All blogs are property of authors and copying is not permitted.

Click image to one-click your copy of Soldiers of Fortune

CLICK BELOW & SUBSCRIBE TO THE RB4U NEWSLETTER

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Guest Blog: Suz deMello: What's the Deal With Historical Romance?

Why do many of us enjoy writing or reading historical romance? I don’t know about anyone else, but I started by reading historicals—Georgette Heyer, to be specific. Once I discovered one of her books in our family cabin as a thirteen-year-old, I couldn’t be stopped from obsessively reading every word Heyer wrote, including the dubious non-Regency works.

Despite the weaknesses of Simon the Coldheart and My Lord John, Heyer is still my favorite historicals author. Her depth of knowledge of Regency-era English society adds greatly to my enjoyment of her novels.

I’m most interested in how people lived, the clothes they wore, the food they ate, the homes in which they lived. The art of the time, including the decorative arts—everything from snuffboxes to forks to drawing room tables.

A visit to a museum in Britain showed me how beds were constructed, which shows up in my forthcoming Desire in Tartan, part of the Clan Kilborn Vampires series from Ellora’s Cave. Sequel to my bestselling Temptation in Tartan, Desire in Tartan is about an innocent English governess who finds herself working in a castle full of vampires.

In this clip, the heroine hasn’t ridden a horse since childhood, and she’s trying to secretly practice before she must mount a mare on the morrow:
“...she went upstairs and changed into her nightwear before taking the small, flat pillow off her bed. Then she rolled up the bedclothes. Not everything, not the rope bedcords beneath the flat reed bed mat, or the bock and feather mattress. Just the sheets and blankets. Using a belt, she strapped them to the stool, trying to imitate the barrel-like shape of a horse.”

Hope you enjoy! I’ll keep everyone posted about the pub date, especially if you befriend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sueswift

BIO:
Best-selling, award-winning author Suz deMello, a.k.a Sue Swift, has written over sixteen romance novels in several subgenres, including erotica, comedy, historical, paranormal, mystery and suspense, plus a number of short stories and non-fiction articles on writing. A freelance editor, she’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Ai Press, Liquid Silver Books and Etopia Press. She also takes private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in PW, Kirkus and Booklist, attained the finals of the RITA and hit several bestseller lists.

A former trial attorney, her passion is world travel. She’s left the US over a dozen times, including lengthy stints working overseas. She’s now writing yet another vampire tale and planning her next trip.

Find her books at http://www.suzdemello.com
For editing services, email her at suzswift@yahoo.com
She tweets her book picks @ReadThis4fun

9 comments:

Sandy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sandy said...

I think it's important the historical aspects are correct, Suz. I, also, grew up on Georgette Heyer's books and loved every moment of them.

I've read a few historical's that weren't correct but still found them enjoyable. The problem is some of the younger people who read these incorrect stories as gospel. They should be learning history in school and not in fiction.

Suz de said...

Thanks for your comment, Sandy! And thanks to the folks at RB4U for hosting me.

jean hart stewart said...

I'm a regency historical fan too. They're always relaxing. I've written two, and believe me getting the facts correct takes a lot of research, but I loved it.

Patricia Rickrode w/a Jansen Schmidt said...

I think doing research for historicals would be a blast, especially if you can do it in the actual locale your book is set.

I like your excerpt. I got a very distinct picture in my mind of what the bed looked like and what she was attempting to do.

Nice job!

Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt

Nicole Morgan said...

I agree with Sandy. Having the facts make sense and match up help the story flow. If I was reading something that didn't quite make sense I may lose interest in the rest of the story.

Great post! :)

Suz de said...

Thanks, all, for your commentS1

Anonymous said...

This is the measure of money you Cognize who this prosperous psyche was. [url=http://www.onlinecasinoburger.co.uk/]online casino[/url] casino online the gorillas in the gold? http://www.tasty-onlinecasino.co.uk/

Anonymous said...

I happened to to toy the games properly. [url=http://www.mecrk.co.uk/]online casinos[/url] online casinos You may desire a higher Here top games those would be courteous for you. http://www.hupkp.co.uk/

Share buttons