Top Pick! Haymore delivers a second fascinating, powerful and sensual novel that places her high on must-read lists. She perfectly blends a strong plot that twists like a serpent and has unforgettable characters to create a book readers will remember and re-read.

((swoon!))

I didn’t know this, but I also found out that Garrett also was listed as a K.I.S.S. (Knight in Shining Silver) for April in RT:

Even A Touch of Scandal can’t stop the passion Garrett, Duke of Calton, feels for his forbidden love in Jennifer Haymore’s story.

((sigh!))

Two more weeks until A Touch of Scandal releases!

What you can win: A read of your fiction manuscript by Barbara Poelle of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency

How it works:
(1) Click “Leave a Comment” below and post the title, genre, and first five sentences of your fiction manuscript on the comments of this blog. Email entries will not be accepted; all entries must be made in the comments section of this blog.
(2) A group of semifinalists will be selected from the lines posted. The list of semifinalists for round one will be posted here on the blog on March 7. Round Two will begin on March 7 and semifinalists will be posted on March 14, and Round Three will begin on March 14 and semifinalists will be posted on March 21.
(3) The semifinalists will be invited to send their first chapter and/or synopsis to Jennifer.
(4) One overall winner will be selected on or before March 28. That winner will be invited to send his/her manuscript to Barbara Poelle, who will read it for possible representation.
(5) Questions? Feel free to go to the contact page and send them in. Jennifer will respond as quickly as possible.

Example Entry:

Title: A Touch of Scandal
Genre: Historical Romance (1823 England)
First 5 sentences:
A bothersome heat crept into Kate’s cheeks as she hurried through the narrow, dimly lit passageway. If only she could learn how to hide her thoughts.

Taking a deep breath, she forcefully slowed her step, squared her shoulders, and lowered her eyes. She was simply a servant, finished with her duties for the day, ready to take the three-mile walk home. Not a flustered woman rushing out to a secret secluded spot to watch a strange man—no, a god, more like—bathe in the nude.

The fine print:
You must be 18 years of age or older to enter this contest; no purchase necessary; void where prohibited. Judging is subjective, and judges’ names will not be revealed. If you enter this contest, you agree to be added to Jennifer Haymore’s newsletter list, which is sent out to subscribers quarterly. Personal information and email addresses are kept private and never shared. The semifinalists and winner’s names will be posted on the jenniferhaymore.com blog.

http://www.jenniferhaymore.com/bookshelf/a-touch-of-scandal/

A Touch of Scandal releases in six weeks!

Okay, since I’ve been deep in this dark, dank writer’s cave and I’m late on this today, I feel like making up for my lack of timeliness to y’all by doubling the winnings for next week. So for next week, I’m going to give four books–yes, four!–to the winner! They just need to be chosen from the remaining books listed over on the bonus features page.

Here is this week’s question: What are the titles of Jennifer’s 2nd and 3rd books? (Hint: Both are sequels to A HINT OF WICKED, and both will be released in 2010! And did you know the third book has a Christmas theme? I’m so excited! Bigger Hint: You can find the answers on the FAQ page!)

So head on over to my bonus features/contest page to enter to win four books–winner will be drawn on October 9!

First Name: Gail

Last Name: H.

Email: ghurt110@b….

Congrats! Gail, please go to my contest page and select the two books you’d like. Then email me with your books and your snail mail address.

Thanks to EVERYONE who entered! And…everyone had the right answer! LOL! Here is the question for week #3:

Book #2, A TOUCH OF SCANDAL, features one of the heroes from A HINT OF WICKED as its hero. What is his name?
(If you haven’t read A HINT OF WICKED, you can guess! I won’t penalize you if you get the wrong answer, as long as it’s a good guess! )

So head on over to my contest page and enter! Have fun!

It has been frequently observed by travellers and men of experience that comfort is a term only understood in England and scarcely applicable to the habits of any other nation.

From:

The Servant’s Guide and Family Manual

By Katherine Golden Bitting
Collection on Gastronomy (Library of Congress, 1831)

I have to say, I love the vanity of the English during this period!
So…hmmm. What do you think? Was she right?

By far, the most common question I’m receiving in emails lately, is: When will A TOUCH OF SCANDAL be out?
Answer: April, 2010.

It seems like a long way away. I have to admit, I’d love it if it were to release next month (even though I haven’t finished copyedits yet, lol!). But on the other hand, I know April will be here before we know it.

And I have a special treat to show all of you today:

Isn’t it pretty? I think they did a great job evoking the emotion of the story, and the woman looks exactly like how I imagine the heroine, Kate. (Plus blue and gold were the colors of both my universities!) Anyway, I just love it!

I’m off to the Romance Writers of America annual conference in Washington, D.C.! If you’re in the area, please come visit us! There’s going to be a massive romance writer signing on Wednesday. If not, add a comment about what you think of the ATOS cover (honest opinions, please!), and I’ll randomly select one commenter when I come home to receive a signed copy of A HINT OF WICKED! Have a great week everyone!

JB: Mostly, it was pure, dumb luck. On something of a lark, I queried John Scognamiglio at Kensington Books with a novella called Wickedly Ever After. I was shocked when I received a request for the full manuscript within less than 24 hours. I dutifully printed and mailed the manuscript, then started checking the mailbox for the rejection letter. A couple of weeks after I mailed the manuscript, I received an email from John asking if I had outlines for the other two connected novellas mentioned in my cover letter. I said, yes, of course. (I didn’t say they were only in my head.)

I wrote out the outlines and sent them by email. A month passed. One afternoon at 4pm, the phone rang. My son answered it. “Mom, it’s for you,” he hollered. Thinking it was someone from my office, I came downstairs to answer in my bathrobe (I tend to shower late in the afternoon–ah, the life of a work-at-home mom!). When John identified himself, I nearly fainted. I don’t think I heard a word after that, but I knew I’d just been offered a contract for publication.

JH: How and why did you start writing romance?

JB: The why part of that question is a lot easier to answer than the how. I write romance because I love to read romance. Although there’s more to it than that, if I’m honest, because there are many other genres I also enjoy reading (I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery, for example, and love historical fiction). But I love reading and writing romance because it allows me to relive those giddy days when I, myself, was falling in love, and because, though I’m remarkably cynical and unromantic in many ways (I’d take a practical car over a diamond ring as a present any day), I do believe in happy endings and happily ever after.

The how is harder because, once I discovered romance in my reading material, I was already an obsessive writer (which is not to say a good one, lol). I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write and/or tell myself stories. Once I discovered romance as a reader, though, I knew it was what I wanted to write.

JH: Why have you chosen the historical period of the Regency as a setting for your stories? Do all the stories you write take place in the Regency?

JB: I’ve always like reading Regencies, but when I started writing, I actually concentrated on the early Victorian period more than the Regency because I’m interested in the way the social strata of English society was changing at that time and how that can drive the conflict between two characters from different classes. I’m not comfortable, however, in the later parts of the Victorian period (neither hoops skirts nor bustles sit well with me from a fashion perspective, lol), so I’ve always tended toward the earlier part of the 19th century.

Behind the Red Door wound up being set in the Regency primarily because the stories just seemed to FIT in that era. Particularly, Scandalously Ever After, the middle novella, virtually required a Regency setting because the hero is tortured by his memories of war, and although the English were certainly involved in wars throughout the 19th century, the Peninsular Wars were the most defining.

JH: Writing novellas can be a challenge for authors who are used to writing longer (like me!). What’s your secret?

JB: Um, short attention span? Seriously, one of the best things about writing short is that, when you hit 25k, you’re almost done. There’s just not time to become bored with the story or the characters or worry too much that everything you’ve written is a waste of byte space. I have a lot of unfinished manuscripts to my name, and they mostly remain unfinished because I lost interest in them and got a better idea at right around the 25-30k mark. But it’s a lot easier to avoid that if, at 25-30k, you’re darn near done.

That said, the first book I ever finished writing was a single title that clocked in at a massive 136k in the first draft. I didn’t have the first idea about writing short, and worse, I realized that in writing a long story with a complex subplot, I was losing sight of the romance, which after all, was why I was writing the book in the first place.

So, when Ann Aguirre challenged her blog readers to write a short (<15k) for an Ellora's Cave call for submissions, I took up the gauntlet and came up with an idea for a Regency-set short that I called Carnally Ever After. Writing that short was difficult, but I learned a lot from it, including exactly how to keep the story focused on the developing romantic relationship.

For me, writing novellas was a great exercise. I think it taught me how to write a tighter, stronger romance. Now, as I go back to tackling full-length novels with subplots, I find I do a better job of not wandering too far away from that romance, even when I’m exploring the sub-plot elements.

JH: Do you consider Behind the Red Door erotica or erotic romance? What is the difference between erotica and erotic romance?

JB: Behind the Red Door is definitely erotic romance because each of the stories focuses on the development of a single romantic relationship and ends with a happily ever after for the protagonists. For me, the defining characteristic of a romance is the focus on the courtship/falling in love and the HEA ending.

Erotica, by contrast, doesn’t need to have an HEA ending (or even a “happy-for-now” ending) and doesn’t focus on the protagonists developing a romantic relationship, but rather on the protagonists’ exploration of sexuality and sexual relationships. To me, that’s a key difference. One isn’t better than the other, by any means, but they are different.

I kind of think of the difference between erotic romance and erotica as being roughly akin to the difference between traditional romance and mainstream women’s fiction with romantic elements. It’s all about the focus of the story. If the focus is the romantic relationship (whether between two character or more than two characters), it’s a romance, even if that relationship is developed and explored primarily through sex. If the focus is on sexual exploration and discovery, then it’s erotica, even if there are some romantic elements.

Or at least, that’s my opinion .

JH: Of your three heroines, Miss Eleanor Palmer, Calliope, and Lady Jane, which one do you see yourself most likely to become close friends with?

JB: I suppose Eleanor and I have the most in common since we both spent a fair proportion of our time reading and translating Greek and Latin poetry–and at roughly the same age! But both Callie and Jane hold special places in my heart, so really, it’s a tough choice.

JH: If you were trapped on a desert island with your heroes, The Marquess of Grenville, Captain Jack Prescott, and Gerard Nash, and they all were vying for your “attentions,” which one do you think you’d succumb to first?

JB: Again, tough choice! But if I had to guess, I’d Jack would get to me first. He’s just so darned tortured and in need of rescue and sympathy. But I’m pretty sure I’d succumb to the other two in very short order!

JH: What are you working on now?

JB: I’m hoping to go out on submission soon with a proposal for a series of three single title historicals set in early Victorian England. The first, titled Unashamed, features a decidedly non-traditional heroine and a former French spy as the hero. More than that, I’m not willing to say. I have this curious fear of “jinxing” it by saying too much.

Thanks so much for visiting with me today, Jackie! You’ve got me thinking about super sexy erotic historical romances–after reading this fantastic book, I’m hankering for more!

If you comment with a book suggestion for me, I’ll enter you in a drawing to win a signed copy of Jackie’s Behind the Red Door! Winners will be announced at midnight (Pacific time) on Friday, May 22.

As usual, I ended up getting distracted–this time by marriage rites of various cultures during that same century, and I came across a description of the marriage ceremony of the Hotentots:

The Suri, or master of religious ceremonies, pisses on the bridegroom, who receives the stream with eagerness and rubs it into the furrows of the fat with which he is covered. He performs the same ceremony on the bride, who is equally respectful.

Sketches of the History of Man By Henry Home Kames, 1813

Um….yeah.
Just makes me happy I write romances that take place in the United Kingdom! The culture and society was different from ours…but rather easier to portray as romantic, in my opinion.