forced to fend for herself in the dangerous world of the French nobility--as the king's most feared spy.

Sent to the court of King Henry of England, Marguerite found polite words and flattery concealed dark passions. Her only friend was her old enemy, the sensually tempting Nicolai Ostrovsky. And their sinful alliance seemed set to turn her from old loyalties to new desires!

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"The perilous action and the elegance of the writing…allowed me to thoroughly enjoy and unusual and fascinating story of an intriguing era." –Romance Reviews Today

Tell us about A Sinful Alliance!

I am so very excited about this book! Nicolai was the hero's best friend in my previous book, A Notorious Woman, set in Renaissance Venice. As so often happens with these pesky secondary characters, I hadn't actually intended to write a whole book for him (though he was intriguing--and a hottie!). But I really fell for him, and I found a very beautiful, but also troubled and lonely, heroine who really needed him--Marguerite Dumas, a French spy.

Trouble was, she once tried to kill him. Bit of a rocky start there. They meet up again a few months after this little incident at the court of Henry VIII at Greenwich, still on opposite sides of political alliances. This event was a true historical event, a meeting in early 1527 between King Henry and a French delegation seeking a marriage between Princess Mary and King Francois's younger son. This weeks-long meeting was filled with lavish banquets, balls, jousts, plays and masques. Henry was newly infatuated with Anne Boleyn, and England's old alliance with Spain was faltering due to Queen Katherine of Aragon's loss of influence. I find the contrast of such splendor and luxury with such danger fascinating. So, it all made the perfect setting for an illicit, dangerous affair! Plus great clothes, LOL.

Did you come across anything new or unusual while researching A Sinful Alliance?

A ton! I finally had to force myself to stop researching and start writing. I've loved this period ever since I saw the old movie Anne of the Thousand Days on TV as a child. I researched Greenwich and Fontainebleau Palace, Tudor fashions and food, dances, card games. (Some of the favorite dances of the time were the pavane and galliard, and also the new trend from Italy, the passamezzo; the card games included mumchance, click-clack, and primero).

I tend to get carried away blathering about all the factoids I found! I'll be sharing more on my blog, Risky Regencies, if you're interested. And a few of the great resources I found are Alison Weir's Henry VIII: The King and His Court; PW Dixon's Excavations at Greenwich Palace, 1970-1971; FG Emmison's Tudor Food and Pastimes; Neville Williams's Henry VIII and His Court; and Alison Sim's Food and Feast in Tudor England.

Recreating this world as a backdrop where Nicolai and Marguerite had to face danger, both in the ever-shifting factions around them and within their own hearts. A place of splendor, but also danger and deceit. (Not to mention stinkiness--Henry had decreed that the only dogs allowed in the palace were ladies' lap dogs, but it still must have smelled atrocious, with all those hundreds of people and only primitive jakes for toilets!). I don't think I've ever enjoyed writing a book quite so much. And, I have to admit, I even cried a bit when I wrote the epilogue, which has never happened before!!!

What’s next for you?

I'm finishing work now on the third in my "Renaissance trilogy"! It features Balthazar Grattiano, who plays a part in the denouement of A Sinful Alliance. He's now a ship's captain the Caribbean, and encounters a woman from his past in a Santo Domingo tavern.

I'll also have a Regency series out next year, "The Muses of Mayfair," featuring the three daughters of a scholar of ancient Greece. The first book, To Catch a Rogue, is already available in the UK (or through Amazon UK!). And I just sold a series to Grand Central Publishing! "The Daughters of Ireland" is about an Anglo-Irish family and the danger and love they find around the events of the 1798 Rebellion. Now that I look at all this, I feel a little nervous about all the work!!! But I can't wait for the research, LOL.

What are some of the challenges and rewards of writing different settings? Are there any other time periods you'd like to explore?

The challenge is to keep from getting confused! I always have to ask myself "Is this really a factoid from Tudor England? Or Regency Ireland?" And I can't indulge my insane love of period slang as much as I would like! But the rewards are that I never get bored, and I don't "burn out" on story ideas.

As for other periods, I'm working in my spare time (spare time? What is this??) on a historical fiction story set in 18th century France. And I have an idea for a romance set in 17th century Holland, which I'm not sure anyone would go for...

Thank you so much for inviting me to this blog! It's wonderful for those of us who have a love of unusual settings and time periods to have a place to gather.

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To win a signed copy of A Sinful Alliance, leave a comment or question. The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday. Be sure to check back next week to find out who has won!

Thursday Thirteen: American Social Movements

By Marianne LaCroix

Thirteen Social Movements through US History

1. Abolition of Slavery:

After the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists continued to pursue the freedom of slaves in the remaining slave states, and to better the conditions of black Americans generally. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 officially ended slavery. (Wikipedia)

2. Anti-War Movement: No need to explain this. Even in today's society, there are anti-war movements going on. In US History, every war saw anti-war movements, including the Revolution and the Civil War.

3. Women's Suffrage: Women gain the right to vote in 1920 with the Nineteenth Amendment after a 70-year campaign.

4. Animal Rights Movement:

In 1641, the year Descartes' Meditations was published, the first legal code to protect domestic animals in the U.S. was passed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The colony's constitution was based on The Body of Liberties, written by the Reverend Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652), a lawyer, Puritan clergyman, and Cambridge graduate, originally from Suffolk, England. Ward listed the "rites" the Colony's general court later endorsed, including rite number 92: "No man shall exercise any Tirrany or Crueltie toward any bruite Creature which are usuallie kept for man's use." Historian Roderick Nash writes that, at the height of Descartes influence in Europe, it is significant that the early New Englanders created a law that implied animals were not unfeeling automata. (Wikipedia)

5. Civil Rights Movement: This is a topic all on its own. Civil Rights for all people has been an ongoing issue through history--the fight for equal rights and against discrimination. This covers discrimination for color, race, sex, and sexual preferences.

6. Ecology Movement: Emerged at the end of the 1960s. This covers the widespread awareness of the ecological state of the planet. Acid rain, deforestation, ozone depletion and climate change is all addressed.

7. Free love: Rejects marriage as a social bondage especially for women. This became very prominent in the 1960's with the feminist movement.

[H]istorically the free-love movement has not advocated multiple sexual partners or short-term sexual relationships. Rather, it has argued that love relations that are freely entered into should not be regulated by law. Thus, free-love practice may include long-term monogamous relationships or even celibacy, but would not include institutional forms of polygamy, such as a king and his wives and concubines. (Wikipedia)

8. Labor Movement:

Throughout the world, action by the labour movement has led to reforms and workers' rights, such as the 2-day weekend, minimum wage, paid holidays, and the achievement of the eight-hour day for many workers. There have been many important labour activists in modern history who have caused changes that were revolutionary at the time and are now regarded as basic. (Wikipedia)

9. Prohibition: The legal ban of the sale and manufacture of alcohol took place 1919 to 1933 in the US. During this time named the "Roaring Twenties," men like Al Capone and Bugs Moran made millions of dollars through illegal alcohol sales.

10. Right to Life: "Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life." (Article 6.1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)

Pro-life people who support this concept define embryos and fetuses as human beings which have a right to life, and oppose embryonic stem cell research and abortion."..."Another argument against the "right to life" states that abortion is not a form of murder, hence "pro-choicers" are no less "pro-life" than "pro-lifers." (Wikipedia)

(Note: These are not my words, so please don't gather I support one side over another.)

11. Fair Trade Movement:

The movement advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods. It focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and so on. (Wikipedia)

12. Student Activism: The political work by students to change the American educational system. The largest strike took place in May and June, 1970, in response to the Kent State shootings and the American invasion of Cambodia.

13. LGBT Movement:

Lesbian, gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) social movements share related goals of social acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism. LGBT refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their movements include the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, Gay Liberation, lesbian feminism, the queer movement and transgender activism. A commonly stated goal is social equality for LGBT people; some have also focused on building LGBT communities, or worked towards liberation for the broader society from sexual oppression. LGBT movements organized today are made up of a wide range of political activism and cultural activity, such as lobbying and street marches; social groups, support groups and community events; magazines, films and literature; academic research and writing; and even business activity. (Wikipedia)

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