Sandy Books

The past two weeks, I've been at the Jersey Shore*, observing egregious fashion choices (short shorts are NOT for everybody), eating way too much ice cream, and of course reading books.

I've devoured at least five thus far, with a sixth about to be finished, if I have my way.

During the summer, I don't get a lot of time to do my own writing (my Son is in Camp Mommy, so I am on call most days), so I make up for that by reading a ton.

My favorite thing to do is to rotate genres: First romance, then action, then sci-fi, then historical fiction, then back to romance, etc. So this summer I have read Barbara Hambly's fourth book in the Benjamin January series, Die Upon A Kiss, Tara Janzen's Crazy Kisses, MaryJanice Davidson's Drop Dead, Gorgeous, Liz Carlyle's Never Lie To A Lady, and Lee Child's Tripwire.

I've read all of these authors before; summer beach reads are not for experimenting, because if you hate the book, you're stuck in the sand with it.

I don't do any research reading during the summer because I get too frustrated at not being able to write; instead, I try to figure out what it is I like about each author I read. Hambly I love for her language and ability to make any setting--in this case, 1830s New Orleans--come alive. Her hero, Benjamin January, is a complex character who you really come to know, and who grows throughout the course of the series. Tara Janzen's Crazy series are fast-paced, delicious fun, great for her ability to get into a man's head. Lee Child is just plain brilliant. Liz Carlyle's writing is lush and gorgeous, and this hero is just about perfect for me--nothing gets to my heart like a tortured alpha male. And MaryJanice Davidson's voice is so fantastic I don't care her plots are as thin as some of the bathing suits I've seen on the beach this week.

Next week, we go back to reality: Brooklyn, school, writing, washing my own dishes, the possibility of sweatshirts. But right now I'm reaching for another book in the huge pile and savoring the last few days of summer.

Megan
*on dial-up, so no pictures.

Happy birthday, Mary

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was born on this day in 1797, the daughter of radicals Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. Well-educated and not particularly happy at home (there was some friction between Mary and her stepmother Mary Jane Clairmont), it was only natural that when a handsome young poet showed up, she'd fall in love and run off with him. Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont, who later had a torrid affair with Byron, accompanied them to Europe.

Shelley already had a wife, Harriet, but these were the heady days of sex, opium, and the sonata form. Godwin, his radical sexual politics put to the test, became estranged from his daughter.

In the summer of 1816, Shelley, Mary, and Byron were in Switzerland and it was there, in response to a challenge to tell the best ghost story, Mary started to write Frankenstein.

After Shelley's death in 1822 she returned to England and supported herself as a writer until her death in 1851, penning short stories, essays, poems, and reviews, and several other novels.

I'm not doing justice at all to Mary's adventurous, unconventional, and sad life, so I encourage you to read a book that does--Passion by Jude Morgan. It's about the women who became entangled with Byron, Shelley, and Keats, beautifully written, and with a wonderfully strong sense of time and place. I was going to save this one for my beach reads, or best reads of 2007 blog, but it's so good I have to tell you about it right now, and what better time than Mary's birthday.

Have you read this book or any other book, fictional or biographical, about the Godwins, Mary, Shelley, Byron et al? Do you have any recommendations?


Subscribe to the Riskies newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com with NEWSLETTER in the subject line for monster sightings; and there are only two days left to enter my contest at www.janetmullany.com.

"Beach" Reads and Roller Coasters

The term "beach reads" is a bit of a misnomer as torrential rain early in the week and then record-high temperatures later in the week limited beach activities during my vacation last week. And if anyone thinks rain means more time indoors and more time to read hasn't been on vacation with 3 kids between the ages of 4 and 11. To avoid too much cabin fever at the cottage we made excursions to local caverns and children's museums instead--fun places but not conducive to reading.

So I read only about half as much as last year but thoroughly enjoyed what I did get to. I am desperately trying to catch up with my fellow Riskies' new releases. Though I couldn't get a copy of Amanda's A Notorious Woman (had to order it) I did bring along Janet's The Rules of Gentility. A delightful spoof of a Regency (IMHO the best spoofs also show love for the subject) and had me laughing out loud a number of times. I couldn't explain it all to my children, of course, but now they want to read it when they're old enough. :)

Next I picked up Pam Rosenthal's The Slightest Provocation. I'm not surprised it finaled in the RITAs. The characterizations are deep and true, the sex is earthy and more real for not being perfect. Sorry, Pam, I know I'm not doing the book justice here but my brain is too fried to come up with better descriptions. Anyway, I recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it yet.

On the last day I picked up Loretta Chase's lastest release, NOT QUITE A LADY. In the flurry of unpacking and such I still haven't finished it but so far it's got the classic Chase mix of angst and humor. I can't wait for things to settle down so I can enjoy finishing it!

As to other vacation activities, I can't resist talking about roller coasters. Tuesday we had the perfect day to visit Cedar Point: overcast and late in the season, lines were short to nonexistant. It was great fun riding the coasters I rode as a teenager--the Blue Streak, the Wildcat, the Gemini--and taking my kids on them for the first time. Because we had to deal with a lot of different ages in our party I wasn't able to try some of the new, scarier coasters--like the Top Thrill Dragster, pictured right. I'm told the G forces are amazing. Maybe next year. Maybe.

Bringing this post back to relevance, I couldn't resist checking out the history of roller coasters. I was delighted to learn that there even were two roller coasters built in France in 1817: the Les Montagues Russes a Belleville (the Russian Mountains of Belleville) and Promenades Aeriennes (The Aerial Walk). You can read more about them at www.ultimaterollercoaster.com.

I suspect it would not have been considered ladylike (particularly for an English heroine) to ride one of these French coasters but wouldn't it be fun to work it into a story?

So before it's completely over, what were your best reads and rides of the summer?

Elena, still wrestling mountains of laundry
www.elenagreene.com

Do You Wish You Read Faster?

Sometimes I wish I read faster.

I had friends in college who could read a novel in an hour. There are times when I sigh, and think how many books I could read if I were like that.

And I don't read particularly slowly, either -- but I have so many books I want to read...and I get further behind every month.

Sometimes, though, I suspect that I get more from a book than those old friends of mine. Maybe they were really skimming the book, and getting the story but missing the details, the setting, the subtleties.

And even if I'm not getting more details of the story than they were, perhaps I'm paying more attention to the prose. (Or is that just wishful thinking?)

How about you? Do you wish you read faster? Or do you think you'd miss too much if you did?

Remember: next Tuesday in the Jane Austen movie club we discuss the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson Sense & Sensibility!

Cara
Cara King, author of My Lady Gamester and writer of silly taglines which no one reads

Winner of SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER

The winner is..........
ANDREAW

Andrea wins an autographed copy of SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER from our guest blogger, Christine Wells.

Congratulations, Andrea!
Contact us at riskies@yahoo.com
and tell us where to send your prize.

What in the World is Diane reading?

I know Elena is going to talk about Beach Reads this week. I haven't been near a beach and I do have the reputation as the World's Worst Read Romance Writer, (nice alliteration) but I thought I'd let you peek in on the books I've been opening this week.

My treat for finishing the manuscript (new title ideas: The Scandal Seeker, Unbidden Scandal, Courting Scandal, A Certain Scandal--see a pattern?) was to pick up the Wellington biography that I won at the Beau Monde Conference tea. I was enjoying it a lot and he was well into Spain when it was time for my trip to Williamsburg with Amanda.

When Amanda and I were not looking at historical items and recreations, we bought books, and it is a bit hard to say which took up more time.... Anyway, the books totally distracted me from Wellington. Then we met with Deb Marlowe and I became even more distracted by our exciting anthology idea (stay tuned...)and when I got home I started reading some books that would help with that idea like Broken Lives by Lawrence Stone, Sex in Georgian England by A.D. Harvey. (Tantalizing, aren't they?) I read the appropriate parts of each of those books.


But since I really must be about the business of developing a new story idea and a proposal for Harlequin/Mills & Boon, I've been leafing through Beloved Emma by Flora Fraser (wonderful book!) and The Wheatley Diary edited by Christopher Hibbert.


This all sounds so lofty and impressive, but the real distractions have been Janet's The Rules of Gentility and Amanda's A Notorious Woman, both of which I purchased on my trip. I snagged the last copy of Rules of Gentility in the College of William and Mary Bookshop in Williamsburg, and Amanda's A Notorious Woman at the Walmart near home (where we went to see if it was on the shelf).

If you have not yet purchased these books, HURRY! (Especially Amanda's which will only stay on bookstore shelves this month). Amanda's opening is sooooo intriguing, and Janet's book is over-and-above charming and witty. Both books are on my nightstand, warring with the need to read my research books!

What glorious problems I'm having!

What is on YOUR nightstand?
Any good research books to share, ones I may not have purchased yet? (I just bought The Girl in Rose by Peter Hobday, about Haydn's last love. I came across it while writing this blog!)

Risky Regencies Meets Christine Wells!

1) Tell us about Scandal's Daughter! What inspired this book?

First of all, thank you ladies for having me on Risky Regencies. I love this blog! To answer your question, in Scandal's Daughter, Sebastian, Earl of Carleton, promises his dying godfather he will find a husband for his childhood friend in three months or marry her himself. Sebastian quickly becomes the most determined matchmaker in England.

Gemma is the daughter of a notorious femme fatale. She doesn't believe any respectable man will marry her, so she chooses to run her grandfather's estate rather than enter the matrimonial mart. Her entire identity is bound up in being the honorary Squire. But her grandfather wants her married and provided for before he dies and he hires a land agent to take over Gemma's duties. She desperately wants to regain her position on the estate, but in the meantime, Sebastian comes back into her life and she's torn. I think what inspired me to write this book, though I didn't know it at the time, was a similar upheaval in my own life. I recognized at the start of my marriage that I couldn't continue as a corporate lawyer working crazy hours and bring up my children the way I wanted. Thus, a career as a writer was born! But so much of my identity was bound up in my career as a lawyer, it was a real struggle for me to come to terms with not having that any more. I learned that it's who you are inside, not what you do, that counts. And I hope that's what my heroine learns along the way, too.

2) We've heard you're a great researcher! Were there any challenges in researching for this book? Any new or suprising historical facts you discovered?

Oh, where did you hear that? LOL Most of my research never makes it into a book. I try very hard to get the details right and I love delving into etymology--the history of words. All sorts of things came up in Scandal's Daughter. For instance, I intended at first to base my heroine's mother on Jane Digby, an intrepid Lady of Quality who never really fitted into London Society and ended up running away, eventually marrying a Bedouin prince. So I read about her fascinating life, but then I decided I wanted this wonderful character on stage, so I brought Sybil back from her travels (witha toy-boy in tow!) and she plays a significant role in the book. And there are always a myriad small details, like whether Japanese porcelain had entered England at the time my book was set, to the history of medieval stained glass.

3) What are some of your favorite sources?

Online, I love the Georgian Index http://www.georgianindex.net/fd/index.html#TOPand I use the UK National Trust site a lot to scope out locations:http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace.htm I have a good library of reference books which I'm adding to all the time. One I absolutely love is 'Regency Style' by Steven Parissien, which my wonderful writer friend Anna Campbell gave me. It's visually stunning, and goes through a Regency house, item by item. It has sections devoted to staircases and wallpaper and bathrooms, so it's incredibly useful. I regularly use Debrett's 'The Stately Homes of Britain' and Carolly Erickson's 'Our Tempestuous Day'. I always read the background on the year in which my book is set in OTD before I begin, so I'm aware of any political or social issues that might affect my characters as the story unfolds.Still, there's never enough time for research!

4) Tell us what's "risky" or different from the norm about this book!

Gemma and Sebastian actually discuss the possibility of pregnancy before they make love the first time. And Gemma uses contraception, so I thought that was pretty risky! I'd seen so many romances where the couple fall into bed with no thought for the consequences that I wanted to do something different. I was worried an editor might want me to take it out, but my editor is very cool and didn't even mention it. However, I don't mean to criticize books where the heroine is swept away by passion. Of course, it happened all the time! I just relate a lot more to someone who does worry about the consequences and takes care of them as far as she can, given the circumstances and the era. It wouldn't work in every book, but the discussion actually heightened the conflict in Scandal's Daughter, so I felt justified putting it in.

5) What is it about the Regency that attracts you,makes you want to set your books in it?

Undoubtedly, it's the wit. I've always loved that dry English sense of humour, the banter between hero and heroine that works so well in the Regency setting. And I love the subtext--all the things the characters can't say but they can imply a great deal by their actions and what they do say,which is always fun for a writer.

6) What's it like living in Australia? Is there a large romance community there?

I love Australia. I'm absolutely passionate about our wonderful lifestyle. I'm a real beach girl, so it's great to be an hour's drive from some of the best beaches in the world. The romance community here is not large by US standards, but the romance writing community is incredibly tight and supportive. There's no spite or overt jealousy (or if there is, I've never come across it). I think it's a lot to do with our veteran members, who are endlessly patient with newcomers and do so much to assist fledgling writerswith their careers. Authors like Anne Gracie and Trish Morey set the tone,and I'm very grateful for that.

7) Tell us what's next for you!

My next book is currently scheduled for September 2008. It's another Regency-set historical, about a duke who accidentally steals a lady's erotic diary. It's set against a background of political upheaval, when Liverpool declared a state of emergency and people were being locked up without trial for sedition. My heroine's brother is a country vicar thrown in jail for aiding suspected arsonists. She threatens to expose government secrets by publishing her diary if the authorities don't release him. My hero, the duke, steals what he thinks is that diary, only it turns out to contain the heroine's secret erotic fantasies. I had a lot of fun with that one!

Be sure and comment on Christine's post for a chance to win an autographed copy of Scandal's Daughter! Winner will be announced Monday...

Personality Crisis

". . . he understood that the makers of sublime art were not necessarily sublime themselves. And it was not necessary that they be, he told himself."

Benjamin January, Die Upon A Kiss, by Barbara Hambly

I'm on vacation at the Jersey Shore--and on dial-up, so excuse the lack of pictures--and read a book by an author whose online persona is unpleasant, but her books are good. I can, in the words of Henry Rollins and Black Flag, Rise Above. Which got me to thinking--how far is it to go for an unlikeable person to write a pleasant personality?

I mean, stories abound of how rotten George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Evelyn Waugh, A.A. Milne (poor Christopher Robin!) all were; we know Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker weren't exactly the nicest folks.

I, of course, am extremely nice--to a fault, if I do say so myself (although I have a biting wit if your clothing is inappropriate, Ms. Mutton)--and I am not certain I could write a very mean person. I do know I am writing an Alpha Hero whose first instincts are to do everything exactly the opposite of the way I would do them, which is how I am figuring out what he is to do.

When questioned, every author will say 'it's fiction!,' which of course is especially important when you're James Ellroy or Tess Gerritsen. But if you know the author is not a nice person, does that affect your reading of his or her work? How about if they're too nice?

Me, I prefer keeping a Kantian distance from my authors; I don't want to know if they had a drinking problem, or hated their mother, or were mean to their siblings. I want to feel their art regardless of their personal lives, react and respond to the work purely as it stands. How about you? Are there authors you cannot read because you know they were horrendous people?

Megan

PS: I have to say I still love watching Charlton Heston and his Chest in Omega Man, despite what I know about his politics, which are the polar opposite of mine. Does that make me shallow, or open-minded?

What would you take?

Usually when I'm looking for something to blog about (if I'm not feeling in a particularly opinionated mood) I go to such sources as Chambers Book of Days (great for obscure saints and oddities) or History UK, from which I learned that yesterday was the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth (the defeat of Richard III and the beginning of the Tudors) and today is the anniversary of the London blitz in World War II.

But this day in 1812 was the day most of the inhabitants of Washington DC fled the city. Why? The British were coming and tomorrow marks the anniversary of one of the most humiliating defeats in American history, the Battle of Bladensburg. Earlier that year America declared war on Britain, following Britain's efforts to restrict trade with the French. Other grievances included the Brits' high-handed press-ganging of Americans into the navy and British support for native Americans against American settlers. In August of 1812 the British landed at Baltimore and marched south toward Washington.

Dolley Madison, the first lady, was one of the panicked residents who fled the city, but she had the foresight to take with her several of the valuables from the White House, including the portrait above of George Washington.

And sure enough, the British did march on Washington after the battle the next day, meeting with very little resistance. After dining at the White House on the presidential silver and glassware, they set fire to it and to the rest of the city.


So my question to you is this: I hope you'll never have to grab your possessions and flee your home, but if you did, what would you take with you?

How to instruct your servants on moving valuable possessions and stop them running from the enemy--just one of the informative topics covered in the Riskies newsletter. Subscribe at riskies@yahoo.com with NEWSLETTER in the subject line.

Coming Down From Vacation

First of all, happy anniversary to my parents! They celebrated their 36th yesterday (that is them at their high school prom--I kind of wish my mom still had that dress, it looks so "Regency"!).


So, I am back at work this week, yet wishing I was still on vacation! Especially a great vacation that involves costumed guides and pretty carriages, apple cider, and fun writing friends. I had a wonderful time visiting Risky Diane, Deb Marlowe, and Michelle Willingham (both of them will be visiting RR very soon!). Williamsburg was a blast, as was Jamestown Settlement (where we got to tour the ships and wander their huge new museum--not to mention their huge new gift shop) and Jamestown Island. Seeing that place, so marshy and tiny, just emphasized the fact that, in many ways, those first settlers were a bunch of nincompoops (though, after seeing the movie The New World, nincompoops who look a lot like Colin Farrell and Christian Bale!). But I can't help admiring that vast spirit of adventure and curiosity (and greed) that would make a person pack themselves into an itsy little wooden ship and launch themselves into the Atlantic, heading out for a new, strange place using a compass and some string to find their way.

In Williamsburg, they were featuring a reenactment program called "Revolutionary City," depicting the fall of the royal government. I was hoping for some riots, maybe a bonfire or two, but it seemed to be mostly the royal governor riding around town in his fancy carriage (which we couldn't ride in!) giving speeches. Great clothes, though. And I bought a hat to go with my costume for next year's Beau Monde soiree at RWA (it pays to think ahead!).

Then I had to go home. But first, more fun! Thanks to the hurricance, air traffic was backed up, and I got to sit on the plane for over two hours before we took off. For a fearful flyer, this is not good. Too much time to worry. I distracted myself with one of the many books I bought in Virginia--Alan Haynes' Sex in Elizabethan England. This was a fun book, not very long but full of all the scandal highlights of the late 16th century. The writing style made me wonder if it was a rather rambling university lecture transcribed into a book, as it had several asides with no info at all to explain them (like "not long after that lamentable fracas at Mrs. Bull's...", which, if you didn't already know Christopher Marlowe was killed at Mrs. Bull's lodging house in that year, would be meaningless. They could have at least had some footnotes). Then I read Vogue.

I'm sure you'll be hearing lots more about my book purchases in the next few weeks, as I work my way through them! And more of the historical tidbits we gleaned from the tours (ask Diane about printing presses!!).

What would your ideal vacation be like?

(And don't forget to join us this weekend for Christine Wells's interview! Her debut book from Berkley, Scandal's Daughter, is out next month...)

Kemble's THE WINTER'S TALE

Hurrah! I finally got my hands on John Philip Kemble's version of Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE.

For those of you who don't know -- during the Regency (and for a while before), Kemble was an actor and manager at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and later Theatre Royal Covent Garden. He valued Shakespeare highly. Under his wise yet despotic rule, London theatre saw (for the first time in a long time) Shakespeare plays that the bard himself might actually have recognized.

By contrast, the Great Garrick (the theatre despot in the early to mid 18th century), although respected for also being a restorer of Shakespeare to high repute, nonetheless produced things like "Florizel and Perdita" and "Catherine and Petruchio" -- hour-long things that were part Shakespeare, part bizarre rewriting. Even better: in Garrick's King Lear, Lear and Cordelia live, and Cordelia marries Edgar.

Kemble, though, did his best to be true to Shakespeare.

The illustration here, by the way, is Sarah Siddons playing Hermione in THE WINTER'S TALE.

My favorite part of reading Kemble's versions of Shakespeare is seeing just how prudish (or not prudish) the Regency stage was. My conclusions in the past have been that, though Regency theatregoers clearly tolerated less vulgarity than their Elizabethan ancestors, Kemble's scripts are far closer to Shakespeare's than to Bowdler's.

Or, to be more precise, sex and violence are welcomed on Kemble's stage, but indelicate expressions rather less so. (For example, the characters still talk about virginity, but don't use such a crude word for it, instead terming it purity or honour or the like.)

(To read my earlier posts on the subject, click Regency Shakespeare or Regency AS YOU LIKE IT.)

So much for my past impressions of Kemble's changes. Now, today's project: let's find some bits in THE WINTER'S TALE which Kemble changed!

This is a picture of Drury Lane Theatre in 1804.

What follows is the original passage of Shakespeare's in which King Leontes rants (half-madly) about his conviction that his wife has slept with his best friend, and is pregnant with the friend's child. I have put in purple the portions that Kemble cut out:

There have been,
Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;
And many a man there is (even at this present,
Now, while I speak this) holds his wife by th' arm,
That little thinks she has been sluiced in 's absence
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour; nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates, and those gates open'd,
As mine, against their will. Should all despair
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike
Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, west, north, and south; be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly. Know 't,
It will let in and out the enemy,
With bag and baggage: many thousand on 's
Have the disease, and feel 't not.

When the first cut above appears, Kemble has Leontes trail off (indicated by a long dash), and a hand-written stage direction reveals that another character approaches Leontes at this point (the implication perhaps being that Leontes would have finished the thought, had he not feared being overheard.)

So, that's one example of things Kemble cut out. What are some passages, risque though they might be, that Kemble let alone? Here are a few:

You may ride us,
With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre.

How she holds up the neb, the bill to him!
And arms her with the boldness of a wife
To her allowing husband!

Go, play, boy, play;--thy mother plays, and I
Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue
Will hiss me to my grave;

My wife 's a hobby-horse; deserves a name
As rank as any flax-wench, that puts to
Before her troth-plight:

There you have it! Kemble's alterations of Shakespeare -- one of my little obsessions.

However, I have no idea if any of you are at all interested in this subject. I could happily do more posts detailing which bits of Shakespeare Kemble left in, and which he cut out -- but I'll only do so if I know it's of interest to someone! So if you're interested, do let me know in a comment.

And remember: our next Jane Austen bookclub meets the first Tuesday in September, to discuss the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson version of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY!

Cara
who thinks those flax-wenches got a bad rap

More of Diane and Amanda's Excellent Adventures

The fun continues in Williamsburg, Virginia! On Friday Amanda and I took a break from sightseeing and went shopping. Book Shopping, especially at the William and Mary Bookstore where I'll be joining other authors (including Harlequin Historical author Michelle Willingham, whom we met for dinner on Thurs) for a Romance booksigning on Sept 15.


On Saturday we met our friend and fellow Harlequin Historical author Deb Marlowe (Scandalous Lord, Rebellious Miss, Nov 2007 in the UK, Feb 2008 in North America-her debut book!) for a day of sightseeing and working. Amanda, Deb, and I are going to do a Regency Anthology to come out in 2009 (so start saving your pence now!). The photo is of us at the Kings Arms for Sunday lunch, the same restaurant where we ate with Michelle Willingham (The Warriors Touch, Sept 2007) .

At Williamsburg there are reenactments all day long starting with the Governor arriving in a carriage at the Capitol where he addresses the people after word arrived about the Boston Tea Party, and dissolves the House of Burgesses. Well, what was the man to do? These pesky Colonials and their addlebrained ideas of Independence. It was enough to make George III go mad....well, maybe that wasn't what made him go mad...

Anyway, we had a terrific time working our way from exhibit to exhibit and gift shop to gift shop all the way to the other end of the Historic area. One of the exhibits was the Print Shop, where we watched the Reenactor run the press and I learned things I need for the book I just turned in. I'll add them during Revision time. We also visited the Milliner who was making stays and the Apothecary, the Silversmith, the Blacksmith. We even worked a little.

Sunday Amanda and I returned to Jamestown, this time to the actual site. We could not see much of the archaeological work that is ongoing because it was all covered over in case of rain, but we toured the museum and walked where John Smith walked all those years ago. Then we met Deb for lunch and then.....we had to drive home. I'll take Amanda to the airport today.

It was a very excellent adventure, indeed!

What were you all doing while we were in Williamsburg??

Colonial Fun!

Greetings, everyone! Amanda, reporting from hot and sunny Virginia. I'm here until Monday, but Diane and I have already been having loads of fun touring everything historical we can find--and hitting every gift shop (the most important part, of course!)

Yesterday, it was Jamestown, touring the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery (trying to figure out how Balthazar and Bianca, the hero and heroine of my "Caribbean" romance, are going to get it on in that tiny berth), wandering the fort, and exploring the huge new museum where I got to ooh and aah over things like Elizabethan lutes and a recreated 17th century London street. I wanted to get one of the tour guides to let the ship slip its berth and head out for a cruise, but no one seemed willing to take that chance...

In the evening, we met Harlequin Historical author Michelle Willingham for an "authentic colonial dinner" at the King's Arms Tavern in Williamsburg, where we closed the place down drinking apple cider and listening to lute music. It's going to just be a "Harlequin festival" all week here, since Deb Marlowe is coming in this evening (and I hope she is also prepared for gift shop mania! Maybe I should say "gifte shoppe," since every sign seems to add e's to the end of every word here!).

We're off to Williamsburg now! I need to get a tricorn hat and maybe some tankards. I'm sure Diane will share more of our historical fun Monday...

Watching Clarissa

I will warn everyone in advance: I do not know where I am going with this post.

And then I will say: Cara, avert your eyes. I'm talking Richardson.

Awhile ago, I got a copy of the BBC production of Clarissa, starring Sean Bean and Saskia Wickham.

When I was a teenager, I read and re-read Samuel Richardson's Clarissa; it is a tortured, compelling story of an honorable woman stuck between a rock (her family's insistence she marry an awful man) and a hard place (Lovelace, a rake who falls violently in love with her). Honestly, I love this story. Each time I read it, I hoped Lovelace would reform earlier, or Clarissa's family would relent, and each time I cried at the end.

I started watching the other day (my reward while ironing a random dozen of my husband's shirts), and the televised version puts in an uncomfortable plot point: Clarissa's sister and brother are dabbling in incest.

I was miffed that they would choose to make that a plot point because the book makes it clear why her siblings are being so terrible to her, but then I thought again that it might've happened more often back then.

Think about it: After a certain age, the sons were sent off to school while the daughters remained safely at home. They were separated so they didn't have that sibling contempt (as in 'familiarity breeds . . . '), but when they were together, they lived in the same house, so they had access to people of the opposite sex. And being teenagers, they probably were interested in sexual experimentation, and found the easiest solution: Their siblings.

We've all read with horror--and some salacious interest--of Byron's suspected affair with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. They were raised separately, and began keeping company again when they were adults.

But back to Clarissa. One thing that made the book so compelling for me is that although Clarissa is a virtuous girl, she is indeed intrigued by Lovelace; certainly, he is far more appealing than the suitor her family has chosen, whom Lovelace warns her will be the cause of her early death. And who wouldn't be fascinated by him? He has a shocking reputation as a rake, he is handsome, charming, and persuasive (that he is played by Sean Bean in the miniseries certainly does no damage in my eyes, either).

But since she is so pure of heart, and of motive, she decides against Lovelace, but circumstances ultimately force her to him. Which, in turn, forces her to her eventual demise.

If Clarissa were a romance novel, she would have reformed her rake early enough to achieve her happy ending. But Richardson wasn't writing romance, he was writing virtue, so while Lovelace and Clarissa's siblings get what they deserve, Clarissa herself does not.

I don't think I would actually like Clarissa if I met her, whereas I would definitely have a great time with Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet.

Let's see: I've brought up incest, sexual taboos, great (or not) works of literature, non-romance novels, unhappy endings, just rewards, and which heroine you'd get along with. Pick any or all and discuss, if you like. Thanks for following along with my train of thought, which has gotten very, very derailed.

Megan
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More on Peterloo

Today, August 16, is the anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre of 1816 that Diane mentioned on her Monday post, when a peaceful meeting of people seeking reform of the Parliamentary system were attacked by the military, leaving eleven dead and over five hundred wounded.

Organized by the Manchester Patriotic Union Society, a large crowd of millworkers from all over Lancashire gathered in St. Peters Field, Manchester that day--anywhere between 30,000 and 153,00, depending on which source you believe--to hear Henry "Orator" Hunt and others speak. It was apparently a glorious summer day and there was a holiday atmosphere, with people wearing their Sunday best.

Local magistrates, however, were convinced the meeting would become a riot, and had arranged for troop to stand by. They sent in the local militia, the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry, who attacked the cart that formed the speakers' platform. The 15th Hussars were then sent in to "rescue" the Yeomanry and although at first people tried to stand their ground by linking hands, they were cut down and forced to flee--many were hurt by being trampled in the panic. The speakers and newspaper reporters were arrested and imprisoned.

The woman in the white dress on the platform is thought to be Mary Hildes, a passionate radical who formed the Manchester Female Reform Group, and was one of the main speakers at Peterloo. She was also an early proponent of birth control and when she attempted to distribute books on the subject she was accused in the local press of selling pornography. The women radicals didn't campaign, though, for female suffrage, but supported the male radical cause. They weren't taken seriously by the press (of course), and not even by other women. As The Times reported that day:

A group of women of Manchester, attracted by the crowd, came to the corner of the street where we had taken our post. They viewed the Oldham Female Reformers for some time with a look in which compassion and disgust was equally blended, and at last burst out into an indignant exclamation--"Go home to your families, and leave sike-like as these to your husbands and sons, who better understand them."

Many were outraged by the massacre, including local mill owners who witnessed it. James Wroe of the Manchester Observer was probably the first to call the massacre "Peterloo," in ironic reference to Waterloo. The government supported the action of the troops, and by the end of the year had passed the infamous Six Acts that suppressed freedom of speech and of the press and made radical gatherings illegal. There wasn't a public enqu