PURPLE PLUMERIA Give Away
The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
To celebrate hitting the two month mark (how did it get to be June already?), I’m giving away an advance copy of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria.
So, for an advance copy of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
— Miss Gwen likes to think of herself as a master of disguise. What disguise do you think she should don to go undercover for her next mission? (No suggestion is too silly….)
Winner to be announced on Sunday!
I think she should dress up as a tree. I’m sure you could overhear all sorts of conversations in the park if you dressed like a tree and held very, very still 😉
I seem to recall Hen being a bush (heehee), so why not a tree? The parasol would make a lovely branch.
I know she is good at dressing up as a man, and a pirate even with the parasol. I do think it would be a funny if she dressed up as the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale.
Lady Gaga.
I think it would be hysterical if Miss Gwen masqueraded as either a modiste or a lady’s maid. Could you imagine what you might overhear in a dress shop? And look at O’Brien on Downton Abbey…definitely a good position for a spy!
I would love to see Miss Gwen pretending to be a Russian Doctor. I Imagine she would have the best/worst russian accent.
I think a one armed gentleman with a mustache and walking cane.
I think a gypsy fortune teller would be fun for her. Or perhaps it would not be fun for her, but fun for us to read!
She could dress as a house servant and be able to hear all kinds of information. Much was told in front of house servants.
A teenager. At first I was going to say child, but then Miss Gwen would have to stoop, and I simply can’t imagine that.
Too true. Stooping to conquer is not her way.
Napoleon’s Jospehine, in order to infiltrate the inner circles. And I’m sure she had a vast collection of parasols!
She should go undercover as a parasol salesman…But I think she could pull of a GREAT Napoleon!
I think she should masquerade as a cook in the home of whomever she is investigating….a knife makes a nice substitution for poking people in place of her parasol:)
She should disguise herself as a dog groomer. She would be admitted to all the finest houses to take care of the pampered pooches.
Napoleon himself. I am quite sure she could pull it off.
I would love to see Miss Gwen disguised as a woman in love…I feel as though that would be her greatest challenge to date!
I think she should be the secretive eyes in the painted ancestor portraits.
We already know that Miss Gwen is fantastic at disguises, but I think she should be a mute lady’s maid. I simply can’t imagine Miss Gwen being able to hold her tongue, perhaps while spying on a French household.
My suggestion… I’m honored! 🙂
I think she should go undercover as the King of England- maybe even go face-to-face against him and have the court not be able to tell them apart! (That may be a borrowed idea from some plot but I can’t remember)
I concur on the gentleman disguise! I’m sure she’d pose as a perfect officer! 🙂
I love the idea of Miss Gwen as a pirate, as someone else said. I also think dressing as someone regal, like the queen, would be quite the undertaking for her, because she’d have to act very prim and proper and wouldn’t be able to carry her parasol or poke anyone!
I’m thinking a proper, well-mannered high society relative who is visiting. Hide in plain sight…and that whole nice and well-mannered bit? Her hardest disguise to date!! 🙂
A portrait painter — dressed as a man, of course. Just think of the homes she would be invited into! Her style of painting would be eccentric and become the latest craze, drawing unwanted attention on her clandestine dealings. Or, her invented background would be so inflated that she could get away with only pretending to paint portraits, her subjects none the wiser as she sat their painting parasols, insisting her subjects not SEE the work until the paint has been dried at least a month.
Hmm… well, there might be a way she can totally freak someone out if they were drunk or something by being a martian, ala Marty McFly visiting dad in 1955… just not really sure what they thought any potential aliens looked like back in the day before little grey ones, but she’ll figure it out. 😉
Lois
Perhaps a tavern girl would suit her for a night. She could slip things into drinks unseen…
Vaughn. Impressionable young ladies might fall in love…
I think she should dress up as Marie Antionette and ‘haunt’ the palace in the apparition style of Hamlet’s father’s ghost, thereby, affecting Naploean’s slow decent into madness.
I could see Miss Gwen taking up the mantel of Augustus Whittlesby and begin going from salon to salon reading truly awful poetry to all who just so happen to come into contact with her.
I want Miss Gwen to masquerade as a captain in the British navy!
Hmm, Miss Gwen does seem to be fond of being a pirate.
I guess she could always smear herself with grey face paint and go as a statue. Maybe an outdoor one near a window, since doing an indoor statue would be tough, considering they are usually busts instead of full bodies. 😉
Fouchet…..she could order the release of someone in prison. A great escape ensues….presto……she changes into a French laundress and walks away as part of the crowd.
Fouche…..I should be smacked by Miss Gwen’s parasol for that spelling error!
The Dowager Duchess of Dovedale during a visit to the continent. She would still get to poke people!
Schoolmistress would be a good disguise for her.
I like the idea of a governess. I know, Laura Grey has already done it, but only think! Not only would she be able to spy, but those kids would probably be the most well-behaved children on the continent!
Amy could give her some tips for dressing up like a sheep.
I think she should disguise herself as a chimney sweep!
Napolean!
I think that she should disguise herself as an art teacher for young ladies and gentlemen. That should gain her entrée into all sorts of households.
She could inaugurate a new style of free-form drawing and painting, which requires the artist to keep up a constant flow of conversation (so as to prevent concentration on the work) thus allowing the hand to move at will. (I’ve no idea if this has ever been done – I think I’ve just made it up.) That way, her pupils will be bound to let fall all sorts of information about their parents’ activities and guests, especially if expertly interrogated by Gwen!
Napoleon
A marble statue at a party! During a lover’s tryst! Imagine the confusion when “hmmphs” start coming from her, and when the young mans gets mysterious stabs in the back when he gets fresh!
A bartender (or whatever they were called back then.) People tell them all sorts of secrets.
A doctor! She could poke and prod people to her hearts content! 🙂
I think it would be hilarious if she went undercover as a man, and as part of her cover she has to join the club where the men of the series hang out. That could make for some funny and awkward circumstances i would love to read!
Miss Gwen could dress as a gentleman, which I know isn’t clever, but would give her a chance to act as she wishes they would. She would be a man that even the Dowager Duchess wouldn’t object to! It would be great if an older, widowed woman fell for her
A doctor! She could poke and prod people to her hearts content!
I’d like to see her disguised as one of the foppish men she likes to torment. Although, as Napoleon himself is an inspired idea. Or perhaps Boney Prince Charlie’s mistress?
I think Miss Gwen should be forced to go in the disguise of a pleasant person! Can you imagine how much it would drive her crazy if she couldn’t be as grumpy as she always seems to be?
Miss Gwen could be a portrait or a painting hanging somewhere at an event she needs to attend. Where she could be fully part of the framed scene, parasol in hand, but yet, disappear completely from view unless you were keen to detect her!
I think she should take on the disguise of one Jane Wooliston, the Pink Carnation herself! Quite the challenge, but I think she could do it 😉
What if she ran a matchmaking service for the aristocrats? She could help anxious mothers find suitably rich husbands for their daughters and completely vet the candidates so she would have a perfect excuse for incredibly nosy questions and factfinding missions. Whoa. Run on sentence.
Ooooo this is a toss up. She would make a fantastic Napoleon. But wouldn’t it be funny if she dressed up as the Pink Carnation? Or what people THINK the Pink Carnation would dress like if they knew who she was and how she dressed? Oh! Oh! OR she could dress like Napoleon AS the Pink Carnation.
Miss Gwen would be excellent dressing as a nun, who doesn’t love a cranky nun and they can get into all sorts of places.
I think Miss Gwen would make a formidable lawyer in disguise 🙂
A guard for the Tower of London or a Beefeater!
A long-lost aunt. She could do a marvelous Maggie Smith imitation.
Disguised as Napoleon, giving info to Napoleon’s men to throw them off the scent of the Pink Carnation
A female equivalent of Turnip Fitzhugh- while she is strolling about in a pink carnation embroidered gown and trimmed hat, Jane could be spying undisturbed.
Naploean
a judge
I’d love to see her dress up as a priest/minister. I visualize Gwen as tall and skinny — she could be a hysterically funny cleric.
I think it’d be great for Miss Gwen to dress like a prostitute that’s fallen on hard times. That’s be a perfect getup to have when trying to listen to men’s conversations on a street corner near a club, brothel, or anywhere in the streets. Or she could be a courtesan, which is a little higher classed.
She should dress up as Turnip! She would hate it.
Trainer and Keeper of Exotic Animals! Animals could be off-stage for the book or there could be something just exotic enough to carry the treat of worse things to come…I’m thinking a huge scary snake or tiger (real or implied)or a trained monkey who does her bidding…she could add a whip and crop to her arsenal…I think she’d love that! (I really really want a copy of the book!!)
I can see her as a Parisian Opera Dancer, but maybe that’s just because of the novel I am reading now.
Miss Gwen should dress up as a waiter in an inn on the Great North Road.
“Gonna put my sheep suit on “, as in the Little Red Riding Hood song.
An illusionist!
A madam of a brothel…I could see her whipping girls around to a better life. Not to mention what she would do to the patrons! 🙂
A miliner! Imagine the fun she’d have with those hat-pins … remember the Black Tulip.
I think Miss Gwen should masquerade as the Duke of Wellington,she would love to order whole armies around!
She should impersonate Josephine Bonaparte in front of Napoleon. I’m sure Miss Gwen could pull it off!
A very rich, silly, simpering widow. Fortune hunters would try and woo her and may spill some secrets in the process. Seeing her with such an un-Gwenlike demeanor would be great!
An opera singer, as a nod to the total badass opera singer and swordswoman Julie D’Aubigny.
What about Walter Scott? Was he not a contemporary male poet? I think much could be made of this. I would say Lord Liverpool but I think he was a decade or so after this series…
Failing that, she should masquerade as the Purple Gentian!
She should go undercover as an horse breeder. It would give her the excuse to be traveling all the time.
Miss Gwen should be an actress masquerading as a French aristocrat – haughty, haughty, haughty and maybe naughty?
I think that being the spinster aunt chaperone to Jane is her disguise. The actual Miss Gwen herself is so much more than that.
The Scarlet Pimpernel!
I love the idea of Miss Gwen as a nun!
me. i am invisible to most people.
A ballerina.
Admiral Nelson- One arm, One Eye….cut off a leg for the hell of it.
A grandfather clock.
She should dress up as the Purple Gention … And bring him out of retirement!
Napoleon himself! I think Miss Gwen could play a terrible tyrant quite convincingly
Best disguise for Miss Gwen: Napoleon’s mother!
Dress her up as a proper English male butler and give her a walking stick to prod the servants about. Just think of the scuttlebutt she would be privy to.
Zorro!
I think she should masquerade as a ghost at seances
Ohhh- Miss Gwen as a Poor Clare(they’re a silent order !!!) – with silk undies 😉
a know-it-all; outspoken, cane poking Grand Dame.
A Lady of the Stage!
As a pirate!
Gorilla Suit! She would have to not wear a petticoat though…
As a gypsy fortune teller 😀
A footman. I like the idea of a butler, but wouldn’t it be hard to suddenly be hired as a butler, without working your way up?
How about a drunk nobleman? It could be a good disguise if she wanted to spy in a tavern.
I think Miss Gwen should be disguised as Lady Godiva, riding naked through the streets on horseback, while wearing a long strategically placed wig.
I’d also like to suggest Miss Gwen disguised as a harlequin clown
The Phantom Monk of Donwell Abbey!
Trench coat and fabulous sunglasses! I’m tradition that way.
The madam of an exclusive, very discreet French brothel. I can see great comedy ensuing when Miss Gwen needs to juggle customers, be nice, and keep her disguise under wraps. But imagine the state secrets that her “girls” could discover! (I doubt that she would enjoy listening at doors under the circumstances)
I think she should be disguised as Delaroche’s primary undercover agent. Just threaten to tell Delaroche if you don’t listen, and people will do what she wants!
I can picture her going undercover in a harem, start educating all the other women and leading them in a revolt against the Sultan.
Posted on behalf of Patti:
My idea for Miss Gwen
As a “Zorro like” character all black clothing,cape mask…. thin mustache..Ole! She could leave the Mark of The Gwen!
Posted on behalf of Catherine:
I thought she should have to go undercover as a french opera singer. Her diguise would have to include a lot of jewelry, make-up and perfume. She would hate it, but it would be hysterical.
Beethoven