Expansion & Invasion: A Cunning Plan

By Anna C. Bowling

Setting: Unspecified location, long ago. Two historical personages survey the world beyond their borders and debate what must be done.

First Historical Personage: Hey, look at that place over there.

Second Historical Personage: Nice and roomy. Think they'd mind if a few hundred of us moved in with all our stuff?

First Historical Personage: They might. They have their own stuff already, and I'm fairly sure they're using their houses.

Second Historical Personage: We like some of their stuff. Think they'd share?

First Historical Personage: Given the right incentive, possibly. Got any ideas?

Second Historical Personage: We have things that make them go "ow" if used properly.

First Historical Personage: They have owie things, too.

Second Historical Personage: Hmm.

First Historical Personage: Hmm.

Second Historical Personage: What if we asked nicely?

First Historical Personage: That might work if any of them speak our language.

Second Historical Personage: Do they?

First Historical Personage: What do you think?

Second Historical Personage: Probably not the majority.

First Historical Personage: Probably not. What we'd need is a universal language.

Second Historical Personage: Good luck with that one. Are you sure you don't want to use the owie things?

First Historical Personage: If we use our owie things, they use their owie things, and that can't end well.

Second Historical Personage: True, true.

First Historical Personage: So, the question is, how do we get them to let us move in a few hundred of our nearest and dearest (or least desirable, depending on our motives) in a way that could end well? I mean, isn't the whole invasion thing not weighted in their favor? Except for the "them" that fight back and keep us out altogether. Which, I might point out, would not end well for us.

Second Historical Personage: Ending well is a must. They have comely wenches.

First Historical Personage: That's it!

Second Historical Personage: What's what?

First Historical Personage: They have comely wenches, we have strapping young men. I know it's a rather simplistic view, but that's the genius of the whole plan.

Second Historical Personage: We have a plan? I thought we'd send in the barbarians....

First Historical Personage: No. No barbarians. Maybe a few who look like barbarians, at least before a decent bath.

Second Historical Personage: Bath? I shudder at the thought.

First Historical Personage: That might be one of the reasons you were asked to leave in the first place. Work with me here. We send in some outwardly rough specimens, preferably with tortured pasts, and they will seek out the comely wenches. Or the wenches seek them out. It can go both ways. Keep them in close quarters, and given enough time, they'll get to know each other as individuals and nature will take its course. Which will cause the parties involved to cut through the preconceived notions and things can indeed end well. Or well-ish. Depends on who's in charge of actually writing things down.

Second Historical Personage: But surely there will be some collateral damage.

First Historical Personage: Sadly, yes, but that can depend on the writers again, and it does leave the door open for sequels. Which will also end well. Even in the darkest of times, love does find a way to turn things around.

Wow... I made it!

Hello friends, I have arrived, lifting my head from endless research hours and settling into my new apartment. I moved recently and it's amazing how long someone can live out of boxes! But things are coming along and I realized that today is my day to post!

So this is more of a blog by to let everyone know that I enjoy coming by to check out everyone's posts and I hope to be back on track with the real world in the near future.

In lieu of a lesson or interesting tidbit from the research I've been doing for my next 20th Century historical novel (set in Africa this time), I thought I'd do a little shameless plugging. The Flyer is out! I received my copies a couple of weeks ago and it's so beautiful, I nearly cried. The artists at Medallion Press are certainly talented.

Here endeth the self-promotion and on to my actual posting: I've been watching Legends of the Fall repeatedly for the past week or so. Research, of course. My next novel has a hunter hero running from a past he can't get away from, and in LotF, Tristan also ends up in Africa as he runs from the guilt that he couldn't save his brother during the Great War. Recent events in my life have made the concept of happily-ever-after a little hard to write, so I'm thinking of taking this new project in a different direction... the epic novel that might be VERY romantic, but isn't a romance, per se.

My question for writers and readers alike is this: Writers: Do you ever find yourself in a position where you're unable to abide by the standards of your genre and the muse insists on taking you in another direction? And if so, do you listen to the genre or the muse?

And readers: If you're a romance fan, and a romance novelist you've enjoyed reading suddenly switches to another genre, would you tar and feather? Would you read the new work because you like the writer? Or would you simply skip that book and wait for another steamy romance with the traditional HEA?

I can feel the writing bug beginning to itch and after being blocked for nearly a year, I'm terrified to pick up the pen, so to speak. I'll be anxiously waiting any sage responses, and in the meantime... Tristan, Alfred, Susanna and Isabel 2 await...

Marjorie

To Plot or Not to Plot

Here's a post from Christine. Go ahead and talk about your process! -- Carrie

Unlike everyone else on this list (I think), I write with a partner, Marisa. She lives about 2 hours north of me, and we manage to get together once every other month or so. Mostly we rack up long distance phone bills (ok, we have a total phone package deal but it doesn't sound the same) and email each other like a pair of stalkers.

Usually, we outline a story, get the first few chapters finished together, then divide the rest of it up. Once our latest section is sent off to the other, we tweak that part then I add it into the story as a whole. Depending on things, and if we like the way we’re actually progressing, a story will take us about 5-6 months. But then we both have full-time jobs and outside interests that suck up our time. Plus we tend to go back and self-edit quite a bit. Our goal for this year is to cut that time in half.

So my for everyone out there: Forgetting for a moment Work, Family, Non-Writing-Commitments, and most importantly Life (and how it has that annoying little habit of getting in the way of writing) how do you plan a story out and, assuming all goes well, about how long does it take you to finish it?

By Chritine Koehler

Time's A-wastin'

First, I have to get my blatant horn-tooting out of the way...

LADY X’S COWBOY has received a 2007 Golden Quill Award nomination for Best Historical! Squee! It's not what we'd call an "unusual historical" per se, as it is set in England in the 1880s, but I like to think that it's unusual by virtue of the fact that the heroine, Lady Olivia Xavier, owns and runs a brewery in London, and the hero...well, he’s a cowboy. Winners will be announced in the July 2007 RWR.

Maybe it's because of the hot weather here in Los Angeles, but I'm having a really hard time concentrating on my actual work and writing. So, naturally, I turn to the internet to amuse myself and generally waste time. Some of my favorite time-suck sites:

Romance Related:
Smart Bitches Trashy Books (the name says it all)
All About Romance (reviews, title listings, discussions)
Dear Author (reviews, news, opinion)
The Good, the Bad and the Unread (reviews and coming attractions)
Unusual Historicals (obviously)

Everything Else:
Cute Overload (now my husband is addicted to looking at pictures of kittens and puppies)
Slate (good cultural analysis)
Arts and Letters Daily (a clearinghouse of interesting articles, opinion pieces, book reviews and more)
Not Martha (nesting blogger: crafts, cooking, home improvement, &c.)
Outblush and Uncrate (shopping!)
Apartment Therapy (because being a published author doesn't mean I live on an estate like La Nora)
Television Without Pity (impossible to find better, funnier and more snarktastic television recaps)
The Comics Curmudgeon (you'd never know how many people read the funny papers and mock them)
Anthropologie (always cruising the sale rack)
Banana Republic (finally, petite clothing that I'd actually wear)

I could go on, but now you have a rather intimate (and sad) look at what preoccupies me when I'm not producing more masterpieces of romantic fiction.

Tell me I'm not alone! What are your favorite time-suck websites?

History Lite

One of my greatest challenges in historical fiction writing (and re-writing and self-editing) is finding the balance. Come on, you know exactly what I'm talking about if you love this genre; how do you write a compelling tale of love and betrayal, intrigue and deception while keeping the facts straight? Over many years, I've found out it nearly impossible to do.

History can get in the way of a good story. Unless you're writing alternate history, you can't have the princes in the Tower survive their imprisonment and Uncle Richard's reign during the War of Roses. A well-documented period, which almost every schoolchild and historian knows about is hard to tweak, just for the sake of a story. Well, unless you don't mind the scathing reviews that say something like, "...total rubbish," "...ridiculous, revisionist history," or "history lite...." In my case, the history of Moorish Spain has many period and modern sources readily available, (though, to my ultimate frustration, there remains a great deal of it in the un-translated Arabic texts). Despite what I'd like to write, I must accept that the Moors did lose Spain to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, while making significant contributions to different disciplines along the way.

It doesn't help that in addition to writing about a unique period of history, I'm also exploring a vastly different culture. As Marianne pointed out in her post, the Moorish influence on Spanish society was pervasive, with examples that exist today in the language, architecture, food and music of modern Spain. As I write, I still experience my initial fascination with the idea of a southern European country under the sway of Islam for seven hundred years. My first draft explored many facets of Moorish society, from the mundane to the exotic. After completing the second draft, I eagerly began to submit what I was sure would be the next great novel to agents and publishers, only to be told the story was not good enough –- too much history and details to care about the characters. For me, finding that balance has been its own work in progress, something I still struggle with each day as I work on the third draft.

What's the process been like for you? How do you strike that balance between engaging a reader and getting the history just right?

Sincerely,
Lisa
***
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/medieval_fiction_writers/
http://sultana1ny.tripod.com/
http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/

To Plot or Not to Plot

Unlike everyone else on this list (I think), I write with a partner, Marisa. She lives about 2 hours north of me, and we manage to get together once every other month or so. Mostly we rack up long distance phone bills (ok, we have a total phone package deal but it doesn’t sound the same) and email each other like a pair of stalkers.

Usually, we outline a story, get the first few chapters finished together, then divide the rest of it up. Once our latest section is sent off to the other, we tweak that part then I add it into the story as a whole. Depending on things, and if we like the way we’re actually progressing, a story will take us about 5-6 months. But then we both have full-time jobs and outside interests that suck up our time. Plus we tend to go back and self-edit quite a bit. Our goal for this year is to cut that time in half.

So my for everyone out there: Forgetting for a moment Work, Family, Non-Writing-Commitments, and most importantly Life (and how it has that annoying little habit of getting in the way of writing) how do you plan a story out and, assuming all goes well, about how long does it take you to finish it?