Welcome Back, Elizabeth Hoyt

To Taste Temptation

by Elizabeth Hoyt

TO TASTE TEMPTATION is set in the Georgian era. What about the book made it vital to set it during this time period?

TO TASTE TEMPTATION is part of a four book series set around four veterans of the French and Indian War in the American Colonies. It actually takes place in 1764, six years after the (fictional) massacre of the 28^th Regiment of Foot, which my heroes all survived. I wanted to use the French and Indian War as the backdrop because first of all it took place in America, so I could introduce an American hero ;-) and secondly because I wanted a war in which the motives were a little fuzzy. Obviously the British were fighting the French for control of the New World, but that’s not quite the same as fighting to defend one’s country, which they would later do during the Napoleonic wars.

Tell us a little about your hero.

Samuel Hartley is an American Colonist. He grew up in the backwoods of Pennsylvania and hunted with his father for the family food. When his parents died he went from a cabin in the woods to living in a boys’ boarding school in New England. Later, he takes over his uncle’s importing business in Boston and builds the company. At the beginning of TO TASTE TEMPTATION, he’s a very wealthy businessman.

Along the way, though, Sam was in the Colonial army where he was a ranger. Rangers were elite companies trained in tracking, shooting, trapping, and spying. They were known for their lightning ambushes and their ability to move in the woods of North America. Army Rangers today are the descendents of these rangers.

What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn’t get out of your head?

I wanted to write about men returning from war and the difficulties they sometimes have entering civilian life again. I suppose in a way what sparked my interest was the current war in Iraq, but I’ve always been interested in men who’ve been to war. We now have names for things like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but naming the problem is actually fairly recent. It was known in the American Civil War and came to be called shell shock in WWI, but before that there wasn’t a name for the problem that many veterans of war had.

Did you have to do any major research for this book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn’t already know?

Lots and lots of research, lol! I actually didn’t know all that much about the French and Indian War before I started, so I had some basic history to learn, such as whose side various tribes of American Indians were on. I researched British regiments, what they wore, what they ate (apparently a lot of ground up dried peas among other things!) army tactics, and various types of soldiers. For instance, a pioneer was a guy who went ahead of the marching regiment and cleared the trail. At one point in the book, Sam is cleaning his gun, so I had to figure out what kind gun he’d have (a Kentucky rifle—which led to a short digression into what, exactly, rifling is) and then how he’d clean it (boiling water, lint, and oil.) Sam wears American Indian leggings and moccasins for most of the book, and I had to find out what they would look like and more importantly, how one would take them off!

What/Who do you like to read?

Just about everything. At the moment I’m in a paranormal phase—I can’t wait for JR Ward’s latest! Right now I’m reading Jim Butcher’s PROVEN GUILTY.

Care to share a bit about your writing process? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you write multiple drafts or clean up as you go?

I’m a revision queen. I do a detailed plot outline and character sketches, but I have a tendency to go off my outline fairly often. My first draft is VERY rough. Then I revise, send it to my agent, revise again, send it to my editor, and revise a third or fourth time. It’s all in the rewrite. ;-)

What are you planning to work on next?

Well, TO TASTE TEMPTATION is the first of a four part series called The Legend of the Four Soldiers. Next up is November’s TO SEDUCE A SINNER. Here’s the back cover copy:

THE ONE THING HE CANNOT REVEAL

For years, Melisande Fleming has loved Lord Vale from afar . . . watching him seduce a succession of lovers, and once, catching a glimpse of heartbreaking depths beneath his roguish veneer. When he’s jilted on his wedding day, she boldly offers to be his.

TO THE ONE WOMAN HE MOST DESIRES

Vale gladly weds Melisande, if only to produce an heir. But he’s pleasantly surprised: A shy and proper Lady by day, she’s a wanton at night, giving him her body—though not her heart.

IS HIS DEEPEST NEED . . .

Determined to learn her secrets, this sinner starts to woo his seductive new wife—while hiding the nightmares from his soldiering days in the Colonies that still haunt him. Yet when a deadly betrayal from the past threatens to tear them apart, Lord Vale must bare his soul to the woman he married . . . or risk losing her forever.

The Little Ice Age

Most of us who write Regency set history are familiar with 1816 the “Year Without a Summer” but how many of us know that this was just one year in a period commonly referred to as The Little Ice Age?

The book, by Brian Fagan, was my introduction to the story. According to Fagan, who studied archaeology and anthropology at Pembroke College in Cambridge, this period of abnormal global chill lasted from 1300-1850.

There is debate on the length of the LIA and the extent of this atypical cooling pattern. There are various causes presented in research, among them "decreased solar activity and increased volcanic activity” (Wikipedia).

It has been argued that the change was felt more in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern, due to changes in the warmth introduced by ocean patterns. One theory is that the large infusion of water from melting glaciers of the Medieval Warming Period interfered with the flow of the Gulf Stream. Several sources I Googled maintained that the Southern Hemisphere did experience a similar, if less dramatic, period of lower temperatures.

Pictured below is a graph that shows the change in temperature for the last two thousand years. The patterns are reconstructed from different studies but all show a pattern that signifies a cooling period from the late Medieval Period through the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Others maintain that the Black Death was a contributing element to the global cooling. Following the decimation of the populous of Northern Europe caused by the plague, less land was cultivated, and the spontaneous growth of forests took more carbon from the atmosphere, resulting in a period of prolonged cold weather.

This is about as much science as I can handle but if you are interested there is an enthusiastic and sometimes contentious discussion of the theories in the comments section of the Wikipedia entry.

Whether a global event or a more regionalized one, Fagan is committed to his theory that the Little Ice Age changed history.

As you begin to consider the premise, evidence pops up in social as well as in the political development of the time. Paintings by the artists of Northern Europe emphasize winter theme like this 1565 painting by Bruegel the Elder.

To focus on only one element of historical change precipitated by the Little Ice Age: the lack of adequate grain supply caused by the protractged poor growing conditions led to food shortages. Fagan maintains that the French Revolution is the result of this failing food supply. Certainly, food riots and the resulting threat of insurrection are a frequent threat during this period, up to an including post Waterloo England (my area of interest).

As much as I believe in the concept that one person can make a difference I am equally fascinated by this larger view of how nature can change our world – one more element in the truth that man and nature are so inextricably bound. Your thoughts?

Why Blue or Green Eyes?

It has been said that eyes are the window into the soul---for a writer that means eye color is part of your heroine’s (or heroe's) character. Human eye color is determined by a number of factors, including the amount of melanin in the iris, as well as the thickness of iris, which causes light to be absorbed differently. But most of us have noticed the predominance of blue-eyed and green-eyed heroines in historical romance? Green eyes are particularly popular in medieval heroines, and blue eyes are common in the fair-skinned, light haired historical heroine of European descent. Since most historicals are set in Europe, there's a reason. A few interesting facts about green eyes and blue eyes:

Green Eyes
Extremely beautiful and very rare, truly green eyes are a recessive trait that exist in only 1-2% of the world population. Part of their rarity is because blue eyes are dominant over green eyes. Hazel eyes, a more common color, are a combination of medium blue eyes and a dark brown. Hazel eyes appear to change color depending on the light. So yes, this is possible (a feature I’ve seen in many heroines and heroes). In short, we see a lot of green eyes (more correctly, hazel eyes) in European heroines because blue eyes are common in people of European decent.

Blue Eyes
Though blue eyes are a recessive trait, they are a highly desirable characteristic in female historical heroines. One study shows that blue eyed men seek out blue-eyed women from an evolutionary standpoint in order to verify paternity.

Almost 90% of Icelanders have blue or green eyes. Outside of Iceland, blue eyes are most common in Northern European countries, and especially in Ireland and the UK. Not surprisingly, a 2002 study found the prevalence of blue eye color among Whites in the United States to be 33.8% for those born between 1936 and 1951 compared to 57.4% for those born between 1899 and 1905 (reflecting our European roots---pun intended!).

Today, only 17% of Americans have blue eyes, reflecting our ever-changing multicultural heritage. Interestingly, all presidents since Richard Nixon have had blue eyes. Kensut speculates voters subconsciously register a preference for someone with “deeper roots” in America. In any case, the number of blue-eyed people in the US continues to decline.

I’ve seen all colors of eyes in historical romance. I took some heat for giving my hero steel-gray eyes (a real eye color) in DARK RIDER, and I even looked up amber eyes---surprised to learn that’s a real color, too. I remember a paranormal romance with a heroine whose eyes changed color with the weather---which I thought was very cool.

What striking eye-color of a character made an impression on you? I can't remember the color of Mr. Darcy's eyes--can anyone recall? Was it even mentioned?

Welcome, Claudia Dain!

The Courtesan's Secret
by Claudia Dain
Available Now!

Lady Louisa fell in love with Lord Dutton exactly three years ago and never fell out. It was past time for him to fall in love with her. Long past time. What was wrong with Dutton? Couldn't he see that she was the very ideal sort of wife for him? The picture of ginger haired beauty and sparkling wit? And her bosom was quite nice, too.

After watching the speed with which Caroline, Sophia's daughter, managed to snag a husband, Louisa has come to the logical conclusion that if she could only have Sophia help her then Louisa and Dutton would find themselves quickly married. With Dutton as her goal, Louisa swallows her pride and asks Sophia for help in acquiring the man of her dreams.

Sophia is more than happy to help a woman get the man of her dreams, but is Dutton that man? Lord Henry Blakesley seems a much better match for the fiery Louisa. And Sophia, an ex-courtesan, has no qualms at all in arranging things so that Louisa sees Blakesley in a new light. But it's a secret...no one can know that Louisa sought help in snaring a man from a former courtesan.

But in London, secrets are as rare as hen's teeth.

THE COURTESAN'S SECRET is set in 1802 LONDON. How did you become interested in this time period? What you love about it?

I love the Regency period, along with the rest of the world. Anyone who's seen or read Pride and Prejudice and loved it falls equally in love with the Regency, don't they? It's a fascinating time, poised between bawdy Georgian England and buttoned-up Victorian England, the end of the Revolutionary conflict in America and the beginning of the French Revolution and Napoleon on the continent. Tension up, down, and sideways!

Anything that constrained you or that you had to plot carefully around?

I turned my gaze to the American continent instead of the European one. My anchor character, Sophia Dalby, is half Iroquois and half British nobility. She straddles both worlds culturally and emotionally so I had to find sources that would give me insight into the wars, politics, treaties, cultural values, etc, for both continents, both cultures, over a 70 year period, from about 1750 to 1820. I'm still researching, still finding bits of essential information, so I step carefully until I'm sure I have exactly what I need. As this is a multi-book series, I'm going to be researching and stepping carefully for a long time to come!

Anything you flat-out altered or “fudged”? If so, why?

In planning The Courtesan's Secret, I decided not to focus on certain elements of detail that other authors can spend a good amount of time on; there aren't a lot of descriptions of interiors or clothes, no lengthy and proper introductions, no scene of the maid stoking the fire with the appropriate tool. It was definitely a decision on my part to "use up" my allotted word count on external and internal dialog. Did I fudge the physical details? Probably, but I was more concerned with getting the culture right, that internal compass that we all learn from living in a society.

Any gaffs or mea culpas you want to fess up to before readers get their hands on the book? I know I always seem to find one after the book has gone to press. *sigh*

Well, after banging my head against British titles for three years, pounding every correct form into my head, I've found that no one else much cares. Reviewers have yet to get the titles of the characters right, and even the blurb copy tends to be wrong. What can you do?

Tell us a little about your hero. Something fun, like his favorite childhood pet, or his first kiss.

Oh, this is such an interesting question because it points out how we go about writing, the different ways we each have of finding the story and the characters. My hero: he doesn't have a pet during the course of the action in The Courtesan's Secret...so he doesn't have a pet. My mind never went there, never went back to his childhood. He is as we find him, a full grown man at a party one night in April. My hero is very observant, sarcastic, and a closet romantic. He was extremely fun to write because he zinged the heroine nearly every time he opened his mouth, all to hide his romantic nature from her.

What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn’t get out of your head?

It's the character of Sophia Dalby, without question. She's the driving force behind all the books, the fulcrum on which all the Courtesan books rest. I'm definitely a character driven writer and not a plot driven one, and Sophia is the character of all characters! I can't get her out of my head, and don't want to. She's endlessly entertaining.

Did you have to do any major research for this book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn’t already know?

I did! And that's always so much fun. I had no idea that the Indian nations of America were so vital to European politics. While European power struggles were being fought on American soil, the various Indian tribes aligned with the European powers. All the alliances shifted with each treaty, each battle, each gift. Because France and England specifically sought to have as many Indians as possible on their side, they loaded the Indians with gifts. Not the string of cheap beads we often hear about, but the best of the best. While the colonists were struggling to buy a cheap gun or making do with a flaky pot, the Indians were given the most technologically advanced firearms of the period and cooking on the best iron skillets. Mirrors, for example, were very expensive, a true luxury item in America. The Indians were dripping in mirrors! This fascinated me. Plus, whoever had the most Indian allies in any specific battle were the usual winners. The French and English spent the lion's share of their financial resources and time trying to make sure the Indians stayed or strayed over to their side.

What/Who do you like to read?

I love reading Regencies, obviously, but the problem is that I can't read one while I'm writing one! When I'm between books, I read Liz Carlyle, Sabrina Jeffries, Deb Marlowe, Karen Hawkins, Suzanne Enoch, Julia London, Mary Balogh. When I'm writing, I read Harlan Coben, Karen Rose, Tess Gerritsen: suspense! I need to take a breath in a completely different world when I'm writing.

Care to share a bit about your writing process? Are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you write multiple drafts or clean up as you go?

I'm a pantser, almost completely. I do quite a bit of research before I even have an idea for a book; everything in my writing process springs from the research. Once I have an idea, and that usually means a character, I just jump in and start writing. I write one draft on the computer. I don't read back as I go forward, I just keep writing and writing. Once I finish, I read it through on the computer, cleaning it up. Then I print it off and my DH reads it. He's my cold reader. He fixes all the typos I missed, makes notations where he was confused and where he was delighted, I go back and clean it up again, then off it goes to my editor. No critique partners. No input at all while I'm writing. Even my poor editor has to play by my rules. Any other voices in my head while I'm writing and I can't hear the voice of the story.

What are you planning to work on next?

I've just turned in the third book in the Courtesan series, The Courtesan's Wager, and am about to begin the fourth book. I know who the heroine is in this book (as yet untitled), and I *think* I know the hero, but as to what will happen? I have no idea! I'm a bit gun shy because in The Courtesan's Wager, a new hero sprang up one-third of the way into the book. He was *not* supposed to be the hero! It's humiliating and a bit scary, having a book run roughshod over me that way. I only hope this next book is better behaved. I can dream, can't I?

An Epistolary Introduction to the World of Charles & Mélanie Fraser

I've always loved letters in novels. Darcy's letter to Elizabeth. Captain Wentworth's incredible love letter to Anne Elliot. The wonderfully witty and insightful collection of letters from various characters that sets the stage for Dorothy Sayers's BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON. Novels told entirely in letters, from Choderlos de Laclos's LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES to Steven Brust and Emma Bull's FREEDOM AND NECESSITY. I love reading the letters of real historical people for research. In particular, I find myself often returning to the witty and insightful comments of Emily Cowper and Harriet Granville.

When I decided to write an epilogue for DAUGHTER OF THE GAME'S reissue as SECRETS OF A LADY, I knew from the first that I wanted to do it in the form of a letter from Charles to Mélanie. When my editor, Lucia Macro, asked me to write something for the A+ extras section and said it was sort of like DVD extras and I could do anything I wanted, I knew at once that I wanted to write a series of additional letters between the characters. I did the same thing for the reissue of BENEATH A SILENT MOON, writing a letter from Charles to Mélanie for the epilogue (I at first thought I'd make this one from Mélanie to Charles, but it seemed to fit the book better for Charles to write the letter) and writing more letters for the A+ section.

I write a new letter from one of my characters every week for the Fraser Correspondence section of my website. I thought it would be fun to post one of those letters, which serves as a good introduction to Charles and Mélanie and BENEATH A SILENT MOON. This letter is an entirely fictional letter written by the very real historical figure Emily Cowper (daughter of Lady Melbourne, sister of William Lamb, sister-in-law of Lady Caroline Lamb) to her the equally very real Harriet Granville (daughter of the Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, cousin of Lady Caroline Lamb). I wove letters between Emily and Harriet into the A+ section of BENEATH A SILENT MOON.

George Street 23 March 1817

Dearest Harriet,

I saw them last night. Charles Fraser and his wife. Lady Frances gave a ball to welcome them to London. I must say Mélanie Fraser dresses superbly—that was plain when they were here two and a half years ago, and now one can tell she’s had all her gowns made in Paris. They certainly don’t hang about each other unbecomingly. Charles danced the first dance with her, then spent a good portion of the evening in the library with David Mallinson and Oliver Lydgate and Gideon Carne and some others. Harry went in at one point and told me they were discussing Habeas Corpus. Mélanie Fraser danced a number of dances in her husband’s absence and didn’t seem in the least concerned. Nor did Charles look the least bit jealous when he returned to the ballroom late in the evening to find his wife surrounded by a throng of admirers. So the whole idea that she someone how seduced and bewitched him and addled his reason is nonsensical. Not that I ever gave much credence to it. The whole idea of Charles Fraser being bewitched by anyone is patently absurd. If there’s one thing that man is not it’s a besotted fool. She’s certainly done very well for herself to have escaped Spain (which cannot be at all a comfortable place to live just now( and married a man so comfortably situated, but who can blame her. A girl with no family and fortune must look out for herself. She has a very elegant manner—a touch informal but doesn’t put herself forward disagreeably. And she does seem genuinely fond her children. I’ve seen her in the park with them several times.

Gisèle Fraser, by the way, danced two waltzes with Val Talbot (rather closer than I would care to see Minny dancing with anyone when she’s of an age to dance). I think they would have danced a third time had Evie not gone up and pulled her cousin away. Such a sensible girl, Evie Mortimer. Honoria didn’t look best pleased either. Of course, I suspect she found the whole occasion of the ball uncomfortable, but to her credit she behaved beautifully. She went to talk to Charles and his wife as soon as she arrived. She didn’t linger overly long, but she appeared to say everything that is proper, just as she always does. I wonder if she’s more likely to marry now that Charles is definitely taken. She’d make an excellent match for Fred—just the sort of wife a diplomat needs.

Quen put in an appearance late. For Charles’s sake, I suspect, Quen’s always been fond of him. He danced once with Evie and once with Mélanie Fraser. Kenneth Fraser also did not stay long, though he did dance with his daughter-in-law. Lord Cowper says he heard Mr. Fraser murmur that he’d never expected his son to do so well for himself. Every time I sigh over my own family, I remind myself that I could have been born a Fraser. Or a Talbot.

Yours most affectionately,
Emily

Do you like letters in novels? What do you think of letters written entirely in novels? Any favorite examples to suggest?

Celebrating BENEATH A SILENT MOON: An Interview with Tracy Grant

Beneath a Silent Moon by

Tracy Grant

The task had taken shape thanks to the end of a war and the inconvenient way secrets had of bubbling to the surface. It went without saying that it was going to be difficult. But then murder always was…

London, 1817: Beneath a silent moon, a stranger steals into London, bound to complete a grim task that began in the shadows of the past….

On that same evening, amid the splendor of Glenister House, London’s haut ton celebrates, still flush with victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Among the revelers are Mélanie and Charles Fraser–he, a former spy connected to the most powerful families in Britain and she, his exquisite bride, who has charmed all of society.

That night, stunning revelations pull the couple back into the world of intrigue they thought they’d escaped, forcing them to untangle a web of lies that spans generations and threatens the fate of nations. But the truth is a deadly weapon that could lead to scandal, tragedy, and murder.

An assassination, a secret society, and the dangerous liasions of Charles’s own family lead the Frasers from the lamplit streets of the city to a castle on the Scottish coast. The stakes of this game are the lives of those Charles holds most dear and the trust of the enigmatic woman with whom he shares his name–and his bed.

“Plot twists, complex characters, and an exquisitely researched historical setting — who could ask for anything more?” — Lauren Willig, author of The Seduction of the Crimson Rose

What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn't get out of your head?

Writing SECRETS OF A LADY (originally published as DAUGHTER OF THE GAME), I knew I wanted to write a series about Charles and Mélanie and the other characters. But I realized that I wanted to write a book in which I could explore the Fraser family further, particularly Charles's relationship with his father, Kenneth Fraser, and his sister, Gisèle (who are mentioned in SECRETS OF A LADY but don't appear). Kenneth Fraser dies before SECRETS begins, so that meant going back in time and writing a prequel, which would also allow me to set up some things I wanted in place as I moved forward in the series. I also liked the idea of being able to explore the early years of Charles and Mélanie's marriage, particularly Mélanie's adjustment to life as a political wife in the world of Britain's haut ton. From the very early stages of plotting the book, I had the final scene (which is an homage to the final scene of Dorothy Sayers' s BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON) in mind. I was then nervous about actually writing the scene, afraid it wouldn't live up to my expectations. I put it off through several drafts. Finally I wrote it in one sitting, late one night. It changed very little from that version. I think it's my favorite scene in any book I've written to date.

As always with my books, the historical context in which my characters would have lived deeply influenced the creation of the story. I knew that the tumultuous marriage of Charles's parents would have begun in the late eighteenth century, the era of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES. The world of Mozart operas such as Così fan tutte, where best friends try to seduce each other’s fiancées for a bet, Don Giovanni with his endless list of conquests, Count Almaviva, quick to turn his eye from the wife he was so eager to marry in favor of the girl who is betrothed to his loyal valet. The world of Fragonard paintings in which carnality pulses just beneath a spun-sugar surface. A world in which marriage is to cement alliances and produce heirs, seduction is a sport, and love is a game. A historical world exemplified by the historical Devonshire House set. For BENEATH A SILENT MOON, I invented the Glenister House set, equally known for their free-wheeling sexuality (as the Marquis of Glenister's young ward Evie Mortimer says in the book, "When I first came to Glenister House, I'd hear the gossip and the whispers. I'd try to sort out the entanglements in the Glenister House set, who was sharing whose bed. It was years before I realized it didn't matter. Sooner or later everyone slept with everyone else.").

This is the world of Kenneth Fraser and his friend Lord Glenister and Charles's aunt, Lady Frances. Charles, Mélanie, Gisèle, Evie, and the rest of the younger generation in the book came of age in the era of Jane Austen’s novels, in which, for all their irony, love is real and can last. Of the romantic landscapes of Turner and Constable, of the vibrant emotion and daring innovation of Beethoven (whose one opera celebrates conjugal love). Romantic games were still a favorite pastime of the beau monde, but the games were played more subtly, with love holding greater weight in the equation. I loved exploring the contrast between the two generations and their attitudes toward romance and sex and marriage. Passion isn't the same as love or intimacy, as Charles knows to his cost, having grown up in the world of the Glenister House set, in which marriage is to cement alliances and produce heirs, love is a game, and seduction a sport. He can't define what lies between him and the woman he married out of honor and necessity. As he thinks at one point, "How poorly demarcated was the line between want and need, between lust and tenderness, between giving a lover pleasure and using her for it. When did desire become manipulation and honesty give way to deceit?"

In addition to Charles and Mélanie struggling with the elusive emotional truth at the heart of their marriage, BENEATH A SILENT MOON has several other pairs of lovers. Confused, young love, illicit love, a governess who may be undone by her inability to live without passion, two men who are more faithful to each other than most married couples in their set, save that one is being pressured to marry and produce an heir. Though like all my Charles and Mélanie books, BENEATH A SILENT MOON is a spy story with lots adventure and intrigue, at the thematic core of the book are a variety of romantic and sexual entanglements, and how they play out against the manners and mores of Regency society. Or, as my friend and critique partner Penelope Williamson put it, it's "all about sex." J

BENEATH A SILENT MOON takes place before the revelations of SECRETS OF A LADY. Was it difficult to write the book without revealing those secrets, particularly when it comes to Mélanie?

One of the things I liked about writing a prequel for the second book in the series is that neither of the first two books has major spoilers for the other. This lets the reader find the series through either book. I wanted the books to work read in either order, and I think they do (though I think the effect is subtly different depending on the order in which one reads them--I love hearing reactions from readers who've read them in one order versus the other). It was a bit of a challenge in BENEATH A SILENT MOON to write from Mélanie's point of view and be honest but not spoil revelations in SECRETS OF A LADY. But it was a fun challenge. I do think she comes across a bit differently in BENEATH A SILENT MOON if one has already read SECRETS OF A LADY. But I also think there are things one learns about Charles in BENEATH that enhance one's reading of him in SECRETS.

What changes did you make for the new edition of BENEATH A SILENT MOON?

As with SECRETS OF A LADY, I did a light edit of the whole book (it's such a treat to be able to go back and tweak things!). I wrote a new epilogue and a series of letters between the characters for the A+ extras section. But while with SECRETS OF A LADY, I wrote letters that fleshed out the back story, for BENEATH A SILENT MOON I wrote letters that deal with what happens after the end of the book. Which meant I had to figure out for myself precisely how events did play out. I knew in broad brush strokes, but I hadn't worked out the details of how and where and when. Some frantic emails to my writer friends ensued, with questions like "where would Charles go first?" "how would Mélanie react to that?" "how on earth would they explain this?" Barbara Freethy, Candice Hern, Monica McCarty, and Penny Williamson were as always wonderful in helping me sort it out.

Did you have to do any major research for his book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn't already know?

Even though I've been writing books set in the Regency for twenty years, there are always new things for each book. BENEATH A SILENT MOON begins in London, but then moves to Scotland. I went to Scotland when I was starting to work on the book, which was fabulous. My good friend and critique partner Penny Williamson went with me, and we had a great time "location scouting." I based Dunmykel, the Fraser family house in the book, primarily on two castle we visited, Drum Castle and Dunrobin Castle. The Griffin & Dragon in Dunmykel village is based on the George in Inveraray. (There are a lot of pictures of locations we found on the trip in the Gallery section of my website). I set the book at the time of year we were there (late June-early July) so I was able to take notes on things like the weather and when the sun and moon rose and set. Penny and I dreamed up the name Dunmykel one night over dinner in a lovely country house hotel (inspired, I think, by the excellent whisky J).

I also did research into the Hellfire Clubs in order to invent my fictional Elsinore League. Even though BENEATH A SILENT MOON is set in 1817, the secrets uncovered in the course of the story go back to the French Revolution, which led to me to research the rebellion in the Vendée, a particularly bloody episode in the Revolution.

And because Mélanie and Charles's daughter Jessica is a baby in the book, I had to figure out how Mélanie would cope with many of the challenges faced by any working mother of an infant. I kept having to keep track of how long it had been since she had nursed Jessica. I learned about book nursing bodices and breast exhausters (breast pumps).

BENEATH A SILENT MOON is set in 1817. Is there a particular reason you chose that year?

The year came from the chronology I'd worked out for Mélanie and Charles. But it's very important that the story is set fairly soon after the Battle of Waterloo. Long enough after for the political chessboard to have re-formed, but not long enough for the players to have adjusted to the new positions in which they find themselves. Charles and Mélanie and a couple of other characters have all been intelligence agents during the war, and they're all adjusting to what to do with themselves in peace time. It's a time when many of the leaders of the countries victorious at Waterloo see stifling dissent and reform and preserving the status quo as the best guarantee of stability. In France, now governed by the restored Bourbon monarchy, the zeal of the Ultra Royalists has led to the White Terror in which scores of Republicans and Bonapartists are imprisoned or executed. And then there's the industrial unrest in Britain in 1817 that you (Pam Rosenthal, who was nice enough to do this interview with me) wrote about so well in THE SLIGHTEST PROVOCATION. All of which made 1817 a good year in which to set the book.

Can you talk a little about your trajectory as a writer --you've gone from traditional Regencies to historicals to historicals with political and whodunit elements, or have I gotten that quite right?

Yes, that's a very good description of course of my writing career! I started out co-writing traditional Regencies with my mom as Anthea Malcolm. Our first book was a romantic comedy centered round the London season, with lots of Almack's and shopping and balls and ices at Gunter's. But it had a subplot involving blackmail over a Parliamentary vote, so even then we were including political intrigue. And even with the London season setting, it had some scenes set in the darker side of Regency London.

Our books had more and more suspense an intrigue as we went on and the tone of the books got darker (one was an actual murder mystery, one had tormented ex-lovers and intrigue over the East India Company’s charter). Eventually we wrote an historical romance (under the name Anna Grant), DARK ANGEL, set during the Peninsular War, with an intrigue and adventure driven plot. After my mom died, I wrote three more Regency-set historical romances on my own, under my own name. I put more and more intrigue and historical details and events into the books (one centers round the Battle of Waterloo). I had a lamentable tendency to lose focus on the romance. Finally I realized what I really wanted to write was historical suspense fiction, still including love stories but with room for lots of political intrigue and suspense and historical detail and texture. That's when I began the Charles & Mélanie series with SECRETS OF A LADY (originally DAUGHTER OF THE GAME) and then BENEATH A SILENT MOON.

So essentially, my books have always contained the same elements--political intrigue, suspense, romance, a glimpse into the darker side of the Regency. But the balance of the elements has shifted.

What are you planning to work on next?

I have the third Charles and Melanie book, THE MASK OF NIGHT, finished, and I'm working on the fourth. THE MASK OF NIGHT picks up on some threads from BENEATH A SILENT MOON. David and Simon play an important role, and Mélanie and Charles learn more about the Elsinore League It begins in early January 1820, about two months after the end of SECRETS OF A LADY. Their marriage still fragile in the wake of recent revelations, Charles and Mélanie attend a Twelfth Night masquerade ball at the home of their friends Oliver and Isobel Lydgate. A masked man is found stabbed to death, floating in the garden fountain. No one seems to know who he is or what he was doing at the ball. But the Foreign Secretary and the Chief of Intelligence know more than they let on and pressure Charles to investigate. Meanwhile, an old friend has sought Mélanie out at the ball–Hortense Bonaparte, daughter of the Empress Josephine, stepdaughter of Napoleon. Hortense comes to Mélanie with a desperate plea which Mélanie doesn’t dare reveal to Charles. The search for the killer takes Charles and Mélanie from Mayfair to Seven Dials, from glittering ballrooms to viperous thieves’ dens, and uncovers a conspiracy that involves both members of the Bonaparte family and the British government, as well as the enigmatic Raoul O’Roarke.

Book #4, which I'm just starting to write, begins when Laura Dudley, the Fraser children’s governess, is found in a Mayfair bedchamber with the dead body of one of Britain ’s most powerful peers. Laura refuses to give any explanation, even to Charles and Mélanie. But even as the evidence mounts against Laura, the Frasers can’t believe her guilty of murder. As they race against time to prove Laura innocent Mélanie and Charles learn that they are not the only ones in their household with secrets. And that old enemies and new ones are more closely connected than they would have dreamed possible. Raoul O'Roarke also plays an important role in this book. Raoul and Laura's relationship takes an interesting turn--one that even surprised me, when I was plotting. It caused me to rethink some things, but I'm very happy with the direction it's gone.

Don't Try This at Home!

Why is it that all through history women have not been satisfied with their faces? If one’s skin is unblemished, we add beauty marks. If one’s skin is tan or dark, we want to lighten it. The message must be–whatever one looks like, it’s not “enough.”

I clearly recall the day my aunt Jean decided her sister Mary (my mother) and I weren’t beautiful enough. Off to the woods we trudged with pails and spoons to gather the smooth, grey-white mud from the creek bank. We smeared it all over our faces from forehead to neck and marched home to wait for the miraculous transformation.

We were transformed, all right. The facial mud dried brick-hard and would not come off! We had to chip it away, bit by bit, with a knife, and the splotchy red faces that emerged were clearly not beautiful. Our male relatives laughed until suppertime.

Not deterred, as a teenager I later tried a ghastly mixture of oatmeal and egg whites smeared over my face. I did this three times a week for about 2 weeks, until one day a friend of my mother’s peered at me and said, “Carolyn, what has happened to your face? It looks ‘starched.’”

Here are some “facial mask” recipes from history.

Assyrian (8th century B.C.) women ground bits of cypress wood, cedar and frankincense in a mortar, added a bit of water and smeared it all over their faces at night. The next morning, voila! Soft, beautiful skin and a most agreeable odor.

In the Roman era, Ovid touts the following recipe to give dazzling whiteness to the skin:
To 2 lb Libyan barley add an equal amount of bean flour. Mix up with 10 eggs and dry in the sun. Then add 1/6 lb of hartshorn and reduce to a powder. Add juice from 2 narcissi bulbs pounded in a mortar, along with 2 oz aromatic gums, 2 oz Tuscan seed, and 18 oz honey. “Every women who spreads this on to her face will render it smoother and more brilliant than her mirror.”

In Eastern harems, a complexion powder known as batikha was made by pounding in a mortar cowrie shell and borax, white marble, rice, eggs, lemons, and helbas seeds. Combine with equal parts meal of peas, beans, and lentils and place inside a melon to blend with the pulp. Dry several days in the sun and it will disintegrate into a fine white powder.

The royal Stuart ladies in England used a face wash of distilled rosemary, featherfew [feverfew?] fennel, violets, and nettle leaves diluted with milk.

Not satisfied with that “natural” concoction, some noble women also adopted a mixture of white lead and lime to whiten the skin.

And some never-satisfied females even used a mixture of white mercury, lemon juice, powdered white egg shells, and white wine; this often resulted in severe burning of the skin!

I think I prefer oatmeal or creekside mud.

Source: Roy Genders, Perfume Through the Ages