Escaping The Doldrums

April might be the cruelest month, but February freaking stinks. Bye, February, don't let the door hit you on the way out!

I hate February--my dad and I used to talk about "The Februarys," that glum malaise that hit both of us after a long winter. This February hasn't been too awful because it hasn't been that cold, and it's been busy, but I am so ready for Spring.

And, since I've been so busy (see above), I haven't been able to write, which is doubtless adding to my glumosity. And I haven't been able to find time to read! Which really stinks.

So what do you do when you are down in the (February) dumps?

Here are some things I do:

Look forward to Spring flowers

Find out what movies have come out on DVD. Watch them.


Buy a new nail polish.
Anticipate books by favorite authors



Plan short-sleeve outfits
Eat dark chocolate in tiny amounts

What do you do? Besides mock my inability to make my posts look nice, that is.

Happy March!

Regency children

Our Regency heroes were all dressed as girls for the first few years of their lives. Sad but true, and somehow they grew up normal; the upside of it was that they then enjoyed the formal ceremony of being breeched--that is, allowed to wear pants. And other than the cross-dressing, it wasn't that bad a time to be a child, if you survived, and, of course, had the additional luck of being born into a family with money and education.

Children were no longer seen as adults in miniature or full of original sin that needed to be flogged out of them. Childhood was becoming recognized as a stage in life, much as the 1950s spawned the cult of the teenager, thanks to Rousseau's Emile, a novel that explored the ideal upbringing of a child (ironically, Rousseau sent his own children to be raised in an institution, hoping they'd have a better chance in life there than as the illegitimate offspring of an impoverished writer). Wordsworth and Blake wrote about childhood as a state of mystical innocence.

Children now had their own styles of clothing, such as the skeleton suit for little boys and the late eighteenth-century styles for girls' clothes--high waisted, simple cotton gowns--later became the fashion for adults. Books, games, and puzzles were produced for children, and not all the books were improving texts.

But even in those relatively enlightened times, and in affluent families, the infant mortality rate was appallingly high. It makes you wonder what the relationships between children and parents were like--did parents love their children without reservation, knowing they might have only a short time together? Or did parents repress their natural feelings to protect themselves from the grief to come?

In a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft I read (sorry, can't remember which one), there was a truly heartbreaking excerpt from a letter Mary wrote after losing a child--but the thing that struck me as odd was that she referred to the baby as it. It could be a linguistic oddity--like the French word bebe not entering the language until the late nineteenth-century. But words are important, as we know. Does this reflect an attitude of the past that is quite alien to us now? Is this how the Regency produced Victorians?

And how do you feel about the portrayal of children in romances? Quoting myself, number seven in the top ten things a heroine would never say in a Regency romance (from The Rules of Gentility):

I don’t care if that adorable lisping child is the apple of the hero’s eye. If she doesn’t shut up I’ll slap her.

Heroines

Watching the red carpet show before the Oscars and seeing some of the actresses reminded me that we've done a lot of discussion on models and inspiration for our heroes, but not much about heroines.

Like many writers, I use pictures of actors, not only to send to the art department in the valiant hope of an accurate cover, but also to help me visualize my characters. I choose people who look right but also--at least in some fleeting cinematic moment I happened to catch despite my chronic tired mommy state--capture some aspect of my characters.

Right now, I'm using a slightly younger version of Laura Linney as inspiration for the heroine of my current mess-in-progress. She has a way of looking stressed out and lovely at the same time which is good for this particular heroine.



Also on the red carpet was Keri Russell, who happened to be the inspiration for my very first heroine: Nell, from LORD LANGDON'S KISS. Keri looked gorgeous on the red carpet and didn't appear much older than in the photo I sent in eight years ago! I find it amusing that the hairstyles look similar, at least from the front.




This is Liv Tyler, who has the moody sort of beauty I wanted for THE INCORRIGIBLE LADY CATHERINE. They gave her the Obligatory Regency Cover Smile but it was all right for the scene depicted and the artist captured the eyebrows. I was less happy with the hero--in my mind I saw him as looking like a sexy blacksmith (though in gentleman's clothes). I'll spare you the result...




I sent in a picture of Gwyneth Paltrow for Juliana in THE REDWYCK CHARM. In the cover, her hair is red because she had dyed it at that point in the story. In any case, it's not a bad likeness. I think the hero looked pretty handsome though that flip of his hair is a bit odd.




Sorry about the graininess of this picture; I can't find the original one of Jo Anderson I sent in as a likeness for Penelope in SAVING LORD VERWOOD. It was hard to find a red-haired actress who fit the part. As it turns out, I need not have bothered because they somehow transformed her into a blonde. I've heard of authors changing their manuscripts to fit the cover but as Pen had already appeared in the two previous books as a redhead I wasn't going to do it! Anyway, this cover was actually one of my nicest with a dishy looking hero, so I won't complain any more.




For LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, I chose Michelle Pfeiffer. Like Michelle Pfeiffer's character in THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Lady Dearing is the Wrong Woman--or more correctly, thinks she is, because of course she does get her happy ending. The cover image for this book was absolutely tiny but the heroine looks more or less right. The hero is absolutely wrong--not only does he NOT look anything like Colin Firth but he's also got a pretty awful mullet. I'm glad the image was tiny!




So how well do you think these covers depicted my heroines? Which actresses do you use or would you like to see as inspiration for heroines?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Lucky Jane!

Congratulations to Jane! You've won copies of Amanda McCabe's TO CATCH A ROGUE and Deb Marlowe's AN IMPROPER ARISTOCRAT!

Please email riskies@yahoo.com to claim your prize.

Any of us who cannot wait for the US releases can order these books from www.millsandboon.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk!

How To Be Sharp

I beg your indulgence today. I'm going to sound a little bit grouchy, so please forgive me, and assume it's all because

(1) Johnny Depp, Amy Ryan, and the green dress didn't win the Oscars they deserved;

(2) I spent so long caring for my sick husband (days! maybe even a week!) that my mind has irretrievably gone;

(3) I've secretly been a grump all along, and have finally lost my ever-so-thin veneer of niceness due to normal wear and tear;

(4) I'm suffering from severe lack of tea; or

(5) I'm currently being forced (by a secret government agency) to read a book lacking in either proper grammar or any respect for history, and am the worse for it.

My post today is, you see, on how to be sharp.

SHARP WRITERS:

SHARP WRITERS don't develop a pathological fear of either adverbs or the past perfect tense. And if they do, they don't start using the simple past tense in place of the past perfect, or adjectives in place of adverbs.

SHARP WRITERS never write any of the following: alot, alright, "he drug her down the stairs" (believe it or not, I've seen this nonexistent verb tense several times recently, in published books!), Jane Austin, Lizzie Bennett (Austen spells it "Lizzy Bennet"), or "here here!"

SHARP WRITERS find out what words actually mean before using them. (Yes, words like literally, embark, pigtails, castle, and unique do have actual meaning.)

SHARP JANE AUSTEN MOVIE FANS

SHARP JANE AUSTEN MOVIE FANS may enjoy learning that the following actresses, all of whom have appeared TV or film versions of Austen's works or of other Regency-interest works, were all just nominated for Olivier Awards (the most respected award for London Theatre):

Kelly Reilly, who played Miss Bingley in the 2005 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, was nominated for playing Desdemona in OTHELLO at the Donmar Warehouse.

Anne-Marie Duff, who played Louisa in the TV miniseries ARISTOCRATS (1999), was nominated for playing Joan in SAINT JOAN at the National Theatre.

Penelope Wilton, who played Mrs. Gardiner in the 2005 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, was nominated for playing Ella in JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN at the Donmar Warehouse.

Fiona Shaw, who played Mrs. Croft in the 1995 PERSUASION, was nominated for playing Winnie in HAPPY DAYS at the National Theatre.

Speaking of Austen adaptations, please join us next Tuesday (March 4) to discuss the Olivier/Garson version of PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and March 24 to discuss the Kate Beckinsale EMMA!

There you have it!

Question for the day: What would you like to add to my "Sharp Writers" list? (All answers welcome!)


Cara
Cara King, who once saw Fiona Shaw play Richard II

Fire

Last Friday, our local news reported a fire in a 200 year old historic building in Boonsboro, MD, a hotel that was under renovation. I knew instantly that this was the hotel Nora Roberts had purchased. She'd had these wonderful plans to decorate each of the six rooms with some romance theme featuring literary couples, like, Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy.

Read more about this here and see the horrific photos.

My heart goes out to Nora and the town of Boonsboro for this loss, but knowing Nora, she'll find a way to rebuild.

I started thinking about fire in "our" period. How easy it must have been for fires to start when the heating, cooking, and lighting was by flame.

Here is an account of a fire from the 1814 Annual Register:

January 19, 1814
Fire in St. Paul's Churchyard
About a quarter past six o'clock yesterday morning, a fire was discovered by foot-passengers in St. Paul's Churchyard, who knocked violently for a time, but none of the family of Mr. Biggs was made to hear. At length the door was forced, when the flames burst out with such fury, to prevent anyone from alarming the family upstairs, but which at length was done by the ringing of the bells, and crying out "fire, fire." Mrs. Biggs with an infant in her arms, and a servant maid, got first out of the house...the feelings of the mother were too much alive for the safety of her other five children, to admit of a moment's delay, and it is supposed that she would have returned and rushed into the flames in search of them, had she not fainted dead away...So rapid were the flames on this unfortunate occasion, that no other person except a servant with another of Mrs. Bigg's children succeeded in getting out the door by the door. We have accounted for only two of Mrs. Bigg's six children, the eldest of whom, a son, was only nine years of age.

How terribly sad this is. I can feel the emotions of that poor mother at such a time.

Another terrible mishap was the occurance of clothing catching fire. Woman were most at risk with their long dresses. Gillray (1802) satirizes this in his Advantages of Muslin Dresses


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow grew his beard after being scarred trying to save his wife when her dress caught fire from a match.






Two famous fires near "our" time period:

1809 fire destroying Drury Lane theatre, owned at the time by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who sat at a nearby inn, watching the building devoured by flames. He quipped, "It was hard if a man could not drink a glass of wine by his own fire."


Burning of Washington, in 1814.

Dolly Madison's courage in rescuing the portrait of George Washington from the White House made a big impression on me as a child, so much so I named my favorite doll after her.

I've never been in a fire. When I was seven and we lived in Japan where my father was stationed, a dog kennel caught fire nearby and we could see the flames from our house. The fear of the fire spreading was very real. In more recent years a co-worker's house was destroyed by fire after the oil in a pan caught fire and quickly spread.

Have you ever been in a fire?
Do you think, as I do, that burning candles is too much of a fire risk to be worth it?

Deb and Amanda Chat About Their New Books!

Join the Risky Regencies today as Amanda and Deb Marlowe chat about their March UK releases, The Improper Aristocrat and To Catch a Rogue! Comment on the post to win a copy of each, or if you can't wait you can buy them at Amazon.uk! Besides being a fellow Harlequin author and fun friend, Deb is another Project Runway fanatic...



Amanda: So, Deb, tell me all about your new book!

Deb: The Improper Aristocrat is my adventure book! A deathbed pledge brings Niall Stafford, Earl of Treyford, out of Egypt and back to England. He's promised to deliver an ancient artifact to a colleague's sister, but Chione Lattimer is not what he expects. Instead of an aging spinster, Chione is a lovely, half-Egyptian girl caught up in chaos. Though all he wants to do is get back to his adventures and antiquities, Trey finds himself in the role of protector, and smack dab in the midst of a villainous plot to recover a Pharaoh's lost treasure.

A: Oooh, I love adventures and lost treasure! What's your favorite part of the book?

D: Now that is a hard question. I love so much about this book! Chione was a joy to write. She's had a hard life, and really has to find her own strength. And she has to pound a few hard lessons into Trey's head along the way! I had a great time coming up with the clues that lead these two on their path to adventure, too.

A: Any good research tidbits you found?

D: The research was the best part! I really enjoyed exploring the Valley of the Kings, the Devon coast, and Belzoni's Exhibition in London.



A: Tell us about Belzoni!

D: You mean my historical figure crush? Hee hee! I love this guy. One of 13 children of a Padua barber, he was a giant of a man, reportedly 6 feet 6 inches. Run from home by Napoleon's forces, he traveled England as a strong man and magician before traveling to Egypt to uncover some of her greatest treasures, including Seti I's tomb, the entrance to the second pyramid of Giza, and the lost city of Berenice. He procured a huge collection of antiquities for the British Museum before he died trying to reach the mysterious city of Timbuktu.

A: And what is the treasure in your story? Or is that a secret??

D: It's a mystery! The legend of the Pharaoh's Lost Jewel is thousands of years old. It came back to Europe with Nelson's army and team of surveyors and architects. Chione's family has chased the legend for years, but it will take the adventuresome Earl to help her discover the truth.

A: It's kind of funny, my book also involves ancient treasure! Though Greek, not Egyptian. There must be something archeological in the air this month...



D: Oh, Greek! Where did the idea for your story come from?

A: From a terrific book I read, Peter Watson's The Medici Conspiracy, about the terrible problem of illegal antiquities. His tale involves modern-day looting and illegal objects in museums, but of course this is not a new problem at all. It was also inspired by a trip to the British Museum to see the Elgin Marbles!

D: Was that on the Splendors of the Regency tour???

A: Yes!! Everyone here will be sick of me saying "On the Regency tour...", but it really was the most inspiring thing I could have done for my writing. We learned lots about carpets and doorknobs there, didn't we, Deb?

D: Yes, we did, although we have to thank Diane for that! Riskies, Diane became famous for grilling all the guides on the make and origins of the carpets everywhere we went. Everyone teased her unmercifully!

A: LOL! We learned a lot about paint colors, too...

Anyway, To Catch a Rogue is the first of the "Muses of Mayfair" series, stories of the 3 Chase sisters (Calliope, Clio, and Thalia) whose father is a famous scholar of ancient Greek art and myth. So, naturally the daughters are into ancient Greece, too--though their interest always seems to lead them into trouble. And romance with some unlikely heroes!

D: It feels like I've been waiting so long to read about your "Muses"! I can't wait! But how are their heroes unlikely?

A: Calliope, the heroine of TCAR, thinks that Cameron de Vere, the Earl of Westwood, is the infamous Lily Thief! The Lily Thief has been plaguing London collectors for months, stealing artifacts from their collections and leaving a lily bouquet in their place. Cal thinks Cameron is the thief, and is determined to catch him in the act of stealing the Alabaster Goddess (a beautiful statue of Artemis that has started a craze for hairstyles and sandals in London fashion!). But Cameron isn't what he appears, either. He decides to turn the tables on Cal...

D: Sounds like another fun mystery! And what about Clio and Thalia?



A: They get their stories, too, of course! In To Deceive a Duke, Clio meets up again with the mysterious Duke of Averton in sunny Sicily (which, of course, is plagued with tomb raiders!). I call Averton my "rock star" duke, because everyone follows him around and gossips about him! And in To Kiss a Count, Thalia finds love with a dangerous Italian count--in Bath! Passion in the Pump Room (also seen on the Regency tour. The Pump Room, that is. Not the passion).

Oh, one quick note! Next year you can buy these 3 stories in consecutive months in the US. But just in case you can't wait...

Tell us what's next for you, Deb?

D: The Improper Aristocrat come to the US late in 2008. In October I have another UK release, Her Cinderella Season. In that one, Jack Alden, brother to the hero of my first book Scandalous Lord, Rebellious Miss, locks horns with a girl who has been raised in the Reformer and Evangelical circles of Regency England.

A: Can't wait!

BTW, gentle readers, take a look at the two covers in the header. We believe somehow Mr. Brad Pitt snuck onto Deb's, highlights and all. And my cover is also the inside image of Diane's Innocence and Impropriety! Who knew people so resembled each other in Regency England???

Let us know any comments, questions, whatever! Early next week we'll announce a winner for copies of both books.

John Keats

I know last week I said I would continue with my "romantic and not-so-romantic couples of the Regency" thread, but I discovered that today is the anniversary of the death of John Keats, in 1821. So I decided to talk about that instead. Stay tuned next week for more romantic high-jinks! (Or maybe some hot guys, if I can find one Megan missed...)

Of all the romantic poets, Keats is my favorite based solely on the poetry. His life is not as wild as Shelley and Byron (for one thing he lived for such a short time, to to the age of 26, narrowly beating Shelley for "youngest death"), but his poetry has a beauty and sophistication, a sensual imagery, that is hard to beat.

He was born in Moorgate, London in 1795, the son of a hostler (his father's pub still stands, and is now called "Keats the Grove"). But his childhood had an early end with the death of his father seven years later. Keats grew up with his mother, grandmother, and 3 siblings, until his mother died of tuberculosis in 1810. John soon found himself entrusted with the care of his younger brother, Tom, who also suffered from tuberculosis. He managed to travel in Scotland and Ireland, where he composed his epic poem Endymion. But this poem, as so many after them, was the focus of much abuse from critics. In 1818, Tom died and John found he, too, suffered from the disease.



He then moved to Hampstead, where he lived next door to Fanny Brawne, his one love. But the relationship was cut short when Keats was forced to leave damp London in 1820 and go to Italy. (Fanny's comment in her diary in his departure--"Mr. Keats has left Hampstead." Scandalous!!!).



Italy didn't help. Keats died in 1821, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome. He asked that his tombstone read only "Here lies one whose name was writ in water," but his friends took the liberty of adding "This grave contains all that was mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET, who on his deathbed, in the bitterness of his heart, at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraven on his tomb stone" (one in the eye for those nasty reviewers!).

Shelley blamed Keats' death on an article in the Quarterly Review; Byron wrote a poem in his honor using the words "snuffed out by an article." Wallace Stevens describes him as the "Secretary for Porcelain" in his poem Extracts from Addresses to the Academy of Fine Ideas:

"Let the Secretary for Porcelain observe
That evil made magic, as in catastrophe,
If neatly glazed, becomes the same as fruit
Of an emperor, the egg-plant of a prince.
The good is evil's last invention."

Also, on my newest TV obsession, the otherwise ridiculously and wonderfully idiotic Gossip Girl, the character Dan seems to see Keats as his poetic hero, and references him now and then. He's mentioned in The Smith's song "Cemetery Gates." And according to IMDB, there's a film in production about the romance of Keats and Brawne titled Bright Star, starring Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw (from Perfume).

Some of Keats's own poems include To a lady seen for a few moments at Vauxhall, To Autumn, Ode on Melancholy, Ode to Fanny, On seeing the Elgin Marbles for the first time, Ode to a Nightingale, and Give me Wine, Women, and Snuff. Here is the last stanza of one of my favorites, Ode on a Grecian Urn:

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of Marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in the midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Who are some of your favorite poets? Do you watch Gossip Girl (or any other craptastic TV??). And who do you predict to win (or show up in a fab gown) at the Oscars tomorrow?

Speaking of tomorrow, be sure and join us as Deb Marlowe and I get together for an interview about our March UK releases! Comment for copies. And sign up for our monthly newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com, with "newsletter" in the subject line, so you don't miss any of our events, special or not.

She Blinded Me With Science

Rather than writing lately, I've been involved in finishing up major renovations to a house my husband and I bought last May. LAST MAY. We are still living in our rental, but the reno is finishing up, as is our patience with paying rent and mortgage, so the plan is to move in during the last week of March.

What, you ask, does this have to do with the Regency?

Well, Ms. Smarty-Pants, it's that I am breathlessly anticipating such modern marvels as a washer/dryer, a dishwasher, a temperature-controlled refrigerator, a non-running toilet, and a brand new stove that has the output of Hephaestus in a temper (for the record, the last non-rental I lived in was in 1976; the rental we moved to had a broken window in the bathroom, which we plugged up with an Incredible String Band record album. Yeah, I was raised by hippies/wolves).

Which made me think of modern innovations, and how essential--and how much we take them for granted--they are in our modern life.


Depending on their station in life, some of our Regency heroines (the governesses, companions, poor relations, et al), might have had to wash some of their clothing by hand. Ugh. And even if you had someone to do your wash, there was no guarantee things would come clean. Indoor toilets were around, but hardly ubiquitous; stoves and ovens were huge, beastly hot things that required careful handling. If you had frizzy or limp hair you had to live with it. Forget about cell phones, iPods and DVR; you had to be at the local musicale to hear it, and that was it.

So if you could choose one modern convenience to bring with you as you embark on your time traveling journey of a Regency lady's life, what would it be? A dishwasher? Eyelash curler? Blow dryer? Vacuum cleaner? Toilet? A ballpoint pen?

Hot Old Men

Having been accused (several times) of despising gratuitous mantitty, I present for your delectation the following...

Oooh. Alan Greenspan. He is just so ... powerful. So ... hot. Announcements about interest rates haven't been the same since his retirement. It might only have been a quarter of an interest point, but temperatures would soar.

Sean Connery, the man who's been shaking and stirring us for ... decades. Oh baby.

Patrick Stewart who could make it so with me anytime. Not only can he wear spandex in public and not be embarrassed but he can sing and dance too. Check it out.



Peter O'Toole, once a lovely young thing, now a lovely, if cadaverous, old thing who could cross my desert any time.



Alan Rickman, the underground hit of Sense and Sensibility,.Women swooned at his imcomprehensible upperclass mumble and the slow crawl of his jowls seeking freedom from his high collar.

Ian McKellen, quite definitely a player for the other team and never the prettiest boy in the playground, but he does have a certain ... something. There's just something about him that makes you want to comb through his beard for snacks or offer to hold his staff if he looks tired.

Come on, ladies. Confess. Who's your favorite hot old man?

A Sharpe dressed man

With apologies to ZZ Top--I couldn’t resist! Anyway, I’d like to share some more tidbits from LIFE IN WELLINGTON’S ARMY, with thanks to Antony Brett-James for helping us all create our hot military heroes.

This time it’s about the uniforms. Wellington, nicknamed ‘the Beau’, dressed well himself. “Larpent says he had the skirts of his coats cut shorter in the Peninsula to make them look smarter, and one day in 1813 he found Wellington discussing with his servant the cut of his half-boots and suggesting alterations.” However, Wellington didn’t fuss about his army’s attire. Grattan of the Connought Rangers wrote: “Provided we brought our men into the field well appointed, and with sixty rounds of good ammunition each, he never looked to see whether their trousers were black, blue or gray; and as to ourselves, we might be rigged out in all colours of the rainbow if we fancied it. The consequence was, that scarcely any two officers were dressed alike! Some with grey braided coats, others with brown; some again liked blue; while many from choice, or perhaps necessity, stuck to the ‘old red rag’.”

I was interested to learn that some regiments wore kilts, which “did not always prove to be practical garment for campaign life. While advancing to the heights of Puebla during the Battle of Vitoria, the 92nd had to cross ditches so thickly lined with thorns and briars that the blood ran trickling down many a soldier’s leg.” By 1814 the Black Watch was the only regiment still wearing the kilt.

Wear and tear and dust played havoc with uniforms. One day in 1808 Captain Landemann of the Engineers and Major-General Henry Fane were riding side by side and observed there was little difference between their coats; the former was originally blue, the latter red. Another observer described how red coats deteriorated to something “as ragged as sheep and as black as rooks.”

Here is Captain Mercer’s description of the troops parading in Paris after Waterloo:

“The colour had faded to a dusky brick-dust hue; their coats, originally not very smartly made, had acquired by constant wearing that loose easy set so characteristic of old clothes, comfortable to the wearer, but not calculated to add grace to his appearance.”

A French student watching the same review wrote: ‘Oh! It was really like being defeated twice over, bis mori, to have been beaten by an army so badly turned out as the English army was…How could one be a good soldier under that little sugar-loaf of a peak, with the inelegantly cut red jacket, those grey trousers clinging to knock-knees?”

As for me, I’m not so turned off by a scruffy exterior. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with a dandy hero either—dandies have an understanding of pleasure and luxury that can be very sexy. I like variety in my fantasy men. I’ve got one dandy in my idea file. Still, I’ve got a slight preference for heroes who are active and look it. And I’d mend Richard Sharpe’s shirts any time! :)

How about you? Do you prefer your Regency heroes nattily turned out or on the rugged side?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

A Regency Miscellany

Hello, and happy Tuesday!

First, a NOTICE: I have now twice mis-stated the date on which Risky Regencies' JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB will discuss the Olivier/Garson Pride & Prejudice! (Careless. Sorry.)

The correct date is Tuesday, March 4. (I kept saying Tuesday, March 3, which doesn't exist. In this universe, anyway.)

(For those of you joining us for the first time: the Jane Austen Movie Club meets here the first Tuesday of every month, and sometimes on other Tuesdays, to discuss various Jane Austen TV and movie adaptations. Please join us!)


Second, a CLARIFICATION: Those of you who get our brilliant newsletter might have received the implication that our discussion of this same Olivier/Garson Pride & Prejudice will follow the airing of it on PBS.

Sadly, this is not the case. They're not airing it. (Though if you ask me, they should just stop showing all that other silly stuff and become the All Jane Austen All the Time network...) So if you'd like to participate in our discussion, you can either do it from memory, or track down a copy of the DVD or tape within the next two weeks... Or just stop in and say hi!


Third, a QUESTION: The BBC Emma (with Kate Beckinsale) airs March 23. I had originally not scheduled it for discussion on the following Tuesday (March 25) because if we run through too many Austen adaptations too quickly, we'll run out of things to discussion in the Club and the Club will have to end sooner.

Then again, we could always talk about adaptations of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sharpe, Hornblower, etc... And the advantage of discussing it on March 25 is that it will be fresh in everyone's minds...that is, if they'll be watching the showing on PBS.

So: what's your vote? Beckinsale Emma on March 25, or not?


And now, fourth, so that this post won't be entirely full of information and other tedious stuff, here is part of an actual 1804 NOTICE OF HORSES FOR SALE:

TO BE SOLD AT LEWES, ON THE FIRST OF AUGUST

Being the vacant Day between BRIGHTON and LEWES races.

LOT 1: THE Stallion, Waxy, by Pot8o's, out of Maria, by Herod, her dam, Lisette, by Snap, out of Miss Windsor. He is sire of Mr. Wilson's colt, that was second for the Derby Stakes.

LOT 2: Kezia, by Satellite, out of Waxy and Worthy's dam, &c. &c. with a colt at her foot by Waxy, and covered by him again.

Long live the Regency!

Cara
Author of MY LADY GAMESTER, in which the horses had slightly less strange names than Pot8os)

Regency Hot Guy Post

Much as I love Hot Guys (except Brad Pitt, of course), what does that have to do with the Regency?

Never mind....... Who Cares? Megan's Hot Guys blog was one of our most popular. Goodness, Megan received 30 comments! (nine of them from me complaining about Brad Pitt)

In any event, I am, you know, always striving to be relevant and true to our quest to learn and share as much as possible about the Regency; therefore, today I am presenting to you my

Regency Hot Guys

These images were gathered on my 2005 England trip. I took photos of paintings and miniatures everywhere we went. If I had been organized, I would also have recorded who these gentlemen were, but, alas, when have I ever been organized?

Vote for your favorite! Those of you who pick first can claim the gentleman, as we all claimed our favorites on Megan's blog.


Number One: Who else but Beau Brummell?










Number Two: The Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, Lord Byron

Number Three: This fellow looks (gasp!) Victorian, but maybe you fancy all that facial hair.









Number Four: Perhaps you cannot resist a man in uniform.










Number Five: Or maybe this sensitive Regency fellow pushes your "hot" button.









Number Six: Maybe you prefer a man who is more serious.










Number Seven: Or you might like your Hot Guy to be a little more...Georgian, so you can run your fingers through his powdered hair.








Number Eight: Or perhaps you like him to be very Georgian. Nothing like a Hot Guy dressed in pink.









Number Nine: Now here's a fellow I would call the "Sean Penn" of the Regency.









Number Ten: La