"The Complicated Heroine" with Guest Blogger Victoria Dahl

hosted by Jo Robertson

We are so fortunate to have Victoria Dahl, whose debut book To Tempt a Scotsman was released last year. Her newest release from Kensington, A Rake's Guide to Pleasure, is absolutely wonderful. Victoria writes my kind of historicals -- spicy, sexy, and smart. If you like clever heroines with nefarious backgrounds and a hero who's able to sift through her exterior layers, you'll love this book.

Victoria: It's so great to be back with the Romance Bandits! Thanks for having me again. I'm glad I didn't wear out my welcome the last time I was here. My first heroine, Alexandra Huntington in To Tempt a Scotsman, was a scandalous woman. A very naughty heroine (though that wasn't QUITE the word used to describe her in some emails I received). I've blogged plenty of times about writing a scandalous heroine, but today I'd like to talk about a different kind of heroine. Let’s call her The Complicated Heroine." (Some people might call her The Unsympathetic Heroine, but I’m not talking to them right now, so there.)

So who is this complicated woman whose story is told in A Rake's Guide to Pleasure? Well, her real name is Emma Jensen, but she has a few aliases. Actually… her real name isn’t Emma. Even I’m having trouble keeping track of this slippery girl. Her real name is Emily, but she goes by Emma, as well as the Dowager Lady Denmore… not her real title. And the widowed Mrs. Kern… also completely false. You may be catching on to a bit of the problem here.

Jo: I gotta tell you, Victoria. Emma sounds like my kinda heroine.

Victoria: So what do I mean by the complicated heroine? Well, she’s not simple, obviously. She’s not necessarily easy to love. Her darker motivations aren’t offset by grand, selfless ideals. You probably don’t want to be her when you grow up, even if you love her hero (Mmmm… Hart). Hell, I wouldn’t set foot in Emma’s shoes if you paid me. So what’s up with this chick? What’s so complicated about her?

Jo: I want to remind our readers that Hart, aka Somerhart, is the brother of our heroine in To Tempt a Scotsman. To have a sister like Alexandra, you know he's got to be one strong Alpha male and a perfect match for Emma.

Victoria: Let’s take a look at the complicated heroine in A Rake's Guide to Pleasure.

Complication #1: Emma is a liar. Seriously. I’ll let Somerhart, the hero, put it in his own words: “She was a liar. A consummate liar. A woman who lied about important things. Her life, her past, her feelings, her thoughts.”

Ouch! Emma isn’t mentally ill or anything. She’s lying for a reason. A good reason, though it has nothing to do with generosity. She’s not trying to save the widdle orphans or rescue her sister from a brothel. She’s lying for her own benefit. Sooo… I guess that makes her selfish as well.
Ha! Emma is simply trying to protect herself from a world that has been awfully cruel to her. She has a plan, and part of that plan has to do with pretending to be somebody else. The other part of the plan is…

Complication #2: She’s an unrepentant gambler. She will bet on anything as long as she feels she can evaluate the odds properly. A foot race, a card game, or an upcoming duel. If she thinks she can turn a profit, she’ll place a bet. In fact, the whole reason she is in London is to gamble her meager inheritance into an amount that will support her for the rest of her life and free her from dependency on anyone.

Complication #3: Her sexuality is a tangled mess. Emma is a virgin pretending to be a mature widow, and she’s very good at that pretense because she might be the least innocent virgin you will meet in a (non-erotic) historical. She witnessed her father’s orgiastic house parties from a very young age and is interested in trying some of that stuff out for herself. But she’s a virgin who’s not supposed to be a virgin, so she can’t really indulge her curiosity.

Or can she??? *snicker* You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Jo: Okay, you had me at "orgiastic house parties." I just finished the book and our readers have GOT to read it. It's an amazing historical with lots of pathos, emotion, and, yes, sex, the good kind with the person you're in love with even if you don't know it. Ooops, sorry, Victoria, I got carried away.

Victoria: It's okay, Jo.

Complication #4: Well, Emma can be cruel. When she pushes the hero away, she’s not screwing around. As Eloisa James said about this part, “This is no nimby-pimby novel where the heroine wails, ‘Go away,’ and the hero walks around the block before going back. Emma is a grown woman and she makes him go. Really go.”

Jo: This is a wonderfully heart-breaking scene too.

Victoria: I’ve already seen a few complaints about this scene. Emma is deliberately cruel to Somerhart, but she has a reason; she is terrified. Why?

Complication #5: She has trust issues. This probably goes without saying. *g* She’s scared to death of loving the hero and even more afraid he might love her. God, this is all making me tired. This was kind of a draining book! I think Eloisa James, in continuing her review, summed it up nicely when she called it a “complicated, somewhat demented love affair.”

Jo: I know what you mean. I had to put the book down and walk away for a moment or two, reminding myself "It's only a book, it's only a book." So much emotion!

Victoria: I love Eloisa's quote. I think it captures the feel of the book perfectly. If any of you have read it, you’ll have to let me know what you think.

Do you like your heroines complicated? If so, who’s your favorite complicated (maybe even unsympathetic) heroine? Was she redeemed by the end of the book? (FYI, mine is Sugar Beth from Susan Elizabeth Phillip’s Ain’t She Sweet. I thought she was completely unredeemable at the start of that book.)

Or if YOU were the heroine of a romance novel, would you be spicy and complicated or sweet and lovable?

We'll be giving away a copy of A Rake's Guide to Pleasure to one random lucky commenter, Banditas included, so be sure to leave a comment.

Interview with Victoria Dahl

by Jo Robertson

Hello, Banditas, Honorary Banditas, and Readers, today we’re very fortunate to have new historical writer VICTORIA DAHL with us.

Victoria Dahl’s debut novel TO TEMPT A SCOTSMAN from Kensington caught my attention for two reasons: the hot, hot cover (check out the deep-red, sexy color – isn’t that a gorgeous cover?) and the wickedly handsome Scotsman, Collin Blackburn, the hero of her story. I love a spunky heroine who isn’t afraid to step outside the strictures of her society. Lady Alexandra Huntington is such a woman and she’s more than a match for Collin Blackburn, who hounds her with a vengeance because he believes she’s responsible for the death of his brother.

So, I in turn, hounded Victoria until she agreed to interview with the Romance Bandits LOL. As you know we interview writers by invitation only, but having read her book, I knew Dahl was a talented author with many lovely books in her career. TTAS is sexy, fast-paced, and utterly delightful. You can click on the title and order it from Amazon. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Jo: We love call stories in the Lair, Victoria. Can you tell us about your road to publication and how you received your first contract?

Victoria: Hello, Banditas and readers! I’m so excited to be here! Thank you so much for the invitation, Jo. After reading that intro, you are now one of my best friends, so I hope you’re prepared to see a lot of me. Wanna cuddle?

Jo: Hehehehe, method to my madness.

Victoria: My road to publication was a fairly long one. I’ve been reading historical romance since about the age of twelve. I always hoped to be a writer, but I didn’t start seriously writing until seven years ago when I had my first child and became a stay at home mom. Cleaning the house wouldn’t hold my attention even if I did bother to do it, so I knew I’d need something else to occupy my mind. My first manuscript sucked harder than my unused vacuum cleaner, but it was a book! And I’d written it!

Jo: You’ll be happy to learn that housecleaning is verboten in the Lair.

Victoria: I joined RWA and started entering contests. I finaled for the first time with my second manuscript, and then I was hooked on contests. Four years (and four manuscripts) later, I finaled in the Golden Heart with TO TEMPT A SCOTSMAN!!! It was an unbelievable experience even before I won. A whirlwind of sparkly chaos! And then I came home, and my agent sent out the book with a triumphant cover letter and… nothing. Ten months of nothing before I finally got the call from John at Kensington! Woo-hoo!

Jo: Collin Blackburn is exactly the kind of hero I adore – a principled man who comes up against a woman he has the wrong idea about from the get-go. How did you come up with your characters and the story for TTAS?

Victoria: Well, I love to torture my hero. I really do. If I can arrange a fake death to send him into a spiral of despair, I’ll do it in a heartbeat. Mmmm. So delicious. I’m sorry, what were we talking about?

Jo: Uh, dunno, I got lost in imagining your hero being tickled to death with a feather on his bare chest.

Victoria: Oh, yeah. I also love a very steady, reliable hero who falls for a wild girl, perhaps because my husband is very steady and reliable, and I might be a tad wild. *g* Since Collin is such a good guy, I had great opportunity to torture him with his misconceptions and doubts about the woman he loves. He doesn’t want to suspect her of doing wicked things, but she’s just so naughty! Just to be clear though, I really hate plots that are built on easily-dispelled misconceptions. I don’t think you’ll find any of those in TTAS.

Jo: Absolutely, not at all! You really kept me going with the plot complications.

Victoria: My very first idea for TTAS was the post-love scene. (The one in the cottage, Jo.) For some reason, my characters introduced themselves to me with this truly disastrous moment. I knew I had to write the book as soon as this scene popped into my head. I couldn’t resist a story about two lovers whose first time doesn’t end with butterflies and melting hearts. Instead of bringing them closer together, this love scene is just the start of the bumpy road ahead. (Pssst. Don’t worry. It all works out in the end, I promise.)

Jo: You did it beautifully. I know you have an exciting and happening blogspace going on at www.MySpace.com/VictoriaDahl. What kinds of topics do you like to discuss? I’ve popped over and seen some quite naughty dialogue.

Victoria: Oh, God. Very little that has to do with writing, I’m afraid. I used to blog with the History Hoydens about professional kinds of topics that mature readers might want to read about. But due to scheduling conflicts and a shift in my career, I had to bow out. (It’s a great blog, so check it out at HistoryHoydens.Blogspot.com) Now I do most of my blogging on my MySpace page, and there is no one there to guide me. Here are the last five topics as of mid-February: Irish Butts, My Great Weekend, The Mental Breakdown I Had While Planning my 6-Year-Old’s Birthday Party, A Hilarious & Disgusting Rap Video About George Washington and, finally, You May Have Heard a Rumor That I’m Strange. I also hold contests, of course. And sometimes I even talk about my books. Please stop by. If you don’t have a MySpace account, you won’t be able to post a comment, but I will be adding a mirror of my blog to LiveJournal in a few months. I’m waiting for my website redesign before I take that on. In the meantime, Friend me!

Jo: Everyone’s saying historicals are making a come back. Did you have any idea of writing in another genre when we all thought historicals were “dead”? Both your books are set in England, 1844. What did you find particularly attractive about this early Victorian period?

Victoria: Other genres? Definitely. I am a fickle book mistress. TTAS was the third historical I wrote, and then I decided the market had tanked. By the time I sold TTAS, I’d written three contemporary paranormals. Now, of course, that market is glutted. Ha! My agent actually took me on based on my paranormals, which are light and funny and sexy. She never even READ my historicals until after I won the GH. That’s how bad the market was! When my paranormals didn’t sell (not dark enough), my agent asked if I would write a straight contemporary… something funny and sexy but without vampires. I had never even considered it, frankly. I LOVE the automatic conflict that comes with both historicals and paranormals. Forced marriage or dating with fangs. You know what I’m saying. But I’d already written my second historical for Kensington, so I took a deep, terrified breath and wrote my first contemporary. Turns out my agent is a genius. It sold to HQN just a few months ago! As far as writing in the early Victorian era… I was drawn to this era because it is an age in transition. There are still a lot of Regency ideals left over and we haven’t gotten into the standard strict Victorian mores. It’s rather unexplored as far as romances go. I really wanted to write a story that didn’t automatically push preconceived notions into the reader’s head.

Jo: Your next historical from Kensington is coming out this year. Can you tell us a little about that?

Victoria: A RAKE’S GUIDE TO PLEASURE will be out in August and I can’t wait! I love this book. (Am I allowed to say that?)

Jo: Absolutely -- you, your mom and your agent LOL!

Victoria: The hero is the Duke of Somerhart, the older brother of the heroine of TTAS. He’s cold and controlled on the surface, but when he meets up with Lady Denmore, he finds himself tripping over bad decisions and an impulsive attraction. But Lady Denmore is not what she seems. In fact, she’s not Lady Denmore at all. Her real name is Emma Jensen and she’s masquerading as a titled widow in order to make her fortune at London’s gambling tables. Emma is hiding her real identity, and this masquerade is what draws her to Somerhart, a man who’s been hiding his true self for years. Together, they have to decide if love is really worth the gamble. (Warning: this book is a bit naughtier than TTAS, so if TTAS pushed any boundaries for you, approach with caution!)

Jo: I knew Somerhart would have his own book because I read the excerpt , but I’m so eager to read his complete story. And don’t worry, we Banditas love to go where no man – er, woman – has gone before!

Victoria: There’s a pretty long excerpt of RAKE’S GUIDE at the back of TTAS, which was a wonderful surprise for a first time author. Zebra’s Debut program has been an amazing opportunity for a lot of us new historical writers, btw. Kensington/Zebra is really stepping up to the plate, taking a chance on debut writers and giving readers a great opportunity to try out an unknown author for only $3.99. And the covers! Whew! I can’t say enough great things about this program. Distribution was amazing. TTAS was in Walmart!!!! One last thing… That contemporary I mentioned will be out with HQN in February 2009. TALK ME DOWN is the story of a young woman who goes back to her small hometown in Colorado and causes a huge stir with her secretive career, a mysterious stalker, and her burgeoning relationship with the chief of police. I like to say that if you like cold weather, hot sex, and dirty jokes, this is the book for you! But I haven’t walked away from historical in any way, shape or form. I’ll have another historical out with Kensington in 2009 as well as a novella in a Kensington historical anthology. Have I mentioned that 2009 will be a busy year? Thanks again to all the Banditas--and especially Jo!—for inviting me to come visit. I can’t wait to chat!!!

Victoria is giving away an autographed copy of TO TEMPT A SCOTSMAN to one lucky commenter. I promise you’ll adore it. I did!

Victoria will be hanging out in the Lair today so drop by, say hello, and shoot her any questions you have about her books, the genres, or her sassy MySpace blogspot. You can also check out her website at http://www.victoriadahl.com/.