Perfumed Court

So, last week I turned in a book to Grand Central Publishing, came up with a new contract at Harlequin Historicals, am now thinking about Christmas for a new novella, and have eaten far too many Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs while sniffling as I watched the last scene of North and South over and over. I need to get motivated again, and what better way than with yummy-smelling perfumes.

One of my favorite books in the "life at Versailles" pile in my writing space (as opposed to the "life in the Elizabethan theater" pile, or "life in the Regency" pile) is Elisabeth de Feydeau's A Scented Palace. It's a biography of Marie-Antoinette's favorite perfumier, Jean-Louis Fargeon, but it's also a description of how perfumes were made in the period, how essential oils were extracted, what scents were "fashionable" at what time. It's a fascinating story, and when I visited Versailles last autumn I loved trying to imagine how these perfumes smelled.

And now I don't have to imagine any more! DSH perfumes (Dawn Spencer Hurwitz--see her fabulous website here) has a new collection called The Perfumed Court. These scents are based on Fargeon's own recipes, and made with all-natural ingredients that were available in the 18th century (except for the animalic notes like ambergris and musk, which are illegal now). When I read about these scents, I had to run out and order some samples immediately.

I didn't order all of them, just the ones that appealed to me the most. Here are the results of much rapturous sniffing and sampling! (Warning: these results are entirely amateur and individual!)

Eau de la Favourite: Based on a scent created for Madame du Barry it opens with orange and lemon flowers, very fresh, and quickly becomes a powedery iris with a hint of violet leaf (which adds smoothness), and even a hint of cognac (or at least that what it smells like to me!). This is a light, fun smell, like a summertime party.

Eau de Coquette: This was also Madame du Barry's, but unlike Favourite it's made for a winter's evening of seduction! It's very rich, opening with notes of angelica and nutmeg, then going into rose, jasmine, orange flowers, and ambergris (the faux kind).




Cyprian: This one is kind of unusual, as it's derived from a recipe for wig pomade! That sounds weird, I know, but it's suprisingly fresh and powdery, not too sweet or cloying. It opens with Bergamot and green herbs, moving into that violet (which I love), and ending with a sort of citrus-powder.








Reinette: Madame de Pompadour's perfume! The heart is a hyacinth (said to be her favorit flower), with notes of carnation and tuberose. Very floral and romantic.

Mille-fleurs bouquet: is also Pompadour's! The title says it all--lots of flowers, a huge bouquet. The opening lavender/lemon cleanness, moves into roses, vanilla, geranium leaf, violet, vetiver, and probably lots of things I can't quite make out...











Eau de Trianon: My favorite of all! I loved exploring the Trianon and its beautiful gardens, and this perfume seems to encapsulate it so well. It's a soft green/floral herbal, with notes of rose, jasmine, orris root (iris), and violet. Very summery and elegant. I think I'll buy a full bottle of this one!

I had tremendous fun imagining what the ladies who originally wore these scents would have been wearing, and where they would have been going, as they sat at their dressing tables and dabbed on their perfume from gorgeous bottles.



Who are some of your favorite historical women? What perfumes do you imagine for them? Or what's your own favorite scent? (I always like to give the heroines I'm writing their own perfumes, too!)

Lobster Salad and Champagne

I'm obsessed by food...
The reason? I'm back on my diet after months of uncontrolled eating that included jelly beans, skittles, pretzels, triskets, and whatever else I wanted to eat. The result? Gaining back all I'd lost last year and then some.

I've been reading about different kinds of diets, even though I know I'll go back to using Sparkpeople.com to count calories. I was reminded of Lord Byron making a vinegar diet all the rage. I never believed the vinegar story. I thought that was something he just made up. The following reminiscence of Samuel Rogers supported that idea:

When we sat down to dinner, I asked Byron if he would take soup ? " No ; he never took soup."—Would he take some fish ? " No ; he never took fish."— Presently I asked if he would eat some mutton ? " No ; he never ate mutton."—I then asked if he would take a glass of wine ? " No ; he never tasted wine."—It was now necessary to inquire what he did eat and drink ; and the answer was, " Nothing but hard biscuits and soda-water." Unfortunately, neither hard biscuits nor soda-water were at hand ; and he dined upon potatoes bruised down on his plate and drenched with vinegar.—My guests stayed till very late, discussing the merits of Walter Scott and Joanna Baillie.—Some days after, meeting Hobhouse, I said to him, " How long will Lord Byron persevere in his present diet ? " He replied, "Just as long as you continue to notice it."—I did not then know, what I now know to be a fact,— that Byron, after leaving my house, had gone to a Club in St. James's Street and eaten a hearty meat- supper. Reminiscences and Table-talk of Samuel Rogers

This fits perfectly with my impression of Lord Byron as being narcissistic and needing to call attention to himself.

But it turns out Byron suffered the same struggles as I'm facing. He was taller than I imagined at 5'10" and his weight fluctuated between 133 pounds, which sounds very thin (this is not like me), to 200 pounds (I'm not there yet). His battle with weight began when he entered Cambridge. In 1811 he began using cider vinegar to lose weight. Turns out Hippocrates used vinegar as a health tonic, so Byron's use of it was not original.

Throughout his life Byron alternated between severely restricted eating to gorging himself. He most certainly had an eating disorder. In 1816, when in Switzerland with the Shelleys, his diet was:

A thin slice of bread, with tea, at breakfast — a light, vegetable dinner, with a bottle or two of Seltzer water, tinged with vin de Grave, and in the evening, a cup of green tea, without milk or sugar, formed the whole of his sustenance. The pangs of hunger he appeased by privately chewing tobacco and smoking cigars.

His diet may have been a factor in his death. He experienced a "fit" which he believed could be prevented by a strict diet of toast, vegetables, and cheese. Instead it may have weakened him.

I certainly will not be following such a rigid diet. I record my eating at Sparkpeople.com and stay within their caloric guidelines.
Again.

Byron did have advice for women dieting. He said:

A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster salad and Champagne, the only true feminine and becoming viands.

Lobster salad and champagne??
I am sooo there.

This Wednesday The Unlacing of Miss Leigh, my Undone eShort Story, will be available at eHarlequin.com. Get it now!

Keira reminded me I should say that The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor will be available on eHarlequin.com on Weds, April 1. They always release a month early for mail order.

Scheduling Changes

Just a quick notice to say Amanda will now be posting on Tuesdays! Watch for even more interviews, giveaways, and special events on weekends...

And this weekend she is being slothful, eating Easter candy and watching North and South over and over.

They're Fine, But I Just Don't Care

Last weekend, my Spouse and I got sucked into watching Band of Brothers, a WWII mini-series starring Damian Lewis and a bunch of other actors who'll have you pointing at the screen going, "I know that guy! What was he in?"

When I first heard about it, I thought it would be a big hunk of cheese: Produced by Steven Spielberg, augmented by Tom Hanks, fresh on the heels of Saving Private Ryan.

Boy, was I wrong.

The characterization is amazing, the individual soldiers' stories make the history totally come alive. And you care about these people in a heart-wrenching way. You care about the characters as though you know them personally.

This week, I also saw Charlotte Gray, a movie starring Cate Blanchett and Billy Crudup about a British woman in WWII who goes to France (apparently it was WWII week at Chez Frampton). The acting was good, the story was interesting, but I just didn't care--because I didn't care that much about the characters. There wasn't that moment of connection, as there was in Band of Brothers. And this was true, even though the story was romantic, and Crudup is hawt, and the film has nearly as much war drama as BoB.


So what made the difference? I don't know, but if I could figure out just an iota of it, I would be selling books by the thousands. When you fell in love with Jane Eyre, or Scarlett O'Hara, or Elizabeth Bennet, was it because of their individual stories? I would guess not; I think it's because something the author did caused you to connect with the characters in a powerful way.

Many times lately, I've put down a book and decided not to finish it because even though the writing was good, and the story had some unresolved questions I might have been interested in finding out the answer to, I just didn't care about the characters. I didn't care if they fell in love, or resolved their conflict, or whatever. And this is true even if the writing is fine (I have a few books by fave authors I've never finished because of this).

As I am in the process of editing, I am asking myself--many times--'will someone care about these people? Have I done a good enough job of selling their distinct individuality, their passion, their specialness so readers are compelled to finish?'

Caring about the characters--or not--is my deal-breaker in terms of reading a book. Do you share that? Do you have other deal-breakers? Which characters have you cared about the most?

Thanks,

Megan

Happy birthday Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, was born on this day in 1904.

Although he published the book in 1949, his interest in mythology, particularly Native American mythology, was sparked by a visit as a kid to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden.

It's from his work that the concept of the Hero's Journey derives, something Campbell describes as

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Yes, it sounds like Tolkien, but I love it as a reality check for writing fiction, and one of the few writing books I like is Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey.

Here are a few more quotes from Campbell I thought you'd enjoy. To my very great amusement, when I followed the link to Campbell quotes, the first thing I read was:

Sensuality Redefined
The New
Push Up
Demi Bra

with an appropriate illustration, before it rearranged itself as an ad at the side of the page. Here are the real Campbell quotes:

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.

Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

Love is a friendship set to music.

I'm off fairly soon to the New England Romance Writers Let Your Imagination Take Flight conference, where I'm doing a workshop on servants, signing, hanging out with other writers, and shutting myself away to write.

Pam Rosenthal, who was nominated for a Rita (go Pam!) for The Edge of Impropriety, is having a contest--the prize, a copy of my August 2009 release A Most Lamentable Comedy. Go read an excerpt and enter now!

What are you up to? Reading, writing, nominated for a Golden Heart or Rita? Tell us!

It Was Much Easier When I Just Had To Shoot People, By Eileen Dreyer

Don't get me wrong. I'm still shooting people. I'm just doing it with dueling pistols and muskets instead of MP5s and Sig-Sauers.

My life used to be so simple. I wrote modern-day romance, romantic suspense, and straight suspense. It was fun. It was satisfying. As a trauma nurse with a forensic background, it was relatively easy to research. Call a friend who's a cop. Call a friend who's a medical examiner. (Yes, I have good friends...) And if that wasn't enough, I figured out a way to play with it. I took Police Citizen's Academy, Death Investigation Training, and FBI Citizen's Academy (site of my proudest achievement! Amid all the cop and military types, I won a blue ribbon in the MP5. I keep the medal hanging in my kitchen so my children never forget).

But for a long time, I've had this itch that SWAT training didn't satisfy. I blame it on Melinda Helfer, legendary reviewer at RT. She saw I had developed a fondness for Regency romance, and said "Eileen, you need to write a Regency!" I laughed. You see, I long ago resigned myself to the fact that I suck at research. The kind you have to wade into books to get, since anybody who knew anything about it was already dead. I was a trauma nurse--I had no idea how to work in a library!

Not only that, I was finally diagnosed with ADD (I seem to be the last to know), which means organizing all that information and picking out the pertinent bits was way beyond me. So, there I was, happily decimating the population of St. Louis in a series of suspense stories under the name Eileen Dreyer, and this idea for a trilogy of Regency-era romances came to me full-blown (thanks, Melinda!). It wouldn't leave me alone. It talked to me. The characters took shape. They demanded that attention be paid. But I kept saying, "No, no, later. I have things to do."

Funny how that can be resolved. For me, the suspense market temporarily dried up. And my new heroines, who I had dubbed The Three Graces, said, "Really what you want to learn about is Waterloo. And early 19th century undergarments!" I protested fruitlessly. "But I can't call anyone who was there! I'd have to read a book!"

And God said, "Let there be the Internet. And Wellbutrin." (Which gave me the focus to actually read non-fiction books. My new favorite is Dancing Toward Waterloo by Nick Ffolkes). Clever, isn't She? I can't tell you how much fun I'm having. History really does fascinate me. Not only that, I've become a card-carrying member of the Anachronism Club, which means I pride myself on my acquaintance with Regency mores and habits.

And, since the first book begins the night before Waterloo, I still get to decimate populations. I still get to have suspense and sex, and the absolutely accurate research that is my hallmark over in Suspenseland.

And early 19th century undergarments.

How cool is that?
You can visit Eileen's website (and learn more about her books!) here...

Jane Austen's BUFFY

And now, from the mad mind that brought you Austen Trek and Jane Austen's Batman, we have


Jane Austen's BUFFY; or, if Jane Austen had written Buffy the Vampire Slayer....


Mr. Giles turned his eyes on Miss Buffy Summers. "I can guess the subject of your reverie."

"I should imagine not."

"You are considering how insupportable it would be to pass many evenings in the presence of a vampire without being able to place a stake within his chest--and indeed I am quite of your opinion. I was never more annoyed! Their love of blood, and their eccentric dentistry--the villainy, and yet the arch dialogue of all those people! What would I give to hear your strictures on them!"

"You conjecture is totally wrong, I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a handsome vampire can bestow."

Mr. Giles immediately fixed his eyes on her face, and desired she would tell him what vampire had the credit of inspiring such reflections. Miss Summers replied with great intrepidity:

"Mr. Angel."

"Mr. Angel!" repeated the watcher. "I am all astonishment. How long has he been such a favourite?--and pray, when am I to wish you joy?"

"That is exactly the question which I expected you to ask. A watcher's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from reluctance in killing a person to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment. I knew you would be wishing me joy."

"Nay, if you are serious about it, I shall consider the matter is absolutely settled. You will be having charming relatives in Spike and Drusilla, indeed; and, of course, they will always be in Sunnydale with you."

She listened to him with perfect indifference while he chose to entertain himself in this manner; and as her composure convinced him that all was safe, his wit flowed long.

"You are aware of his much-lamented past, I am sure," said Mr. Giles. "And you must of necessity regard it with the greatest horror. To murder humans for one century, or two centuries, or three centuries, or whatever it was, above his head in blood, and alone, quite alone! What could he mean by it? It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence to chuse to remain soulless for so long--and then, at the last, to repent? And why?"

"The latter shows an affection for humans that is very pleasing," said Buffy.

"I have a excessive regard for Angel, he is really very sweet (for a vampire), and I wish with all my heart he were well settled. But with such friends as Spike and Drusilla, and with his inexplicable love for hair gel, I am afraid there is no chance of it."





Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER and eternal geek

Nicola Cornick Winners!

Catie and Anna Kathryn Lanier, you've won signed copies of Nicola's Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress! Email your info to riskies@yahoo.com

Hougoumont or Anatomy of Researching a Scene

I'm starting in on a new book, the second in my Three Soldiers Trilogy. The last book ended at Waterloo and this one begins there, in the battle itself.

The battle of Waterloo really had three parts: the fighting on the ridge; the fighting at La Haye Sainte, and the fighting at Hougoumont. La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont were farms positioned at strategic places.

So my first decision was what part of the battle to use.

Some limits were imposed by just where in the battle my hero's regiment would be, but I solved that problem. I first selected La Haye Sainte and read up on that part of the battle. The problem was, La Haye Sainte fell to the French right at the end of the battle and that didn't work for me, so I started reading about Hougoumont.

I found some very interesting sites about Hougoumont.
Project Hougoumont, which aims to restore the site
A very detailed model of Hougoumont
Summary of the whole battle
Detailed timeline of the defense of Hougoumont, including how Victor Hugo got it wrong in Les Miserables.

Still not enough....
I started pining to watch Waterloo, the epic 2 hour movie starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. I had a VCR copy but no working VCR. So I ordered the DVD.
I discovered another DVD about Waterloo, a documentary I'd seen on the History Channel. I ordered that, too (only to discover that I'd ordered it before...)

Then I hit on the idea to look on YouTube (Note to Everybody: you can find anything on YouTube). Sure enough they had clips of the movie Waterloo, enough to fill me with the sounds and sites of the battle.


I also ordered a book on Hougoumont. Hougoumont: The Key to Victory at Waterloo by Julian Paget and Derek Saunders (I always order some reference book when I start a new book)

I also poured through some of my relevant reference books on my bookshelves and braved falling over the clutter to get to them. Because they are shelved two (or three) deep, this was much like an archeological dig.

After all that I finally was able to write the opening scene of Chapter One.

Book One of my Three Soldiers Trilogy is scheduled for release in 2010, so who knows when this Book Two will come. Chances are I'll be blogging about researching this book again!

How do you go about researching a scene or a topic? Have you found any other helpful things on YouTube?



Visit Diane’s website for a sneak peek of her eShort Story, The Unlacing of Miss Leigh, and her novella, Justine and the Noble Viscount, in THE DIAMONDS OF WELBOURNE MANOR. Diane’s contest is still on, too!

Welcome Back Nicola Cornick!

Nicola Cornick rejoins the Riskies today, with tales of traveling from the Scotland of her newest release from Harlequin Historicals, Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress, to the American West! Nicola, welcome back, and tell us about Kidnapped and your latest US holiday...

It's so lovely to be back here at Risky Regencies and to be talking about books, travel, and inspiration! What better combination could there be?

So to Scotland first and I think I must be one of the luckiest people in the world because I go there every year to visit family. Under the circumstances it's surprising that I've never set a book there before because it is one of my favorite places and I love reading historical romances set in Scotland. Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress is inspired by all the places I love to visit in Wester Ross in the Highlands. The village of Applecross, which is Catriona Balfour's home at the start of the book, is a very special place, accessed by only two roads, one of which is a high mountain pass with views across the sea to the Outer Hebrides. The Gaelic name for the Applecross Peninsula is "a Chomraich," which means "The Sanctuary." The site of the old abbey at Applecross, built in AD 673 by Irish saint Maelrubha still has one of the most peaceful and inspiring atmospheres that I have ever experienced.

Further along the coast is Sheildaig, a village that was originally to raise and train sailors to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Grants were given for boats, and 2700 pounds was spent building the three main streets, which these days are neat and whitewashed and very pretty. From there the road turns inland between the high mountains of Torridon and this is the route that Catriona takes in my story as she travels to her new home in Glen Clair. The old house at Glen Clair is another place inspired by a real location--the Coulin Estate. In a spectacularly beautiful setting in the mountains, Coulin is somewhere we return to year after year. It was in the ownership of the MacKenzie family of Gairloch from the 16th century and in the Regency period the tenants suffered eviction in order to make way for sheep farming. This was of course the fate of many Highland families during the 18th and 19th centuries. These "Highland Clearances" forced many families to the coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and abroad to countries including Australia and Canada.

At Glen Clair my heroine Catriona becomes embroiled in the illegal whisky distilling business! There were many illegal stills hidden in the mountains, in caves that were away from the prying eyes of the excise men and in remote glens. The euphemistically-named "teahouse" at Coulin really did provide illegal refreshment for drovers crossing the mountains and it is still there though these days it is used as a mountain bothy rather than a place offering alcoholic beverages! Just as smuggling was condoned or even encouraged by many of the gentry in England, so many of the Scots would turn a blind eye to what was going on. Ministers of the church were even known to hide the whisky in coffins to deceive the excise men!

From Scotland to the US, and when Kidnapped arrived in the US bookstores at the beginning of March, I was thrilled to be there to see it! It's no secret I love visiting the US and this time our holiday started in San Diego with a trip to the historic waterfront, taking in the 1863 ship the Star of India and the HMS Surprise, a replica of an 18th century Royal Navy frigate that was used in the filming of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. That was my treat, and afterwards we visited the USS Midway as a treat for my dh!

Our ten-day whale-watching holiday down the coast of the Baja Peninsula and into the Sea of Cortes might not seem to have the most obvious of historical connections (though it was spectacular in itself) but I had read up on Baja history and legends and devoured the stories of pirates and buccaneers, coming back with what I hope will be a wonderful plot for my next HQN book! From Mexico we flew back to Phoenix and travelled to Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon, finally driving back to Los Angeles via the historic Route 66. On the way we stopped off in Oatman. What a place!

Oatman began over 100 years ago as mining tent camp and quickly became a flourishing gold-mining center when in 1915, two miners struck a $10 million gold find. The mining boom was short-lived. In 1921, a fire burned down many of the smaller shacks in town, and 3 years later the main mining company, United Eastern Mines, shut down operations for good. Oatman survived by catering to travellers on Route 66. But in the 1960s, when the route became I-40, Oatman almost died.

Oatman was such a fun place to visit. I'd never been to an old Western town, and I loved the tame burros roaming the streets begging for carrots and the gunfight staged by the ghostrider gunfighters! My dh loved all the photo opportunities presented by the old buildings including the Oatman Hotel, where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned and Gable allegedly played poker with the local miners!

We came home with some amazing memories and some equally spectacular photographs, and for me some inspiring story ideas. It doesn't seem to matter where I travel--seeing new sights, talking to people and reading up on the history always seems to inspire me with ideas for my writing.

What is you favorite setting for historical romances?? And which places particularly inspire you?

Info on Nicola's latest release can be found at her website! And there are still a few days left to enter Nicola and Amanda's contest while you're there...

Nicola will give away two copies of Kidnapped to lucky commenters on today's post!

Saturday Writing Stuff

Happy weekend, everyone! The sun is shining, flowers are blooming, it's spring--and I wrote The End on my WIP. It is Fug Madness on Go Fug Yourself. I have Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. Happy, happy, happy Saturday! I also have a few updates on my Amanda McCabe site here, including an excerpt from The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. And Laurel McKee's site is having its Big Debut, right here! A few tweaks still need, well, tweaking, but there's release info, historical background on Ireland in 1798, and an excerpt. Let me know what you think!

A few days ago, I took a quiz on Facebook called "What kind of writer are you?" I got the result--Jane Austen. Woo-hoo! What romance writer wouldn't love that? But then I started wondering if, in real writing life, I might owe more stylistically to the Brontes. I do love the Dramatic Moment, the Big Reveal, the whole wandering on the moors shouting things like "How can I live without my love?" type stuff.

Maybe it's because Jane Eyre was the first "classic" I ever read (except for things like Anne of Green Gables and Little Women), and wow did I love it. I've been a sucker for 19th century England (and moor-wandering) ever since. I adore the Brontes, both their books and their oddball family story.

Which seems appropriate, since in one month from today, on April 21, it will be Charlotte Bronte's birthday! Nothing like an early happy birthday. She was born April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, the third of 6 children of Patrick Bronte, clergyman, and Maria Branwell. In April 1821, the family moved to the famous parsonage at Haworth (you can see its website here), where Patrick was appointed Perpetual Curate. Maria died in September that year, leaving her five daughters and son to the indifferent care of her sister, Elizabeth Branwell (who seems to have stayed mostly in her own room!). In 1824, Charlotte and 3 of her sisters (Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, Anne being too young) went to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire (which gained infamy as the wretched Lowood School in Jane Eyre). Maria and Elizabeth died there, and Charlotte and Emily were never really healthy afterwards.

Back home at the parsonage, Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell set about chronicling their imaginary worlds of Gondal and Angria, convoluted sagas that still exist in partial manuscripts. Charlotte went on to continue her education in 1831 at Roe Head, where she wrote her first novella, The Green Dwarf (1833). She taught at the school from 1835 to 1838, taking up her first governess position in 1839. In 1842, she and Emily went to study in Brussels, at a pensionnat run by Constantin Heger and his wife Claire. After Emily departed, Charlotte's stay in Brussels took a turn into loneliness, homesickness, and a crush on the married Constantin (this time was used as inspiration for her later novels The Professor and Villette).

Back home again in Yorkshire, the three sisters published a volume of poetry in 1846, under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (the volume only sold 2 copies, but the names stuck for a while). Jane Eyre was published to much acclaim in 1847, but much sorrow was just around the corner. Branwell, rumored to be a drunk and a laudanum addict, died in September 1848. (When I dropped into the National Portrait Gallery last fall, I made a point of going to look at his portrait of the sisters which hangs there). Emily and Anne died soon after, in December 1848 and May 1849, leaving Charlotte alone with their father.

But things were not entirely bleak. After the great success of JE, Charlotte visited London occasionally, where she revealed her true identity and met other authors, including Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Gaskell (who wrote the first Charlotte Bronte biography), Thackeray, and GH Lewes. In June 1854, she married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, and soon after became pregnant. She died, along with the unborn child, on March 31, 1855, at the age of 38. She was buried in the Bronte family vault in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels at Haworth.

I have a big pile of Bronte biographies on my shelves, but some favorites are: Juliet Barker's The Brontes; Rebecca Fraser's Charlotte Bronte; Margot Peters' Charlotte Bronte, Unquiet Soul; and The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontes.

Do you love the Brontes, too? What are your favorites among their books? Anyone visited Haworth (I haven't had the chance yet, but it's high on my Travel Wish List!) Have a good Saturday, everyone...

Aagh!

How sad is it that I went to title this post, only to discover that I had already titled a post "Aagh!"

But here it is.




I am way behind on my freelance work, sprinting to catch up, which reminds me of the running classes I've just started taking. And, to get faster, we do sprints--we run all out for 100 meters, do 12 of them with short intervals inbetween, and try to keep the time consistent.

I am consistent, but today I am sprinting. Hence the disjointed and short post.

But I am doing short bursts of writing--and reading, thanks to various subway rides--and know that I will get to the end, eventually. And maybe be a little faster because of the work I've put in on the way.

So--forgive my sprinting past today, and know it is all for the greater good. Plus, I'm putting in some fun pix to distract you.

Megan, off to run again

PS: Anyone seeing Duplicity this weekend? Report back, please!

Golden? I don't think so

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;

But they weren't golden. We've been fooled!

The daffodils Wordsworth saw were not the golden daffodils that were developed half a century later but the native species narcissus pseudonarcissus aka the Lent Lily which is a paler color. They're not particularly popular today because they're, well, lackluster if you lack poetic vision and don't last well in a vase.

Daffodils became big business--and golden--in the latter half of the nineteenth century when commercial market gardening took off. The National Trust started a project in 2001 to identify historic varieties of daffodils--you can read about it here.

I find it rather appealing that the director of the project is a former International Daffodil Registrar ("... and what do you do?"). The project is conducted at Cotehele House in Cornwall where it's estimated there may be as many as 400 unidentified species of daffodils lurking in hedgerows.

Here's a US source for historic daffodils and an article on their history at Old House Gardens.com --they were introduced into England in the thirteenth century!

And have you noticed that the more you say the word daffodil the sillier it sounds?

Talking of silly names, the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset is where a courageous group of farm laborers living on starvation wages formed a trade union and were transported to serve as an example to their peers. The Tolpuddle Martyrs are still revered as champions of liberty and the trades union movement and today is the anniversary of their sentencing to seven years transportation in 1834. More at my other home away from home online at History Hoydens.

Do you have any favorite silly words or are daffodils blooming yet in your yard?

Michelle Styles Talks About Venice!

When Amanda and I first discussed me writing today's blog, I had suggested writing about some obscure 18th century music that had been recently discovered in the North East of England, but I also mentioned that I was going to Venice. Amanda kindly gave me a choice, and because Venice is Venice, you are getting Venice.

Because Carnival finished a few days before I arrived and the paving stones still were littered with confetti, I include a picture of the mannequin from the lobby of my hotel. The dress was absolutely stunning. Carnival of course died out in the early decades of the 20th century and was revived in 1979. Even the mask making had be re-learnt. It is possible to buy high-quality masks based on traditional designs, based on the Commedia dell'Arte. These are held in place either by ribbons or in the case of some traditional women's masks, by clamping a little piece with your lips. When wearing a mask, women were expected to be silent. The Venetian tradition of mass gives rise to the masquerade balls.

More than any other city, Venice still evokes the spirit of the past. To travel to Venice is to step back into another world, primarily because there are no cars. Motorboats are strictly regulated and once you are in the back streets the main noise is silence or the sound of voices. Gondolas do ply their trade, but most people walk.

One of the main differences between today's gondolas and the gondolas that Byron, Shelley, or a whole host of other Regency aristocrats would have taken is that the wooden shelter, or felze, is no longer used. It's possible to see an early 19th century gondola in the courtyard of Ca'Rezzonico, one of the few palazzos on the Grand Canal open to the public, and dedicated to the 18th century. Its double story ballroom with its painted frescoes and magnificent chandeliers is highly evocative. But I was surprised to see how much trompe l'oeil was used rather than actual plaster!

Both of the famous cafes on St. Marks's Plaza--Florian's (1720) and Quadri's (1775) has painted interiors but they only date from the 1850s. It is still possible at both cafes to get proper bittersweet hot chocolate. Personally, I preferred Quadri's, but it was a close run thing. You are served a pot of hot chocolate, a jug of warm milk, and sugar. It is up to you to make the chocolate how you want it. My husband reported that the coffee was also very good. Quadri's was known as the Austrian cafe during the occupation, and its upstairs restaurant has been serving meals since 1844.

So much of the 18th century is preserved because after Napoleon conquered the Venetian Republic in 1797, many Venetians lost their money. It was only through Canova's efforts at the peace conference that many of Venice's treasures, including the 4 horses, were returned. Some paintings were only returned in the 1970s, and the Louvre still holds a few. Unfortunately Austria did retain control of the city until 1866, when the citizens joined the new Kingdom of Italy.

Venice, because of its art, has always been an important stop on the Grand Tour. For example, most of Caneletto's paintings were bought by Englishmen. This might have something to do with the British consul at the time, Joseph Smith, also being Caneletto's agent. (As an aside for Diane, in 1717 Smith married one Catherine Tofts, who sang at Drury Lane and Haymarket before going to Venice in 1711). With its Carnival, its gaming houses (the Ridotto closed in 1774, but gaming continued in private houses, and today Venice has one of the few official casinos) and general atmosphere of frivolity because life is short, Venice exerted powerful influence on the men and women who visited it, and still does.

Michelle Styles's latest UK release is Impoverished Miss, Convenient Wife, and is set in 1813 Northumberland. Vist her website here for more details!

I'll Be Leaving Soon

Things change, people change, and time moves on.

(Unless one has a time machine. And Todd hasn't built one for me yet, though he did give a talk this week to a group of eminent physicists on the cool things one could do with a time machine! That's my trusty Todd. Who else would have the nerve to do something like that?)

But, as I said, time moves on. And I've decided that now is the time for me to move on.

I think I really need to focus on my young adult writing now, for one thing. (I'm not great with focus, and I find that cutting out distractions helps there.)

Plus, I really need to focus on my writing. That is, my work-in-progress. I love the Riskies, I love being here with all of you wonderful folks, and talking about Drury Lane and the rules of duels and the writing process and great covers and Gerard Butler and Clive Owen and Orlando Bloom and great Jane Austen (and Scarlet Pimpernel) movies...but sometimes I love it too much.

Sometimes it takes up too much of my time, and energy.

So I'll be leaving the Riskies. (Wow, it's hard to type that!)

Next week will be my final week here...and so I decided I wanted to do a humorous post next week, and give you all the heads-up and farewell today....so that next week I can sign off with a lighthearted post, if not with a light heart.

I will miss you all so much! Though I will stop by from time to time, and I may even do a guest blog every now and then...who knows? (I still owe Diane that Jane Austen's Phantom that I promised!)

As to the Jane Austen Movie Club, it will be up to the other Riskies whether or not it will continue. We were getting fewer and fewer comments on it anyway, so I think if it goes, it goes at a sensible time. We did have some great discussions!

So to my five fellow bloggers and all of you wonderful readers and commenters: thanks for all the fun, all the education and information. Thanks for your friendship and warmth and concern. Thanks for years of good times!

I'll miss you all....


Cara
Cara King, who will still try to stay Risky

Miranda Neville Winner!

Milka!
You are the Winner of Miranda Neville's debut novel, Never Resist Temptation.
Email us at riskies@yahoo.com with your snail mail address.

Congratulations!!!!

Ancestors

Because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm going to copy my friend Mary Blayney's idea and talk about interesting ancestors. Mary's family has a very interesting fellow in the the family tree, Major General Lord Blayney, whom she wrote about on History Hoydens (part 1 and part 2) and who lived during the Regency, fought against Napoleon's army, and became a prisoner of war. He even wrote a book about it, available on Google Books.

My ancestors are not so impressive, but there is one who has a good story. In 1836, My great great grandfather, Joseph Batt, brought his wife and eight of his nine children from Alscace Loraine to America. On the voyage over, there was a terrible storm and it looked as if the ship was certain to perish. My grandfather, a devout Catholic, prayed to the Virgin Mary, promising her he would build a shrine in her honor if she spared his family from the storm. The storm subsided and the family arrived safely in their new country.

Batt made good on his promise. He settled near Buffalo, New York, where his oldest son had already settled. Soon he prospered. He built a chapel on his land, just as he'd promised. The chapel still stands today: Our Lady Help of Christians in Cheektowaga, NY.

The Chapel has been rebuilt a few times, but a painting of Our Lady looking down on the ship still hangs above the altar.

I wish I could say I visited this chapel, but I haven't. I did not even know about it until I was well into adulthood. Although when I was growing up my family often visited our Buffalo relatives, I've been there rarely as an adult and my unsentimental family just never talked about or visited this wonderful place.

How about you? Do you have any interesting stories of ancestors?

Only a little more than two weeks before the release of The Unlacing of Miss Leigh. Also on April 1, you can get The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor from eharlequin. Check my website that day for the links.