RomanceEverAfter
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People You Should Know A Conversation with Ross Howard, A Cure for Kirby, Meet Monica Davis and Geir Ness. The Beauty of Change Series Historical Romance Column and Book Reviewer: Kaye Hatfield NEW! Sam DeMarco Have you dreamed of starting your own business? Sam DeMarco, owner of Compliance Team, did and he tells us how he made his dream a reality! Photo Gallery Romance & You (Articles) Romantic Memoir
Quotes & Poetry Expand your quotes and poetic horizons by visiting our various Quotes & Poetry categories: Thought of the Week: Time for New Beginnings A series of 8 articles by Melissa Hamilton comprising a collection of principles that will allow you to make your vision for the future a reality. Read about the Amish, India, Philippines, Greece, & Rome.
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Elizabeth Powell
Also, Elizabeth has a great interest in music and dance of other cultures. We had the opportunity to ask her about it. Check out her interview in the History & Cultures category at Music/Dance & Culture. What do you find romantic? I love to walk hand in hand with my husband down a moonlit beach, or retreat, just the two of us, to a secluded cabin in the woods. But my heart also does a little quiver when my husband wakes up early to make a pot of tea for me, knowing that I’m under deadline and have a hard day ahead. Romance thrives when two people care about each
other, and are attuned to each other’s needs and feelings; even little
gestures take on romantic significance. When I was under pressure to meet my
last deadline, my husband brought home take-out from a different place each
night for an entire month so I could concentrate on writing, not cooking. Things
like that just make me melt. Why do you like reading and writing romance? Two reasons, really. One (and this is a confession of sorts): I’m a plot junkie! I don’t read books so much as devour them, and I frequently finish a story in one sitting. Of course, that often means I’m awake until 2 AM, but I have to know how things turn out – sleep can wait! The second reason: I’m hooked on the concept of Happily Ever After. I get this tremendous sense of satisfaction from watching the hero and heroine overcome every obstacle in order to be together. That emotional catharsis is so compelling, and I love to be able to create that same experience for my readers.
What, I gotta pick only three?! Oh, this is cruel! OK, OK…three it is. First – the period itself. So much happened during the Regency! Between the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, the political intrigue, the rise of industrialization, and the glittering world of the haut ton, the Regency is a never-ending whirl of activity – and gives rise to so many story ideas! Second – the mode of dress. What woman can’t imagine herself in a flowing, classically-inspired gown, dancing the night away on the arm of a smartly-dressed gentleman? I’m a costume fanatic to begin with, so I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to the Regency period. One of these days (when we finish the basement and I have a sewing room of my own), I would love to make myself a period-correct Regency outfit with all the trimmings. Third – the social intricacies. Class, wealth, and social standing played a much greater role in the Regency than in our world. And, although restrained by the conventions of polite society, so many passions lurked beneath the cultured and seemingly placid surface of the beau monde. I am fascinated by this dichotomy! Movies like Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice illustrate this point very well; the characters’ inflection and the body language give new meaning to the interaction between them, and I just love it.
I look first for primary sources – like diaries, or letters written by people who lived during the Regency. These give me not only an excellent feel for the language of the period, but also provide a first-hand peek of what life was like for these individuals. My most recent acquisition is a book of letters written by a cavalry officer during the Peninsular War. Gritty stuff. If I can’t access any primary sources, I’ll move on to secondary sources – books written on the subject by modern-era authors. For example: when doing research on the Royal Navy for my debut novel, THE TRAITOR’S DAUGHTER, I added as many sources on the navy and naval life as I could to my reference library. I was not planning to use all the information I found, but I needed to know everything my hero would know in order to portray him effectively. I also spend dozens of hours closeted in the local university library, and dozens more on the Internet, which is becoming increasingly more valuable as a research tool – you can find almost anything online. But I find I gravitate towards books first. Even when I’m not actively doing research, I will often come across a book that might prove valuable in the future, or one that piques my curiosity, and add it to my collection. Needless to say, I’m running out of room on my bookshelves! Why do I go to such lengths? Because I believe that good, solid research is essential for historical romance. A thorough knowledge of a time period should come through in an author’s work, ultimately to enable the reader to feel as though he or she is actually there. With THE TRAITOR’S DAUGHTER, I might have been able to bluff my way through the descriptions of naval justice and protocol, but my hero, Jack Everly, would not have been nearly so believable as a navy captain, and I did not want to settle for that. The more an author knows, the more it colors her writing. Why do a pencil sketch when you can present the reader with a full-color, wall-sized mural? Regencies are especially demanding in this regard; Regency readers know right away whether or not an author got her facts straight. Glaring errors hamstring a writer’s credibility. So I know I’d better do my homework.
Well, I can’t speak for my readers (I haven’t heard from many yet!), but I can tell you what characteristics I like to see in a heroine. I like to read about women who are resilient, who have a strong sense of self, who are assertive without being shrill or overbearing, and who don’t rely on the hero to rescue them from their troubles. Even though my stories take place two hundred years in the past, my heroines tend to take on a strength and energy that resonates with the modern world, and, hopefully, modern women.
My newest release is A RECKLESS BARGAIN, which will hit the shelves in August. The hero, Lord Bainbridge, had a cameo appearance in THE TRAITOR’S DAUGHTER. It’s a very emotionally-charged book, and I hope readers will enjoy it. I’m also just finishing up work on my third book, THE RELUCTANT ROGUE, which should be published some time in Spring 2003.
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