RITA Reader Challenge Review Up @ Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

My review of Stefanie Sloane's The Devil In Disguise just went up at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books:

So here’s a theory for you.  The defining feature of historical romances is this edifice of manners and propriety within which the hero and heroine must find love.  So you can divide historicals into two categories: books whose characters seek to belong, and books whose characters seek to rebel.  Personally, I see the “ton” and its trappings as an obstacle, and I prefer books whose characters feel likewise.  But it’s equally valid to take the reverse view, as Stefanie Sloane does.

Read the rest here.

In the past, when I'm hunting for a good book and my usual sources aren't providing any likely titles, I've googled up lists of RITA nominees and picked from there - and the results have always been great.  The RITA shortlist doesn't include every great book that comes out in a given year, but in my experience the titles that do make the list are worth the time and attention.

SB Sarah explained the Challenge, now in its second year, in a post back in March:

Last year this resulted in a LOT of reviews, but it also made the award ceremony a lot of fun because by the end, there was more than a passing familiarity with the different books. I had several email messages from people saying they appreciated all the RITA reviews because it not only gave them great ideas for what to read next, but it made them more attentive to the awards ceremony as the winners were announced.

And it's true that with twelve categories, it's unlikely very many of us will be familiar with each one.  I was excited to participate and think it will really pay off this year in Anaheim (it'll be my first time attending the RWA National conference).

And thanks again to Ms. Sloane, who sought me out and donated a copy of the book.  It was a classy move.  And thanks to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, for coming up with such an awesome idea and then making it happen.

A Rose By Any Other Name

So my work in progress, The Duke Who Never Forgets, is set in Derbyshire.  I've been looking up some locally appropriate surnames - did you know you could do that?  There's a website, here, that gathers lists of English surnames by county, often dating them back to their earliest appearance in records.  Very handy for a romance author striving for authenticity and local flavor. There are a lot of fantastic names to choose from, some glorious and crunchy like Widgery and Kippax, some that have a perfect traditional feel that can't just be invented, like Orme or Harrop.

And some names that are too fantastic and silly to be believed - like Topliss or Toogood, Hickinbotham or Luckcuck.  Luckcuck!  And let's not forget the inevitable Longstaff, but have you ever met anyone named Lillycrapp before?  Or Purseglove?  Spendlove, Makepeace - there's a sentence in there, I think.

Letters From Beyond The Grave

Have you noticed how often, in books or television, an orphaned hero or heroine gets a last letter from a dead parent?  "Dear Child," it often begins, "if you are reading this, something bad has happened to me.  Here's some advice you might find handy." It's often hard to suspend disbelief about the arrival of such letters.  The parent writes it and arranges for the child to receive it at a far-off yet opportune moment, always exhibiting a prescient awareness of events years in the future while blind to the disaster right at their doorstep.  Yet I completely understand the impulse to orchestrate such a message; often it's that fleeting, heartfelt connection to a dead loved one that motivates the hero/heroine to continue his/her journey.

A 2010 episode of This American Life just popped up in my podcast queue, Held Hostage.  I just finished listening to the first act, which ended on a rather grim note.  It described how people kidnapped in Colombia might find themselves held hostage for years, and so many people were held hostage at any given time that weekly radio shows sprang up so that family of the kidnapped could deliver messages over the airwaves, wishing their loved ones courage and strength in capitivity.

One of the stories was about a political prisoner who was held hostage for eleven years, with an interview from his teenaged daughter - a girl who'd never really known him.  Ultimately the Colombian government attempted a rescue, forcing the kidnappers to beat a hasty retreat.  So hasty, in fact, that they cut loose their excess baggage - their hostages - executing them all.  But they found a diary with the executed political prisoner that he'd kept over the eleven years of his capitivity, with messages to his family, drawings of what he thought his daughter might look like.

Heartbreaking, and for once real.  I'm flagging the story for myself and any other writers out there looking for a way to send plausible and emotionally wrenching letters to their characters from beyond the grave.

"You have no other choice, you must go on"

Do you listen to Radiolab?  Because, if not, you totally should.  It's one of my favorite podcasts.  They did a great program called The Bad Show, all about why people do bad things.  A perpetually fascinating topic, especially to anyone who's ever tried to invent a villain. I suggest listening to the Radiolab show, which is fascinating and entertaining.

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Link.

I Regret to Inform You That My Wedding to Captain Von Trapp Has Been Canceled. Priceless.