historical romance

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Michaeline: Truth and “Truthiness”

Naked truth carries a large mirror or magnifying glass. Men cower at her feet and she tramples them. Verite est la massue qui chacun assomme et tue

The club of truth. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

OK, so I don’t know how much backstory is needed, nor can I figure out how to weave it in skillfully, so I’ll plop it right here in three paragraphs or less.

Someone was wrong on the Internet. Sylvia Woodham tweeted a critique at Adrianna Herrera’s announcement of an Afro-Latinx book set in 1880s Paris. She said she wasn’t aware of travel from Latin America to Europe in the 19th century, therefore, the book should be historical fantasy, not fiction. She accused Herrera of historical inaccuracy.

Herrera explained the historical premise to her book. People piled on Woodham. Piper J. Drake wrote a good thread on why some people got so mean about an “little” mistake on Woodham’s part. (Scare quotes – little in some people’s eyes, part of a huge pattern of erasure and historical inaccuracy and simple ignorance in others.)

This led to a big discussion on truth in historical fiction. And as you know, on the internet a discussion

The links to these tweets are at the bottom of the post. Summary: Herrera's Afro-Latinx book, Las Leonas, announced. Woodham says, "Historical fiction should have historical accuracy? I am not aware of historical record that there was much travel from Latin America to Europe in the 19th century. Happy to be proven wrong. Otherwise it would be historical fantasy? For the sake of accuracy." Herrera provides screenshot of original tweet and link her to history lesson on the accuracy of her book.

Tweets from @LaQuette Writes (night mode) and @ladrianaherrera documenting the beginning of the Twitter discussion I’m referencing very tangentially. Links are at the bottom of the page. Via Twitter.

tends to spread out in all directions with tentacles and tangents. Emma Barry tweeted, “I wrote an unmarried, super hot astronaut in 1962. No one has ever called me out for that even though it’s not historically accurate. That’s a form of white privilege.” August 21, 2020. She’s talking about Star Dust, the first book in her Fly Me to the Moon series. It was set in Houston, 1962, and published on October 14, 2015.

And that, my friends, is what sparked my blog for today. But I see we’re almost out of time, so . . . .

Nah, just kidding. True facts are not believed. Untrue facts are. What is this weird phenomenon?

Link to Tweet at bottom of page. Text: Emma Barry @AuthorEmmaBarry I wrote an unmarried, super hot astronaut in 1962. No one has ever called me out for that even though it's not historically accurate. That's a form of white privilege. August 21, 2020

Emma Barry’s tangent shocked me for a second. None of the 1960s astronauts were single? What about Captain Tony Nelson? Oh, yeah . . . he wasn’t real. Then he grew up to be a Texas oil tycoon with big dreams (whole-season dreams, IIRC). LOL. Image from Twitter.

You see, there’s no historical basis for unmarried 60s astronauts, Barry says. But the trope was well-accepted. Look at I Dream of Jeannie.

When I was a kid, my afternoons were homework with Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in syndicated re-runs. Extremely Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Three Questions for Nancy Yeager

Cover: Four Corners of Heaven, young woman in fancy dress,

Four Corners of Heaven came out March 12. (Image courtesy of Nancy Yeager)

Our own Eight Lady, Nancy Yeager, has a new book out this week! Four Corners of Heaven is part of her Harrow’s Finest Five, a period-romance set in the 1860s and 70s (see below for past posts about her series). I got the chance to read the book in beta, and it was a good read. Botany, women’s empowerment and fizzy romantic feelings!

I took the opportunity to ask Nancy three questions about her book, and here is what she said:
1. What’s your new book about? (Is it a stand-alone?)

I’ll take the easy part of that first. This can be read as a stand-alone book, but it the latest release (5th of an eventual 7) in my Victorian romance series, Harrow’s Finest Five. Regular readers of the blog might recall that the series is about “smart women, sexy men, steamy passion, and the occasional scandal.”

Four Corners is about two scientists pursuing a place in history who learn that love confounds logic every time. When their research unravels and forces them onto opposite sides of a scientific controversy, they’re forced to choose between their careers and their love .I think of it as my geeks-fall-in-love story. My goal, though, wasn’t to make them out as awkward or obtuse, absent-minded scientists. It was explore the way that two people who have single-mindedly, almost ruthlessly, pursued a goal and have their eye on the distant prize might be ill-equipped to handle or even recognize love when they trip right over it. And steamy passion. All the books in the series have some steamy passion!

2. What about the book makes you most proud? Continue reading →

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Nancy: Because Amazon Moves in Mysterious Ways

As of yesterday, there was supposed to be a special sale price on Two Scandals Are Better Than One in a few select countries for the rest of this week. As of today, thanks to Amazon, it appears the book is discounted everywhere. That’s great, I guess? Except I was not prepared to advertise and otherwise support the sale price.

But if you’re interested in Luci and Edward’s story and haven’t yet gotten your copy, this week is a great time to do it! The sale price is 2.99 USD (marked down from 4.99 USD), although it’s discounted a bit more in Canada, Australia, and the UK. You can find the ebook on Amazon.com, but the sale price also applies on Amazon in other countries, as well as on Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo.

And here’s the blurb:

A foray into London’s seedy underworld will unmask their hidden desires.

Edward, the upstanding Viscount Meriden, is desperate for one reckless adventure. After years of holding his crumbling family together, he finally has the chance at one night of abandon at a debauched house party, where he meets a masked mystery woman. He longs to uncover all her secrets. But when he realizes she’s an old friend on a dangerous mission, he insists on becoming her protector.

Miss Lucinda Wagner is the only woman in a family of men rumored to be spies. When her father goes missing, she infiltrates a treacherous world to find him. No one suspects her double life until her childhood friend Edward discovers her secret. Now “Steady Eddie” insists upon watching over her. To gain his silence, she allows him join her search.

As Luci and Edward delve deeper into the criminal underworld, their lives turn upside down. Danger lurks around every corner. Threats assail them from all sides, and the only safe harbor in the city is in each other’s arms. Until the sparks between them threaten to ignite their long-denied passion.

Have a happy reading week!

Nancy: Third Husband’s the Charm Debuts Today!

This is your friendly reminder that this is the day Third Husband’s the Charm goes on sale, and at a special release day price to boot. If you get your copy today, you’ll be all set for your weekend reading. (It’s also available in paperback, but that will take a few more days to get to you.) Go to my book page to learn more and to find links to retailers.

Third Husband’s the Charm

An irreverent cad. An abandoned wife. A secret marriage. But is anything really what it seems? Percy, the Captain Lord Granston, and the widow Finola Simmons both have their reasons to pretend to be married. But living as husband and wife leads them into temptation, and they come to an agreement: they’ll keep each other’s secrets, embark on a brief affair, and both get what they want before their fake marriage ends. It will work like a charm, as long as neither of them falls in love.

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Nancy: Catching Up

A reasonable likeness of me this past month.

Well, hello there! Happy September!

It’s been a while since we’ve chatted. I’ve been in social media hibernation mode this past month. Not total hibernation, though. I spent August wrestling a new (and very stubborn) story to the ground, gnashing my teeth over a revision gone off the rails, planning a long-weekend trip for research and Bourbon-drinking purposes, and dealing with  health upkeep (recovering from sports injuries and keeping all those pesky preventative care appointments). Today, I’m finally popping my head out of my writing cave to share a few things coming up in September. Continue reading →

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Jilly: Napoleon’s Novella

A couple of days ago I found a surprising addition to my reading retreat list.

I was planning to write a post about this weekend’s 250th birthday celebration in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August, 1769. Visitors to the showpiece event at Waterloo, in Belgium, can enjoy presentations about regiments and armaments, watch combat workouts and equestrian demonstrations, and attend workshops on side-saddle riding, cartridge making, gun and cannon firing, and late 18th-century fashion.

I thought I’d mark the occasion by re-reading some of my favorite Napoleonic-era historical romances, and maybe searching out a few new ones.

Until I discovered that the man himself—ambitious schemer, military genius, serial philanderer and self-proclaimed emperor—wrote a work of romantic fiction, and that his oeuvre is conveniently available for download from the Zon.

Who knew? London’s museums are positively awash with weird and wonderful Napoleonic memorabilia—my fave is this three and a half meter tall white marble Canova statue of a naked Bonaparte as Mars, god of war, installed by the victorious Duke of Wellington in his home at Apsley House—but I don’t recall ever seeing anything about the Corsican’s sideline as a novelist. Continue reading →

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Nancy: What Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning?

Years ago, when I was in my previous life and profession and was using a white board for something other than character arcs and plot progressions, I kept a question on my board at work. It was, “What keeps you up at night?” This is a question used in sales in marketing to remind sellers to think about what the customer wants/needs/stresses about, NOT about the widget or service we want to sell.

Then about five years ago, I read an article that argued (rather convincingly) that we should stop asking what keeps our customers up at night, and start asking, “What gets you out of bed in the morning?” Do you see the shift from negative to positive? I brought that to the teams I managed with the goal of writing our business proposals with a different spin. We still needed to write about knowing the customer’s pain and how to solve it. But I started pestering my teams (and the business development execs who interacted with the customers) to learn about customer’s bigger-picture visions. I wanted to expand our message to say, “We support solutions, but also aspirations.”

By now you’re wondering, WTH does this have to do with fiction writing? I’m so glad you asked! Continue reading →

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Nancy: A Romance by Any Other Name…

This could TOTALLY be Percy and Finola if he were a strawberry-blond instead of a brunette.

Here on the blog, we spend a lot of time discussing the importance of book covers and branding in getting our books into the hands of the right readers, the ones who will love our particular genres and stories. It probably goes without saying, but in case it doesn’t, I’ll say it now: book titles are an important part of the overall package that positions books.

With that caveat, you can probably see where this post is going. Turns out, the title I selected for my next book, a title I’ve loved and attached to and had at the forefront of my brain while I wrote the book, might not work for my romance sub-genre. It all started when I was working on cover concepts with my new cover designer (this is designer number three, for those of you following along at home). After several discussions of the book with her, I woke up one morning to find an email in my inbox that changed the way I now see my beloved title.

As she had been setting up a design and working on fitting the title into it, it struck her that Three Husbands and a Lover sounded like a reverse harem erotica title. If you haven’t heard of the RH subgenre, it’s one woman with multiple male lovers, and tends to be erotica. Um, no. Not my genre, and not what I intended communicate with that name. If I thought it was just her opinion, well-versed as she is in the romance field, I could ignore it. But now that she’s put that thought in my brain, all I can picture when I see that title is my heroine surrounded by her four lovers. Continue reading →

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Nancy: Looking for a Summer Romance?

You usually see posts from me on Mondays, but today I’m stopping by the blog to invite you to a summer party! And even better than a normal party, this one includes romance authors and books and chances for prizes.

Coffee Time Romance has been an online gathering place for romance readers and writers for years. Each Saturday, they invite multiple authors to take over their Facebook fan page to talk about their recent romance books, answer fan questions, and give away prizes.

Today (June 22nd) from 9-10 PM eastern time, I’ll be on the Coffee Time Romance page discussing One Kiss from Ruin. This is the second book (but first full-length novel!) in the Harrow’s Finest Five series, aka Daniel’s and Emme’s love story. Check out my final post of the night to find out how to win a free copy of the book. (The contest remains open through Sunday, in case you have IRL plans for the evening).

I hope to see you there!

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Justine: Travel Inspiration

I’m currently jaunting about Barcelona on our annual family vacation and whenever I travel, I try to use the places I visit as inspiration for my stories. Today, we visited the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia (Basilica of the Sacred Family), which has been under construction since 1882 (and still not completed). While it’s breathtakingly beautiful, it’s a bit hard for me to imagine using in any of my books, given they take place in the early 1800s. Continue reading →