Guest Post and Giveaway: Regency Romance Blog Tour With Lee Brazil

Good morning! Historical m/m is a hard sell to traditional romance readers. Historical fiction has its own set of parameters. It’s judged on historical accuracy as well as the usual romance standards. So you really can’t completely disregard the fact that — although we all know that there is nothing new to homosexuality– two men couldn’t just up and announce they’d fallen in love and were going to move in together and get married and be a family. On paper, such a relationship had severe consequences – from death to banishment. That has to play a role in your story somehow.

So you have to keep that in mind while writing. Readers aren’t going to get the traditional ending that romance readers expect.

But…

We also know that gay men have been falling in love on the sidelines of life for as long as there have been creatures called man. So, how did they manage in an era where to love another man was death?

That is what I like about writing in the Regency Era. Figuring out how our forebears coped with the societal stigmas, how did they get around the strictures and the rules and laws?

Getting around society’s rules is the essence of Regency romance. Governesses marrying dukes, penniless ladies and wealthy men of business, the haves and the have-nots coming together despite what society says they can and cannot do.

The Regency is to me the beginning of modern society. Class distinctions start to blur, not just in England, but on the world stage. America is showing people that democracy works, and that hard work can lead to success. You don’t have to be happy with the status you were born into. The individual for the first time becomes more important than his background.

It’s the perfect setting for exploring potentials.

Wow, that sort of rambled, huh? I hope I answered your question in a way that makes sense! Thank you for having me on today, and all of you readers out there, don’t forget to enter the drawing for the $25 All Romance eBooks gift card!

Lee Brazil

 

Author Bio: Somewhere in a small town in up-state New York are a librarian and a second grade teacher to whom I owe my life. That might be a touch dramatic, but it’s nevertheless one hundred percent true.

Because they taught me the joy of reading, of escaping into worlds crafted of words.

Have you ever been nine years old and sure of nothing so much as that you don’t belong? Looked at the world from behind glasses, and wondered why you don’t fit?

Then turn the page and see… there you are, running from Injun Joe in a dark graveyard; there you are fencing with Athos; there you are…beneath the deep blue sea- marveling at exotic creatures with Captain Nemo.

I found myself between the pages of books, and that is why I write now, it’s why I taught English and literature for so many years, and it’s why my house contains more pounds of books than furniture.

If I’d had my way, I’d have been a fencer…or a starship captain, or a lawyer, or a detective solving crimes. But instead, I am a writer, and that’s the best thing in the world to be if you ask me, because as a writer, I can be all those things and more.

If I hadn’t learned to value the stories between the pages, who knows what would have happened? Certainly not college…teaching…or writing.

Author Contact: Facebook | Twitter: @leebrazil | Facebook Group

Publishers: Lime Time Press, Breathless Press, Evernight Publishing

Series Titles: Less Than All – Available at the following e-tailers:

 

A Gentleman Never Does – Available at:

 

Randall’s Romance – Available at:

 

The Giveaway: A $25 ARe Gift Card

Tour Dates/Stops:

9/9: Havan Fellows, Parker Williams

9/16: Fallen Angel Reviews, Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings

9/23: Jade Crystal, Cate Ashwood

9/30: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, EE Montgomery

10/7: Hearts on Fire, Love Bytes

10/14: Amanda C. Stone, Book Reviews and More by Kathy

10/21: 3 Chicks After Dark, The Novel Approach

10/28: MM Good Book Reviews, Regular Guys, Hot Romance