Posts Tagged ‘Love & Scandal’

Love & Scandal – Read an Excerpt!

DonnaLea | May 20th, 2010

When I first wrote Love & Scandal, the working title was The Last Days of a Rake. It reflected both the internal novel that Collette has written, but also that the hero of the novel, Charles Jameson is, in a sense, one of the last of his breed, a Regency-style rake in Victorian England. However, the title seemed unwieldy to me, and the tongue trips over it a bit.

Love & ScandalSo I cast about for a new title. Then I came across a Henry Fielding quote (Fielding was the author of the brilliant ‘Tom Jones’): ‘Love and scandal are the best sweetners of tea.’ I knew that was it, so my novel became Love & Scandal, since it speaks of both of those things.

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Here is an abridged excerpt:

Collette seemed angry. Charles Jameson decided he must bend all his effort to charming her back into the open smile he remembered from the train. That expression had been so unguarded, so unpracticed. He had never experienced anything like it since. “Now that we are alone,” he murmured close to her ear, “I shall call you simply ‘Collette’ again. I do so like that name.”

She bent away from him and glared into his eyes, candlelight glinting on her spectacles. “I did not give you permission this time, sir!”

“Ah, but once permission is given, it can never be rescinded.”

“Is that some kind of rake’s code?” she said, her tone tart. “Does that carry through for your amorous conquests as well? May they never say ‘no’ to you once they have said ‘yes’? A dangerous philosophy, sir.”

Her green eyes, behind glass, were the color of jade and just as mysterious as that oriental stone, with sparks of topaz. She had hardened toward him. Had his liberties in the train given her a disgust of him? Whatever had happened, it appeared all she felt toward him was revulsion. But it could not stay that way, not if he bent all his efforts to the task at hand.

He didn’t smile. He simply examined her expression, the flashing green of her eyes, the dour scowl on her pretty mouth. He deeply wanted to kiss that scowl away but (more…)

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The Last Days of a Rake

DonnaLea | May 20th, 2010

The Last Days of a Rake

The Book at the Heart of Love & Scandal!

I was intrigued when Angela and Gina at Carina Press came to me with an idea.

What if, they said, we could offer readers the book that is the centerpiece of Love & Scandal? What if readers could also read The Last Days of a Rake, for FREE!?

Not being too slow on the uptake, I asked, “So you mean you want me to write The Last Days of a Rake?”

“Who else?” they patiently asked.

“But,” I whined, “I think Collette may be a better writer than I am. And… and…” Picture me thinking, kinda like Rodin’s sculpture, only not so nude. “I’d actually get to write this book that I’ve written about?” Pause, hold for one second, and then… “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Great,” they said.

“How long do I have to write it?” I asked.

“One month,” they chorused.

At least it was a month with 31 days; I had all of March to create the book that was supposed to set Victorian England on its ear. Gee whiz, thanks guys; generous!

Last Days of a Rake CoverBut I did it… wrote a novella in one month: 16,000 plus words. And as a result, The Last Days of a Rake is being offered as a free download, so that readers of Love & Scandal will have a better idea of what Charles Jameson related to in the book, that made him want to meet the author.

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Abridged excerpt from The Last Days of a Rake:

When one is looking forward, the days of youth seem to stretch out along a shining path to forever. Once one is past them, though, the path behind contracts until, from the other end, it appears the merest garden walk, a few steps from the sheltering doorway of youth to the squalid dead-end street of fate. The beginning of a life journey is full of promise, and rarely is any destination forecast.

It was June of 1811; to Edgar Godolphin Lankin, the path ahead gleamed gold…

The night he met Susan he was as drunk as a young man should be after two bottles of claret and one of hock. But his mind was clearing, since he had cast up his accounts in the ornamental bushes on his way into Lady Phoenicia’s gala event in honor of the new Regent at her Mayfair home.

The air that night was crisp and light, fully as intoxicating as wine, and Lankin, in the company of another frivolous—if poorer—young man, was of a mind for mischief. Old cats and society dragons frowned in disapproval as Lankin and his friend lounged into the festivity, leering at exposed bosoms and surreptitiously patting bottoms in the most insolent manner. The fashion of the day for ladies was such that leering and patting, though uninvited, was rewarding. But after a half hour spent in such pleasantries, both were becoming bored.

“Lankin, let us get out of this place,” Felix Bellwether said, finally, after they had shocked their quota of old people.

Lankin was ready to go, for there were yet ancient watchmen to box and carriage horses to torment. But as fate would have it, he saw, that moment, descending the steps to the ballroom, (more…)

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Countdown | 17 Comments »

Love & Scandal

DonnaLea | May 20th, 2010

Love & Scandal: My Own Personal Odd Duck

Donna Lea SimpsonI am a historical romance author, and most readers know me as an author of Regency-era romances, or the ‘Awaiting’ series and ‘Lady Anne’ series, set in the Georgian era. Therefore, Love & Scandal, set in the Victorian era, is the ‘odd duck’ of my writing career, an interesting sidetrip down the byways of my mind. Not so odd, I suppose, when you consider I’ve read all of the Brontës, George Eliot, most of Charles Dickens, and lots of other Victorian novelists.

So, whence came my odd little duckie, waddling and clucking away? Well… once upon a time I read a fascinating book called “Dickens’ Fur Coat and Charlotte‘s Unanswered Letters: The Rows and Romances of England‘s Great Victorian Novelists” by Daniel Pool. It is a chatty, fascinating, vivid and thoroughly entertaining look at the world of the Victorian novel. Some of it was devoted to Charlotte Brontë, with an inevitable discussion of women authors of the times, and why they often chose to write under male pseudonyms, as Charlotte did, writing as Currer Bell. CB… same initials.

I got to thinking – as I sometimes do – what would have happened if a gentleman had decided to co-opt that male pseudonym, claiming he was the author? Or what if someone else named him the author, and he had nothing to do with it, but… he decided not to deny it. What would the woman do?Love & Scandal

Well, if you are feisty spinster/author Collette Jardinière you take the train to London, go directly to your publisher’s office, and demand he publish a statement in the press denying the rumors. And when you don’t get your way, you set out to find the rogue and demand that he set the record straight.

That, in a nutshell, is what Love & Scandal is all about. Collette, as Colin Jenkins, has written a scandalous bestseller, The Last Days of a Rake. It is the fictional biography of the last days of a Regency rake, as he tells his tale of seduction and betrayal, and it has scandalized Victorian England; even her majesty is not amused!

But a reporter from an infamous gossip rag (you know the type!) has confronted notorious rake and womanizer Charles Jameson, asking him point blank if he is the author, and instead of denying, Jameson said he couldn’t be bothered to deny it, because they wouldn’t believe him anyway. What do YOU think when someone says they ‘can’t be bothered’ to deny rumors? It’s human nature to assume the rumor is true, if they won’t say it isn’t.

So all of Victorian London is twittering – not in the modern parlance, of course, though they had their own ‘social networking’ – about Charles Jameson being Colin Jenkins. Jameson has his own his reasons for letting the gossips reign. He’s fascinated by the imperfect but compelling novel, The Last Days of a Rake. He wants to find ‘Colin Jenkins’, whomever the fellow is, and figures the misappropriation of the pseudonym will ‘out’ the author.

Collette and Charles are an odd pair; she’s a village spinster and he’s an infamous rake and scoundrel. But differences can spark desire, and desire ignites into passion. She is sensually awakened and experiences, in Charles’s arms, sensations and emotions she could not even imagine.

But will Collette tell him who she is? And will he believe her if she does? I’ll leave it up to readers to decide, on June 21st, Love & Scandal’s release date, if Collette and Charles belong together. ;-) Check back later for an excerpt of Love & Scandal, and for news on my other Carina project!

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Donna Lea Simpson, author of over 25 historical and historical/paranormal romance novels, adores Jane Austen and the Brontë novels and loves to hear from readers. You can find out more about her books at http://www.donnaleasimpson.com.

Donna blogs at http://donnaleasimpson.wordpress.com and can be found, most days on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/DonnaLeaSimpson!

Reminder: There are three ways to win every day! Commenting on this blog entry, will enter you to win a copy of Love & Scandal. Commenting on any of the Countdown entries will enter you into the big giveaway for a Carina Press promo prize pack. One winner at end of Countdown. Check out the Carina Press Facebook and Twitter pages for two other ways to win, too!

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Countdown | 22 Comments »