Jennifer Crusie's Blog: Argh Ink

Anne Stuart’s new book Ruthless is out August 1. Plus there’s this interview and a free download for a prequel (see bottom of the post). What more could you want?

JC: So you came in from the cold of your ICE books, and now you’re writing hot historicals about rakes and virgins. How did that happen?

AS: I adore rakes and virgins, though unfortunately Elinor is no longer a virgin when she runs afoul of my decadent hero. In a perfect world I would write dark romantic suspense and lighter historicals (and this is lighter than the ICE books — Rohan only kills two people and both of them are in a duel). I started out writing gothics, then regencies so I have a weakness for other time periods, and I love love love historicals.

JC: Why? You’d have to pull me through a hedge backwards to make me do all that research. Plus, they talk funny. What’s the draw of days gone by?

AS: Ah, it’s not research if you want to read about it or know the stuff already. You’d never worry about writing a character who was an artist. You know that stuff. As for the draw, it’s the appeal of different rules, different lives, different times. Whether things are a matter of life and death, as in the medieval period, or social ostracism, in the Regency or Victorian period, it’s not something we tend to worry about. The men are exotic simply because they come from a different time, and everything is totally divorced from the shit we have to go through daily.

JC: The center of the series is the Hellfire Club (and Tearoom). Why did you pick something so scandalous as the thing that ties your series heroes together? Because it’s so not LIKE you to be scandalous.

AS: Well of course I picked something scandalous, though to keep nitpickers at bay I call the Hellfire Club the Heavenly Host. I first created that variation in an ancient Regency, LORD SATAN’S BRIDE, so I continued with it, going a bit over the top but keeping to the truth of it. The Hellfire Club didn’t sacrifice babies, etc. They were just a bunch of bored aristocrats playing dress-up and having orgies. Since some of the dress up involved nun’s habits of course it spoke to me. But I threw in the phalllus-shaped goblet (still exists, probably on view in the Hellfire Caves Tearoom, a real tearoom). Next trip to England I need my picture taken by that sign.

JC: Maybe Elinor started the tea room. Tell me more about Elinor, the heroine of Ruthless (although it’s really a shame her name isn’t Ruth).

AS: if she were Ruth she wouldn’t be in it, coz it’s Ruthless. My heroine is Elinor Harriman, early twenties, no great beauty. Her once beautiful, narcissistic mother is in the last stages of syphilis, her beautiful younger sister is like catnip to every male, they have a coachman but no coach and a cook with very little food, and they live on the edge of the slums of Paris, with the money running out. Elinor will do anything to protect her family, and has in the past, when her mother sold her virginity when she was seventeen. She’s certain Rohan wants her beautiful sister and is determined to keep her safe, and when it becomes apparent that he wants her she’s determined not to fall under his spell. Easier said than done. He’s pretty damned luscious. As for Elinor, serving tea to the wicked members of the Heavenly Host is just the sort of thing she’d do.

JC: Enough about men. Why a series? Do you like writing them? What does a series do that stand alone books don’t?

AS: I never used to like series, either to read or to write. If I read something out of order, as I invariably did, I felt like I was at a party where everyone knew each other but I knew nobody. However, I fell into it with the ICE series, which started as a stand-alone, and I became quite entranced with creating a world and then exploring it from different characters’ viewpoints. I also loved the chance of seeing how my previous couples were doing now that normal life had returned. This series is generational. Rohan, his son, and his son’s daughter, so I get to play with three very different historical periods, while still living with the Heavenly Host and the wicked Rohans.

JC: Hot Rakes Through the Ages? Works for me. But as I said, enough about men. What’s your favorite thing about Ruthless?

AS: Francis Rohan. I’m completely in love with him. He’s mad, bad and dangerous to know, wicked and shattered and worthy of redemption, and he’s got mad skills (is it skillz?) in bed. What’s not to love? Plus he can be taught – Elinor gets him to behave, though he’s reluctant.

JC: Okay, let’s review: ENOUGH ABOUT MEN. Give me a BRIEF (one sentence) description of the rest of the books in the series, and lets talk about some heroines here, okay? Sheesh.

AS: RECKLESS is the story of Miss Charlotte Spenser, curious spinster and best friend of the scandalous Lady Whitmore, who attends a meeting of the Heavenly Host in disguise and runs afoul of her longtime crush, the charmingly wicked Adrian Rohan, who proceeds to deflower her most thoroughly, then finds he can’t get enough of her when they return t London. .
And BREATHLESS is classic Beauty and the Beast. The beauty is Miranda Rohan, headstrong and socially ruined daughter of Adrian and Charlotte, and the beast is a scarred, manipulative, vengeful man known as the Scorpion, who finds Miranda to be the perfect combination of irresistible beauty and instrument of revenge against her older brother. Kidnapping, forced marriage and fabulous sex ensue. The only attempted murder is when Miranda bashes the hero on the head with an old oar.
Yeah, not one sentence. Have you ever known me to be brief?

JC: It was worth a shot. So that’s Ruthless on August 1, Reckless on Sept. 1, and Breathless on Oct. 1. Good. No waiting. Now what’s in the future? Historical romance or romantic suspense, or something completely different?

AS: Well, something completely different is already written, but that’s coming out in disguise so people will have to guess.

JC: In disguise? It’s coming out as a French maid? Explain, please.

AS: A mysterious new name that I’m not allowed to talk about.

JC: Okay then. So after the French maid, there’s . . .

AS: There’s another Rohan book, plus I’ve got a steampunk/gaslight romance series I’m playing with, not to mention a killer romantic suspense idea. Mira has nixed the idea of more ICE books, but my imagination is boundless. I’ve got a million things I want to write, including a fairy tale book with you and Lani, where, believe it or not, I wouldn’t do Beauty and the Beast, but Cinderella in love with the wicked vizier. But we’ve all got too much work right now. Our time will come.

JC: Yes, it will because I need to write Red Riding Hood and Lani’s Rapunzel falls for Robert Downey Jr. But first . . . THE ROHANS! Check out the cool cover (click on the image and you can see it bigger (no comments, Krissie). And also there’s a FREE DOWNLOAD. You can get it for Adobe, Microsoft and Mobipocket here; for Kindle here; and for Nook here. Because Anne Stuart loves you, that’s why.