A Regency Road Trip

Today we are on the road, on our way to visit relatives in Georgia. The book is done. Not polished but done and sent in. (Breathe heavy sigh of relief) Remind me never to do this again. I’ll take time management courses. Anything. Maybe even make myself write every day, no matter what.

I got to thinking…What would our trip be like if we were in Regency England?

My husband prefers driving himself to public transportation so we’ll be traveling in our own vehicle. We’ve had considerable discussion on whether to take my Prius with its great mileage or the more comfortable Acura. The Acura won.

In Regency terms, I figure this means we’ll be driving the curricle, drawn by two horses, instead of the curate cart. My husband, by the way, has always wanted a high-perch phaeton, but I’ve put my foot down. It’s impractical.

We’ll make the trip in two days (and coming home, it only takes us one day—because we are always eager to get home again). In Regency times the same distance would be like traveling from Brighton to Loch Ness, about 600 miles, and it would take about week at least. I suspect our butts would be rather sore in our little curricle all that way.

We’ll stop along the road only for gasoline, meals, bathroom breaks, and to spend the night, but our Regency selves must stop every twenty miles or so to change horses. Instead of McDonalds or a Perkins (no relation!) restaurant, we’ll be stopping in coaching inns, probably eating mutton stew and drinking ale. (which doesn't sound so bad!)

At night we’ll stop in a motel—one with internet access, of course. Our Regency selves will stay in one of those coaching inns and we might travel with our own bed linens just to be certain we don’t pick up any bedbugs.

It used to be a bit of a culture shock to visit the Georgia relatives, but now the area has been built up with all the shopping centers of home. The Regency "we" are Londoners. Our normal pastimes are visiting the shops or walking in the park. Up by Loch Ness, however, there might be only one or two shops and plenty of places to walk.

I’ve heard there is even a monster in the Loch
But……no internet access.

Okay, if you were on vacation in REGENCY England, where would you go? What would you want to see?

(and thanks again for all your support and encouragement!!!)

Interview with Erastes

There are certain things expected of a third son. That one will not put oneself forward, that one will join the army, or the church, or the bar. That one will not, in an attempt to inherit and whatever the provocation, murder one's elder brothers and that one will, if at all possible in the circumstances of being a third son, marry well. Hard and Fast from Speak Its Name.

Erastes is the author of the gay regency Standish and her novella Hard and Fast appears in the Linden Bay Romance anthology Speak Its Name with Lee Rowan's Gentleman's Gentleman (Victorian) and Charlie Cochrane's Aftermath. Her second novel, Transgressions (English Civil War) has been sold to a mainstream publisher and will be out Spring 09.

To be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Speak Its Name, join in the discussion today.

Welcome to the Riskies! What does your name Erastes mean and why do you write under a pseudonym?

Erastes is a Greek word for a mature man who took on as a pupil/paramour a younger man (eromenos) in ancient Greek society. It was a relationship which was considered noble and moral. The older male was both the lover and the teacher of the younger male. He taught him the principles of physical and mental fitness, as well as soldiery and good citizenship. Sex was seen mainly as a way of cementing an emotional bond between teacher and student, as well as a way of expressing admiration for the youth's physical beauty.

I picked the name because I felt that - as a writer of gay historical fiction - it would sum up exactly what I was writing about. I picked a penname because I was advised that gay men wouldn't read gay romance written by a woman. Whilst there are a very few exceptions, I'm very happy to say that this isn't true and that I get at least 50 percent of fanmail from gay men.

What do you love/hate about the Regency?
It was a time of sweeping change - Britain moved from constant war to peace, mechanisation was coming - it must have been a very exciting place to live (if you had the money to enjoy it and weren't on the breadline!) I love the fashions, the way that men were still decorative, possibly the last time that they were so encouraged to wear frills and huge exaggerated collars and cuffs, fobs and seals and doing things to their hair that wouldn't look out of place in today's gel-mad society.

It was also an era where homosexual men continued to band together; something which had become common in the previous century in Molly Houses. The punishments for sodomy - whilst still lethal with sufficient proof - had become a little more lenient. (If you consider six months in Newgate lenient!) This isn't something I love, but rather what makes the era fascinating from the perspective of a gay historical author.

There was so much going on, too. The Thames froze over and the last great frost fair was in 1814 (which is what I'm writing about now) – exploration was going on all over the world and England was carving out a mighty Empire for itself. There are so many opportunities for stories, not all confined to White's and Almack's.

Why is the Regency a good setting for male-male romance? What research did you do/what sources do you rely on?

It's a wonderful era because the sexes were still pretty much segregated. Men weren't expected to spend time at home with their families and were together in clubs, in their estates, lounging on the edge of the dance floor, strolling arm in arm in Bath, or at war together in the company of many other men.

When one writes a heterosexual Regency one has to consider the reputation of one's heroine. She can't exactly leap easily into a closeted carriage with him, can't walk alone with him in the moonlight, and even riding around in his carriage alone might be enough to ruin her, but it's different for men. It gives a writer much more scope for two men to realise their attraction to each other because they are able to spend time in each other's company without anyone raising an eyebrow.

However, getting them "together" in a more intimate way takes a bit more effort on behalf of the writer!

Why do you think women are so fascinated by male-male erotic romance?

I think that in the main, it's perfectly normal. Obviously there are some who will find it not to their taste, but if one appreciates the male form, then two males has to be better. After all, what is most men's fantasy?

On a more serious note, though, I think many people are drawn to it because a male/male relationship is a fascinating thing and outside most females' experience. There's a definite powerplay which is (in is my opinion) so much fun to play with. No slight female form which can be easily overpowered, no forcing of the man on the woman. Two males who can be equal in rank and stature and neither of them are willing to back down to the other. It's fun to play with this too. In Hard and Fast Geoffrey is tall and broad, has been in the military for most of his life but - other than his eloquence of the first person narration - he's almost incapable of voicing his thoughts and opinions, not to his father, his intended wife - or the man who he gradually falls in love with, Adam. Adam on the other hand is physically handicapped with a clubfoot, but this doesn't make him weak. He's acerbic and runs verbal rings round poor Geoffrey who, for a large portion of the book, wants to do nothing more than thump him. I don't think you can show this aggression with heterosexual romance, not without people complaining.

One man unable to express his feelings is fine, but to have two of them? It is a writer's dream and the opportunity for misunderstandings, sleight of hand and a painful progress to a happy ending (which is a difficulty all of its own) is all grist to a gay Regency writer's mill!

When you have two men in a rigid society who want to express their feelings for each other the UST (unresolved sexual tension) goes through the roof. It's the equivalent of the heroine's hand being pressed by her suitor and that's enough to sustain her until the next time she sees him. With male/male romance you can crank up the UST to the nth level with straining breeches, interrupted and dangerous liaisons and then finally when you let it rip you have all that delicious male anatomy to describe. Because no self-respecting Regency hero will be unattractive!

Sex too can be a lot more aggressive with two men. It doesn't have to be, but some of the most romantic scenes in gay historicals that I've read have actually been written by men.

Whose writing has influenced you?

Austen without a doubt, and that's a very boring answer I know but I immerse myself in the contemporarily written novels to get a feeling for the language and the manners. As soon as I read Northanger Abbey I knew that I had to track down Otranto, Udolpho and the others. (Some of them are frankly awful) but they really help to immerse one in the time. I want to try and transport my reader if I can, not to be reading a book about a time, but rather to be reading a book written in the era. Not going to be possible I know, but I try.

Dickens, Tolstoy, Saki... I'm afraid I'm a bit of a fossil all around, and one young wag whilst looking at my bookshelves once said "have you anything from, you know - even last century?" A calumny, as I do have many modern books, but they do tend to be historical fiction! Modern influences without a doubt are Mary Renault whose The Charioteer remains a beacon and an unattainable perfection that I could never reach, and the amazingly brilliant At Swim Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill which is everything a gay romance should be. Funny, tragic, social commentary, wrapped together with some of the best characterisations I've ever read.

Usually we ask guests what makes their work risky (our standard question)--what do you see in your writing that pushes the envelope?

I've probably covered this a little but just writing gay historical fiction in itself is doing that; there are so very few of us writing it in this day and age that it's scary. (Take a look at the finite resource of gay historical fiction here on my website.) I don't just want to write gay erotica - there are many other people doing that from every sexual persuasion - or modern men in fancy dress - I want to try and imagine how it really might have been for gay men, from the Regency, from the English Civil War, from Shakespeare's time and attempt to extrapolate how their lives were and what hoops they had to jump through to find love and sex in times when it was dangerous and often lethal to do so.

I don't want to preach or teach history - but readers have said "Hey! I didn't know X fact" or whatever else they'd learned from my books and if I can open people's eyes to the past, it's got to help in the present, I hope.

Best In Show

I admit it, I had no idea what to write about today. It is summer, after all. I've been spending time dangling my feet in the kiddie pool I bought for my dogs, drinking lots of iced tea and writing, writing, writing! Reading, reading, reading! But what Janet said on Thursday was right--we Riskies do seem to love anniversaries. So, I did a search to see what was going on in the world a hundred or so years ago.

This is what I found: On this day in 1859, the first official dog show in the UK was held in Newcastle. The only breeds shown that day were Pointers and Setters. A show later in the year, in Birmingham, added Spaniels to the mix, and in 1860 hounds were added (thus paving the way for this year's Westiminster winner, Uno the beagle). The first London dog show was in 1860, in Chelsea, with the official Kennel Club founded in 1873. (The Victorians did love their show dogs!).

I have 2 dogs of my own, a very bossy miniature Poodle mix (who loves to swim in her kiddie pool and bark a lot) and a much more laid-back Pug (that's her in the pic!). Pugs were quite popular in the Georgian/Regency period, but their history goes much further back, to the Chinese Han and Tang Dynasty around 150 BC. Their path to Europe isn't certain, but the earliest reference to them there comes around 1572, when a heroic little Pug woke his master, William of Orange, just in time to save him from Spanish raiders. In 1713, there was a portrait titled "Louis XIV and His Heirs," with the appearance of a little fawn Pug (not named, and presumably not one of the heirs!)

English artist William Hogarth owned a series of Pugs and often painted them, especially his favorite "Trump." In 1740, the sculptor Roubiliac modeled terracotta statues of Hogarth and Trump, which were later produced in porcelain by the Chelsea pottery factory.

Many famous historical figures have been owned by Pugs. Madame de Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, George III and Queen Charlotte, Empress Josephine, Voltaire, George Eliot, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace, and Queen Victoria. Some of her Pugs included Venus, Olga, Fatima, Pedro, and Bosco (who has his own monument at Frogmore). My own dog is named Victoria in her honor.




And speaking of Queen Victoria, this is also the anniversary of her coronation! This happened in 1838. It is also the anniversary of Catherine the Great of Russia's seizure of power from her crazy husband, in 1762. She might have owned Pugs, but I'm not sure. If not, she should have.

Do you have dogs (or pets of any sort?) Are they enjoying their summer?

Bow Wow

I am a dog.

Which is not to say I think I'm ugly; no, I am a specific kind of dog, namely Pavlov's. Let me explain.

In addition to being a book freak, I've also always been a music geek. My dad stuck a radio playing jazz under my crib the first night home from the hospital, and I've been hooked on music ever since.

In high school, I was a new waver, sporting a bleached-blonde streak in my hair, buying pricey British imports, and wearing ripped tights. In college, I went downtown to see bands that played at 3 in the morning, then took the subway home. I dyed my hair purple, wore multiple earrings, and spent all my money on records.

After college, I got a job in the music industry. I spent 15 years writing about up-and-coming bands and being the first to know about any new musical trend. After I got laid off from my last job, however, I slacked on my music knowledge. I was burned out.

Now, however, my previous passion has reared its head with a vengeance, and I am compiling playlists to listen to while writing. Now just hearing any of the songs on my respective books' lists is enough to make me think about the book, which explains the Pavlov's dog thing.

Lately I've been loving Duffy, Adele, Estelle, Santagold, Amos Lee and Kid Sister. I did the playlist for On Bold Adventure/Road To Desire (title yet TBD, as you can see) in about five minutes, and each song echoes one or the other of the hero and heroine's emotional or physical state. I've listed it here:

Little Boy Soldiers The Jam
Wasteland The Jam
Chasing Pavements Adele
Burning Sky The Jam
Back In Black AC/DC
The Real Me The Who
The Eton Rifles The Jam
Wax And Wane Cocteau Twins
Thunder Kiss '65 White Zombie
I Can't Quit You Baby Led Zeppelin
The Punk And The Godfather The Who
Ivo Cocteau Twins
Drive Blind Ride
You My Lunar Queen Cousteau
Ladykillers Lush
She Don't Hear Your Prayer Cousteau
Wayfaring Stranger Jack White
Rag & Bone The White Stripes
You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) The White Stripes

Do you make playlists for writing? What is your favorite artist or song right now? Does music inspire you? Who's the most emotional musical artist you can think of?

Megan

Morning poetry

I was planning to blog about something entirely different today but I received an early morning inspiration from Garrison Keillor's A Writer's Almanac from American Public Media.

As you may have noticed here, we really like to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, and I was thrilled to find out that today is the birthday of poet Laurie Lee (1914-1997), who's not so well known here as he is in England. His most famous work is Cider with Rosie, about his childhood in the village of Slad, near Stroud in the Cotswolds, a place where people lived pretty much as previous inhabitants had for centuries--another great source for English rural life (the, ahem, Regency tie-in). After leaving the village for London and then Spain, where he fought in the civil war, Lee returned to England--he had a job writing propaganda during World War II (I think he was fired) and then settled in Slad where he lived for the rest of his life.

Here's the beginning of Cider with Rosie:

I was set down from the carrier's cart at the age of three; and there with a sense of bewilderment and terror my life in the village began.

The June grass, amongst which I stood, was taller than I was, and I wept. I had never been so close to grass before. It towered above me and all around me, each blade tattooed with tiger-skins of sunlight. It was knife-edged, dark, and a wicked green, thick as a forest and alive with grasshoppers that chirped and chattered and leapt though the air like monkeys.
I was lost and didn't know where to move.

A tropic heat oozed up from the ground, rank with sharp odours of roots and nettles. Snow-clouds of elder-blossom banked in the sky, showering upon me the fumes and flakes of their sweet and giddy suffocation. High overhead ran frenzied larks, screaming, as though the sky were tearing apart.

If your local NPR affiliate carries A Writer's Almanac, do listen to it. I hear it at about 6:35 each morning and it's the signal for me that I really must get out of bed. The format is quite simple--a report on anniversaries/birthdays (with a strong emphasis on the literary), followed by a short poem. You can view today's offering, Naming the Animals by Anthony Hecht, learn more about Laurie Lee, and browse the archives here.

Do you listen to this show? Have you read Laurie Lee? Are you a Garrison Keillor and/or A Prairie Home Companion fan?

Tortured or trite?

Last week, Janet likened the prevalence of PTSD heroes in historical romance to war profiteering. I have to agree. But her words scare me too, because I’m writing a war-scarred though not classic PTSD hero myself and always worry that I will not do him justice. I feel it’s important to respect history and the real people who suffered through similar events. I hope that respect comes through in my work.

But what makes the difference between Artificially Injected Angst and the real thing?

Looking at both our current projects and our backlist, many of us Riskies have written military heroes. We’re also writing or have written stories about emotional and/or physical abuse, addiction, loss of close loved ones, and other issues that we may or may not have experienced personally. I’ve always been suspicious of the adage “Write what you know”. I’ve since heard “Write what you love” or “Write what you care about” and that’s what we do.

I think that makes all the difference. If a writer cares about an issue enough to make it a central theme in a story, she ought to do the necessary immersion. If she’s content with Wikipedia level research or less, it shows. (I put down a romance when I realized, just a few pages in, that the author thought the British were fighting the Portuguese in the Peninsula, not the French.) This is why we Riskies and friends regularly break our research book budgets or become good friends with librarians.

I also think it is AIA when a tortured hero (or heroine, though they seem less common) is defined by his issues. As a reader, I want to know what makes the character different from others with similar problems. Is he naturally an introvert or an extrovert? Impulsive or cautious? What are his strengths and passions? Most importantly, how does he deal with the problem? People don’t all react the same way and that’s exactly why yet another story about a scarred military hero or any other flavor of tortured character can still be interesting.

What do you think makes the difference between the tortured and the merely trite?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

"Other Way, Mr. Collins!"

It has occurred to me that if I were to write a Regency dance scene, I could draw on certain experiences I've had doing English country dance to flesh it out.

I don't mean the basics -- I mean the little things...

And as I'm not planning on writing a dance scene anytime soon, I thought I'd share the ideas...because ideas like company.

Here are a few things that I think a Regency woman might not care for in a partner, or indeed in any of the many people she will dance with during a country dance:

1) Unpleasant hands. Now, I know that gloves would change things a lot -- but I still think that over the course of a long ball, a Regency dancer might still end up with hands that are so hot, cold, or damp that they're not so pleasant to hold, even for a moment.

2) Men who mess up the steps. And of course everyone will mess up the steps sometime or other -- but if a Regency lady has her foot stepped on (especially by a man) or is crashed into with force by someone (particularly a large man), I think it would still extremely unpleasant.

3) Men who mess up the steps, and then insist that she was wrong. This is, quite literally, adding insult to injury. And I suspect it happened quite a bit more in Regency times than now.

4) Men who cannot take hints. Or commands. Sometimes the woman knows what the man's next move is, and he does not. And he knows that he does not. So if he has no idea where he should be going, why would he be so reluctant to advance toward the lady holding out her hand to him? Or to move where she is so politely pointing, waving, nudging, looking, or telling him? Could it be that he thinks that if he doesn't know a thing, no one else can? Or is it just that no female can? Or is he just one of those single-minded men who are so busy trying to remember a thing, that they cannot notice anything else?

5) Other Way, Mister Collins! The ladies in the Firth/Ehle Pride and Prejudice say this, repeatedly. And yes, some men (and women) just can never learn a certain step. Even the fiftieth time. Even if they've just crashed into their partner forty-nine times. (It reminds me of the bee in Bee Movie: "Maybe it'll work this time! Or this time! This time! This time!") I think the emotion this particular behavior produces, however, (assuming there is no physical pain), is more likely to be astonishment than annoyance.

6) Couples (or singles) who leave a dance in the middle. From the middle. A country dance is a complex organism, and if a couple that is not at the bottom of the set gets bored and leaves, chaos inevitably ensues. It's rather like pulling on a loose thread in your sweater -- the entire thing quickly turns to mush. But some folks just don't care. (I suspect they're those More Important Than You people -- you know, the ones who cut in front of you in line, who smoke where they're not allowed, who talk on their phones during movies.)

Well, those are the things that occur to me. How about you? If you've done any English Country Dance (or other ballroom dance), do you have anything to add to the list?

And remember: next Tuesday, be sure to come by to discuss (or learn about) the 1980 BBC PRIDE AND PREJUDICE! (The one with David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie.)

Cara
Cara King, who can shaw-side or sharp-side or do a sheepskin hey

Diane Progress Report

So many of you have been sooooo kind to be thinking of my struggle to finish this book and wishing me well.

I'm not done yet.....and I'm not certain why it has been so hard. I've been working and working and unable to produce more than about 10 pages a day and sometimes I have to rewrite those. (and, of course, I've had to get my hair cut and other essential errands, like clothes shopping....)

My editor says I have until the end of the month but I really have until Thursday because I'm going out of town on Friday!

I figure you all wonder what this book is about. Well, it's about this stuff:

Battle of Badajoz







Royal Academy of Art, Somerset House








Drury Lane Theatre









Cleopatra Portrait









Corn Bill riots







Waterloo










I know none of this makes sense...

How about you? Give us a progress report on your manuscripts or any goal or project you are working on.

First Day of Summer

"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance" --Jane Austen

So, today is the first day of summer, and that JA quote is just all too apt. 95+ degree weather, along with thunderstorms and sticky humidity, makes things most inelegant indeed. Thank goodness that, unlike Jane, I can wear cotton sundresses and flipflops to work! I'm also grateful for iced tea, that plastic kiddie pool I bought for my dogs, and good books to read.

This summer is turning into a busy one, what with planning for RWA and working on the WIP (Book 3 of "The Muses of Mayfair"--page 121 written last night!). I also have a brand new and challenging project--a short story for the Harlequin "Historical Briefs" line of ebooks (available on eHarlequin!) This story will be connected to Balthazar's as-yet untitled Caribbean book, out in January '09, and will be available in November. Stay tuned...

I'm also planning for a much-needed little getaway next weekend, which hopefully will go better than another summer jaunt of June 21, 1791--the flight to Varennes. This escape attempt by Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their two children, Louis's sister Madame Elisabeth, and various servants should actually be called the flight that ended at Varennes, as their goal was the Royalist stronghold of Montmedy in northeast France.

After the storming of Versailles in October 1789, the royal family was moved to the ramshackle Tuileries in Paris, where life became increasingly restricted and uncomfortable for them. By the summer of 1791, the queen had had enough. Along with her rumored lover Count Axel Von Fersen and the Baron de Breteuil, she planned an escape. The little dauphin's governess, the Marquise de Tourzel, would play a Russian baroness, with the royal children her daughters (even the boy!) and the others her servants. They took off on the night of June 20, but various blunders and misfortunes (including the fact that Marie Antoinette was reluctant to leave all her stuff behind) doomed them. They were recognized and captured at the town of Varennes.

Some good sources for this incident are Stanley Loomis's The Fatal Friendship and Timothy Tackett's When the King Took Flight. I also like the first-hand account in Madame Royale's memoirs, plus the good new biography by Susan Nagal, Marie-Therese: Child of Terror.

What are your summer plans? (Not fleeing from revolutionaries, I hope!). And who will be at RWA???

Dress For Success

In researching my latest hero, a Sharpe-based soldier, I've been delving into Scott Hughes Myerly's British Military Spectacle. I highly recommend the book; every page has some essential, interesting nugget of information, even if you're not writing a battle-scarred hero, as I am.

In reading it, I've been alternately horrified and impressed at how the British Army used dress to control its soldiers.

As Janet pointed out yesterday, many British soldiers were boys or men who had no choice ("Prison/deportation or the Army?" is just as obvious as Eddie Izzard's "Cake or death?") or were coerced to join.

To keep their soldiers--some of whom were blackguards, to say the least--in line, their superior officers demanded perfection in appearance. Keeping the men busy cleaning their kits kept them away from alcohol, which was one of the Army's biggest problems (Sharpe mentions this frequently, always trying to destroy whatever alcohol is within his men's vicinity). Myerly says, "The ideal of perfection was central to the art of nineteenth-century military management, especially in connection with martial display."

Myerly then goes on to say that "Officers were sometimes obsessed with presenting a correct and pleasing appearance, which often resulted in the total neglect of other significant considerations, even if these were vital to the army's success."

Wow. To prove the point, Myerly discusses the headgear required, sometimes two feet high, made of material that was ridiculously hot in the summer, got drenched in the rain, and blew off whenever there was a strong wind.

On one dress occasion in 1829, Wellington, in full military regalia, was blown off his horse by a gust of wind. In 1842, Queen Victoria demanded that a 73 year-old Wellington wear all the proper military gear, which made him trip and fall.

The stocks soldiers wore around the neck had to fit tightly, and were sometimes made too tight so as to make the blood go into the soldier's face and make him look hale and hearty, even if he hadn't been eating properly.


Soldiers had to wear uniforms sometimes designed by people who had no idea what a battlefield was like (King George IV, I'm looking at you). The uniforms were impractical, binding, difficult to maintain and expensive. But they looked good, and that was all that mattered.

As Billy Crystal's Fernando Lamas character says, "It is better to look good than to feel good."

It's clear, from history, that this kind of restrictive insistence on proper attire worked to keep the Army intact and submissive. Of course it chafes at our notions of freedoms as well.

How about you? Have you ever had to wear a uniform? Follow a dress code? Did it make you feel more official? Did you hate it? Did you like not having to worry about choosing what to wear?

Megan

Corners of a foreign field

Today I'm talking about the ordinary soldiers, the kids who signed up for the king's shilling out of patriotism, were fooled by unscrupulous recruiters, or because they had so few options. And they were kids--for the most part under twenty. Here's a typical story of how a Waterloo veteran came to join the army a few years after his father was deported to Australia for sheep-stealing, when he found himself the head of the family at age fifteen.

One in four soldiers died that June day in 1815. Waterloo was an unusual battle because it was the bloodiest so far in British history; it was also unusual in that all survivors, of whatever rank, were awarded a medal.

There were no war memorials with the names of the fallen, however humble, erected in villages or town squares, although this memorial, composed of the battlefield dirt itself, was raised at the site in Belgium. Locals claim it's haunted and full of bones, and they may be right. Ordinary soldiers didn't count; as far as war reports went, they were anonymous, only numbers. Their corpses were raided by war profiteers for teeth--for years after, false teeth were known as "Wellington teeth."

It's heartbreaking to think of the families waiting and as time passed, realizing that their son, brother, or father had been killed. They might not even be lucky enough to receive a letter, such as this one from Private Charles Stanley to a friend in Nottinghamshire, describing the everyday life of a soldier. Almost certainly, they'd never know the circumstances of their loved one's death.

We have one gud thing Cheap that is Tobaco and Everrything a-Cordnley Tobaco is 4d Per 1b Gin is 1s 8d Per Galland that is 2 1/2 Per Quart and Everrything In Perposion hour alounse Per Day is One Pound of Beef a Pound and half of Bred half a Pint o Gin But the worst of all we dont get it Regeler and If we dont get it the Day it is due we Luse it wish It is ofton the Case...I hope you never will think Of Being a Soldier I Asure you it is a Verry Ruf Consarn...



You can read more of his letter at militaryheritage.com. Private Stanley was one of the many who didn't come home.

Here's an excerpt from the brilliant movie History Boys, where a poem about a young soldier who dies far from home, Drummer Hodge by Thomas Hardy, is discussed.




And here's the poem:

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined--just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around;
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the Drummer never knew--
Fresh from his Wessex home--
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge forever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellation reign
His stars eternally.

Waterloo on film

Hi, it's me again, hoping I did as good a job being Cara yesterday as Cara did being Diane. :) Today, the actual anniversary of the battle, I'm going to talk about documentaries and films of Waterloo you might want to watch for research and/or to commemorate the event.

Like many of you, I like visuals. When reading about battles, I find myself frequently flipping to the maps as I try to visualize who attacked from which direction, etc... So I got onto Netflix and ordered the documentary 1815: THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. At only about an hour long, it is limited in its coverage but it does provide basic descriptions of the roles of infantry, cavalry and artillery, some football-play-style depictions of the movements of armies with arrows and such, and footage from the 1970 epic film below to provide some pretty realistic scenes of cavalry charges, etc... If you want to understand the battle but have trouble picturing what is happening just from text, this is a good starting place.

Next I watched the 1970 epic, WATERLOO, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, with Rod Steiger playing Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington. It was a box office flop; I suspect that it was not enough of a documentary for military history buffs and not enough of a drama for general audiences. Being as I enjoy a mix of both, I thought it quite good. The main characters were well-cast (yes, Christopher Plummer did bring up memories of Captain von Trapp but the Captain and the Duke do have a lot in common). I am not enough of an expert to comment on the accuracy of the battle scenes, but the scale was convincing. 20,000 men from a Russian army division were used to portray the massed armies. Cavalry and artillery were both depicted on a grand scale. Aerial shots are helpful to anyone who might have difficulty picturing infantry squares. Overall, I recommend it.

(One warning. The version I rented was produced in China and the subtitles were written by someone with little knowledge of English and less of the battle. "Quatre Bras" becomes "Catilba", "Picton" becomes "Prekton" and in one memorable line of dialogue, Bonaparte says that Wellington has "bred to death." And you can't even turn the subtitles off. If you rent this version, I recommend sticking something across the bottom of the screen so you won't be distracted by the sheer awfulness.)

As for SHARPE'S WATERLOO, well, I love Richard Sharpe and I love Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, but this film is painfully unconvincing as a depiction of Waterloo. Throughout the series, battle scenes suffered from being low budget and this one is worse than the others. Although much of the action is centered around the defense of the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte, which can be depicted with a more modest cast, there are still many scenes that suffer from a sheer inadequacy of scale. If you enjoy the series and its characters, by all means catch this film. Just don't expect it to give you a real flavor of the battle.

Have any of you seen these movies and if so, what did you think? If you've seen other films or documentaries of Waterloo, please share!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Waterloo in Print

Hello! Since Cara was Diane yesterday, I suppose I am being Cara today (though sadly without a Trusty Todd). I'm going to share some of the sources I've used while researching my current hero's backstory. Please bear in mind that though I may call myself a History Geek (and certainly know more than the average person in the street), my knowledge of the battle is still evolving.

I began my research with WATERLOO: NEW PERSPECTIVES by David Hamilton-Williams. This book is immensely detailed and to the best of my knowledge, correct and scholarly; it is also very Napoleon-friendly. For instance, there are frequent references to Napoleon being "betrayed" by both his enemies and his officers and little or no mention of the physical ailments mentioned in other sources that might have impaired his abilities on the fateful day. Though I found it excellent and detailed, I found it off-putting that it treated the events more as a tragedy for Napoleon than for the tens of thousands who were killed or wounded and their families.

The next book I read had a different focus. WATERLOO: DAY OF BATTLE by David Howarth, provides an overview of the events, but places the emphasis on the experience of individual officers and soldiers, whose stories (for Waterloo is not one story but many) are traced through the battle and its aftermath. It draws heavily on firsthand accounts of the battle written by participants on both sides, is eminently readable, and may have you crying at points. (I did.) If you want to read just one book about Waterloo, this should be the one.

Some of my favorite references on Waterloo are firsthand accounts: letters, journals, memoirs. Beyond all the amazing details one cannot find in regular histories, I love the insights these accounts of Waterloo provide into the minds and hearts of those who fought there. Here are some quotes from ones I've read so far (there are many more on my TBR list).

From THE WHEATLEY DIARY by Edmund Wheatley:

"I concluded that you, my Dearest Eliza, you, whom I always regretted, I was certain was asleep innocent and placid. The pillow that supported you was unconscious of its lovely burthen. But the breast, then cold and chilled with the prospect of approaching dissolution, felt that morning one or two warm sensations. It is an awful situation to be in, to stand with a sharp edged instrument at one's side, waiting for the signal to drag it out of its peaceful innocent house to snap the thread of existence of those we never saw, never spoke to, never offended."

Wheatley fought in the King's German Legion and participated in an ill-fated advance ordered by the Prince of Orange in a fit of idiotic stubbornness. The KGL, formed in line rather than square, were hacked apart by French cavalry; Wheatley's commander, Colonel Ompteda, was killed; Wheatley himself was injured, taken prisoner and treated brutally by French before he managed to escape.

From ADVENTURES IN THE RIFLE BRIGADE by Sir John Kincaid:

"[Sir James Kempt] called to me by name, where I happened to be standing on the right of our battalion, and desired 'that I should never quit that spot.' I told him that he might depend upon it: and in another instant I found myself in a fair way of keeping my promise more religiously than I intended; for, glancing my eye to the right, I saw the next field covered with the cuirassiers, some of whom were making directly for the gap in the hedge where I was standing. I had not hitherto drawn my sword, as it was generally to be had at a moment's warning: but, from its having been exposed to the last night's rain, it had now got rusted in the scabbard, and refused to come forth! I was in a precious scrape!"

"I had never yet heard of a battle in which everybody was killed; but this seemed likely to be an exception, as all were going by turns."

"The usual salutation on meeting an acquaintance of another regiment after an action was to ask who had been hit? but on this occasion it was, 'Who's alive?'"

Kincaid survived the battle without injury but wrote that it was "the last, the greatest, and the most uncomfortable heap of glory that I ever had a hand in".

From A BRITISH RIFLE MAN, by George Simmons:

"I had an impression I should not be touched, and was laughing and joking with a young officer about half-past four in the afternoon. At this time I was a little in front of our line, and hearing the word charge, I looked back at our line, and received a ball, which broke two of my ribs near the backbone, went through my liver, and lodged in my breast. I fell senseless in the mud, and some minutes after found our fellows and the enemy hotly engaged near me."

Simmons had to ride twelve miles to get back to Brussels and the house where he'd been billeted earlier. His life hung in the balance for a time and he worried mightily about his large family, to whom he'd been sending a good portion of his modest earnings. But he was nursed carefully and ultimately made a recovery.

Later Kincaid gives this account of his fellow officers post-Waterloo.

"Beckwith with a cork leg; Pemberton and Manners each with a shot in the knee, making them as stiff as the other's tree on; Loftus Gray with a gash in the lip and minus a portion of one heel, which made him march to the tune of dot and go one; Johnston, in addition to other shot-holes, with a stiff elbow, which deprived him of the power of disturbing his friends as a scratcher of Scotch reels on his violin; Percival with a shot through his lungs; Hope with a grape-shot lacerated leg, and George Simmons with his riddled body held together by a pair of stays, for his was no holy day waist which naturally required such an appendage lest the burst of a sigh should snap it asunder, but one that appertained to a figure framed in nature's fittest mould to 'brave the battle and the breeze!'"

I hope you found this interesting. Do you have any favorite Waterloo references to share?

Tomorrow I will blog again (as Elena this time!) on films dealing with Waterloo.

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

How Captain Stanton Came to Be

I don't know much about the Battle of Waterloo (every Regency I've written has been set earlier, so I've never bothered to study it much). So as my part of the Risky Regencies Waterloo week, my post today will talk about the evolution of my cavalry hero in MY LADY GAMESTER -- what choices I faced in creating him, and how I worked to weave my research into the story.

I decided early in the planning of this novel that my hero (Lord Stoke, once known as Captain Stanton) was to be an ex-military man. And yes, this concept is quite common in Regency romances -- the hero a younger son, career military, who never expected to inherit the title -- but this concept is used a lot because it works so well. Talk about conflict! You have a man who is not what he appears to be; you have a fish out of water; you have a man with different priorities, values and tastes than many of the folks now around him.

After deciding Lord Stoke had been an army man (as navy didn't fit his backstory), I quickly decided he had to be cavalry, as horses would be one of the things that drew him and the heroine together (and also created major problems.)

So then it was: what kind of cavalry? I read a bunch of Haythornthwaite books (some pictured here) and talked to my Trusty Todd (patent pending), and concluded that light cavalry seemed to do more fun things and have a better reputation for usefulness at this point than heavy cavalry, and heavy horses wouldn't work anyway -- so light cavalry it was.

Next decision: the year, and the hero's military past.

I needed the Napoleonic Wars to still be going on (poor Stoke, away from the fighting and feeling useless!), but I also needed for a cavalryman who had sold out a year before to have been in the field for several years, and taken part in a few major battles in which light cavalry were involved, and in which there had been a fair number of casualties.

I concluded that Talavera (July 1809, which used two light cavalry brigades) would work for the major battle in which Stoke's best friend, the redheaded scamp Basty, was wounded...and Albuera (May 1811, one light cavalry battalion) would be suitable for the battle in which poor Basty finally died. So the year of my novel became 1812.

I then studied up on Talavera and Albuera, and also lots of general cavalry and army stuff (their weapons, their tactics, how they trained their men and horses -- that sort of thing.)

And of course, all along, Trusty Todd was at hand to help clarify the differences between a musket, a carbine, and a pistol, to explain what exactly happened when a firearm "misfired" (and to remind me frequently that the Armies of Wellington were kept up the Sleevies of Wellington...)

The final hurdle, of course, was writing the scenes in which Stoke explained the battles and their personal significance to my heroine...trying to be clear and correct without boring the reader in the least. Ah, yes, the simple joys of authorhood.

And the end result? See what you think: here's part of the section in which Stoke tells Atalanta what happened at Talavera:

The memories were perfectly clear. “We were in the middle of a charge, but something had gone wrong. I think the scouts had been misled as to the enemy’s strength. Hard to tell.”

He paused, seeing the smoke and mud all about. “Their artillery had taken a hard toll on us--we didn’t realize how much until after it was all over. But it was obvious that we were disorganized. Sebastian was to my right, on Minerva. We hit the French cavalry hard.”

He shook his head. “It’s impossible to describe what it’s like, being in the middle of a battle. You can rarely see more than what’s right in front of you. You have a saber slashing down at you, and if you’re lucky, you get there first, or deflect it. Then you strike back, fast. If you succeed, there’s already another horse upon you, another saber, or occasionally a pistol pointed at your chest.”

He stared up into the peaceful trees. “All you can hear is the shouting at a charge, the guns, the artillery. The screaming. And there’s smoke all over. It gets in your nose, in your eyes. Dirt, mud. Blood. Horses falling all around.”

But this wasn’t what he’d meant to say. “On top of everything, it was foggy that day. It looked like the plains of hell. Out of nowhere came a French dragoon, his sword covered with blood. He slashed Sebastian before I could shout a warning.”

She gave a distressed cry. “Was he all right?”

He rubbed at the tension in his forehead. “A saber in the face is never a pretty sight. God knows, we disfigured plenty of French, so it was no surprise. But he was all right, yes. Thanks to his mount.”

And...that's my story!

So...what Regencies have you read where you thought the military stuff was done particularly well?

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER, a more poetic title than MY LORD DRAGOON

Boys and their Toys

When the Riskies asked me to guest blog during their Waterloo Week, I was excited. There were so many things I could write about.

I could write about the events of the battle, and its impact on world history.

I could write about the nature of Napoleonic combat--the three arms of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and the weapons they used; how those weapons affected the tactics of the battle; how Marshal Ney's attacks illustrated the imperviousness of infantry squares to cavalry, and how the defeat of the Imperial Guard demonstrated the superiority of line over column.


I could write about the decisions that were made, how Napoleon might have won the battle, and what the likely consequences would have been.

But then a sobering thought occurred. In a rare moment of self-reflection, I suddenly wondered: "Why do I know about this stuff?!"

I mean, I'm a peaceable guy. I've never served in the military. I've never used a weapon in anger. I'm not a historian, or a historical novelist. Heck, I don't even play one on TV. And yet I've done many, many hours of research, read countless books, visited innumerable museums. Why? Just for fun? Am I a mutant, or what?

No, I'm not a mutant. The truth is much worse than that: I'm a guy. And what's more, I'm not alone in this. The world is filled with guys. And we guys, insofar as we like to read at all, like to read about war, weapons, and general mayhem.


That explains those men who spend a fortune on period costumes and weapons and drive hundreds of miles to line up in the hot sun and recreate important battles of history.



It explains the wargamers who argue for hours about the relative merits of chain mail versus plate armor, and whether or not a halberd is a purely offensive weapon.

It explains why a quick glance at my bookshelves turned up 102 books on military history, books on dueling, drill manuals and period fencing books. And it explains why I have precise knowledge of how to load and fire a flintlock musket, of the differences between smallswords and spadroons, and of the different kinds of shot used in a man-of-war, but only the vaguest idea of how to change the oil in my car.









Why this fascination? Is it in our genes, inherited from our primitive, warlike ancestors, who fought for recognition, territory, and to pick up chicks (perhaps literally)?

Is it the appeal of military virtues like courage, discipline, duty, camaraderie, and honor?



Is it the fancy uniforms, the deadly weapons, the glittering array, and the idea that somehow these will help us to pick up chicks?



Or is it the very horror of the battlefield--the closest thing mankind (and I do mean mankind) has devised to hell on earth? Sometimes a thing is so terrible that it is hard to look away even at hundreds of years' remove.

The truth is, I don't know why I'm fascinated, but I am. I don't watch football. I don't drink beer. I don't do stupidly risky things to impress girls (at least, not anymore). I like fluffy kittens, and Notting Hill is one of my favorite movies. Be that as it may, I'm still a guy. I quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War, and I flip to The History Channel to look for reruns of Conquest and Mail Call (which could equally be called Male Call). And the story of Waterloo grips me: the bravery, the excitement, the terror, the discipline, the suffering, and the death. It brought in a new era then lasted nearly a hundred years, finally ending on another battlefield in Belgium. It's war; and, like it or not, it's part of who we are.

Todd-who-also-knows-how-to-row-a-trireme-and-couch-a-lance

"There was never such a ball"

"The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton" --Duke of Wellington

"Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there" --George Orwell


Today here at Risky Regencies we're kicking off Waterloo Week! Be sure and visit every day for historical information on the battle itself, life in the Regency-era military, and weaving all that research into characters and plots.

My topic today is the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball, held on the night of June 15, 1815 (193 years ago tomorrow) in a huge old carriage-house on the property of the Richmonds' Brussels house in the Rue de la Blanchisserie. (The Duke of Richmond was in command of a reserve force in Brussels, charged with protecting the city in case Napoleon invaded). But lest you think everyone was partying in rustic decor, with carriage wheels and horses everywhere, the space was done up in grand style indeed. There were flowers and greenery wreathing all the pillars, and hangings of red, gold, and black draped on the walls. Thackeray, who later used the ball in a pivotal scene in Vanity Fair, declared it "perfectly delightful...with few nobodies present." Caroline Lamb wrote, "There was never such a ball--so fine and so sad."

The people who were "not nobodies" in attendance included the Prince of Orange (later King William II of Holland), the Duke of Brunswick (who died the next day at Quatre Bras), the Prince of Nassau, several earls including Conyngham, Uxbridge (commander of the British cavalry, who famously lost his leg), Portalington, and March. There were 22 colonels, sixteen comtes and comtesses, and many English peers. There were 224 invitees in all, though only 55 were women, so I doubt there were any wallflowers that night! (For a list of all invitations, you can go here).

It was at this ball that Wellington learned Napoleon had crossed the border and was on the march. He had assumed Napoleon would advance on Brussels via Mons rather than the more direct Charleroi route, and received word that he was wrong about this during supper. The Richmonds' daughter, Lady Georgiana Lennox (later Lady De Ros) recalled that "The news was circulated directly, and while some of the officers hurried away, others remained at the ball, and actually had no time to change, but fought in evening costume." 72 hours later, more than 4 in 10 of those officers were wounded or dead.

Lady De Ros later wrote a great deal about this ball and the events that followed. She said, "My mother's now famous ball took place in a large room on the left of the entrance, connected with the rest of the house by an ante-room. When the Duke of Wellington arrived, rather late, I was dancing, but at once went up to him to ask about the rumours. He said very gravely, 'Yes, they are true; we are off tomorrow.' It was a dreadful evening, taking leave of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen again. I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a dashing merry youth, full of military ardor, whom I knew very well for his delight at the idea of going into action, and of all the honors he was to gain; and the first news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were killed."

(Perhaps young Lady Georgiana wore a gown like this one, said to have been made for the Richmond ball! See a page about its restoration here).

I've always thought that this ball (and the subsequent events) would make a terrific centerpiece for a story. It's a romantic, tragic setting, full of desperate merriment and the terrible sense of time growing short. Even as the champagne flows and everyone dances, there's an edge of deep, deep sadness.

For more information, I love the books The Duchess of Richmond's Ball by David Miller, and Dancing Into Battle: A Social History of the Battle of Waterloo by Nick Foulkes. (And then there's always Sharpe's Waterloo...)

I also love the first stanza of Byron's poem The Eve of Waterloo:

"There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell;
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!"

I hope you enjoy our Waterloo Week! What do you think of the Richmond ball in a romance? Would it be romantic--or just too sad?

Great Heroes Aren't Always Nice

Oh, geez. Friday already?

Last week, I talked about great book beginnings. I've since changed mine to this:

“If you don’t get your stinkin’ farmer’s hands off me, I will rip your head off and feed it to your pigs.”

Spoken by the hero, of course, a sharp(e)-tempered man bent on revenge. I've now got three chapters under my belt, and I have to write the synopsis. Ugh.

To inspire my writing, I've started reading Sharpe's Havoc, a Richard Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell set in Portugal in 1809 (Elena posted about Sharpe in India, too, if you wanna read more about him).

I don't know if any author as skilfully embeds history within exciting action; sure, Cornwell takes liberties with some aspects of the Napoleonic Wars, but in general he gives you the feeling of what it must have been like to be there. Awesome, awesome writing and a super-compelling hero (Cornwell's site, www.bernardcornwell.net, is great for more insight into his most famous character. I would say 'memorable,' but I also really liked Thomas of Hookton in the Grail Chronicles).

And inbetween all this "research" (did I mention I got some of the Sharpe miniseries from the library? Yeah, pure research, baby), I've been watching ladies win on Top Chef and Celtics win in Los Angeles. Plus getting back to the gym for the first time in 2 1/2 months.

Which is why I am late, and aghast it is Friday.

So I have very little to offer here, except that it is finally cooling off some, I cannot wait to see the Incredible Hulk, freaking out that my son gets out of school for the summer in a week and a half, that National is next month (!), and that I am finally writing fresh stuff again.

In other words, life is good, and I am dull. So let's talk about you, instead.

What are you doing this summer?

Eva S, let's try again!

Hi, Eva!

We have not forgotten you and we still want to get you your copy of La Petite Four by Regina Scott. Unfortunately, your emails have still not made it through.

We did notice that there was an Eva from Finland who won from us once before. If you are the same Eva and haven't moved, please let us know and we'll just use the same address.

If not, we have several suggestions:

1) If you feel comfortable doing so, just put your address in a comment to this post.

2) If not, you could try sending it to any or all of these addresses:

riskies@yahoo.com
ammcabe7551@yahoo.com
caraking1@yahoo.com
egreene@stny.rr.com

Also, we are not techies here, but we suspect that maybe something along the way thinks your emails are spam. Try putting "La Petite Four" in the subject header and avoiding any words like "contest" or "winner" since those words are sometimes associated with spam. If these things don't work, you may wish to check with your service provider.

We are sorry this is taking so long and sincerely hope this works!

Elena and the Riskies

Summer Yum

I blogged yesterday over at The Spiced Tea Party about dealing with the heat. I live near Washington DC where every year, when the temperatures spike into the upper, and very humid, 90s we assure each other, and unlucky visitors, that it never normally does this here. Right.

So I thought I'd talk today about the joys of Regency summer living. Ice cream certainly wasn't invented in the Regency, but it was very popular among those who could afford it--visit historicfood.com to check out recipes for this gorgeous collection of ice creams and water ices: in the back, royal cream ice, chocolate cream ice, burnt filbert cream ice and parmesan cream ice; in front, bergamot water ice and punch water ice. I'm guessing that the parmesan cream ice (and some of the others, too) must have been served as a savory accompaniment, to be expected when each remove would include items that nowadays we'd consider being strictly dessert.

Big question--were ice cream cones used in the Regency? According to this illustration from 1807, and article at historicfood.com, they were.

The great houses made sure they would have plenty of ice by constructing an ice house--this is the interior of a brick-built Georgian ice house at Parlington Hall, Yorkshire, which measures a mighty 16 ft. in diameter and around 20 ft. deep.

Ice would be cut from local lakes or imported from countries such as Norway, and insulated with straw. The actual igloo-like design of the ice house, and its position in a shady spot on the grounds would aid in keeping the ice cool.

As for cool drinks, spruce beer was always a favorite. Made from spruce buds, its flavor could cover a whole range from citrus to pine--or possibly not. exoticsoda.com bravely tested a modern brand and came to this conclusion:

If ever offered a bottle, save yourself the trouble and drink some paint thinner. It will taste the same, but you can wash your brushes with the remaining thinner you don't drink. Spruce Beer would probably melt the bristles off. But it's not all bad ...there is a sweet buffer that does keep you from projectile vomiting.

Lemon barley water was a favorite, too, first manufactured by Robinson and Belville in 1823 in powder form, to be mixed with water to cure kidney complaints and fevers. It also aids in lactation, should you have the need, and Robinson's lemon barley water is still the official drink of Wimbledon for players (although presumably not for that reason). Here's a modern recipe from cuisine.com.

As for lemonade itself, here is a recipe from the seventeenth century from coquinaria.nl, and Mrs. Beetons', from the 1830s, at thefoody.com.

I also looked around for some ginger beer recipes--ginger was readily available as it was a subsidiary crop in the sugar-producing islands and found this one at allrecipes.com which claims to date back to the Tudor era.

What are your favorite summer drinks or ice cream flavors? Have you ever made any yourself? Do you have any favorite historic food sites?

Bears

The last few weeks our neighborhood has enjoyed visits by a number of black bears, including a mother with three cubs. Here they are in the back yard of a friend who lives two houses down. Aren't they cute!


Of course, my next door neighbors have taken in their bird feeders (which may have been what attracted the bears) and we're all being careful about sending our kids out to play right now, but no one is seriously worried. Under normal circumstances, black bears aren't aggressive. My family and I have had a few encounters with them while camping and each time they shambled away from us. Though obviously a mother with cubs should always be treated with caution!

There haven't been any wild bears in England since the Middle Ages. However, Regency folk might have seen captive bears in menageries or at various events. Bear baiting (tormenting a chained bear with dogs, etc...) was waning in popularity by the Regency. Many people had recognized by then what a degrading sport it was, however it was not made illegal until 1835.

Regency folk might also have seen performing bears at fairs and such. Given that handlers were unlikely to be treated the bears in anything approaching a humane manner, I doubt it would have been entertaining to anyone like our heroes and heroines.

I don't think I've read anything about bears in a Regency. One could perhaps imagine a hero or heroine freeing an abused bear, but that really could be way too Disney (there was just such a scene in the Pocahontas sequel). Though it could be amusing to picture the havoc caused by a bear running loose in some genteel locale, sadly I doubt it would end well for the poor bear.

I'm much happier just continuing to watch our woods for deer, wild turkeys and possibly more glimpses of these black bears (at a safe distance).

Have you had any interesting experiences with bears, real or fictional?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

The Rime of the Vulcan Mariner

THE RIME OF THE VULCAN MARINER

Or, if Coleridge wrote Star Trek...

It is a space-age mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy verdant skin and too-sharp ears,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

The star bar's doors are opened wide,
And I'm expected in;
My skirt is small, my hair is tall,
And Kirk will buy me gin."

He holds her with his skinny hand,
"The Enterprise--" quoth he.
"Hold off! unhand me, blue-shirt loon!"
But Spock cannot agree.

He holds her with his mental meld--
The busty babe stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Vulcan hath her will.

With Captain Kirk forgotten now,
She listens full of fear;
And thus spake on with logic cool,
The man with pointy ear.

"The ship was cleared, no Klingon feared,
Steadily did we warp
Beyond the Earth, beyond the moon,
Beyond Tau Ceti Four.

"A temporal anomaly
Is quite a sight to see!
It shines so bright, that time's not right
And muons all go free."

to be continued...if the yay votes outnumber the nay...

Cara
Cara King, author of My Lady Gamester (which would have been the first ever Regency Romance Epic Poem had the copyeditor only gone on vacation when she promised she would)

Inspirational Quotations

On my google page I collect Quote of the Day and in my email, a Daily Inspirational quote.


Because I'm still nose to grindstone with my manuscript-due-June 16, I went looking for some inspirational quotations about writing to get me through. (Yes yes I do realize that by doing this my nose has strayed from the grindstone)


Here are some Writing Quotations I found (Diane comments are in red):

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith (a vein??)

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler (More blood?)

So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. ~Harold Acton, Memoirs of an Aesthete, 1948 (Do you mean if I write, I might be wrecking some paper?)

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. ~Charles Peguy (These quotes are not exactly inspiring me...)

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself. ~Franz Kafka (Okay. Now I'm depressed)

Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller (Aw, thanks, Joe. That's reassuring)

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life. ~James Norman Hall (I know! I know!)

There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. ~William Makepeace Thackeray (This is more like it)

Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn't we? ~Audra Foveo-Alba (I've been asking myself this very question)

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth (Sigh!)

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov (I'm reassured)

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov (This is what I aspire to do!)

As to the adjective, when in doubt, strike it out. ~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894 (Um...isn't this contradicting Chekhov?)

When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.
~Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (Oh)

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard, "Diary," February 1895 (That's the ticket!)

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well. THomas Jefferson (oh oh. Now we're getting into mechanics)

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space. ~Orson Scott Card (What's a metaphor?)

A metaphor is like a simile. ~Author Unknown (Oh)

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain (But what if you can't think of lightning, because lightning bug is stuck in your mind...)

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián (Isn't it, though!)

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure. ~Henry David Thoreau (Yipes)

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
~William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing" (Uh...very helpful, Bill)

The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson (Yeah!)

Writer's block is a disease for which there is no cure, only respite. ~Laurie Wordholt (I'm starting to get nervous again)

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener (Me, too, Jimmy)

Writing comes more easily if you have something to say. ~Sholem Asch (Ain't that the truth!)

The ablest writer is only a gardener first, and then a cook... ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827 (Haven't I told you before that I am so-not-a-cook? I'm even worse at gardening)

My language is the common prostitute that I turn into a virgin. ~Karl Kraus (Karl, there is no need to get crude)

It is impossible to discourage the real writers - they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write. ~Sinclair Lewis
(That's me! I'm going to write.)

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart... William Wordsworth
(Ah, now this is inspiration!)

Writing only leads to more writing. ~ Colette
(one can hope!)

Whew!
Tell us your favorite writing quote!

Come visit my website for a Sneak Peek of Scandalizing the Ton, my October 2008 release. Enter my contest, too!

Clothes Make the Man (or Woman)

I've been thinking about clothes this week. Okay, I know I always think about clothes! I subscribe to far too many fashion magazines, and shop more than I should. But this week even more than usual. There were wedding clothes (for my brother's wedding, see pics here, plus one I'm attending this afternoon). There was the Horrifying Revelation that a gown Sarah Jessica Parker wore to one of the 450 Sex and the City premiers had (gasp!!!) been worn before. And I was sick for a few days, and laid on the couch watching recordings of Gossip Girl reruns.

Gossip Girl was my newest TV obsession last season. Twisted storylines, snappy writing, sex and drugs (in limos!), revenge through dinner reservations. Despite the disappointingly weak season finale, this is television gold! And what I like best is the fashion, and how it's used to help define characters. With glamorous events like cotillion balls, masquerades, and, y'know, going to school, every week is a couture wonderland. Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel! Chuck Bass and his dumb "signature scarf"! Headbands galore! What could be better??


June 7 also marks a milestone for 2 historical figures who knew the power of fashion, and how to use it to get their point across.

Beau Brummell was born on June 7, 1778, and for a time during the Regency his opinion on style and wit held highest sway in Society--until gambling and extravagance, along with quarrels with former BFF the Prince Regent, led to his downfall. He ended up bankrupt and syphilitic, and what's worse dirty and slovenly, wandering around France. But his style holds sway in menswear to this day. As Byron purportedly said, there was nothing much remarkable about his fashion except "a certain exquisite propriety."

He established a mode of understated, dark-colored, perfectly fitted and cut clothes, along with an impeccable crisp white cravat. He also emphasized daily bathing, shaving, and tooth-cleaning. It was said he took 5 hours to dress. Would he approve of Chuck Bass's style of modern dandyism, with seersucker suits, bow ties, and the aforementioned scarf?

For more information, I recommend Ian Kelly's book Beau Brummell: Ultimate Man of Style. On an unrelated note, I also recommend the show Blackadder the Third, where Blackadder is a servant to Hugh Laurie's hysterical Prinny. One day Blackadder is reading the paper, with such headlines as "Beau Brummell in purple pants probe" and "King talks to tree--Phew! What a loony."

June 7 was also the day George Sand died in 1876at age 72. Her refusal to reform to gender conventions of the day led to her use of men's clothes (she said they were sturdier and cheaper, but they also enabled her to move more freely about Paris and gave her access to mostly-male venues, like restricted libraries and museums and the stalls of the theater). She also (gasp again!!) smoked in public. And had many, many lovers. And wrote 20 pages a night.

Margaret Fuller wrote, "George Sand smokes, wears male attire, wishes to be addressed as Mon frere; perhaps, if she found those who were as brothers indeed, she would not care whether she were a brother or a sister."



Of course, sometimes no clothes at all is even better...

















What have you been wearing (or watching, or thinking about) this week?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

So my new agent has the latest version of edits for my Regency-set historical, Road To Passion (the title of which she says, as others have, that she is reminded of Bob Hope. Bob Hope = Not Sexy. New Title being brainstormed now), and she will be submitting it to editors soon.

Meanwhile, I have begun Road To Desire (I know! Still Bob Hope! But that's the title in my head!), and it is so much fun to start writing NEW stuff after laboring so long over the old.

My hero this time is a low-born soldier, raised on London streets and out for revenge after returning from the wars. He's got a crazy-hot temper, is aggressive, bold, confident and super-sexy.

My heroine is an Earl's daughter, on the run from a controlling uncle and his leering son, off to find her fiance, who's just come home from the battlefield.

(Note to readers: The hero is not her fiance. Really, how boring would that be?)

Whether you're starting to write or to read a new book, the beginning is so crucial:

(Some of the) 100 Best First Lines from Novels

1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow (1973)

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

11. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard. —Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)

12. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. —Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

13. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. —Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925; trans. Breon Mitchell)

14. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. —Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler (1979; trans. William Weaver)

15. The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. —Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938)

16. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. —J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

17. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo. —James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)

18. This is the saddest story I have ever heard. —Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier (1915)

19. I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost:—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me. —Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1759–1767)

20. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. —Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850)

My first lines, as they stand now, are these:

“Get your stinking farmers’ hands off me.”

The words were spoken in a furious rumble that left no doubt as to the speaker’s feelings. His accent wasn’t the ones she was used to hearing here; he spoke much more quickly, his vowels broader than the usual Northern mumble.

What are your favorite first lines?


Megan

Winners Reminder!

Eva S, please email riskies@yahoo.com to claim your copy of La Petite Four!

And Santa, could you email me (Amanda) at amccabe7551@yahoo.com for your copy of To Taste Temptation? (It seems our email keeps bouncing yours back!)

Thanks to everyone who commented!

What makes a Regency regency?

I'm guest blogging today over at Loveisanexplodingcigar.com (don't you love that blog name?) on what makes a hot book hot--please come on over and visit. You have to register, but Riskies' readers are the smartest, so you can do it...and you could win a copy of one of my books, including the now hard-to-find Dedication, the only Signet Regency with bondage.

Pimping over, I thought I might do a complementary post today on what makes a Regency regency.

Think about it. Consider your favorite Regency reads and what makes them successful as giving a feel for the age. Which books float your boat, rock your curricle and make you think, yes, this is what it must have been like. This rings true.

And why? Or how? I entered a contest once where a judge gravely told me that I should have the characters mention Prinny and Hessian boots to give it a period feel.

I tend to like writers whose work is full of careful details (although not necessarily the Hessians and Prinny) and who can include, but go beyond, the life of the ton in London. I like dialogue that flows and characters who have real concerns, passions, and occupations. I like the history to be right but not obtrusive. I like a world that I can immerse myself in, and am sad to leave once the book is over

Off the top of my head, The Slightest Provocation by Pam Rosenthal, An Accomplished Woman by Jude Morgan, and anything by Naomi Novik (whose history is certainly right in her own worldview!).

How about you?

Sharpe in India

I have a confession to make. With the Sharpe series, I broke my own rule about reading the book before seeing the film adaptation. I started out by reading SHARPE'S RIFLES, saw the film and then just continued watching the series. Just couldn't help myself, I guess! :)

Now I'm making reparation by reading all the books, starting with the earliest. I just finished the first three which are set in India: SHARPE'S TIGER, SHARPE'S TRIUMPH and SHARPE'S FORTRESS. I just loved these books. I find the military history fascinating and Cornwell does a brilliant job recreating scenes I'd read about in WELLINGTON IN INDIA by Jac Weller. But most of all I love the character development. Sharpe starts out as an ex-thief, pretty much a knuckle-dragging, musket-toting goon with few aspirations and even fewer morals. But you also see his potential. These books show the early stages of transformation from the sort of soldier Wellington called the scum of the earth into a hero. I also enjoyed the depictions of Wellington (which felt very real to me) and the fictional character of Colonel McCandless, a mentor in Sharpe's "hero's journey", a grown-up version of Jiminy Cricket helping to keep Sharpe on the path of honor.

I also watched SHARPE'S CHALLENGE, the film in which Sharpe returns to India several years after Waterloo on a mission to find his missing buddy Sergeant Harper. Elements of the three India books were recast to fit the new time frame. For that very reason, I found the film disappointing. I missed the early character development and also didn't appreciate that they killed off Lucille to allow Sharpe this last adventure. The romantic elements were scanty, after all. I don't know why Sharpe could not have completed his mission and returned to Lucille. But that's why I'm a romance writer, I guess!

Pluses of the film: evocative views of India, another chance to see Sharpe and Harper in action and a truly horrible villain played by Toby Stephens.

Has anyone read these books or seen the film? What did you think?

And if all this talk of India and Sharpe make you feel hot for any reason, do go ahead and refresh yourselves with a visit to Candice Hern's new collection of Regency era fans. They are very lovely!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB: Clueless (1995)

Welcome to the Risky Regencies Jane Austen Movie Club!

The first Tuesday of every month, we talk about a different Jane Austen adaptation...or sometimes another movie or miniseries of particular interest to Regency fans.

This week: Clueless!

Clueless, of course, was based on Jane Austen's Emma...so we can talk about how it interprets (and diverges from) Austen's novel...or we can just talk about the movie on its own terms. As you wish!

The major credits, to aid the discussion, are as follows:

SCREENWRITER: Amy Heckerling

DIRECTOR: Amy Heckerling

CAST:

Alicia Silverstone: Cher Horowitz

Stacey Dash: Dionne

Brittany Murphy: Tai

Paul Rudd: Josh

Donald Faison: Murray

Elisa Donovan: Amber

Breckin Meyer: Travis

Jeremy Sisto: Elton

Dan Hedaya: Mel Horowitz

Wallace Shawn: Mr. Wendell Hall

Twink Caplan: Miss Toby Geist

Justin Walker: Christian

Herb Hall: Principal

Julie Brown: Ms. Stoeger


So: what did you think about what Heckerling did with the characters? With Harriet, Frank Churchill, her father? Or any of the others?

And is being a friendly stoner really the modern equivalent of being a lowly farmer? :-)

All comments welcome!

Next month we'll talk about the 1980 BBC miniseries of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, starring David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie! So please join us on July 1 -- always the first Tuesday of the month!

Cara
Cara King, who's getting two perfect kittens later today...hurrah!

An Entirely Self-Indulgent Post About Cara's New Perfect Kittens

My kittens are here!


Naturally, I'd say more, but the orange kitty has already figured out that walking on the keyboard is the MOST FUN EVER.

And as you can see from the picture, he also likes to read my Regency research books.

I wonder if E. Beresford Chancellor ever pictured the uses his book would be put to?



(Although if he had cats, I bet he did.)

Have to run now...cat eating my shoelaces!

(Actually, that was my idea...it has temporarily distracted him from the function keys...)

Cara

In Praise of the Beau Monde

Diane Report:
Still Working on it!

In my rush to get this manuscript done, I've had to dip into some quick research and, as happens in every book, The Beau Monde comes to the rescue.

Usually I have some obscure question to which I can't find the answer and I email the Beau Monde loop. Boom! the answer comes back within a day. Sometimes my question even spurs a discussion and all kinds of interesting information comes my way.

In The Vanishing Viscountess, I needed to know about coaching routes from Liverpool to Ediburgh and, voila! Delle Jacobs came to the rescue. Anke Fontaine gave me information about how they should care for the horses. Nancy Mayer and Alyssa Fontaine answered all my legal questions, for The Vanishing Viscountess as well as my October release, Scandalizing the Ton. Even Jo Beverley and Gaelen Foley helped!

With this Work-In-Progress I haven't had questions of the Beau Monde loop, but this week I needed quick answers to some fashion questions. I rediscovered the del.icio.us links compiled by Beau Monde Members (and spearheaded, I believe, by our Risky Friend, Kalen Hughes). This is a gold mine.

I wanted to see a pelisse, because I get pelisses and spencers mixed up and I didn't want to be wrong. I also had questions about corsets. Beau Monde pointed me to Kalen's website and her article, How to Undress Your Heroine.

Looking at the category "Clothing," the Beau Monde del.icio.us site had this Regency Fashion link. I especially liked it because it included the descriptions of the fashions from the period fashion magazines, including a description of a pelisse.

There is so much at the del.icio.us site; it is worth joining the Beau Monde just for that. Beau Monde also offers the Regency Realm, a "continuing compendium of references on Regency England."

This is annotated bibliography is another treasure. Need to know about the Napoleonic War? There's a list of dozens of books and other sources, each commented upon by Beau Monde members. My only regret is that even I do not own all these books!

You know another wonderful thing about The Regency Realm? It is compiled by our own Risky Elena Greene!

There's MORE. The Beau Monde gives a wonderful day-long conference the Weds before RWA each summer, with workshops to die for (e.g. Candice Hern showing her collections ), plus a Tea, a silent auction, and A Regency Soiree after the Literacy Signing. This year the conference is a joint venture with Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and it has a great schedule.

How about it? Are you ready to join yet? Or are you already a member?

If you are a member of Beau Monde, what do you like about it?

(Come visit my website for a Sneak Peek of my October release, Scandalizing the Ton, and enter my new contest.)

The Riskies Welcome Back Regina Scott!

Regina Scott's debut Regency-set YA novel, La Petite Four, is available now from Penguin Razorbill!

Riskies: Welcome back to the blog, Regina! Tell us about La Petite Four.

Regina: It's a romp of a young adult Regency about 4 friends making their debut in 1815 London, and running afoul of a handsome young lord who may have more up his sleeve than a nicely muscled arm. But why tell you when I can show you?? Here's the La Petite Four video, courtesy of the Class of 2k8, a group of 27 authors with YA or middle grade novels out this year.

Riskies: What gave you the idea for this story?

Regina: One of my traditional Regencies, A Dangerous Dalliance, featured an art teacher who is coerced into chaperoning 4 students on an Easter holiday visit to a Great House. The four students--Lady Emily Southwell, Priscilla Tate, and sisters Ariadne and Daphne Courdebas--help the teacher blossom and catch the eye of the new earl. They also solve a mystery along the way. Readers had written me asking if I would ever tell the girls' stories. When I decided to try a YA, I knew exactly which story I wanted to tell first!

Riskies: What was the research like? Did you find any unusual or unexpected facts?

Regina: Lady Emily wants to be an artist, a rather shocking pastime for the daughter of a duke. At first, I hoped she would join the Royal Academy of Arts school, but as I went deeper into research I was shocked to learn girls weren't allowed! One of the required courses involved sketching nude models, and it wasn't considered "proper" for young ladies to view nudes. Some women actually posed nude, but that's another story. Even Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, founding members of the Royal Academy, were treated differently. In a famous painting, Johann Zoffany depicted the founding members of the Academy, all standing around models. Kauffman and Moser are seen only as paintings on the wall! Of course, one of the great things about writing today is that you can sometimes address these historical issues. I created a group of aristocratic artists, men and women, who paint only for charity--The Royal Society for the Beaux Arts, and gave Emily the dream of becoming a member there instead.

Riskies: What are some of the challenges and rewards of writing for the YA market?

Regina: Today's teens are amazing! I'd barely put my toe in the water on MySpace, and I had friends everywhere, many teen reviewers with their own blogs and webpages. These are mostly girls who read voraciously, then talk eloquently about what they've read, sharing their thoughts with dozens of other teens with similar interests. I don't think I was half that organized at their age! I only hope I can do them justice in my books by writing about similar teens with dreams and spunk.

Riskies: What is "risky" about this book?

Regina: Historical YA without a paranormal elements is a risk these days. The Luxe came out recently, but it was more glitz and garters. I'm more giggles and gowns. I also stretch the boundaries of what is considered appropriate for the Regency period. I tried hard not to break the rules, but I did push them! I made them go as far as they could go to meet what my publisher thought would excite teen readers.

Riskies: Tell us about your own blog, Nineteenteen!

Regina: It's dedicated to sharing things teenagers did during the 19th century in England. Marissa Doyle and I are having so much fun! The more we share aspects of the 19th century the more we find to write about. The language of flowers, a decade-by-decade look at fashion, even the first rollercoaster! I focus on the Regency, and Marissa is more early Victorian. We both love to tell stories and share cool stuff we've found in the our research. It's been exciting to see our readership grow.

Riskies: I saw that some of the your Regencies are available at Belgrave House through their Regency Reads line! How does it feel to have them out there again?

Regina: Very gratifying! The stories are finding a whole new group of readers, and I'm enjoying hearing from them. I'm also honored to be one of the Regency Reads authors, with my books alongside those of Emily Hendrickson, Allison Lane, and Barbara Metzger. It's a great resource for Regency lovers!

Riskies: What's next for you?

Regina: I'm happily playing in this new world of YA fiction! I'm also working on a contemporary fantasy based on Native American mythology. And, of course, I'm hoping readers will want more stories like La Petite Four! I'd love to tell Priscilla's story next.