Anti-heroines

I blogged a while back about my fondness for imperfect characters. As I wrote, “I’ve always found flawed characters much more interesting than the more conventionally heroic sort. Growing up, Milady de Winter was my favorite character in The Three Musketeers (I thought Constance was boring), I couldn’t understand why Lucie Manette looked twice at Charles Darnay when Sydney Carton was around, I much preferred Mary Crawford to Fanny Price.” Sarah wrote to me recently following up on this, because she’s reading The Three Musketeers and getting to know the fascinating Milady de Winter. Sarah wrote, “I know I tend to prefer heroines who use their ‘feminine wiles’ - or sexuality - to achieve their own way, instead of resorting to the cliched ‘PC’ approach of typically male methods, such as physical violence, and Milady is the perfect example of a strong woman.”

As with so many classics, my first introduction to The Three Musketeers was my mom reading it out loud to me when I was quite small. I remember her describing the book before we read it and saying “It has a fascinating heroine–I mean villainess.” That’s a perfect way to describe Milady, because while she’s definitely an antagonist to d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, she’s a compelling, fascinating character.

 

The Complications of Friendship

In the comments to last week’s post (and thanks, everyone, for the great discussion!), Cate mentioned that while she had come to have more of an affinity with Mélanie on rereads, “I’m still not sure I would trust her as a friend, but I probably wouldn’t have a choice. I’d find her too interesting not to spend time with her, if she would deign to allow me.”

My first reaction was to be surprised and think “that’s interesting, I’d certainly trust Mélanie as a friend.” Then I re-examined it, because truth to tell it’s a question I’d never really considered. Would I trust her? Probably, because she’s very charming, and I suspect I’d never know what was going on in her head or what she really up to :-). Would I be wise to trust her? More difficult to answer. Mélanie’s very loyal. But as Cate said “She’s loyal, but she, like everyone, has a hierarchy of loyalties and she’s not likely to be changed.” And she can be quite ruthless when she makes up her mind what she needs to do.

 

Unexpected Resonances

One of my favorite holiday activities is going to the movies. I love movies in any case, and it’s particularly fun to go with friends and family in the midst of holiday celebrations, especially with all the movies that open at the end of the year as part of the lead up to the various awards. In and around shopping, wrapping, card writing, and entertaining, I managed to go to quite a few movies in the past few weeks. My favorites were Atonement and Sweeney Todd, which were both quite haunting and wonderful. I blogged about them last week on History Hoydens.

As I mentioned in that blog, watching the opening scene of Sweeney Todd, I was struck by the similarity to the opening scene of Beneath a Silent Moon. For a fleeting moment, I could almost have been watching a movie of my own book (well, we can all dream :-). Sweeney Todd opens with Sweeney returning to London by ship. His views on London are in sharp contrast to those of the man who has rescued him, the idealistic young sailor Anthony. In Sweeney’s words:

There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit
and it goes by the name of London.

 

In Praise of Series

One of the things I love about blogging and the follow-up comments is how one topic can lead to another. That happened when the discussion on my blog last week about Disneyland and world building led to a discussion of book series (not so very far offtopic, as one of the things I love about series is the rich world building they allow for). A number of my favorite books have always been series, going back to when I was a child. I loved the Oz books–I liked a lot of the later books even better than “The Wizard of Oz”. My mother scoured used books stores and interlibrary loan trying to get the whole series. I moved on to Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. Traveling back and forth to Washington D.C. with my parents on business trips, I’d read two Nancy Drew mysteries each way. I loved the Georgette Heyer books that were connected (”These Old Shades”, “Devil’s Cub”, “An Infamous Army”), and I always wished her characters ran into each other more often.

 

History Hoydens Interview

Just a quick note to say I’m interviewed on the History Hoydens site today about “Secrets of a Lady”. Do stop by and ask a question!

Cheers,
Tracy

 

Fog City Divas Interview

Just a quick note to say that I’m guest blogging on the Fog City Divas website today. Monica McCarty interviewed me. She asked some fabulous questions, which made me think about Charles and Mélanie and “Secrets of a Lady” in new ways. Stop by and check out the interview–and be sure to leave a comment. I’ll be giving away an autographed copy of “Secrets of a Lady” to one commenter.

Cheers,
Tracy

 

“Secrets of a Lady” booksigning report and new photos uploaded to the Gallery

“Secrets of a Lady” was released on July 31, the same day my good friend Monica McCarty’s first book, “Highlander Untamed” (a fabulous historical romance set in early seventeenth century Scotland) hit the shelves. Monica and I celebrated with a booksigning at the Borders at Stonestown, in San Francisco. It was so much fun! Michelle Walker and the rest of the staff couldn’t have been nicer or more welcoming.

 

New Video Clip and Upcoming Interview on Risky Regencies

With the release of “Secrets of a Lady” fast approaching, this seemed a good time to post a video clip on the research I did for the book. Also, this Sunday, July 22nd, I’ll be interviewed on the wonderful Risky Regencies site. Do stop by and ask me questions (I have visions of sitting by the computer all day with no one to talk to :-). Besides, it’s a fabulous site for anyone who likes the Regency era and novels with a sense of adventure.

The release date for “Secrets of a Lady” is July 31st, which is also the release date for my friend Monica McCarty’s first book, a wonderful historical romance set in earl seventeenth-century Scotland (how cool is it that our books are being released on the same day?). Monica and I are doing a booksigning together at the Border’s in Stonestown in San Francisco from 12:30-2:00 on the 31st. If you live in the Bay Area and are able to stop by, we’d love to meet you!

Cheers,
Tracy

 

New Video - Theatre & my books

Since last Monday’s Dear Reader and Fraser Correspondence were about the theatre, this seemed like a good time to post the video clip about the influence of theatre on my writing. I’ll be back Monday with a new Fraser Correspondence and a longer Dear Reader blog.

Cheers,
Tracy