The Romance Reviews

Friday 27 July 2012

The Lindas: Linda Banche and Her Historical Hilarity

Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

I like comedy and I like Regency. So, when I decided to write a romance, naturally I wrote regencies, and comedy became an integral part of each tale.

And my comedy is not the type for wan smiles, but has some pretty wacky stuff.
There’s An Inheritance for the Birds, where the hero must compete with his late great-aunt’s companion in order to inherit her estate. Their task: make the deceased lady’s pet ducks happy. Are you kidding? How do you make ducks happy? Quack at them? Well, my hero and heroine must figure out how to make waterfowl happy, waterfowl that have names like Obadiah, Ulrick, Urania and Felizarda, to name a few.

Or how about Gifts Gone Astray, where the heroine gives the hero a gift--a book on a subject in which they share an interest. The hero is flattered beyond words--until he opens the book. Hell and the devil, how could such a demure lady have an interest in this?

Then there’s Mistletoe Everywhere, a Christmas story in which the hero sees mistletoe over the lady who jilted him, or whom he jilted (who’s right?), and no one else can see the plant. Is the hero insane or making everything up? Why would he? If nothing else, he becomes the butt of mistletoe jokes.

In Pumpkinnapper, someone’s stealing the heroine’s pumpkins and the hero, Henry, decides to catch the culprit. Trouble is, the heroine’s large, mean pet goose, also named Henry, is very attached to his mistress and takes umbrage. Henry the man has no choice but to compete with Henry the goose for the heroine’s affections. Quite a comedown for a young, rich, handsome nobleman, especially since the goose usually gets the upper hand.
Lady of the Stars is my time travel, and sparks as well as comedy flies when the twenty-first century heroine goes back to the Regency to meet the hero. Comedy comes from the juxtaposition of incongruities. The hero has trouble understanding her speech. The heroine can’t understand why everyone has to wear hats. And is that a chamber pot under her bed?

You can find humor in some of the most unexpected places.

Blurbs and excerpts are available on my website, http://www.lindabanche.com

My books are available at The Wild Rose Press,
All Romance Ebooks, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other places ebooks are sold.

To give you an idea of my writing, here's the blurb and excerpt for An Inheritance for the Birds.

BLURB:
Make the ducks happy and win an estate!

Mr. Christopher "Kit" Winnington can't believe the letter from his late great-aunt's solicitor. In order to inherit her estate, he must win a contest against her companion, Miss Angela Stratton. Whoever makes his great-aunt's pet ducks happy wins.

A contest: What a cork-brained idea. This Miss Stratton is probably a sly spinster who camouflaged her grasping nature from his good-natured relative. There is no way he will let the estate go to a usurper.

Angela never expected her former employer to name her in her will. Most likely, this Mr. Winnington is a trumped-up jackanapes who expects her to give up without a fight. Well, she is made of sterner stuff.

The ducks quack in avian bliss while Kit and Angela dance a duet of desire as they do their utmost to make the ducks--and themselves--happy.

EXCERPT:
Yawning, he shut the door behind him. Enough ducks and prickly ladies for one day. After dropping his satchel by the bed, he dragged off his clothes and draped them over the chair back. He dug a nightshirt from the valise and donned the garment before he blew out both candles.

Bates had already drawn back the bedclothes. The counterpane was soft under Kit's palm, and covered a featherbed. He grinned. By any chance, had they used the down from the pet ducks to stuff the mattress and pillows?

After tying the bed curtains back, he settled into the soft cocoon and laced his fingers behind his head. Tomorrow, he would have it out with Miss Stratton about the steward's residence, but that was tomorrow. He fluffed up his pillow and turned onto his side…

"QUACK!"

A bundle of flapping, squawking feathers exploded from the depths of the covers and attacked him. Throwing his arms over his head for protection, Kit fell out of bed. He scrambled to his feet and bolted for the door, the thrashing, quacking explosion battering him. A serrated knife edge scraped over his upper arm. "Ow!" Batting at the avian attacker with one hand, he groped for the latch with the other.

The door swung open. Miss Stratton, her candle flame flickering, dashed into the chamber. "Esmeralda, you stop that right now!"

The feathered windstorm quacked once more and, in a graceful arc, fluttered to the floor.

Kit lowered his arms and gave a mental groan. A duck. He should have known.




Have fun.

Thank you all,
Linda
Linda Banche
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

14 comments:

Linda Acaster said...

So many books, so much hilarity! It was enthralling to read their blurbs all together.

I'm asking a question that has been asked of me, and came up on my stint below - writing humour. I couldn't set out to write humour to save my life; only when it's pointed out that I've written it do I discover that I have.. by accident. How do you do it?

Do you think of an inherently funny character, or a humourous incident, or is it *you* who has to be in an extremely funny frame of mind during the writing to pass the emotion on to the page so readers experience it in turn?

Linda Banche said...

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it.

I have no idea how my stuff comes out funny. I do try to take the lighter road. Sometimes things come to me. Sometimes I try to add something funny and see how it goes from there, but my mood has nothing to do with it.

For example, AN INHERITANCE FOR THE BIRDS was part the Love Letters series. My letter is about an inheritance. Why not a contest? And since I like ducks, I put ducks in there. And making the ducks happy is pretty silly.

My humor does deal with serious themes, though. LADY OF THE STARS, GIFTS GONE ASTRAY, and AN INHERITANCE FOR THE BIRDS are about people who lost their jobs or hate their jobs. MISTLETOE EVERYWHERE is about thwarted love, and the anger that results. PUMPKINNAPPER is about a youthful opportunity lost and a second chance. But everything is cloaked in humor because we'll all die if we can't laugh a little.

I hope everyone has a good time.

C. P. Lesley said...

These sound genuinely funny. I'm going to go look for them at Amazon. I've gotten so tired of same-old, same-old Regencies that I stopped reading them altogether.

You may also enjoy my Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel, which takes a similarly lighthearted approach to modern collisions with the 18th century.

Linda Banche said...

Hi C. P.
Thanks for taking a look at my stuff.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! the Scarlet Pimpernel. I'll give your Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel a look-see.

I understand what you're saying about the same-old, same-old out there. I got tired of them, too. That's why I wrote my own.

Maddy said...

I also enjoy 'the lighter road.' [and a newbie] but my issue is the balance between the romance and the underlying plot. My underlying plot seems to take-over and the romance doesn't dominate. Clearly I need to go to more RWA meetings.

Linda Banche said...

Maddy, please don't skimp on your plot. The romance is important, but so is the story. I dislike books that are mainly about the romance. I salivate over books that have lots of story in there, too.

According to the RWA Readership survey, readers consider the story first.

From the RWA

"Top overall decision factors in buying romance:

The story
The author
It's part of a series
Back cover copy"

Full report here: http://www.rwa.org/cs/readership_stats

Go with your strengths. If you can write plot-heavy books, do it! You, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and Patricia Veryan are in the same boat, and I LOVE those authors.

Savanna Kougar said...

Linda, fun wacky excerpt!

Humor is a good thing. Especially in these times. Usually my stories have moments of humor because that's life. And readers have mentioned they laughed at certain scenes.

I'd like to write a romantic comedy one of these days, but so far no luck. I can't even get my flash fiction to be only comical.

I admire your talent.

Linda Banche said...

Savanna, you're right that we have to laugh sometimes.

Thanks for your kind words. I have a hard time with descriptions. I love yours. We all should concentrate on what we're good at, and then expand a little.

Lindsay Townsend said...

Hi LindaB - thanks so much for your wonderful blog!
Thanks to all the Lindas this week!

LindaB - I'm like others here, I'm full of admiration for your writing comedy. I love it because it's so character and situation based and apt and never 'mean'.

It's a celebration.

Linda Banche said...

Thanks, Lindsay.

I don't like mean stories, especially not mean heroes. If I want to read mean, I can find plenty of that in the newspaper. In my romances, I want decent people rewarded for their goodness. Would that real life was like that.

Nancy Jardine Author said...

The books sound so much fun. I love reading regencies, but it's so difficult to find somehting new and entertaining about them. You've got the perfect solution!

Linda Banche said...

Hi Nancy, thanks for coming over. And thanks for your kind words. I agree, there are a lot of "me-too" books out there.

Destiny Blaine said...

Entertaining post. I'm anxious to read your books, Linda.

Love,
Destiny

Linda Banche said...

Thanks, Destiny. I hope you like my books.