Saturday, September 23, 2017

September's Round Robin Topic




Topic: What characters in other author's books have not left your mind? Have written a character who wouldn't leave you? Why do you think this happens?

We all have favorite books, sometimes too many to list individually. I could start with my childhood favorite, Black Beauty. From that classic, I went on to read others while at school. Admittedly, these were somewhat foist upon me because of my English courses, but I never forgot Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett or Emma Woodhouse, Bronte’s Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights or Paul Craddock from R.F. Delderfield’s A Horseman Riding By. But, without any doubt at all, I have to say that Frederica from Georgette Heyer’s Regency romance by that title, is my all time, hands down favorite.

Frederica was published in 1965 and I snapped it up as soon as it hit the store bookshelves to add to my already extensive Heyer collection. Since then I have read that book at least once every year. You do the math! The time between each reading is of no matter as the story comes across as fresh and as funny as the first time I read it.

It is, I think, her best romance. The Marquis of Alverstoke is tumbled from his bored and cynical heights by Frederica’s wit, charm, and unselfconscious beauty. The fact that she thinks about her rambunctious family more than herself is also a novelty to a man who is used to having his family apply to him for all manner of reasons, most of them financial.

This is a comedy of manners and a subtle construct of human behavior. Heyer cleverly uses the interactions between Frederica and her siblings to intrigue the Marquis who has little attachment to his young relatives, although he can be kind to them when it pleases him.

Frederica, more than any other book, is the book that tempted me to write Regency romance. I love the style of the era (if one is rich, of course), the elegance of the architecture, and the costumes.

When I started writing my first Regency tale, His Dark Enchantress, I never expected to write another. However, my hero’s sister kept intruding. Each time I started a scene with my heroine, Emmaline Devereux, Lady Juliana Clifton elbowed her way in. This carried on until I promised her a book of her own, which came out as His Ocean Vixen.

Neither of my heroines are wilting wall-flowers. Quite the opposite, in fact. But, even though Emmaline was my first Regency heroine, Juliana is by far my favorite of the two. I think it was because she had a little more spark than Emmaline, probably because she had siblings as foils whereas Emmaline was an only child and something of an introvert. Both young ladies were of superior intellect, something not much appreciated in that time.

Both these titles are on sale now at Smashwords.


His Dark Enchantress

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His Ocean Vixen

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I think the reason that Juliana stays with me now, is that she is everything I am not or maybe is everything I would like to be. She has bravery and adventure stamped on her soul, whereas I would never consider myself brave and like my home comforts. Last year I came this close >< to going on a zip line but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.

So what about the other authors in our Round Robin pool? Check out these websites to see what they have to say.







14 comments:

  1. LOL, we share many favorites starting right off with Black Beauty. I also enjoyed Heyer's novels and I completely forgot to mention Elizabeth Bennett? How could I have forgotten her?

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    1. I bet you hadn't forgotten Elizabeth, only tucked her away for a little while! Oh, and after Black Beauty there were the Flicka and Black Stallion stories and The Brumby. Need I say more?

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  2. I see by this and other Round Robin blogs today that I am not alone in my eternal love of Heyer's work. Without all the sex that appears in today's regencies, she captivated us all and created strong heroines we can all love.

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    1. I've had my wrists slapped for not writing 'true' Regency as both of mine do have sex scenes. However, Book 3 in the series, His Unexpected Muse coming out early 2018, will be a much more 'traditional' Regency.

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    1. I still have my copy from when I was about 8 or 9 years old!

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  4. You named a lot of great classics. Good post.

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  5. Thank you! I think between us we all came up with some good titles.

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  6. Hullo Victoria, Georgette Heyer truly captured generations, didn't she? I see that you also, like me, had an intruding character who clamoured for a book.. It's such a great moment when a creation does that. Anne

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    1. It certainly is, Anne! Saves an author all the trouble of dreaming up new characters when they are already made.

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  7. Victoria, I liked your line about people liking characters that reflected who they would like to be. :)

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  8. I went to a workshop where the presenter showed us how she 'acted out' her characters. It was quite enlightening. Since then, I've tried it myself and some of my characters I've really liked while I've learnt a lot about others.

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  9. I have always heard of Georgette Heyer, but haven't read her. You have definitely piqued my interest. She'll be on my To Be Read list. You are right. Readers like "spunky" heroines.

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  10. From everything I have read of her she was an amazing lady. Her research was so deep and detailed that she was even invited to lecture at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst because the details in her book An Infamous Army were so exact. While most of her books are romances, An Infamous Army is more historical fiction as it centres on the Battle of Waterloo. If you've never read her before, I'd highly recommend Frederica as a starting point.

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