Tag: giveaway

Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Masquerade: Oddly Suited, a young-adult romance anthology from The Insecure Writer’s Support Group which is coming out on 30th April 2019!

Please join me in welcoming author Carrie-Anne Brownian to the blog to tell us more about her story. Carrie-Anne is the author of Charleston Masquerade in the anthology. 

Can two worlds come together and find love?

Iynx Praxithea Wildblood, called Jinx, has always been different from the others. She comes from a Deist family; both of her parents attended the University of Bologna; and she and her sister Myrina are receiving an equal education at the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans. So when they come to Charleston to spend a summer with a well-heeled family, conflict is inevitable.

At a masquerade ball, Jinx makes the acquaintance of a mysterious young man who identifies himself as Zedekiah. From the moment they begin interacting, it’s obvious Zed is just as much of a black sheep as Jinx, from an equally unusual family. Jinx would love nothing better than to spend the entire evening in Zed’s company, but when her very prim and proper chaperone encounters them and forces them to separate, it doesn’t seem likely they’ll cross paths again. Jinx has no idea what he looks like unmasked, or if Zed is his true name. Likewise, Zed doesn’t know her true name either. Will she and Zed be able to find an opportunity to meet again and rekindle their attraction?

Find out more about Charleston Masquerade and read an excerpt here.

Author Bio

Carrie-Anne Brownian, who also writes as Ursula Hartlein, is a proud native Pittsburgher who lives and breathes all things historical. She has a degree in history and Russian and East European Studies from UMass–Amherst and aspires to a Ph.D. in Russian history. Her stories always feature characters who are outside the norm in some way, and lots of Sturm und Drang.

Blog: https://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anyechka

2nd Blog: https://onomasticsoutsidethebox.wordpress.com/


And now Carrie-Anne, take it away!

Some Thoughts on Naturally Showing a Historical Setting

Historical fiction has been my genre of choice for over thirty years. History was always my favorite subject in school, and the majority of my hobbies and interests stem from my love of history. However, learning how to naturally incorporate the historical character and setting of a story was a skill I had to fine-tune over a great many years.

Some writers go overboard with minutely detailing every last thing—clothes, architecture, carriages, hairstyles, tableware, furniture, etc. This feels more like a history lesson than a natural story. Other writers do Gossip Girl in period clothes, contemporary characters dressed up with costumes and a few reminders of the year every so often.

Think about your own life. You don’t go around hyperconscious of living through a given era. You’re just living your normal life, and naturally taking note of things which give an era its character. If you’re writing a memoir or contemporary story, do you gut-load it with topical references or constantly call awkward attention to the setting? You hopefully understand how to season it just right.

For my Masquerade story, “Charleston Masquerade,” historical details I incorporated included a horse-drawn carriage, clothes, using candles at night, the existence of slavery, a high-society woman who finds contractions low-bred, and references to then-contemporary world leaders. Another important seasoning of historical flavor was social attitudes.

Historical isn’t the genre for you if you can’t subsume your contemporary sensibilities to accurately depict attitudes and language of the past. It doesn’t mean you endorse such views, just that you recognize what a matter-of-fact part of the cultural and social fabric they were.

My protagonist, Jinx Wildblood, is quite radical for 1767. Both her parents attended university. Her family is Deist. She attends the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, where girls get an equal education. Jinx wears jumps instead of stays in her corset, allowing much greater freedom of movement and a more natural body shape. She believes the sexes are relatively equal.

However, she also understands she’ll have to start wearing her hair up after she’s married, foresees her future as a wife and mother, accepts the sexes have different roles, and thrills at the idea of totally belonging to her love interest.

Many writers give their characters, particularly women, anachronistic views and behavior which everyone around them matter-of-factly accepts as normal. Others commit the error of making their characters too historically accurate, which makes them hard to root for.

My characters go against the grain within the parameters of their era. Even the most radical character wouldn’t have 21st century sensibilities and values. Also, if you’re depicting something extremely unusual, like a woman in 1700 who wants to become a doctor, give the reader a reason to go along with it, and show how rare and taboo that was through the reactions of other people.

Once you’ve been immersed in historical fiction long enough, depicting the past accurately and matter-of-factly will start coming naturally. You’ll be able to separate your modern viewpoints from those your characters would’ve had and understand their attitudes don’t make them unenlightened or inferior to us, just products of a much different milieu.

About the Anthology

 Find love at the ball…

Can a fake dating game show lead to love? Will a missing key free a clock-bound prince? Can a softball pitcher and a baseball catcher work together? Is there a vampire living in Paradise, Newfoundland? What’s more important—a virtual Traveler or a virtual date to the ball? 

Ten authors explore young love in all its facets, from heartbreak to budding passion. Featuring the talents of L.G. Keltner, Jennifer Lane, C.D. Gallant-King, Elizabeth Mueller, Angela Brown, Myles Christensen, Deborah Solice, Carrie-Anne Brownian, Anstice Brown, and Chelsea Marie Ballard.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these ten tales will mystify and surprise even as they touch your heart. Don your mask and join the party…

Stories Featured

You can find out more about the authors of Masquerade: Oddly Suited here.

Giveaway

The authors of Masquerade: Oddly Suited are giving away a $50 Amazon gift card to one winner. To enter, please complete the Rafflecopter below. The giveaway is open internationally from 12:00 am GMT 17th March to 12:00am GMT 6th May.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule

Visit the other blog tour hosts below to find out more about the stories and authors featured in Masquerade: Oddly Suited.

• Mon 18th March: Spotlight @ The Story of a Writer
• Fri 22nd March: Guest post by Anstice Brown @ Nicki Elson’s Not-So-Deep Thoughts
• Sun 24th March: Interview with Jennifer Lane @ Nancee Cain, Romance with a Serrated Edge
• Tues 26th March: Guest post by Angela Brown @ Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner
• Wed 27th March: Debut author spotlight with Chelsea Marie Ballard & Anstice Brown @ Operation Awesome
• Fri 29th March: Spotlight @ April Blogging from A-Z Challenge
• Mon 1st April: Interview with Deborah Solice @ Dusting the Soul
• Thurs 4th April: Spotlight @ Elements of Emaginette
• Fri 5th April: Guest post by C.D Gallant-King @ Writer’s Gambit
• Mon 8th April: Interview with Elizabeth Mueller @ Just Jemi
• Fri 12th April: Guest post by Carrie-Anne Brownian @ Jennifer Lane Books
• Mon 15th April: Guest post by Chelsea Marie Ballard @ My Pet Blog
• Tues 16th April: Guest post by Myles Christensen @ Quiet Fury Books
• Mon 22nd April: Interview with all the authors @ Alex J. Cavanaugh
• Sat 4th May: Interview with L.G Keltner @ The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick