Happy Release Day! : AN AFFAIR WITH MR. KENNEDY by Jillian Stone

Today is a very special day. One of my favorite acquisitions from when I was working back in editorial, an awesome Victorian historical romance called An Affair with Mr. Kennedy, is hitting the shelves!

Not only is this great series--The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard--finally going to be shared with the world but it marks the author, Jillian Stone's debut into the literary world! Whee!!

Congrats, Jill!!

In honor of this wonderful occasion, Jill and I chatted a bit about the book, her writing, and what's next for the Yard Men:

DP: Thanks for being with us today, Jill! Tell me, what was the inspiration behind An Affair with Mr. Kennedy? How did the idea for the novel come to you? Did you write it with publication in mind?

JS: I knew I wanted to write a historical romantic suspense series and got to thinking about Scotland Yard detectives. It seemed to me that Yard men were always portrayed as bumbling inspectors, five moves behind Sherlock Holmes. So I thought, what if there was an elite group of detectives? So I began to do some research and found out that there was a division of Scotland Yard created in 1882 called Special Branch. I added a dash (as in dashing) of James Bond Steampunk and that was the start of The Gentlemen of Scotland Yard.

DP: As a debut author (with two multi-book deals with two publishing houses!), you were thrown into the industry with a vengeance. What surprised you most about the book business? What was the hardest thing to adjust to? What was your reaction to the often-shocking (and grueling) editorial process?

JS: Shocking and grueling, I think you summed it up well, Danielle! No writer’s workshop can prepare you for your first set of notes/edits. Once I picked myself up off the floor, and got a grip, I started evaluating what my editor wanted to see and what I knew was right for the story. Actually, I’m not sure how I got through it. But I survived and my favorite part of learning the editing process was when I realized OMG, the book is getting even better!

DP: Tell us a little about your writing process. Do you have a designated space to write? Rituals? Etc.?

JS: My process is I’m always writing because I’m not a fast writer. Plus, I enjoy small character details and world building, and that tends to take a lot of finessing. So I’m constantly at my computer when I’m in the middle of a book.

DP: Your hero and heroine--Zeno and Cassie--are such vibrant, fun (and sexy!) characters. If you were to cast them for a film version of the story, what actor/actress would you pick?

JS: Probably Clive Owen and Scarlet Johansson.

DP: When writing a novel, almost every author has to kill some of his/her darlings, as they say. Is there a scene, character, or plot (or something else!) that was particularly difficult for you to change or cut?

JS: I was asked to cut some love scenes to keep the suspense plot moving, which I did. The opening scene between Cassie and her mother almost bit the edit dust, but I held onto it by adding more heroine GMC. And it stayed in.

DP: You paint such a detailed and visceral picture of late-Victorian life in your book. How much research do you do? What are your favorite research tricks/go-to resources? Do you research as you go or study up before you begin?

JS: I do tons of research. I have a whole library of Victorian Age reference books. My favorite go-to trick is my subscription to OED online’s historical thesaurus. Invaluable. I research up front and also do a significant amount along the way. I never foresee everything I need, so I am often surfing the internet for some weird, esoteric bit of information late at night––and always on deadline.

DP: Who are some of your favorite authors? Books? Is there a book out there that you wish you had written? (Come on, all us writers have at least one. ;) For me, it’s Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.)

JS: If you’re talking about women’s fiction or romance, I would have to go with Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I have a whole range of favorite authors from Lewis Carroll to Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Frank Herbert and Phillip K. Dick.

DP: What’s up next for you and the Yard Men?

JS: A Dangerous Liaison with Detective Lewis. The second book in the Gentlemen of Scotland Yard series is a super fast-paced road story.

Here’s a little taste:

Five years ago, pure as an angel, hot as the devil, Raphael Lewis, did something unforgivable to Fanny Greyville-Nugent. Now, the handsome Scotland Yard agent is assigned to protect the wealthy industrialist heiress. Her life is in danger from the anti-progressive Utopian Society and its leader, Bellecote Mallory, who has tumbled into madness and gone underground. One by one, the diabolical Mallory is executing prominent members of the industrialized world––by their own machines––and Fanny is next in line. Pursued by Mallory’s henchmen, Rafe and Fanny are on the run from Edinburgh to London by train, landship and submersible! Racing against the clock, they are carried away by their passions, but can Rafe ultimately redeem himself?

To further celebrate the release of An Affair with Mr. Kennedy, I just so happen to have an extra copy of the new book to send along to a random reader....

So, leave a comment by 5pm EST on Friday, Feb. 3 about the book , for Jill, or with your own casting choices for Zeno and Cassie, and you just may be that reader!

Guest Blogger, Kris Kennedy: Romance is a Do-Over

Regret is one of those emotions that can eat a person up. I believe it’s more powerful than anger, I think it’s the fuel of bitterness, I see it as the fire of fury. It’s incredibly powerful and in fiction, done right, it’s absolutely transformative.

I don't think regret comes from making a mistake, from committing an error in action or judgment. I don’t think regret comes when we do what we think is right, and later find out was wrong. Or didn’t turn out like we’d hoped.

That’s hard, for sure, but I don't think that's the sort of regret that can eat a person up.

I think true, soul-crunching regret gets born in that moment when you knew you had a choice, when you knew there was a thing you should and could do, and you didn’t do it. It comes from those moments when you do something you knew very well you oughtn’t have done. Sometimes regrets comes from not making the gut-level choice, however inconvenient it was. Sometimes regret flows from knowing we didn’t give it our all, that we didn’t do our best.

But it’s that gut-level thing that gives true regret it’s power. Because, whatever excuses we make to the world, in our deep-floating hearts, we know the truth.

It’s the human condition, an existential experience—we’ve all been there. For better or worse, big or small, most of us are going to go back there, over and over again.

And that’s why it has such strong resonance in fiction. And I think romances often do it the best.

In many romances, the heroes, men and women, struggle with deep regrets. For an lot of tortured heroes, regret forms a kind of hardened kernel inside their heart, around which they’ve constructed the shell of a life.

But in romance, there are do-overs. And it usually comes in the form doing the right thing in the service of another person.

In my current release Defiant (Pocket Books) the hero has a twisted band of regret and fury that runs through his core. It’s shaped every action he’s taken for twenty years. All but one, and that one choice has lead him down a tortured path of twisted loyalties. As a trusted and top lieutenant to King John—yes, that King John—his life is constructed around doing questionable things for very good reasons.

Until he meets the heroine.

Now all the questions are getting answered, and he has to decide if living a life to fix the unfixable is more important than living a life to be the best he can be. And to, coincidentally, save the heroine’s rather attractive ass. :-)

Romance is about the do-over. And that, I think, is part of why we love it so.

So, what are some fabulous regret-fueled protagonists, and what is torturing them? (If it’d be a spoiler, please don’t be terribly specific.) And how do they get though it, to be transformed?

About the blogger: Kris Kennedy writes sexy, adventure-filled medieval romances for Pocket Books. Visit her website ( http://www.kriskennedy.net/) and sign-up for the newsletter, read exclusive excerpts, or just drop Kris a line saying Hi!

[Author photo by Isabel Gates, Images by Isabel]

Historically Accurate Vulgarity? Sign Me Up!

My dear author Allison Pang wrote a blog post earlier this week about a hilarious--but supremely useful for some--book: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:

Just a little nod in the direction of a great resource for world-building and historical accuracy. If you're don't own this book and you write Steam Punk, Historical fiction, Time-travel, Fantasy, whatever - you totally should.

Essentially it's a compilation of slang used by actual people, back in the day - circa 1790 to 1820. You'll find bits of peasant cant, Romany and just the conversational words used by the average everyday Joe of the moment.

And yes, some of the words *are* vulgar, but it's just so interesting to see the history of the English language and how much of it is still used today (and with the same connotations.)

The beauty of it is that the book was actually written in 1811, so copyrights don't really apply. You can find it over at the Gutenberg Project for a quick look through electronically, or buy one of the many versions out at the book store. (If you click the link you'll find it in both hard cover and paper back, and I think it's also out for the Kindle, as well.

See the original post on her blog Borrowing Heaven, Subletting Hell

or at her author site, Heart of the Dreaming

Given that I just this week I made an offer (and won!) on a 3-book historical romance series, I think I'll be tracking down a copy of this one!

The Victorian era novels about three sexy Scotland Yard inspectors by 2010 Golden Heart winner Jillian Stone are sure to need some historically accurate vulgar language ;)

So stoked about working with Jillian on this series. It's going to kick some serious ass.