I've been working on The Next Historical which has now so fundamentally changed from the days when I decided the working title should be The List, that every time I see that title I think What book is that?

So, from this day until I say different, The List is now officially The Next Historical (TNH)

The story now opens in Aleppo, Syria. I was toying with the notion of handling the story the way I did with the flashback chapters in Scandal but when I decided to write one to see if it worked, but mostly because I really really wanted to write the scene I had in mind, it turned out to be the real opening. We'll see how this holds up.

In other news, I'm up too late. OK, so that's not really news. But it's still true.

Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to email me about My Wicked Enemy. Lots of kind words make a writer feel good! Also, bookmarks are going out tomorrow. I have to buy more envelopes even after I found the missing box on the floor with a few envelopes left. I'll send the rest after I remember to buy more.

Oh, and don't forget! Time's running out to join my newsletter and be automatically entered in my Wicked Cool Contest. Go sign up!

What you get with the newsletter: automatic entry in contests, advance notice of releases, and a warm and fuzzy feeling for being so cool as to like my writing enough to be on my mailing list.

Off to bed.

Labels: bookmarks, Syria, The List, The Next Historical

Why, you ask? I shall tell you.

If you read yesterday's post, you know I finished the Revision Read Through That Would Not End yesterday. Yay! And today, I was going to buckle down and get going again on the next historical.

But first I had this little problem of a plot that might not be possible: I want my hero and heroine to be in Turkey in the early 1800's and I want them to get married under dire and dramatic circumstances. My train of thought has been going something like this:

There were lots of Christians in Turkey then so there are surely Christian churches there (yeah some pretty famous ones, I know!) But probably not the Church of England so the usual rules in Regency marriages aren't going to apply. They can't go back to England to hit up the Archbishop for a Special License and then go back to Turkey...

That train of thought died shortly thereafter.

So, where can these guys get married pretty much in the dead of night that would be legal enough to cause a problem when they're back in England later? Is there an Archbishop equivalent in Turkey? But if there is, I still can't have the hero trotting off to line up the paperwork and then going back -- Ok, bad guys, you can start again, I'm back and ready to thwart you! Thanks ever so for waiting.

Yeah, some questions to resolve, eh? Tonight, after I cleared away some stuff that had to get done first, I invoked the awesome powers of Google.
Dun dun da dun!!!!

Here are my Google search phrases:

• Christianity in Turkey in 1800


• British Marriages in Turkey in 1800

Da motherlode folks! Because one of the search results was an article about a marriage that took place at the British Consulate in Turkey in 1894. Ohmygod! Of course! They get married at the British Consulate.

So now my train of thought is like this:

Where the hell was the British Consulate in Turkey in the early 19th century? I can move this back to Constantinople if I have to but that would be seriously lame. Was there even a Consulate for sure and do I have to find out who the Consul was?

More awesome powers of Google.
twinkle twinkle twinkle

Here is my Google search phrase:

• British Consulate in Turkey in 1800

And this lead pretty much directly to a 1911 Encyclopedia about Aleppo, where the British Consulate was reopened in 1800. And get this! There was some fighting going on there. Is that perfect or what? Now, Aleppo is in Syria but who cares, this doesn't have to happen in Turkey plus it's described in the 1911 source as Asiatic Turkey. Wikipedia has this to say about Aleppo: The city remained Ottoman until the empire's collapse, but was occasionally riven with internal feuds as well as attacks of the plague and later cholera from 1823.


Seriously everyone. This could not be more perfect for my story. Internal feuds. Plus plauge AND cholera. Wow.

I am thrilled to bits.

And now going to bed.

Labels: Google Love, research, The List

Just a quick post. As many of you probably know, RWA has its national conference in San Francisco July 30 to August 2. Which is soon. Really soon. (Yay!)

I have the copyedits for Scandal (due date: July 31) Snort. Real drop dead last day: July 28, because I head down there the 29th since the Beau Monde Conference is the 30th.

Today I got the revision letter for His Wicked Witch or whatever it ends up being called. Argh! I've only given it a quick glance to make sure I wasn't being asked to write a completely different book. No. Very good, there!

And, of course there's the WIP and today I didn't get a chance to work during lunch because I worked through lunch which means 0 words today. Panic is setting in.

Right so I'm really busy and may not be blogging too much between now and July 29 when I will be blogging and twittering the conference. Hopefully on my iPhone...

For now, I'll be twittering more reliably than blogging because that's easier, shorter and faster than blogging. Also you can't get carried away and keep writing some big old longer than you intended post.

In Carolyn's perfect world copyedits and revisions are done by July 28.

Wish me luck.

Follow me on Twitter

Labels: copyediting, His Wicked Witch, Revisions, RWA Nationals, The List

I'm blogging early because I suspect I'll end up too tired later tonight. So, it's an early post.

In writing news, Scandal is being moved to February 09 from January which I am actually happy about. A February release is better. Holiday sticker shock is wearing off and there's Valentine's day. Romantic book for a romantic month. That totally works.

I have another review for My Wicked Enemy The reviewer picked a very intense scene as an opening excerpt-- No WAY am I showing it to anyone at work! -- but here's the review part:

Wow. This is powerful stuff and I don't like many paranormals. I may not understand every bit of it, for authors of paranormals tend to make up the rules as they go along (and why can't they list these rules and enlighten us?), but it held me captivated from the first page to the last. There are some pretty amazing characters in this story and I am hoping that we can read more of them in the future. Good going, Carolyn Jewel!

Donna Doyle, Romance Reviews Magazine

This will post in the August 2008 issue, so I can't give you a direct link yet. But that's a good review.

No, I am not performing stupid web tricks. My publisher sent the review to me.

In other writing news The List desperately needs a new name. There's no list in the story whatsoever. And speaking of new names, I changed some more names. My heroine's name is now Sabine. And my hero's late wife is named Camilla and before she didn't have any name at all. She was just, you know, dead.

Book Title, Book Title, Who's Gotta Book Title?

Not me. But the best title, the one I really like is The Philosopher's Daughter only that's never going to make it past marketing. But maybe I should just call it that because I like it.

What do you think?

Oh, and here's my current favorite line so far:

"If she's married, Foye," Crosshaven said, "I hope to God her husband is a neglectful ass and that she hates him soundly."

The reason it's my favorite so far, aside from being new and shiny cuz I wrote it today at lunchtime, is Crosshaven is talking to my hero, Foye, about the heroine, and Foye just happens to be married to her, which nobody knows. It's a secret marriage story!!

It's quite possible it won't be by the end, but it is right now, and speaking of which, I need to go write it.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, reviews, Scandal, The List

And not from allergies. There's so much smoke from fires in the area that the sky has been nothing but gray haze with a hint of smoke scent. Yuck. We had a pretty dry winter so the grass got dry(er) even faster than usual. Doesn't take but a spark to get things burning. Hopefully they'll get the fires under control soon.

The writing is going well enough. I had my first big (in effect) adjustment and today I went over chapters 1 and 2 to get that laid in. I've got 21K words so far.

My plot is emerging along with some unexpected, but cool, backstory. No List yet. I'm going to have to come up with another title.

Off to bed.

Updated to add: @marsphoenix is the most amazing Twitter feed EVER. It's all about the Mars Phoenix project, and really, this would be a great way to find out about Twitter. Really.

Labels: backstory, plotting sort of, The List, writing

All righty. My 'speriment worked. Some of you may know that I loooove to take photos, especially of flowers. I have a Flickr account and I post my photos there pretty often. They have a nifty feature where I can post a photo from Flickr to my blog, and hey! It worked! This rose is called Honey Dijon, and it's the most amazing color ever.




It's been so hot here lately that the roses are getting scorched. Sad, sad, sad. I'll have to go out tomorrow with the clippers and prune the dead or fried ones.

In other news, I have been E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. lately. Seriously exhausted. I missed the gym everyday except Monday because I needed that extra hour of sleep. Therefore, this morning I did Driveway Torture because I hate feeling like I'm turning into a slug. A big fat slug. I did OK and feel much better for having gotten some exercise. Even though it was too hot at 8:00am.

The writing is going pretty well, I think. Things are moving along and complexifying. I'm seeing my hero and heroine a little better every time.

In other, other news, today is my son's birthday party with his buddies. He'll be 13 on the 24th. He wanted me to make cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins and cookies. I made the cinnamon rolls and the boys pretty much gorged. They're filling and rich and sooo sugary buttery good. Better than birthday cake, if you ask me. When they're this age, you hardly have to supervise at all. My job was mostly to pass out food and drinks and point them to the bathroom. Not like when he was five. Then it's a whirlwind of never stopping action intervention hey don't do that! Come have cake until it's over and you're glad this only happens once a year. Back then it was send them outside with squirt guns and water balloons which was pretty fun. But this is good, too.

OK, back to work.

Labels: baking, birthday parties, roses, The List

Just a quickee post before I fall into bed. I hit my minimum plus a bit. Yes! And my Berkley editor sent me the initial cover for Scandal and boy is it gorgeous. There's one little tweak to do and then hopefully I'll have a cover to show off. It's hot. It's better than a clinch. It's totally my hero and heroine.

All done! Good night all.

What? What did you think I meant by that post title?

Labels: Book Covers, Scandal, The List

I'm working on The List, which I'm thinking of calling The Bride. Or maybe the Philosopher's Daughter. The List, I've decided is a terrible title. For this story.

Speaking of which, I changed my heroine's last name to Godard because Harris starting bugging me. A lot. Don't know why. I also changed my hero's name from Lysander something, Lord Starts-With-F to John Marrack, Lord Foye (Marquess of) Because, as it turns out, Lysander is not the right name for him. I'm not sure about Foye. Sometimes it seems cool and neato and other times it seems lame. Also, I thought he was another pure alpha-dude, but he's not. Don't mistake me, he's Alpha, but in a different way than other heroes I've written. I tried to fight it for a while but he kept acting all difficult and pissy so I finally gave up and let him be who he is. Group Hug everybody! and then things settled down and now I have some good ideas about what's up with him.

And Camilla, the heroine, well, I have some issues with her name because I have a Crosshaven, previously mentioned here as Lord Something which makes two C's, but I like them both so much! I'll let that set a bit. Once I let Foye be himself, Camilla defined herself further with an end result of I'm really excited about this story and how I'm starting to see it play out. Big sigh of relief. I'm learning not to be so stubborn with my writing. When it's bad, don't let the badness sit around waiting to be rescued by Erato or something like that. She doesn't care, and there's actually no god of Historical Romance waiting around to rescue bad writing. Bummer that.

It's late so I have to get to bed.

Labels: Book Titles, Names, The List, writing

Today I woke up early, and it was raining. So I went out and got some pics which was fun. Then I made myself poached eggs on toast and finished reading John LeScoart's The Hunt Club which I totally loved. Then I read Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady which I liked a lot. I did not perhaps love it, but that has more to do with the kind of Romances I love and the kind of Romance this is. As everyone has said, beautiful writing. I can't wait to read more from her. She's a major talent.

I've read some reviews of this book and I have to say that I'm now utterly convinced that some of the big on-line reviewers (I do NOT mean Amazon) are reading so fast they really have no business reviewing. One review of this book took issue with the hero for calling the heroine by demeaning diminutives. Only it wasn't the hero. He never once did that. Not once. In fact, this particular reviewer got so many things wrong there's no way she read this book carefully enough to give a review that should guide anyone.

Since I'm on the subject, I have to rant a bit about the awful cover for The Spymaster's Lady.
First off, the guy is just baring his chest there for no discernible reason. Very dumb. Look closely and let's count off all the things wrong with this cover.

1. Shirt that appears to have buttons (OK, this is a detail the author also got wrong Edited to add: Acutally, Jo Bourne was cool enough to email and let me know she'd written he pulled the shirt over his head, and that she was writing about the kind of shirt that had buttons to about mid-sternum, which totally did exist.). Men's shirts in the Regency did not have buttons down the front.


2. No waistcoat


3. A short jacket. Excuse me? In what time period have men ever worn sissy short jackets like that?


4. A belt. With a buckle. Suspenders, dear Art Department. No belts.


5. His shirt has a collar. Was someone thinking that it would be okay if we thought the shirt had a French collar? Mais non! No collared shirts in the Regency. Not even on the French themselves.


6. No cravat. Instead, there are ruffles on the sides of his inaccurate button front shirt.


7. A mutant belly button.

All of this would be tolerable if the guy didn't look like he should have on blue tights and a big red S on his chest. Sorry. I love Bourne's writing, but boy, she got gypped with the cover art. There's a step back which is actually more accurate in that he's wearing a waistcoat and doesn't look like he's using his x-Ray vision to see under Lois Lane's panties. But if you own this book, look carefully at the hand on the heroine's thighs. He's got six fingers. Eww!!!

If I have time tomorrow, I'll see if I can add a pic of that.

In writing news, I had a great idea about how to add some complexity to The List. Tomorrow I may start writing. I can't put it off much longer anyway.

Labels: Book Covers, reading, The List

Let me first say in a thoroughly heartfelt manner Thank God it's the weekend. Can I have a big old Weekends Rock! to that?



I've started on the next historical. At the moment I'm calling it The List but that is admittedly kind of lame. It's all I've got so far.

Been reading:

Finished Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It was darn good. Now I'm reading Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist which is really quite good so far. The narrative voice is odd and very intimate. Kind of hard to describe. The narrator is having a conversation with another person, but you only get the narrator's words, interpretation and interpolation of the conversation. The other person is a total black box so far. It totally works even when, perhaps especially when, it slips into present tense which as some of you may recall is like fingers down a chalkboard for me. Very deft.

Taking the son to see the Narnia movie today. With luck he'll wake up before noon.

I'm going to the bookstore to get more Sherman Alexie and maybe pick up another prize or two for the Wicked Cool Contest which you should enter.

Also, just as a side note, if you email me with a question or request for a bookmark or both, make sure you provide a valid email address and that you've added me to your list of approved email senders. Because I absolutely reply to all my emails which you will not believe if you send me a bad email and it bounces. I always feel bad when that happens, and it does. Also, I can't mail you a bookmark without a complete address. Despite the astounding powers of my mind, I can't quess your city state or name, which helps when addressing an envelope. And, if you're requesting from outside the US it helps if the address is in English. Usually I can figure out that Italia is Italy, but that doesn't mean the USPS will be as clever.

Okay, off to work.

Labels: contest, reading, The List