Arizona Dreamin' Romance Readers Event

PRESS RELEASE: Arizona Dreamin' is Arizona's First and Only Romance Reader Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHANDLER, AZ

May 21, 2012

The upcoming Arizona Dreamin' Romance Reader Event gives readers a chance to get up close and personal with twenty authors of various genres of romantic fiction in this single day event.

"When people hear the word 'romance' they don't realize that romance books encompass every genre of fiction," says event founder, Kris Tualla. "Mystery, historical, paranormal, inspirational, sci-fi, suspense - romantic fiction offers it all. And the reader is guaranteed a satisfying outcome!"

A "Man of Our Dreams" contest will provide entertainment during the buffet dinner, the event bookstore is offering discounted pricing on participating authors' books, and proceeds from all raffle items will benefit Huntington's Disease Society of America. In addition, attendees will be able to speak with editors from two successful e-publishing houses and explore possibilities for their own writing careers.

Tickets are still available in limited quantities through May 31, 2012. For more information, please go to http://arizonadreamin.wordpress.com/

Arizona Dreamin' Romance Reader Event

June 2, 2012

Windmill Inn & Suites

Chandler, Arizona

About Arizona Dreamin' Romance Reader Event: This event provides readers of various genres of romantic fiction the chance to interact with their favorite authors, and meet new favorite authors. Patterned after successful national events held in the eastern states, Arizona Dreamin' has brought the concept West, and added a boutique twist by capping attendance and keeping the experience intimate.

Event Chair: Kris Tualla

kris@kristualla.com

623-695-6873

Here's an photo of an early Edwardian dance card. It's it gorgeous? As far as I can tell, dance cards began to lose popularity sometime in the 1920s. Of course, now, no one reserves dances and few even know how to dance. Sigh. Too bad. 

The dance card, the programme du bal or Carnet de bal, is a booklet with a decorative cover which lists dance titles, composers, and provides a place to write in the name of the gentleman a lady intends to have as a partner for each specific dance.
Opinions vary as to when dance cards came into popular in England. While I can’t find evidence that they were used in England during the Regency era, they were made in Birmingham, England as early as 1803. According to my research, Austrians used dance cards before the rest of Europe. Later, the use of dance cards may have spread as everyone returned to their various corners of Europe from the Congress of Vienna which was basically a big party disguised as a series of series of negotiations that officially ended the Napoleonic Wars (David King’s Vienna 1814 is a great source for The Congress). By the time Queen Victoria ascended the throne, dance cards were widely used and gained wider popularity at balls and assemblies in sometime in the 1830s.

Above is a photo above of a private collection. Each one is different and elaborate, made from precious metals and jewels like silver, ivory or mother of pearl, bone ivory, tortoise shell. They also vary greatly in size and style. A few are even inscribed "Bal" which is French for ball (see close-up at left).

In the previous era, formal balls  began with minuets, danced one couple at a time, in a rigidly prescribed order defined by the social rank of the dancers. The highest ranking couple led off the first dance. The man would withdraw, and the lady would dance with the next highest ranking gentleman. She would withdraw and then he danced the next minuet with the next highest ranking lady, and so on until everyone had a turn. Traditionally, they gave over the second half of the evening to country dances, done in a lengthwise formation. Even so, rank again became important in deciding who lead off the set. That person also chose which dance they all would do.

Anyway, at the time of the Vienna Conference, country dancing and formal minuets were losing popularity. Precedence and etiquette which dictated to whom one could dance had begun to fade, and the long country dances were replaced by shorter pair dances like the waltz, valse, polka, lancers and quadrille. Because of the new, less formal dancing and shorter dances, people could do more of them each evening. It probably became harder for young ladies to remember which young gentleman she'd promised a dance. Some sources mention ladies writing names on the underside of their fans to help them remember promised dances but I don't know how often or at what point that occurred. At one point, ladies used decorative notebooks to keep track of each name. Many ladies already carried about small notebooks that opened like fans in their reticules to jot down shopping lists and so forth. Naturally, they used them to record their evening's dance partners.

Later in the century, dance cards became pre-printed booklets of paper which listed each dance the musicians would play, in order. They became progressively more decorative and elaborate as the century progressed. Ribbon or cord attached tiny pencils to the card or program by which ladies let the cards dangle from their wrist. Many preserved them as a souvenir of the evening.

So anyway, if you've ever wondered why I never use dance cards in my Regency historical romance novels, now you know.

In England, dueling was part of a long-standing code of honor, far beyond a mere tradition. Gentlemen took their dueling very seriously; they would rather die than be dishonored. Does your heart go pitter patter just at the sound of that? Mine sure does. How many man that honorable do you know? Okay, maybe we'd call it misplaced pride or an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, but hey, that was a different world with a different set of rules.

By the Regency Era, dueling was outlawed. However, duels still happened more frequently than many people knew. The problem was, because courts were made up of peers, they were reluctant to charge another peer with murder as a result of a duel. There is a case where one nobleman was charged with murder and tried, but used the defense that his behavior was gentlemanly and honorable, meaning that he acted within the proper code of conduct. He was acquitted by his peers.

If the duelists were socially equal, or at least similar, the gentleman who was offended would tell the man who’d wronged him that he should choose his “second,” a close friend or family member who would look out for his best interests. If he was really incensed, he might slap him with his glove, but that was considered extreme and beneath gentlemanly behavior, as it was the ultimate insult and probably resulted in a fight then and there.

The procedure for issuing a challenge was very specific. A gentleman never challenged a social inferior. For instance, a gentleman of significance with ties to the aristocracy or nobility would never challenge a commoner, such as a blacksmith or a farmer. Also, if there was a significant age difference, the duel would not be extended.


After the verbal challenge – or perhaps warning would be a better word – was issued, depending on the severity of the offense, the other might have a choice; he could either apologize, or he could accept. Sometimes, the apology would not be accepted, often if there were a third person who’d been wronged such as a lady's honor. (Okay, call me crazy but that almost makes me want to swoon.)

The next day, supposedly after heads had cooled, the wronged man who wished to duel would send his “second” with a written letter challenging the duel. The other may chose to apologize or accept the challenge. If accepted, he would choose swords or pistols and name the time and the place.

When the allotted day arrived, they met, probably in a remote place where they wouldn’t be caught by the law, and the seconds inspected the weapons to be used. A final opportunity for an apology could be given. If not, the seconds decided if the duel should be fought to (a) first blood, or (b) until one can no longer stand, or (c) to the death. Once that was decided, the opponents dueled and the seconds watched to insure that nothing dishonorable happened.

If one of the duelers becomes too injured to continue, occasionally the second would step in and duel. Sometimes, the seconds were hot-headed and ended up dueling each other as well.


As horrible as it sounds to our modern selves, these gentlemen took their honor very seriously, and considered death preferable to living with the label of a coward, a label that would follow them and their families for years.

And, maybe it’s me, but there a certain romance about a gentleman brave enough and protective enough to be willing to risk death defending my honor from another man who’d besmirched it.

A duel is what leads to all the trouble for my hero in my newest book "The Stranger She Married" and causes events he wishes desperately he could change, especially when the duel goes awry and causes pain to an entire family.

I'm sure glad my husband isn't likely to try it...

Arizona Dreamin' 2012 is only 22 DAYS away!!!

Yesterday the committee met with the hotel to finalize everything
and we were told the original block of rooms is SOLD OUT!

Don't panic!

You can still get a room at the drastically reduced rate of only $79/night for a suite and believe me, the suites are gorgeous!
BUT...
You must book by May 20th!

Call Kenya Griffith at the Windmill Inn directly at 480-917-4468 TODAY!

Can't wait to see you.

Don't need a hotel? You can still get a limited number of tickets for the big event itself. Go here for more information about the biggest girls' night out of the year!

Guest author interview Anna del C. Dye

Donna: Hi Anna! Thanks for being in my blog this week. So, tell us about your upcoming release. 

Anna: I have  new release: A Royal Elf in Abalon available on Amazon, B&N. My website will all have the links. 

Donna: What inspired you to write this book?

Anna: Amathis, the queen in the story. She is a selfish, demanding, and cruel woman. She forced me to write it.

Donna: What fantasy bug bit you and got you started writing?

Anna: It was a great masterful bug and it bit me hard a few years ago—The name of the bug J. R. R. Tolkien. I love Lord of the Rings and that is my inspiration for my Elf Series.

 Donna: So tell us what is this book about?

Anna: A princess of a mankind kingdom, who is so sheltered by her mother that she makes some unsafe choices growing up. They will change her life and that of her kingdom as she faces challenges that she isn’t prepared for. It also tells of a young Elf who feels an unsafe fascination about the nearby mankind kingdom. Against his elders’ wishes, he ventures there, finding heartaches, betrayal, and murder.  

 Donna: What’s the first rule in building a fantasy world?

Anna: To stay true to the rules. If you say beings in that world don’t do something, don’t have them doing it later without explaining what changed so that now they can do what you said they couldn’t. 

Donna: Have you ever wanted to write your book in one direction but your characters wanted to go in another direction. What did you do?

Anna: Your characters are the most important parts of your book. So, if they want to go left you go left, even if you wanted to go right. If you don’t, it will be quite hard to make them change and your tale will feel forced. I want my tales to go smoothly, so I don’t fight the characters, they know better than me.  

Donna: Sometimes people envision an author’s life as being really glamorous—I know mine isn’t! Tell us what’s the most unglamorous thing you’ve done in the past week?

Anna:Change dirty diapers.

 Donna: Definitely not glamorous! What are you working on now?

Anna: The Flying Elf, which will be my Elf book for next year. 

Donna: Thanks so much for sharing with us, Anna.

Anna: Thank you for inviting me to come. I had a wonderful time visiting with you.

Donna: If you’d like to find out more about Anna please visit: http://www.annadelc.com, and to read reviews of Anna’s books visit http://ning.it/dIqC6n or Barnes & Noble http://ning.it/evrfne