The short answer is, because I live it.

Seriously, when my books come out, I expect I’ll get some comments on the fact that they include a fair amount of slapstickyness.  People stumbling, tripping, falling on faces and arses (usually the heroines).  Some people like that kind of comedy in moderation (raises hand) and others don’t–it’s not ALL there is to my books, of course.  But I write it in because…honestly, I don’t know how to write a heroine who doesn’t fall on her face occasionally.  Because I do it all the time.

Right after New Year, for instance, I made a lunging grab for my younger dareling as he took off across the parking lot.  My boot caught on the curb, I fell swiftly and hard, and I ripped a newish pair of jeans and still have yellowing bruises on both knees. *sigh*  Yep, that’s me.  As my grandmother used to say, “Just call me Grace!”

These incidents also factor into my own real-life romance.  It’s astounding that Mr. Dare convinced me to marry him at all, considering that I incurred some serious blunt trauma on one of our first dates.  And it was all his fault. Yes.  It was.

See, we were at the Getty Center in LA (and the man was getting some serious points for taking me to an art museum on one of our first dates.  I’m not sure he’s taken me to an art museum since, but…)  The Getty Center is several galleries, connected … Read More »

I have some!

I mean…I found some online.  If Random House can post them on their site, I figured it should be safe for me to do the same, right?

Aren’t they pretty?  I really have to hand it to the Art Department at Ballantine – they worked very hard to get so many details right, when it came to the heroines’ physical characteristics and the settings of the books.  These must have taken so much time and effort.  I’m really impressed and very grateful.… Read More »

I hope you all had lovely holidays!  We certainly did at the Dare residence.  This was the first year that both darelings were really old enough to get excited about Christmas and Santa (who did not disappoint!), and we all had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa Dare, despite passing around a nasty cold.

Now 2009 is starting off with a bang!  Huge congratulations to Erica Ridley, who has just announced her first sale–a two-book deal with Kensington.  Hooray, Erica!  Congratulations are also in order for former Fanlitter Lori Brighton, who also recently inked a two-book deal, also with Kensington!

My own exciting news: As of today, all three of my books are available for pre-order on Amazon!  Here are links to Goddess of the Hunt, Surrender of a Siren, and A Lady of Persuasion.  (I just have to stop once again and marvel at the fact that I actually got to keep my books’ original titles!  How often does that happen?) Over the holidays, I completed my copy edits on SIREN, and now it’s back to working on Stud Club while I wait for book three edits.

Everyone’s talking and blogging about New Year’s resolutions this week, it seems.  Well, 2009 is going to be a busy year for me.  I have three novels and one e-book novella releasing.  I plan to complete at least 2-3 more new books.  I’m serving on the board of my local RWA chapter, and I’ll be sending my … Read More »

Okay, so getting back to this whole “How I write a book” series.

Lessee, I’ve blogged about the thinking and the “moments” and the research and the imaginary casting call for my characters.  Once I’ve let all that ferment for a while, I usually sit down and outline.

Well, sort of.  This would not be a formal-looking outline, with neat indents and A’s and IV’s and etc.  This would not even be a scene-by-scene outline.  It’s more like, I sit down with my laptop and just spew out all the notes and scenes and dialog that have been coalescing in my brain, in somewhat sequential fashion.  Some bits will be very fleshed out, with whole chunks of inner motivations and dialogue.  In other parts, I’ll have something like “they encounter difficulties”–meaning, the difficulty will be mine when I reach that section and must figure out what the heck should happen.

I begin at the beginning, and I work to the end. The end result is messy and uneven, but this is the stage where it starts to all come together as a story.  And to swipe the motto of one of my soon-to-be publishers, “It’s all about the story.”

I have writer friends who swear by storyboards, post-its, index cards, spreadsheets, and the like.  I’ve tried them all.  I’ve learned this: I am allergic to squares.  Trying to fit a story into a series of boxes…erg, it makes me break out in hives.  To me, a story is linear.  It … Read More »

Hope you all had a lovely holiday!  My eldest dareling came down with a stomach bug, and Mr. Dare worked overtime.  This added up to very little work time for me, and of course my copy edits are still calling…I did manage to send off a sneak peek of Stud Club to my agent at 3:30 this morning.  *crossing fingers*  Haven’t done a lick of Christmas shopping.  *sigh*

So, I haven’t had much time to think of a blog topic.  However, a very dear friend (whose initials might include a C and an M) is getting married very soon.  I really think we ought to prepare her for the wedding night in true historical romance fashion, by giving her “the talk.”

So I challenge you all to pass on your favorite romancelandia advice to the bride, a la “Lay back and think of England.”  Extra points to you if it involves an agricultural metaphor. 🙂  Or, since the hero of her forthcoming novel is an ornithologist, a few bird-and-bee analogies would not go astray.… Read More »

It’s been a while since I wrote a newsy little post about my exciting life as a soon-to-be-published author.  I know a lot of you who read this blog do so because you’re either traveling the same journey or will be soon, and want to know what lies ahead. So here’s the status update:

Cover art for Goddess of the Hunt exists, but I cannot yet show you. 😛  It’s pending approval by…all those mysterious, powerful people who approve such things.  Covers for the second and third books are in the works, and I hope to get a peek at them soon!  My relatives can breathe a sigh of relief, because (unless something drastically changes) the “look” for the trilogy is very tasteful and pretty, with nary a nipple in sight.

I am expecting my line and copy edits on GOTH any day now…I’ve been assured I’ll have a whole week to go over them. 🙂  My second book, Surrender of a Siren, has been sent off for copy editing too, after I added a few pages to the epilogue at my editor’s request. No word yet on the third book, A Lady of Persuasion.

I was mentioned in Romantic Times!  Okay, so it was half a sentence (maybe a third-sentence?) in a 2009 preview article (page 10 of the current issue, if you’re curious), but hey – Romantic Times!

Oh, and this is super exciting for me – that little novella I wrote over the summer?  … Read More »

So, moving right along with the writing process…

I’ve got characters, a vague plot built around these “moments”, and I’ve started my research.  As part of the research, I collect pictures.  I find it helpful to imagine my settings and characters’ physical traits from the foundation of a painting or photograph of an actual place or person.  Or horse.

For example, for the book I’m working on right now (working title The Desire of a Duke, since it includes the essential Tessa Dare titling element: the word “of”, LOL), I’m loosely basing the hero’s estate on an actual estate in Cambridgeshire: Wimpole Hall.  Pretty impressive, no?

And there’s a very important racehorse in the book, who I am making the fictional “great-grandchild” of the famous stallion Eclipse.

Lastly, I also pick celebrity models for my hero and heroine.  I know different authors have mixed feelings about this – I don’t know why I find it so helpful, but I do.  It’s important that it not be just a photo of a model, but someone I can watch in action, on TV or in movies.  Somehow this helps me develop a visual image of how my character moves, reacts, stands, sits, relaxes, and so forth.  Seldom does the character in my mind match up exactly with his/her inspiration, but it’s just a helpful starting place.

If you’re one of those readers who prefers her own imagination, I’ll put the pictures of my Spencer and Amelia inspirations below the … Read More »

Okay, I know the world is abuzz with exciting news, but this is my own little tiny piece of excitement.

My first book, Goddess of the Hunt, is now listed on Amazon!  It’s not available for pre-order quite yet, but imagine it will be soon. You can pre-order it now!  Hooray!

Actually, you can already pre-order it from the Random House site here.

It’s all starting feel so…real.… Read More »

This would be the third installment in my little “How I write a book” series; click the tag below for all of them.  It’s my continuing effort to understand myself and have a cogent answer for people when they ask me that dreaded “are you a plotter/pantser/pepper” question.

Warning:  Overextended analogies ahead.

At this point in my process, I have characters.  I have this constellation of “moments” that I believe I can string a plot around.  My next step is to take all these wild ideas I have–like, “Ooh, what if she gets on a ship for the West Indies!” or “Ooh, what if he runs for Parliament!” and let historical reality crush them.  Mua ha ha.

No, not really.

For a writer of historical romance–okay, at least for this writer of historical romance–research is a chicken-and-egg thing.  Meaning, I eat a lot while I do it.

No, okay, seriously.  It usually starts out as, “Here’s the story I want to tell.  How can I make it historically plausible?”  (Note, I am relatively unconcerned about it being historically probable. It’s more than okay with me if I have my characters doing highly unlikely things–that makes for good story, IMO.  I just try to avoid having them do chronologically impossible things.)

So I crack open that egg and start the research, and discover all the defects in that perfect, fluffy adorable little chick of a plot I’d been dreaming about.  I have the inevitable moments like these:  … Read More »

*blinks*

Sorry to have been scarce for the past week.  I sort of went into e-hiding, to focus on writing.  The good news is, after several false starts, I finally have a beginning I like for my new book.  Which doesn’t mean it’s the beginning that will be in the final draft necessarily, but it means it’s a viable starting place and I’m making good progress.  Yay!

Basically, toward the middle of last week, things were not looking good.  I was completely frustrated with my circular “progress” and just not having fun writing the story–which is a sure sign something is wrong.  I was so distracted, I clean forgot to watch the season finale of Project Runway.  Mr. Dare got fed up with my irritable, impossible-to-live-with-ness, he threw me out of the house and forced–forced!–me to go to a nice hotel for the weekend and type my fingers off.  So that’s what I did.  And bless him, it worked.  I came back energized, optimistic, and very clean (I think I took five showers in 2 days–that’s how I do my best thinking, after all, and then all that unlimited hot water and free white-ginger soap…mmm).

How do I reward this man?  He really is a hero.… Read More »