Seattle to Montana. Montana to Yellowstone. Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons. Across Wyoming. Into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Across South Dakota. North to North Dakota. Went to a wedding. Dipped our toes into Minnesota so we could say we “went” there. Crossed North Dakota. Camped by the Missouri river. The Badlands. Montana. More Montana. And just when you think there isn’t enough Montana, believe me there is more. Idaho. Washington. Home.

Now most people who know me will laugh at the idea of me camping. Believe me, my usual mantra is that any hotel without room service is camping, but that is probably because as a child we always went camping. Always. And I had forgotten how much fun it is. How wonderful it is to be outside. The joys of a campfire. Swimming in a clear, clean river. The stars on a dark night. The unexpected visitors–we saw bears, bison, elk, deer, prairie dogs, wild turkeys, antelope. The incredible majesty of the Grand Tetons.

I have flown over my nation, going from one coast to the other and always looked down and thought it was just empty. But the beauty and incredible landscapes that spread across those “empty parts” will take your breath away.

I daydreamed endlessly as we passed fields of sunflowers, high cliffs, remarkable Western vistas. Marveled at the life of Buffalo Bill Cody, revisited every John Wayne movie I’ve ever seen, hummed the theme song to Bonazana, sat on great big boulders and looked at sparking waters and let the views just fill my heart. And every time I thought we couldn’t see something more breathtaking, we’d roll around a corner and see something else.

As for living all of us in such close quarters for all that time? We learned to laugh with each other, got to the heart of things that have been unsaid for too long, and just shared the joy of exploring hidden corners well off the beaten path.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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) Conference is not Sectionals, Regionals or even Nationals. It is not a competition no matter what the big-haired barracuda across the luncheon table tells you. Let the mean girls have their club. We all know who they are and really, do you want to be in Sue Sylvester’s clique? Here is the best advice I can give you–find your friends and hold onto them. Laugh, sing your own song and enjoy the friendship that is at the heart of RWA. This will let your light shine through–don’t let others put a shade over it. Believe me, after twenty years of going, the mean girls usually end up as back up singers for a reason.

2) Don’t Listen to Gossip. Not so much listen, because, heck as writers we are practically given a license to eavesdrop and gather information on the human condition all in the name of research, but if you must listen, don’t take it to heart. Learn to step back and measure what is being said around you with an air of detached reason. Because writers love to sing out loud even when we can’t hold a note. We love the spotlight. I’m not saying we are all a bunch of liars trying to get our solo, but we do get caught up in the competition that seems to take on a life of its own every year about this time. I’ve seen good writers literally melt down and let themselves be derailed by gossip or even, believe it or not, another’s good fortune. Stay focused on your dreams and goals, like Rachel does episode after episode. Even with a slushy in her face, she is remains a star in the making.

3) Pack Light. Really, you don’t need a sparkling new outfit for every event of every day. You are not Lady GaGa. You don’t see the editors and agents wearing outfits to dazzle. They wear comfortable clothes and sensible shoes. Take a cue from them. Having a small, well coordinated suitcase of clothes takes away the stress of what to wear. At least it does for me. Besides, that saves more room for bringing home goodies. And like Rachel, bring a nice cardigan. You can never go wrong with a good cardigan.

4) Pitching. If you disregard everything I’ve said, hear this. If you have a chance to pitch, but are shaking like a sapling in a Florida hurrican, remember this:  that junior editor across the table is sweating bullets that someone is going to cry if she refuses their pitch, so she’ll most likely say yes to everything. So go in and think of yourself as a sure thing. If you have issues with being easy, then cry. Your choice.

5) You are not there to sell a book. Yeah, you heard me correctly, you are not there to sell a book. So why go? To grow as an artist. To learn, to listen, to make new connections, to take the pulse of what is happening in the industry. If you go like my barracuda friend above, prowling the corridors in your perfectly coordinated suit and heels, and shooting down the competition by throwing slushies at other people’s dreams, you will miss opportunity after opportunity to meet some really great people, to gain priceless advice in workshops, to gather around you the energy that will carry you back home ready and excited to get writing again. Besides, no one likes the slushy tossers.

Meanwhile, I’ll be home, watching Glee reruns and missing all my good friends. Now, did I miss anything? What is your best advice, Glee inspired or not?

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Rochester's Belles

But what I shouldn’t be lingering over is the story:  Please let me say outright that RomCon rocked! It was bar none, the best reader’s conference I’ve ever attended. Wonderful readers, great organization (I mean, hey, whoever thought about having the authors’s schedules printed on labels and stuck to the back of our name tags was brilliant!) and fun events. My favs included the Build a Hero workshop, where we all divided up according to interests and brainstormed our perfect hero.

Working with Anna Campbell, Cynthia and Kati, we came up with Sir Rochester deVale. Yes, we were making a nudge and a nod toward that Rochester, but we had a hilarious good time poking at the conventions of the genre (his greatest fear: a lighted match), his big . . . wait for it. . . nose, (and you thought I was going to say something else) and of course, he was tall dark and handsome. What I found interesting about the whole workshop is that nearly every hero created (including ours) had a military background and was emotional scarred by some previous experience. Oh, girls, we loved our damaged heroic goods, don’t we?

The Elizabeths

The signing was a kick of a good time, including meeting so many new readers–and by that I mean, younger readers. Please don’t be insulted, but by the time you reach my age, anyone under 25 is young. Okay, anyone under 40 is young. But what made my heart go pitter-pat was all the young women who are discovering romance. Having come of age reading Harry Potter and Twilight, they are the emerging generation embracing romance with abandon and boy are they enthusiastic. Here I am with the Elizabeths. They were hilariously fun–best friends named Elizabeth and they came to meet me, the other Elizabeth. Hanging with these gals, and getting the opportunity to go out to lunch with Kati (up above) really sparked the old muse. (Truly, the old gal needed a bit of kick start.)

Why, yes that is me. The Devil's Mistress. Or DM for short.

As for the rest of the weekend, the intimate chats, the panels, and the games, ok–the Saturday night in the bar laughing over Missy the Missing Cat until I really just embarrassed myself by laughing so much–made the weekend rollicking. My cheeks hurt by Sunday.

So I hope everyone is putting RomCon on their to-do list for 2011–mark off September and plan on getting yourself to Denver. It was worth every penny. If you want to see more, I’ve uploaded a bunch of pictures on my Facebook page.

And btw, Julia Quinn is a great traveling companion. We sat together flying down and talked nonstop the entire flight, and when we discovered the free wi-fi chatted on Facebook together while sitting next to each other, which was vastly amusing to us, probably not so much to the rest of the rows around us. And on the way home, she got me upgraded with her to First Class and we again finagled seats together, but we were both so tired we just sort of sat there, each in our own tired daze–her doing Suduko and me knitting. Both of us agreed to two things: the weekend was great and we are going back next year!

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

But the main problem is that I dither about what I am going to wear. What I should pack. Which shoes. And then there is all the promo stuff that needs to have its spot in the suitcase. Bookmarks or notecards or both. How many people are going to be at the event. Do I have to bring a “giveaway”? Okay, I just sort of dither. I make lists, thinking that will help ease the indecision. Then I change my mind. I am sure there is some subconscious sort of denial about leaving home or some other nonsense that my Jungian psychologist grandmother would have gleefully offered to explore.

Some trips are easier to pack for than others–a reader’s luncheon. Easy. One nice outfit, travel clothes, jammies, etc. But when it is something like RomCon this week, with multiple events then I really just throw up my hands and want to give up. Then I consider Anna Campbell who is coming all the way from Australia and who is going to RomCon and the RWA National conference, and plus a bunch of stops in between. Shudder.

Then again I could just wear my jammies, and be that writer. You know, I think I might be comfortable with that. Sure would save on the extra suitcase fees.

©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.

Yeah! It bloomed. Isn’t that the most delightful thing you’ve ever seen. Flowers growing out of nothing but cement and whatever else is up there. It made me smile and suddenly merging into the afternoon traffic wasn’t  such a chore, with that cheery image filling my thoughts.

Last week we went down to Portland with Matthew for Bike First, and after four days of camp, he had yet to ride a bike. We drove over to Concordia University the last morning, Friday, with heavy hearts, because we all wanted him to succeed and I didn’t want to think that I had invested so much time and money and effort for nothing. Sometimes it is so hard when you have a child with disabilities, making those decisions on what to invest in for his future.

Stopping at Starbucks, I went to get a coffee, a little fortification, and inside was an older man who obviously had disabilities. And he’d come in with his bike and was telling one and all about how much he loved to ride and how he loved his bike.The sight of him brought tears to my eyes, because I felt it was like a giant hand came down and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “See! See that! You made the right choice.”

Then the barista asked the man if he wanted “his usual.” Apparently this fellow with his bike is a regular, and he laughed and said “yes.” Then came the unexpected. You see, the universe wasn’t done with me yet.

The man pulled out a packet of Swiss Miss, and the barista mixed it up for him. This man rides his bike to Starbucks every day so he can have his Swiss Miss. The barista laughed, the pair shared a corny joke and the man sat down with his bike to enjoy his cocoa.

Because you see the unexpected also comes in gentle compassion, understanding and faith.

As for Matthew, about an hour and a half later, he was riding on his own all around the tennis courts of Concordia University. And when the morning was done, he got his picture taken with the Bike First graduates, along with the wonderful volunteers who share that same beautiful generosity I’d witnessed over a cup of cocoa.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

There’s nothing like living in a place to really know it intimately, and thus to write about it authentically. Since actually visiting Regency London is out of the question, the next best thing is living in London. I was lucky to get to do that.

Thanks to my graduate school program, I was able to spend 8 weeks in London on an independent research project. Topic: romance fiction, of course. As I was reading early 1800’s gothic romances and other novels, along with conduct guides and things like “letters from a duchess to a young lady.” I was, as a writer is wont to do, making up stories that incorporated everything I was learning and experiencing.

The books became my Writing Girl Series, featuring women that write for the Regency London’s most popular and gossipy newspaper, The London Weekly. The heroes are the dukes and earls we know and love. Being a writing girl living in London, I incorporated some of my experiences into the novels. For example…

1. Walking, everywhere! The tube is expensive, so are cabs, and I was a grad student/romance author, two notoriously impoverished categories. Walking was the way to go. It seemed like I nearly got hit by a vehicle every time I tried to cross the street (they drive on the wrong side over there). This also happens to my heroine Miss Sophie Harlow, but then she is saved by The Duke of Hamilton and Brandon.

2. Gold, everywhere. Everywhere! The gold chandeliers, the massive ornately carved, gold leaf picture frames hanging on damask wallpaper, which then has gold detailing on the moldings and then on the ceiling! And then all the silver just to liven things up, and more gold on the furniture and in the fabrics and for lord’s sake I never thought I would be sick of gold but it happened. I think I was too traumatized by this for it to make an appearance in the book.

3. Newspapers. I did live across the street from the offices of The Guardian, but it’s the gossipy, frivolous, decidedly not serious newspapers I’m interested in. Whether I needed to or not, I always went out at the end of the workday and walked down to the subway to pick up my free copy of the totally trashy newspapers handed out free.

I also spent a lot of time at the Colindale Newspaper Library reading actual newspapers from the 1820’s. Some lasted for decades, others for a month. They had titles like Town Talk, The Age, John Bull, Cobbit’s Weekly Register and they were all delightful. The sheets are long, totally flat, yellow with age, the print is tiny and they have that faint musty book smell.

4. British men. I’m marrying one, which I think is all I need to say on that. A Groom Of My Own—funny, that!

Thanks to Maya for sharing! Her new book, A Groom of My Own, comes out June 29th.

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Then the kid in me took over. OMG! I’m going to have a comic book!

So for all of you, here is the first sneak peak of Jack and Miranda from This Rake of Mine as manga characters:

Click for larger version

I think it is so much fun–Jack looks so dashing. And for those of you who haven’t read This Rake of Mine, you might want to pick it up over the summer and get caught up. My September book, Mad About the Duke features Jack’s brother, that stickler for propriety, James Tremont, the Duke of Parkerton.

Maybe after James finds his true love, he might be open to a little manga adventure?

©2010 Elizabeth Boyle Blog. All Rights Reserved.