What Are You Working On?

First I must apologize to my fellow bloggers for having been MIA in June. I was behindhand all month due to working on what is now my latest book, so July's topic is particularly pertinent.

This month the question is: what book (or type of book) are you currently working on? Do you have ideas for future books?

  

I have just typed THE END on Book 3 in my Berkeley Square Regency romance series. When I started writing Book 1, I had no idea that it would expand beyond that. It wasn’t even Book 1 at that point, just an idea for a Regency romance that wouldn’t go away, but that’s what happens when characters almost jump off the page and demand their own books.

Okay, okay. Not literally, of course. It’s just one of those quirky turns of phrase that writers tend to bandy about. Non-writers just don’t get the concept of having people wandering around in your head and whispering in your ear from the inside out. My heroine in Book 1, His Dark Enchantress is Emmeline Devereux, whose best friend is Lady Juliana Clifton. Juliana intruded so much while I was writing His Dark Enchantress that I gave her a book of her own, Book 2, His Ocean Vixen.

Believing I had done with those characters, I started thinking about what else I could write, but a reader query asking if Lady Rosemary Darnley, the villainess in Book 1, ever got her comeuppance, started me on another path which led to Book 3, His Unexpected Muse. This involves the unexpected (as the title suggests) romance between Lady Olivia Darnley (Rosemary’s daughter) and Lord Peter Skeffington, both characters from Book 1. You’ll have to read the book, which will be launched next month, to find out what happens to Lady Darnley.

So what comes next? I have an idea for a new series on Regency belles (hmm, now that could work as a series title) and already have a rough outline for Book 1. It will mean more research, but that is the part I really like. Plus, why let all the research I have already done go to waste?

Take a look at what my fellow Round Robin authors have in the works by clicking on their links.

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Marci Baun  http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-1EW
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

Our first Round Robin blog for 2019 asks: How do you develop different personalities in your main characters? How about secondary characters? Do you have a favorite secondary character or one who has moved on into their own story?

I just love building characters and use several techniques for developing them once they have introduced themselves to me. That might sound odd, but I see my characters and know their names and physical details before I even start writing. But for ‘the rest of the story?’ Ah. That’s where the character building and developing comes in.

My first go-to is to give them a birthday. From that, I use their astrological signs to determine their strengths and weaknesses. I don’t necessarily include their birthdates in my text, I just get to know them better and definitely pay attention to their weaknesses as this is often where I find my characters’ flaws. If my characters have siblings, I’ll refer to The Birth Order Book to see what else I might discover about them depending on where they come in their family's line-up. I do a character interview, and this can be a surprising exercise as I find totally unexpected aspects of my characters, which all add up to a more rounded, fully three-dimensional character.

One of my secondary characters was Lady Juliana Clifton from my first Regency title, His Dark Enchantress. She was my hero’s sister and kept intruding at every turn, especially when Lord

Clifton’s love interest, Emmaline, was on the page. I think there might have been some rivalry going on there, each vying for His Lordship’s attention! Once I promised Juliana her own book, she went away. She got her own book, His Ocean Vixen, the second book in my Berkeley Square series. The third book in the series, His Unexpected Muse, will be released this coming March and again, the characters featured are secondary characters from the first book, Lady Olivia Darnley and Lord Peter Skeffington.

The characters who populate our pages are with us for far longer than it takes to write the book they feature in, and I know I’m reluctant to let them go. See what these other authors have to say about their characters.

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Margaret Fieland http://margaretfieland.wordpress.com
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/blog
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq.1tc
Fiona McGier http://www,fionamcgier.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Connie Vines http;//mizging.blogspot.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Rhobin L Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com/

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

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/542275

Coupon NR95Q (not case-sensitive

His Ocean Vixen

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734276

Coupon EF49H (not case-sensitive

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.

Anne Stenhouse  http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/ 
Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Victoria Chathamhttp://www.victoriachatham.com
Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/ 
A.J. Maguire  http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
Rachael Kosinski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com