Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

Sarah: You’ve received some outstanding reviews, proclaiming you the best new author in romance, and in fantasy. Has it gone to your head? Did you buy yourself a Porsche with “Best Author Ever!” emblazoned on the side? Seriously, what has your reaction, beyond OMG SQUEE!, been to the feedback and response to your book(s)?

C.L. Wilson: Regarding praise going to my head: I have a husband and three kids (plus three siblings and several very, very dear friends) who are quite adept at keeping my feet firmly attached to the ground and my head still fitting in a hat.

As for my reaction to the praise.  Honestly?  Um…SQUEEEE…then terror.  LOL.  When the bar is set high, it can feel rather intimidating.  But I keep trying to tell myself that no matter how hard I try, I can’t expect to please everyone.  So I do the best I can and hope that will be good enough, same as everyone else does, I suspect.

Sarah: You are doing a bang-up job of generating a great deal of interest in your book using your website to offer giveaways, games, and prizes - and copies of your book. Many authors take a great deal of time trying to build a site that’s as diverse as yours and miss by a mile. Your site has something for a variety of visitors - a blog, a bio, and lessons on world building as well as your history as a writer and critique partner. What was your model for your website, and who helped you develop it?

C.L. Wilson: Thanks so much.  I’m so glad you enjoyed the website.  Because I was doing something so different with LORD, and because I’d spent so much time developing the world, I really wanted to share that in the hopes that the information about the world would get people interested in the books.  I wrote the content, decided how I wanted it laid out, downloaded a template, then handed everything to my dad and said “can you help me program this?” (My dad is something of a computer programming wiz.  He was an IBM mainframe programmer who worked at NASA during 1960s then went on to start his own very successful computer software company.)

Well, he’s been retired and not doing much in programming for the last seven years, so he was a little hesitant to tackle the project at first.  Then I (innocently) asked, “Gee, Dad.  You helped put men on the moon. How hard can a little HTML be?” Oooh.  I learned something I never knew about my father.  He does not back down from a challenge!  In a few weeks, he taught himself the basics of Javascript, HTML, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop.  And I had a website.  You gotta love it.

Sarah: Do you consider your book a romance or a fantasy novel? Or has romance become so easily blended and hybridized that few books fit solely into one category any longer?

C.L. Wilson: Ultimately, the key to the fantasy quest lies with Rain and Ellie’s ability to complete their truemate bond.  I think most people will, therefore, consider it a romance.  To me, it has always been both a fantasy and a romance.

Sarah: Most authors of multi-part series that depict an entirely constructed world are asked how they came up with that idea. JK Rowling says she had an idea on a train and a clear picture of Harry Potter, which blew up rapidly into an entirely, pardon the pun, novel universe. What was your starting point with Lord and Lady. I don’t mean so much “Where did you get your idea?” so much as “What was your point of access into creating this universe?”

C.L. Wilson: I love fantasy and I love romance.  I’ve always read fairly widely in both, and I’ve always loved the idea of an immutable union of souls.  I knew I wanted to write a book that combined both the fantasy and the romance so tightly the two plots could not exist without each other and basing a quest that requires (for reasons that are still unfolding in the plot) the completion of the truemate bond between the hero and heroine seemed a perfect vehicle to achieve that aim.

My lifelong love of dragons, shapeshifters, magic, epic fantasy, noble and courageous heroes, self-sacrifice and immutable bonds of love all converged together one day and I had this vision of Rain Tairen Soul (he was Rain Dragon Soul then) sitting on a golden throne, facing the extinction of both the tairen (dragons then) and the Fey.  He confronts a magical oracle for help, and the oracle’s response sends him to a city he despises and to a woman who drags him back into all the messy emotion of life with the promise of that immutable, perfect union of souls as the catalyst, the quest, and the reward all wrapped in one.  Everything, absolutely everything, sprang from that one image.

Sarah: This book, it is LONG - and therefore, as you’ve said on your site, split into two. Are there outtakes? How much was cut? Will you share?

C.L. Wilson:  Wayyyy long.  I wrote it as an unpublished writer.  And with no deadline, I could have fun wandering, so I did.  I’m not a fast writer, so I cannot bear to throw away even cut scenes that I may have spent hours on.  I keep all deleted scenes in the hope that someday I may find a use for them.  I also cut the original book in two earlier on, and some 300 of those pages are being adapted for inclusion in books 3 and 4.

Sarah: In terms of your critique partnership with Christine Feehan - holy duo, Batman! How did you hook up with Christine Feehan, and what has she taught you about worldbuilding, writing, and handling success? And what do you think she’s learned from you?

C.L. Wilson: I love Christine.  We became friends long before she was really famous.  I read Dark Desire the day it came out, and that was it for me.  Fan for life.  I tracked her down over the internet, signed her guestbook, joined her discussion group, and promptly started telling everyone “Go to the bookstores.  Turn these books cover out! Tell your friends about her!  Tell them to tell their friends.” I wanted her to succeed, so she would keep writing those marvelous books!  LOL.  I don’t think she needed my help.  Her books were already flying off the shelves.  One thing led to another, and we started critiquing when she was writing Dark Fire, Darius’s story, and have been ever since.

As far as what we’ve learned from each other, we’re friends first and everything else comes a distant second.  So let me just say I think Christine is an amazing talent and an even more amazing person, and my life is much richer in many ways for having her in it.

Sarah: What would you like to say to any readers who target solely Fantasy or solely romance who are curious about your book ?

C.L. Wilson: There are excerpts of the first 45 pages of Lord of the Fading Lands on my website.  If you’re not sure the book is something you’d like, give those pages a try.  And feel free to wander around the website to find out more about the world and the characters who live in it.

Sarah: What romance novels will you never get rid of unless they are pried from your cold, cold hands?

C.L. Wilson: Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas, Dark Desire by Christine Feehan, Flowers in the Storm by Laura Kinsale. Lover Awakened (Zsadist’s story) by JR Ward.  (There’s a real theme there, lol.)

Sarah: Some writers compose to music, and others have visual images of people that remind them of their characters. Do you use any methods of visualization or auditory stimulation to write? Aromatherapy, maybe? And what do Fey smell like?

C.L. Wilson: I listen to the complete recordings of Lord of the Rings and The Two Towers by Howard Shore (brilliant music!) And come Nov 7th, I’ll be adding the complete recordings of Return of the King to that list. *gg* When I first started writing the books, I listened to the Phil Collins soundtrack of Disney’s Tarzan, but sung lyrics became a distraction.  I found myself singing instead of writing. (Phil, I love you, but I have to write!)

Fey smell like springtime, like rain-washed, lightning-shot skies, like flowers and freshly-turned earth.  And tairen smell of darker, richer things.

Amelia Hathaway is the managerially inclined sister of the new Lord Ramsey, aka her brother Leo. She also has three sisters, Win, Poppy and Beatrix (sequels ahoy!) and since her brother has sunk into a dark party of alcohol, drugs, and depression following the death of his fiancee, Laura, Amelia has taken charge of the family. And by “taking charge” I mean she manages every detail of their new lives as a titled family with a new estate with a relentless “can-do” attitude that would come across as completely annoying as hell if it weren’t for the humility of her character. Amelia doesn’t get off on bossing her family around - she recognizes that she’s the only one who can take care of everyone, and so she steps up and does so, even if it causes her pain as she realizes that some of the problems of her family are somewhat insurmountable, and that her managerial years have put her on the fast track to spinsterhood.

Cam Rohan, the hero, was last seen in the Wallflower Quartet books as a red-hot dark-haired temptation to Daisy and the factotum to the gambling club owned by Evie and St. Vincent. Cam is half-Gypsy, and as such occupies a miserable border between society and the nomadic, tribal life of the Romany. He’s accepted by some out of fear, intimidation, or, in a few cases, respect, but that acceptance has firm boundaries: because he’s Rom, he’s never an equal, no matter how high he ascends above servant or employee status.

Amelia’s first meets Cam while hunting down her wastrel brother in one gambling hell or brothel or another, an after an illicit kiss, she assumes she’ll never see him again. Never see him again? This is a romance novel, silly woman. Of COURSE you’re going to see him again!

Imagine Amelia’s surprise when she learns that her brother’s new estate borders Lord Westcliff’s, and since Westcliff is married to Lillian (It Happened One Autumn) who is best friends with Evie, who, with her husband, owns the gambling hell that employs Cam (The Devil in Winter), they cannot help but run into one another.

Cam tries to resist his attraction to Amelia, and in doing so focuses on the freedom he’s lost from spending too many years in the company of non-Roma society. Convinced he will be cured of his attraction to her if he leaves English society and returns to his own tribe, Cam keeps trying to leave- only to find that he can’t bring himself to do so. Amelia, no matter how well she may think she has her family’s multiple troubles in hand, needs his help, and the chemistry between them makes it equally difficult for her to stay away from him.

Therein lies my biggest problem with the book: can I truly believe in the happy ending for Cam and Amelia? Because this seems to be a continuing arc involving older stories from the Wallflower Quartet (though it was enjoyable to see those characters again) and a new arc that may follow the courtships of Amelia’s sisters, the answer to that question may lie in future books - and really, I want the answer to be in THIS book. Unfortunately, it’s really not. No matter how devoted to one another they may be, Cam is still half-Gypsy, and by choosing him, Amelia is electing to occupy that rather frosty border of polite society that doesn’t 100% accept her husband, and in turn won’t 100% accept her. Even though her family is new to the peerage and skirts that chilly border of society on their own terms, being married to a half-Gypsy exposes her to a great deal of prejudice and rejection, and it’s hard to believe in their happy ending as a result.

The other complaint I have is that there are times when characters speak or ruminate on facts of Roma society, language or culture that sound less like actual people talking or thinking and more like a lecture on Romany life. I tagged those pages with the thought, “Tidbits of research ahoy!”

However, no matter how stilted the dialog may have been at points, Kleypas clearly did her research, and it makes for a rich and layered story that touched on Irish and Romany legends and folklore, and the prejudice and violence that Romany tribes endured at the time. In addition, there’s a touch of the paranormal in the plot that, instead of taking over the story and making it into some kind of historical romance-caper, add to the larger story or stories that will be told with the likely issue of each sister’s romance. 

Wait, no, there’s one more thing I have to say - and I’m really only getting this out of the way so I can talk about what I did like about this book - and that which I liked I liked a LOT. This may be the first time I’ve griped about a sex scene or scenes, but it seemed that during every sexual encounter between Cam and Amelia, he was in control and orchestrated the entire sequence of their intimacy. While having the hero remain in control of the sexxoring can be very delectable for me, having him control things every time? No thanks. Not only did it get repetitive but it didn’t ring true for Amelia’s character. I kept waiting for her to try to take charge of their sexual adventures in some way, or at least show some of the spunk and relentlessness with which she approached the other parts of her life, but it didn’t happen. Except for a scene where she hides in his bed, Amelia never got to climb in the saddle first, so to speak, and take the reigns of their sex life, and I wish she had.

Now for the good parts. The one thing that Kleypas does consistently well, and that makes for the comfort factor in her books that I mentioned earlier, is her development of heroines and their friends and sisters. Kleypas is brilliantly skilled at writing loving, caring, supportive relationships between women. They’re not all perfect visions of perfection having perfect superficial friendships that consist of shopping and tea. From the earlier quartet of friends to a new family of sisters who lean on each other in a realistic and truly caring fashion, Kleypas’ heroines are profoundly likable, and that makes reading about them more than pleasurable. I, as a reader, like them, and more importantly, they genuinely seem to like each other. Really, I don’t know many women like the ones she writes, in romanceland or in real life. Even if the sisters in this novel don’t fight nearly often enough, the ways in which they take care of one another is truly touching.

There is one scene I read three times in which Amelia is horrified to see her brother offending their host at dinner, and before she can divert attention from her brother’s conduct, her sister’s pet lizard escapes his home in her dress pocket and starts meandering down the dinner table. Not only is it hilarious, but the lecture Amelia gives her sister immediately afterward had me giggling out loud.

Most often I read romances to witness that spark and start of a loving relationship between the hero and heroine, but the growing skill that Kleypas demonstrates in writing loving relationships between sisters and female friends adds an entirely new type of relationship to follow and enjoy. Loving families, even dysfunctional, slightly daffy and troubled ones, are rare in romanceland, and when I find one that is genuinely rendered and pleasing to read about, I am more than comforted and definitely happy.

Wilson uses Ellie as the reader’s access point and world building device: she’s an unschooled yet deeply skilled woman learning of Fey culture firsthand. Conversely, Ellie is well-versed in folklore of Fey culture and of the legend of Rain himself. Through Ellie, the reader learns the present state of the Fey, and their past as well.

But gosh darn, she’s perfect. Seriously, I don’t want to reveal how she is perfect in every way, but clearly untapped wells of massive awesome reside in Ellie, and each chapter grabs a trowel and digs the reader closer to the subterranean depths of innocent awesome that reside in Ellie. In just about every respect, she is nearly perfect, and despite making social gaffes, she does nearly everything with grace and kindness. It gets a bit old. But even then I liked her. She skirts the border of Mary Sue but I found her to be more than just the typical marvelous fairy-tale heroine.

She has a darkness to her that is dangerous to the future of the story, I think. While I can’t get into the specifics without giving too much away, Ellie’s lack of knowledge and control about her skills are doubly harmful to herself and the other Fey, particularly since her origins and the source of her gifts are a mystery. Further, because she is so freaking perfect, as high as she rises in status during books 1 and 2, she has that much farther to fall.

Some readers may be bothered by the degree of sparkly perfection that is invested in Ellie’s character, but Wilson’s skill in developing the other characters assures me that she’s not going to neglect the development and potential flaws of her heroine. She’s too smart a writer, if books 1 and 2 are any indication, to fall for such an easy characterization.

Rain is a delicious fantasy hero, all magical and powerful and shapeshifting into a big ass fire-breathing cat with wings. He’s a few thousand years old and can kick all kinds of ass, but he has some big ol’ flaws to overcome as well, both as a mate and as a king. He’s tormented by his past, and has a stubborn tendency to see things in black and white. He needs to grow up despite being thousands of years old, and his pairing with Ellie, who is so very, very young by comparison, twists the balance of power back and forth, between his magic, her innocence, her knowledge of humanity and his inability to be flexible with other’s faults.

The books build a LOT of world and a LOT of characters and sometimes the plot drags for having so many players to introduce. But each one is fascinating enough that I didn’t feel overwhelmed with people to keep track of. Wilson does an outstanding job of balancing development of character with development of the saga - I don’t get tired of any of the new characters, and even caught hints of characters to come who I anticipated. There’s a lot to keep track of but it’s worth every moment. Further, it’s another marker of the excellence in the writing: the Fey and the mortals both are flawed characters, but Wilson manages to lend humanity to the Fey and nobility to the mortals who might otherwise seem pale in comparison to the amazing magical skills of the Fey. Plus, Wilson’s portrayal of how easily those who are scared or intimidated can be manipulated by rumor and falsehood parallels the current political situation in a great many places. Like I said, there’s layers. Layers like a stack of Big Macs.

Some of the reviews elsewhere talk about the slow development of the plot - this is true. But it’s also deliberate, I think, because in every respect, the story and the characters are moving towards battle. There’s a lot of mention of the Fey’s skills in war, their weapons, and their manner of fighting, and the enemies rising against Rainier and Ellysetta and the Fey and the Celerians. The preparation for that battle, and the smaller battles that precede it in books 1 and 2, is deliberately slow because it heightens the tension and the importance of what’s going to happen. The parts I found myself skimming more were those that featured extended face time of the evil Mage, or of the idiot queen of Celeria, who really never got what was coming to her in my opinion. The malevolent hand-rubbing glee of those who plotted against Ellie and Rain grew tiresome. Instead of developing an exceptionally large Big Bad for Ellie and Rain and the rest of the Fey to battle, those who plotted against them seemed more pathetic or egomaniacally overblown to be as scary as they may have been meant to be.

However, Wilson circumvents one plot foible that irks the crap out of me most of the time: the idea that because the narrator and the story proclaim person A and person B “soul mates” and that they are Meant to Be Together, they are hereby exempt from all normal awkward process of getting to know the other person - even though they are for all intents and purposes complete freaking strangers. While the courtship between Ellie and Rain goes on awhile, and they fly off here and there to be alone during the appointed times for courting, they do navigate the process of learning about each other like any other couple might do, soul mates or not.

Within that courtship is a fascinating balance of power on which I am still ruminating: he recognizes and claims her (I keep envisioning the Jersey/Philly version of Rain’s claiming of Ellie: “Yo. Ellie. Youse’s my true mate, or what?!") but they have to bond on many levels and establish psychic and physical links to one another to complete the pairing, or he will die from her absence. She has to accept and believe in him - and love him, of course - to create those links. He identifies her, but she has to accept him - so the stability and health of the relationship, even on a magical level, depends on both of them.

Wilson’s prose is tight, balancing action, romance, magic and simple humanity. It’s a world that’s easy to step in and out of, and despite the immense number of things going on, I didn’t lose track of the story’s multiple threads - and for a distracted person such as myself, that says a lot. I had to stop myself from reading the book more than a few times because I knew if I sat down to read a few pages, I’d end up reading dozens and lose complete track of time. When book 3 is published, I’m going to have to mark time in my agenda to read it, because the pleasure of losing one’s self in the fantasy world should be a sizable indulgence. A mere bubblebath won’t cut it. This is a book worth taking a weekend vacation solely for the purposes of reading it. You could book a room at the Holland Tunnel Motor Lodge and just sit and read.

Come to think of it, that’s not a bad idea.