Home from RWA Atlanta

Hello, Everyone! I'm back from the RWA conference in Atlanta where I had a wonderful time! It was truly a golden conference for me--or rather for Diane Gaston. My A Reputable Rake by Diane Gaston won the RITA award for Best Regency Romance. You'd think that would be enough good fortune for any one person, but The Mysterious Miss M won a National Readers Choice Award for Best Regency. Janet's Dedication was also a finalist in the NRCA and it could very easily (and just as happily) been her book to win Best Regency.

It was a great conference for Riskies. Cara's My Lady Gamester won the Booksellers Best Award for Best Regency and Amanda's Lady Midnight won the Booksellers Best Award for Best Long Historical.

There were so many highlights of the conference I don't know where to begin or what to include. The very best part is seeing all my Romance writing friends, some whom I only see at the national conference. It was fun seeing Megan and I had time to share Wet Noodle Posse fun with Janet and Amanda and I snuck in a short half hour for a "comfortable coze."

The Mills & Boon editors were so cute. Well, Sheila Hodgson was elegant but Joanne Carr and Jenny Hutton were lovely, young, gorgeous and enthusiastic-- and tall! All the Mills & Boon folks and the Harlequin folks were lovely to me, even before I won!

The whole atmosphere of the conference was exciting, supportive, and joyful. I loved every minute.

Blogger would not let me post photos but I will put them on a blog as soon as Blogger decides to behave.

Cheers!
Diane

Amanda's Summer Reads

At, first, this week's assignment confused me. Were we supposed to write about what we're actually reading this summer, or what we woud take with us to our mythical private Risky Regency Beach. (Oooh, I bet that would be a fab place. Piles of books everywhere, buckets of champagne, trays of strawberry-dipped chocolates and mangoes. Cabana boys named Clive and Gerard and Orlando and Sean...)

Ahem. I digress. Okay, so I turned this into a two-section thing: what I am reading right now, this week, for my summer enjoyment, and what I would put in my bag to take to our lovely RR beach. And let Orlando read to me while he feeds me grapes...

Books I am Currently Reading: (and these could go to the beach, too--I'm certainly not averse to hauling a massive hardback biography across the sands if I have to!)

1) Bess of Hardwick: Empire Builder by Mary S. Lovell, who also wrote the riveting book The Sisters about the wildly eccentric Mitford sisters. Actually, these could be companion studies of dysfunctional families through the ages! Bess was born into the "upper middle classes" of Tudor England, but rose, though 4 advantageous marriages and much wheeler-dealering to be the second most wealthy woman in England after the Queen. She built several grand properties, including most famously "Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." She was close to Elizabeth and her leading courtiers, and had much to do with Mary Queen of Scots (her fourth husband was Mary's main jailer, a source of high tension and stress that eventually drove their marriage into acrimony and separation). The book is full of wild family squabbles, spectacular marital spats, and an intriguingly wide view of Tudor society. I love it, and will probably read Arbella: England's Lost Queen when I finish (Arbella, the ultimate rebellious teenager, was Bess' granddaughter and a serious claimant to the throne).

2) The other book I'm reading is Julia Childs memoir My Life in France. In 1949, she married and moved to France with her diplomatic service husband, thus having the chance to experience the glories of French food for the first time. She attended the Cordon Bleu, started working on a cookbook with some friends, and the rest is history. Gorgeous meals, beautiful scenery, the general joie de vivre of France--it's delightful. I would have so loved to party with her and her husband!

And now, what I would pack in my beach bag (paperbacks, so a little lighter than the two above!)
A Singular Lady by Megan Frampton (the blue cover would go so well with the sea, and the chick lit at Almacks tone is perfect for a vacation)
Code of Love by Cheryl Sawyer (because it looks interesting--I'm a sucker for intellectual skullduggery like code-breaking)
Runaway Duke by Julie Anne Long (because I'm also a sucker for dukes who don't wanna be dukes--like they have a choice, poor things. Snort. And because I enjoyed her first book)
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (the sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty, which I just finished and loved. Historical paranormal YA, where the fate of the world and the Realms rests on the shoulders of a gaggle of Victorian 16-year-olds. Loved it!)

And that's it, my vacation book list. Until I start adding to it. And BTW, the pic is one of the very few you will ever find of me in a swimsuit. Someone snuck up on me as I was reading on the hotel lanai in Hawaii. The last bikini pic of me was when I was 3 and had a flashy gold lame creation to wear in my wading pool... :)

Sharpe, Noir, Love and Intrigue

Each year, for the past 17 years, my husband and I (well, he wasn't always my husband, but you get the point) head to Ocean City, NJ for at least a week of the beach.

Now, if you've seen my picture, you know the sun is not my friend. But I like the idea of sitting somewhere and just reading. So I've come to love the beach, even though it means slathering myself with SPF 50 and higher each time I venture outside.

I have a theory about beach readsd. Instead of choosing light, frothy reads, I like to read stuff that is in contrast to my surroundings. My beach time is when I choose the meatier books from my TBR pile. The other necessity is that the book be something I can count on--there is absolutely nothing worse than reading a dud when you're stuck in the middle of sand, and can't get back to make another choice.

So here is what I'll be taking to the beach this summer:

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. I've read the first two (chronological) Sharpes, and have been watching the series on BBC America. Cornwell is a FABULOUS writer, someone who can write 100+ pages of battle scene and keep my interest all the way through. And what's really cool is that Cornwell always has a twist at the end, so you know there's another payoff coming at the end of the book. The best part, though, is that Cornwell is alive and writing, and he is very, very prolific, so you will always have more of his stuff to read.

Next up is Ross McDonald's Lew Archer series. Lew Archer is a detective in Los Angeles in the--I want to say '50s and '60s, but I'm not quite sure--who is smart, tough, and compelling. McDonald's descriptions are amazing, and the way he writes is on par with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. If you like James Ellroy, you will like Ross McDonald. Again, I've been collecting his books. Unfortunately McDonald is dead, so there are no more Archer books, but he wrote plenty when he was alive, and they are now out in gorgeous trade paperback.

Loretta Chase's Captives of the Night has recently been reissued, and I have never read it. If you're a Regency fan, you've read at least one of her books, and you know she is a solidly consistent author whose heroes are deceptively stupid and her heroines are smart and brook no nonsense. You can depend on Chase for an enchanting read, good for if there seem to be storms brewing over the horizon.

And last, Barbara Hambly. Her Benjamin January detective series is lush, intriguing, and describes 1830s New Orleans society so well I feel as if I'm there. January is a great character, a dark Black free man who is a pianist and a doctor. I've only read two of the series thus far, and am very much looking forward to reading more.

And that is what will be getting sandy with me at the beach. Sorry about no pictures, I am on a kind friend's computer and haven't the time to hunt down pictures.

Have you read any of these? Are there any in these genres that you would recommend?

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

Janet's beach--or wherever--reads

I read quite a lot in real life--I am blessed with a commute on public transport which allows me ample reading time, and I also like to read before I go to sleep. But summer reading--the luxury of knowing that you will have time and opportunity to dive into some good stuff--is something else.

Since I so rarely go to beaches--or at least ones where the wind will not rip a book from your frozen fingers--I'll talk first about the book I'm taking to Atlanta. I know it seems odd to take books to an event where you leave staggering under the weight of give-aways, but that's me. And this one is quite a hefty tome: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. I've been meaning to re-read this for years. I have vague memories of chilly, atmospheric descriptions of the Thames--the book opens with the discovery of a body in the river. It's his last completed book, dark, tortuously plotted, and full of strange, weird characters.

If I were truly going to a beach, or having extended leisure time, I'd read the following:

All of the Malloren and the Rogues series by Jo Beverley. In order. Possibly with a flow chart to hand. That way I wouldn't be so confused when the family descends in all their numerous glory.

Ditto Mary Balogh's Slightly series. I think I've read most of them but in the most illogical order possible.

Byron's letters--not the whole lot, I'd be at the beach for years and turn into a shriveled prune, but a good collection--any recommendations, anyone?

And that, I think, would keep me busy.

Janet

Elena's Beach Reads

I'll give almost any genre or author a try normally, but when I'm on vacation (beach or otherwise) I'm less adventurous in my reading. I think it's because vacation time is so precious I don't want to risk wasting it on something I won't enjoy enough to finish. And since many of my vacations are outdoorsy, chances are there might not be a bookstore nearby to supply a more satisfying read.

So I usually stick to favorite authors.

For my next vacation, I'll make an effort to catch up on Amanda's and Diane's backlists, though these ladies are so prolific it's a challenge (albeit a worthy one!) to keep up. The pile will also include books by some of the following authors: Jo Beverley, Judith Ivory, Laura Kinsale, Mary Jo Putney, Jean Ross Ewing aka Julia Ross.

But I have a confession to make. While the pile (constrained only by luggage space) may have some weightier stories, there also have to be what I think of as quintessential beach reads: pageturners with plenty of humor.

That's why I almost always vacation with something by Loretta Chase. In recent years, I've romped through a few of her two-in-one Regency reissues. Her long historicals are also fantastic, of course. But I guess most of you know that already!

Here are a few other books I've read recently that are great beach reads.

BET ME by Jennifer Crusie--great characters, dialogue and what the hero does with a chocolate Krispy Kreme is just...well, believe me when I say it's good. Very good.

DISAPPEARING NIGHTLY by Laura Resnick. It's not a romance though it has a romantic thread that ends in a kiss. Really, it's Chick Lit meets Ghostbusters. Kooky stuff, but I devoured pages as if they were potato chips. If I were allowing myself to eat potato chips during swimsuit season, that is. Which I don't. Mostly.

So anyway, here are just a few more authors and titles you might want to consider trying this summer. Along with, of course, anything by the Riskies. :)

Elena
LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers' Choice for Best Regency of 2005
www.elenagreene.com

Cara's Beach Reads

I admit I'm not much of a beachgoer -- I lived for over a year in Santa Barbara and never made it to the beach. There's just something in the combination of sand in one's clothes, and salt on one's sunburn, that puts me off. But this whole idea of beach reading is beginning to appeal to me, because it has now occurred to me that:

1) If you read instead of going in the water, you have no salt problems.
2) If you read in the shade, you have no sunburn problems.
3) If you read, you stay in one place, so you have no sand problems!

(Is this what adulthood is all about?)

So, here are my beach reads -- the books that I would read on the beach this week, if I were on the beach. (Actually, as it's been over a hundred degrees fahrenheit here for days now, the beach is sounding better and better...)

My first book would be Firebirds Rising, an anthology of original fantasy and science fiction stories that includes entries by Diana Wynne Jones, Tanith Lee, Emma Bull, Tamora Pierce, Patricia McKillip, and many more. I just finished reading its predecessor, Firebirds (both edited by Sharyn November), and had a great time. It's also a handy way to sample new authors, and move those I love most to the top of my to-be-read pile! (In the interest of full disclosure, I will reveal that after reading Firebirds, I moved books by Nancy Farmer and Megan Whalen Turner to the top of my pile. I have, of course, already read everything by the inimitable Diana Wynne Jones.) :-)

For my next book, I'll pick a Regency romance. I confess I haven't yet read Myretta Robens' Just Say Yes, which on Saturday will be up for best Regency Romance in the prestigious Rita Awards (competing with our own Diane Gaston's A Reputable Rake, Jenna Mindel's Miss Whitlow's Turn, and Jeanne Savery's The House Party.) I just love the cover. The book promises to be sparkling and witty, so I'm really looking forward to it. (I also like more serious Regencies, of course! Like my own My Lady Gamester, which is also up for an award -- the Booksellers' Best Award -- which will be awarded this Wednesday. Yep, tomorrow. Competing against three wonderful novels. Including one by our own Diane Gaston. So I'm not exactly holding my breath. Which is good, because if I held my breath till then, I'd have soon have no more breath to hold.)

I am very excited that World Con is going to be in Southern California this year. (World Con is short for the World Science Fiction Convention -- held every year somewhere in the world. For more info, see www.laconiv.org.) I've never attended a World Con before, and I can't wait for this one! As an attendee, I will be able to vote for this year's Hugo Awards -- so I'm busy reading the current slate of nominees. Next up for me is Accelerando by Charles Stross. I love science fiction -- it can be so intelligent, so clear-eyed, so imaginative and brain-stretching that I don't know any other type of fiction like it.

Believe it or not, I haven't yet read the new Jennifer Crusie. Her latest, a collaboration with Bob Mayer entitled Don't Look Down, has been sitting for a while now on my to-be-read shelf. (Actually, it's a to-be-read bookcase. Though now that I think of it, I've never read a bookcase in my life. Which I guess is pretty obvious. Or it would be a has-been-read bookcase.)

I have loved Jennifer Crusie's funny romances ever since Strange Bedpersons and What the Lady Wants first came out. (That's an example of subtle boasting. If you look carefully, you'll see I am claiming to be one of her early fans, not one of her more recent, read-the-reissue-of-her-early-Harlequins-with-covers-that-pretend-these-are-single-title-releases fans. And while we're on the subject, let me just casually mention I was a fan of Diana Wynne Jones even before Charmed Life came out. Um. Hmm. I hope I haven't just ruined the illusion that I am incredibly young and therefore a prodigy.)

Which brings us to today's questions:

1) Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think?
2) Do you read on the beach? Is sand truly not a problem?
3) Do you have a to-be-read pile? Shelf? Bookcase? House? If so, do you find that certain things just stay there forever?
4) Are there any authors who you pride yourself on being an early fan of? Who?

Keep cool!

Cara
Cara King -- www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER -- Booksellers' Best Finalist for Best Regency of 2005!

Diane's Beach Reads

Amanda, Megan, Janet and I are bound for the RWA Conference this week, not exactly a "day at the beach," but a lot of fun in its own way. Still, it did get us thinking about vacations, especially beach vacations. Instead of proceeding through our hectic lives or the hectic conference, we imagined going to the beach and sitting under a beach umbrella, listening to the waves and READING!


What books, we asked ourselves, would we pack?

In each of our blogs this week, we are going to tell you!
Starting with me.

Traveling to Atlanta today, Monday July 24, I will worry only about what book to take on the airplane. (That's not all I'll worry about. At the conference I'll discover if The Mysterious Miss M wins Best Regency in The Bookseller’s Best or The National Reader’s Choice Awards. And if A Reputable Rake wins the RITA for Best Regency. Yipes!)On my return flight, I'll likely pick one book among the many freebies we're bound to receive.

But if I were going to the beach? I scoured my To-Be-Read piles and selected the books I’d most want to read if I could spend this week sitting under a beach umbrella. My choices are confined to friends’ books. I don’t even dare to consider widening the book pool to include all the possibilities.

Regency Books:
Lady Midnight by Amanda McCabe – “our” Amanda. I’ve had the book for ages and it is on the top of my pile and is a Booksellers Best finalist for Best Historical.
The Naked Marquis by Sally MacKenzie – I enjoyed her Naked Duke and want more!
Love is in the Heir by Kathryn Caskie – her conclusion to the Featherton sister series
To Love a Thief by Julie Ann Long – her RITA finalist for Short Historical

Others: (these are all by my pals in the Wet Noodle Posse, who are way too prolific for me to keep up)
A Rogue in a Kilt by Sandy Blair – I loved her debut, A Man in a Kilt
Run for the Money by Stephanie Feagan – Again, I loved Show Her the Money, up for Best First Book in the RITAs.
Learning Curve by Terry McLaughlin – a Harlequin Superromance I peeked into and can’t wait to finish
The Runaway Daughter by Anna DeStefano – ditto
The Mancini Marriage Bargain by Trish Morey – one of those delicious Harlequin Presents
Oh, there are so many more I could list! I could not possibly get through all of these on my beach week, but these are the ones I would pack.
(speaking of packing……did I remember everything?)

Cheers!
Diane

Stargazing

Last week, Megan posted about birthday parties. We're about to celebrate my oldest's, and having it a local observatory, the Kopernik Space and Education Center.

Did you know there was an important woman astronomer during the Regency? Caroline Herschel was born in Germany, in 1750. She accompanied her brother, William Herschel, to England, to serve as his housekeeper and also his assistant, and continued to study the stars until her death in 1848.

I found this letter from Caroline to her sister and thought I'd share.

William is away, and I am minding the heavens. I have discovered eight new comets and three nebulae never before seen by man, and I am preparing an index to Flamsteed's observations, together with a catalogue of 560 stars omitted from the British Catalogue, plus a list of errata in that publication.

William says I have a way with numbers, so I handle all the necessary reductions and calculations. I also plan every night's observation schedule, for he says my intuition helps me turn the telescope to discover star cluster after star cluster.

I have helped him polish the mirrors and lenses of our new telesope. It is the largest in existence. Can you imagine the thrill of turning it to some new corner of the heavens to see something never before seen from earth? I actually like that he is busy with the Royal Society and his club, for when I finish my other work I can spend all night sweeping the heavens.

Sometimes when I am alone in the dark, and the universe reveals yet another secret, I say the names of my long lost sisters, forgotten in the books that record our science:

Aganice of Thessaly,
Hyptia,
Hildegard,
Catherina Hevelius,
Maria Agnesi,

--as if the stars themselves could remember. Did you know that Hildegard proposed a heliocentric universe 300 years before Copernicus? That she wrote of universal gravitation 500 years before Newton? But who would listen to her? She was just a nun, a woman.

What is our age, if that age was dark? As for my name, it will also be forgotten, but I am not accused of being a sorceress, like Aganice, and the Christians do not threaten to drag me to church, to murder me, like they did Hyptia of Alexandria, the eloquent young woman who devised the instruments used to accurately measure the position and motion of heavenly bodies.

However long we live, life is short, so I work. And however important man becomes, he is nothing compared to the stars. There are secrets, dear sister, and it is for us to reveal them. Your name, like mine, is a song.

Write soon
--Caroline

Doesn't she sound like someone we'd like to meet? I would love to tell her that in our day, there are little girls who think it's cool to celebrate a birthday at an observatory. I think it would make her smile.

Elena
LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers' Choice Award, Best Regency Romance
www.elenagreene.com

Regency Weather 101

"It is commonly observed that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm" --Samuel Johnson

This past week, my town, like everyone else's, has been in the grip of a massive heat wave. Today we are back to our usual low 90s, but yesterday peaked at 109. I dread getting my next electric bill! Anyway, with the heat and humidity the way it was, I couldn't think about anything but the weather. Hence today's post!

I wondered "what were the predominant weather patterns in the Regency?" (believe me, this is not something I am generally concerned about, unless I happen to need a huge storm or something for plot purposes, and even then I just generally make it up. Shhh! Don't tell!). One thing I dug up was the fact that their weather was not much like ours in these past few weeks. They were on the tail-end of something called the Little Ice Age, which lasted approximately from the fourteenth century to the mid-nineteenth. Three years of torrential rain starting in 1315, plus something to do with glaciers that I don't understand, began a long era of unpredictable weather. The first Thames freeze came in 1607, the last in 1814. In the winter of 1794/5 the French army could march on the frozen Netherlands river on their invasion, while the Dutch fleet was fixed in ice at Den Helder harbor. In 1780, New York Harbor froze; a person could walk from Manhattan to Staten Island on the ice. On a sidenote that is interesting probably only to me, there is a theory that the denser woods caused by the colder climate is partially responsible for the superb tone of the instruments of Antonio Stradivari.

Check here for more on the Little Ice Age
And here for more on Stradivari

Another interesting thing I found was the growing popularity of the "weather journal" and memoir in the late 18th/early 19th century. It was probably something to do with Enlightenment ideas of "civilizing" nature, which segued into Romantic notions of the wild perfection of nature. A few of the tidbits:

John Locke kept a weather diary between June 1691 and May 1703, often recording two or more readings of thermometer, barometer, and wind gauge in one day!

In 1770, the Irish Quaker physician John Rutty published the surprisingly popular Chronological History of the Weather and Seasons and of Prevailing Diseases in Dublin.

In 1779, Thomas Short wrote a General Chronological History of the Air, which goes back to the biblical flood. It's a long catalog of plagues, floods, pestilences, earthquakes, famines, and other fun events.

One of the most prolific of these "weather watchers" was the Quaker social reformer Luke Howard. He published (among others) On the Modification of Clouds (which seems to have had a great influence on Romantic visual arts) and his most famous work The Climate of London (1818--20). A few of his quotes:
"Night is 3.70 degrees warmer and day 0.34 degrees cooler in the city than in the country (which he attributes to the extensive use of fuel in the city)

"At 1:00 yesterday afternoon the fog was as dense as ever recollect to have known it..the carriages in the street dared not exceed a foot pace. At the same time, five miles from the town the atmosphere was clear and unclouded with a brilliant sun"

"The sky too belongs to the Landscape. The ocean of air in which we live and move, and in which the bolt of heaven is forged, and the frucifying rain condensed, can never be to the zealous Naturalist a subject of tame and unfeeling contemplation"

To close, I'll give a link to an interesting site that has some antique barometers for sale, if you happen to have a few thousand dollars you're wondering how to spend. :)

HEA, STAT!

Janet's post yesterday dovetails in nicely with what has been on my mind lately: Finishing the darn book.

I don't mean finishing reading it, but finishing writing and editing it. See, I've had this Regency-set historical I've been editing, and last night I officially finished editing it. Until my last reader reports in with her feedback.

Like Janet, I like the quick ending. I despise epilogues, especially if there are little bundles of joy around. Not that I don't like kids (I have one, after all), it's that I don't romanticize parenthood. Overweight, exhausted women who resent their husbands for sleeping through the night? Not romantic. But I digress.

I do have problems with some authors rushing too quickly to the end. Janet mentions Judith Ivory in her post, and some of Ivory's books seem like she just wants to get out of there.

Until recently, I wondered why she just didn't take as much careful time to craft her story at the end as she had all the way through the book.

Until recently.

I was so excited to get towards the end of my book that I totally rushed through the ending, wrapping up all sorts of plotlines in a few quick sentences. I know I'll have to go back and flesh things out a bit, but right now? I'm just happy to be done. My last reader is starting to read the ms. today, will have feedback over the weekend, so it's not like I have a whole lot of time off from it. But it's enough.

Not all of you are writers, but all of you do things in your lives that you start and finish. Do you find yourselves rushing to get to the end? Delaying it as long as you can because there's just another task waiting beyond this one? Or are you that pinnacle of perfection, taking as much time and energy--but not too much--with the end as you did the previous 95%?

Meanwhile, wish me luck this weekend with the editing. I thought I was done.

Megan
www.meganframpton.com

Happily ever after

Borrowed from fairy tales, known as the HEA in romance--does it always work? Do you appreciate the book that ends like a slow fade on camera, moving away from h/h? Or do you prefer the full monty of explanations, apologies, tears, laughter, the whole package of loose ends and subplots tied up with a pretty ribbon , followed by an epilogue where h/h are surrounded by babies and all's well with the world? I have to admit I can't write endings worth a darn. I write and rewrite the last few lines, then shrug and type in The End, and put myself out of my misery (several nights in a row for a week or so).

Here's a technique for The End which I'm rather fond of: Black Ice by Anne Stuart, where you realize the heroine is indeed going to take up with that thrillingly scruffy French psychopath. All in one sentence. Any/all of Judith Ivory's thrilling throwaway one-sentence enders--yes, I rather like the sensation of leaping off a cliff, particularly if h/h have spent the entire book jumping off minor cliffs and are now going for the Big One, the Commitment--marriage, the final frontier. I don't want cosiness and domesticity and the patter of tiny feet. Let the dysfunctionality thrive beyond the endpages!

Some readers got very upset about the end of Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me where the h/h married but had a dog instead of children. It was seen as breaking the rules in some strange sort of way; even stranger is that Ms. Crusie claims she wrote it that way because the book is a fairy tale (lost shoes! Princesses in towers! Yes, the elements are all there). I think the only sort of dog that appears in a fairy tale would be a magic one, with eyes that roll round and round, for instance, and guards treasure. Well, maybe there was more to the dog than we knew.

Share your favorite endings--without giving away the plot, if you can.

Janet

Bertie Takes a Bath

Oh my, isn't my face red. I meant to hit the little keys to make the title of this "Bertie Talks About Bath."

But somehow, it doesn't say that.

And I cannot decipher how to change it. Please forgive me. I never talk about indelicate things, such as -- well -- you know. At least, I never talk about them by accident.

Ahem.

Bertie Talks About Bath

Bath is dreadfully boring. I have no idea why you all like it so much.

I will concede that it is a pretty little town. Some of the buildings are aesthetically pleasing. As are a few of the ladies.

But save me from those Bath tabbies! Those plump, red-faced, elderly women who always tell one "stand up straight, Bertie!" and "drink your water, Bertie!" and "meet me at 9 o'clock in the morning, Bertie!" and "Dance with my ugly grand-daughter, Bertie!" (Very well, I admit that they don't phrase the last command with those precise words. But that's the meaning, I assure you.)

It's enough to give one chills, even in this weather.

My reply to the tabbies:

1. As far as I am concerned, there is no 9 a.m. There is a 9 p.m. I could meet you at 9 p.m. (But I won't.)

2. I'd much rather drink wine, thank you very much.

3. I am standing just as straight as is fashionable. No more, no less.

4. Dancing is too too fatiguing. I'd much rather have more wine.

Those are my ruminations on Bath.

I have never read Miss Austen's novel Northanger Abbey, so I cannot say whether or not I care that it will be filmed in Ireland. Ireland is a beautiful country, but -- oh, you know. It would be quite splendid if only there weren't so many Irish folk living there.

Yours elegantly, as always,

Bertie the Beau

NORTHANGER ABBEY without Bath?

Breaking news! According to the Irish edition of The Sunday Times, the upcoming Northanger Abbey television adaptation (scripted by Andrew Davies, the screenwriter of the beloved Firth/Ehle Pride and Prejudice) will be filmed entirely in Ireland. Apparently, Ireland gives much better tax breaks for television productions than Britain does, which led to the decision. So next year, when Northanger Abbey airs on ITV, all the backgrounds and buildings and assembly rooms will be Irish.

I must admit, this decision disturbs me greatly!

I do adore Bath, but that's not the only reason I'm upset that the new Northanger Abbey will not be filmed at all there. It's that I cannot imagine the story of naive Catherine Morland, sprightly Isabella Thorpe, boorish John Thorpe, satirical Mr. Tilney, and all the rest taking place anywhere else! (I refer, of course, to the first [and better] half of the novel. The last bit can be filmed anywhere at all, for all I'm concerned.)

Jane Austen gives our heroine the true Bath experience! She attends the Pump Room, the Upper Rooms (pictured here), the Lower Rooms, she shops on Milsom Street, she stays on Pulteney Street, she "breathes the fresh air of better company" up at the Royal Crescent. The first half of the book is truly about Bath. And Bath is immediately recognizable. How can they possibly film it anywhere else?

So, in honor of Bath, so cruelly slighted, I am sharing with you some of the photos I took of Bath during my recent trip there. In fact, I have so many pictures I want to share, that I've put them in two different blog posts. (Blogger gets touchy about a post with too many pictures!)

My question for today: what do you think of the decision to film Northanger Abbey entirely in Ireland? Do you think Ireland's Georgian buildings can pass for Bath with some clever photography? Do you think it doesn't much matter where the story is set? Do you think the previous Northanger Abbey adaptation was so dreadful that anything will be an improvement?

All opinions welcome!

Cara
Cara King -- www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER -- Booksellers' Best Finalist for Best Regency of 2005!

More Bath Pics

Here are some more of my photos of Bath taken during my recent trip. I love just wandering around Bath, looking at everything, and taking pictures.

Of course, as Jane Austen pointed out, it does rain a lot in Bath. (Then again, it rains a lot everywhere in England. I have always thought it a bit odd that Austen seemed to believe it rained more in Bath than anywhere else. I suppose her general unhappiness in Bath may have something to do with it. Or perhaps it just happened to rain more when she was there? Or perhaps when she was indoors at Bath, she could hear the rain on the pavements much more than she could hear the rain in the countryside.)

As I was going to say, I just walk around Bath, wait for a break in the rain if it's rainy, and wait for a break in the cars. Then I wait longer, hoping for a break in both at the same time. Or for blue sky. But in spite of all these difficulties, I've gotten a lot of lovely Bath pictures over the years! Here's a "chair" -- carriages weren't very suitable for Bath's hilly roads, so you would take a chair (carried by chairmen) up and down the hills, to the Baths, to the Pump Room, to the Assembly Rooms, etc. The fares were set and published, so the chairmen couldn't cheat you!

Here we have the interior of the Pump Room. Just lovely. Here Catherine Morland strolled arm in arm with Isabella Thorpe. And of course, to be truly healthy, one would drink the mineral water here. (Nowadays one can have a cream tea instead. Much less healthful, I fear, but much more enjoyable.)

Here's the outside of the Pump Room -- the area here was known as the Pump Room Yard. It's bordered by the Abbey Church (quite lovely, and much restored since the Regency, when it wasn't nearly as nice as it is now) and right in the middle of everything -- now nearly as much as it was two hundred years ago -- at least for visitors to Bath!

And how could I forget a picture of Pulteney Bridge, surely one of the prettiest sights in Bath? A bird happened to fly through the picture as I was taking it -- you may be able to make him out if you look closely.

Ah, Bath. What would Mr. Tilney ever do without you? You supply him such a variety of people to make witty remarks about. And you supply Mrs. Allen with a wonderful choice of fabrics. And Catherine Morland with more books than she could imagine.

Ah, Bath!

Cara

India - Pre-Regency

I’ve been enjoying my research into India during the Regency for Wolfe’s story (Wolfe of the Ternion in The Marriage Bargain). The story will begin in India, assuming Warner’s approval of my next idea, but will mostly take place in England.

I’ve discovered some interesting things about the English in India. In the early years of the East India Company it was not uncommon for the English company men to adopt a native lifestyle, native dress, taking Indian wives. Such men were tolerated in the early years and not much was made about them, but later, closer to our time period, adopting native habits was beginning to be frowned upon or looked upon with suspicion. Typically, by the Victorian age, it was not tolerated at all, given the certain belief that the British were superior in all ways.


I’m reading White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India by William Dalrymple, which tells the story of James Achilles Kirkpatrick, a Colonel and an Ambassador, who married Khairunnissa, the daughter of an Indian noble family. Kirkpatrick converted to Islam to marry her and—according to a web article---spied for the Nizam against the British. The marriage was a happy but brief one, lasting only four years. The couple produced two children who were sent to England. Shortly after, Kirkpatrick unexpectedly died. It was 1805. Their mother never saw them again. She was soon seduced by Kirkpatrick’s assistant and kept as his mistress until she died a few years later at age 27.

At the time of Kirkpatrick’s marriage, one of the British who expressed concern over Kirkpatrick’s allegiance to Britain was Colonel Arthur Wellesley, in India after vanquishing the Tipu Sultan.



















In the book Original Letters from India by Eliza Fay there are interesting details about life in India, but also a great amount of detail about her travel to India. Across the Suez, her caravan was attacked. And later, finally in India, the ship was boarded by the local Indian governor’s soldiers and Eliza, her husband, and the other passengers and crew were taken prisoner. She hid their watches and other small treasures in her hair.

Cheers,
Diane

Happy Bastille Day!

Or rather, happy day after Bastille Day, since July 14 is the time to celebrate the day in 1789 when an angry mob stormed the prison and released scads of prisoners--well, 7 anyway. It was officially declared a national holiday on July 6, 1880. It's a good excuse to spend your weekend drinking champagne, eating wonderfully unhygenic cheese, wearing berets, and listening to "La vie en rose" over and over (it's MY excuse, anyway, though really every day is a good day for champagne and Piaf!)

To help you get your celebration in order, here are a few links to give you some party pointers and a few quotes to inspire you. :)

Fun party drinks (they mostly appear to be sticky-sweet concoctions made from things like cherry brandy, but I think the Marie Antoinette sounds sort of yummy...)

Fun party menus (though with drinks like the Montmartre, who needs food???)

Official stuff from the French Embassy

And more on how to celebrate

"France has more need of me than I have need of France" --Napoleon

"It's true that the French have a certain obsession with sex, but it's a particularly adult obsession. France is the thriftiest of all nations; to a Frenchman sex provides the most economical way to have fun. The French are a logical race." --Anita Loos

"In America, only the successful writer is important; in France all writers are important; in England no writer is important; and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is" --
Geoffrey Cottrell

"I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French." --Charles de Gaulle

"Boy, those French. They have a different word for everything." --Steve Martin

"Paris is always a good idea." --Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

"To err is human. To loaf is Parisian." --Victor Hugo

"Frenchmen are like gunpowder, each by itself smutty and contemptible, but mass them together and they are terrible indeed!" --Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Vive la France!

Bertie Goes to the Movies

Greetings, O Patrons of the Regency! It is I, once again -- Bertram St. James, Exquisite as ever, here to grace you with my Presence.

In case there are Newcomers to this Blog, I shall merely say that not long ago I was a Cheerful and Decorative denizen of the year 1811, but by some accident of Natural (or Supernatural) Philosophy, found myself in your current age. So now I am trying to "Fit In" in this Velocitudinous Era.

Once I made the acquaintance of the Tele Vision, I spent much time studying it. But now that the Tele Vision has cruelly begun showing the same thing that it showed in February, I have turned to the Cinema instead.

Here, for your Delectation, are my opinions on some "Movies" that I have seen.

First, I saw a Movie about fashion. Modern Fashion is quite ugly. I do not understand it at all. However, I am glad that the characters in this Movie learned that Fashion is indeed quite important. (I could not bear to face an existence without it.) But what these characters fail to understand is that it is also important for Fashion to be Aesthetically Pleasing.

One thing puzzled me, though...the white-haired lady in this movie strongly reminds me of Mrs. Drummond-Burrell, who is Not my favorite person. Mrs. D-B has ghastly taste in handkerchiefs, and she once failed to invite me to a dinner-party I very much wished to attend. And her manner? I shudder just thinking of it.

But on to the next Movie! I confess I did not understand Super Man in the least. Is he an American God of some sort? If so, he really should put some clothes on. I grew quite embarrassed watching him. True, were he wrestling or boxing or swimming, he might be guilty merely of atrocious colour-choices -- but he larks about in front of ladies and children and editors in his underthings -- his Blue And Red underthings! I feel faint merely thinking about it.

One thing I will say in his favour, though -- his hair is divine. Never a lock out of place. I do wish I had his hair. Mine never will hold a curl properly.

At length, I saw the Movie entitled "Pirates of the Something or Other, Dead Something Something." (I detest long titles. Can never recall them. Shakespeare had that fault -- all I can ever remember was that I once saw Kemble in "The History of King --" and then my memory fails me -- some king or other -- dashed if I can ever remember which one. There was a lot of killing, and far too much talking -- does anyone know which play that was?)

Ahem. Where was I? Oh, yes. I saw that Pirate Movie thing. Very interesting. Some of the folk were wearing actual clothing. And hats. I like hats. Don't know why you modern lot never wear them. Unless you are in a "Musical Video" wearing many chains.

Oh, goodness, what was I saying? Pirates. Right. Don't understand why the Ladies find that Sparrow character attractive. He's quite a mess. His hair is barbaric -- don't supposed he's combed it since he was breeched. And his teeth! No, it's utterly beyond me. If he were on my doorstep, I'd have my man send him on his way right enough. How can you ladies tolerate him? Please explain. I do wish I understood it.

That Turner fellow is slightly better. But not much. Handsome enough, I suppose, but far too dirty. And both of them need fencing lessons. Sloppy footwork, no style at all.

I would much appreciate it if any of you could solve for me any of the following conundrums :

Why do the ladies like these Turner and Sparrow characters?

Why don't modern folk wear hats?

Why doesn't Super Man put some clothes on?

Who is Super Man's hairdresser? And is he taking new clients?

Until I learn the answers to these, I will remain, as always,

Yours Truly,

Bertie the Beau

Speak softly and carry a big stick

Ah, les garcons.

Time for another confession. The boys--Butler, Gruffudd, Firth, Bean, Northam, et al don't do a whole lot for me. Furthermore, most men on cover art do even less. (What? And I call myself a romance novelist? Well, I did fail the trad reading challenge, and there's also the issue of the HEA which I intend to blog about another time.) The whole topic of unwholesome romance cover art is covered elsewhere--check out the Smart Bitches--and I'm glad to see that some publishers are taking out the hero and/or heroine and moving away from the clinch cover. I mean, splutter, some of us have to read this stuff on public transport!

Back to the topic of male eye candy, partly inspired by a discussion on the Beau Monde loop, about how you'd describe your hero, e.g. Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility. Pam Rosenthal very sensibly suggested that the hero should be seen through the eyes of the heroine, bringing up the interesting point that the hero in chapter one m