by Mary Jo Editing and producing e-versions of earlier books is an interesting, nostalgic, and sometimes alarming process. I agree with everything Cara/Andrea said in her Wednesday discussion of the e-release of three of her Signet Regencies. Proofing forces an author to confront all the appalling writing weaknesses that she has been struggling to eliminate. Thank heaven that in popular fiction, a good story can trump wordiness! To a point, anyhow. <G> I’ve just uploaded the ebook verson of Dearly Beloved, my first true Regency historical romance after I’d written 7 traditional Signet Regencies. I wanted a rock ‘em, sock... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m delighted to welcome Isolde Martyn as a Word Wench guest today. Born in England and now an Australian of many years standing, Isolde has won numerous writing awards, including an RWA RITA in the US and two Romance Novel of the Year awards in Australia. Today Isolde is going to tell us about her new novel, Mistress to the Crown, a story of the remarkable woman known to history as Mistress Jane Shore. Isolde, over to you! "How easily Life can flick us. Like an idle boy’s fingernail against a tiny fly. We are so fragile,... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m delighted to welcome back author Kathryn Johnson, today in her guise as Mary Hart Perry, author of romantic Victorian thrillers based on the real lives of Queen Victoria’s daughters. Wench Susan interviewed her about the first Mary Hart Perry book, The Wild Princess, which featured the rebellious Princess Louise. Now the second book, Seducing the Princess, features Victoria’s youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, and the book has Mary Hart Perry pondering what makes heroes heroic. Her thoughts: Mary Hart Perry I've been giving this question a great deal of thought lately. Some writers admit that they model... Continue reading

by Mary Jo It’s time for our monthly round up of reading choices, but first—our Word Wenches RITA finalists! Anne Gracie and Cara Elliott have both been nominated for the Romance Writers of America Best Historical Romance award. Anne’s nominated book is Bride by Mistake, and Cara’s is Too Dangerous to Desire. Wenches rock! Now on to What We’re Reading: Patricia Rice: The Temptation of Your Touch by Teresa Medeiros is on my Nook right now. Lovely faux-gothic atmosphere with a hero who used to be perfect but was unlucky with the love of his life and has retreated to... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Pity the poor traditional Harlequin hero—it used to be enough to be a Millionaire Italian Stallion to win the hot Heroine Virgin Bride, but in these difficult economic times, he won’t get to first base unless he’s a billionaire. A million dollars or euros just don’t go as far as they used to. Billionaires are all the rage in contemporary romance these days—I have a friend whose editor asked her to come up with a trilogy of them—but grade inflation has also been taking place in historical romance. It used to be that any kind of lord... Continue reading

by Mary Jo The last of my newly renamed and relaunched Starting Over Series is An Imperfect Process, and this was one book I was happy to retitle. An Imperfect Process had been my working title, but the publisher didn’t like it and preferred the very generic Twist of Fate. Oh, well. I think my title suits the book’s theme of an imperfect justice system, and also the heroine’s issues about falling in love. This story was inspired when I read in the Baltimore Sun about a local man named Michael Austin who spent 27 years in prison for a... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Today’s blog is another in my occasional series of showing how stories come together. This time I’m dissecting the second in my contemporary romance series: the book what was once called The Spiral Path and I recently renamed Phoenix Falling in the relaunched Starting Over Series. Setting the Scene: My historical series are all built around men who became friends as schoolboys, so I decided to build my contemporary series around a group of female friends. They met as girls at a real school, Baltimore’s Friends School, which is a Quaker institution, though students come from all... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Often our monthly Ask A Wench post is a reader question that all the Wenches answer in our different ways. But today’s compilation is rooted in Christmas pictures. Anne sent us a photo of some of her holiday decorations, another wench noticed the beautiful gemstone bonsai tree and other polished stones—and we were off the races! Or perhaps the quarries. <G> It turns out that all of the Wenches love stones and minerals, and we love taking about them. We could have easily generated a multi-part series on Stones We Love, but I restrained myself. We'll start... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m delighted to interview Word Wench Anne on her new release, The Autumn Bride. (Okay, I begged a little in order to get an advance reading copy. <G>) The book has received excellent advance notices, including this starred review in Publishers Weekly: ***“Gracie (His Captive Lady) charms and entices with this launch of the Regency-era Chance Sisters series….Abby’s warmth and caring nature shine from the first moment, and Max’s dedication to his family and friends make him worthy of her love. Layers of secrets and deft characterization make for a deep, rich story that will leave readers... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Historical romance is my first and lasting writing love, and I’ve been writing it continuously since—heavens, 1986! But the muse craves variety, so I’ve written in other directions along the way. Always there is romance and a happy ending, and almost always there is history—except for my venture into contemporary romance. I wrote three novellas and one related novella in my Circle of Friends series, and it was a wonderful and challenging experience. I had to develop a contemporary “voice,” and all the books were demanding, high research stories. They were actually halfway between contemporary romance and... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Today is the last of our Word Wenches short Christmastide posts. The holidays are over, and even though mine was great fun, I’m ready to descend into the silent, productive peace of January. But since we’re beginning a new year, I decided to suggest a mental exercise that I blogged about a couple of years ago. I was reminded of it on a discussion loop: Choosing a theme word for the upcoming year. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution, a category that is famously ignored because trying to change deep seated habits generally takes more than a... Continue reading

by Mary Jo What would Christmastide be without enjoying some pictures of the Cincinnati SPCA’s annual Reindog Parade? Once again, my friend Laura Resnick sent me some very entertaining pictures of parade attendees. Sadly, there were few Hanukkah Hounds in this year’s parade since it took place on December 8th, the first day of the (very early) Hanukkah celebration. I expect the Hounds were all at home getting under the family’s feet while a feast was prepared. On to the parade! First, the eager crowd gathers: Wise dogs come from afar: Angel dogs are heard on high: Look, it's Santa's... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m going out on a limb here to say I don’t think the world is going to end today, Mayan Apocalypse notwithstanding. <G> Instead, it’s the winter solstice, the first day of Capricorn, and the heart of holiday madness. People are shopping, wrapping, cooking, collapsing. So I decided to ask the Wenches just for fun what they might choose for a Dream Christmas. As always, the replies are as varied and amusing as the Wenches. <G> Joanna: I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights. So maybe my dream Christmas is a fancy ski resort somewhere in... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Once upon a time, full length animated movies were largely the province of Walt Disney, and the classics like FANTASIA and BAMBI and ALICE IN WONDERLAND were released ever few years so new generations of kids could enjoy them. The advent of computer generated imagery (CGI) has made the category of animated feature films much larger. The Academy Awards have had an Oscar for the best animated feature since 2001. I’m seen a sprinkling of the well reviewed animated features of the last decade: SHREK, ICE AGE, FINDING NEMO, TOY STORY, etc. I’ve found them pretty and... Continue reading

by Mary Jo ‘Tis the day before American Thanksgiving, and many of us are going in all directions as we travel, or welcome friends and family, make lists of items we might have forgotten for the feast, and if we’re hosting a gathering, we might be doing a hasty clean up that involves shoving things into closets and hoping they don't explode. In the midst of busyness, it’s good to pause and take a deep breath now and then. Thanksgiving is mostly a North American holiday, with Canadian Thanksgiving held earlier, on the second Monday of October. There are other... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I was drafting a different blog when I realized it wasn't making a lot of sense, so I decided to riff on another topic altogether. Anyone who has read my books over the years has probably noticed that I’m intrigued by the various historical connections between Britain and its empire, especially India, since there has been so much interaction over the centuries. I also occasionally like to riff on movies: one of my favorites was Amazing Grace, a wonderfully entertaining biopic of William Wilberforce, the great anti-slavery crusader and reformer of late 18th and early 19th century... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Ten days ago at the New Jersey Romance Writers Conference, I gave a speech about the changing landscape of publishing. (Putting that talk together was a real chore, because really, who knows???!!) But today’s blog is about some of the interesting things that can be tossed up by the eddies of the new publishing river. Years ago, Jo Beverley and Karen Harbaugh and Barbara Samuel and I did an anthology called Faery Magic—historical romance novellas involving faeries. It was the first of three anthologies we did together, and a whopping great amount of fun, as author generated... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Okay, no one actually asked us why we live where we do, but a discussion was triggered by Joanna Bourne’s recent move into an aerie in the Blue Ridge mountains. It was such a fun discussion that we thought we’d share it with you. Joanna: I'm very lucky. I don't have to dream about where I want to live. I can have it. For me, this means high up in the mountains, in the deep woods. I lived for many years in big cities. Those were good times in a lot of ways. City life is exciting... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I adore fish and chips. I grew up inland and fish were not a regular part of the diet, but on rare occasions, we’d go to a “fish fry.” That was a fundraiser dinner put on by a local fire department with fish and French fries and I don’t remember what else, but surely pies would have been there for dessert, this being Upstate New York. The wonderful crunch of deep fried batter contrasted so beautifully with the mild white fish within. Fabulous! The experience was so far from the dreary fish sticks served regularly in the... Continue reading

by Mary Jo At the end of August, the Mayhem Consultant and I sailed from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2 purely to enjoy the leisure and romance of a transatlantic crossing. But once we reached England, we certainly weren’t going to waste being in Europe! We’d vaguely planned to go to Ireland some day. I’d spent a week there many, many years ago when I was living in England, and the MC had never visited Ireland at all. Clearly, it was time. <G> Neither the MC nor I have any known Irish blood, but no matter.... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m just back from a rather splendid vacation, which started with a one week transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2, followed by another week in Ireland. Both are thoroughly blog-worthy. The Mayhem Consultant has long wanted to make a classic transatlantic cruise such as used to be required to get to or from Europe, and I agreed that it sounded like a fine idea. The Queen Mary 2 is not a cruise ship, but the last and largest of the great ocean liners: ships designed to transport people from place to place. They use more steel... Continue reading

by Mary Jo If you’ve been following the modest saga of the book I’ve been working on and my series of “how I wrote what I wrote” posts about my Silk Trilogy, you will not be surprised to learn that A) Sometimes a Rogue, (Lost Lords #5, September 2013) went into my editor yesterday, so B) This is a good time to write about Veils of Silk, last of the Silk Trilogy. For me, a series will usually start with a plot premise, and then I create characters to work with that. But as a series progress, I find that... Continue reading

by Mary Jo Two weeks ago, drowning in deadline madness, I blogged about Silk and Shadows, a backlist book that was first of my Silk Trilogy, and which is now available in an edition. I told you some of the story-behind-the-story, and threatened to do more such posts in the future. That threat is being fulfilled very quickly! I’m still slogging through Lost Lords #5, though I think I’ve found a plot thread that will take me to the grand finale. And I still enjoy talking about some of the elements that went into spinning a particular tale. Hence, here’s... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I’m in crazy deadline madness, so I don’t have a lot of time for writing a deeply scintillating blog, but instead of pulling a classic, it occurred to me that I could do something fun: tell you about how I wrote one of books! Is that great or what? <G> (I’m reminded of a cartoon I once saw, probably from The New Yorker, which showed a couple on a first date. The guy, a pretentious literary looking sort, is saying, “But that’s enough about me. Now let me tell you about my book.” <G>) A t any... Continue reading

by Mary Jo I'm delighted to once again welcome Karen Harper as a Word Wenches guest. Karen is a New York Times bestselling author of romantic suspense novels from Mira Books. She won the Mary Higgins Clark Award in 2006 for her novel Dark Angel ANGEL, and her novels make the "Heatseekers" bestsellers lists in the UK. She is looking forward to attending ThrillerFest in NYC in July and the Historical Novel Society Conference in London in September. As you can see, Karen is as versatile as she is widely honored! Today, she is going to tell us about her... Continue reading