Historical Romance or Historical Novel?

Contemplating sending my wip QUEEN'S COURIER off to agents, I have been thinking about how to introduce it. There is a range of books set in a historical period that are easily recognised and acknowledged by all, but it is the section in the middle where things blend.

On the far left we have category romance, where the romance is the only thing the author and the reader, presumably, is interested in. Category romance specifically does not want sub-plots and sub-characters running off and doing interesting things, taking interest away from the hero and heroine. The author must focus on the couple in question. These days, interest does not stop at the bedroom door. More and more blow-by-blow encounters are detailed inside the bedroom - or the equivalent.

The other extreme is of course the literary end. These books are often three and four times longer and detail all sorts of other things beside the central romance - if there is one. C J Sansom manages to write almost 450 pages without a central romance featuring at all and I love his books. Cornwell's Sharpe has a few stabs at romance but there is so much more about daring-do, war and skullduggery. Writers like Forester, Clements, Winston Graham, Mitchell and Gabaldon set their characters in a particular time period and then weave them into the history.  Writers like Parris and Clements centre on a murder mystery.

This where the lines blur. Readers will put authors  in differing places on the line. Some will say Gabaldon is literary because she has great swathes about the American War of Independence in her Outlander series. So did Mitchell in Gone with the Wind, but in both those books, the central theme is the love affair between Claire and Jamie, and Scarlett and Rhett. We could be very analytical about it and put every title on a sliding scale of romance v literary-ness, but who has the time? Certainly not me! It is a task for each reader according to their personal taste, should they chose to do it.

The other thing that affects the argument is the male-female reading bias. In general terms, though not everyone fits into these divisions, men like action, and women like romance. Men like tighter writing, women want feelings explained. Men's reviews still  seem to have more kudos than those written by women. Men, of course, review the Sansom, Forester, Cornwell "serious" type of historical novel. Perhaps they write better reviews? I don't think I've seen this type of historical novel reviewed by a woman, but they must be, surely? If not, they ought to be.

Perhaps Byron had the answer when he said "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; it is a woman's whole existence." Follow that through and you have an answer to the basic question, though you may not like it.

As it happens I've got the rights back for a book I placed with MuseItUp Publising and have begun editing it prior to publishing on Kindle. I always thought it was priced a little too high with Muse,and that it would sell better if I "Kindled" it. I began last night, and right away I can see the difference in style - Reluctance, soon to be known as THE GYBFORD AFFAIR, is definitely historical romance. THE QUEEN'S COURIER is more about the times and how they affect people's lives. So, I have my answer.

Two months rain

Our trip out for groceries yesterday was a little more adventurous than usual due to having a month's rain fall in two days. I drove the mini through several "puddles" that covered the entire width of the road and stretched twenty or thirty feet long - and this was up on the ridge, a hundred foot or more above the river. Twice we came up on a "road closed" sign and there was nothing to do but turn around and back track.
On the way home we tried a different route and though we passed plenty of flooded fields, we thought we'd got off Scot-free. Then we saw the car that had just nose-dived into the hedge row above a drop into a flooded field, turned the corner and had to drive through a huge swathe of water where the road dipped down the hill. Take two or three minutes and watch the video click taken in July -  it gives a good idea of life in the region at the moment!

Received a post card this morning from a friend holidaying in Venice - they had to trudge through a foot of water to cross St Mark's Square to get to a concert they'd booked. Seems the whole world is awash.

On a brighter note, this is only my third review for Reluctance: http://romantichistoricallovers.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/reluctance-by-jen-black/
so I have no shame in publishing it here in the hope you'll all read it.

Reluctance 2nd review

Reviews for Reluctance have been thin on the ground, so I thought I'd put this one up in full for your delight.

3.0 out of 5 stars ENGAGING AND MOVING STORY 11 July 2012

By AC - Published on Amazon.com

Amazon Verified Purchase

Something unusual happened to me when reading this book. I was extremely excited by this story, until I stumbled on a drastic and dramatic situation halfway through, and unfortunately I've never been a fan at all of such an occurrence (I will not elaborate more here) and I was quickly finishing the thirty pages in question, with a sinking heart ...! But against all odds, the author succeeded in recapturing my curiosity at a given time, which is a first because once my interest is lost, it is lost!

Set in 1803, Jen Black does a marvelous job at painting a very brilliant picture of the strangely attractive countryside of Northumberland that has a very important place in that story. I never visited that part of England but I definitely felt at home and ready to go there.

She has created a whole string of wonderfully lively characters. The two main protagonists, Frances and Jack, are a joy to observe and listen to as they interact. There's a very exciting tension between them that began from the first moment they met. There is a lot of emotion and drama with a magnificent and infamous villain who will let nothing and no one stand in his way; he's ruthless and he'll use all possible means to reach his nefarious goal.

Life is often unpredictable and these two people who both went through some difficult times and were not destined to be together, find themselves forced to deal with the accidents of life and at one point they'll have to decide what kind of future they want to build for themselves.

I have to admit that I do understand why the author developed her story the way she did, and the fact that I didn't like a little part of it doesn't diminish in any way the quality of this book. Ultimately I don't regret having read it. She was able to catch my attention again and to me it says a lot about her skill. This will not prevent me from reading her other books. In fact, I already have two on my reading pile ... Fair Border Bride and Far After Gold.

Overall I found this novel very engaging, attractive and moving with some clever and thrilling dialogs. I give 3.5/5.

Reluctance is available now from 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reluctance-ebook/dp/B007ROL46Q

Here it is...

This may not look like a book trailer for a romance, but I assure you it is. Reluctance is the story of Frances, said to be the richest widow in England, and her struggles to remain a widow. Yes, she wants to stay single, while fortune hunters abound, and simply will not give up trying to persuade her otherwise. In 1803, when a woman married, most of her  wealth went into her husband's hands. Not only that, but Frances, young and pretty as she is, does not wish to marry at all, for Marital Duties loom far too large on the negative side of any proposal she may receive. Discover for yourself how Frances solves her problem by clicking here:

amazon

"it’s a story with enough twists and unpredictable turns to make you dizzy, while Frances and Jack will alternately endear themselves to you and drive you crazy.  In any event, you won’t be able to forget these two or their story."

From a review by Margaret Chrisawn.

Passion

Passion can be many things – anger, sorrow and grief as well as desire and I hope I’ve incorporated all of them in the book that is released today by MuseItUp

I believed the author who wrote that the lead up to a scene of passion is as important as the scene itself. So I took the time to explain that the hero of Reluctance, Jack, is still in a state of grief six months after his wife’s death when everyone confidently expects him to be “getting over it.”

The lead characters are vital in any story. It goes without saying that if the reader doesn’t like and empathise with them, then any scene of passion is going to have all the impact of a wobbly jelly hitting the kitchen floor. We need to know why the passion is erupting now, what has driven the protagonists to such a collision and what will be revealed within it.
Any good passionate scene will have a result; the plot will move and shift, perhaps in a small way, sometimes in by taking huge bounds, and there may be regrets from one or both characters. But shift they must, otherwise the plot is static. I’m hoping I’ve covered all these points, but only time and readers will tell!

Happy Easter, and Happy Reading!

Release Date

I've just heard the release date for Reluctance will be 6th April - that's Friday of this week!
To whet your appetite, here's my first review:

Reluctance

Jen Black
http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/

"She’s lovely, with a peaches and honey glow and a wickedly devastating smile, an intellect a cut above her peers, and perhaps the wealthiest heiress in the country. He’s darkly handsome, all chiseled angles and fine bones, a faint aura of citrus and sandalwood, a tendency towards few words, and plenty of money of his own.

These two really should meet, and they do when Lady Frances Rathmere literally fishes Jack Slade, Marquess of Streatham, out of the river on her estate. Their relationship, begun under such untoward—and certainly unromantic—circumstances, progresses in a fashion that would horrify the denizens of society in early Regency London and Bath. But this is the North of England, where life is lived in tune with nature and definitely more colorfully, and where people, even the gentry and those with titles, are more full-blooded and multifaceted than their insipid and overly polite cousins to the south.


Frances is a widow in her late twenties whose husband, a childhood friend, left her with a decided aversion to “marital duties.” She is determined not to marry again, despite her family’s equal determination that she should and would, at the earliest opportunity. Jack is a widower who was so devastated by the death of his wife in childbirth that out of guilt he swore not only never to marry again but also to remain celibate for the rest of his life. Thus we have two protagonists who are reluctant, so say the least, to alter their present states, regardless of whatever attraction might develop between them or whatever circumstances might arise to change their opinions about what they should—or should not—do.


This is a historical romance in the best sense of the genre. Jen Black has captured the setting of the North Country with such precision and spare, elegant descriptions that the reader could be nowhere else but Northumberland. She has done the same with her characters who, from the two protagonists to minor figures who pass briefly through the novel, are rendered with precision and such beautiful detail that they become real, rather than one-dimensional actors from a stock play. One of the most difficult aspects of a book any book, is dialogue, and if the characters speak to each other as if they’re reciting lines from a very bad play, this ruins the story, no matter how inventive the plot. The dialogue throughout the story is crisp, funny, moving, emotional, and above all, believable for each character who speaks. Not an easy thing to accomplish, but Ms. Black is a master at itThis is not a formulaic Regency tale with a trite reliance on stilted drawing room manners and silly encounters in all the usual places with all the usual people.  Instead, it’s a story with enough twists and unpredictable turns to make you dizzy, while Frances and Jack will alternately endear themselves to you and drive you crazy.  In any event, you won’t be able to forget these two or their story.

A useful hint:  don’t begin to read this book until you know you’ll suffer no ill effects from reading throughout the night.  I learned this the hard way."

Margaret Scott Chrisawn, Ph.D

Gripes



Christmas at Chatsworth

I picked this up from Facebook today: http://kingrichardarmitage.rgcwp.com/ It's all about Richard Armitage wanting to get a project about Richard III off the ground, so  if you have an interest, why not pop over and have a look?

I'm working hard at the moment, picking up the strands of my current wip after doing a stint of editing on a previous wip. I found I couldn't do both at the same time even though the major characters are the same in both stories. Details got muddled and the storyline confused - and to be honest, my writing on the newest story suffered, so I concentrated on one thing at a time. Obviously I'm not one of those multi-functional females!

I watched  the final part of the She-Wolves series on tv last night and realise I've missed some very good programmes. I'll have to go back and check on I-player. Last night's story concerned the three Tudor Queens - Jane, Mary and Elizabeth.
Dr Helen Castor is an excellent narrator, but I do wish someone would tell the camera man not to sink to his knees so the camera is staring up the nose of the person speaking. It results in an unflattering angle and gives the narrator a haughty, unkind look. But then I have lots of pet hates about tv camera work and I won't bore you with how I hate jiggling cameras, whirling around people, glaring into their faces as they drive and talk - bound to be a bad thing, in my view.

Received my first review for Reluctance, and placed it in full on British Romance fiction blog http://britishromancefiction.blogspot.com Don't let the red notice put you off, the site is quite safe!

RELUCTANCE

Received my new cover yesterday, and while it is not representative of the pre-Regency period at all, I think it has a certain charm and I like it. The experts in the e-publishing field tell me to promote the story now, even though it won't be available until April, so here we go:

The story is set in County Durham in 1803. Frances, a rich young widow, is by the river one sunny afternoon when her dog causes a horse to shy and the unknown rider to take a tumble. She must drag him from the river....

Reluctance

 
Could he be a vagrant, or a highwayman? Disturbed in the act of robbery and escaping as fast as he could? He was certainly a strong horseman and the animal had been expensive. His clothes… She ran her eye over the long length of him, took in the riding breeches and top-boots, both of a quality far beyond the pocket of a mean highwayman. Her mouth twisted. What did she know of highwaymen? His left hand, relaxed and long-fingered against the stony ground, bore a heavy gold ring on the third finger, and as she watched, the sun raised a scarlet gleam from the embedded stone. A wedding ring?

Thoughts tumbled through her mind at amazing speed. She ought to check his head and see if the wound still bled, but to do that she must touch him. Such a small thing; yet she hesitated.

Frances! Touch him, or else call yourself a coward.

Her hand trembled in the air above him and then closed upon itself and retreated, curling into a fist against her throat. Even with him unconscious, she did not like the thought of touching him.

Marriage to Rathmere had left her with a huge dislike of physical contact. But this man, she told herself, looking down at him, offered no threat. He needed her help.

Do it. Do it now.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out before her fears caught up with her and touched his brow. Her fingers sprang back as if she encountered fire. Frances shook her head at her foolishness.

His skin was cold beneath her hesitant fingers, but a pulse beat slowly in his neck. Drat the proprieties. And be damned to her fears. If he died, she would never forgive herself.

“Wake up, you silly creature.” Growing bolder, she shook him by the shoulder. “Wake up. Speak to me. Who are you?”

Perplexed, she flopped down on the wet mud beside him. He was far too heavy to lift. She could not drag him up the slope to the meadow, even with Gyp’s assistance.

Hugging herself, rocking back and forth, she dithered. If she knew what to do, she would do it, but she had no idea what would be best.

Gyp whined, shuffled closer, stretched out her neck and licked the man’s neck with long, curious strokes.
Stimulation. Frances smiled. Of course.
She gripped the man’s shoulder. He looked uncomfortable, sprawled on his side, one cheek flat against the mud. He proved far heavier than she expected, and as soon as she let go, he flopped back again. Odd sounds and a trickle of water came from his mouth. Encouraged, she tried once more, and failed again.

“Oh for pity’s sake!”

Faced with such rude indifference, the last shreds of calm vanished. Frances got to her feet, grasped his wrist, stepped over him, and yanked. She would not give up.

She strained and heaved, and then yelped with satisfaction when he rolled over and settled on his back. Triumphant, she bent over him. He must open his eyes and start living again. He owed her that much, after all her efforts.

“Wake up, you horrid man,” she snapped, blinking hard. “I do not know why I bother. Do not lie there like a dead man! Wake up and speak to me.”

He ignored her, so she slapped him.

His eyelids fluttered.

Coming in April from MuseItUp Publishing

Reluctance

I've been working really hard these last few days. My left shoulder aches to prove it, though I don't know why sitting at a computer should make one shoulder ache and not the other! As I think I've said on this blog, I'm going through a second draft of the first Matho Story. I had named this volume Treason, but as my wonderful critique partner pointed out to me, an Englishman can't commit treason in Scotland, though he can in England.  So as well as a second draft, I'll have to rethink the title.
The second volume of Matho's Story is written, but  also needs that vital second draft polishing. I've already begun writing the third volume, which is going very slowly because of all the second drafting and also because I received edits for a novel called Reluctance. and also because all the details of French history and locations on the internet  are in French, as you would expect.
I'd almost forgotten about Reluctance. I signed the contract for it so long ago, way back last year. Set in 1803, not quite the Regency period, and in the north of England rather than the overdone locales of London and Bath, it makes good use of my local area. In fact, I got the idea from visiting a local National Trust site at Gibside, one of my favourite places for a day out or even just a hour's walking in the woods. Back in the seventeenth century it was owned by the Bowes family, who married into the Strathmore family of Bowes-Lyon fame. Evidently the Queen Mother snitched a fireplace from Gibside and took it to the Castle of Mey - I think it was Mey.

So, if I work very hard today I should get the final read through of Reluctance finished and sent back to my editor. According to the knowledgable ones, I should be publicising the story now, even though it isn't published until April. An added distraction is the tennis match just coming through from Australia via the sling box! Oh, to be able to do everything at once!

Good News

This morning I received news that another story - Reluctance - has been accepted by MuseItUp Publishing. The setting for this one is 1803, if my memory serves correctly (I'm not good at remembering figures. Words, yes, but numbers just go into limbo and disappear) and I took a local setting I know fairly well - Gibside Hall, now a National Trust property, and imagined my characters into it. Great fun. The story was fun to write, too, though my hero/ine both suffer till they get to the last page. In true romance style, there's a happy ending.

After a run of rejections from UK agents (well, OK, two; all very nice and polite, wishing me well elsewhere but unfortunately my story is just not for them), this is such good news. I wonder if I dare look for a third piece of good news this week?

The pic is my other half looking out over the battlements of Stirling Castle. The hills behind him are where the Highland Line begins.

Me, at Cragside

Me, the other day at Cragside. Splendid day out

and the National Trust would be pleased that so many people wanted to visit the house - there was a queue!

Not just for a little while, either, but all the time we were there. The estate is big enough to absorb an awful lot of people so we didn't feel crowded out.

I'm at that tricky time writing wise. I need to start something new, but can't decide among several ideas. Which one do I want to work with for the next three months? Or six months? FAR AFTER GOLD is out and TILL THE DAY GO DOWN is scheduled for November as long as the sky doesn't fall down. I'm waiting on an agent's response to RELUCTANCE and not getting too hopeful, but I need to start on something else. How does anyone decide?

Tudor time period, perhaps? A follow up to FAG? M'mmm, I'll sleep on it. Again.

Eventually I suppose I'll make a decision. Maybe I should try roughing out an outline for several storylines and see which comes easiest? I think it is always easier to start with an outline. I know some authors sit down and say Goody, what shall I write today? and then they just go with the flow and see what comes. They must have very good subconcious minds to get it all to fit together when they don't know what the the next chapter will bring, and I'm not sure I could do that. I'll try the outline method. I suppose if I wrote a historical character's life I'd know what the ending would be - that would make it easier, and if the personage is well known, then there's no hiding it. Start the first page with Mary Stuart's beheading, because we all know that's where she ended; the question is How Did She Get There?

Daisy delight

I love these big, splashy daisies. When I sit on the patio and look through them, they seem like a forest of daisies, a wonderful world all of its own.



It seems everyone is on holiday, or else they're all laid low with 'flu, swine or otherwise. Usually I am on holiday along with everyone else, but not this year. At least staying at home has given me time to enjoy my garden all through the summer instead of missing almost a month and coming back to find a jungle and the birds have eaten all the raspberries.

Trouble is, you have to be quick to catch the sun in among all the rain we've had this summer.
We've learned to drop everything and go when ever it appears. We've also become very canny at
hopping on a bus , getting off at some previously unexplored point and walking home, map in hand.

Today we got the bus up the hill, walked across South Park fields and down through Stanleyburn Woods tot he golf course. Delightful. Quiet, pretty and no sound of traffic which is difficult to achieve in this day and age in a relatively small country like the UK. We saw only one person the whole walk, and that was for a split second as he veered off in another direction. Just one thing - I'm so glad we did it south to north. The uphill gradient the other way around would have killed me!


Reluctance is finished and now it is re-read and find all the mistakes time. The words the computer mysteriously edits without your knowledge or permission. The missing letters that turn a vital SHE into an irrelevant HE. The bits you've somehow included twice over and not necessarily because it was so darned good. And worst of all, the bits that you thought you had included and somehow just are not there.

After the thunderstorms

I've done half a dozen posts on the RNA conference at Penrith and that's enough, I think; here's one last view of a few people talking and waiting a for lecture to begin.

The rest of the world goes happily on. Weather has been so variable lately with brilliant sunshine one day and vicious rain and thunder storms the next -

the river Tyne is in flood again - in July! - and yet the insects keep working the flowers in the intervals.

I've finally finished Reluctance. Just over a hundred thousand words, give or take a few as I weed out the repetitions and unnecessaries, which should not take long as I've done about three serious drafts of this story. I used Doc-u-map to track the Chapter Headings and the date line of the story - and found it really useful and a speedy way of getting around the pages. Took me an age to figure out how to do it initially, but now it is worth it.

Interestingly enough, after sixteen months of total and utter silence, I received a request for a ms from a publisher in the US. They are interested in Shadows, the story that got tangled in the Triskelion shambles. It is out for consideration with another publisher at the moment, but it is nice to know someone else is interested.

Now I shall begin re-drafting a story the M&B girls at the conference thought was OK if I tweaked one or two things. My prologue was "a bit grim" and would be better used as part of the Black Moment further down the story. The things Jenny said made good sense, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it myself.

At home we are doing a bit of re-organisation. Late spring cleaning, you might say. For one reason or another, our bedroom has never seemed to be "finished." The other rooms, fine, but the poor old bedroom must have felt like Cinderella. It is now receiving Attention.