Please join us in welcoming the lovely KJ Charles to Sinfully. With the upcoming release of A Seditious Affair, the second book in The Society of Gentlemen series, she has popped in to chat about putting romance into history.
There’s also a giveaway, so don’t miss out!
Putting the romance into history
The Society of Gentlemen trilogy is set in a particularly nasty period of English history, starting with the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, when magistrates sent armed cavalry into a peaceful reform meeting, killing more than a dozen and wounding hundreds. The government’s reaction to the popular outrage this caused was to pass the horrendously repressive Six Acts to silence protest. As a result, a group called the Spencean Philanthropists set out to murder the British cabinet in what became known as the Cato Street Conspiracy. The Regency: it’s not all Mr Darcy in a wet shirt.
In the first book, A Fashionable Indulgence, I used the Peterloo Massacre as a driving force, but it happens off page. In A Seditious Affair, my hero is right in the middle of the action. Silas Mason is a radical, an extremist--and a Spencean. He’s in the Cato Street Conspiracy up to his neck. (Meanwhile Dominic, his lover, is employed by the government to hunt radicals down, and it’s his job to see Silas hang. Where’s the fun in romance if you don’t have a few difficulties to overcome?)
Using history as a backdrop is one thing; putting fictional MCs in the middle of real events is quite another. That means reconciling what actually happened and who did it with your story, giving your characters a role that doesn’t compromise the facts. I don’t get on with realistic historical fiction where the MCs take a causative role in events. (The Doctor Who sort of thing where Paul Revere gets sick so the heroine rides to warn the militia instead.) It jolts me out of my immersion if I’m thinking: hold on, that’s not what happened.
I love alternate history dearly; by all means put Dracula on the British throne. But for me, fiction in a ‘real’ setting has to respect the history it’s using. Because history isn’t a backdrop or a stage setting or a foil for a love story. It’s real people’s lives that mattered to them as ours matter to us. So I felt it was important to use the real events of Cato Street, the real jawdropping stupidity of the real idiots involved (and boy, were they), even their real dialogue as recorded at the time. I wanted to tie up Silas and Dominic in this mess without infringing the facts or changing the course of history, tempting though that was.
I’ve tried to depict the farcical tragedy of the Cato Street Conspiracy accurately as part of the Society of Gentlemen’s world, to show how political turbulence swept up my seditionist and his Tory lover as it did thousands of others. Silas and Dominic’s story is mine, but the story of Cato Street is that of real people who lived and died for a dream of freedom, no matter how deluded. I hope I’ve treated it well.
A Seditious Affair
(Society of Gentlemen #2)
K.J. Charles
Publisher ~ Loveswept
Published ~ 15th December 2015
Genre ~ Historical M/M Romance
Synopsis
Silas Mason has no illusions about himself. He’s not lovable, or even likable. He’s an overbearing idealist, a Radical bookseller and pamphleteer who lives for revolution . . . and for Wednesday nights. Every week he meets anonymously with the same man, in whom Silas has discovered the ideal meld of intellectual companionship and absolute obedience to his sexual commands. But unbeknownst to Silas, his closest friend is also his greatest enemy, with the power to see him hanged—or spare his life.
A loyal, well-born gentleman official, Dominic Frey is torn apart by his affair with Silas. By the light of day, he cannot fathom the intoxicating lust that drives him to meet with the Radical week after week. In the bedroom, everything else falls away. Their needs match, and they are united by sympathy for each other’s deepest vulnerabilities. But when Silas’s politics earn him a death sentence, desire clashes with duty, and Dominic finds himself doing everything he can to save the man who stole his heart.
Advance praise for A Seditious Affair
“This book is so good I read it in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. K. J. Charles has long been one of my favorite authors, and this book doesn’t disappoint. A Seditious Affair is a beautiful love story interwoven with the realism of the political unrest of the time—another winner from K. J. Charles!”—USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer
Purchase Links
AMAZON GLOBAL LINK | ARe | PUBLISHER
Meet KJ Charles
KJ Charles is a writer and freelance editor. She lives in London with her husband, two kids, an out-of-control garden and an increasingly murderous cat.
KJ writes mostly romance, gay and straight, frequently historical, and usually with some fantasy or horror in there. She specialises in editing romance, especially historical and fantasy, and also edits children’s fiction.
Find her on Twitter @kj_charles or on Facebook, join her Facebook group, or get the newsletter here. She is represented by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency, and published by Samhain and Loveswept.
KJ Charles is one of my favorite historical authors, whatever stories she published are must-read for me. This one is no difference.
ReplyDeleteThree days to go until release day... Congratulations! :)
And thank you for this post.
It looks like a another real interesting read by KJ Charles! Congrats on the release and thanks for the chance at the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new book! I'm new to KJ Charles as an author, but I am definitely going to check out more books.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your posts on this tour. I am boggled by the amount of research and organization your must have done to stick so closely to the historical facts while trying to write a fictional story. Looking forward to reading it!
ReplyDeleteI've loved all my K.j Charles reads so far!
ReplyDeleteI have book one to read yet but it is sounding like another great series!
Loved the first one and can't wait for this one!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving this series!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by to talk about A Seditious Affair. I'm looking forward to reading this.
ReplyDelete--Judy S
j dot stonewright at gmail dot com
I'm looking forward to starting this trilogy, the first book is waiting on my Kindle. I loved the Magpie series and this promises to be good as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of historical accuracy in novels. I understand that it's fiction... but that doesn't mean the author gets willy-nilly license! The Society of Gentlemen is on my list now.
ReplyDeleteI love a good historical. I can't wait to begin reading this series.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading this. Really enjoyed the first book in the series.
ReplyDeleteI wish this author could be cloned - love her work!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for this one. Silas seems an unusual but intriguing character for a romance.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for this one. Silas seems an unusual but intriguing character for a romance.
ReplyDeletethanks for the chance.congrats on the new release
ReplyDeleteI've been looking forward to this book ever since I met Silas in A Fashionable Indulgence. I'm sure it will live up to my expectations, since all of KJ's other books have!
ReplyDeleteI love KJ Charles. She does historical better than anyone else. :-)
ReplyDeletecongrats on the latest release
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the new release! I'm looking forward to reading this book, I loved A Fashionable Indulgence! anamaribelcardenas@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteSo excited!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post and giveaway chance. I love hearing about the amount of research you did and the effort you put in.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a really good story...thanks for sharing and the giveaway! Look forward to picking this one up :)
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued, sounds like something I'll enjoy reading! thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations K.J. on the new release.Intriguing synopsis.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so intriguing!
ReplyDelete--Trix
ohhh! I'm so excited for this!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to this one!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very good book.
ReplyDeleteCant wait. First book in the series was fantastic!
ReplyDeleteit is very hard to what is right when you simple love ,this sounds like a great read it is on my list
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the release! It's so interesting to learn more about parts of history that I never knew.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new release. KJ Charles is a new author to me and I can't wait to read her books. Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chance!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It is fascinating to learn about the work that goes into creating an historical novel. I greatly appreciate all of the effort KJ Charles puts into historical accuracy, and I love the new knowledge that I gain from reading her stories. Thanks so much!!
ReplyDeleteI have always loved historical romances so I am so excited to see this series!
ReplyDeleteI've read K.J Charles books and they were really good. Can't wait to read this one!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book. I saw Amy Jo Cousins raving about it on twitter. Adding to my TBR.
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