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I Don’t Want To Write A Regency

August 11, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Reader Review

by Sandra Paul

Regular readers usually have a book or two lying on their coffee tables. Book lovers’ homes tend to feature large shelving units with a cozy couch nearby to cuddle up on while reading.

Bookaholics have couches, too–at least, I think we do. It’s hard to tell with books stacked everywhere. All too often, the only visible seat in our house is in the bathroom.

Which is possibly why my husband blanched when I told him I was going to my friend Angie Ray’s to pick up books she was donating (thank you, Angie!) for OCC’s Back to School Research Book Sale scheduled for our September 8th meeting.

“More books!” My husband clapped his hand to his forehead as if he had an immediate headache. “You’re {insert bad word here}-ing me! We don’t have room in this house for any more books!”

“These aren’t for me,” I reminded him. “They’re research books for the chapter sale.”

“How many books are we talking about?” he demanded.

“I think she said she has one or two books . . .â€ I wrinkled my brow. “Or was that one or two boxes?”

He got the grim look he always seems to wear whenever we go into bookstores. “Promise me–promise me!–that you won’t decide to keep them all yourself.”

“I wouldnâ€™t do that! Besides, I’m working on a contemporary category with single title and historical western elements. Angie’s research books are mostly for medievals and Regencies. I don’t wanna write a Regency.”

He just stared at me.

I gave a long-suffering sigh. “Okay! I promise.”

“I’ll get the truck.”

He got the truck; and we hauled the books home. All five, nine–no, make that twelve–boxes of them. And I’m not going to keep them–but I figured it couldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t hurt to scan a few–just to share with my fellow writers.

So I scanned BRITAIN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES by Henry Steele Comager and discovered in Regency England, the way a person knocked on a door denoted his social standing. That a servant, a postman, a milkman, a “half or a whole” gentleman, a very great gentleman, a knight or a nobleman all had distinctive knocks. “A servant is bound to lift the knocker once, whilst the postman knocks twice, very loudly. A milkman knocks once, at the same time, sending forth an artificial noise, not unlike the yell of an American Indian . . .”

I never knew that.

Another book Angie donated (and I just happened to glance over) is CAPTAIN GRONOW: HIS REMINISCENCES OF REGENCY AND VICTORIAN LIFE 1810-60, edited by Christopher Hibbert.

Anyone who loves Georgette Heyer’s work, can’t help but be intrigued by Captain Gronow’s description, written in 1862, of the Crockford Club.

“I have alluded to the high play which took place at White’s and Brookes’s in the olden time,” says Gronow. “In the reign of George IV, a new star rose in the person of Mr. William Crockford; and the old-fashioned games of faro, macao, and lansquenet gave place to the all-devouring thirst for the game of hazard. Crockey, when still a young man, had relinquished the peaceful trade of a fishmonger for a share in a ‘hell,’ where with his partner Gye, he managed to win, after a sitting of twenty-four hours, the enormous sum of ones hundred thousand pounds. With this capital added to his former gains, he built the well-known palace in St. James’ Street–“

Okay. I wanna write a Regency.

Sandy Novy-Chvostal (aka Sandra Paul) is a recovering bookaholic, a published author, and 2007 Co-President of OCC/RWA.

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It’s Worth It

August 10, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as It's Worth It

STARTING OVER

By Kitty Bucholtz

Last month, my agent gave me notes on my latest novel. Iâ€™d turned in what I thought was â€œtheâ€ book â€“ it was funny, in a subgenre that was selling well, and most importantly, it was a story I loved with a passion. This was the book I thought would be my breakout work.

Instead, Iâ€™m going to have to do a page-one rewrite.

Itâ€™s embarrassing to admit, but the quick-to-be-emotional nature that helps me write romances brought a quick rush of tears at the news. I took a few deep breaths, washed my face and waited until the next day to think about it. I saw where my agent was coming from and agreed with her. But still, I was going to have to start over.

From the beginning.

My first thought was that Iâ€™d completely wasted a year of my life. My second was that if Iâ€™d known I would suck as a writer, I wouldnâ€™t have spent last year in another country stuck in my tiny cockroach-infested apartment. I wouldâ€™ve been out seeing the country!

My third thought went somewhere along the lines of â€œGet over it!â€ (I might not have been that nice though.)

My head agreed that the book would benefit from the changes. My heart wasnâ€™t there yet.

Itâ€™s been a few weeks now and Iâ€™ve done a lot of brainstorming, taken pages and pages of new notes, and created a brand new (empty) file for the new version. A few days ago, I finally â€œgot it.â€ The story is coming fast and furious now â€“ and itâ€™s so much better than the initial version that I donâ€™t even know how to compare the two. And THAT is exciting!

Starting over is rarely easy â€“ new book, new job, new home. But if you look for it, youâ€™ll always be able to find something that makes you say, â€œItâ€™s worth it.â€

Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, sheâ€™s pretty sure she knows at least three people who arenâ€™t writers.

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A Writer’s Life: If I Were A Man, I Never Would’ve Gotten Any Action

August 10, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as A Writer's Life

Because in my 20’s, I had a real problem with asking for what I wanted.

I remember the very first query letter I wrote to Harlequin Silhouette. I was almost apologizing for wasting their time in asking them to consider my book. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great book but you think after all the nights and lunch hours I spent on that thing that I would’ve been a better advocate than that.

As time wore on, I wanted to be published so badly that it became my life purpose to sell Hot Tamara. Maybe I was tired of rejection, or just getting ornery as I approached my thirties. Whatever the case, I began thinking about why I should be published as opposed to why I shouldn’t. When I wrote that fateful query letter to Harper Collins, I shook my moneymaker, baby. I was damn proud of that story. Having reread the letter recently, there’s a chutzpah to it even though the book had already been rejected by ten agents.

The thing is, when you finally climb up into the realm of publishing, you have to keep on asking for what you want. You have to risk that someone will tell you no, which then requires that you do some fancy footwork to change their mind, or maneuver around them. Even though I consider myself to be moderately ballsy, I still squirm just a little bit when I ask my agent to do something on my behalf, or my readers to buy my next book.

When I hesitate, I remember that no one else will do it for me … unless of course, I ask them to.

Mary Castillo is the author of In Between Men and Hot Tamara. Her website is www.marycastillo.com.

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My Keeper Shelf

August 9, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Keeper Shelf

By Monica Stoner

The keeper shelf for an eclectic reader can be a thing of wonder and mystery. You wonder how one person can possibly enjoy all these different books. Dick Francis sits next to Julie Garwood and one shelf up from Laurie Berenson. Anne McCaffery overflows onto Suzanne Brockmannâ€™s spot and Nora Roberts fills in the non existent holes. Ayn Rand lives next shelf up from Laurie R. King. And thatâ€™s just the fiction bookshelf. Non fiction covers canine structure and health, herbs, raptors, all phases of horsemanship through the ages and organic gardening (did you know just having the books doesnâ€™t make you an organic gardener? You actually have to get out a shovel and DIG.)

Most of these books are allowed out on loan to people who can pass a government level security check. After all, theyâ€™re just books, right? Yeah, right.

Then thereâ€™s the “real” keeper shelf. Books tattered and torn, spines carefully taped over, and pages brittle with age. Here you find Andre Norton, who did more for fantasy writing than any ten other authors. Laura London – surely youâ€™ve read Windflower? Have you found Lighting that Lingers, probably the most romantic book of all times? Remember the owl? Remember her loving him even though she just knew he was a bad, bad person?

And here, also, you find Theresa Weir. Not just the wonderful bigger books like Last Summer (bad boy actor and small town school teacher), Cool Shade (an agoraphobic former rock star and an insecure DJ), Bad Karma (a for-real psychic and a disillusioned sheriff whoâ€™s forgotten how to dream), Amazon Lily (the ultimate jungle romance); but also the smaller books, where every word is a treasure, and you only wish the book could last forever. Loving Jenny, about ordinary people in an ordinary small town where we all wish we could live.

Itâ€™s no wonder I canâ€™t settle down to one style of writing, or confine myself to one era. Right after I read Saving Grace for the umpteenth time, I pick up a perfectly crafted mystery set among horses in England, only to move on to a perfect love story about ordinary people who live ordinary lives but love each other extraordinarily. Maybe I could write more if I boxed up all these books out of sight, but Iâ€™m not going to risk my sanity with that kind of experiment!

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