Guest Blogger Janet Mullany Shares Details on TELL ME MORE + Giveaway!

UPDATE: The winner of TELL ME MORE by Janet Mullany is Lolarific! Congrats! Please email your addy to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net.

What does C.S. Lewis have to do with erotic romance, you may well ask. One thing I find fascinating about writing is how my reading cross-pollinates my writing, particularly books I read long ago. The C.S. Lewis link to my recent release TELL ME MORE is a little obscure, but here’s how it came about.

While I was writing the book I read Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS, a brilliant and complex novel that starts out at a sort of Potteresque school for magicians. The book becomes darker and more dangerous as its characters travel to a fantastical land invented by a writer who wrote a series of children’s books. Just like Narnia?—no, Narnia gritty and grownup and cruel.

So I had THE MAGICIANS on my mind and that led to me thinking about C. S. Lewis’s books which I read and loved as a child, totally oblivious of the rather heavy-handed Christian subtext.

But back to my book and my heroine and her adventures. At one point in the book she becomes involved in a community with a rigid social structure that gets together for various sexual activities. Jo, as a newcomer, is one of the apprentices who serve the higher levels, but she finds a way into the main part of the house, seeking her fascinating mentor who she’s spoken to only on the phone. Almost immediately she takes refuge in a coat closet. This coat closet does not lead to enchanted lands. Instead, she finds herself an unwilling voyeur when a couple uses the closet for other activities:

Clothing rustled. A zipper slid down.

One of her hands emerged from between the coats and almost smacked me in the nose.

I ducked.

Her hand grasped, fluttered, and grabbed the coat rack. I squeezed myself away from them.

It was a bit too late to reveal myself to them at this point; what the heck could I say?

Jo escapes from the closet and explores the rest of the house. Here’s an excerpt from THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER by C. S. Lewis.

Now she had come to the top of the stairs, Lucy looked and saw a long, wide passage with a large window at the far end. Apparently the passage ran the whole length of the house. It was carved and paneled and carpeted and very many doors opened off it on each side. She stood still and couldn't hear the squeak of a mouse, or the buzzing of a fly, or the swaying of a curtain, or anything--except the beating of her own heart.

There isn’t much similarity between the two but I was definitely channeling C.S. Lewis now, remembering how spellbound I was as Lucy walked down that passage, seeing mysterious magic symbols on the doors and at one point a mirror that has a frame of hair and a beard, making her reflection strange and sinister. She’s in a magician’s house to find a spell and solve a mystery. Here’s mine:

A corridor led off at the top of the stairs and I peered down it. The smell of food was stronger now. As I hesitated, there was a muffled thump and a ringing sound, and two wall panels slid apart—an elevator. Waiters emerged with a rolling cart of food. They took no notice of me, but pushed the cart and its covered dishes into a room. I peered around the door. Masked people, Jake and Cathy among them, sat at a long banquet table with an elaborate centerpiece, laughing and talking…
At the table a guy wearing a mask that gave him the face of a lion, stood, and headed for the doorway and me, cellphone at his ear. He was tall and slender, a few threads of gray in his dark hair. As he passed me, I heard a few words, to my surprise apparently about investments.

“But of course…” He sounded slightly annoyed.

He sounded familiar. Very familiar.

“Mr. D?” My voice rose to a squeak.

He turned and looked at me and the lion’s eyes gazed at me, unreadable, in his mask.
Aha! A lion mask! You may remember that the central deity in the Narnia chronicles is a lion called Aslan (the Persian word for lion), and that little detail just wrote itself in there.

Leave a comment answering the following question, and enter to win an autographed copy of TELL ME MORE: Which books did you enjoy as a kid that have stayed with you or even come back to surprise you?

The winner will be randomly selected and announced tomorrow morning.
What people are saying about TELL ME MORE:

… a deliciously naughty novel with an intense steamy narrative. Jo's humble yet enthusiastic attitude makes the bedroom scenes fun and provocative, with more than enough tension to make your heart race. This novel is a hot, spicy adventure you shouldn't miss! --RT Book Reviews

This novel is erotica at its best. A good, strong story driven by interesting characters, and steamy scenes that will leave you smiling secretly to yourself. --The Raunch Dilettante

Take Home Tuesday

UPDATE: The winner of JANE AND THE DAMNED by Janet Mullany is thebookfairyhaven. Congrats! Please email you rphysical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

Leave a comment to win a copy of JANE AND THE DAMNED by Janet Mullany. The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon.

The 411: Mullany (Improper Relations) pens an impressively compelling Jane Austen mashup full of humor ("You damned Damned!") and poignant irony. At a Basingstoke dance, the Austen sisters encounter some fashionable Londoners with a taste for blood. Jane is drawn to meet one of the Damned, enigmatic William, who turns her into a vampire against her will. Reverend Austen takes the family to Bath to seek a cure, but when the French invade England, Jane joins the other vampires in putting their superhuman strength and speed to the service of their country. Purists might regret Cassandra's relegation to soppy sister, but the bond between Jane and her father, the small scenes that reflect Austen's novels, the sly humor of a vampire Prince Regent, and an abundance of moral dilemmas and vivid action make this a very satisfying page-turner for vamp-lovers and Austen fans alike. (Oct., Publishers Weekly)

LOVERS ROCK WEEK (Day 4): Hosted by Janet Mullany

UPDATE: The winner of IMPROPER RELATIONS by Janet Mullany is Margay. Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

When I was asked to blog about a pair of lovers for the Knight Agency’s Valentine’s Day celebration, I knew immediately who I’d write about—Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, the famous couple from Dorothy Sayers’ novels, which I’ve loved and admired for years.

First a word about Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957). She was one of the first women awarded a degree from Oxford, where she attended the prestigious Somerville College and graduated with a first class honors degree in modern languages. Like her friend C.S. Lewis she was a noted Christian scholar and wrote translations, short stories, reviews, poetry collections and translations, but she’s best known as one of the most brilliant detective writers of the twentieth century.

Her first novel, WHOSE BODY (1923) introduced Lord Peter Wimsey, an aristocratic dabbler in detection work, overbred, full of nervous intelligence, and shell-shocked from World War I. Harriet Vane enters the picture in STRONG POISON (1930), the fifth of Sayers’ novels; she’s a modern woman, an intellectual, who lives in sin with her lover, and has been accused of his murder. Peter solves the mystery, clears her name, and proposes marriage, having fallen in love with her.

She accepts, right?

No. Being dependent on a man, particularly an aristocratic and overbearing one, is against everything she believes in. Harriet refuses, but offers to become Peter’s mistress, thus insulting his name and honor and all he stands for. And so the relationship continues uneasily as would-be lovers but as successful detectives, for a couple more books.

Then we come to GAUDY NIGHT (1935), a novel set in Oxford, where Harriet is invited back to her alma mater for a college reunion to find out who’s behind an unpleasant attack of poison pen letters. This is possibly Sayers’ most brilliant book, and also the one maybe closest to her heart, set in her beloved Oxford, and debating the question of women’s roles in society, particularly that of unmarried women in academia. As one of the female college scouts (servants) says, But some of these clever ladies are a bit queer, don’t you think, madam? Funny, I mean. No heart in them.

Now Sayers had a bit of a problem with Peter. She’d originally invented him as a society man whose silliness masked a formidable intelligence and capacity for problem-solving. And he had a weak chin. He was in fact, pretty much asexual in the early books. Certainly by the time Harriet arrived, he was changing, and by GAUDY NIGHT he has become downright hot, if not hawt. And the level of sexual tension between him and Harriet is downright astonishing, even with all clothes on and formal address—Lord Peter and Miss Vane.

Here’s one of the most extraordinary and beautiful scenes I’ve ever read, when Harriet finally admits to herself that she’s in love with Peter (he’s been proposing marriage to her every month for some time, and she’s turned him down every time). She’s sitting on a riverbank, watching him read:

… she studied his half-averted face. Considered generally, as a façade, it was by this time tolerably familiar to her, but now she saw details, magnified as it were by some glass in her own mind. The flat setting and fine scroll-work of the ear, and the height of the skull above it. The glitter of close-cropped hair where the neck-muscles lifted to meet the head. A minute sickle-shaped scar on the left temple. The faint laughter-lines at the corner of the eye and the droop of the lid at its outer end. The gleam of gold down on the cheekbone. The wide spring of the nostril. An almost imperceptible beading of sweat on the upper lip and a tiny muscle that twitched the sensitive corner of the mouth. The slight sun-reddening of the fair skin and its sudden whiteness below the base of the throat. The little hollow above the points of the collarbone.

He looked up; and she was instantly scarlet, as though she had been dipped in boiling water. Through the confusion of her darkened eyes and drumming ears some enormous bulk seemed to stoop over her. Then the mist cleared. His eyes were riveted upon the manuscript again, but he breathed as though he had been running.

So, thought Harriet, it has happened. But it happened long ago. The only new thing that has happened is that now I have got to admit it to myself. I have known it for some time. But does he know it? He has very little excuse, after this, for not knowing it. Apparently he refuses to see it, and that may be new. If so, it ought to be easier to do what I meant to do.

She stared out resolutely across the dimpling water. But she was conscious of his every movement, of every page he turned, of every breath he drew. She seemed to be separately conscious of every bone in his body. At length he spoke, and she wondered how she could ever have taken another man's voice for his.

Isn’t that gorgeous? And when Peter does propose to her, it’s done in a way that brings together all the threads of the book, the debate on women’s status, the issue of equality between Harriet and Peter, and as a tribute to Oxford itself. Using the Latin of the ceremony that bestows a degree at Oxford, Peter asks:

Placetne, magistra? Do you agree, mistress?

Placet. I agree.

Without fail, that sends shivers down my spine every time I read it, which is what a good love scene should do. What do you think? Have you read GAUDY NIGHT and what’s your favorite scene?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Janet Mullany’s next book, coming out this month, is IMPROPER RELATIONS, a Regency chicklit about annoying relatives and finding love where you least expect it. Leave a comment in the blog, and enter to win a signed copy of this book. The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon.

You can purchase IMPROPER RELATIONS with free shipping worldwide at bookdepository.com and find out more at www.janetmullany.com.

Take Home Tuesday with Janet Mullany

UPDATE: The winner of A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY by Janet Mullany is elnice. Please send your physical addy to contests @ knightagency.net. Thanks to all participants!

Reheating the Comic Omelette

This month my second Regency chick-lit, A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY, was released and this is how I came to write it.

When I was seriously whipping into shape my 2007 book THE RULES OF GENTILITY I realized that it might be a good idea to prove to an editor that it wasn’t a one-off book. Instant panic ensued. My first reaction was Oh no, I’ve used up all my jokes!

The editor at Little Black Dress (UK) who bought Comedy wanted a similar style (hero/heroine first person, present tense, funny), so I’d established the formula but for my own entertainment and peace of mind I had to do something different.

I made a list of all the devices I’d used in RULES:

--A character who spoke without punctuation

--Lists

--A fart joke (a first for the Regency historical, I’m proud to say)

--Funny acronyms (e.g. The Association for the Rescue and Succor of those in Extremis = ARSE)

--Most of the usual Regency tropes, such as the fake engagement, the fall from horseback in the Park, the Big Misunderstanding, high adventures in low places, the bluestocking identical twins, and the gay friend (probably not one of the usual Regency tropes but certainly a staple of chicklit).

--Letters between characters

I could reuse the devices of lists and letters (although there aren’t so many as in RULES) but I didn’t want to repeat myself or write about another fashion-obsessed, naïve babbler. As much as I liked Philomena Wellesley-Clegg, the heroine of RULES, she was a bit overwhelming (which is incidentally why I came up with the idea of also writing the hero in first person; it cleared my literary palate). Although I thought initially I might write about the twins (I even had a title, THE WEIRD SISTERS OF BERKELEY SQUARE) I looked around for a character who was not at all like Philomena and found Lady Caroline, caught in intimate circumstances with the hero early on in Rules and quite definitely a Bad Girl.

Caroline Elmhurst, in Mrs. Giggles' words, is a gloriously flirtatious hussy with a PhD in gold digging. The hero, Nicolas Congrevance, has had a disgraceful career as a gigolo; a good-hearted and sympathetic one, but still a gigolo. I was so appalled at his behavior that I invented a few other professions for him such as ratcatcher, music teacher, and cabinetmaker (he’s good with his hands in more ways than one). Interestingly, no one yet has complained about his anti-heroic qualities.

Furthermore, taking a suggestion made by Bob Mayer in one of his workshops, I started off with both characters in trouble (she’s escaping creditors and he nearly drowns while evading a jealous husband)—people with real problems, and I think it made for a stronger, dare I say it, more serious book. Ahem. Don’t for a moment think this is a book about repentance, forgiveness and transformation—no knitting clubs or cottages full of rosy-cheeked children here (only those belonging to minor characters)—but Caroline and Nick discover what they really need: friendship and community as well as love (and money).

So that’s how it happened. I have two more books coming out from Little Black Dress, and the next, tentatively titled IMPROPER RELATIONS (2010), takes another new direction. Visit my website, www.janetmullany.com for more information about me and my books, and thanks for having me visit today!

CONTEST: To win a signed copy of A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY by Janet Mullany, leave your name in the comments section. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning!