Please welcome Beverley Oakley aka Beverley Eikli back to the blog. You may remember she was here in May and shared another story – Rake’s Honour — and her tale of being imprisoned in French Guyana. Today she has another story of her time in French Guyana, another book (Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma), and a great treat for you – in the form of a giveaway. Leave your comments for Beverley – one person who does will win a copy of Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma.
My Unusual Apprenticeship as a Romance Author in French Guyana
By Beverley Oakley (also writing as Beverley Eikli)
Flying eight-hour sorties with a lonely pilot above the French Guyanese jungle and Greenland’s ice cap was a great apprenticeship for a romance author.
When I was newly married I joined my husband in the skies, working for a Canadian airborne geophysical survey company which sent us on contracts all over the world. He flew while I operated the computer in the back of the aircraft.
However as Flight and Duty restrictions didn’t apply to the operators I worked seven-day rosters with a variety of pilots. Many of them had been in the field for weeks, if not months, and were missing their families and girlfriends.
Cocooned in a Cessna 404 with just the pilot and no room to move for such long periods was often physically difficult when temperatures or turbulence were extreme, and could be boring. However there’s something about being in a confined space with a fellow human being for hours on end that seems to facilitate unexpectedly deep and personal confessions and revelations. Over the years I gained a deeper insight into the male psyche than I might have had I remained a journalist on a South Australian newspaper.
French Guyana was a difficult contract. Air conditioning interfered with the data gathering equipment so the high heat and humidity and non-stop turbulence sapped us of energy – and pretty much everthing that was in our stomachs. Using my favourite Regency era parlance, I perfected the timing of ‘casting up my accounts’ in the precious seconds between closing off a survey line on the computer and setting up the coordinates for a new one. After seven weeks in the field, separated from my husband who was finishing the Greenland contract, I was almost skeletal.
Even though I write Regency Historical Romances, these experiences deepened my understanding of what motivates people in a wide variety of situations.
A few weeks ago I blogged here about honour, incarceration and redemption being recurring themes in my traditional Regencies written under my Beverley Eikli name and my sensual Regencies written under my Beverley Oakley name.
Honour is often the major motivation for my characters, whether they’re rakes – such as in my last Regency – Rake’s Honour – or consummate gentlemen, such as Lord Lovett, my hero in my just-released Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma.
Redemption is another of my favourite themes. Surprisingly, it is my naïve heroine Cressida, Lady Lovett, who is redeemed by the end of Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma.
As was normal 200 years ago, Cressida is not equipped with the vocabulary or knowledge to explain that while she wants to continue her loving relationship with her husband she can’t bear to be intimate when she knows the consequences may well be another pregnancy.
Prompted by her jealous, bullying cousin to discover the truth behind the rumours of her husband’s philandering, Cressida stumbles upon the means to save her marriage, as well as a 20-year-old mystery. It’s now that she uses her sweet nature – and hidden determination – to secure someone else’s happy ending as well as her own, showing surprising depths of courage, daring and spontaneity along the way.
Cover Blurb From Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma:
Eight years of marriage has not dimmed Cressida, Lady Lovett’s, love for her husband, but the birth of five children has cooled her ardour.
Now rumours are circulating that the kind, dashing and seemingly ever—patient Justin, Lord Lovett, has returned to the arms of his former mistress and Cressida believes her choices are stark—welcome her husband back to the marital bed and risk a sixth pregnancy she fears will kill her, or lose him forever.
With the astonishing discovery that methods exist to enable the innocent Cressida to transform herself into the vixen of her husband’s dreams without expanding her nursery, she seeks to repay the woman responsible for her empowerment…only to discover her unlikely benefactress was, and perhaps still is, her husband’s mistress.
I hope you enjoy reading about the book, or the book itself, and I look forward to returning here on July 19 to talk about my next release – The Cavalier – set during a fierce battle between Puritans and Royalists in 1648.
You can read more on my website: http://www.beverleyoakley.com or get the book here: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1718
Or follow me on twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/BeverleyOakley
Commenters will also go into the draw to win a copy of Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma.
Hi Karen,
I’m blogging here again shortly (on the 19th if I haven’t got the date wrong), so after that the draw will be done.
Good luck!
You have the day right. The blog is up. I will see you tomorrow.
Just wondering when a winner for Beverley’s book will be drawn? Can you tell I hope I’ll win it! It sounds like a terrific story and one right my alley!
Hi Karen,
I’m not sure whether she has already drawn and awarded the prize or whether she will still be drawing for it. I know she’s been pretty busy with a couple of book releases right on top of each other. But she will be on the blog tomorrow (July 19) I will ask her while she’s here.
Hi Emma,
Sounds like you know all about the whole juggling act. It’s fun and exhausting – in different ratios depending on the day.
Hi Karen,
I’ve just read your comment after waking up on a lazy Sunday morning here in Australia. (I don’t often get a sleep-in so this was a treat!)
The Regency is a fun genre to read, isn’t it? And to write. Before I was published I wrote in the Georgian period, particularly the mid to late seventeen hundreds. However the Regency was so much more popular and a genre in itself so I found there were a lot more ‘slots’ available, first in competitions and then when getting published.
I don’t have difficulty changing time periods if it’s one of the time periods that caught my fancy growing up, because I have years of research to draw on. Well, enough to impart the right flavour and, I hope, establish credibility in terms of the psychology of the characters living at that time.
I have a book coming out on July 16 called The Cavalier that’s set on the eve of the siege of a castle – and finishes two days later – during the English Civil war. It was my chance to write about knights and ladies and castles, I suppose, since that was my first favourite genre. At 15 I used to write great sagas about a medieval family called The Cavanaughs. This, however, is about Round Heads and Cavaliers.
I was always one of those anachronistic children who used old fashioned language and dreamed of living in another time and devoured social histories to the exclusion of contemporary kids’ and young adult stories. So, history is really my life-long hobby, in tandem with writing.
You’ve probably read a number of great contemporary Regency writers, if that’s your favourite genre. Perhaps Julia Quinn, Anna Campbell..? A ground breaking book for me – a long time ago, now – was Judith McNaught’s ‘Whitney my Love’. And, of course, Loretta Chase.
Enjoy your weekend, Karen!
Hi Beverley,
It’s nice to meet you and read about your work. You are new-to-me so I’m looking closely at your Regency books because that genre is my favorite.
What challenges do you think come into play when switching time periods for your books? How different was your research when you decided to write historical books set in much early and much later centuries from the early 19th century?
BTW, thanks for the giveaway. Hope I get lucky! It really sounds like a good book.
Hi Laurie,
Medicine murder was a big problem throughout my dad’s career in Basutoland. (The country gained independence and became known as Lesotho in 1966). In order for a chief to retain the respect of of his villagers he (though sometimes it was a chieftainess) would order his minions to murder an innocent. Often this was someone weak or disabled, though not always. The traditional Basuto hat has a basket weave type platform at the top and this is where some of the flesh of the victim would be put as a sign of the chief’s ‘power’. My dad used says that the death sentence was absolutely no disincentive.
Our gardener’s wife was a witch doctor who terrified my nanny and caused many domestic problems for my parents. I’m nearly finished writing the book and am really enjoying something different, though I love my Regencies.
Congratulations, Beverley. I’ve been looking through your blog, and love the stories about how you balance your writing with family commitments. I’m an author too, and juggle that and my training business with a family – I’m always interested to hear about how other women ‘do it all’.
All the best!
Hi Nina,
Thanks so much for your comments on my Regency women. I’m glad they work for you.
One of my pet hates is heroines in historicals who behave with 20th century sensibilities. For me, the very fascination with wanting to write about the period is with portraying how women would have to call on very different inner and outer resources to cope with situations. Sometimes they are situations or difficulties that we’d be familiar with in 20th century life and we’d take navigating them with ease for granted.
Sometimes, the law would not be on their side – like in Lady Farquhar’s Butterfly – where the only way for this heroine to get her own child back is to use subterfuge.
My tagline is: “Women trapped by convention in a man’s world”. Since I was 12 I’ve been fascinated by the strictures of duty and convention placed upon women and thought how easy it is for us, today, to take for granted the freedom we have. The psychology of my historical heroines, is therefore something I work extremely hard at. Believability is crucial but it must be balanced with making my heroines strong enough to win the sympathy of my readers.
By contrast, the heroine of Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma is not strong until she realises she’ll do whatever it takes to win back her husband. I think that’s universal, though. Love is a powerful motivator.
Hi again Beverly,
I like that line – ‘women trapped by convention in a man’s world’ – yes – that’s what I love about a good regency romance too, but I’ve never been able to put it so eloquently! I have to say – i think you really do nail it! I love that your heroines are true to the period, but, like Austen’s women, they are strong and determined to find a way to survive in that world.
I’m also excited to read in your response below that you are going to write a 1960′s story set in Africa. I can’t wait to read that, particularly given the real life experiences you can draw on from your life and your families in that part of the world. When will it be finished?
Hi Beverly, I’ve been following your work since Lady Farquhar’s Butterfly – and bought an e-reader recently – in part so I could read your e-novels… I love your heroine’s, so it was great to read that you draw on modern day people to give life to your regency characters – I guess that explains how lifelike they are. I’d love to know more about how you manage to write 20th century women into regency roles – how do you choose when to side with ‘convention’ and when to let them rebel – just enough to be tantalising and meaningful to us modern gals.
nina
Yes, I am writing full time. I write Regency Historicals with lots of intrigue under my Beverley Eikli name and sensual historicals under my Beverley Oakley name.
I’ve also changed genres for my work in progress which is an illicit diamond smuggling romantic thriller set in Lesotho in 1960. Lesotho is the African mountain kingdom where I was born and where my father was a district commissioner for many years. He prosecuted a number of medicine murder and illegal diamond trading cases and many of the incidents in my book are based on real-life events.
It’s no surprise the hero is a bush pilot, just like my husband whom I met in Botswana. He was another great resource.
Sounds fascinating Beverley. I always find it fun to stretch a bit outside of what I’ve done before as an author…or to do something a little differently.
You’re changing not only historical period but genre with your latest work in progress. What are you finding most fun and most challenging about this shift in time period and genre?
You got my attention with the line about your father prosecuting medicine murder cases. By medicine murder you mean premeditated murder or medical malpractice?
Curious.
I no longer work in the survey business but my husband still works in aviation which took us to Solomon Islands for two years and Japan for one before we settled near Melbourne, in Victoria.
As for the cover art, I love the cover for Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma. The author can make suggestions and I didn’t want a clinch cover. I like the elegance of this very much. It captures the essence of the book, I think.
I like the elegance and the level of detail. It’s funny how certain things almost always appeal. I’m a big fan of detail whether it is expressed in writing, quilt fabrics, art, or cover art on books.
I particularly like the level of detail in the castle/house.
Hi Beverly, I’m a long time fan, been following you since Lady Farquhar’s Butterfly, and I just bought an e-reader – and your decision to move to the e platform was a big part of that.
I can’t wait to delve into your e-publications!
It was great to read about how you drew on the people around you to understand the motivations for your characters – I’d love to know more about how you bridged the gap – particularly the women. I wonder if that’s why I love your regency heroine’s so much… They live in that world but have the spunk and verve of the women I know. So – how do you know when to ‘hold them back’ with convention, and when to let them stretch out and thrill us all with some ‘blue stocking rebellion’?
Also (sorry to be a space hog – but after reading your blog I have to ask…) when are you going to write some books based in Africa – drawing more directly on your experiences… it all sounds SO amazing and exciting – would make a thrilling backdrop to a sizzling romance!
No, Laurie, I no longer work in the industry though I still retain some of those friendships from 12-plus years ago. You develop a different kind of relationship when you’re working in the field 24/7 for three months.
We lived in Solomon Islands and Japan for a few years before settling in Victoria 4 years ago.
As for the cover, I didn’t want a ‘clinch’ cover and TEB was really accommodating. I was really happy with the elegant cover I got for Lady Lovert’s Little Dilemma.
I’m sure you do develop a different level of relationship when you are working together 24/7 in what at least begins as a strange place. I would think that the job itself would require quite a bit of looking out for each other…and that would inspire a certain degree of closeness. I also think when you’re with someone 24/7 you see the whole person – good moods, bad moods, and everything in between. It’s kind of the difference between dating and living together.
I really like the cover of Lady Lovett’s Little Dilemma. It’s a beautiful cover. Did you have a lot of input on the cover…or not much?
Thanks, Wilma. It was a very interesting time in my life. Some of my Regency characters who obviously lived 200 years ago have benefited in their characterisation from my studying at close quarters the traits of their twentieth century counterparts.
No character is based on any one person I’ve known, but there are often elements of several people I may have dealt with which help to shape a character. It’s a great benefit to have worked in a crew situation for weeks or months so as to observe interactions and see what is, or might be, the foundation of the hierarchy that’s developed.
Do you still do the same or similar work now Beverley? Or do you write full time now?
Do you find there are big differences between the 20th century real people you dealt with and the regency characters you create? If so…in what ways are they different? What do you think accounts for the differences? Just different historical influences or something else?
Very interesting post. I’d love to win the book.