This year I have read many ebook novels written by indie authors that my friend could have gifted  without worry. Here are just a few such books—some we had the pleasure to work on and others we just had the pleasure to read. Buy with confidence. To learn more about any of these titles, just click on the cover.

Not sure how to gift ebooks? Read Ebooks Make Great Gifts for Kids!

Cozy Mystery

My first recommendation is the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series by M. Louisa Locke. I heard Locke speak at a conference in January and immediately purchased Maids of Misfortune: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery. Locke’s success as a writer allowed her to retire early from her job as a history professor, but her attention to detail and historical accuracy shine through in every volume. I went on to read all her books and think you will too!

Maids of Misfortune Free for 1 Day Only on Kindle (December 28, 2012)

Uneasy Spirits: Free for 2 Days on Kindle (December 28-29, 2012)

Regency Romance?

Until I began working with Judith Lown, I had no idea what a Traditional Regency Romance was. I have learned it is not a bodice-ripper but a more genteel, historically accurate tale that takes place during the Regency Period. Want to know more? Read Lown’s definition in her blog post The Roots of Regency Romance. I don’t read romance but I do love Jane Austen and Lown’s strong women characters, her witty comments, and plot twists appeal to me. Her first book, A Match for Lady Constance, was published by Avon (now owned and republished by Amazon) and her second  (with related characters) is an indie title—A Sensible Lady.  Lown is hard at work on the third. I have had a sneak peak and highly recommend that you start reading the first two now, so you will be ready when the third is published in 2013.

Historical Fiction

The Wedding Shroud: A Tale of Ancient Rome by Elisabeth Storrs is a gem of a story coming to us via Australia. This gripping tale of a young Roman woman who is married to an Etruscan nobleman as part of a peace treaty follows the young bride’s journey to a new land and a new culture. Ever gaze in wonder at Etruscan jewelry in a museum case? Learn more about this fascinating culture. Storrs spent ten years researching and so the novel is saturated with historic details that compel the reader to keep reading. Her characters are beautifully developed and her plot evolves naturally and yet still surprises. The book ends with you wanting more, but, fortunately, there is a sequel on the near horizon! Learn about the author’s publishing journey and view a video on her blog post What’s an Author to Do?

I have read The Thinara King,  the second of the nine-book series, “The Child of the Erinyes,” set in ancient Crete. Now I plan to go back and read the first title and Recbecca Lochlann is finishing the third. Here is what the author has to say to readers about her series:

“The Child of the Erinyes” is not for everyone. Along with some mature subject matter, it’s an extended series, beginning in the Bronze Age and not wrapping up till the near future. It’s a story that requires commitment and patience. Things hinted at in Book One, “The Year-god’s Daughter,” might not be resolved until Book Nine–the conclusion.

I love discovering a series I enjoy as there are always new titles to look forward to. Try the first volume—The Year-god’s Daughter.

Thriller

Thirst by L.A. Larkin is a page turner! Ready for thrills and excitement? Antarctica is the coldest, most isolated place on earth. Luke Searle, maverick glaciologist, has made it his home. But soon his survival skills will be tested to the limit by a ruthless mercenary who must win at any cost. The white continent is under attack. The Australian team is being hunted down. Can Luke stay alive long enough to raise the alarm? Can he avert a global catastrophe?

Thirst named to the Best Crime Fiction 2012 list!

Go Indie

Today I am here to dispel the myth that there are no well written ebooks. Download any of the ebooks above, cuddle up in a comfy chair, and disappear into another time and place.

Please share ebooks of worth you have enjoyed in 2012.

A perennial question for readers is: Do you read for character, plot, or setting?  Of course, this is an artificial choice. Most of us read for all three—or at least we don’t want a major disappointment in any of these three elements.

But, in a romance novel, plot and setting will not compensate for undifferentiated or unconvincing characters. The plot, after all, is already known: Man meets woman.  Man loses woman/Woman loses man. Man and woman find each other. Even if this plot plays out in an engrossing setting, it still will fall flat if there is not something unique about this particular man and this particular woman. If the plot is satisfying, much of it will be the natural playing out of the character and motivations of this man and this woman.

Do writers create or discover their characters? I’m not sure. I do know that characters won’t be shy about telling a writer what they will or will not do. Lady Constance actually let me know that she was quite worried that I was the one who was writing her story. She wasn’t at all certain that I was up to the task.

But where do these characters come from?

My first two novels began with scenes that I carried around in my brain for years:  A Match for Lady Constance grew out of a scene of an ill-matched pair being discovered alone in a library—a social taboo in Regency England.  A Sensible Lady grew out of a scene of a lady skipping stones on a lake and being surprised by a gentleman skipping a stone from behind her. Everything else in those two books: the physical appearance of the main characters, their personalities, their “issues”—everything flowed out of the seed scenes.

Now, I am working on my first sequel. Jack and Drusilla, the hero and heroine of my work-in-progress, were supporting players in A Match for Lady Constance. So when I started to write their story, I had some idea of who these two people are, why they are drawn to each other, and what roadblocks keep them from instantly, mutually, recognizing that they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

But guess what? From the start of my thinking about Jack and Drusilla, I was really clear about the setting for their book. Don’t ask me why this story had to take place in Boston. All I know is that it had to. Getting Drusilla to Boston was no easy matter, nor was discovering the details of her life once she got there. She is, after all, a truly Sensible Lady—much more sensible than Katherine, the heroine of my book by that title. So why in the world would Drusilla go gallivanting off across an ocean, away from family and friends? In this case setting required character development, which created plot.

I don’t want to think of all the cul de sacs I’ve written into, trying to tell Drusilla and Jack’s story.  But I have learned that the only way to get out of those cul de sacs is to go back to my characters and let them tell me more about themselves.

Please share

Tell us about your writing process. Do you ever start with setting? Do your characters tell you what to do?

The first Regency Romances weren’t historical; they were contemporary fiction written by Jane Austen.  But her work established critical standards that are still used to evaluate romantic fiction today—200 years after she wrote.  Any literate female who reads English will be able to tell you when she first read an Austen novel and which is her favorite.

The first historical Regency Romances were written by Georgette Heyer from 1934-1972. It was Heyer who introduced the ton—London’s most select society—to fiction readers.  And her unique perspective on what makes a lady admirable and what makes a gentleman honorable is the yardstick by which connoisseurs of traditional Regencies still measure Regency Romance writers.

Both Austen and Heyer are romance writers, but neither can be called Romantic Writers in a literary sense. The Bronte sisters are prime examples of Romantic Writers. Bronte heroines live in a world of high emotion and extreme behavior.  Austen and Heyer are in the classical tradition, which emphasizes self-control, restraint, and balanced judgment—even in the face of distressing circumstances.

What we have in both Austen and Heyer heroines is something much more serious than “pluck to the backbone.”  It is a toughness of mind that, while not denying longing and love, faces unpleasant realities without self-pity.

When writing A Sensible Lady: A Traditional Regency Romance, I consciously asked myself “What attitude would Heyer take?” when I was dealing with the potentially dire situation in which my heroine, Katherine Brampton, found herself.  She had to be courageous but discreet, realistically worried but not hysterical or whiny.  No one threaded those needles with the skill of Austen and Heyer.

And what about heroes?  Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightly are proverbial for their upholding of Society’s standards and their insistence that conventions be observed—even at the risk of losing the loves of their lives.  Likewise, Heyer’s heroes might have their peccadilloes.  They might be arrogant or rude. But they understand the rules that bind the lives of the ladies they love and they adjust their behavior accordingly. Lord Worth waits until Judith Tavener reaches her majority and is no longer his ward before he courts her.  Lord Damerel, a man with a dissolute past, refrains from seducing a vulnerable Venetia.   Indeed, in Heyer’s entire Regency oeuvre, there is only one elopement, and even it is conducted in a rational manner.

Again, when portraying Lord Henry Dracott, the hero of A Sensible Lady, Heyer’s heroes provided me with models of how the demands of civilized society in the Regency period were negotiated by gentlemen who, by nature, were impatient with nuance and emotions.

Currently, the most popular historical novels that take place in the first two decades of the 1800’s are called “Historicals of the Regency Period.”  These are emotionally intense, sexually explicit romances.  Many are flawlessly accurate in historical details.  The equipage of a carriage—even the type of carriage—is painstakingly described.  Actual historical events are faithfully represented.  It wouldn’t be surprising if the weather of a certain date reflected contemporaneous weather reports.  But the behavior of the hero and heroine is more reflective of 2012 than 1812.  Some of these books are wonderfully written and very entertaining.  But the men and women who populate them have much more to say about twenty-first century relationships than nineteenth century relationships.

What both Austin and Heyer examine in their romances is how men and women—ladies and gentlemen—seek and earn personal happiness while remaining within the strictures of a demanding social order.  While maintaining factual historical accuracy, writers of Traditional Regencies also try to reflect the social realities of the period.

What aspects of historical accuracy do you think are most important?  What lapses are so irritating that you stop reading?