What I Have Been Reading....

Interesting topic this week, and not an easy one. I can't
do a favorite reads list for the year, since all of my reading has been done in the last three months or so after recovering from my last deadline. At the moment I'm reading for "research" purposes, mainly to sink myself into the Regency Historical and Romantic suspense genres. My current project is a humorous suspense, but I do plan on writing a Regency historical in the future.

I thought I'd go ahead and comment on the books I've read anyway. Since some of these books were published prior to this year, I'm "cheating" there, too.

SO WILD A HEART by Candace Camp. A 2002 book from my TBR Mountain. It contains a mystery with a surprising twist--and I think I am hard to surprise! The characters were interesting, too. Worth the read.

MISS WONDERFUL by Loretta Chase, 2004. Loretta Chase is a star in the genre, so there was no way to go wrong with this choice. This is a humorous book with excellently written characters--not only the hero and heroine, but the heroine's father. If you want to see characters who come alive, read this book. (MR IMPOSSIBLE is in my TBR pile).


THE PAID COMPANION by Amanda Quick. Generally, I am a fan of Jane Anne Krentz's contemporaries and have not read many of her historicals, but they are popular, and I thought it best that I read her newest in paperback. Well, I enjoyed THE PAID COMPANION--I think it was due to the inclusion of the topic of the lost rivers of London. I'm glad I read this one, and I think I will treat myself to more.


Shifting gears...I started catching up on my Janet
Evanovich, whose Stephanie Plum series I dearly love. I have just finished THREE TO GET DEADLY and FOUR TO SCORE. They were both almost too much fun!

Currently I am reading...two books, actually. One is MERELY MARRIED, a 1998 Regency historical by Patricia Coughlin, and the other is THERE'S ALWAYS PLAN B by Susan Mallery. Both promise to be enjoyable. THERE'S ALWAYS PLAN B is one of the new Harlequin NEXT novels written for the middle aged and older reader. It's a "starting over" book with a fortyish heroine, her teenage daughter and the heroine's mother. It seemed a propos for me to read, since I am "starting over" myself, so to speak...

I have just purchased THE PRICE OF INDISCRETION by Cathy Maxwell...will read this one soon.

So...there is my fiction list, albeit limited....
Laurie

My best reads of 2005

I know, I know, what can I say...not a regency romance among them, but here are the books I've enjoyed this year in no particular order. I patronize the local library where I haunt the new release shelf and read mostly on my commute (40 minutes on the Washington, DC metro).

Adam Hochschild's wonderful book about the English abolitionist movement gave me an entirely different take on Georgian/Regency England. One of the points Hochschild makes is that the abolitionist movement could have only happened in England because of the country's excellent infrastructure (roads and mailcoaches), and the population's high level of literacy and passion for politics--even though few could vote, petitions and boycotts had great power. Can you imagine the sweet-toothed English boycotting sugar? They did, in the 1790s, just one example of how the movement crossed boundaries of class and gender. One of the few history books I've read as avidly, and found as moving, as a good novel.

A funny book about suicide? Yep. A group of odd, sad, hopeless people meet on a rooftop from which they all intend to jump, and instead become friends--sort of--Nick Hornby isn't a writer who gives in much to sentiment. Alternately touching, laugh-aloud funny, and savagely satirical.


This is the book I got for xmas and my latest commuter read which I finished last night, although it was a book I wanted to go on for a lot longer. Zadie Smith can make you laugh at and care about her characters, while making you think about Big Things like families, love, education, culture, identity. Rich, satisfying, thoughtful, bighearted fiction.

I was really surprised at how much I liked Ain't She Sweet. Normally I run screaming from any book set in a small (particularly) southern town and/or dealing with characters suffering decades-old high school angst. But Phillips' characters, particularly her complex, appealing hero and heroine, are grown-ups who can come to terms with their pasts, while still making some pretty dreadful mistakes in the present.

OK, I'm cheating a bit. I think this book came out a couple of years ago, but I read it this year and loved it. Imagine the Sopranos at the Tudor Court--the power-hungry, manipulative Howard family using the women of their family as pawns ("Yes, it's Tuesday, Mary, so today it's your turn to become the king's mistress"). The book is about Mary, the sister of Ann Boleyn, briefly Henry VIII's mistress, her troubled relationship with her sister and family, and how she breaks free of them. I love Gregory's brilliant use of language, particularly dialogue, which evokes early sixteenth-century English without sounding archaic or anachronistic.

Another cheating entry--published a few years back, but new to me this year. Yes, it's about SM. I loved the voice of this book--Carrie's ironic, bookish take on her adventures as a sex slave. It's suprisingly funny and sweet. And, oh yes, very sexy indeed, even if you think you're not into that sort of thing. Its author Molly Weatherfield wears another hat as a writer of equally wonderful regency-set historicals.

Anna Maxted is a British chicklit writer--roughly speaking--who isn't afraid to take on big issues and real angst (date rape, bereavement, eating disorders) and in her latest, adultery. At the same time she's genuinely, hysterically funny and her heroines don't lapse into the self-pitying whines I tend to associate with chicklit. And how's this for an opening line (maybe she's a contender for the successor to Jane Austen title we discussed a week or so ago?): Every woman likes to be proposed to, even if she knows she's going to refuse.

Here's the best re-read of my year, Flora Thompson's memoirs of growing up in the English countryside in the late nineteenth century. A great source for small details of country life and a sense of an era about to come to an end. My great-aunt told us it was exactly as she remembered her early childhood. The book may be out of print here, but it's rediscovered and cherished by every generation in England.

Looking ahead to 2006...In 1988 Catherine MacCoun published a book called The Age of Miracles, about a thirteenth-century novice who is possibly--or not--a saint, and what happens to her when she leaves the nunnery. I love this wry, thoughtful, beautifully written book--she's another writer, like Gregory, who can evoke the past and not sound overly historical. I've re-read it many times and I guess it's a romance, though nothing like any other medieval I've tried and flung against the wall. At the time I wouldn't have been caught dead reading a romance (now I'm only mildly embarrassed but it's so difficult to read with a paper sack over your head on the commute). After (oh, gasp, this makes me feel ill) eighteen years in the strange twilight world before the second sale, Ms. MacCoun's next book comes out in May. And I can't wait to read it.

Border Crossing In 2005--Megan's Picks

Like Elena, I'm not a big one for reading books in the year in which they were published. Too busy? Yeah. Too cheap? Definitely. Too whatever? Hell, yeah. This year I found myself reading in many other genres besides Regency and Regency-set (which is still my primary reading material). I discovered some amazing writers in fantasy, science fiction, historical mystery, American historical, and paranormal.

First off is Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January detective series. The first book, A Free Man Of Color, takes place in 1833 New Orleans. January has just returned to his native city after many years in Paris. He's a free man (hence the title), but is also dark black, a stigma in the color-conscious city of quadroons, octoroons, and the like. He gets involved in a murder, the solving of which takes many intricate and unexpected turns. The best part is Hambly's ability to create an ambiance--her descriptions are spectacular, and her writing is stupendous. She's also written in SF/F, and I've been collecting those, even though I haven't read a word of them. She's that good. Or I'm that obsessive.

Next up is Anne Bishop, whose Black Jewels trilogy is a dark, sensual, claustrophobic world of magic and power. This is not a read for the faint of heart, but if you like Anne Stuart and other bleakly compelling writers (and you don't mind graphic blood and such), this is great, heady stuff. Again, I've been glomming her books even though I've only read one and a half thus far. I think I am obsessive. Darn me.

I came late to the party with George R. R. Martin, so you all might roll your eyes at my just having read the first of his A Song of Ice And Fire seriesA Game Of Thrones, but I'm sure glad I made it. Fantasy, but fantasy that isn't fantastical; I read somewhere that A Game Of Thrones is based on the War of the Roses, and he's got that same attention to detail and perspective that makes the best history books so compelling.

This year, I also discovered S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series. Those books are the definition of page-turners--every time you think you've figured something out, you're just plain wrong. And you have to keep reading. It's science fiction, but with a heavy dose of romance. Because of her SF stuff, I also picked up Lynn Viehl's (same author, altered name) Darkyn series. The Darkyn are a family of vampires who are being hunted by rogue priests, and whose way of life (so to speak) is being threatened. Again, page-turners, and not for the faint of heart, although not nearly as disturbing as Bishop's books.

Taking a sharp turn, I also read Cheryl St. John's His Secondhand Wife, which is set in 1890s Colorado (and hey! It came out in 2005!). It's poignant, fiercely sweet writing, and the love story is extremely satisfying.

Unlike Elena (and Amanda, I think?), I haven't been completely sold in Laura Kinsale's brilliance until this year's Shadowheart, which I could not put down. It's set in the 14th century and features an assassin as a hero. Can you tell I love dark, alpha males? (Hi, honey!)

Before I talk a little about the Regency-era books I loved this year, I also have to mention Anne Stuart's Black Ice. Ooh, talk about dark! Anne Stuart could write a shopping list and I would buy it. This one is a contemporary suspense, and its hero does things few heroes would, and those kinds of risks is what makes Stuart so amazing.

In Regencies, I absolutely loved Loretta Chase's Mr. Impossible. Its hero, Rupert Carsington, is such a dish. It's funny, poignant, dramatic, romantic, and deep all at the same time. Chase is just amazing. Don't read her if you're an aspiring Regency author--you might just curl up into a ball and cry. I mean, some might. Pass that hanky, please.

This year, I read my first Jo Goodman. A Season To Be Sinful was surprisingly complex, with a hero and heroine who were both flawed and whose love story was real and touching (and yeah, before you ask, I have a stack of Jo Goodmans, too).

Julia Ross is another rich, complex, and compelling author whose books--and heroes--step away from the mold. Night of Sin was just lush, a gorgeously descriptive book with some really dark deep secrets, passionate romance, and incredibly sensuality. Yummy.

Equally sensual and passionate, but with a much different bent, is Eloisa James's Much Ado About You. What makes her books so great is the way she writes about women's relationships to each other as well as the men who intrigue them. Her dialogue is sparkling, it practically zips off the page, and her characters make mistakes that only deepens the ultimate HEA. Absolutely delicious.

If you've done any border crossing, what genre did you read? Why? Would you read more in genres you don't usually read in?

Thanks for staying this long--

Megan

Great Books I read in 2005

I'm in trouble now.

Looking over those long, gorgeous lists by Amanda and Cara, I am terrified now to admit that my list is going to be far shorter. Maybe I'll be forgiven if I say that between writing and raising two kids, I'm always feeling shortchanged on time. Not just on time to read, but to watch TV and go to movies and such. And I know that I can't really blame it all on the kids, either. It's me--my muse, my creative side, which occasionally produces things that make me proud but often skitters stubbornly away when I need her to work. Then I plod on alone, because sometimes that gets her to come back just to tell me that "I'm doing it all wrong." But the process is painfully slooooowwwwww and time-consuming...

Anyway, I always have any number of great reads calling from my TBR pile. Right now, MR. IMPOSSIBLE by Loretta Chase, A KISS OF FATE by Mary Jo Putney are a just a few tempting me to blow off other responsibilities. At least I bought them in a timely manner. I've come to accept that I can't keep up with my favorite authors, even Laura Kinsale, whose stories are so wonderful that it is worth waiting several years between books. But I do get to them eventually!

So I don't dare do anything called "best reads of 2005". That would imply I'd read enough books to compare. I'll content myself with "great books I read in 2005". Some of them came out much earlier (proof that I do get to my favorite authors' backlists) and I haven't included the Riskies, which were certainly among the best Regencies of 2005. But I'm not partial. Not at all! :)

So here 'tis:

VISCOUNT VAGABOND and THE DEVIL'S DELILAH, by Loretta Chase (repackaging of two Regencies circa 1990. Both witty, funny but always with an undercurrent of real emotion.)

ALMOST A GENTLEMAN by Pam Rosenthal (A 2003 Kensington Brava, sexy but with far deeper characterization than the admittedly few other Bravas I've read--loved the hero and especially the heroine!)

UNCERTAIN MAGIC by Laura Kinsale (First published in 1987--a bit lighter than the more recent Kinsales, but still bewitching and with the trademark tortured hero)

GAMES OF PLEASURE by Julia Ross (Yes, a 2005 release! And a pleasure it was. I find Julia Ross's books consistently lush, complex and passionate, but this just may be her best yet.)

So there you have it. A short list but a good one. I thank all these authors for blessing me with these stories. May they (and all those whose books I didn't get to) write many more to wobble on my TBR stack!

Elena
LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, a Romantic Times Top Pick!
www.elenagreene.com

RT Reviewers' Choice Award Nominations...

Elena Greene, for Lady Dearing's Masquerade in the Regency Romance category, and Lady Midnight by Amanda McCabe for Historical Romantic Mystery/Gothic.
Go Riskies!

My Regency Favorites of 2005

Here are some of my favorites of 2005:

My favorite Regencies that I read for the first time included Nonnie St George's Courting Trouble (yes, it came out halfway through 2004, but I'm way behind in my reading!) and Judith Laik's The Lady is Mine. (By the way, I'm following Amanda's lead and not listing books by fellow Risky-ers -- or we'd all just list each other's books and, how boring would that be?) :-) By the way, yes, I think the woman pictured on this cover is definitely falling out of her dress.

My favorite Regencies that I re-read include Joan Smith's Sweet and Twenty.


My favorite Regency reference book of 2005 is LETTERS FROM LAMBETH: The Correspondence of the Reynolds family with John Freeman Milward Dovaston 1808-1815, introduced and edited by Joanna Richardson. For such a long, dry title, it's surprisingly sprightly, and delightfully droll. Two of my favorite quotes from the letters of John Hamilton Reynolds that it includes are:

The arrival of the Shrewsbury Chronicle has spurred up my head & collected the few grains of wisdom that wandered about my spacious Scull into one large grain & from that LARGE GRAIN you are to expect whatever comes upon this Paper.

I am ordered by my Mother and Father to return you their unfeigned thanks for noticeing the Slovenly & noncencical Letters of Jack Reynolds. I always had a confounded bad opinion of his writings and your remark has confirmed it . . .

And, yes, the creative spelling is all Reynolds's.


My favorite Regency-related movie was the new PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. My favorite Christmas gifts were the dvds of the Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Root PERSUASION, the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jeremy Northam EMMA, and the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. (All of them were gifts from my husband. Yep, I picked a good one. Oh, and in exchange I gave him the complete HORATIO HORNBLOWER series starring Ioan Gruffudd, so I guess we'll be watching a lot of Regency television come 2006!)

What were some of your favorite Regency things this year? Please share!

And for those of you taking the Read-a-Regency challenge: have you made any progress in the past (presumably extremely busy) week? If so, please update us on your reading experiences!

Happy New Year all! And may 2006 bring many Regency delights!

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER -- out now from Signet Regency!

Happy Boxing Day!

Happy Boxing Day, all Risky Regency readers! I hope Santa brought you just what you asked for. :) And I also hope you aren't quite as brain-fogged as I am, after a weekend of food, drink, and family festivities/quarrels (they are sometimes so hard to tell apart!).

All this week, the Riskies are going to be doing a sort of "year in review" thing. What were some of our favorite reads of 2005? What were some of YOURS? I'm starting off with my own "best of" list. One quick note (or three)--I didn't count any of the Riskies' books on my list, because that would have been the whole list. I didn't count non-romances, contemporary romances, or anything but historicals. And I tried to stick to Regency-set books, but a few others crept in. :)

Amanda's Favorite Historical Romance Reads of 2005 (in no particular order):
1) Susan Carroll's The Dark Queen and The Courtesan (okay, not Regency-set, but these books were wonderful. Had to count them)
2) Loretta Chase's Mr. Impossible
3) Myretta Robens' Once Upon a Sofa
4) Kate Huntington's To Tempt a Gentleman
5) Cheryl Sawyer's The Chase
6) Gaelen Foley's One Night for Sin
7) MJ Putney's Stolen Magic (possibly the first time I've ever read a story where the hero was a unicorn)
8) Shana Abe's The Smoke Thief (ditto above, only dragons)
9) Barbara Metzger's Ace of Hearts
10) Liz Carlyle's The Devil to Pay
11) Diane Perkins' The Marriage Bargain
12) Jude Morgan's Passion (breaking my own rule here--this is not really romance, but great historical fiction about women of the Romantic period. I was totally engrossed in this story)
13) I've just started reading Julia Justiss' The Courtesan, but so far it is shaping up to be a great read

And that's it for 2005! I didn't read as much romance this year as I have in the past, but most of what I read was great. What were some of your own favorites?

Getting Ready...

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone. By now you are nearly as ready as you are going to be, I imagine. I sit here and think of folks basking in the lights of their trees with the beautifully wrapped gifts beneath, or sitting before a warm fire with a cozy shawl, a book, and a cup of spiked eggnog.

Then I think of everything I still have to do, and swear (nicely) that I will not be late again. Next year I am getting ready early for Christmas, sending cards and boxes on time, and having that nice evening of peace and comfort. I may spend it alone with my cats, but that doesn't matter. I just want to be ready, and then be able to relax and feel the spirit.

I will shortly be packing gifts into my car and driving 70 miles north to visit my sister (fortunately the weather is behaving--usually there's a winter storm at about this time), and so I hope you forgive me for cutting this short. But I am thinking of you all, lovers of Regencies, readers and writers both, and wishing you the Merriest Christmas of all.

love,
Laurie

Time for a Christmas panto!

I’m creeping into Carla territory here with a theater-related post--about the world of pantomime, a peculiarly English form of theatrical entertainment that is still popular today. It’s an incongruous mix of medieval mystery play, Commedia dell’arte, vaudeville, and musical comedy. The Principal Boy (male lead) is played by a woman wiht great legs. There’s a stock female character called The Dame who is played by a man (the Monty Python crew were not the only ones to cross-dress at the drop of a knicker). Audience participation is encouraged. In its current manifestation the pantomime features stars from TV soaps and is full of political jokes and double entendres.

Commedia dell'arte, a comedic form with stock characters, tumbling, acrobatics and buffoonery came from Italy to England in the seventeenth century. The most popular characters--Harlequin (a wily servant), Columbine (female lead) and Pantalone (comic old man--sorry, this was never very PC)--infiltrated the theater, and an entertainment was developed in three parts: A serious or classical work, followed by a lighter popular tale (Cinderella or Aladdin, for instance, still popular today as panto subjects), and concluded with the Harlequinade. The Harlequinade featured acrobatics and slapstick and was introduced by an elaborate transformation scene using all the latest hi-tech devices of the theater. Imagine that you've gone to the theater to see "King Lear." After the tragedy, the same actors perform a musical version of "Cinderella." After a lot of light effects, music, moving scenery, fountains, women in tights flying etc., the actor who played Lear does some funny stuff with a dog and a string of sausages, as a minor player in the spills, chills and thrills chase scenario of Harlequin and Columbine. Ah, a full night of the theater in eighteenth-century London--all human life is there. There's no wait at the bar because you brought your own, and no wait for the bathrooms because there are none.

Joseph Grimaldi was England's most famous clown and so popular that the character of the Clown became the lead in the Harlequinade. At one time he played the Clown at both Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells, dashing from one theater to another. He was a skilled dancer, mime, acrobat, actor and sleight of hand magician. The Harlequinade died out, possibly coinciding with the death of Grimaldi, its greatest clown, but the second part of the original three-part entertainment adopted some of its characteristics (the slapstick and tumbling) to evolve into the pantomime, played at Christmas and Easter. In Victorian times the Drury Lane Theater was the leading presenter of elaborate pantomime performances, and stars of the music hall made guest appearances.

For great pics and musical examples (including Grimaldi's signature song, "Hot Codlins" with audience participation) go to
www.peopleplayuk.org

www.its-behind-you.com
Here's the complete text of "A History of Pantomime" by R.J. Broadbent (1901) www.gutenberg.org
www.pantoscripts.com

Meanwhile, so you can savor this sophisticated form of comedy, here's an excerpt from a modern version of Aladdin. Widow Twanky (the Dame) is doing laundry with her sons Wishee and Washee:


DAME: Here, did I tell you I nearly won the football pools last week.

WASHEE: Did you really mum?

DAME: Yes I did. My homes were all right. My aways were all right. ( Pulls tatty pair of bloomers from the tub). But my draws let me down.

WISHEE: ( Looking in the tub) I see you've got the laundry for ******* United again ( pulls out strip - holds it out for everyone to see, with big holes in it). Hey, what are these holes in it?

DAME: Well, everyone says they've got holes in their defence. That proves it.

WASHEE: ( Pulling out another huge pair of bloomers) And whose are these?

DAME: I could do with some of these. ( Singing to tune of My Fair Lady) "All I want is some knickers like these, to keep me warm from my neck to me knees, oh wouldn't it be lovely." Did you know I once had some knickers made out of a Union Jack.

WISHEE: Weren't they uncomfortable?

DAME: Not once I'd taken the flagpole out.

happy xmas!
Janet

All She Wanted For Christmas Was A Nap

I am toast. All the gifts have been bought, the cards mailed, the presents all almost wrapped. Never mind the cookies, I made one batch and taught my son a few new words when the dough wouldn't quite roll out the way I wanted it to.

But with Christmas approaching, of course, all people's thoughts turn to--good will? Sure, but there's something else. Peace on earth? YES, PLEASE. And? Oh, yeah. The presents!

In 2001, the year I started working on A Singular Lady, my husband hunted down a bunch of Regency reference books for me. He got Donald Low's Regency Underworld, C. Willett Cunnington's English Women's Clothing In The Nineteenth Century, and a few other cool Regency-era books. It was a fabulous Christmas because it told me my husband supported my efforts to be a writer, and was trying to give me the tools to help me. I cried a lot that year because I felt validated.

So, yeah, this year I am toast, but even though the idea of stressing less and sleeping more IS appealing, I would miss the zest and excitement of the Christmas holiday (not to mention my mother-in-law's homemade donuts. Just saying). Of getting the perfect gift because someone thought about it, and watching their faces as they open what you thought of, and then bought, for them (me, I'm hoping for some out-of-print Mary Balogh traditional Regencies).

Happy Holidays, Riskies! Happy Holidays, Readers!

Megan

A little beauty...

I wonder how stressed Regency folk were during the holidays. I was thinking that perhaps they didn’t travel so much, and things might have been easier. But then I remembered all the accounts of people going for protracted visits to various country houses. Like the following snip from a letter Lord Aucklands sent his sister, Emily Eden, after a visit:

“Mary in such a fright you never saw—such a silence you never heard—room so hot you never felt—dinner so cold you never tasted—dogs so tiresome you never smelt.”

So maybe holiday visits weren’t so idyllic then, either. It isn’t much comfort as some of us head off to visit extended families for the holidays. It's not only an issue of differing tastes and comfort levels; it's the politics.

People who read and write romance love to see closure in relationships—problems worked out with love as the result. But in real life we can’t always have that. Not with relatives or friends who don’t want to work through the real issues. Sometimes the best I know to do is to paste a smile on my face, for the sake of outward peace. I put up with digs from a jealous sibling, because it’s stupid to brangle, and because I want my kids to enjoy a peaceful time with their grandparents.

But it takes a toll. It just feels so wrong to have to put up with nonsense at a time that’s supposed to be so wonderful. The way I cope is to take (or steal, if necessary) as many little moments of beauty, things that are, in their own way, perfect and wonderful.

In the Regency, I probably would have escaped out of doors whenever possible for a walk. Or if that wasn’t possible, I might have dived into a good book or some soothing embroidery.

Some of my favorite modern escapes:

• Christmas videos. The original GRINCH—what a wonderful character arc! Some less well known pleasures: OLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER, with the voice of Drew Barrymore. So funny and cute! An unexpected pleasure: Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Christmas video, with a surprisingly intense villain (for Disney) and more of the same romantic chemistry between Belle and her tortured hero.
• Music. ON YOOLIS NIGHT: Medieval Carols & Motets by Anonymous 4—wonderfully atmospheric and soothing. YULE, with Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton on Celtic harp, guitar and lute. And a new favorite: THE CHAPIN FAMILY CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, Volume II--new takes on old favorites.
• Cookies! Each year I bake a few kinds, but not with the intent of impressing anyone with Martha-ness. I truly love squishing dough with my fingers, love frosting cookies in elaborate patterns. And of course, eating them. Regular standbys: medauninkai, a Lithuanian cookie sweetened with honey and laced with spices. Vanilla almond crescents, made with a ton of butter and covered in powdered sugar that gets all over dark clothing (I guess Megan might avoid them). Something chocolate, which varies—this year those grasshopper squares, like huge, rich after dinner mints. Moderation is for the New Year. Right now, comfort foods are OK as long as you’re not just inhaling them but really taking a moment to savor them.
• And of course, diving into a good book. This year, I’m taking Julia Ross’s GAMES OF PLEASURE with me as I head home for the holidays.
  

What are your favorite holiday pick-me-ups?

Elena
LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, an RT Top Pick!
www.elenagreene.com

Read a Regency!!!! (part 3)

So, does anyone want to report in on how the "Read a Regency" challenge is going? Has anyone read any good Regencies recently?

Here's a list of some more award-winning Regencies. These all won the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for best Regency:

1996 -- THE DEVIL'S DUE by Rita Boucher
1997 -- MY WAYWARD LADY by Evelyn Richardson
1998 -- BEST LAID SCHEMES by Emma Jensen
1999 -- MARIGOLD'S MARRIAGES by Sandra Heath
2000 -- LORD NIGHTINGALE'S DEBUT by Judith A. Lansdowne
2001 -- SUGARPLUM SURPRISES by Elisabeth Fairchild
2002 -- THE DISCARDED DUKE by Nancy Butler
2003 -- THE INDIFFERENT EARL by Blair Bancroft
2004 -- A PASSIONATE ENDEAVOR by Sophia Nash

Has anyone read any of these? Any comments on them?

So, who's been reading Regency Christmas stories?

I own every Signet Regency Christmas collection ever (I'm far older than I pretend to be) :-) and have read just
about every story in every one of them. They're always enjoyable, and often fantastic!

Two of my favorite stories, both in the collection A REGENCY CHRISTMAS EVE (2000):

"The Christmas Thief" by Edith Layton. Funny, touching, and beautiful. First line:
On the day before Christmas, Lt. Major Maxwell Evers rose early, as was his habit, washed, dressed with care, and went out to steal a Christmas present.

"Little Miracles" by Barbara Metzger. Hilarious, sweet, and romantic. First lines:
They were as poor as church mice. No, they were the church mice.

Which are some of your favorite Regency Christmas stories? Or have you read any good Regency romances lately? Reports on either would be lovely!

Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER, out now from Signet Regency!

All the family gathered 'round

With all the holiday family-togetherness, and talking here about what a Regency Christmas might be like (no crowded malls! no animatronic Santas singing Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer!), I started considering romances which also feature relationships other than the main, h/h thing. Namely--family relationships.

We do see them a lot. You know, the ones where 30 siblings find their perfect loves in 30 books and have a big, happy reunion at the end of Book #30. My own family gatherings are seldom like this, and I imagine most family gatherings in the Regency weren't, either. With my own family, someone is always not speaking to someone else. Someone gets drunk and cries and/or shrieks. The dog eats pizza and throws up on the carpet. My cousin's kid takes his diaper off and runs around naked. You get the picture. It's not so pretty. Hmm-now that I think about it, family reunions in the Regency probably weren't like THAT, either. Georgian, maybe. :)

But there are books (even ones in mega-series!) that can capture the timeless best of families and friends. Their loyalty, their unconditional love, the way they might pick on you mercilessly but God help any outsider who dares to do the same. Family problems and stories never really get solved--they just go on and on, and we learn to live with them, and they become part of us. Some authors have captured these dynamics so well. Mary Balogh's "Slightly" series. Mary Jo Putney's Rogues. Gaelen Foley's Knights. To name just a very few. (I'm sure I could find more if my shelves weren't blocked by a Christmas tree and a heap of presents waiting to be wrapped). Jane Austen, of course, was ALL about family dynamics, and no one (with the probable exception of Shakespeare) had a greater grasp on the timeless give- and-take exasperation of relatives.

In my own books, I have lots of friends who have "made" families together, a few sisters, a couple of brothers, a mother or two. An aunt and uncle who are surrogate parents. Strangely, I find it harder to write about brothers than sisters, even though I have no sisters of my own. Families have made my characters who they are. They teach them how to love--or not to love!

What are some of your favorite "family" books or series? Why do you love them? Or hate them?

Which Christmas Would You Want?

It seems to me that I would have done very well with a Regency Christmas. As far as I can determine, there was little in the way of celebration, especially as we now know it, in the Regency period prior to 1815. Customs such as Yule-log burning and decorating with greenery were apparently considered rustic by those of a more elevated position, who left the more primitive celebration to those who were more common. One did dine with one's friends, and practice charity to the poor at Christmas time, but it was "undignified" to celebrate in any more frivolous way.

Well...I do have a struggle between wanting to do the season justice and dreading its demands. I so love the end results--the sparkling house, the cooking smells, the evergreen, the red ribbon and lights, the candles, the wrapped gifts resting mysteriously under the Christmas tree in the pale light of dawn. BUT...the big BUT...fate seems to conspire to keep me from getting there.

Being a single woman keeping her own house, one would think I could have it under control. Not so. Between a full time job, writing, housekeeping and the deepening snow I soon discover that it is DECEMBER 18TH AND I HAVEN'T SENT OUT ANY CARDS YET. And that is just the beginning.

I know that my stress is shared from my friends. At work, I hear one fretting about the cost of a child's preference of gift, another bemoaning having to visit the mall yet again, and another worried that her grown child will not be able to visit. There are some who seem to be able to do it all and more, of course, but I can only think of them with awe.

Back to Christmas in the Regency...something about the very simplicity of their celebration appeals to me, although I am inclined to be a bit contrified in my views, because I favor the evergreen and holly and mistletoe and the roaring fire. I like the empasis on charity, too--and food. Who can't like food?!

Okay, now I have arrived at something. I decide to look up some Regency Recipes in a handy reference, THE NEW FEMALE INSTRUCTOR, published in 1834.

TO ROAST GOOSE
"After it is picked, the plugs of the feathers pulled out, and the hairs carefully singed, let it be well washed and dried, and a seasoning put in of onion, sage, and pepper and salt. Fasten it tight at the neck and the rump, and then roast." [My note--I am assuming the insides were cleaned out; I imagine this was thought to be understood!]. "Put it first at a distance from the fire, and at degrees draw it nearer. A slip of paper should be skewered on the breast-bone. Baste it very well. When the breast is rising, take off the paper; And be careful to serve it before the breast falls, or it will be spoiled by coming flattened to the table. Let a good gravy be sent in the dish."

Good heavens. The goose is looking like a bit of work. I had no idea my goose could go flat. I decide to pass on to dessert.

PLUM PUDDING
"Cut a pound of suet into small pieces, but not too fine, a pound of currants washed clean, a pound of raisins stoned, eight yolks of eggs, and four whites, half a nutmeg grated, a tea-spoonful of beaten ginger, a pound of flour, and a pint of milk. Beat the eggs first, then put to them half the milk, and beat them together; and by degrees stir in the flour, then the suet, spice, and fruit, and as much milk as will mix it well together, very thick. It will take four hours boiling. When done, turn it into our dish, and strew over it grated sugar."

Not so bad. Not very different than certain of today's recipes, especially if you have one that has been handed down in the family. A lot of work, still do-able. But I'm not too keen on the suit. I wonder what it will do to my cholesterol levels.

Better consider what to drink.

ENGLISH SHERRY
"Boil thirty pounds of sugar in ten gallons of water, and scum it clear. When cold, put a quart of new ale-wort to every gallon of liquor, and let it work in the tub a day or two. Then put it into the cask with a pound of sugar candy, six pounds of fine raisins, a pint of brandy, and two ounces of isinglass. When the fermentation is over, stop it close; let it stand eight months, rack it off, and add a little more brandy. Put it in the cask again, and let it stand four months before it is bottled."

Ahem. Nothing to drink until next year. Oh, hey, just give me the brandy.

Perhaps I will stop bemoaning today's Christmases. Either that, or I will go back in time as a wealthy woman with a cook and a full housekeeping staff. Until then...

Link--more recipes: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~awoodley/recipes/xmasrecipe.html

Link--Jo Beverley's page on the Regency Christmas, done much better than I could have done: http://members.shaw.ca/jobev/xmasarticle.html

Cheers!

Where's that brandy???

Laurie

Speak For Yourself!

It's really intimidating to be the one who posts on the actual birthday, after celebrating most of the week. And, as usual, I've taken the wimp's way out (have I mentioned 'conflict-averse' is my middle name? I didn't? Oh, I must've been scared to).

(With much thanks to Myretta Robens, Regency author and webmaster of Pemberley.com, an incredible site devoted to Jane Austen and the people who love her.)

It's Jane's birthday. Happy Birthday, Jane! Instead of speaking about her, though, let's let Jane speak for herself (click here to read all this, and much, much more).

"Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?"

"I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and ill-informed female who ever dared to be an authoress."

". . . But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other."

Ah, as in her writing, Jane's own musings are self-deprecating, wryly funny, and deliberately obfuscatory. As poking around the Pemberley site will reveal, Jane was as shaded as her writings. I bet, if she were around today, she'd be a blast to hang out with, too, delivering her Special Snark in dulcet tones. I wish she were here, so I could buy her a beer to celebrate.

Megan 

An Austen first for the Riskies

The world of Jane Austen scholarship was shaken to the core by the recent discovery of a “lost” excerpt from Pride and Prejudice. Currently undergoing rigorous handwriting, paper, and ink analysis, the fragment reveals a daring stylistic experimentation that has already created fierce controversy in academic circles. The short scene depicts Jane Bennett, who, while waiting for Lizzie to return from Derbyshire, seeks outside help in rescuing Lydia from ruin. With the violent rejection of the classical style,what was Austen intending? One cannot help but wonder, had she pursued this course, how the introduction of a new character, a possible rival for either Bingley or Darcy, would have influenced the romantic element of the novel; and certainly it seems, in its revelation of the seamy underbelly of Meriton, to indicate a possible bloody gang shoot-out as the book's climax.

It is with great pleasure and the deepest honor that the Risky Regencies Blog presents the world debut of this important addition to the Austen canon.

She’s cool as a cucumber, this Miss Bennett. Not what I expected, not after what I’d heard in the village about the family. She receives me in a drawing room furnished with old-world stuff--nothing fancy, old pieces, the whole set-up breathing respectability and solidity.

“Thank you for coming, sir.” She gestures to a chair, one of those spindly English things. The old dame who took my hat and gloves stays with us in the room, picking away at an embroidery frame to preserve the decencies, I guess.

When Miss Bennett leans to pour tea her gown slips up revealing a pretty good ankle. Not bad, not bad at all, but this is business, and I let her mess around with the teacups while keeping an eye on her. She’s too genteel to offer me a Scotch, but for the moment I’m playing on her terms.

“The weather has been quite remarkably good,” she offers, and the slight tremor in her hand reveals her agitation. “I think, however, we can expect some rain later this week.”

I decide to help her out. “Sure. Say, Miss Bennett, you didn’t call me here to talk about the weather.”

“You are correct, sir.” She produces a small, lace-edged handkerchief and gives a genteel sniffle. “I daresay you have heard…how could you not have…the disgrace that has fallen upon our family. Forgive me, it is dreadful indeed. My youngest sister, Lydia, has…has fallen into the hands of an adventurer and has been persuaded to elope. I think he does not intend to marry her. Sir, you must help us find them.”

“Wickham?” I ask. Things had gotten too hot for him in London, after he’d fallen out with the boys at White’s, and the whole set up stinks of him. He'd tried to set up a rival operation to Bingley and Darcy, but they were too clever for him, and they'd left town after they'd sucked the neighborhood dry. Even so, they'd forced Charlotte Lucas to throw in her lot with the de Bourgh Gang and last I'd heard she was engaged in a struggle for power with Collins.

“I fear so.” She plies the handkerchief, a picture of bewildered innocence. “My Papa and Mama are prostrated with grief, and I do not know to whom I can turn until Lizzie comes home.”

Right, her father operating some sort of scam from his study and her hophead of a mother high as a kite most of the time from all I’ve heard, continually sending her daughters into town to buy more of the stuff at that fake haberdasher's. “Lizzie?”

“My sister. She will know what to do. She is in Derbyshire, and on her way home even as we speak.”

“Up north?” This stinks more and more. If the Wordsworth siblings, that cold-hearted team of killers, are part of the scheme, there’ll be blood all over this polite drawing-room before we’re finished.

"It is dreadful indeed." She dabs at her eyes.

"You're good, sister. Real good."

"I beg your pardon?" She draws herself up and looks at me with disdain.

"You're good, real good, all that fake innocence, but I've been made a sap of one too many times by dames like you. It's time to come clean, dollface."

"Sir!" She leaps to her feet, doing the heaving bosom thing. "I regret we will have no need of your services. Please leave this house immediately, Mr. Spade."

Jane Rocks!

I just saw the recent P&P a second time. This time I heartily enjoyed it, having gotten over some of the surprises in this new adaptation. I was also with several people who had not read the book who thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It really made me think about some of the vehement debates that have gone on over the various artistic choices made in this movie re the costuming, adapted dialogue, changed settings, etc… It also made me think of how upset some people are when Jane Austen is said to be the first chick-lit author, or over broader reinterpretations of her work like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Clueless.

I have to admit part of me sympathizes. It can be fun to have special, esoteric interests that not everyone else understands. But more and more, I’m open to sharing Jane with the world, and happy that her stories are reaching broader audiences through all these new incarnations. This is why they’re classics.

Let’s not put Jane in a box, please. She was a woman of many interests, from the serious to the frivolous, and able to laugh at herself as well as at others. Here are some favorite Jane anecdotes and quotes.

Jane the Literary Diva

“I remember that when Aunt Jane came to us at Godmersham she used to bring the manuscript of whatever novel she was writing with her, and would shut herself up with my elder sisters in one of the bedrooms to read them aloud. I and the younger ones used to hear peals of laughter through the door, and tho