I won!

There have been daily contests over on Kate Walker’s blog in celebration of her 50th book (though the length of time this celebration has been going on makes you think Kate will have written her 100th by the time we all get done dancing in the streets — or swimming in the case of UK writers). And earlier this week, I won one!

This is particularly cool because the contest I won had as its prize, Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange. Amanda, who has written a number of straight regencies, has also created a sort of sub-genre with her diaries written from the point of view of literary heroes. She has written Mr Darcy’s Diary, and Mr Knightley’s Diary, and Captain Wentworth’s Diary. And she has Edmund Bertram’s diary in the works — or maybe even finished.

What a great idea!

And what a treat to get to get inside each hero’s head. I can hardly wait for Mr Darcy to swim across the pond — or fly across in this case — so I can read his innermost thoughts.

The other cool thing about this is that I won by telling who my favorite hero was. Literary hero. Get your mind out of the towel!

And I had to do a lot of long hard thinking about this as you might imagine. It’s not easy to narrow down a lifetime’s worth of work and come up with one. Well, in fact, I couldn’t.

I came up with three. (Besides Mr Darcy and Captain Wentworth who seemed to have cornered the market).

Mine were Luke Turner from Lisa Gregory’s The Rainbow Season, and two of Georgette Heyer’s wonderful sardonic gentlemen, the Marquis of Alverstoke from Frederica and Max Ravenscar from Faro’s Daughter.

It was Max that won the contest for me. Amanda loves him, too.

So thank you, Max.

I suggested she write your diary, too. But she reminded me that you are not out of copyright. Sigh. I can only wish.

In the meantime, I’ve put the TBR pile on hold while I go back and re-read your wonderful book!

One really nice thing about being “between books” (sort of) is that the To-Be-Read pile both shrinks and grows.

While it might be nice to see it getting smaller, there are always good books coming along that make it taller. And at least I get to actively do something about it. I contribute books to it — and I even read a few and am enriched by enjoying other writers’ creativity.

As Betina Krahn won the RITA this year in the Short Historical category for The Book of True Desires — and since Betina has never written a book I didn’t enjoy — I decided to start with that one. It was delightful. It was a Victorian romp — a combination of a sort of Amelia Peabody tackles Mexico story accompanied by a butler who might moonlight as Indiana Jones (except he was something of a botanist-chemist as well).

Give characters like that to Betina and prepare to be enchanted. I was prepared. And I was enchanted. Loved every bit of it.

And that led me to digging back into two of Betina’s older books that have been on my TBR pile for a while — The Husband Test and The Wife Test.

Having gone to school with my share of nuns, I was already smiling before Sister Eloise of The Husband Test got on the page. But when she and Peril tangled, I didn’t want it to stop. Wonderful story, Betina. Sorry I let it languish on the TBR pile for so long! Now I have The Wife Test to spend the next few days with. Really looking forward to it.

Also recently finished Julia Quinn’s new book, The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, which I enjoyed very much. Missed all those Bridgertons, though.

And I have Barbara Hannay’s RITA book, Claiming His Family, to read, followed by all three of Kate Hardy’s “Posh Docs” mini-series. They arrived — straight from Kate — in the post today, and it was all I could do to resist (well, I peeked at Charlie and I’m hooked. I’m just refusing to let myself read anymore until I finish Betina’s books and Barbara’s.

What books have you read recently that you would recommend? I’d love some recommendations. Might not get to them right away, but I’m sure to get there eventually.

When I’m not reading — or cleaning my house, which needs it after The Invasion — I’m working on Seb’s synopsis. Have been listening to some of the music.

Found some good resource people. Making up questions I need the answers to.

Filling my box.

Have you seen Kate Walker’s blog today?

Hunkthighs and Shoulderman, Anne Gracie’s wonderful “romantic?” heroes have made an appearance in honor of her 50th book.

She is rightly chuffed at their arrival, as well she should be. They were the darlings of the M&B authors’ loop — our mascots actually, while Anne was with us there. And since she is no longer there, I must say I’ve missed them.

They have occasionally written me emails. Did you think my only correspondent was A Cat? Think again. They even sent me a copy of their book. You didn’t know they had a book? They do. Wonderful book. Wonderful “heroes.”

Speaking of romantic heroes, I’m about 3/4 of the way through a very long synopsis of Seb and Neely’s book. By the time I get it finished they will probably have 10,000 words that I’ll never use again. But I hope it will make them come alive for me when I most need them to — in the book!

I’ve never found it easy to write a synopsis, but if I think of it as discovering the emotional throughline of the story it comes more readily. I am less stumped by the “what” that is going to happen than by “how they are going to feel” about it and each other at any given time. That seems to work.

I remember writing the synopsis for The Eight Second Wedding and sending it to Barbara Bretton who said basically, “I get it now. They meet. He gets hit in the head. They go down the road together. He gets hit in the head. They live happily ever after.”

And I said, “Um, yeah. That’s about it.”

What happened in the middle of the book was a mystery to me until I actually wrote it. I discovered last night a bit more of what is going to happen in the way of “events” in Seb and Neely’s book. That might make it easier to write than Flynn and Sara’s was.

I do think I’ve avoided the four month walk from the apartment to the cafe on the corner, which plagued me with them. For one thing, I moved the cafe — and the city in question. And these aren’t the same people. Good thing, too.

What are some good San Francisco tunes? Besides I Left My Heart In San Francisco, I mean. Since neither of them is leaving SF, the song doesn’t apply.

I think I might need a bit of musical inspiration — and I’m woefully lacking in song knowledge. I need something funky for Neely — maybe a little “folksy” or a little “Grateful Dead”ish. Oddly I think Seb may prefer heavy metal. It drowns out the interference in his life.