Desperately Searching For A Complicated Heroine

Congratulations to October’s Corset winner, Darlene…and thank you all for the wonderful suggestions of books and authors. My kindle library has grown by leaps and bounds with all the samples I’ve added. Now if I could just find time to read them!

I’ll be posting November’s Corset in the next few days but in the meantime, please feel free to add further recommendations. I greatly appreciate them all!

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I wouldn’t be an author of Historical Romance Novels if I didn’t absolutely love to read Historical Romance Novels.

I adore it all. Westerns with an outlaw wounded in body and soul. Regencies with spunky heroines and devilish rakes. Gilded tales of American heiresses and fortune hunting English aristocrats. Steampunk stories with vampires. Victorian era fairy tales. Medieval knights saving damsels in distress. Or damsels in distress saving Medieval knights, for that matter. If it’s well-written, the characters multi-dimensional and the story nicely paced, I’ll read it. Sometimes over and over again.

But like any fan of the Historical Romance genre, my mood determines the type of story I crave at any given time. And my moods can be fickle, stubborn and downright impossible to please.

Sometimes I want pure romance, sweet and light and humorous, perhaps even a bit chaste. Other times I look for a story riddled with angst, something dark and seedy and wicked. Most often I find myself looking for something betwixt the two ends of the spectrum.

Lately I’ve found myself desperately searching for a story with a complicated, multi-faceted heroine possessed of a slightly tarnished reputation, a lover or two in her past and a faintly cynical outlook on life.  Oh, and a hero who is enchanted, if a bit befuddled, by this woman rather than determined to reform her character, find a distant connection to a baron which would make her marriageable, or set her up as his mistress.

So, dear readers I am asking for your assistance, for suggestions and recommendations. Have you read a particular author who writes complex, nuanced heroines and the heroes who adore them just as they are? Is there a particular book you’ve enjoyed which might satisfy my sudden, insistent craving for more than a feisty virgin and the rake who stole her heart with little or no effort?

As always I love to hear from my readers so please feel free to post a comment below. Share your your suggestions for my next great read, a bit of news, a notion of any sort, an idiom that’s always struck you as amusing, a regency ideal you’ve found ludicrous, or just a random thought. You’ll be entered to win October’s Floral Denim Corset.

October Corset

Crystal Young left me a comment in September and won a corset of her own. I’ll be randomly choosing a winner for October’s lovely corset on November 1st. 

Between now and then, specifically between October 19th and 31st, be sure to head over the The Halloween Book Hop on Facebook where more than 130 Authors, Book Bloggers and Publishers representing all different genres will be offering up all sorts of Tricks and Treats.

I’m also running a Goodreads Giveaway through October 26th with a chance to win a Signed Copy of Pretty Poison and a Wine Bottle Corset.

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As a writer of Historical Romance novels, I depend upon readers to share their thoughts about my books on those same sites. For a limited time, I’m offering a free ebook copy of Pretty Poison in exchange for an honest review. Simply fill out the Review Form agreeing to post an honest review on Amazon, and other sites where readers will appreciate your reviews and recommendations.

 

 

 

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Pretty Poison gets a makeover

 

September has been a busy month for me and it’s only half gone! I’ve joined the fabulous team at Booktrope Publishing to re-release Pretty Poison with a lovely new cover and fresh edits.

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We’ll be celebrating with a Facebook Party on September 24th from 7:00 to 11:00 pm eastern time. Come on over and join a host of truly talented Historical Romance authors for sneak peaks, fun games and Giveaways Galore.

It’s a wonderful time to be a reader of Historical Romance novels and if you’re like me, you peruse the reviews on various websites to determine which books to add to your To Be Read or Wish List. As a writer of Historical Romance novels, I depend upon readers to share their thoughts about my books on those same sites. For a limited time, I’m offering a free ebook copy of Pretty Poison in exchange for an honest review. Simply fill out the Review Form agreeing to post an honest review on Amazon, and other sites where readers will appreciate your reviews and recommendations.

My Victorian era Western Romance Novel, My Darling Gunslinger is finished and I should be getting the manuscript back from my editor for the first round of edits any day now. Then it’ll be up to my amazing cover artist to come up with another beautiful cover. Hopefully My Darling Gunslinger will be released later this year or early in 2016.

I’m putting the finishing touches on the first novella I’ve ever written, and I freely admit it was a challenge to tell the story in a shorter format, but also so much fun to write. The as-yet untitled fairy-tale themed story will be part of a box set to be released soon.

And if all that weren’t enough to keep me busy, the first issue of my Newsletter Corsets and Kisses is hot off the presses (figuratively speaking as it will be going out via email tomorrow). If you haven’t already subscribed, I hope you’ll do so now. Simply click on the Subscribe Now button at the top of this post or Click Here to keep up with my News and Notions, Excerpts and Explorations, Historical Idioms and Ideals, and Corsets and Kisses, of course.

And speaking of corsets, in honor of the re-release of Pretty Poison and the first issue of Corsets and Kisses, I will be gifting one lucky lady with this pretty little confection at the end of the month. Simply post a Comment on my Website to be entered to win. Any comment will do, a bit of news, a notion of any sort, an idiom that’s always struck you as amusing, a regency ideal you’ve found ludicrous, or just a random thought.

Corset for September

Thank you,

Lynne Barron

 

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Sugar Kisses Free Download

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What could be sweeter than the first kiss lovers share? For a limited time, you’ll get Sugar Kisses, Vignettes of First Kisses, a collection of first kisses from my various works.

Simply subscribe to my Newsletter, Corsets and Kisses, and receive a Free Download of Sugar Kisses

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Or click here to receive your free copy of Sugar Kisses Today!

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A Funny Thing Happened While I Was Wearing a Corset

 

In truth a number of funny things happened while I was wearing a corset…which in itself is funny because a lady laced up tighter than a drum cannot laugh uproariously or even heartily. Nor can she draw a really deep breath, drive with her car seat in its customary position, gracefully bend down to reach cat treats on the bottom self at the local pet store, or curl up on the sofa next to her husband to binge-watch Game of Thrones.

These lessons I learned within the first two hours of donning a lovely blue and pink silk corset. And two hours was precisely as long as I was able to tolerate the silk and steel contraption that first day.

In the days that followed my tolerance for torture rose and I learned all sorts of lingerie lessons courtesy of my corsets.

I learned that lady’s maids of bygone years must have been sadistic little creatures. As I do not have a lady’s maid, sadistic or otherwise, I enlisted the assistance of my husband and together we discovered that there is a certain rhythm to lacing a lady into a corset. It goes something like this…

Tug, slip, re-hook, slip, re-hook, tug, tug, repeat.

I’ll translate, shall I? Tug the laces in back, one of the tiny little hooks that run up the front slips loose, wrestle the hook back into it’s equally tiny clasp, another hook two down slips it’s berth, re-hook it, quickly tug the laces, twice if you can manage it before you must repeat the process again, over and over until all of the hooks stay in their clasps and the laces are sufficiently tight to mold silk and steel to your figure.

Where does the sadistic lady’s maid come in, you might ask.

At some point, perhaps the second or third time your lady’s maid, or husband as the case may be, laces you into your corset, he or she will be faced with a choice: Cheerfully follow your breathless order of Tighter, Tighter, thereby proving their sadistic tendencies, or toss their hands in the air and turn away with a muttered If you want to cut off your air supply and mash your internal organs into unnatural shapes, you can find someone else to help you.

Ah, well, husbands are protective that way.

I spent one full day laced into a pristine white silk and lace corset, ten hours during which I went about my daily life in an almost normal manner. I hid my silk and steel friend beneath a tailored dress and braved the office, garnering no more than a few strange looks, mostly from men and mostly aimed at my breasts which were pushed up nearly to my chin. One co-worker, an eagle-eyed lady who misses very little, complimented my posture when she saw me sitting at my desk as if I had a stick running up my spine from butt to nape.

Who knew that a tightly-laced corset holds the torso still so that all movement takes place at the hips? I felt like the cheapest tart every time I sashayed down the hall, my hips swaying to and fro.

I was exhausted by the end of that one full day, perhaps because I’d been unable to rest my elbows on my desk and slouch over my keyboard as is my custom. Maybe it was a lack of sustenance as I was only able to nibble at my traditional Lenten Friday lunch of fish sandwich and fries. Most likely it was oxygen deprivation that rendered me fatigued.

I never attempted another entire day in one of my deceptively delicate corsets but I did convince my poor, beleaguered husband to continue to lace me up tight every day or two for a handful of hours. During those short stints I learned that it is both unwise and dangerous to chase a small dog around the yard, that gracefully rising from sitting to standing can only be accomplished with forethought and slow movements, that balance is best kept when bending from the knees rather than the hips, and that the side mirrors on my car, when carefully and precisely positioned, really do show me whether it is safe for a quick lane change.

As an author of historical erotic romance, I’ve never written of the difficulties of safe lane changes while confined by silk and steel, but I’ve written dozens of scenes of ladies making love while wearing a corset. My heroines have been pinned to damask walls, lowered to velvet settees, bent over mahogany desks, tumbled onto plush feather mattresses and pulled down onto Turkish carpets.  They have frolicked atop towers, in moving carriages and beneath starlit skies without benefit of removing a stitch of clothing, let alone their corsets.

The reason is quite simple: Divesting a 19th century lady of her garments involves plucking buttons, wrestling hooks, untangling laces, untying ribbons, rolling silk and generally pushing, pulling, tugging, shucking and shrugging until the lady finally, finally stands in a pool of satin and lace, starched muslin and whale bone.

But all of that is a walk in the park when compared to the patience, sense of humor, rhythm, perseverance and sadistic tendencies required to get her laced back into the damn thing. So if she can endure entire days and nights laced up tighter than a drum, she can frolic, dally, and romp with her hero any time and any places she chooses.

And if the lady wants to do it all in a corset, more power to her.