These Vicious Masks: A Swoon Novel

by Zekas, Kelly

  Lots of love,

  Tarun and Kelly

  From the diary of Miss Laura Kent, soon to be Mrs. Laura Edwards

  Friday, 2:00 p.m.:

  This is it! This is the week my life will change, irrevocably! (Nick taught me that word last month. He was feeling not quite the thing one morning and said he has made some choices the evening before that would change him, “irrevocably”!)

  You see, my dearest diary, this is the week that Mr. Edwards will finally notice me, at the play on Thursday! I will be everything he could ever want in a wife!

  Mrs. Laura Edwards

  Mrs. Laura Edwards

  Mrs. Laura Edwards

  Saturday, 10:00 a.m.

  I have it! The red dress! Or—no, that should be for the dinner on Monday.

  Mrs. Laura Edwards. Mrs. Laura Edwards. Mrs. Laura Edwards.

  Sunday, 4:00 p.m.:

  Evelyn Wyndham is here! This is truly, the most absolutely perfect and wonderful week.

  Sunday, 9:00 p.m.:

  Dearest Diary, it is my greatest suspicion that Evelyn and Nick are in love! How wonderful would that be! We can have a double wedding! After Evelyn finds her sister, that is.

  Mrs. Laura Edwards. Mrs. Laura Edwards. Mrs. Laura Edwards.

  Monday, 7:00 p.m.:

  Dearest Diary, I accompanied Evelyn and Nick today in their search of her sister, who is missing, and I have not told a soul, no not one! Even though it is a very large secret and I am quite desperate to speak of it. I feel rather like a spy! I wonder if Mr. Edwards will notice how mature I have become this week.

  Thursday, 8:00 a.m.:

  ’Tis Thursday! ’Tis the most glorious day of the week! I have nothing to wear!!

  Thursday, 2:00 p.m.:

  Have tried on every dress I own. Narrowed down to a favorite fifteen.

  Thursday, 4:00 p.m.:

  Favorite five, though it was extremely difficult.

  Thursday, 6:30 p.m.:

  Evelyn will help me woo Mr. Edwards!!

  Friday, 2:00 a.m.:

  Evelyn did not help me with him. she is quite dead to me.

  Friday 3:00 p.m.:

  I am feeling very badly about saying Evelyn is dead to me.

  Friday, 9:00 p.m.:

  Mother wants to kick Evelyn out of the house! It is dreadfully unfair as she is not really a loose lady! Mother just doesn’t know about her Sensitive and Secret Mission! This is absolutely and most positively the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I shall burn the house to the ground!

  Friday, 11:00 p.m.:

  Nick found me out with the matches. He was terribly stern but also seemed somewhat amused. I don’t believe he thinks me serious at all. Little does he realize I can simply use the fireplace!

  From the household notes of Edmund Tuffins

  Saturday

  During teatime today, Mrs. Hobson barely managed to ask me, through her stifled giggles, if I had any muffins. I spent the night preparing my letter of resignation.

  Sunday

  An unnecessary set of calling cards arrived for Miss Kent this morning. She had ordered them to be printed with the name “Mrs. Laura Edwards.” I do hope Miss Wyndham proves to be an edifying influence on the young girl.

  Monday

  Miss Wyndham feigned an illness, sneaked out of the house, and walked the London streets unaccompanied for most of the night. At the very least, I’d say she’s a better influence on Miss Kent than Lady Kent is.

  Tuesday

  Between her excursion last night and her “cousin’s” visit this morning, Miss Wyndham has been the subject of a great deal of gossip among the housestaff. But when I joined in with a rumor about how anyone unable to hold their tongues would be unable to keep hold of their jobs, the conversation died rather quickly.

  Wednesday

  Miss Wyndham returned very late last night, covered in blood. I still believe she’s a better influence than my mistress.

  Thursday

  Everyone has gone to the theater tonight, so perhaps I will do something fun myself. I might even polish the silver.

  Friday

  While overseeing tonight’s dinner party, I finally found myself in the presence of Mr. Edwards’s famed wit when he asked me whether I had visited the zoo to see the puffins. Somehow Miss Wyndham was the one forced to leave the house.

  Saturday

  Miss Kent is still quite distraught from last night. She claims to have no desire for the matches since the last incident, but we are being cautious. Perhaps I’ll hold on to that letter of resignation.

  A Coffee Date

  with authors Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas and their editor, Holly West

  “About the Authors”

  Holly West (HW ): What was the first romance novel you ever read? Kelly Zekas (KZ): I was thinking about this and I realized it’s kind of crazy. You know the Berenstain Bears books? There was one about Brother Bear being in a Romeo and Juliet play with a girl bear whose family was feuding with his father. And I was obsessed with this book. I read it, like, twenty times. I have no idea. I don’t remember anything about it except that they were in Romeo and Juliet and they had to kiss and he would blush every time. So I’m pretty sure that was the first romance novel I ever read.

  Tarun Shanker (TS): Is that where you started liking Shakespeare from?

  KZ: I think I already liked Shakespeare, so that it was even more amazing.

  TS: I don’t have as good a story as that. I can’t even remember. I just read weird-ass books as a kid. So I think the first romance was probably Jane

  Eyre in high school, and I didn’t even like it, and now it’s one of my favorite books, weirdly.

  HW: Do you have an OTP (One True Pairing)? Like your favorite fictional couple?

  TS: Yes. I don’t know if this is going to last for a while, but this happened while we were in between edits. Have you ever read Sarah Waters? She wrote Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet. She writes lesbian Victorian fiction. I read Fingersmith and the two girls in that, Sue and Maud . . . I had to put the book down because they’re amazing. Hopefully in a year I’ll still like them just as much. I don’t know if it’s because I just read it. The other one is probably Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth in Persuasion. That stands the test of time.

  KZ: I have both fiction in general and young adult. Fiction in general: Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing. They are my heart and soul. And at least for right now I’d say Eleanor and Park. I love them so much. They’re so great and they make me so happy. That book ruined me for weeks. I’m not the same person I was before I read it.

  HW: This one is one of my favorite questions and is also very valid for These Vicious Masks. If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?

  TS: Telekinesis, just because I’ve thought about this way too much and I can do so many things with it. I can make myself fly or freak people out, or, if I really wanted to throw fire at people, I could just carry fire around, too. It’s all-encompassing.

  KZ: I took this one a little differently. Like, not which one would I want, but which one would I have. I think my superpower would be matchmaking. Being able to see who someone’s soul mate is. I have paired so many people together. I feel like it’s my secret talent. I kind of want to be a matchmaker for a living.

  TS: That sounds like a good novel idea. A superhero with that ability.

  KZ: Right?! Spinoff.

  HW: Do you have any hobbies other than writing? Because writing no longer counts as a hobby. Once you’re being paid for it, it doesn’t count.

  KZ: Well, I act as well as write. So I work in New York in a bunch of theater companies. And no one really pays me, so I think it could still be called a hobby. Also I’m the world’s worst crocheter. Like, truly, truly bad.

  TS: You made a scarf. You made lots of scarves.

  KZ: I did. And they were very, very bad.

  “The Writing Life”

  HW: When did you first realize you wanted to
be a writer?

  TS: Probably tenth grade when I took a film class in high school. I was always movie-obsessed, but it kind of made me think, “Oh, I can actually do this seriously. And people will actually take me seriously.” So I was reviewing movies, and then when that got annoying, I realized I should try writing myself, and that’s just kind of turned from screenplays to novels.

  KZ: Mine was much, much later. Tarun and I went to school together and we were in college, and he was talking to me about writing a young adult novel because he knew I loved young adult novels, and it was something he thought he might want to try his hand at. And I did not consider myself a writer of any kind, but I was a voracious reader and definitely knew the YA world and markets and things like that, so I said I would totally help. At first it was more like he would write, or we came up with the concepts together, but then he was writing and I was kind of more editing. And then somewhere along the way it just started kind of evolving into us both writing and kind of writing over each other and over each other so we don’t even know who wrote what. Although we do like to argue about who wrote what sometimes.

  TS: Yeah, because I like to keep in my head what amazing lines I came up with.

  KZ: The other day I said, “This sounds like a great line that I wrote,” and he said, “No, that was me.”

  HW: What’s it like working so closely with each other writing the same book?

  KZ: Great.

  TS: When I write by myself now it feels like something’s missing. Every time I write something it’s like Kelly isn’t here to tell me this is stupid or that this is a good idea. So just having the extra support is really good.

  KZ: We both trust each other as writers, so it’s not like you hate everything the other person’s doing and just can’t say it.

  HW: So what’s your process? Do you outline things or start at the beginning and make it up as you go bouncing back and forth?

  KZ: Well, we did just start a new document in Google Docs right now entitled “These Vicious Masks Book 2 Very Stupid Ideas.” So we outline, because Tarun makes us outline, and we should.

  TS: Yeah, I kind of go crazy.

  HW: Do you have any writing rituals, like a certain place you are when you write, or anything like that?

  TS: I’m literally sitting in the place that I write. It’s just my dining table, and I always have tea or coffee. Actually, half the time that I’m writing, I’m not even sitting in front of the keyboard, I’m just pacing around my apartment thinking up how to phrase the sentences, and then I just stop off at my keyboard and put it down and then start walking around again. It’s weird, but it works.

  KZ: I write everywhere. This last round of edits, Tarun would be finishing something on L.A. time, and then the next morning on the subway I would edit it. So I’ll write anywhere, anytime, any place that I have a moment to.

  TS: Yeah, I don’t know how you do that. I can only write at home now.

  KZ: I’m very impressive is how.

  HW: So how does the revision process work?

  TS: I feel like we had to go through this process a couple times before Swoon Reads, because when we were querying, a couple times they gave us a big structural change or a few smaller changes, and I think we figured out a pattern at that point. We always just focus on the biggest issues we have in the back of our mind, and even if we can’t solve it, we’re thinking about it while we jump around and deal with other things. And I guess it’s assigning specific subjects, like you handle all the Mr. Kent stuff, or anything thematically related.

  KZ: Or chapters. It’s like picking a dodgeball team with that stuff. We each get to pick favorites until we’re down to whatever one we don’t want to do, but someone has to. Also, I write faster and worse, and Tarun writes more detailed and better, so sometimes depending on how many changes we need, if it’s a lot of things, I might do the first draft of that and then he’ll go in and make it better. Sometimes we do it that way, too. Especially if there’s a time crunch.

  HW: One last question: What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever heard?

  KZ: This is from an author, Chuck Wendig, and he says, “Writing is when we make the words. Editing is when we make the words not shitty.” And that’s my favorite thing I’ve ever heard.

  TS: For me, I don’t think it was as much advice as process. I took a screenwriting course at NYU where I had this teacher who his way of giving feedback was just like, after the kids talk about your script, he just bombards you with questions. Like, what-ifs. What if this happens? What if that happens? And they don’t all go together at all. He doesn’t have a cohesive vision. He’s just throwing so many questions at you. It changed my way of thinking in terms of I shouldn’t be so beholden to anything I have in my script. You can always think of some what-if that makes it better. It just made me think of feedback differently. You just kind of accept everything for a little while and see how it makes you feel. Then you just go with the suggestions you like or not.

  These Vicious Masks

  Discussion Questions

  1. The title of the book is These Vicious Masks. Why do you think the authors chose that title? What roles do masks play in the novel?

  2. At the beginning of the book, Evelyn would much rather be traveling in Europe with her friend than attending a ball so her mother can play matchmaker. Do you agree with her decision to be deliberately miserable? Have you ever been forced to do something with your parents instead of hanging out with your friends?

  3. When Rose goes missing, Evelyn’s parents, believing she has shamefully run away, do nothing. Given how important reputation was in that time period, do you think that their reaction was understandable? Or were they simply wrong?

  4. When Sebastian first tells Evelyn about having special powers, she thinks he’s out of his mind. How do you think you would react if someone told you the same thing?

  5. Mr. Kent’s power forces everyone to answer his questions honestly. Would you want this power? Why or why not?

  6. Sebastian can’t be too close to anyone for an extended period of time or else his power will kill them. What do you think this means for his future? Could he ever possibly have a normal life with a family?

  7. Which gentleman would you rather see Evelyn end up with: Sebastian or Mr. Kent? Explain.

  8. If you had Camille’s power to change your appearance however you would like, who would you choose to look like and why?

  9. At one point in the book, Sebastian is chastised for choosing to let Dr. Beck live. Do you think Dr. Beck deserved to die for his actions?

  10. These Vicious Masks takes place in Victorian England. How important is the setting to the novel? How would the story have been different if it had been set in the modern day?

  Plans for a season without romance are unapologetically foiled . . .

  in this hilarious homage to Jane Austen, when a lady with a penchant for trouble finds a handsome spy much more than merely tolerable.

  APRIL 2016

  CHAPTER

  1

  In which a young lady clinging to a cliff will eventually accept anyone’s help

  “OH MY, this is embarrassing,” Miss Juliana Telford said aloud. There was no reason to keep her thoughts to herself, as she was alone, completely alone. In fact, that was half of the problem. The other half was, of course, that she was hanging off the side of a cliff with the inability to climb either up or down and in dire need of rescue.

  “Another scrape. This will definitely give Aunt apoplexy.”

  Juliana hugged the cliff ever closer and tipped her head slightly so that she could glance over her shoulder. Her high-waisted ivory dress was deeply soiled across her right hip, where she had slid across the earth as she dropped over the edge.

  Juliana shifted slowly and glanced over her other shoulder. Fortunately, the left side showed no signs of distress, and her lilac sarcenet spencer could be brushed off easily. She would do it now were it not for the fact that her hands were engaged, holding tigh
tly to the tangle of roots that kept her from falling off the tiny ledge.

  Juliana continued to scrutinize the damage to her wardrobe with regret, not for herself so much as for her aunt, who seemed to deem such matters of great importance. Unfortunately, her eyes wandered down to her shoes. Just beyond them yawned an abyss. It was all too apparent how far above the crashing waves of the English Channel she was—and how very small the ledge.

  Despite squishing her toes into the rock face as tightly as possible, Juliana’s heels were only just barely accommodated by the jutting amalgamate. The occasional skitter and plop of eroding rocks diving into the depths of the brackish water did nothing to calm her racing heart.

  Juliana swallowed convulsively. “Most embarrassing.” She shivered despite a warm April breeze. “I shall be considered completely beyond the pale if I am dashed upon the rocks. Aunt will be so uncomfortable. Most inconsiderate of me.”

  A small shower of sandy pebbles rained down on Juliana’s flowery bonnet. She shook the dust from her eyes and listened. She thought she had heard a voice.

  Please, she prayed, let it be a farmer or a tradesman, someone not of the gentry. No one who would feel obligated to report back to Grays Hill Park. No gentlemen, please.

  “Hello?” she called out. Juliana craned her neck upward, trying to see beyond the roots and accumulated thatch at the cliff’s edge.

  A head appeared. A rather handsome head. He had dark, almost black, hair and clear blue eyes and, if one were to notice such things at a time like this, a friendly, lopsided smile.

  “Need some assistance?” the head asked with a hint of sarcasm and the tone of a . . .

  “Are you a gentleman?” Juliana inquired politely.

  The head looked startled, frowned slightly, and then raised an eyebrow before answering. “Yes, indeed, I am—”

  “Please, I do not wish to be rescued by a gentleman. Could you find a farmer or a shopkeep—anyone not of the gentry—and then do me the great favor of forgetting you saw me?”