Today I am so excited to welcome our guests! Two of my favorite historical authors are here to visit today! Ava March and K.J. Charles are here to talk to us about their latest releases, Viscount’s Wager (Ava) and A Fashionable Indulgence (KJ). They have also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving K.J. and Ava a big welcome!

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Writing Regency M/M: A chat with Ava March and KJ Charles

KJC: You’ve written a lot of Regency m/m, whereas this is my first venture into the period (I’m Victorian by inclination). Obviously the Regency is a classic period setting for romance, but is there any particular aspect that drew you to it?

AM: I love the element of excess from the Georgian era coupled with the strict adherence to proper behavior that comes to characterize the Victorian era.

KJC: Oh yes, the Regency as betwixt and between.

AM: Also, when I ‘found’ romances years ago, I fell in love with Regency romances. Devoured them. So when I started writing my own, I naturally went to that era.

KJC: Yes, I bet a lot of us start on Regency. All those rules of propriety that are made to be broken, which of course goes double for queer romance. And also, the clothes. I do love the clothes. Plus, also, it was very much a period where men were open about their feelings. The Romantic poets, the way men were allowed to be sentimental, the way society as a whole was moving from an ideal of marriage-as-arrangement to the dream of finding passionate romantic love.

AM: Oh, yes, the clothes! I love Regency men’s clothes. All those layers to remove. I love a man in a suit, and during the Regency (and Victorian), men essentially wore suits all the time. Wasn’t Brummell’s attire the basis for today’s men’s suits?

KJC: I blame Brummell for a lot. I like the Georgian peacocks: men in absurdly bright colours and wild fabrics and clocked stockings. Boo to restraint.

AM: And the heels. Can’t forget about the Georgian peacocks and their heeled shoes.

KJC: Yes, it’s funny. On the one hand we know that homosexual acts could get you a death sentence so people have this view of the period as very scary for male/male couples, but at the same time, the general modes of behaviour for men then were more free. Men were affectionate to each other, able to express their feelings, and could dress like RuPaul if they wanted. (Well, not quite, but you know what I mean.)

AM: Definitely! And men could travel together, stay at each other’s homes, go all sorts of places together without having anyone bat an eye. In a way, it makes it easier for male/male couples to spend time together when compared to male/female couples of the period.

KJC: Yes, I’ve not written a het Regency, but there of course you have a lot more problems getting your upper class characters at least together.

I did find out when I was researching that there was quite a movement in the turn of the century to lift the ban on male homosexual acts. Jeremy Bentham wrote a paper on why sodomy shouldn’t be illegal. I mean, gay rights in 1800. History could have taken a different and better path.

AM: But the church was so entrenched and so a part of the monarchy back then. Still, to think how the world could have been a different place over the last 200 years if the ban had been lifted back then…

KJC: There was this awful move towards Evangelism in the 1820s onwards that pretty much took the fun out of everything. All sorts of nascent movements towards women’s rights and freer sexuality got squashed.

AM: Which lead to the Victorian era and all that repression. Dreary times indeed, but it makes for good conflict fodder in romance novels. And in romances, we can give our characters the HEA they deserved and should have been able to have.

KJC: That’s one of the reasons I like historical romance. Let’s do the past again, and this time, how about we get it right.

AM: Indeed!


Blurb

Fashionable-Indulgence_03_04_15

When he learns that he could be the heir to an unexpected fortune, Harry Vane rejects his past as a Radical fighting for government reform and sets about wooing his lovely cousin. But his heart is captured instead by the most beautiful, chic man he’s ever met: the dandy tasked with instructing him in the manners and style of the ton. Harry’s new station demands conformity—and yet the one thing he desires is a taste of the wrong pair of lips.

After witnessing firsthand the horrors of Waterloo, Julius Norreys sought refuge behind the luxurious facade of the upper crust. Now he concerns himself exclusively with the cut of his coat and the quality of his boots. And yet his protégé is so unblemished by cynicism that he inspires the first flare of genuine desire Julius has felt in years. He cannot protect Harry from the worst excesses of society. But together they can withstand the high price of passion.

 

viscounts wager

You never forget your first love, but is a second chance worth the gamble?

Anthony, Viscount Rawling, knows exactly what he wants in life and he isn’t above having a look about London for it. When he spots recently widowed Gabriel Tilden at a ton function, he thinks he might have found love…again.

Gabriel is as gorgeous and reserved as he was when he broke Anthony’s heart seven years ago. But they were only adolescents then…surely Anthony won’t hold the incident against him. And especially not when the attraction between them is stronger than ever.

Gabriel came to London in search of distraction, and a teasing Anthony is impossible to resist. As Anthony introduces Gabriel to the pleasures that can be found in the city—and in his bedchamber—their bond deepens into something more. Yet both men are hiding secrets that could pull them apart forever…


Bio

Ava March and KJ Charles are rewriting the past one HEA at a time in Viscount’s Wager, published by Carina Press on 10 August, and A Fashionable Indulgence, published by Loveswept on 11 August.

Viscount’s Wager

A Fashionable Indulgence


Giveaway

K.J. and Ava have brought a great giveaway for their book tour.  It includes copies of each book and a $25 ARE gift certificate. Just follow the Rafflecopter link below to enter. 

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