Romping With the Hoydens: A Conversation With Guest Author Miranda Neville
We hoydens not only love the ins and outs of history, we love the company of heroes and heroines who are not only bold and sexy, but brainy -- and sometimes as bookish as we are.
Which makes it a particular pleasure to help celebrate the publication of The Wild Marquis, set in the world of Regency bibliophiles, by chatting with historical author Miranda Neville. (Readers who leave comments: Miranda will be giving away a signed copy to one of you, chosen at random.)
Welcome, Miranda, and tell us a little about The Wild Marquis.
Hello, Hoydens, and thanks for having me.
While as to The Wild Marquis, first book of The Burgundy Trilogy:
The Marquis of Chase wants to recover a family heirloom, a rare medieval manuscript that is being offered for sale at auction. To help him he hires a bookseller, the widowed Juliana Merton who, despite her knowledge of her subject, has a tough time making male book collectors take her seriously.
In the process they are drawn into the obsessive rivalry of two deceased collectors and uncover secrets of both their pasts.
The Wild Marquis is set in 1819. Is there a particular reason you chose that year?
There must have been, though I can't now remember it. I tend to prefer the late Regency because I don't want to deal with the Napoleonic Wars. I don't see how you can write, even light romance, without some awareness of political and social context. This series will go into the reign of George IV and (editors permitting) touch on some the the big political issues of the 1820s.
On the other hand, I don't want to get anywhere near Victoria. I suspect in my next series I shall go backward to the pre-Regency years.
How did you become interested in this time period? What do you like most and least about it?
Like 100,000 other romance writers I started with Georgette Heyer. I don't know if she was the inspiration, but I always read a lot of non-fiction around the period, both English and French history. Despite my dislike of his wars, I find Napoleon and his era absolutely fascinating.
Before I started writing romance, my only book credit was a biographical introduction to a volume of Redouté's flower paintings. Since the English Regency is still the most popular period for historical romance, why mess with a good thing?
That said, it's very hard to write Regency set stories that are both fresh and (reasonably) authentic. I endeavor to avoid the clichés of the genre: I've taken the no-Almack's pledge, for example.
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...
I confess (as I do in an author's note) that I advanced the division of Shakespeare's quartos into "good" and "bad" by a hundred years. And, darn it, I discovered after I'd returned the proofs that the Limbourg Brothers had not, by 1819, been identified as the artists of the Duc de Berri's books of hours. Don't you find you don't mind "fudging" things as long you know you are doing it? Doing it by mistake is maddening.
Tell us a little about your hero. Something fun, like his favorite childhood pet, or his first kiss.
Alas, Chase had a pretty depressing childhood under the lash of his father, a religious fanatic known as the Saintly Marquis. As he tells Juliana, "My long slide into iniquity began at the tender age of twelve when I leered at one of the maids during evening prayers." Not that the poor boy did anything more until he was thrown out of the house at the age of sixteen. Then he proceeded to live up to his father's low expectations. What I love about Chase is that he really loves women, as people not just as bedmates (though that too). He's the perfect counterpart for Juliana, who constantly smarts at male prejudice.
What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn't get out of your head?
I spent some years working in the rare books and manuscripts department at Sotheby's so I always had the setting in the back of my mind. The big auction in the book was inspired by the Duke of Roxburghe's sale of 1812, perhaps the most notable book auction of the 19th century. Chase first appeared as a secondary character in a (never published) book and immediately took on a life of his own.
Did you have to do any major research for this book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn't already know?
Does anyone but me care for the arcane details of book cataloging practices in early nineteenth-century England? Seriously, I'm always finding interesting things I don't know. It amazes me how often a serendipitous fact will pop up just when you need it. The finale to The Wild Marquis features a knife fight. I learned a lot about knife fighting on YouTube of all places. Very useful. I hope I got it right. Authors equally ignorant of combat techniques can check it out here.
What/Who do you like to read?
A fair amount of romance, mostly historical, though less than before I sold. Of the classics, most years I read or reread something by Shakespeare, Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Trollope, George Eliot. I don't like Dickens much. The New York Times. I can't always keep up with The New Yorker - once a week is too much. I don't read much new literary fiction unless a friend thrusts a book into my hands and orders me to read it. As a result I enjoyed a recent debut called The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers.
I love historical non-fiction, especially if I can call it research. Also cookbooks. I'm now reading a fascinating history of curry which combines the two last.
Care to share a bit about your writing process? Are you a pantser or a plotter?
I used to be an obsessive plotter. I wrote about a quarter of The Wild Marquis before selling it and I had a detailed synopsis of the whole. But my editor asked for changes that altered the hero's principal motivation and eliminated a subplot and two characters. Rather than re-plot the whole thing, I just plunged in and somehow it worked. The next book I'd also sold on synopsis but I decided (with my editor's permision) to change the second half of the book. Now I feel completely liberated and I'm having a very hard time planning anything beyond a vague concept. A pantser is born. Since I'm a newbie compared to you Hoydens I expect my MO will change again.
Do you write multiple drafts or clean up as you go?
A bit of both. I write fairly cleanly but I leave gaps. And I don't finish the book - the last chapter or two -- until I've revised the rest at least once.
What are you planning to work on next?
As he becomes fascinated by book collecting, Chase makes friends with two other young collectors. Sebastian Iverley is his opposite: he loathes women and has nothing to do with them. And I mean NOTHING. Then he falls hard, for a woman who turns out to be trifling with him. The result is Regency Revenge of the Nerd, to be released in October as The Dangerous Viscount. I had more fun writing it than anything so far. And I've also started work on the third friend, a dandy and arbiter of fashion. Since those are traits more desirable in Oscar Wilde than a romance hero, I've had to make his life miserable. Currently he's suffering from amnesia and stranded on the Yorkshire moors in company with a governess who holds a grudge against him.
Misery for him, fun for us. ;-) Thanks so much for talking to us, Miranda.
And readers who chime in with questions and comments -- after our visit is over, Miranda will be sending a randomly-chosen one of you an autographed copy of The Wild Marquis.
Which makes it a particular pleasure to help celebrate the publication of The Wild Marquis, set in the world of Regency bibliophiles, by chatting with historical author Miranda Neville. (Readers who leave comments: Miranda will be giving away a signed copy to one of you, chosen at random.)
Welcome, Miranda, and tell us a little about The Wild Marquis.
Hello, Hoydens, and thanks for having me.
While as to The Wild Marquis, first book of The Burgundy Trilogy:
The Marquis of Chase wants to recover a family heirloom, a rare medieval manuscript that is being offered for sale at auction. To help him he hires a bookseller, the widowed Juliana Merton who, despite her knowledge of her subject, has a tough time making male book collectors take her seriously.
In the process they are drawn into the obsessive rivalry of two deceased collectors and uncover secrets of both their pasts.
The Wild Marquis is set in 1819. Is there a particular reason you chose that year?
There must have been, though I can't now remember it. I tend to prefer the late Regency because I don't want to deal with the Napoleonic Wars. I don't see how you can write, even light romance, without some awareness of political and social context. This series will go into the reign of George IV and (editors permitting) touch on some the the big political issues of the 1820s.
On the other hand, I don't want to get anywhere near Victoria. I suspect in my next series I shall go backward to the pre-Regency years.
How did you become interested in this time period? What do you like most and least about it?
Like 100,000 other romance writers I started with Georgette Heyer. I don't know if she was the inspiration, but I always read a lot of non-fiction around the period, both English and French history. Despite my dislike of his wars, I find Napoleon and his era absolutely fascinating.
Before I started writing romance, my only book credit was a biographical introduction to a volume of Redouté's flower paintings. Since the English Regency is still the most popular period for historical romance, why mess with a good thing?That said, it's very hard to write Regency set stories that are both fresh and (reasonably) authentic. I endeavor to avoid the clichés of the genre: I've taken the no-Almack's pledge, for example.
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...
I confess (as I do in an author's note) that I advanced the division of Shakespeare's quartos into "good" and "bad" by a hundred years. And, darn it, I discovered after I'd returned the proofs that the Limbourg Brothers had not, by 1819, been identified as the artists of the Duc de Berri's books of hours. Don't you find you don't mind "fudging" things as long you know you are doing it? Doing it by mistake is maddening.
Tell us a little about your hero. Something fun, like his favorite childhood pet, or his first kiss.
Alas, Chase had a pretty depressing childhood under the lash of his father, a religious fanatic known as the Saintly Marquis. As he tells Juliana, "My long slide into iniquity began at the tender age of twelve when I leered at one of the maids during evening prayers." Not that the poor boy did anything more until he was thrown out of the house at the age of sixteen. Then he proceeded to live up to his father's low expectations. What I love about Chase is that he really loves women, as people not just as bedmates (though that too). He's the perfect counterpart for Juliana, who constantly smarts at male prejudice.
What sparked this book? Was it a character? An historical event? A scene you just couldn't get out of your head?
I spent some years working in the rare books and manuscripts department at Sotheby's so I always had the setting in the back of my mind. The big auction in the book was inspired by the Duke of Roxburghe's sale of 1812, perhaps the most notable book auction of the 19th century. Chase first appeared as a secondary character in a (never published) book and immediately took on a life of his own.
Did you have to do any major research for this book? Did you stumble across anything really interesting that you didn't already know?
Does anyone but me care for the arcane details of book cataloging practices in early nineteenth-century England? Seriously, I'm always finding interesting things I don't know. It amazes me how often a serendipitous fact will pop up just when you need it. The finale to The Wild Marquis features a knife fight. I learned a lot about knife fighting on YouTube of all places. Very useful. I hope I got it right. Authors equally ignorant of combat techniques can check it out here.
What/Who do you like to read?
A fair amount of romance, mostly historical, though less than before I sold. Of the classics, most years I read or reread something by Shakespeare, Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Trollope, George Eliot. I don't like Dickens much. The New York Times. I can't always keep up with The New Yorker - once a week is too much. I don't read much new literary fiction unless a friend thrusts a book into my hands and orders me to read it. As a result I enjoyed a recent debut called The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers.
I love historical non-fiction, especially if I can call it research. Also cookbooks. I'm now reading a fascinating history of curry which combines the two last.
Care to share a bit about your writing process? Are you a pantser or a plotter?
I used to be an obsessive plotter. I wrote about a quarter of The Wild Marquis before selling it and I had a detailed synopsis of the whole. But my editor asked for changes that altered the hero's principal motivation and eliminated a subplot and two characters. Rather than re-plot the whole thing, I just plunged in and somehow it worked. The next book I'd also sold on synopsis but I decided (with my editor's permision) to change the second half of the book. Now I feel completely liberated and I'm having a very hard time planning anything beyond a vague concept. A pantser is born. Since I'm a newbie compared to you Hoydens I expect my MO will change again.
Do you write multiple drafts or clean up as you go?
A bit of both. I write fairly cleanly but I leave gaps. And I don't finish the book - the last chapter or two -- until I've revised the rest at least once.
What are you planning to work on next?
As he becomes fascinated by book collecting, Chase makes friends with two other young collectors. Sebastian Iverley is his opposite: he loathes women and has nothing to do with them. And I mean NOTHING. Then he falls hard, for a woman who turns out to be trifling with him. The result is Regency Revenge of the Nerd, to be released in October as The Dangerous Viscount. I had more fun writing it than anything so far. And I've also started work on the third friend, a dandy and arbiter of fashion. Since those are traits more desirable in Oscar Wilde than a romance hero, I've had to make his life miserable. Currently he's suffering from amnesia and stranded on the Yorkshire moors in company with a governess who holds a grudge against him.
Misery for him, fun for us. ;-) Thanks so much for talking to us, Miranda.
And readers who chime in with questions and comments -- after our visit is over, Miranda will be sending a randomly-chosen one of you an autographed copy of The Wild Marquis.
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