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Monthly Archives: March 2008

About a week ago I finished the 3rd draft of my mess-in-progress. Maybe it’s my imagination, but do I hear a collective groan? Or is it just that I sometimes feel as if five years from now I’ll be announcing the completion of the 327th draft or thereabouts. Because sometimes–and particularly with this story–I wonder if I’m just repainting the Golden Gate Bridge one more time.

A happier metaphor for my writing process involves skiing. When I’ve been to ski resorts with friends, most of them like to try as many different slopes as possible. Once they’ve gotten down a slope in one piece they feel they’ve “conquered” it. Me, I like to keep at it until I get it “right”. The first few times I’m just trying to figure out the fall line, where the ice patches and moguls are, etc… Once I’ve done that, I can approach it with confidence and something I hope approaches grace.

With my writing it’s the same. Unlike other creative people who start a project–which could be a novel, a sweater or a computer program–in a spirit of fun and adventure, I’m always worrying about failure. I know, I’m a wimp! So it takes me 2-3 drafts to get a good feel for my characters and plot. Then comes my favorite part of the process: putting it all together, polishing until it feels right. And I’m finally there. 🙂

Anyway, I’m not saying that others don’t do a good job with finishing and polishing. Professionals do all the parts of the process, even those we find scary, tedious, unpleasant or whatever. It’s just that we all have our favorite parts.

So how about you? Do you enjoy starting a project of any sort? Or do you prefer the final stages, when it all comes together? How about the messy process in between? Or do you enjoy it all (in which case I’ll try not to be too envious)?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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Last week I mentioned that I was going to Hillwood House, the home of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post. Post designed the house to be a living museum and it is beautiful. She was a collector of decorative arts, especially from 18th century France and pre-Communist Russia, like the Fabergé egg shown here (not from her collection).

There were some Regency era paintings. One I correctly guessed as a Thomas Lawrence (I was so proud of myself). Another one I asked about, but our tour guide was obviously a Russian scholar and nothing else quite registered with her. So she didn’t know…
The Lawrence, was the Portrait of Mrs. Michel nee Anne Fane.

It was a lovely day spent with writing friends!

Today won’t be so much fun.

First is my trip to the accountant for the taxes. I used to do our taxes myself, but as they got more complex, I’d have an anxiety attack every time. It is so much better to hand them to the accountant. She likes reading Romance, so I always bring her a book.

It got me thinking about taxes during the Regency, when there were taxes on everything. From What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew (which, by the way, is on sale for $5.99 on Amazon), there were taxes on “land, income, the practice of law, newspaper advertisements, glass, candles, beer,malt, carriages, menservants, coats of arms, newspapers, paper, bricks, stone, coal, windows, corn, soap, horses, dogs, salt, sugar, raisins, tea, coffee, tobacco, playing cards, timber, silk, and…headgear.”

I don’t feel so bad now…..

Except, I have to go to the dentist afterward. My dentist is a great guy and an enthusiastic supporter of my writing (he once phoned me on a Sunday to tell me about a History Channel show about dueling, which he knew I was researching). He’s a bit advanced from the Regency dentist, though. This is from the Jane Austen Society of Australia, about Jane’s visit to the dentist with three of her nieces:

‘The poor girls & their teeth!’ a Visit to the Dentist by Joanna Penglase
“Mr Spence remonstrates strongly over Lizzy’s teeth, cleaning and filing them and filling the ‘very sad hole’ between two of the front ones. But it is Marianne who suffers most: she is obliged to have two teeth extracted to make room for others to grow. ‘When her doom was fixed’ says Jane Austen, ‘Fanny Lizzy and I walked into the next room, where we heard each of the two sharp hasty Screams’. Fanny came off lightest, but even her ‘pretty teeth’ Mr Spence found fault with, ‘putting in gold and talking gravely’, moving Jane Austen to grave doubts about his motives. ‘He must be a Lover of Teeth & Money & Mischief to parade about Fanny’s’, she declares.”

It is some comfort that my dentist is not Mr. Spence!

I hope you have more wonderful things to do today! Things without pain. Tell me about them!

(I am watching Sense and Sensibility at this moment….Edward Ferrars……((((THUD))))

Oh, this is the last day for my contest. Enter before midnight!

Oh Oh, I almost forgot to invite you to the Wet Noodle Posse blog. We’re doing a whole year on writing and April is Conflict month. We have lots of guest bloggers in April, including Jo Beverley! And we’re giving away a signed copy of one of her books to one lucky commenter.

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“The perilous action and the elegance of the writing…allowed me to thoroughly enjoy an unusual and fascinating story of an intriguing era” —Romance Reviews Today

Amanda (standing in as RR): Why, hello, Amanda! Such a surprise to see you here, at your own computer and all. Tell us about A Sinful Alliance! How does this fit into the “Renaissance Trilogy”?

Amanda (as herself): I’m so glad you asked! I am soooo excited about this book. The hero Nicolai (who was a KISS–Knight in Shining Silver–in the April RT, so yay him! I think he’s the first of my characters to win their very own award) was the hero’s friend in A Notorious Woman. As so often happens with these pesky secondary characters, I hadn’t actually intended to write a whole book for him (though he was a hottie). But I really fell for him, and I found a very beautiful, but troubled and lonely, heroine, who really needed his kind of magic–Marguerite Dumas, a French spy.

Trouble was, she once tried to kill him. Bit of a rocky start there. They meet up a few months after this little incident at the court of Henry VIII at Greenwich, still on opposite sides of ever-shifting political alliances. This event was a real historical happening, a meeting in early 1527 between King Henry and a French delegation seeking a marriage between young Princess Mary and King Francois’s younger son. This weeks-long meeting was filled with lavish banquets, balls, jousts, and masques, with specially built theaters and banquet halls. England’s old alliance with Spain is faltering, thanks to Henry’s new infatuation with Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon’s loss of influence, so it made the perfect setting for an illicit, dangerous affair. And also some really great clothes! (Stay tuned next week for more research info on this stuff)

And it’s the second of the trilogy. The third (which I’m just finishing!) is about Balthazar Grattiano, who is now a ship’s captain in the Caribbean!

A as RR: Did you run across anything new or interesting while researching this story?

A as A: Tons! Besides the actual events of this English/French meeting (the Spanish were there, too–never count out the Spanish!), I researched Tudor clothes, tennis, jousts, hunting, Greenwich Palace (plus Fontainebleau Palace, for one scene), sword fighting, theater, fashion. It was way too much fun!

A as RR: Have you always been interested in this time period?

A as A: When I was a kid, I loved watching old movies with my grandmother. One afternoon we watched a Tudor marathon–Anne of the Thousand Days and A Man For All Seasons. I loved them, and immediately started reading all I could about the Tudors! Anne Boleyn particularly intrigued me. The juxtaposition of such splendor and luxury with such terrible danger and intrigue really interests me, and hopefully I brought all that into A Sinful Alliance.

(And hopefully, judging from the popularity of The Other Boleyn Girl and Showtime’s weird The Tudors, other people are intrigued, too!)

A as RR: What was the biggest challenge of this story?

A as A: The challenge was also the part I enjoyed the most–the history! There was so much going on in this short space of time, and I didn’t want to let it overwhelm the characters and their romance. Luckily for me, Nicolai and Marguerite were strong characters, and they basically ran with their own story. I had a clear picture of them in my head (they looked a lot like Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, though not so modern as in this pic, of course!), and they had such complex pasts and personalities that made them perfect for each other. I just created the historical backdrop, and let them go! 🙂

A as RR: Okay, we always have to ask–what’s ‘risky” about A Sinful Alliance???

A as A: Well, the setting is pretty risky! You don’t find 1527 England on the shelf everyday, but I hope there is interest in it. It’s a fantastic time period. And the fact that the hero is Russian, and the heroine is a French spy. But so far Harlequin hasn’t told me “you can’t do that” on anything, so yay!

A as RR: What’s next for you?

A as A: I’m just finishing up Balthazar’s story now! Then it’s on to the third (and last) of my Regency-set The Muses of Mayfair trilogy (watch for them next year!). Then an Elizabethan story inspired by Dancing With the Stars (which just proves inspiration can strike anywhere!). And in 2010, the first of my “Daughters of Ireland” series with Grand Central Publishing! Now, I have to go get to work…

BTW, if you don’t win the autographed copy of A Sinful Alliance here, I will be visiting a few other blogs! On April 2, I’ll be at the Romance Vagabonds; April 4 at the Romance Bandits; and on April 6 at Unusual Historicals. Please drop by and leave comments, so I won’t feel too lonely! And visit my website to read an excerpt…

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