What a journey this has been! Carina Press launched today with great books from Carrie Lofty, Shannon Stacey, Megan Hart, and Bonnie Dee, just to name a few. Take a look, read a few excerpts, and enjoy 20% off any title purchased.
Oh, and The Bloodgate Guardian (releasing June 14th) is available for pre-order at Carina, Amazon, and B&N!
Austria, 1804
Eight years ago, composer Arie De Voss claimed his late mentor’s final symphony as his own and became an icon. But fame has a price: fear of discovery now poisons his attempts to compose a redemptive masterpiece. Until a new muse appears, intoxicating and inspiring him…
Mathilda Heidel renounced her own musical gift to marry, seeking a quiet life to escape the shame surrounding her birth. Sudden widowhood finds her tempted by song once more. An unexpected introduction to her idol, Arie De Voss, renews Mathilda’s passion for the violin–and ignites a passion for the man himself.
But when lust and lies reach a crescendo, Arie will be forced to choose: love or truth?
***
Most historical romance readers will be familiar with the term “dowry.” In the European tradition, a dowry was a wedding gift provided to the groom or the groom’s family in order to secure the material future of the bride. If her husband died before she did, a woman was able to stave off poverty. This also gave rise to the term “dowager,” which indicates that a widow has had caused the access those dowry funds.
Whether or not her husband or his family safeguarded the dowry for such an occasion is another matter entirely. Also, whether or not the bride deserved the dowry became a consideration. Some families insisted on waiting until the morning after the wedding before accepting a woman’s dowry and all the responsibility and connections that entailed. After all, if she proved less than virginal on her wedding night…
In Austria, where my June 7 release from Carina Press, SONG OF SEDUCTION, is set, and in other Germanic countries, this process of waiting until the next morning became a common custom. They used the term “morgengabe” was used, the literal translation of which is “morning gift.”
In the formal sense, a morgengabe was the culmination of the marriage contract. The engagement had been solidified by the posting of the banns. The vows have been said before a duly appointed religious official. And the wife had proven a virgin on her wedding night. All set! Commence with the handing over of funds and the happily ever after.
In a less formal sense, however, a morgengabe took on personal significance for some couples. A husband might choose to give his new bride a token of his affection and respect upon claiming her purity as his prize. Necklaces, rings and other pieces of jewelry were often used for this purpose, as were parcels of land, livestock and household items.
Arie de Voss, the hero of SONG OF SEDUCTION, was born and raised in the Netherlands, so he had a few questions on this topic. Here he’s asking the heroine, Mathilda, about a particular necklace she wears:
“Who gave it to you?”
“You and your questions, sir,” Mathilda said. “My husband gave it to me. It is my Morgengabe.”
Arie winced. Since his crass drunkenness at the Venner ball, he had been reluctant to revisit the topic of her late spouse. “Will you make me ask the meaning of yet another word?”
“No.” A faint smile curved her lips. “You must ask someone else, because I won’t explain it.”
The woman. Her mysteries. Those infernal glimpses she provided into her genuine character. Arie hoarded them all.
“Then who shall I ask?”
Mathilda leaned close enough to make her words heard. “You seem a resourceful enough man, Herr de Voss. You’ll think of something.”
What he does once he learns the significance of the morgengabe, however, is not the most graceful thing a hero has ever done. It’s a good thing he’s so cute and talented…
***
Born in California, raised in the Midwest, Carrie Lofty (http://carrielofty.com/) met her husband in England–the best souvenir! Since earning her master’s degree in history, she’s been devoted to raising their two precocious daughters, wrangling the talented authors of Unusual Historicals (http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/), and writing romance. You can find her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/carrielofty), her Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carrie-Lofty/115375868486813), and her blog (http://lovelysalome.blogspot.com/).
“Historical romance needs more risk-takers like Lofty.” ~ Wendy the Super Librarian
Sorry for my slow blog and e-mail responses lately. I’m still trying to recover from MayNoWriMo and Coyote Con, which means I’ve got a thousand things I didn’t do last month that I have to get through now.
First and foremost, I finished the first-round edits on Victor (HURT ME SO GOOD) and sent them back to my editor tonight. I’ve also got several guest blogs I’m working on for the Carina launch and release of THE BLOODGATE GUARDIAN on June 14th. Whew!
Not to mention the MayNoWriMo prizes still need to be divied up.
Meanwhile I’m *this close* to finishing my synopsis, while I’ve started a new holiday novella that I’m shooting to finish this month. I’m also excited about the opportunity to have a Writer Wednesday workshop at Debuts and Reviews (date TBD) on sex scenes.
AND, the monsters are out of school so we have the fun chore of shuttling them to activities. Luckily we were able to hire a very reasonable babysitter to help out during the day. Tonight, I took all three monsters to a “finger weaving” class at Yarn Worx where I took my knitting class. The two oldest have finished their scarves, and I’m still helping Littlest with hers (she was right on the border of being old enough to attend). Overall they really enjoyed it, and the scarves are really, really pretty considering how easy they were to pull together. Picture forthcoming once I help the youngest finish hers.
So let me get back to work! I have a shipment of stuff going out to tomorrow, so if I still owe you a book, it’s coming very soon!
I want to appropriately thank everyone who helped me polish Victor before I turned him in to my editor. If I’m missing anyone, PLEASE, please shout out and correct me! Also let me know how you’d like to have your name in the dedication (whether full name, real or pen, shortened). Right now I have:
Sherri, Pearl, Nicole, Susan, Christine, and Sharon
Thank you!
I’m in the final sweep of first-pass editor notes before sending Victor back in, so I do have a little time to handle corrections if I’ve messed anything up.
The winner of Shadowlight and Dreamveil is: SPOT! Please drop me an e-mail at joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com with your snail mail address. Thank you to everyone who entered!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the MayNoWriMo guest posts and the interesting panels at Coyote Con (the transcripts will remain up all year). I met so many new people this month, and it was incredible to watch them reach their goals or learn something new about themselves and their writing process. I’m working with Deena to possibly set up some new group functionality that will allow all the Coyote Con people to remain connected until next May. (Once we finalize a few details, I’ll post the writing group link here so you can join if you’re interested.)
As for me: I didn’t finish my synopsis.
However.
I expanded characterization for Quinn and Tara, wrote up backstory for them, and sent both through the Emotional Toolbox. I have my major turning points outlined with supporting notecards. Plus, I do have 1754 words toward the synopsis — it’s just not *finished*.
All in all, I’m pleased with the story and the plotting effort so far and I shouldn’t have any problem wrapping things up and getting it to Alissa in June. Also in June, I’m going to try and write 30K holiday novella. *dies*
No rest for the weary!
I loved Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series and so I wasn’t surprised at all that I enjoyed Shadowlight too, the spinoff “Kyndred” series. I absolutely loved Rowan’s sharp wit in Shadowlight, so I can’t wait to see how her story unfolds in Dreamveil (I keep typing Dreamviehl ha ha). Plus, what a gorgeous cover!
So to celebrate Memorial Day weekend, I’m giving away a copy of both Shadowlight and Dreamveil. This contest is open to anyone on the planet, whether you’ve won anything from me before. I do not retain your name or information after the contest is over.
To enter, comment on this post and tell me your favorite Lynn Viehl book, or drop me an e-mail at joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com to throw your name in the hat. The contest will close on Monday, May 31st at midnight CST, and the winner will be announced on Tuesday.
Jane Toombs writes an article entitled The Disease of Writing.
Never seen anywhere else, an exclusive poem written by the sexiest English professor alive, Dr. Connagher himself! Check out his response to “Lecture vs. Teach” over on Susi’s blog and wish her a happy blogoversary while you’re at it, for a chance to win a free e-copy of Dear Sir, I’m Yours or an advance e-ARC of The Bloodgate Guardian, releasing June 14 from Carina Press.
My only MayNoWriMo goal this year was to get a synopsis written for Maya #2. The only catch: I haven’t written the book yet.
While I haven’t had as much time to work on detailed plotting as I hoped, I have made some interesting discoveries. The main color scheme for this book has been purple and blue (every book has a color scheme–The Bloodgate Guardian was orange and green). No theme song yet.
I spent a lot of time developing Quinn and Tara. I researched more about Ix Chel and Yum Cimil. I had several scenes from an earlier draft of BGG, but I wasn’t sure if I could still use them.
The more cards I wrote up for the beginning sections, the more confused I got. I couldn’t figure out how the new stuff I’d developed still fit with the old things I really wanted to keep. I was getting bogged down in details, little scenes at the beginning that hid the main path.
The trick (this time) was concentrating only on the hero’s journey. I wrote up the main event cards for each character without worrying about the other’s hero journey — and then I was finally able to figure out how they fit together. I made cards for the key turning points/journey events in their own color — and then filled the character-specific stuff around them. MUCH EASIER!
Tonight, I sat down with hot pink notecards and did the same general thing for the romance journey. Instead of inciting incident — I have first meet. I still need to work on these cards a bit more, but it’s really helping me figure out the arcs.
When I’m all finished, I’ll take a few pictures.
