Visuals. Can someone explain it to me?

Have you ever been disappointed when your first see an actor/actress portraying a character from a well-loved novel – for example did your heart sink when you first saw Mr Darcy on screen, or Rochester. Perhaps Elizabeth Bennett wasn't quite as you imagined her, or Jane Eyre was too pretty/too plain.  I remember seeing a very early film version of Jane Eyre and being very disappointed in Rochester, because I had a clear idea of him in my mind, after reading (and re-reading) the book. And don't get me started on book covers, although the cover of my latest Harlequin Historical (left) is pretty close to how I imagine my heroine to look and I confess that when I was choosing a cover for the e-book version of A LADY AT MIDNIGHT (below), I deliberately avoided showing the heroine's face!

 

When I am writing a new book I always know what my hero and heroine will look like and I try to find a picture or a painting for my storyboard of someone who is a close approximation of each character. It might be an actor, or a model, or perhaps a portrait by Gainsborough or Reynolds.   They are never perfect, of course, nothing can ever match the person I see in my mind, but near enough to fire the imagination as I am writing.  I never like to disclose this model to anyone as I would prefer readers to form their own idea of the character based not just on looks but their personality, too.

I have been beavering away on a new historical for Harlequin and as usual I wanted to set up my storyboard with visuals of the main characters. In this case the heroine is initially considered "mousy" but in fact, when the hero (and the reader) gets to close enough to see her properly, he discovers her hair is the colour of honey and her eyes are grey-green, deepening in colour when she is rouse to anger or joy. And she may be quiet and shy, but she has a determination to match his own.

My hero, for once is not he dark, brooding type but fair. He is a Regency playboy, handsome, blue –eyed and fair-haired (well, light brown) . He has boyish good-looks, although with a certain world weariness about him. I searched online for a model/actor/celebrity who might fit the bill.  I am sure you can think of several, and after I am only looking for a look, an image to help me visualise my character. Once the book is written the reader has only the words to go on and will imagine their own perfect man.  So, at last I came up with a few pictures of a certain famous actor – arguably a modern day playboy, and I am sure many would call him boyishly good-looking.  I printed out a few pictures that were most like my hero and began to write, but something didn't fit. Whenever I looked at my storyboard I just couldn't "see" my hero. Then, while browsing online for something completely different, I came across a photograph of  a different actor, one I had used before but these stills were from a costume drama and I realised that this was my hero – or as near as a real-life person was ever going to get. It is only in certain looks, certain mannerisms that I can "see" my hero this actor, but it's enough for me to get on with my book.

So now I am happy. I can write my book, glancing occasionally at the pictures on my storyboard for inspiration, but I have no doubt that once the book is written, if I were to ask a reader just who, in real life, my characters most resemble, I would get many, many different answers!

How do you visualise your characters?  Do you have a favourite image, perhaps a friend, or a celebrity who is the hero/heroine in your mind when you start reading a new book, or does the character grow on you as you get to know them?  And why is it that however detailed the description on the page, we all see that character differently?

I'd love to know

Melinda Hammond / Sarah Mallory 

THE SCARLET GOWN - Sarah Mallory - pub August 2014 Harlequin

A LADY AT MIDNIGHT - Melinda Hammond - available as an e-book on Amazon

Jane Austen's Legacy

I’ve been thinking a lot about Jane Austen recently; in fact it’s hard not to think about her. Although she’s been dead for nearly two hundred years, she is rarely out of the news. This month alone has seen stories about the unveiling of a Jane Austen waxwork and a report on a Pride and Prejudice costume ball at Chatsworth.


But Jane Austen’s real legacy is her books. Not only did she write six brilliant major novels, which are still read the world over, but she inspired two distinct romance genres: Austenesque fiction and Regency romances. It’s those genres I thought I’d write about today. They are so popular that Amazon.com has a dedicated Regency romance chart and I wasn’t surprised to find that Austenesque fiction features prominently. There are six Austenesque works in the current top 100, as well as an audio version and a paperback version of Pride and Prejudice. That makes 8 works out of 100 that are directly influenced by Jane. Not bad for an author who has been dead for nearly two hundred years!

There’s a wide variety of styles in the top 100, too, reflecting the wide variety of Jane’s own novels. There’s a servant’s viewpoint (Longbourn by Jo Baker) and a couple of ‘variation’ novellas (Mr Darcy’s Rescue: Darcy and Elizabeth What If? #2 by Jennifer Lang; and The Gentleman’s Impertinent Daughter by Rose Fairbanks).




There’s a romantic mystery with an Austenesque title (Pride and Pleasure by Sylvia Day ); there’s a novel that includes a love interest for Lady Catherine (Remember the Past by Maria Grace), and there’s part of an Austenesque trilogy by Gianna Thomas.







And then there are the Regency romances. The names are not Darcy and Elizabeth, and the events are not those of Pride and Prejudice, but the stories and characters have much in common with Austen’s novels. There are arrogant heroes and feisty heroines who meet at balls, in carriages and on picnics. There are matchmaking mothers, interfering aunts, indolent fathers and annoying sisters. There are books with gentler couples like Jane Bennet and Mr Bingley, or longstanding friends turned lovers, like Emma and Mr Knightley.

I’ll be looking at some of these in my next post, because I have a lifelong love of Regency romances in all their forms.Everyone else on the blog has the same love. In fact, between us, we’ve written hundreds of Regencies and Austenesque novels, and we have read thousands of them.


So which are your favourites? Do you love Austenesque fiction, and if so, what is your favourite kind of story - retellings, what if? stories or sequels? Are you a Regency fan? Do you love the arrogant, haughty heroes or do you prefer the gentler gentlemen? Do you like your heroines to be heiresses or do you prefer them to be young ladies who have to seek employment because of family misfortune? Or perhaps you prefer the wilder side of the Regency universe, with ghostly hauntings, time slips or paranormal elements? Let us know!

Amanda Grange

Hi from Anne Herries

Hi everyone
I responded to the invite so that I would still be able to use this blog.  It is an age since I did because I've been busy with my saga writing.  My Rosie Clarke saga has done very well, some lovely reviews on amazon and a couple elsewhere.

However, there are some new Regency stories coming out.  The one above is published in November and two others will follow the following year.

Love to all
Linda/Anne

Wedding Dresses

We all love a wedding and the first thing most people want to see and comment on is the bride’s dress.  Who can resist having an opinion on what she’s wearing?

1931

Everyone has different tastes, and there are some mind-boggling creations that make their appearances in churches across the country – you do wonder sometimes what the poor grooms think when they see some of them come sailing down the aisle towards them!  (Provided, of course, they have followed the tradition of not being allowed to see it before the wedding, which I’ve always been told is very bad luck).  Most brides do look beautiful though, and who wouldn’t want to be at their best on such an important day?

At the moment, there is a wonderful exhibition on at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London showing wedding dresses and accessories from the late 1700’s onwards (Wedding Dresses 1775-2014).  A veritable feast for anyone who loves weddings, it is fascinating to see the progression of such gowns through the centuries.  Naturally they followed general fashion trends, but it is clear brides have always made an effort to wear the very best they could, spending as lavishly as their fathers permitted.  (There’s a selection of photos of some of the various gowns on the V & A’s Pinterest board here.)

1850's

To begin with, wedding dresses were just very nice gowns that could later be used again as ball gowns or for Sunday best.  Being white was not a prerequisite until Queen Victoria set a trend by wearing white at her own wedding in 1840, although young ladies often did wear white in any case.  The important thing seems to have been using a luxurious material and lots of special embellishments, such as exquisite embroidery and fine lace.  I loved seeing the various outfits on display and only wished I could have tried some of them on!

During World War II brides had to be extra inventive as dress materials were rationed.  Apparently upholstery/curtain material wasn’t though, so there were some lovely wedding dresses made out of what could also have passed for very pretty curtains!

1957

The exhibition doesn’t just show traditional gowns, however.  There were some very different ones, such as a glorious purple creation worn by Dita Von Teese when she married singer Marilyn Manson.  I would have worn that to a ball myself, but as she is an unusual lady, it suited her to perfection.

Afterwards, I found myself looking through the family albums to see what the generations before me chose to wear and they all appear to have dresses in keeping with the fashions of their time.  My great-great-great-grandmother in her Sunday best in the 1850's, my grandmother in a 1930’s style gown and my mother in late 1950’s elegance.  As for me, I chose a Victorian style, having always loved the bustles and ‘leg-of-mutton’ sleeves so prevalent then.  Would I still choose that if I were to be married now?  Probably – I’m an old-fashioned kind of girl.

I was pleased to discover that myrtle has been included in royal wedding bouquets for quite some time as I wore a crown made of myrtle leaves, a tradition in my own family.  I'd love to hear from anyone else who followed an unusual family tradition for their wedding!

Christina x

www.christinacourtenay.com

Henry Tilney's Diary

At last, the ebook version of Henry Tilney's Diary is out! Even better, it's in a special Amazon promotion for 99p, so if you don't have it yet, here's the link

Henry is such a brilliant character. Mr Darcy wins hands down in proud, arrogant stakes but Henry is a lot more fun. I started his diary before the start of Northanger Abbey because I wanted to see him with his family, particularly his adorable sister, Eleanor. I  included some extracts from an actual Horrid Novel, which Henry and Eleanor read to each other. So if you've ever wondered what those novels were like, here's your chance to find out (without having to read a whole one! But if this gives you a taste for them, there are plenty to choose from.)

Henry's diary also provides more details about Eleanor's romance and fleshes out the character of his ne'er do well brother, Frederick.  And then Henry meets Catherine, and that's where the diary catches up with the original novel.

I loved looking at the events of Northanger Abbey through Henry's eyes and I hope you do, too!

Amanda Grange
www.amandagrange.com

The difficulties in starting a new series

At the beginning of the year I had the opportunity to write a series I’ve been working on for some time. A new series of historical romances. I haven’t written anything quite this all-encompassing since Richard and Rose, but unlike that series, this has a different hero and heroine in each book.

But the premise is important for the whole series. That means it has to be consistent and rigorous. There’s a lot of hard work goes into doing that and in a historical, it’s important to keep it believable—getting the historical details believable and right.

In the Emperors of London, this included a Jacobite theme. I’ve done a lot of research on the Old Pretender and his children, mainly because I was interested. The plethora of romantic stories about Bonnie Prince Charlie, the songs and lore, led to looking at the real stories, the accounts of the disillusioned, wife-beating drunk that the Young Pretender turned into so quickly after Culloden, and the character defects that were there from the start.

Which led to the all-important “what if?” idea that triggered the writing of a series instead of one book or a trilogy. And when the idea came, the other elements fell into place.

But I had to work out what happened to the other characters in the stories and what their specific, particular stories were. Because a one-note series can be awfully tedious. Each character has to have his or her specific issue and problem, and they come from a variety of backgrounds.

All these needed working out, so they  could blend in together and make a coherent whole. But since there could be more stories to come there has to be an open-ended element too. The first seven books don’t encompass every Emperor’s story!

The publisher, Kensington, wanted an outline for the whole series. They wanted to contract them all, so I had to provide an outline and a premise. I usually work to a plot, but the plot doesn’t always work out by the time I’ve done, so doing this was very challenging.

I found it easiest to work from the backbone of the series, and work out  what each hero and heroine have to do with it. They must have different motivations, or the series would be in danger of becoming one-note. I did find it useful to do that. However, the theme had to be consistent.

Luckily, they didn’t want titles all at once, because my angsting over titles is famous among editors! But now I’m writing the third book, it’s all falling into place so beautifully it’s like it’s pre-ordained!

ROGUE IN RED VELVET, the first Emperors of London series will be available in ebook from 4^th August and in print in the autumn.