Lauri Robinson: The Roaring Twenties

When my editor gave me the go-ahead to write a mini-series set during the roaring twenties, I was elated. That era implemented so many changes—technology advancements in transportation, radio, and movies; cultural changes with more people living in cities than on farms; and social changes, especially for women. And, yes, Prohibition. The Volstead Act instituted a time where most every American broke the law, and paved a way for the outlaws of the Wild West to become highly motivated and well-organized associations of gangs and mobsters.

But not all who ‘dabbled’ in the bootlegging business were hard-core criminals.

I chose to set my stories in my home state of Minnesota because of the local history. The growing season here is short, and in the late 1800’s the University of Minnesota had created a corn derivative that did extremely well in the area. They named it Minnesota 13 and during World War l, farmers bought up surrounding properties as the demand for corn grew. However, once the war ended, so did the demand. Searching for ways to feed their families, many of those hardworking farmers discovered Minnesota 13—the corn—created a smooth whiskey that soon took on the same name. It could be brewed in barns, sheds, basements, and in many cases, the kitchen. Minnesota 13—the whiskey—became so popular that during prohibition it was shipped around the world much like the corn had years before. I used that bit of information to create the Nightingale family, consisting of four daughters, and their powerful father, Roger Nightingale, who had amassed wealth bootlegging Minnesota 13 whiskey.

A bit more local history I chose to focus on was about the gangs and mobsters out of Chicago who had summer homes and hide outs in Minnesota. Researching for these books was as fun as writing them. A friend and I took a field trip to the White Bear Lake area. The curator of the historical society there had maps, pictures, newspaper articles, and an abundance of other information she readily shared, confirming that was the perfect place for Nightingale’s Resort.

My husband and I visited an old car museum where the owner pulled aside the ropes and let me climb in cars of the era to substantiate just how small they were back then, and we took a weekend trip to a resort on the North Shore that claimed Al Capone had hid out in a fish house on Lake Superior an entire winter. My favorite part of research for these books was the exhibit put on by the Minnesota Historical Society. Their feature included a Bootlegger’s Ball. Dressed as flappers and gangsters, several family members joined me in a night of fun and learning. There were reconstructed Speakeasies, cocktails that had been designed during the Twenties to disguise the taste of homebrew alcohol, and a Charleston dance off among the many exhibits. 

Of course you can’t have bootleggers without Prohibition Agents, and I read numerous books and websites concerning the increase in government to combat the somewhat ‘racy’ environment and conflicts brought on by the Volstead Act—which was named after the Minnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead who was ousted shortly after the act was implemented.

All in all, I had a tremendous amount of fun researching and writing The Daughter’s of the Roaring Twenties stories, which include, The Runaway Daughter, The Bootlegger’sDaughter, The Rebel Daughter, and The Forgotten Daughter.

I’ll give away an Epub or PDF ebook version of The Runaway Daughter next Monday to a commenter who tells me what they love most about that era!  

Connect with Lauri: 

www.laurirobinson.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/authorlaurirobinson

Undoing the Undone giveaway -- Michelle Styles

This month I have my first Harlequin Historical Undone out in the US and the UK -- The Perfect Concubine.

Undones are different to the full length historicals that I normally write. First of all they are much shorter about 10,000 -15,000 words and secondly because of their length, they are far more intense and much more tightly focused.  They are also far more on the sexual fantasy side of historical, rather than it could possibly happen. These are stories which are meant to be downloaded and read in an afternoon or over a lunch period. The Undones are e-book exclusives but the more popular ones are put into a print anthology of five. The anthologies have proven to be a successful part of the regular Harlequin Historical series line up.

The Harlequin Historical editorial team is also using the Undones to explore different time periods, situations and other cutting edge themes.  They also are also debuting new authors in Undone. For example, new Regency author Elaine Golden has her first Undone out with me -- An Imprudent Lady. And having read it, I know that Elaine is  someone to watch. A real star in the making. Her second Undone comes out next month and is linked to this one.

The editors are also very open to submissions from all time periods and are eagerly searching for the next star. The guidelines are on the eharlequin website. You would be submitting a full manuscript.

For me The Perfect Concubine was a chance to revisit a minor character from Sold & Seduced and give him the Happy Ending I thought he deserved. It absolutely stand alone but I had great fun revisiting that world. It was also my first chance to write short novella rather than a full length novel and so proved a steep learning curve. Apparently I approached it far too much like a novel rather than a short story to begin with but I did make the adjustments.

GIVEAWAY
UPDATE: I  have drawn the winner -- kissinoak and have sent her an email. Many thanks to everyone who entered.

Michelle Styles writes in a wide variety of time periods. Her next full length book --Breaking The Governess's Rules will be published in the UK in March. Visit michellestyles.co.uk to learn more about Michelle's books.

Baby. . . It's Cold Outside!! - Terri Brisbin

The weather outside is positively frightful here in southern NJ -- the temps have been in the low 30s this past week and the winds have been howling. I had to break out my gloves and scarf and even found a nice, long winter coat. The forecast is calling for even colder temps coming over the weekend with possible snow (SNOW!! though not like last year as seen in the photo!) So, though the shortest day of the year and the cold are coming, I've decided to reverse one of those quaint customs. Instead of 'Christmas in July', I'm going to think 'Summer in December'!




The summer here was extreme -- relentless days of temps above 90 and humidity that made you feel as though you were always wet. To make things even more uncomfortable, we spent late July and early August in the steambath called Orlando FL with temps that hovered near 100 and, well, 200% humidity! At least it felt like that. Of course, I was able to take photos like this one even on those sweltering days....see everyone in their shorts?? I spent days and days in t-shirts/tanks/shorts/bathing suit because it was just too darn hot...some days were too hot to stay outside



So, when winter is upon us and the days of summer are long past and far off, what do you remember to keep you warm? Are you a summer person or a winter person? Would you rather play in the surf or in the snow? Do you long for one while living in the other? Post a comment and I have some books to share with 2 people....picked at random from the comments.


Terri is hard at work on her next Harlequin Historical UNDONE (sexy
short story) and her next Harlequin Historical novel. She's also participating in the HH Authors' Holiday Giveaway - a month-long gift extravaganza with daily prizes and a Kindle 3G as a grand prize. Visit her website contest page for more info - http://www.terribrisbin.com/contest.php/contest.php

And Terri wants to wish everyone a very Happy Holiday season and a Merry Christmas. I hope everyone's New Year is healthy, happy and successful, too!

In Search of Serendipity

I am always amazed at the serendipitous moments in real life and in writing my stories. Many, many times, strange 'coincidences' happen and things work out in mysterious ways -- much like Robert the Bruce finding and watching the spider in that cave in Ireland when he was hiding. According to legend, it was observing the spider's relentless efforts to weave its web and inspire the Bruce onto bigger and better things....(If you magnify this photo, there's an itsy bitsy spider in the corner of one of the panes of stained glass in the Abbey at Dumfernline...)

Anyway...I believe that these moments happen and make things/my stories better. When I was writing my novella THE CLAIMING OF LADY JOANNA, I decided to use evil Prince. . er. . King John as a character but the story had to be set in Springtime in England. Well, heck, I said, as I wrote the novella and researched it as I was writing it. Amazingly, I discovered that the ONLY year King John actually held an Easter court in England was. . . the year in which I set my story!

Those kinds of things have happened lots of times in my life and my writing. Serendipity. Moments and events that I couldn't have planned but are special.


When I'd planned my first trip to Scotland, something I'd dreamed of for years and years, I ended up in the hospital. I begged my doc to let me go (once they couldn't find anything wrong with me) and I ended up joining the rest of the group a day late. Because of that, I flew to Scotland on my own, took a train across and into the Cairngorms and into a small town called Pitlochry. I also met a number of people I would never have met and was even helped from the train station by a nice young man who showed me around the town and found a ride for me (on a Sunday when no taxis were available). Pure serendipity.

One of the best examples of serendipity occurred during my first trip to Scotland when I stayed on with 2 friends - Sue-Ellen Welfonder and Lisa Trumbauer - to travel out to the Highlands. As we were on our way back to Glasgow, we passed by the sign for this castle I'd never heard of: Dunstaffnage. So, as Sue-Ellen fills me in on the history of it, we toured, climbed onto the battlements, walked the acres around it, all the time never dreaming that it would turn into a romance novel for me a few years later.

So, what's this all about? Well, I'm planning another trip to Scotland and I am in search of serendipity. I'll be driving all over the Highlands, visiting the islands and lots of places in between. And I'm hoping that something will click, something will ping, something from the cosmic universe to point me in a direction or inspire me. I suspect, with scenery like this-- -- it will happen!


Terri






While Terri is busy planning the trip, her latest Harlequin Historical - THE CONQUEROR'S LADY - is hitting the shelves. After beginning the story in her HH Undone, A NIGHT FOR HER PLEASURE in June, the Knights of Brittany return as Giles find his newly-betrothed wife marrying someone else! Visit Terri's website for more information about her upcoming novels and novellas.. www.terribrisbin.com

(okay - yesterday in work, we were talking about Elton John's TINY DANCER and how it was sung in a movie that none of us could remember; as I'm writing this blog, I changed the channels and came upon ALMOST FAMOUS as the whole group in the bus is singing along with TINY DANCER! Serendipity in action!)

Size Matters. . . .

....or does it? LOL -- did that get your attention? Sorry, I just couldn't help myself...

Well, it does matter and I discovered how important it is when writing the short story that became A NIGHT FOR HER PLEASURE, my upcoming short online story from Harlequin Historical Undone. I've written very long 105,000 word romance novels and shorter 75,000 word ones, too. I've written several 20-25,000 word romance novellas. I thought it would be difficult in trying to go from writing a full-length story to a shorter one -- about 1/3 the size and I was right. It WAS tough to do.

I mean -- if I have about 300-350 pages to tell a whole story, I can add lots of details, lots of backstory, lots buildup and lots of love. In writing a novella, there's only about 100-120 pages so many details and backstory has to go. The love has to be there, because it's a romance, but it must happen faster and be more intense in many ways -- so it's a different pacing and different level of tension. But, I still enjoyed writing those novellas.

This HH Undone was something even more different for me. Instead of a whole story, happening over weeks or months, or a novella, happening over days or weeks, I decided this short story would happen in one day! Yes, one day. Did you hear the pressure as I wrote that? Actually, an experienced writing friend told me to think about a novel being the story of a lifetime, a novella being the story of an incident, and a short story, well, less than that. She suggested that to make the romance work the couple in a novella had to have met before and that for a short story, there has to be a good level of conflict and interest already at work between the characters.

Hmmmmm....sounds like a plan, doesn't it? Well, it worked! Instead of planning out a plot that covered weeks or months I chose one that happened on one day - a special day - a wedding day. Instead of choosing characters who were strangers to each other, I chose a man and a woman who'd just married each other. Instead of looking at the big picture, I zoomed in on a particular situation - this one was loosely-based on the classic story- A Gift of The Magi by O.Henry. And the result? IMHO - a fast-paced, sexy short romance story that tells of the efforts of a newly couple to be the perfect spouse their partner needs or wants.

So, does size matter to you? Do short stories have enough time to build the romance? Are novellas enough or not? Are novel-length romances just perfect? (I'm feeling like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears now! LOL!) What do you think?

I'll send a small prize to one lucky person who tells me about their favorite length and why it works for them. Let me know!

Terri


Terri is awaiting the online release of her first Harlequin Historical Undone short story on June 1st -- it will introduce her new Harlequin Historical trilogy - The Knights of Brittany - Born to conquer and seduce! Oh my! Visit my website for more info - www.terribrisbin.com