Thank you to everyone who has picked up one of my books. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Something About Emmaline

As I told my husband, if someone had told me years ago that my books would end up as comic books, and in Japanese no less, I would have thought them mad. But here they are and I adore them! I’ve put all the scans from the covers up on my Facebook page. Check them out!

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

1) They don’t call it the Rose City for nothing. And last week the roses were in bloom. Everywhere. It was just heavenly and lovely.

2) This is a city with lots to do, especially when you have kids. From the zoo, to OMSI, to the walkway that runs along the river, to just riding the Tri-Met train, there is plenty to do with kids. And Portland is a very walkable city–at one time or another we all took long walks along the river, through the downtown streets and around the neighborhood where we stayed. If walking isn’t your cup of tea, the kids loved this–the aerial tram that runs from one part of a hospital to another up on a hill. So we jumped on for a ride and a spectacular view. Word of warning, if you don’t like heights, don’t get on. Yikes.

3) Powells. I’ve always loved this place, and I took my book loving eleven year old there, just because that was all he wanted to see in Portland. And when we went into the cafe, he said, “Hey, mom, there you are!” I thought I was going to find one of those unflattering security camera monitors where you get to see yourself from above–shudder–but no, there was the cover for How I Met My Countess larger than life and right where everyone was going to see it when they came into the cafe for a latte. Oh, Powells, I “heart” you as well.

So tell me, what is your favorite city to visit and why?

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I blogged last time about looking for something to read, and not long after that, lo and behold, you would never believe what came in the mail. Yes, something cool to read. Finished copies of The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance. Cool, huh? If you have never read one of these Mammoth volumes, they are a collection of short, short stories by authors in a specific genre, such as Regency romances.

And yes, I have a story inside. Yes, a story for this summer when you thought you would have to wait until the end of September. My little summer time gift to you.

When I was invited to do this, I already had a story in mind that I wanted to write for an anthology–a little twist on a familiar fairy tale, which you will find inside as, Cynders and Ashe. My version of Cinderella is a little more, shall we say, romantic and risque, and she leaves behind more than her shoe. Actually, she leaves her wings. You thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you? Mind. Out. Of. The. Gutter. Besides, I only had 50 pages.

But let me say that telling a romance in 30-50 pages is challenging–but in a fun way. What helped was the simple fact that I’d had over a year to plan the story. During that time, I’d been putting ideas, tidbits and thoughts for the story in a file. So when it came time to write, I pulled out all those little scribbled bits of inspiration, shuffled them around on a storyboard, came up with all the characters’s names/descriptions/motivations beforehand (something I never do) and had everything all mapped out and pinned up around my desk before I sat down to write a single line.

When I did, the story flew out and I wrote it in this creative burst of energy. I didn’t even write the scenes in order, which is another thing I never do. Sometimes just getting out of the usual can bring new energy to the process. And I hope you like the results.

Now for the delicious part of this volume: there are stories from some of my favorite authors inside. Loads of them. Candice Hern, Anna Campbell, Barbara Metzger and Lorraine Heath, just to name a few. As I’ve been dipping my toes between the pages, so to say, it turns out that these Mammoth books are a great way to find new authors or if you have just a little bit of time and really need a story, there is one inside just for you.

The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance publishes in the UK on June 24th, and in the US and Canada on July 27th. If you cannot wait until July, I will give you a little hint: Order it from Amazon.co.uk. Just saying.

Have you ever read a Mammoth volume? What did you like about it?

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Just to get you started:

1) Do you use your local library for your romance reading habit and why? What do you love, what do you wish librarians would do to make their collections better?

2) If you don’t, why? What keeps you from using those free shelves? What might entice you into a library–programs, events, you tell me?

3) Have you gone to programs/events at your local library? What have you loved? Hated? Want more of?

4) Would you read a blog from your local library or follow them on Facebook?

5) Anything else you want me to share with them?

I now turn the soapbox over to all of you.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Look at these wonderful renditions of This Rake of Mine:

This Rake of Mine, Japanese Edition

This Rake of Mine, Dutch edition

I have to admit that when I opened the package yesterday with this Dutch version, I thought for a moment they’d inserted a vampire into the book. Just kidding!

This Rake of Mine, Czech edition

Actually I love how each edition reflects a different aspect of the plot. In the Japanese edition, it gets that Jane Eyre treatment, with the lonely house on the hill, which is very much the shadowy sort of look I had in mind as I conjured up Jack’s house, Thistledown Park. Then in the Dutch version, they capture the lonely sea cliffs and the pirate/smuggler aspect of the plot–love this clinch on the cliffs, vampire notions aside. And then the Czechs go for that wonderful detailed gown, that I love so much, as well as the flowers–a nice touch from the end when the girls gather them for Malcolm. Very interesting how with one book, three translations, each can go in such diverse directions.

Yes, when these packages arrive, I just shake my head in wonder. Copies of my books all over the world, and wonderful readers as well! I know this because I look at my website statistics to see where my visitors are coming from–and in the last month, readers, the curious, the diehard fans have dropped by from 95 different countries and territories. 95?! In just the last 30 days?! It blows me away. I never imagined, ever, when I started writing that my books would have such a reach. I just hoped my local Barnes & Noble would carry them.

Actually, I’m still hoping for that one. They have a shelf for local authors, but I don’t rise to being local enough–despite living only five minutes from the store. Terry Brooks, yes. Susan Anderson, yes. (Apparently, according to the snooty manager, Susan Anderson doesn’t write romance–and don’t forget to hold your nose up a bit when you say that horrid word. Romance.) That used to bug the pants off me, but now I don’t care. I’ve got readers in Benin, Belarus, and the Maldives. Take that, you lowly local shelf.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Question No. 1: Will you write John, Ginger and Nate’s stories?

This has to be the most popular question that I get. And the answer is “Absolutely.” There seems to be a moment as a character comes to life on a page that as an author, you just know that they will need their own stroy. I knew that immediately with Dash and Clifton as I was writing This Rake of Mine. Especially with Dash! His character kept arriving in my stories, more insistent and more demanding with each book he appeared in. As for Clifton, his story shifted and changed and eluded me for years until I came up with the character Lucy and the idea for How I Met My Countess. And then I knew I had hit on the perfect, ahem, lady, to bring the light back to his broken heart and battered life.

As for John–I think it is obvious he needs to discover his heart (and his Dashwell tendencies) with that scamp Molly. She’ll lead him on a merry chase. As for Nate–he needs to fall and fall hard–just like his father did. As for Ginger, while she is currently married to a fuddy-duddy lord in Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress, things can change. Thankfully, I have no morals when it comes to killing off inconvenient husbands.

Question No. 2: Are you going to finish the Marlowe series?

Oh, I hate this question. Not because I don’t love the Marlowe series–His Mistress by Morning and Tempted by the Night–which I do, more than you can know– but because the answer is so difficult to write. The further I get from that series, the nearly impossible it will be to get it approved and finished. Every time I broach it with Avon, I get this sort of dead air sound over the phone–like “did she just mention that again?” The problem being that some readers just love Paranormal and others just love their Historicals, but put the two together and it is about appealing as strawberry jam and licorice mixed together.

And there is a very small but vocal number of readers who just HATE combining the two. Hate it with big capital letters and long loud emails to New York complaining about it, while with their other hand they are typing rabid posts on Amazon. The squeaky wheel syndrome. I have tried to wage my own counter campaign–because I do get a lot of supportive emails about the series (much more than the negative) and I pass them alone to my editor and agent as proof that the series (which BTW, sold well, thank you very much) would be beloved if it was allowed to continue. I won’t give up fighting for you lovers of magic and true love, and I have yet to give up.

Question No. 3: What happened to your Footnotes that you used to have with each book?

I got this question for the first time about three months ago and since have gotten it about three more times. Surprising, because I discontinued doing the Footnotes several books back. (See this example from Love Letters from a Duke.) Honestly? I quit doing them because no one was reading them. If you don’t know what they are and you didn’t miss them, you aren’t alone.

After studying my web stats over a period of time, I realized they were getting hardly any visits. And since they took a lot of time, money and effort to put together and have the pages built, I just couldn’t justify all that if no one was reading them. They are fun and interesting, but I would rather put my time into writing pages people will actually want to read–like the ones in my next book. What two pages are the most popular on my website? The Bookshelf and Coming Soon. Which is another question I get frequently: What’s next?

Any other questions?

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Astatalk – How I Met My Countess — Boyle, Elizabeth download request
Romantic Fiction → How I Met My Countess — Boyle, Elizabeth. 29 Dec 2009, 15: 36. Download. Sponsored 50 MBit/sec direct download. Does anyone have this? …

Yes, here was a reader asking for an illegal copy of How I Met My Countess. Damn, girl, Barnes & Noble wasn’t open yet, so you have to steal a copy? Come on!

I really wanted to meet the reader who posted this on one of the myriad of download boards and ask her this: Would you go into Walmart, put a copy of the book in your purse and walk out with it? And when she said (and probably emphatically and in an insulted tone) “No!” and I would have to follow that up with a “Why not?” and the answer is obvious: Because that’s stealing.

When I worked in software piracy, I heard all the excuses about why we should all look the other way on electronic theft–it doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s just one copy. First of all, electronic theft hurts everyone. And it is never just one copy. It may seem like thin air to the myriad of thieves out there, but they are no better than the Mob–you are robbing companies and authors of their legitimate revenue and worse, you are robbing yourself. Because legitimate revenue is taxed: B&O taxes, personal taxes, corporate taxes. Counterfeiting and electronic piracy account for one third of lost revenues in North America–everything from software, watches, purses, toothpaste and baby formula. One third. Think if that revenue was legitimately and fairly taxed? Think of the jobs that could be gained with that revenue. In the long run, we would all be richer with better roads, schools, and yes, health care.

And it isn’t just the authors and publishers who are robbed, it is everyone up and downstream in the life of a book: from the warehouse workers, to the artist, to the shippers who move books, bookstores and their employees, printers, box-makers, gads, even the tape that goes into closing the boxes, the list goes on and on. Because when the electronic book is stolen with impunity online, it cuts into legal and legitimate sales of the hard copy book, which is the lifeblood of this industry. And eventually those losses turn into layoffs, less offerings from booksellers, less bookstores, less books, less authors. Sound familiar? The people who think they are getting a free book are robbing themselves of what they love.

Here is the other argument that makes me shake my head with wonder at the ethics and upside down values that these online shoplifters and thieves use to convince themselves that they are in the right: I read too many books to afford them. Whaaaah? Does anyone else look at this and just shake your head. Do they feel the same about shoes and handbags and lattes that they need to consume gives them the right to steal their goodies from Nordstrom, Macys and Starbucks? I doubt it.

Here’s the simple solution: If you can’t afford the books, go to the library and check out your books for free. At least the library pays for their copy(ies). And if they don’t have the copy you want, I have yet to meet a librarian who wouldn’t track that book down for you and get it for you via inter-library loan. Again, for free. And here’s another question for the “i-can’t-afford-my-habit-so-I’ve-turned-to-crime” crowd: If you can’t afford your groceries do you steal them from the grocery store? Do you break into your neighbor’s house ’cause you’re out of beer or they have a dvd you’ve always wanted? No, of course not, so why are you stealing books?

Now I know that there are no arguments that will stop some people, but I want to add one last image that I ask you to hold in your heart: Tiny Tim. Every author out there has their own Tiny Tim–a mortgage to pay, kids to feed, an electric bill, medical bills and electronic piracy robs their ability to take care of their Tiny Tim, chipping away at his little broken crutch as sure as if Ebenezer Scrooge was standing there trying to make kindling out of it. My Tiny Tim is an eight year old boy with autism. His medical bills run 25k a year–and that’s the part our insurance won’t cover. So when you steal my books, upload them or download them, I want you to envision this child and the speech therapy ($100 per hour) and physical therapy ($85 per hour) that you are depriving him of. That’s my Tiny Tim and when you steal my books, that is who you are robbing of a legitimate chance at a good life.

So I would ask everyone who loves all these “free” books, to realize nothing in life is free, and eventually you are only stealing from yourself . . . and perhaps even this small child. Resolve in 2010 not to steal. Every author, composer, designer and creator on the planet will thank you by continuing to be creative.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

EW: Well, first of all…the main characters are married. I know, I know, usually the romance comes first with the wedding as the end result, but Colton and Brianna have made a fashionable, aristocratic match. Our independent duchess, however, is head over heels in love and doesn’t want her handsome husband to fall into the dilettante habits of the beau monde. He could very well take a mistress, but she is determined to hold his interest. Unfortunately, she has been raised as a proper English lady and has no idea how to go about it all until she stumbles across a copy of the scandalous Lady Rothburg’s Advice in the back of a dusty little bookshop. Written by a courtesan and banned years ago, it isn’t a volume any true lady should own, but she is intrigued and impulsively buys it anyway.

From there, as they say, sparks do fly. As she implements the daring suggestions, her stuffy duke becomes more and more captivated, but also more and more suspicious of how his innocent bride could be suddenly such a vixen.in the bedroom. Their mutual lack of understanding made for a lot of fun when creating their journey from husband and wife to lovers in the true sense of the word.

EB: Funny story–I took your book on the plane with me, but since it was in manuscript pages it was big and bulky, so I only took half the book. Okay, I wasn’t sure I would like it or not–so I was being cautious. My mistake, because I was halfway between Seattle and Florida and I was through the pages I’d brought and spent the rest of the flight trying to figure out a way to get into the baggage compartment to read the rest. What I loved were the characters–not just the hero and heroine (who were great) but the secondary stories as well. What have you got coming up in the near future so I can plan accordingly?

EW: How nice you are! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Hmm, next in May is a Scottish trilogy in one volume, Seducing the Highlander. I admit to a weakness for bold, roguish Scots! In September 2010, the first book in the Lords of Notoriety Regency series comes out, My Lord Scandal, followed in October by Our Wicked Mistake, and in November, His Sinful Secret, all from Signet Eclipse.

3) Wow! You put me to shame! And I love that title, Our Wicked Mistake. Sounds like lots of fun. Just to make sure no one else misses all these great reads, where can folks find you on the web?

Keep an eye on me at www.emmawildes.com and I am also on Facebook.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

So you’ll want to stop over at Romantic Crush Junkies and Book Talk with J & J if you want to be part of the action.

So now, I am off to bake a cake for someone’s birthday. I baked one for a funeral yesterday, so today I think I need to make one to celebrate another year of living. And thank you to all of you for making it so very heartwarmingly worthwhile to get up each day and do the one thing I’ve always wanted–write. As for me, I am taking today off. Twenty years ago today I met my husband. He was the best birthday present I ever got. So we are shipping the kids off to school and make a day of it. I tried to talk him into dueling manicures/pedicures, but he nixed that idea.

So, what would you do if you and your DH/SI/Partner-in-Crime had an entire day to go out and play hooky? And that’s hooky, not nooky. Gads, I can’t turn my back on you people for a second!

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The funny part of the story behind this cover is that the powers to be were a little worried that a black gown on a cover would seem to widowish or like a funeral. I think in execution, nothing could be further from the truth. This cover is daring, exciting and sexy. My thanks to Avon and the artist Jon Paul for giving my story such a gorgeous wrapping.

And a huge round of applause to everyone who voted. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.