Before beginning on my August release, THE SMUGGLER AND THE SOCIETY BRIDE, the most extensive collaboration I’d done for a writing project was loosely coordinating the theme of the stories for Christmas anthologies (CHRISTMAS KEEPSAKES and ONE CANDLELIT CHRISTMAS) and creating a fictional cavalry unit to which all the heroes belonged (THE OFFICER’S BRIDE.)  So when I agreed to participate in the REGENCY SILK & SCANDAL miniseries, I wasn’t sure just what to expect.

Writing is generally a lonely process.  You stare at the winking cursor, its little blinking eye mocking your inability to come up with the next scene…or figure out what’s wrong with the one you just wrote.  It’s worlds better now, with email and Facebook and Twitter, since you can instantly relieve your frustration by whining to your writing friends instead of banging on the keyboard, an action generally not well tolerated by computers.  (This author will not reveal her age by referring to the dinosaur-populated landscape when writers toiled on typewriters with no instant-erase backspace key or the ability to cut, paste and delete.) But even with sympathetic souls at the end of an internet connection, writing still remains mostly a solitary endeavor.

Enter Regency silk & Scandal.  Miniseries are hardly new; many authors do them.  Continuities are popular, too, generally contemporaries and generally written by authors invited by a publisher to contribute, with the story line and characters already pre-determined by the editorial team.

Regency Silk & Scandal was unique, in that we were not given any “bible,” but allowed to create our own story arc, plot, characters and then choose which characters we wanted to write.  We were also separated by both a vast continent (Christine Merrill in Wisconsin, Gayle Wilson and me in Alabama and Texas, respectively) and a vast ocean (Louise Allen and Annie Burrows in England, Margaret McPhee in Scotland.)  And all the books were to be written simultaneously!

Instead of brainstorming face-to-face, trying to help myself or another author figure out a single plot, character or resolution, we were a team of six working together to create an entire series of books, with multiple families, interacting characters and a single overall plot, as well as individual book plots that had to flow with and fit into the overall series.  Without internet and yahoo groups, it couldn’t have happened.

The ever-organized Louise Allen, who early dubbed our group “The Continuistas,” created a timeline for characters and events as well as a set of family trees.  Annie created a weekly updated file where she cut and pasted the details each author contributed any time she wrote about a shared continuity character.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, but it turned out to become the most fun I’ve had since beginning my writing career.  We developed a fast friendship, created a network of associates we can commiserate with and call upon for help with future projects, and in general just enjoyed the heck out of it!

Have you ever collaborated on a large project that was complex and vastly satisfying? (making a quilt comes to mind.)  What was it?  How did you figure out who would do what and when?  For one responder, I’ll give away a copy of the UK edition of SMUGGLER, which is trade paperback size and includes “extra” features, like an author interview and an excerpt from the diary of Lady Narborough, mother of heroine Lady Honoria Carlow.

Two years ago my editor got in touch to ask if I would like to join five other authors writing an 8-book Regency continuity. I jumped at the chance – before wondering how we – my co-authors are Julia Justiss, Christine Merrill, Annie Burrows, Gayle Wilson and Margaret McPhee – were going to do it!

What was really exciting – and frightening – was that, unlike most continuities, this one had no “bible” written by the editorial team. For this one we were starting from scratch and making it all up ourselves and for me, it seemed even more scary because I was writing the first book. What if we didn’t come up with an acceptable concept and outlines with the deadline galloping closer?

We did, and the editors approved our suggestion, we agreed the characters, the individual stories and the way the overarching story arc would be carried throughout the books and then we all started work on what was to become Regency Silk & Scandal.
That simultaneous start meant there was no opportunity for the author of number two (Christine) to read book one before she started, nor for her to hand the baton over to Julia for book three and so on. Nor could I wait before I started work on my second book for the series, number seven: I had to begin on that as soon as I had finished the first story.

Obviously we were in constant touch and emailed back and forth updating each other and checking out continuity points and character references, but other than the odd piece of description or dialogue, we weren’t reading each other’s work.

The characters overlap several books – the hero of the first, Marcus Carlow occurs in virtually all of them, so I had the odd experience of handing over my hero and knowing he (and his new wife and baby) would develop a life of their own beyond my control. And the hero of number seven, his brother Hal Carlow, is seen in several preceding books, so I had to trust that by the time I was writing his story nothing had been done to change his character from my original concept.

Once we had finished the editors asked us to write an eight-part on-line read for the eHarlequin website. (By the time you read this it is probably moved to the On-line read archives) and this time we were able to write it as a round robin, all of us able to see and comment on each episode. As it was written

What has been fascinating for me as an author is to see the difference between the eight novels, which I have just read as a set for the first time, and this other co-operative project.

With the on-line read several readers have commented that they felt it was seamless and that they wouldn’t have known that it was not all the work of the same author. With the novels the individual authors’ voices and styles are very clear indeed, although the characterisation and the plot line are entirely consistent and develop smoothly from start to finish.

Reading the novels, right through as though they were chapters of one large book, has really made me think about “voice”, tone and style and how difficult it can be to pinpoint what makes a voice distinctive. I know that when I stopped writing jointly with another author (as Francesca Shaw) and started writing as Louise Allen the voice was different – but I have never been able to quite put my finger on how.

How important is an author’s voice to the reader? Once you know an author’s work, or you can browse the book, is voice as important as the plot, the characters – the cover even – in attracting you to buy the book?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on voice and style and I’ll be giving away a signed copy of the first book, The Lord & the Wayward Lady, so do let me know what you think. I’m away on holiday from today until the 12th June, so forgive me if I don’t respond to your comments until I am home again.

The series is being published, one a month, from June 2010 (The Lord & the Wayward Lady) through to number eight in January 2011. For details of all the books and more about the continuity, see the news page of www.louiseallenregency.co.uk.

by Louise Allen

Unlike many writers I didn’t start with short stories and I’d always written full length until my editor asked me to do a 30,000 word novella. It took a while to find the right hero and heroine for a shorter tale, and to work out the technique for delivering a fulfilling romance in less than half my usual words, but eventually along came the idea that resulted in Desert Rake in the summer read anthology Hot Desert Nights.

When I was asked for a Christmas novella I’d got the hang of writing what still seemed to me to be very short and I found it much easier to create Mistletoe Masquerade in Married by Christmas (UK) and Together by Christmas (North America).

But then Harlequin Mills & Boon extended their range of short, highly sensual e-books to include Historicals and the Historical Undone! series was born. To my delight I was asked to write an Undone! to link to my six-part Those Scandalous Ravenhurst series.

My delight faded a bit when I realised what my editor was asking for – rather more than my usual fairly high level of sensuality, a fully realised emotional relationship between hero and heroine – and 10,000 words to do it in.

Panic set in. I write Regency-era novels and, with only 10,000 words to play with, getting a young woman of that period into a relationship that was going to make sparks fly needed some thinking about.

My hero came along first. There he was, masked, sitting on his horse in the English countryside on a beautiful summer evening. His name, apparently was Jonathan. I admired him for a bit, wondering what he was doing, before I guessed that he might look like a highwayman, but perhaps he wasn’t. I got inside his head and realised he was an honourable man, one that my heroine, when she appeared, could trust.

And once I realised we could both trust him, Miss Sarah Tatton arrived, a respectable, virginal young lady with a serious problem – a ghastly suitor who admires her virtue above everything else.

Jonathan waylays her and she soon senses that here is the answer to a distressed virgin’s prayer – especially if she wants, more or less, to stay a virgin.

But Jonathan isn’t a highwayman and she has not realised she might fall in love with the mysterious stranger – and her friends the Ravenhursts can’t resist getting involved, just to make life more difficult.

Essentially it became a story about trust – can Sarah trust this chance-met stranger to be the honourable man her heart tells her he is? Can he trust her enough to let her discover the real man behind his mask? Can either of them trust what they feel when the sensual spark between them is so strong?

Once I realised that yes, they could, then the length seemed just right to frame this cameo of a love story.

Disrobed and Dishonored came out as an e-book in 2009. The short e-books are proving extremely popular but I kept hearing from readers who wanted to have the stories in print as well, so it was a thrill when I learned that Jonathan and Sarah’s tale would be included in the first print anthologies of Historical Undone! stories. In North American there is Harlequin’s Pleasurably Undone! – along with contributions by Christine Merrill, Michelle Willingham, Terri Brisbin and Diane Gaston and in the UK Wicked Regency Nights, with stories by Nicola Cornick, Bronwyn Scott, Diane Gaston and Annie Burrows.

The covers are gorgeous for all three versions and I love them all but I’d be very interested to hear which you like best.

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Leave a comment by Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 6:00 a.m. CDT to win a copy of WICKED REGENCY NIGHTS.

by LaConnie Taylor-Jones

My response to this question has been and will continue to be the same – why not?

My love for the genre has nothing to do with the 2008 report from Simba Information, which reported that revenue from romance fiction remained strong at 1.37 billion, despite the economic slid. Nor does it have anything to do with the fact that romance fiction remains the largest share of the consumer market. But it has everything to do with this one simple fact: I love romance!

The genre first captivated my attention when I was a junior in college. The year was 1979. My college roommate introduced me to the world of romance when she handed me a tattered copy of The Flame in the Flower by the late Kathleen Woodiwiss. Instead of studying for an organic chemistry mid-term the next day, I spent the entire night reading one of the greatest romance novels of all times. And just in case you’re wondering, about that exam, wonder no more. Yep, I flunked big time. Overnight, I’d transformed into a hopeless, never to recover, romance-a-holic. I didn’t know it then, but that one night, almost thirty years ago, would eventually land me on the road to publication.

Becoming a writer was never something I was particularly interested in or even considered doing. Honestly, I was content being an avid reader. It was the challenge from my late husband in the spring of 2003 that made me seriously consider penning my first romance novel.

One night, I was in bed reading a romance, but I simply couldn’t get into the story. It was well past midnight and I guess I’d whined and moaned enough. Hubby turned to me and said, “Baby, if you can write a better book, do it. Now turn out the lights, please.” At first, I thought this man was crazy. Well, truth be told, I thought he was funky, crazy insane. Although I was a fairly decent technical writer in my profession as a public health educator, fiction writing was a different monster all together. Eventually, I honored his request, but not before a zany cast of characters settled in my head, and wrapped around my heart. They’d later become known in the literary world as the Baptiste Family.

Three months later, the timing was right and something amazing happened. My enthusiasm for teaching health, social responsibility and social justice over the years sparked a multitude of storylines. What if. . . Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I accepted the challenge and rolled the dice.

Four years later, the gamble paid off with the release of my debut novel, WHEN I’M WITH YOU followed six months later with my sophomore release, WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN. On March 4th, I celebrated the release of my third fill-length single title, IF I WERE YOU WOMAN.

It ain’t been easy, but it’s been worth it!!

Until next time – stay well and be blessed!
LaConnie

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Leave a comment by Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 6:00 a.m. CST to win a copy of IF I WERE YOUR WOMAN.

by Shiloh Walker

So what is a writer to do when the bad guy doesn’t want to be the bad guy? That’s the dilemma I had to face when I was writing the first of the Rafferty brother books, FRAGILE.

You see, there was only supposed to be the one book. Luke’s book. Quinn wasn’t going to get a book, because in Luke’s book, Quinn was supposed to be the bad guy. You know… the bad guy, the guy who doesn’t get the girl, the happy ever after. He suffers, we smile. All is good.

My problem started about a third of the way through the book…Luke’s book, yes. Quinn? He was suffering, all right. This shouldn’t have been a problem. It was going as planned—he was the bad guy. He wasn’t going to be the happy-go-lucky sort.

But I was kind of suffering, too. Because he also wasn’t the bastard I needed him to be to make him the bad guy. Plus, his twin… the hero of the book, Luke, he wasn’t too keen on how I was painting his brother as the bad guy. And the more I tried to make Quinn the bad guy, the harder it was to write the story.

Fine, I tell them. Have it your way, but the story isn’t going to work out—there isn’t anybody else who can be the bad guy, and we need a bad guy. It’s a suspense, remember?

Yeah, yeah. Well, it turns out… I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Quinn couldn’t have been the bad guy, because it turns out he had this core of strength I wasn’t prepared for. Yeah, so he was a little bit crazy there for a while, but a lot of us dance on that thin edge every now and then. He brushed a little closer than some of us, but then he had a darker time than many people. He pulled himself back, got himself together, and both Quinn and Luke turned out to be right. Quinn wasn’t bad guy material.

But that didn’t mean I was planning on giving him a book.

I wasn’t. I just…wasn’t. Even though I was told people would ask for his book. And uh… yes, that did happen. It wasn’t anything I had planned.

And then I had to start making the plans, because the questions about Quinn started coming almost as soon as I finished Quinn’s book.

I can do this, I figure. I mean, I figured out how to undo the mess I’d made out of the first book, right? And I conveniently forgot the headaches I had over that book before I finally stopped fighting them, before I stopped fighting the story.

So here I am, mapping out this plan for Quinn’s story. He’s what I’d call a tarnished knight and what he needs more than anything else is somebody he can save…makes sense. He’s somewhat damaged already because the one woman he’d actually had feelings for died and he wasn’t able to save her—if I put somebody in his life for him to save, maybe that can get him on the road to healing. Right?

Makes sense.

So I create this heroine. She’ got a quiet inner strength, but she’s not a fighter. She’s his complete opposite. She’s soft, she’s gentle…and now that I think about it? He would have terrified her. Anyway. I had this perfect plan. And a third of the way through the story?

It died on me. Can’t figure out the problem. Banging my head. Then I take a good hard look at the heroine and have one of my soon to be famous HEAD —> DESK moments. She is the problem. It’s not that she’s a bad heroine. She’s actually a pretty good one—she’s got room to grow, room to become a strong heroine. I may yet use her in a book.

But she was all wrong for Quinn and because I was trying to make her work? The book was stalling.

So there I am, deleting half of what I had written—and at this point, some work had already gone into the blurb…and the fact that I had gone and dumped most of the story? Well, the blurb no longer worked. They had to start from scratch… kind of like I was doing. And the story was due in…oh, three months, I think?

Oddly enough, once I dumped the story and started working on this new one? It started moving. I don’t even remember exactly where the idea for this new heroine came from. She was just sort of… there.

She was stronger—she had some weaknesses, some vulnerabilities, but she was also a fighter. She might find herself hip-deep in trouble, but she’d also be perfectly capable of getting herself out.

And more—she wouldn’t run from Quinn. He has a lot of darkness inside him and some of that is going to haunt him for a while. What he needed was somebody who wouldn’t just understand that darkness—but somebody who could walk with him through the darkness. She can do that. The heroine I’d originally given him? No. No way. She might try, but that kind of darkness…she isn’t ready to face that kind of darkness.

This story ended up taking on a lot of twists, a lot of turns, but once I’d figured out who needed to be in the story—and who didn’t—it was amazingly easy to get it written, and I swear, I can almost see the brothers smirking at me, too. Laughing at me. After all, I had to nerve to try to control the story in both books.

Quinn’s story is Broken—it’s one of the few stories I didn’t have to beat my head against the wall while trying to think up a title. He’s broken in the beginning of the story, damaged in so many ways. His heroine Sara has damage of her own and getting these two souls together took some doing. But it was worth it. If you’d like to read an excerpt, you can find one here. It’s now available in stores.

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Leave a comment by Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 6:00 a.m. CST to win a copy of Broken. Book will be shipped with Amazon Prime to United States addresses only.

by Julia Justiss

Although I don’t “do” horror/paranormal/fantasy, when I thought about the curious evolution of my on-again, off-again series featuring the Wellingford family, the Lemony Snicket title, “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” came to mind.

Now, series are hardly new. Many authors do them. If they are lucky (or cursed; those who’ve done the on-top-of-each-other releases say the deadlines are insane,) they get release dates for their series that are back-to-back or nearly so, like Louise Allen has had with her “Scandalous Ravenhursts.” (Of course, Louise writes like superwoman, rivaling the Divine Nora in production, so the comment above about going crazy over tight deadlines might not apply.) But all the data say that readers love series and connected books; data further says that the closer together the release dates, the better readers are able to identify the series, become excited about the next book and (this is the really important part) remember to actually BUY it.

Yes, sales for series, reports Sue Grimshaw, Romance Buyer for Borders Group, are definitely higher if the books come out back-to-back, or nearly so.

This seems rather intuitive. So what does it say about an author whose first Wellingford book, THE WEDDING GAMBLE, her debut in June 1999, wasn’t followed by another connected story until THE PROPER WIFE in July 2001, with the third, A MOST UNCONVENTIONAL MATCH, not seeing print until July 2008?

One might think she was, in a bit of Regency-speak, “attics-to-let” or had “more hair than wit.” While that may also be true, the evolution of the Wellingfords wasn’t entirely up to me.

Since Sarah, heroine of that first book, was eldest in a fairly large family of siblings and Nicholas, her hero, had two best friends, all the prospects for a nice long series were in place. However, during the hiatus between July 1996 when GAMBLE, under its pre-pub title “Pressing Obligations,” won the Golden Heart and its eventual purchase and release as a full-fledged novel in June 1999, I wrote most of another, non-connected story, which became my second book, A SCANDALOUS PROPOSAL.

When GAMBLE sold, I was excited about the prospect of doing more Wellingford stories. My editor liked the idea as well, and took on the story of Sarah’s childhood love Sinjin and her best friend Clarissa in THE PROPER WIFE. But although my editor liked the proposal for the next, the senior editor didn’t. And so the story of Nicholas’s best friend Ned didn’t make its way to publication until this October when FROM WAIF TO GENTLEMAN’S WIFE debuts.

Key elements in the plot of Ned’s story hinge upon the Luddite unrest that revived in the English countryside at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. With enclosures robbing villagers and farm workers of the common lands where they could keep a pig or cow or small vegetable garden, the price of wheat dropping and that of bread skyrocketing, and with independent craftsmen in the clothing trades being put out of work by the development of the factory system, the poor grew poorer and more desperate.

The story was too political, the senior editor said.

But Ned and Joanna are helping the distressed small farmers and their children! I said. They solve a mystery! They develop a fabulous, passionate love!

Too political, she repeated.

Fortunately, she liked better some of the other story ideas I’d proposed at the same time as Ned’s book. So the Wellingfords languished at the back of my mind while I moved on to tell the stories of other strong, driven, challenged heroines (incidentally stumbling over what may someday be another interrupted series featuring spymaster Lord Riverton, who appears in MY LADY’S TRUST and MY LADY’S HONOR.)

While I toiled on these other works, I received a number of fan letters asking when I was going to do the story of Hal, Nicholas’s mostly-monosyllabic friend. I’d always planned on telling Hal’s story—and what a challenge to work with a character who has great difficulty expressing himself in words and must therefore let his actions do the talking!

While all this transpired, editors changed (I lost the wonderful Margaret Marbury, who bought my very first book and edited the next eight, when she moved up in the company—she’s now in charge of all single titles for Harlequin.) Lines fluctuated and after a stint with HQN, I went back to Harlequin Historicals, now under the charge of senior editor Linda Fildew and edited out of the London UK office. I was assigned another new editor, who expressed interest in seeing more Wellingford books.

First came the most-reader-requested story, that of Hal and Sarah’s sister Elizabeth (A MOST UNCONVENTIONAL MATCH.) Next was a Christmas anthology featuring the next eldest Wellingford sister, Meredyth, the spinster who’d stayed home to take care of hearth and siblings after Sarah and Elizabeth married(“Christmas Wedding Wish” in ONE CANDLELIT CHRISTMAS.) And finally this fall, the story of Nicky’s second best friend, Ned, FROM WAIF TO GENTLEMAN’S WIFE.

(I hope you won’t think it’s “too political.”)

So what’s up next for this long-interrupted “series?”

My current editors are big fans of series and are very encouraging that I keep the Wellingford family stories coming. So I’m currently working on the story of Greville Anders, the brother of WAIF’s heroine Joanna, who was fired from his job as estate manager of one of Nicky’s smaller properties. After an involuntary stay on a British man-of-war completely alters his perspective on the world and his place in it, Greville returns to England recovering from wounds, wondering about his future—and very, very happy to reside once more in a world that includes ladies, even if the daughter of his host frowns every time she looks at him. Ah, what’s romance without a challenge?

Also in the “thinking” stage is the story of younger Wellingford daughter Faith, unhappily married wife of a duke, who tangles with a fiery young Parliamentary reformer—the grown-up Davie who first appears in WAIF.

There are several more Wellingford sisters, plus the lone brother Colton, as well as assorted friends and connections, so the possibilities are good to keep the series going—maybe even with closer-together release dates!

That is, Faith and David’s story and the others will appear if the current books do well enough—without back-to-back releases—that my editors allow me to continue writing them.

Which, of course, depends on readers, so I hope you are kind.

So, what do you think? Do you love series? If so, what draws you to them? Leave a comment and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win a copy of the October release, FROM WAIF TO GENTLEMAN’S WIFE.

I get asked all the time where I come up with my story ideas – and my answer is, I have no clue. I don’t think many authors do. They inch into our minds during that time between sleep and wakefulness, they spring boldly into our imaginations when we listen to music, meeting someone can spark an idea, as can a TV show or movie. Ideas come from everywhere and anywhere.

The idea for my June release MOST WANTED, come from you, the reader.

MOST WANTED is a single author anthology with three stories, all of them connected to previous stories of mine from Aphrodisia – and I finally set about writing them because of the reader letters I was getting for more of Lexy and Devon (From The Crib) or more of my paranormal Hunters. As much as I love the characters and the stories, I don’t think I would’ve ever gotten around to actually writing them if it hadn’t been for readers asking for more.

HIDDEN CRAVINGS, the first story in the anthology, is a sequel to THE CRIB from the PURE SEX anthology. It’s the exact same hero and heroine. THE CRIB was my first story for Aphrodisia, and it was released in June 2006, when Aphrodisia was s till a fairly new line. There were plenty of reviews that said it wasn’t an erotic romance because it didn’t have a traditional HEA. I felt it was a happy ending, because that particular story was about Lexy’s personal issues. Issues she had to deal with in order to move on in her life-emotionally. And while it ended on a good note with the characters relationship wise, I can see how readers wanted more, because at the end of THE CRIB, Devon dropped Lexy off at the airport so she could fly back home. It was the right ending for that novella, but yes…there was certainly more tot he story of Lexy and Devon. So I was thrilled to get back to them and pick things up about a year after THE CRIB ends, when Devon shows up on Lexy’s doorstep to ask for her help.

UNRESTRICTED ACCESS is Jackson Barrows story. Jackson is a cop, and his partner was the hero in SEX AS A WEPAON from THE COP anthology. Jack didn’t get much page time in that story because he was recovering from a bullet in the butt. *grin*. Jackson is a typical cop in that he guards his own secrets well…I had no idea that he had such a need to please when I first met him-and neither did his pretty neighbor Jill.

The final story in the anthology is called NO ANGEL, and it ended up being one of my most favorite ever stories. The hero is Gabriel Mann, the work-hard, play-harder younger brother of Caleb Mann from SEXY DEVIL. (and shares some of the characters form PRIMAL MALE also) I have to tell you, when I sat down to write this story I had no idea what it was about aside from the fact that that Anna was a demon hunter, and Gabe, was a bit of a party- hard bad boy. But these two, as soon as I started writing, they had me. I finished the first draft of their story in 2 days. I didn’t even sleep! They hooked me and reeled me in, and completely took over my fingers.

All in all, the book was written with love, and I really hope readers feel that when they pick it up. To all of you who read -Thank you. You have the power to inspire me.

*Click on the covers to go to Bookpages with Excerpts from those books*