Just Rewards

Although I am not nearly as ambitious as Elena, who is GOING to have written 50,000 words in the month of November (right, Elena?), I am on my own little path to goaldom.

By the end of this weekend, I hope to type "The End," and really mean it.

In the course of writing this book, I have discovered I can indeed write the kind of tortured dark hero I thought was above my talent; that my heroine has got a sharp temper; that John Donne's poems make some delightful foreplay; and that my hero and heroine have strong opinions on how important choice, and the lack of it, is.

So. Here I am. While I anticipate that glorious moment, I am also thinking about holidays, and gifts, and such; what gift would you choose to reward yourself for a job well-done (or at least well-ended)? What are you hoping for this holiday season? What am I hoping for this holiday season? And what completed project has brought you the greatest satisfaction?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

It's here. It's begun.

My extended family officially voted this year to exchange gifts, much to my dismay. We'd escaped unscathed for a few years--gifts for kids only--although the number of rule-breakers over the years has increased. Last year I was on deadline and didn't even do any baking; we came more-or-less empty-handed and left staggering under the weight of guilt and loot.

The subject came up in today's Cary Tennis article in Salon, when someone wrote in bemoaning the fact that kids today (oh does that ever make me feel like the old fart I am)--and some adults too--only want cash and gift certificates. While I find his response inexplicably silly (it's all our fault as representatives of today's materialist society) I loathe the idea of both because then the recipients know exactly how much I spent. I'd far rather buy something spectacular, unusual, and dirt cheap (ebay, here I come). But what do you get for the nieces and nephews you see only a few times a year and who you really don't know? Or the adults who have everything? (My solution may well be Heifer International, a nonprofit I'm very fond of.)

Now I can't delegate this to my husband, who, once when his workplace had a gift exchange of socks--a foolproof idea, you would have thought--gave a pair of socks that were not only used but stained (oh okay, they had some sort of heating element in them so they were special and oh-so-useful), and the recipient was a bit surprised and my husband is still surprised that she was surprised, and so on. As he points out, at least it wasn't underwear.

And it's times like this that I envy people in the past. In very early pagan times you might have given someone special a tree branch as a gift for the New Year ("Oooh, leaves! My favorite!") which is why there's so much emphasis on trees and greenery and Yule logs around Christmas. In the Regency, possibly you might have given the odd shilling to the servants and a condescending visit to the poor with gifts of gruel and the promise to see about repairing the nasty leak in the roof, then back home to the mansion to eat and drink yourself silly (much like the rest of the year in fact). And church, of course--my, what party animals they were.

So how do you and your extended family handle the gift problem and are you satisfied with it?

Give yourself the gift that keeps giving all year--a subscription to the Riskies newsletter. Sign up now at riskies@yahoo.com with NEWSLETTER in the subject line.

To Do Lists

Murphy's Law is playing havoc with me this month. Besides the head cold and the bunged up toe I mentioned earlier, I now now have another injury. On Thanksgiving Day I waged battle with a maple sapling that had the temerity to spring up 6 inches from the house and hyperextended my elbow. Ouch! On the National Novel Writing Month front, I have 39,000 words, so if I want to reach the goal, I need to write 11,000 more by Friday night. And holiday activities are ramping up. Sigh...

I am so fried that only my trusty To Do List saved me from missing my Wednesday blog post. I don't know what I'd do without my list. I started doing really elaborate day-by-day To Do Lists a few years ago when I realized my short term memory, never particularly good, was totally GONE.

My To Do List is depressingly mundane, including such exciting items as "buy fish food" and "clean vaporizers". Occasionally I try to add something more interesting, like "try out Shrimp Pad Thai recipe". Still lame, I know!

I'd rather think about what my To Do List would be like if I were a Regency heroine in her HEA.

It might include "Ride through the countryside on my well-bred hack."

If the weather was not cooperating, maybe it would be "embroider some pretty face screens". (I wouldn't be one of those heroines who despise needlework--I truly do enjoy it.)

Or maybe "practice the harp". (OK, I don't know how to play the harp but I definitely would if I lived during the Regency. While we're fantasizing, I'd also be as slim as the lady depicted here.)

Or perhaps, "walk with my husband on our extensive grounds". ('Walk' being a euphemism for benefit of any servant who might catch sight of my list. Not that the servants wouldn't guess but they would be so very well-trained as to never, ever intrude.)

So before we head back to harsh reality...

Have you ever had a Calamity Jane month?

Is there anything interesting on your To Do List?

What would be on there if you lived in the Regency?

And do you think I have a prayer of reaching 50,000 words by midnight Friday???

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

AUSTEN TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION: Data Strikes Back

Or, if Jane Austen wrote Star Trek...

As had happened before, Mr. Data attempted to amuse his fellow officers on the bridge with what he took to be a well-timed joke.

And, as had also happened before, and too many times to count (unless one has a positronic brain), Commander Riker grinned in a way which seemed to say, he was not so much amused by Mr. Data's wit, as he was by his epigrammatic clumsiness.

"I see what you think of me," Data told Riker gravely--"I shall make but a poor figure in your log to-morrow. I know exactly what you will say: Commander's Log, Star Date 47457.1; Mr. Data embarked upon another jocular assay, to little effect."

"Indeed I shall say no such thing."

"My dear sir," said Data, "I am not so ignorant of the ways of human beings as you wish to believe me; it is the human habit of recording such unimportant and clearly biased information in Starfleet logs which accounts for the easy style of speaking for which your species are so generally celebrated."

Mr. Riker shrugged his shoulders with a modest grin. "I should not think the superiority was always on our side."

"As far as I have had the opportunity of judging, Mr. Riker, it appears to me that your own style of speech is faultless, except in three areas."

"And what are they?"

"A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to sense, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar."

"Upon my word! I need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment. You do not think too highly of me in that way. Very well, now that you are in a mood to tell me my flaws, do not hold yourself back: how do you feel about my appearance?" And his grin seemed to say that, whatever faults Mr. Data might find in his speech, in the matter of comeliness, even the most emotionless android must concede William Riker's superiority.

"It is very clear to me," said Data, gravely examining Mr. Riker's face, upon which a beard had abruptly appeared the day before, "that I am but a poor judge of such quintessentially human matters. Else I might declare that your chin resembles nothing so much as a well-used breeding ground for tribbles."

For earlier installments of Austen Trek (which NBC would have cancelled after season two, had they known of it), just click on the link below which says "austen trek"...

And be sure to join us next Tuesday, December 4, when our Jane Austen Movie Club discusses the most recent version of Pride and Prejudice, a.k.a. the one with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.

Cara
Cara King, who finds Data's inability to use contractions to be as baffling as Catherine Tilney's complete cluelessness

Lord Castlereagh

I've been researching Lord Castlereagh (Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, later Marquess of Londonderry). "From March 1812 to July 1822 Castlereagh's biography is, in truth, the history of England." (from the biography at http://www.nndb.com). During this period he had the leadership of the House of Commons as well as being Foreign Secretary. His diplomacy kept the alliance between Great Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia together at a crucial time in 1814, and Castlereagh also figured prominently in the Treaty of Paris and the Congress of Vienna, thus playing a crucial role in the history of Europe as well as Britain.

It's as his role of Foreign Secretary that he will play a role in a proposal I'm writing.

But to tell the truth, Castlereagh has intrigued me for a while now, ever since I read about his suicide in 1822. After a bout of gout and much stress, Castlereagh became depressed and paranoid. "My mind, my mind, is, as it were, gone," Castlereagh had said. Both the Prince Regent and Wellington warned his doctor that Castlereagh might try to take his own life. His razors were removed from his room but a letter opener was forgotten. Castlereagh used the letter opener to cut his throat.

I think it was that horrific means of killing himself that first struck me about Castlereagh, a man who had achieved such great things. Having worked in mental health I had an understanding of clinical depression and an acute empathy for its sufferers. Knowing Castlereagh suffered from such a painful depression makes me feel so incredibly sad for him.

It seems so obvious to me that Castlereagh was a truly great man, but while he was alive, he suffered much unpopularity. In his native Ireland he was considered a traitor because he supported union with Great Britain. He was held responsible for the repressive "Six Acts" passed by Parliament after Peterloo. Even his remarkable decisions to stabilize Europe were criticized at the time. Castlereagh even (probably because of his paranoia) thought he was going to be accused of homosexuality.

Learning all this made me even sadder for him! It's not fair!

Do you know how it is when you learn a lot about an actor or actress, that you have the illusion that you know them? You have a vivid idea of their personality, of what kind of person they are. That's how I feel about Castlereagh. Like I know him. It's how I feel about Wellington, too. And Jane Austen... and Emma Hamilton.

I feel I know Byron, too, but I don't like him. Here's what he wrote of Castlereagh shortly after the man's tragic death:
Posterity will ne'er survey
a Nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:
Stop, traveller, and p*ss!

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Is there anyone in the Regency or in history whom you feel you know?

By the way, the excerpt from The Vanishing Viscountess is up on my website now. Also notice the snowflakes on my site! Aren't they pretty? While you are exploring the site (which of course you will want to do) sign up for my newsletter. And while you are in the signing-up-for-newsletter mood, sign up for our Riskies newsletter, too. Just email us at riskies@yahoo.com and put NEWSLETTER in the subject line.

Interview with Syrie James

What if, hidden in an old attic chest, Jane Austen's memoirs were discovered after hundreds of years? What if those pages revealed the untold story of a life-changing love affair? That's the premise behind this spellbinding novel, which delves into the secrets of Jane Austen's life, giving us untold insights into her mind and heart.

Today we welcome to the Riskies Syrie James, whose wonderful first novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen is now on the shelves. As usual, your relevant comment or question enters you into a contest to win a signed copy of the book, and Syrie will drop by to chat and answer questions.

Syrie, welcome to the Riskies. How did you come up with the idea for The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen? (which I loved, by the way--it was such fun to identify Austen's inspirations and I found the ending tremendously moving).

I’d read and loved all of Jane Austen’s novels, and couldn’t accept the historians’ theory that this wonderful, romantic writer never fell in love herself. Since Jane Austen was a very private person—all her books were published anonymously during her lifetime—I realized it was entirely possible that she had a love affair no one knew about. I decided to give her that love affair, with the man who was her soul mate; to write the book that I wanted to read.

Tell us about the research.

I read dozens of Jane Austen biographies. I studied her letters in minute detail, reread all her novels, her juvenilia, and her unfinished works. I researched her era extensively and watched all her movies. I took a self-guided Jane Austen Tour of England. I even took English Regency Country Dance lessons!

Did you find anything unusual or unexpected in your research?

I was delighted by the gossipy, irreverent tone of Jane Austen’s letters and juvenilia. I was overwhelmed and awed when I visited Jane Austen’s house at Chawton, and walked through the very rooms she lived and wrote in during the last nine years of her life. Godmersham Park (the estate formerly owned by Jane’s rich brother Edward, where she often made extended visits) is far larger, and has more extensive grounds, than I ever imagined. The Cobb at Lyme Regis (made famous in Persuasion, and featured in my novel) offers absolutely gorgeous vistas, and is far windier than I expected!

Did you find channeling Jane Austen intimidating?

Only at first. After all the research, when I finally started writing, her voice seemed to come naturally to me.

Why do you think Jane Austen is so popular?

Austen was witty and ironic, and a brilliant craftsman. She wrote about real people in recognizable circumstances, and she examined what people risk when they fall in love—a very relatable topic in any era. I think her recent surge in popularity owes a lot to the movies. Something magical happens when you put Jane Austen’s stories on the screen!

Was this your first novel or do you have a collection of mss. under the bed that may never see the light of day?

Before The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, I wrote a medical thriller which my agent loves, but has (so far) been unable to sell. That was heart-breaking. In my years as a screenwriter, although I sold 19 scripts, I wrote several that are still available!

Sorry, I have to ask you--have you seen Becoming Jane and what did you think of it?

I thought it was beautifully and reverently filmed, but I was disappointed by the story. I didn’t find it romantic. However, I loved the film adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club.

What's your favorite Austen novel?

Pride and Prejudice.

What else do you like to read?

I read everything! I read the newspaper every day. I subscribe to a lot of magazines. I usually have at least three or four novels in progress on my nightstand. I especially enjoy historical fiction, historical romance, women's fiction, biography, memoir, mystery, humor and the classics.

What's next for you?

I’m busy maintaining my website at http://www.syriejames.com/ … and I'm researching and writing my next book for Avon: a love story for Charlotte Brontë (another one of my favorite writers.) As you can imagine, I’m having a fantastic time “being” Charlotte!

As usual, we welcome your questions and comments!

Post Thanksgiving Corsets

Confession: for the last two days, I've been sitting around eating turkey and pie, not getting any exercise, and watching Deadwood DVDs. So, for this Saturday's post I knew I had to find something where I could use lots of pictures. Something that wouldn't take much brain-power, since I lost that a few slices of apple pie a la mode ago. Something that grows out of last week's post. Something with--corsets! Yes! That's what I need after mashed potatoes and gravy. Elizabethan Costuming 101.

The Basic Elements:

The Smock A basic garment, worn by all classes to help protect outer clothing. There are various styles--some are cut close to the body with a low, square neck and close-fitting, ungathered sleeves. Some have puffed sleeves gathered to cuffs. Generally made of linen.



Partlet A rectangular fill-in for the open-necked bodice. If a smock with a low, square neck is worn, this can go over it. It's cut with a straight, standing collar, and can have a small ruff attached, or have a larger ruff pinned or basted to it.



Stockings These came to just above the knee, could be made of wool or fine silk yarn, tied by a ribbon garter.



Corset (or Stays, or Pair of Bodies) The Elizabethan corset, unlike the Victorian, is not designed to squeeze the waist to Scarlett O'Hara proportions, but to smooth the line of the torso into a cone shape and flatten the bosom into a high, mounded bustline. Made of heavy boning, generally with back lacing. Extant examples are very rare; this pic is a German corset from around 1598.






Farthingales There are 2 popular varieties: Spanish and French. The Spanish is the most flattering, a straight A-line angle from waist to hem. The French, or drum farthingale, is a large, crescent-shaped pad or rigid framework worn around the waist. This was the fashion later in the 16th century.





Bum roll A crescent-shaped pad worn around the waist, supporting most of the weight of the skirt.

Drawers Not generally worn by Englishwomen. Queen Elizabeth had a few Italian pairs, but they were a shocking, racy rarity.

Underskirt (or kirtle) with a decorated forepart A plain skirt, gored or pleated to fit over hoops, bum rolls, etc. The forepart is decorated, embroidered or made from fancy fabric, and it lies flat in a gentle, downward arc. Over this goes the overskirt, attached to the bodice to form the gown. The overskirt is split up the front.



Two common styles of bodice are the square-necked variety and the doublet (with standing collar, fastened down the front center. See the portrait of Mary Queen of Scots on the right).

Sleeves detachable, could match the bodice fabric or could be contrasting (sleeves were often used as a fairly easy way to try out new looks)



Surcoats were a popular loose, coat-like garment, either worn over the bodice and skirt for warmth or on their own over the undergarments. (See the portrait of Christina, Duchess of Milan, in black).

A few good sources to read more:

Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocked by Janet Arnold (this book is one of the great Prides of my book collection! One of the most valuable both in terms of money and information. Also check out her two volumes of Patterns of Fashion)

The Tudor Tailor by Ninya Mikhaila

The Tailor's Pattern Book ( reprint of a Spanish book of cutting layouts from 1589)

Dressing the Elite: Clothes in Early Modern England by Susan Vincent

Funeral Effigies in Westminster Abbey by Anthony Harvey




And a few pics of my own costumes (match to the inspiration! The silver gown isn't actually mine, though I wish it was--it belongs to the Folger Shakespeare Library)






































I hope everyone had a great holiday! I think it may be time for me to get up off the couch before I need a corset and bum roll, too...

Giving Thanks

Today is the Official Start of the Holiday Season. If you're like me (and honestly, I hope for your psyche's sake you're not), you're wishing various members of your family would just shut up. Thanksgiving? I'm giving thanks I don't see you except once a year*.

But I digress.

The Holiday Season is where we name our favorite things:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings

Uh, for me, not so much.

I am grateful for (in no particular order):

1. My Risky Regency Friends, both my fellow posters and our lovely community.
2. Clive Owen
3. Silver Hoop Earrings
4. Coffee
5. Flavored Coffee
6. Books
7. HEAs
8. Loretta Chase
9. Mary Balogh
10. Carla Kelly
11. Cashews
12. Black hoodies
13. Sean Bean
14. Jane Austen
15. Bookmarks
16. BLTs
17. Artichokes
18. Converse Sneakers

19. Wine
20. Port
21. Peanut Butter
22. Barbara Hambly
23. The Picky Vegetarian
24. The Delightful Phone Friend
25. The Partner-in-Crime
26. The Faux Critique Partner
27. Greek Yogurt
28. Lee Child
29. Elsa Schiaparelli
30. The Scent of Grapefruit

I could go on and on (and have!); what are you grateful for this Holiday Season?

Megan
*I am not normally this bitter, but geez, can't we have some interesting conversation? Plus I woke up too early to get here, so I'm crabby. I promise I am on my best behavior in public, it's just inside my head I am this snarly.

George Eliot, a truly risky writer

Or, why Daniel Deronda is like Thanksgiving Dinner.

Yes, it's Thanksgiving and it's also the birthday of George Eliot (born 1819), to whom I would like to give thanks today. Highly literate and educated despite being born into the sort of provincial society she depicts in her novels, she left England at the age of thirty after the death of her parents and traveled in Europe, returning to become a writer for the Westminster Review. Her life was unconventional (she lived out of wedlock with a married man, George Henry Lewes, for years--as she grew in fame and fortune Victorian society accepted the liaison. After Lewes' death she married a man twenty years her junior; go, girl. And she earned a living as a writer, "coming out" as George Eliot, a name she adopted early in her career.). Interestingly Eliot's books rarely turn up on lists of "my favorite romance novels" in the company of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Why? Here's a reason, in her own words:

Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which makes the advancing years as a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.

Consider Middlemarch, possibly her greatest work, where the emphasis is on the community itself and the burgeoning romances are only part of the big picture. She subverts the marriage of true minds--Lydgate and Dorothea, two peas in a pod of innocence and idealism--and instead pairs them with partners who, in Lydgate's case, are far their inferior. And Dorothea and Rufus Sewell, oops, Will Ladislaw--well, I can only conclude that he's great in the sack and has the right sort of politics, certainly nothing to turn up one's nose at, yet I digress--I'm left feeling that she sacrifices herself to romance. And I certainly think Mary Garth could have done better than Fred Vincy. Of course Eliot was smart enough to know that if she paired up Lydgate and Dorothea, there would be no book; that the troubling and imperfect relationships and their uncertain outcomes makes the book a brilliant masterpiece.

Now I love Daniel Deronda for similar reasons--the relationships aren't what you think they're going to be--and there's no overt happy ending but a huge amount of interwoven complexity. She took the risk of trying to write about a truly good hero--Daniel, making a journey of discovery into his origins, forging his own destiny--and even she couldn't quite do it. Daniel is really only interesting when he's suffering, upon rare occasions, some sort of negative feelings--when he acknowledges his own snobbishness in becoming associated with a family of Jewish shopkeepers (oh, the vulgarity! How embarrassingly materialistic they are!). So Daniel is the turkey at the Thanksgiving dinner, handsome to look at, but a bit bland and occasionally dry. The rest of the book--the gravy and yams and cranberries and the rest of the delicious accompaniments, the fabulous secondary characters and their love interests and concerns--is Eliot's unconventional triumph.

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone.

Give thanks every month when you receive the Riskies newsletter. Sign up now at riskies@yahoo.com

Next Jane Austen Movie Club Selection

I am covered with embarrassment that I forgot to announce what will be the next movie we're discussing in the Jane Austen Movie Club!

I'm so sorry! (And I also apologize to Janet, for posting this on her day without asking first!)

We will discuss the 2005 version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the one with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. And the discussion will be on Tuesday, December 4 -- always the first Tuesday of the month.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Riskiness...

Cara

What makes a pro?

Last week I blogged about the fun of doing amateur art, music, theatre, etc... without the pressure of making a career of it. Risky friend Susan Wilbanks commented that she enjoys singing, but though she has not yet sold a novel, her writing is not a hobby. I know what she means and I definitely don't think it's publication that separates the amateur writer from the professional.

It's harder to put my finger on the difference, though.

There are people in Romance Writers of America who believe that membership in the organization confers professionalism. But some have been members for a decade or more, write sporadically or not at all and have not completed or submitted a manuscript. So I don't think declaring oneself a professional is enough.

Part of it is that the pro seeks payment for her art (and that's where finishing and submitting come in). She will take her craft seriously and strive to create work worthy of publication.

But it's not just money either. Here's what Steven Pressfield (THE WAR OF ART) says about the difference between the amateur and the professional: "The word amateur comes from the Latin root meaning 'to love'. The conventional interpretation is that the amateur pursues his calling out of love, while the pro does it for money. Not the way I see it. In my view, the amateur does not love the game enough. If he did, he would not pursue it as a sideline, distinct from his 'real' vocation. The professional loves it so much he dedicates his life to it. He commits full-time."
To me this quote feels a bit derogatory to the amateur (though perhaps it wasn't intended that way). Nor do I think one has to write full time to be a professional. But I do believe it is about commitment. Being an amateur is like dating while being a pro is like marriage. One can walk away from a hobby but a true professional hangs in there.

Some writers say one should write every day. I agree with that in principle but I also suspect the ones who say that have wives to deal with sick kids and household disasters. I agree with a married, working friend of mine who once said there were times she wished she had a "wife". :)

Whether or not one writes every day--or even takes occasional breaks from the writing--I do think it's important to come up with goals (which can be modest) and a schedule (which doesn't have to be anything like 9-5) and stick to it. At one point I was working a "regular job" 3 days a week and had a young baby. I wrote during her naps (when they happened) on my two days off and on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons when my husband was able to babysit. The hours were erratic, but I showed up and did my best. LORD LANGDON'S KISS was the result.

So anyway, this is what I've come up with so far. A professional writer is one who strives to improve her mastery of the craft, one who sets goals and shows up for work even if she's not in the mood.

What do you think makes a professional writer?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Holiday Food

Ah, the American Thanksgiving Day is only a few days away, along with all its turkey goodness.

In honor, here are some bits I like from an 1829 cookery book. (All odd spellings or punctuation are the cookbook author's.)


TOMATAS OR LOVE-APPLES:
These have gone down in France, but are just (like other fashions) coming into vogue among us. Tomatas are used both in sauces and soups, and are pickled.--See Tomato Catsup.

The French put grated nutmeg or minced parsley to stews of cucumber, and thicken the sauce with beat yolks of eggs. Nutmeg is indeed a very suitable condiment with this watery vegetable, so is cayenne.

So many fatal accidents happen every season from the use of poisonous mushrooms, and it is so difficult to distinguish between the edible kinds and those that are deleterious...

Those who are more solicitous about the appearance of their tables than the quality of the dishes, have their potatoes mashed, or boiled peeled, all the year round.

The French, among our other insular distinctions, speak of us as a nation "with twenty religions and only one sauce,"--parsley and butter, by the way, is this national relish,--and unquestionably English cookery, like English manners, has ever been much simpler than that of our neighbours.

For stuffing to fill the craw [of a turkey], take a breakfast cup full of stale bread finely grated, two ounces of minced beef-suet, or marrow, a little parsley parboiled and finely shred, a teaspoonful of lemon-peel grated, a few sprigs of lemon thyme, a little nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Mix the whole well in a mortar, with a couple of eggs.

So... What's your favorite holiday food? And if someone offered you a dish of stewed cucumber with nutmeg, would you try it?

Cara
Cara King, author of My Lady Gamester, in which some jellies are eaten, but (luckily) no mushrooms

The Porcelain God

Wandering the internet looking for a topic for today, I came upon the fact that in 2005, November 19 was designated "World Toilet Day" because of a big conference being held that day on sanitation standards. Last week my husband actually halted his channel surfing to watch a show on the history of toilets (I think on Modern Marvels, History Channel, but I'm not sure) so it seemed the Universe was telling me to talk about toilets.


We probably don't stop and think about toilets much, about how the development of this ceramic seat and the plumbing system associated with it has contributed more to the eradication of disease than perhaps any other medical discovery. To learn everything you ever wanted to know about this topic go to theplumber.com, which has a dizzying array of articles about the toilet and its place in history.

There are ancient examples of toilets and efforts at sanitation, but one notable inventor, Sir John Harrington, godson to Queen Elizabeth I, invented a flush toilet in 1596. Even though the Queen used it, the invention did not catch on. An improved flush toilet was patented in 1775 and another version in 1778. Wikepedia says that water closets using this type of toilet were widely used in London by 1815, which surprised me because I thought "our" time period was one that used chamber pots. Almost all the toilet sites--websites--I visited today said that the contents of chamber pots were simply tossed out into the streets. London did not build a sewer system until 1853.

The lack of sanitation as we know it greatly contributed to disease and it took a long time for man to figure out the connection between the two. The Black Plague was caused by flea bites spread by lice that lived on rats and rats, of course, fed on garbage and waste. Napoleon lost thousands of his men to typhus in his Russian campaign. Typhoid fever was the cause of Prince Albert's death and almost caused the death of his son Edward years later. A cholera epidemic killed thousands in India in 1817. By 1827 it had spread throughout the world. In a London cholera epidemic of 1854, Dr. John Snow charted the course of the disease and discovered that the contaminated water was to blame.

Thomas Crapper, whose name says it all, did not invent the flushing toilet, by the way. He owned a plumbing business that supplied toilets to royalty in the 1860s and he put his name on his product. The company is still in business today.





Some of the most beautiful toilets ever made had to be Victorian ones. Here is a lovely example.

Finally, does anyone find the following hilarious?

The Thesaurus of the Victorian Water Closet (1837-1901) was developed to index the Stooly Collection bequeathed, in 1998, to the Victorian Library of the British National Heritage Trust.

What toilet stories might you have today?

If you want the whole poop on Risky Regencies, sign up for our newsletter now at riskies@yahoo.com

Risky Regencies Welcomes Guest Bloggers Regina Scott and Marissa Doyle!

What an absolutely delightful garden party you throw, my dears! So pleased to be invited.

Oh, er, yes, well. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves. Regina Scott and Marissa Doyle here. We write stories about charming young heroines finding true love and their place in the world with no on-screen sex but plenty of sizzle. Traditional Regencies, you say? Oh, no, darlings!

We write Young Adult romances, affectionately known as YA.



No, truly we do. Believe it or not, teens want to read historical fiction. Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy has been very popular, and Anna Godbersen's The Luxe, set in 19th century Manhattan, has generated Prinny-sized buzz. The divine Meg Cabot even wrote 2 Regencies for Avon's now-defunct YA line: Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue.

For teens, historical fiction can have the same allure as fantasy, also hugely popular right now. Both feature exotic settings, intriguing people, and legendary customs. And gorgeous clothes, of course.

Hm. Intrigue, legend, and clothes. Who wouldn't want to read these books!

To reach out to teens and those of us who nourish our inner teen, we started a blog, Nineteenteen where we have fun talking about many aspects of teen life in the 19th century. Music, clothes, language, roller coasters, it's all lots of fun.



Yes, roller coasters! You simply had to be there.

How did we embark on such a course? Regina took the plunge after realizing all her previous books had the theme of finding one's place in the world, which translates well to YA. Her first YA, La Petite Four, which will make its debut in July 2008, features 4 friends making their debut in London Society in 1815 and suddenly running afoul of a handsome young lord who just may have more up his sleeve than a well-muscled arm. Marissa didn't even realize she was writing a YA story until a contest judge told her that her book, A Bewitching Season, would make a great YA. After picking her jaw up off the ground she hasn't looked back! Bewitching Season is coming from Henry Holt in April 2008. It's set in 1837, but she hopes Regency purists will be willing to hold their noses and have fun with her twins Persephone and Penelope, who rescue Princess Victoria from an evil scheme to control the Crown.



That's all part of the fun of writing YA! Adventure and romance mix with history, humor, and all that teenage angst. So, if you were a teen in Regency England, what would you do? Dance at Almack's? Race a gentleman through Hyde Park? Or play it safe, dress in white, and speak only to the nice young men your charming mother picked out for you???

Be sure and visit Regina and Marissa at nineteenteen, and check here at Risky Regencies in a few months for more on these exciting new books!