I am convinced that shoes are the reason I am where I am today as an author. No, not because I walked from here to New York, or because some editor spied my shoes and instantly said “Sign her up; she’s got good taste in Nine Wests,” but because the shoes forced me to work harder. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

How can that be, you ask? Well, bear with me, because I’m making a case to my husband, too. Macy’s has a big sale coming up and I need him to understand the vital role cool shoes play in my career.

1. SHOES ARE A GREAT INCENTIVE. I love shoes. I mean, really love them. If I had to choose between a chocolate cake and a pair of killer high heels, I’d be hard pressed to make the choice. When Macy’s or Penney’s has a sale, it’s all I can do to keep myself from hopping in the car and scooping up a half a dozen pairs, plowing other shoe shoppers out of the way of those awesome red heels I saw last week. So, I play a little game with myself. If I finish this difficult scene, hit a certain page count–whatever my goal is for that day–then I can go shoe shopping,. If I don’t make it, then I have to wait until I do. Trust, me there’s nothing like a pair of kitten heels to get my fingers flying across that keyboard.

2. SHOES MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A GROWNUP. I’m a mom, which means my wardrobe more often contains sweats than skirts. Sure, I’ve seen “What Not to Wear” and heard Stacy and Clinton’s arguments for throwing together a nice little ensemble every day, but geez, there are days when I don’t see the point. Someone is inevitably going to get peanut butter or milk or dog hair on me, so I save the nice clothes–and thus, the nice shoes–for the days when I get to go out and play with other grownups.

When I slip on a pair of heels I instantly feel like a grownup and I act like one, too. I’m professional, smart, and not some rundown mommy who can’t remember if she fed the cat today, never mind her children.

3. SHOES ARE GREAT INSPIRATIONS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, or so the adage goes. Just see a bunch of women at a conference or a wedding. They’re checking out each other’s foot adornments, exclaiming over the cool ones, passing by the ordinary brown loafer types. So, when I dress a character I give her shoes that speak to her character. Some get Prada heels, others get sensible flats. And, I can incorporate a trip to the mall into my research. (See my thinking? The shopping was research, honey, honest. Will you please tell the nice IRS man that shoes are a necessary part of my office décor?).

4. SHOES MAKE GOOD FRIENDS. Shoes don’t need to be walked, fed, petted, told they did a good job wiping the kitchen counter. They sit there, patiently waiting for you to be ready for their next outing. And if you bypass the black ones in favor of those strappy red ones, the black pair doesn’t get all put out and refuse to talk to you for a week.

5. SHOES INSPIRE ME TO BE GOOD IN OTHER AREAS. Shoes don’t just impact my writing productivity, but my whole life. If I have on nice shoes, I want a pedicure. If I get a pedicure, I want to shave my legs (remember I’m a mom. Time to myself is about as plentiful as cheese on Mars). Once I shave my legs, I want to put on nice clothes. Do my hair. Wear make-up. It’s like a whole chain reaction, inspired by a little simple footwear.

6. SHOES ARE AN AUTHOR TREAT. Most of us sit around a home office all day, barefoot or socked, never venturing outside. My sole outing for the day is when I walk a few houses down to get my mail from the box. But when I put on a pair pf nice heels, I want to take on the town. Go to dinner. Dance. Take in a movie. There’s just something about slipping into some fancy shoes that gets me going, transporting me from my silent, in-my-head world of books and into the real world.

7. SHOES ARE THE GREAT CONNECTOR. I have struck up more conversations with perfect strangers over a pair of heels. Made best friends over a pair of sandals. Women understand shoes and through that, they understand each other. It’s a sisterhood, built one shiny rhinestone buckle at a time.

Okay, so maybe my husband isn’t going to buy this argument. He’s a man who owns three pairs of shoes total–dress, work and sports. He sees no necessity in having his shoes match his outfits or in getting one pair for the black suit, another for the brown pants, a third for the navy Dockers (don’t even get me started on matching handbags).

Maybe the next time I go shopping with him, and he’s pacing the shoe department, asking me if I REALLY need another pair of back heels, I can rally a group of women. We’ll persuade him that shoes are a female necessity. That they help us be happier, more productive, friendlier humans.

In the meantime, I’ll work on convincing the IRS that shoes should be a deduction. Research can take many forms, from pump to stiletto. As I said, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it, with a little Dr. Scholl’s to back me up.

This week, I’m off to Atlanta for Romance Writers of America’s annual convention. There, when I’m not attending the “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing, schmoozing with old and new friends, or trying to snag free books at the various publisher signings, I’ll be co-teaching a craft workshop with Kensington/Zebra author Eve Silver called SCENTS & SENSIBILITY. As you’ve probably guessed, we’ll teach people how to work the five senses into their writing, which is something Shirley Jump knows a little bit about.

Jump writes “romantic comedies with sweet attitude” for Kensington/Zebra and Harlequin/Silhouette. Check out some of her titles: THE ANGEL CRAVED LOBSTER and THE BRIDE WORE CHOCOLATE. Cool, huh? She also includes recipes in some of her books, which is a two-fer for delighted readers. She’s agreed to talk to us about … get this … shoes. Shoes!

Can you hear me clapping?

Here’s Jump’s website:

http://www.ShirleyJump.com

And here’s a little more about Jump at my other blog:

http://blogitorium.com/annchristopher

Here she comes …

Ann asked me a while back to guest blog and I jumped at the chance. My specialty, as some of you many know, is historical clothing and underwear. It’s my hobby and my passion. So today we’re going to explore myths about historic undergarments.

Myth 1: Independent, forward thinking women of “insert your time period here” wouldn’t have worn a corset!

Let me simply state up front that corsets were NORMAL and COMMON for Europeans (and European expats) from the 16th century until the 1920s (and even then, they just became girdles!). It’s hard to think of an historic person who was more independent or forward thinking than Queen Elizabeth. She had numerous corps de baline (aka corsets) in her wardrobe. Same goes for Marie Antoinette and Queen Victoria, yet they wore stays and corsets too.

Myth 2: Corsets are uncomfortable

A corset that is made for you, and you alone (as they were up until the late Victorian age, when “mail order” corsets first became available), is very comfortable. They don’t pinch (it’s impossible), they don’t poke (unless the boning is working its way out), and they don’t make it impossible to breathe (unless for some unknown reason, you’re trying to lace it up tighter than you normally wear it). With the exception of the mid to late 1800’s, corsets were not even designed to give you a small waist, but to lift the breasts, and to give you a smooth base for your clothes to sit on top of. In fact, until the introduction of the metal grommet (1828) and the 2 part metal busk (1829) tightening a corset enough to dramatically change one’s figure was nearly impossible (the fabric would have given out first). The corset merely provided the right silhouette.

Myth 3: The rebel without underwear myth

Ladies (the class about which most authors choose to write) would NOT have gone about without their corsets, anymore than women today would go around without their bras (barring when one is a college students and still possesses gravity defying breasts). Those of us who don’t wear bras simply because social standards tell us we’re supposed to, wear them because the “bounce” of an unrestrained breast can be downright painful if we don’t (when you’re over a B-cup, anyway). Breasts did not bounce any less three hundred years ago. Your heroines are not going to feel constrained or put upon by their stays. Quite the contrary, they’d feel naked without them! And for you Regency authors, remember: the scandalous ladies are not the ones who are going commando, but the ones who are wearing drawers! Underpants of any kind are not common until the LATE Georgian period (c.1815). There is pretty much zero documentation for them before this (or when there is it's specifically pointed out as an aberration, like Pepey’s wife, or it’s in a context that is outside the norm, like women racing for a petticoat after a mill, wearing drawers to preserve their modesty).

Myth 4: Men not being able to tell

There is simply no way that a sighted man would not be able to tell that a woman had left off her stays. You can tell if a modern woman has chosen to go bra-less, and believe me, you can tell if a woman in period clothing has left off her stays. The entire line of the dress would be off (even if she had had them made for her un-corseted figure, they wouldn’t look like what everyone else was wearing). As I said earlier: breasts still bounced, and the position of the breast (and the shape of the rib cage) are simply different when corseted. So the sometimes employed ruse of the hero only noticing that his lady has chosen to go corset-less when he touches her, is farcical at best.

Myth 5: Getting a corset off and on again is quick and easy

How many of you have read or written a scene in which your heroine disrobes at a ball or other function, gets it on with the hero, and then gets dressed again? The odds of this happening (and the characters getting away with it) are slim and next to none. It takes a good 10-15 minutes just to get the corset on (and that’s with experienced help, with a guy fumbling with the laces, you’d be lucky to be back in inside half-an-hour). Then there’s the rest of the clothes, which mostly also require assistance to put on and are time consuming to get on correctly. For most of history the most common way to shut a women’s garments was with pins (yes pins!). Getting all the pieces of the gown laced, adjusted, and then pinned is almost an art, and it takes forever.

Myth 6: You can’t breathe in a corset

Not true, but you do breathe differently. The lungs expand upwards,pushing the breasts up (hence the noticeable palpation of the heroine’s breasts when she’s excited) and they push downwards into the belly (like deep breathing for singing). It is true however that drawing a deep breath is pretty much impossible. You’re not going to run a marathon (or even a mile) in a corset, but hiking briskly isn’t a problem (even jogging would be no problem).

Myth 7: Corsets were only for ladies

Nope. The poor wore them too. In fact, they were considered so indispensable by the 18th century that parish records show that they were provided for women in the workhouse. Frequently the poor wore simple stays made of thick leather, and the style they wore was often outdated (Walker’s The Costume of Yorkshire, c. 1814, shows working women still in 18th century-style stays).

So, do any of you have questions about other corset/underwear myths you've been harboring? Do you have any questions about wearing corsets or how the clothing of past eras worked? If so, now’s your chance. Ask…

BIO

Kalen Hughes’ debut romance novel, LORD SIN, will be published by Kensington in April 2007. She spent her childhood attending various living history events with her parents (everything from the Medieval Society for Creative Anachronism to the Regency Heyer Con), from which she learned a deep and abiding love for history and for the clothing of past eras.

Please visit her at http://www.KalenHughes.com

I love historical romance novels. I’m partial to those set in the Elizabethan, Regency or Victorian eras, but when I’m in the bookstore, I’ll happily pick up and consider a historical novel from any period where the book has a pretty cover. More often than not, this pretty cover fixation of mine stems from the beautiful dress the heroine is wearing, assuming, of course, that the heroine is actually clothed on the cover.

I’ve never been able to shake this girlish fascination with princesses, balls, and fabulous gowns, and neither, I’m guessing, has Galen Hughes.

Hughes, in case you don’t know, is a Kensington/Zebra author, whose first novel, LORD SIN, debuts in April 2007. She’s also an expert on women’s historical clothing, so she can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about, say, corsets.

She’s stopped by to debunk a few myths for us, and she loves to hear from readers, so feel free to ask questions.

Here’s Hughes’ website: http://www.KalenHughes.com

And here’s a little more about Hughes at my other blog:

http://blogitorium.com/annchristopher

Here she comes …

You write about…umm, Bad Boys?

Yeah, I get that all the time. In my non-writing life, I'm a divorce lawyer. It may seem an odd choice for someone who writes about happy (or at least satisfying) endings. I'd argue the connection is perfectly logical. All day long I deal with people wanting to end marriages. They're fighting about – well, everything. Romance novels are, for me, the ultimate escape. A little bit of positive thinking in a real world that doesn’t always value ideas like commitment, devotion, caring, mutual respect and love.

The lawyers I regularly have cases against know about the writing. I'm not hiding. I use my name. The real is-it-a-secret-or-can-I-say-something game comes with clients. Inevitably, the client (or the client's spouse) googles me. There they find my website and book information. At some point during some conversation or email or meeting, the client will drop a reference to the writing. Then the questions start. Some are “normal” questions, like: where do you find the time; where do you get your ideas; what does your family think; how much money is in that; and how did you get started.

Sometimes the conversation gets around to the Bad Boy issue. If you’re not sure what I'm talking about (or why I keep capitalizing the phrase Bad Boy), I'll explain. Kensington's sexy romance imprint is called Brava. Within Brava there is a series of books that include the Bad Boy name in the title. Most of these titles are not related, but some are. For example, my novella debut Hardhats and Silk Stockings came out in April in an anthology called When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys. The novellas by Lori Foster and Erin McCarthy related to earlier novellas they had written. However, none of our novellas related to each other. This is the norm: three authors writing three independent novellas. Some, like my August release Viva Las Bad Boys! include three novellas all by one author which are loosely (or not so loosely) connected. Sylvia Day's February Brava debut Bad Boys Ahoy is another example.

Now, I thought I'd try to answer a few of those Bad Boys questions here:

1. What is a Bad Boy? Anyone says “bad boy” and I think of Sawyer on the TV show Lost. He's attractive, rough around the edges, has a not-so-nice past, likes to be in control and underneath it all is decent and loyal but hides behind a commanding exterior.

2. But does “Bad” always mean bad? No. He doesn’t have to be an ex-con or renegade or a guy who always wears faded jeans and a white t-shirt ('though I do love that look). Bad can mean naughty. It can be a guy acting outside his usual style to catch a girl or meet some other end. Bad Boy means many things. The bottom line is an alpha male.

3. Still not getting it? Okay, it's the way Kensington Brava markets anthologies. The books have a look and a feel. A certain vibe. Pick up a few and give them a try!

Ann – thanks for letting me drop in and chat!

HelenKay

This week’s guest blogger is HelenKay Dimon, whose new anthology, VIVA LAS BAD BOYS, will come out in the next couple of weeks. Her previous anthology, WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS, is now available, and I highly recommend it.

Notice any trends in Dimon’s books?

Ah, the bad boy. How authors love to create them, and readers love to read about them. Dimon will give us her thoughts on what makes a good bad boy in a minute. Here are mine:

• He’s a little bit arrogant;
• A little (maybe a lot) controlling;
• A little manipulative;
• A little insensitive, but can be trained;
• Cunning, when need be;
• Very persistent;
• Often very damaged and/or scarred by life (sometimes physically scarred);
• Mistrustful;
• Slow to love; and
• The hardest to fall when he finally does meet the right woman.

Did I miss anything?

By the way, I want to go on record and say that the qualities that make a good hero in a romance novel do not make good mate material in real life. In real life, a guy like this may well need years of therapy, but in a novel—ahhh, great fantasy.

Okay, so here’s a short list of some of my favorite bad boys of all time:

• Rhett Butler
• Liam O’Neill (Brenda Joyce’s THE GAME)
• Calder Hart (Brenda Joyce’s DEADLY series)
• Carlos Rivera (L.A. Banks’ VAMPIRE HUNTRESS series.

Oh, and the greatest bad boy of all time: GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Luke Spencer. Honorable mention: GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Sonny Corinthos. Yeah, yeah. I know they’re not heroes from romance novels, but who cares?

Here comes Dimon with her thoughts.

Check her out at my other blog:

http://blogitorium.com/annchristopher

Or at her website:

http://www.HelenKayDimon.com

Or at the Kensington Brava author’s site:

http://www.bravaauthors.com/books.html

What about it? What makes a good bad boy? Who are your favorite bad boys of all time?

Writing is an art, but it’s also a business. If we want to support our art, we have to understand our business.

Some writers choose to leave the contract comprehension to their agent. After all, that’s what they’re paying their agents for. Although I understand this viewpoint, I don’t subscribe to it. The agent’s not the one signing my contract; I am.

My signature on a publishing contract says I agree to the publisher’s terms and conditions. How can I agree with something I don’t understand? I don’t want to wake up one night screaming with the realization I’ve irrevocably tied myself to a publisher with a contract that hurts me in a myriad of unpleasant ways.

But how do we learn about contracts?
• Join a professional writing organization. Most professional organizations provide forums or courses on the business of writing, including the mysteries of contracts.
• Read current books. In between those delicious Ann Christopher novels and the inspiring craft books, slip in a few books on contracts. You’ll thank yourself for it later.
• Ask other writers. Don’t ask about advances or royalties. You may lose a friend. But ask about contract terms, like option clauses, first refusal rights, reprint rights. What have their experiences been? What are the pros and cons of those clauses? We can learn from each other and, by increasing our individual awareness, perhaps work together to improve the negotiation success rate in our favor.

A final thought, one of the most critical, I think: determine in your heart the terms you’re willing to accept and those you would not be able to stomach. Know this beforehand. Your contract should be the realization of your dream, not the beginning of a nightmare.

Best wishes for writing success!

My nerves are still out of whack on account of this whole book release thing.

As I’ve mentioned to anyone foolish enough to slow down long enough to come within hearing range, I’m really frazzled between worrying about whether anyone’s buying my book (TROUBLE, BTW, is on shelves now, in case you haven’t already pre-ordered or picked up a copy) and worrying about my August 31 deadline to turn in a manuscript that’s currently only half written.

I could fill up a whole entry about my various worries, fears, phobias, and concerns, but I won’t do that to you because I want you to come back again. Therefore, I’ve brought in my great new friend and fellow newbie, Patricia Sargeant, who writes romantic suspense for Kensington/Dafina. She’s going to tell us her thoughts about writers and contracts.

Here’s Sargeant’s website: http://www.PatriciaSargeant.com

And here’s a little more about Sargeant at my other blog: http://blogitorium.com/annchristopher

Here she comes …