Jane does it with herself --Forbidden Shores contest!
I'm interviewing myself, and if you comment or ask me a question now through Thursday October 4 you can win a signed copy of Forbidden Shores.
Jane: Welcome to the Spiced Tea Party
Jane: Thanks, Jane, it's great to be here. Let me tell you about my book. It's an erotic historical romance called Forbidden Shores (Signet Eclipse) and it takes place in 1800 on a Caribbean island. It's about three people who are each in love with the one of the three who cannot love them back.
Jane: Ooh! A menage on the beach!
Jane: Uh. Not as such. Well, actually, yes. There is a threesome. They do do it on the beach. But there's more to the book than that. I started writing Forbidden Shores--it morphed through about thirty titles but it began as The Story of Miss O and then Chained--after reading Adam Hochschild's brilliant book Bury the Chains, the story of the English abolitionist movement. That man cannot write an inaccurate or inelegant statement--
Jane: You are such a literary tart--
Jane: Oh, shut up. Yes, as I was saying, Hochschild's book inspired me to write about people who were involved in the cause, which crossed boundaries of gender and class. Ordinary housewives boycotted sugar; Wedgwood made a special plaque that appeared on decorative items, jewelry, china. So my heroine Clarissa is a pro-abolitionist who was (literally) screwed by the movement--she's been exiled by her family and has decided since she can't be any more ruined, she might as well embrace ruination and become a courtesan. Unfortunately, her family have thwarted her plans by arranging her to go to a Caribbean island as a governess. So on the voyage there she gets to fool around with Hero #1, Allen Pendale, a disillusioned lawyer who's the odd one out in his family and has spent too much time cuckolding Bristol merchants.
Jane: [comment to break up long paragraph]. There's more than one Hero?
Jane: Hero #2 is a plantation owner, March.
Jane: Ick.
Jane: Precisely. One of the challenges of the book was to make a slaveowner seem sexy if not particularly sympathetic and also make it credible that Clarissa falls in love with him, although I've always felt that love is irrational and gets people into trouble--it's a catalyst before it heals. So Clarissa is in love with March, March is in love with Allen, and Allen is in love with Clarissa.
Jane: Oooh.
Jane: Yes, it is HOT HOT HOT with some stuff between Allen (grudging) and March (desperate and begging; he's not a man used to being thwarted), and Clarissa has the best time of all; so it's a very rocky triangle that falls apart when Allen discovers a family secret. And that's all I'm going to say. You'll have to read the book.
Jane: And you could win a signed copy of the book with your question or comment! Fire away.
24 comments:
Great interview. Forbidden Shores sounds like a great book.
I am so going to get this tomorrow!
congrats Jane!
I've been seeing this book all over on different sites. Looks like my kind of read! Good luck on the release.
Thanks, Crystal, Kate, and Tetewa--and please tell all your friends it's a dirty book.
Hi jane, was it hard to a transtion between regency romance, which is kind of sweet and something more sexual book like Forbidden shores?
Just watched the BBC production of Gaskell's "North & South", and this sounds like it has some of the aspects of N&S that I liked: the H/H have enough time to actually know each other (or else what's a long sea voyage for), the social issues are an integral part of the book, and the heroine sounds like she's a woman of her time without being a doormat (which some people inexplicably seem to think is the only appropriate persona for any women prior to the 20th C). I look forward to reading it soon.
It is true that I have seen a lot of publicity about your book :)
Jane that book really looks nice but the ménage à trois is not really something I would normally read.
Hi Jane, love the sound of Forbidden Shores! How long did it take you to write it?
Hi Jane,
I love the cover for your book. After reading the post "Ass-Bandits of the Caribbean (aka Forbidden Shores)" at Six Degrees of Sexy I had to come over and read your interview here. I'm looking forward to reading this dirty book.
I like what I'm reading about the book. Great press!
Hi Lily, Sue, Christyjan and everyone else with a question:
Nathalie, my regency romances aren't particularly sweet so it wasn't that much of a change. My first, Dedication (w/a Janet Mullany) was written as a single title and altho I had to cut down the word count the sex stayed--it was about a couple in their late 30s/early 40s who'd put in some practice! And The Rules of Gentility is a very sexy book I think, altho h/h don't have sex.
Susan, I am honored to be compared to Mrs. Gaskell, who is a writer I very much admire. I have trouble with the dialogue in N&S but I love Cranford and Wives and Daughters.
Lila, I hope you'll give my book a try but obviously not everyone is going to like it. I'm concerned that people know what they're getting into when they buy it--it IS an erotic romance, it does have m/m stuff, and now let me tell you about the dessert specials...
Jenny, I wrote about a third of the book in an earlier version before my editor asked me to set it in the Caribbean. In July 2006 she asked if I could finish it by the end of the year to publish in 2007, which I wanted to do (although I would have liked longer for research) because this year is the 200th anniversary of the British act of parliament banning the slave trade. So on and off about a year, I think.
So Jane, how did you find Jane as an interviewee...
very clever!
Can't wait to see it on the shelves.
I love your sense of humor. Great interview! Adding this book to my list.
My questions for you...
What is the one thing you've always wanted to do, but never had the courage to try?
Goody, goody, goody! I've been waiting for this book to come out! Delicious!
Jane, your wit has me intrigued.
Fun and witty interview, Jane! Forbidden Shores is definitely in the news, i.e. I'm hearing a lot about it. I'm hoping to get to a book store NEXT WEEK! to pick it up. (I'm thrilled about being able to get to a bookstore).
Seeley, Jane was very garrulous, I'm afraid. I had to keep editing her.
the one thing you've always wanted to do, but never had the courage to try? Wow, Kim, a lot of things, but taking singing lessons might be at the top of the list! I love music but I can't carry a tune.
Hi to Keziah, Marisa, and Sharon!
Great interview! This book sounds so good. Congrats on the release, Jane!
Great interview! Forbidden Shores sounds great!
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Congrats Jane. What a unique and wonderful book. Love the cover artwork which is beautiful. Interview was entertaining and informative. What is your favorite place to travel to?
Brilliant, jane! i especially loved how you told yourself to shut up! LOL. That's something i would do. Also, letting us into your thought process "to break up a long paragraph..." LOL.
You wanted a comment on the cover? Much more creative than The Pearl and sure to be a classic as well.
Ash a
Thanks Andrea and Anne.
Hmm. Favorite authors other than the Crumpet Strumpets:
Austen, Mrs. Gaskell, Anna Maxted, Nick Hornby, George Eliot, Jude Morgan, Lee Smith, Sarah Waters, Angela Carter, Mary Wesley.
Hi Ashlyn--it's interesting the comments I've had on the cover. I'd love to hear what you think of the cover after you've read the book!
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