Guest Author -- Allison Chase

Originally from New England, historical author Allison Chase grew up with a deep appreciation for the rich history of her surroundings, and admits that, "If living in the past is a bad thing, then I've been bad all my life!" She and her family love to travel, especially throughout the British Isles and Ireland, and she's never happier than when exploring historic sites such as castle ruins, ancient abbeys, or the rambling gardens of old country manors. She lives in sunny, warm South Florida with her husband and two daughters. Her latest book, Most Eagerly Yours (see my review here) is the first in her new series, Her Majesty's Secret Servants. Please welcome Allison to The Romance Dish.

I’m so happy to be here at The Romance Dish today! Thank you, Gannon, for inviting me and for that really nice review of MOST EAGERLY YOURS a few weeks ago. :)

When we think of historical romance, we often think of feisty heroines – buxom, vivacious vixens whose seductive powers can bring an alpha nobleman to his knees. But a heroine doesn’t have to be loud or intractable or particularly well-endowed to get her way. Some use much more subtle means to wield their power, ensnaring the hero with little more than a soft word and a significant look. That’s assuming, of course, that they possess…

A Certain Spark

I have heard it said that when Prince Charles decided to marry Diana, it was in large part due to her apparently quiet, compliant nature. He had always loved Camilla but couldn’t be with her (well, turns out he could have), so he chose a wife who wouldn’t have the gumption to interfere in his affairs. His mistake was to confuse shyness with lack of spirit. Oh, wasn’t the joke on him! Diana had, as this particular royal biographer put it, an inner spark that refused to be doused. She possessed an inherent sense of self-worth that told her she deserved better, and that she would NOT accept a pat on the head and slink quietly off into a corner.

Diana’s story reminds me a little of another royal blunder, earlier in history…

When I first started researching the Victorian Age for my new series, Her Majesty’s Secret Servants, I didn’t know a lot about Queen Victoria herself. For instance, I didn’t know she grew up relatively poor, in cramped apartments amid shabby furnishings and threadbare rugs. Since in her early years she wasn’t expected to inherit the throne, her household income was minimal and her illustrious uncles – George IV and the future William IV basically forgot about her most of the time.

But her mother, along with the comptroller of their household, John Conroy, saw the very real possibility that Victoria might be queen someday, so they kept the child under their strictest control, intending to make her so physically and emotionally dependent on them that they would someday be the real power behind the throne.

Ah, but “the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry…” What those ill-fated co-conspirators failed to recognize was the fierce spark inside that little girl – a fire in her belly that refused to be extinguished. Once Victoria did assume the crown, the first thing she did was banish Conroy from her court and relegate her mother to rooms far, far from the royal apartments in Buckingham Palace. That’s my girl! It makes me want to stand up and cheer out loud!

When I think of strong heroines, it isn’t an ability to level a man twice their size with a well-aimed karate chop, it’s having the confidence to know who they are and what they want, and the brains to out-think anyone who would hold them back. It’s about integrity, self-assurance, and courage.

That’s why when I came up with my new series, Her Majesty’s Secret Servants, I knew young Victoria would make such a wonderful secondary character and a catalyst for the action of the stories. My Victoria knows who she is and what she needs, and she knows she can depend on her childhood friends, the Sutherland sisters, to help her achieve her goals.

The sisters, Laurel, Ivy, Holly and Willow, are kick-butt heroines, not because they posses superpowers or can wield weapons, but because they each have unique talents they know how to use, and because they all have that inner spark to give them courage and drive them to achieve their goals.

In the book one, MOST EAGERLY YOURS, we learn that the sisters themselves are threatened by a mysterious secret from their past that puts them in uncertain danger. They soon realize that their quiet country upbringing was an effort by their uncle to protect them from those dangers, but as Ivy declares in book two, OUTRAGEOUSLY YOURS (December 2010), “Seclusion didn’t make us any safer. The danger was still there, waiting…” These ladies aren’t stupidly throwing themselves into perilous situations, but neither are they about to surrender their hard-won independence or their beloved London Readers’ Emporium, or turn their backs on their queen, to return to the safety and tedium of a sheltered existence.

In MOST EAGERLY YOURS, the eldest sister, Laurel, is the first to be called to the queen’s service…

The Queen is threatened by her jealous cousin, George Fitzclarence, who is known for speaking treason. She asks Laurel to pose as a wealthy widow and use her charms to win George’s trust, then find out what he is might be plotting. Laurel is prepared for the risks of acting a part, but not for the formidable obstacle she encounters in the Earl of Barenforth--George’s friend and a notorious rake, whom Victoria has warned her to avoid...

An undercover agent for the Home Office, Aidan Phillips, Earl of Barensforth, is on the trail of a financial hoax involving alchemy, murder...and George Fitzclarence. When a lovely young widow wanders into his path and turns his well-laid plans on end, he senses she is hiding something. Aidan is no stranger to seduction, or to the wiles of beautiful women. And he intends employing a few wiles of his own to uncover the lady’s secrets...

Most of us at one time or another have had to stand up for ourselves when no one else would. What was the hardest battle you’ve ever had to wage, and what were the results?! I’ll choose a random commenter to receive a copy of MOST EAGERLY YOURS.

Hugs to all,
Allison

http://www.allisonchase.com/
http://www.allisonchase.wordpress.com/
You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace!

Guest Author -- Allison Knight

After teaching school for many years, and loving it, author Allison Knight decided that writing happy-ever-after stories appealed, especially when she knew she could do a bit better than some of the romances she read. In her own words, Allison "loves creating characters and then making their lives miserable until getting to the happy-ever-after part". We are happy to have her dishing with us today as she weighs in on e-Publishing versus Print Publishing. Please welcome Allison to The Romance Dish!

With the advance of the internet, many authors wonder, ‘Is e-publishing for me?’ And it’s a legitimate question. Before you decide there are facts you need to consider.

Before you submit to an e-publisher, you have to have a finished book. That makes sense because an e-publisher needs to know how many words are in your manuscript. And there is also the little known fact that some people write a great beginning, but can’t finish a book. Then there is the time factor to consider. No matter the stories out there, most of the big print publishers look at a proposal and have many steps to go through before the decision is made to buy the book. It takes time, as much as two years. So you have time to finish the book.

I’ve mentioned time. With most e-publishers we’re talking weeks, perhaps two or three months before a decision to buy is made. That’s quite a difference from the one to two years I’ve mentioned with big print publishers.

I have to mention postage costs. Many of the major print publishers want a hard copy of your work. Only a few editors insist on e-mail, so you’re dealing with the cost of postage. It’s a tax deduction if you file taxes in the United States, but it’s an expense you have to consider. And mailing a full 90,000 word manuscript costs money. With e-publishers everything is handled over the internet, so you have your internet expense, which you probably would have anyway.

I’ll pause here and mention something called vanity publishing and POD. Vanity publishing is when you pay to have your work published. It’s given the name because, let’s face it, the reason you want the book published is a boon to your personal feelings. You want your name in print, or you want the information you’ve research available with your name attached. The new electronic machines available to print books at once, POD (Print On Demand) make it all possible. But I contend you don’t want to have to pay to have someone to buy your hard work.

Everyone wants to talk about “Money”. With a print publisher, you are offered an advance against royalties, if they decide after a year or two that they want your book. However, If you don’t finish the book, they want the money back.

Let’s say they decide to buy your book, you have your advance in two, three or four installments, then the book is released. You wait for the first royalty check. And surprise, surprise. After they subtract the amount paid in the advance, they withhold anywhere from a fourth to half for something called reserves. This is what the most people don’t know about print publishers. Their business model, especially with paperbacks, says they can print so many copies, but if the copies don’t sell in a month or two, the bookstore can rip the cover from the book, throw away the rest, return the cover to the publisher and get what they paid for the book returned to them. The story is a bit different with trade paperbacks or hard copies, but they don’t print many of them. So after the advance, you wait a while, sometimes a long while for whatever money the book nets. Also there is the percentage of royalties on each copy. Most digital publishers pay three to four times the amount of percentage when compared to a major print publishers.

I have to mention the cost of buying an e-book compared to a print book. E-books are much cheaper. They don’t involve print expenses, paper and distribution costs. You don’t have to spend money on gas to go to the store to buy the book or pay the shipping costs if you order the book from an online store. If you have a cell phone with internet connection, you probably can read the book on you phone, or on your computer unless you splurge and buy a reader.

Which brings up distribution. No one can deny the major publishers have a lock on bookstore and chain store distribution. But with the internet and more and more place available to purchase digital reading material the means of distribution are slowly changing. No matter the method of publication, an author must promote his or her work. Again the internet seems to be the most effective means of communication.

One last point. With e-publishing, you have your book available for a long, long time. Several of my original e-published books are still available on the internet. As long as the publisher and I agree the books can be bought they can be purchased. If you like one of my books, others are available for sampling. But not least is the fact that with e-publishing your book can be sold worldwide without waiting for a foreign company to buy rights and translate.

So there you have it. The reasons I like being an e-published author. And yes, I do have the credentials to compare. My first six books were purchased and printed by a major print publisher. My next ten books are e-published book. I plan to have all the rest of my literary endeavors also available in digital format.

Thank you for dishing with us today, Allison! Readers, what are your thoughts on e-Publishing versus Print Publishing? And do you have any questions for Allison?


What upcoming releases does Allison have coming up? In March, she has a gothic short story called The Haunting at Hastings Hall, part of the Shadowed Hearts Series. Here's a blurb....

Late at night, a ghostly light announces, "Find the will." The voice sounds like Aunt Phoebe - but they buried her that morning.

As Ellie Parker searches for the missing document, she knows her time in her adopted home will soon come to an end. She'll have to leave when her step-cousin inherits the property.

The husband of the step-cousin insists he's interested in Ellie, not his wife, and the young doctor who cared for her dying aunt also wants to spend time with her. So, why are the men pursuing her? Was her aunt really poisoned as the doctor says and what will happen if she doesn't find the will?

And August brings the sequel to her award-winning novel, Heartsong, titled Battlesong....

Their marriage begins with a lie. Tricked into wedding young Laren Blair, the daughter of a Scottish laird, Arthur ap Brynn Ffrydd, an English baron, abandons her at his keep. When he finally returns six years later she has won the affection of his people but all he sees are the changes she has made. Their battles begin.

She fears her life will be as miserable with Arthur as it was with her cruel father. He envisions losing his property to her Scottish clan. As they learn to tolerate each other, desire draws them together. When Laren is kidnapped and Arthur is wounded in battle they realize they love each other. Reunited, can their love withstand the strain of another lie?

For more information about Allison, check out her website and her blog!