Celebration of Movies!!!

Did you watch the Academy Awards?

I really loved the show, mostly because Colin Firth and The King's Speech won. Yippee!!! Wasn't Colin Firth just so witty and charming? And handsome.

What did you think of Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts? I thought Anne was beautiful and I loved her changes of clothing, but I'll leave the fashion assessment to Amanda.

I also thought James Franco had the most amazing smile. It totally transforms his face. He intrigues me, because in addition to being an Academy Award nominee for Best Actor, he's a Yale Ph.D. student, and he really does seem to put his schoolwork above everything else.

This weekend I'm thinking about movies a lot. I spent the weekend at Inn Boonsboro, the boutique hotel that Nora Roberts renovated in her home town. Fifteen of my Washington Romance Writer friends filled the Inn for an informal writers weekend. More on that experience in my Thursday Blog.

One of the things we did was to watch the movie Die Hard and discuss its "Seven Anchor Scenes," Lani Diane Rich's concept about plotting. The seven anchor scenes are those where a turning point occur and the main character makes a decision that furthers his story arc.

I don't know about seven anchor scenes, but it was fun to discuss the movie as we were watching it. Lots of fun.

While watching the Academy Awards it occurred to me that what movies and books have in common is that, in order for us to like them, they must have interesting characters undergoing some sort of transformation. When we use movie plot structure to help us plot our books (as we were when we watched Die Hard), we should also look to movies to see how they build characters we care about.

Take Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy....I think why we all love his Mr. Darcy was revealed in his face. Jane Austen didn't write from the male point of view, so in the book, we only know Darcy from his descriptions and his dialogue. Firth gave us so much more in his interpretation of the character.

And in The King's Speech, he "showed" us King George VI's emotional and physical struggle in such a realistic way that we fell in love with the character. But it was because he performed the role so realistically, and that is another lesson for us writers. The emotions and behaviors of our characters have to ring true every time or readers will not be interested in them.

So...Did you see the Academy Awards? Any awards that surprised or disappointed you? If you write, do you look to movies to learn about plotting and character? If you are a reader, do you sometimes "see" books as if they were movies?

Come to Diane's Blog on Thursday to see more about my weekend at Inn Boonsboro!

The Shy Duchess!

Happy Sunday, everyone! I am soooo excited to be launching my new book, The Shy Duchess, because it's a return to the Welbourne Manor family. After working on The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor anthology with Diane and our friend Deb Marlowe (whose own Welbourne book, How to Marry a Rake, is out in May!), I felt like these characters had become my friends. I wanted to know what happened to them, if they were happy, if they were having more adventures. With The Shy Duchess, I got to do that! I had so much fun catching up with them all, and getting to know Lady Emily Carroll, who was a very special heroine to me after my own childhood battles with deep shyness...

"McCabe knows her time period, the mores and expectations of her characters...her stories have made her a fan favorite and she does not disappoint" --RT BookReviews

Our hero is Nicholas, the eldest (legitimate!) son of the rambunctious family, and now the Duke of Manning. The heavy responsibilities of being duke and taking care of his family have been weighing on Nicholas, making him take life much more seriously. He's also burdened with a tragic secret in his past--a secret, youthful marriage that ended after less than a year when his beloved wife died in childbirth. He mourned her alone, not even telling his siblings what happened, and he's determined never to hurt a woman like that again. Never to give her the "cursed" title of Duchess of Manning.

But of course he can't quit thinking about our heroine, Lady Emily Carroll, can't quit wanting to make the too-serious young lady smile. Even though she seems all wrong for him...

Emily was born with the gift of great beauty--and the curse of paralyzing shyness. She freezes whenever she tries to talk to a man, stumbles when she tries to dance, and ends up hiding in the corner at every ball. The only time she feels comfortable is when she is doing her secret charity work with "fallen women" trying to make new lives for themselves! Her silence has earned her the nickname The Ice Princess--and no offers of marriage. She knows her penurious parents are counting on her to marry well, but all she can do is long for Nicholas from afar.

Until a masked ball at Vauxhall reveals an explosive passion, which leads to a scandal and a forced betrothal, which leads to a Welbourne honeymoon--and Nicholas begins to thaw his ice princess's heart as well as heal his own.




If they can get past a blackmailer, Nicholas's protective family, and Emily's mother's terrifying pre-marital advice...

"Come sit by me for a moment, Emily dearest. I want to speak with you about something very important."

Emily's stomach clenched. Whenever her mother had that tone in her voice, Emily knew she wouldn't like what she heard. "Oh, Mama, I am very tired, and tomorrow is such a busy day. Can it not wait?"

"No, it cannot," her mother said sternly. "This is very important. Now, come sit by me on the bed and listen to me carefully."

Emily went with her in silence, letting her mother hold onto her hand. Her fingers were very tight, pressing the heavy emerald engagement ring into Emily's skin. "Now, my dear, a wife has many duties, especially a wife who is a duchess," her mother said. "I have taught you to run a house properly, to dress fashionably and to remember to be charitable and kind. But there is one last, most important duty I must tell you about, as my mother did for me the night before my wedding."

Emily very much feared she knew what was coming next. "Oh, no, Mama."

"Yes." Her mother's lips pressed together grimly. "You will have your duty in the bedchamber. Now, Emily, I warn you it will not be pleasant. It will hurt, and be rather messy. You must lie back and do as your husband tells you, and it will soon be over."

"Mama!" Emily groaned. "I don't really need to know..."

"Let me finish. There are ways to make it easier. I used to close my eyes and plan a party."

Emily stared at mother numbly. "A party?"

"Yes. I would choose the china and the silver, and design flower arrangements and guest lists. Then I would devise a menu and decide on my gown. By the time I knew what to serve for dessert, it was all over and I scarcely felt a thing! As a duchess, you could plan very elaborate parties indeed."

Emily closed her eyes, trying not to shudder. She knew the rudiments of anatomy, of course; she often visited galleries full of classical nude statues. And she knew the basics of the marriage act, what went where and so forth. But... "Mama, what exactly happens that I must fear?"

"Oh, my dear, you needn't fear! It is our natural duty and we must bear it. The duke will show you what to do, and I am sure he will not demand anything--extra of you."

"Extra?" Emily choked out.

"Yes. You must not touch things, or move about too much. That just makes it last longer. You are his wife, not a hired mistress. All will be well, Emily dearest, and in the end you will have beautiful babies, as I did. That will make everything worthwhile."

Emily was utterly stunned. Pain, and--and mess? It sounded utterly appalling. She could hardly reconcile it to the pleasure she felt when Nicholas kissed her. "Is that all, Mama?" It was surely quite enough...


Please visit my website for more excerpts, plus a Behind the Book glimpse at the history of Vauxhall Gardens! You can also see more about the book on eharlequin. I will be giving away an autographed copy of The Shy Duchess (so you can see for yourself what actually does happen on the wedding night!) to one commenter on today's post.

And who else is excited to watch the Oscars tonight????

Jane Eyre

Maybe I'm still living under a rock, so apologies if this has been discussed here before. I just found out about this new version of JANE EYRE, starring Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska and due out in theatres on March 11.

But I won't get my hopes up too much. I’ve had a rough relationship with JANE EYRE on film. I have liked all the actresses who've played Jane but too often the casting of Mr. Rochester or some other factor don't quite work for me.



The 1943 version (Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine) version captured some of the feeling of the book but tampered too much with the plot and dialogue for my taste.



I have not seen the 1970 (George C. Scott, Susannah York) version. How did that happen? Should I look for a copy?









The 1983 (Timothy Dalton, Zelah Clarke) miniseries was pretty good, I thought, but he came off a bit too handsome for Rochester. I find this cover amusing, relegating the title character to the background!





As for the 1996 (William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg) version, all I can say is I like Hurt much better in other roles.









I had high hopes for the 1997 movie with Ciaran Hinds and Samantha Morton, but I was disappointed. I like both the actors but the film felt rushed to fit a target length.








Finally, I loved the 2006 miniseries with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. It is easily my favorite adaptation.



Hopefully this new version will be at least as good. Check out the trailer. What do you think? Which versions will it have to contend for to be your Favorite Jane Eyre Adaptation?

Elena

Secondary Food

So finally I was able to open up my current document and do some writing. It felt good, and I want to do more of it.

But then there's this whole job thing, so we'll see about that.

Anyway, meanwhile, a friend recommended a book that sounded really great, so I got a copy and started reading it on my lovely subway commute (I should just start calling it the LSC, since I am so appreciative of it, since I get to read). It is great. It is phenomenally up my alley.

But it's secondary food.

Let me explain. Back in college, I had a friend who was the result of a German woman marrying a Japanese man. A made in World War II relationship. My friend, let's call him Mr. Axis Power, told me how in the beginning of their marriage, his mom would cook all sorts of things--German things, of course--for her husband. She'd ask him how it was, and he would say, "It's good, for secondary food."

This baffled her. She kept trying, doubtless serving all sorts of delicious schnitzels, and roesti, and big meat dishes. Still--the only praise she received was "good for secondary food."

Eventually, the two figured out the problem; for him, being Japanese, rice was primary; all other foods were secondary.

So back to me. For me, romance is primary; all other genres are secondary. I am loving this book, but it's not compelling me to read as it would if it were an equally fantastic romance. It's good--for secondary food.

And so my next book after I finish this one (The Devil You Know by Mike Carey, btw) will be a palate cleansing primary food, a romance carefully chosen from the stack.

And hey, any day where I can equate books and food is a good one, right?

Megan

What am I reading/writing anyway?

First some news--my next book about Jane and the Damned is coming out in October and now has a title, Jane Austen: Blood Persuasion. I've also seen the cover but I can't show it to you yet. Cool! This illustration is my favorite still from the book trailer of Jane and the Damned.

Following last week's post about the pros and cons of different historical periods it seems only natural (to me anyway) today to delve into subgenres. Lucky us, we have so much choice in the sort of books available and the merging of once-discrete subgenres. It can be confusing! So here's a field map to some scenarios and how they'd play out.

Hero wears

• Quietly elegant clothes made by London's top tailor. You know, the exclusive one only the Big Guys know about.
• Pants so tight you really don't notice anything else and a shirt that unbuttons all the way down
  
• Subtly scented oil
• Quietly elegant clothes made by London's top tailor but cut to accommodate the wings or any other little (or big) extra(s) and/or martial arts weapons
  

Heroine wears

• Demure sprigged cotton, bonnet, gloves, the whole shebang
• Red satin with a dozen tiny buttons down the back etc.
• Subtly scented oil
• The usual sort of Regency stuff but with many hidden pockets for stakes, knives, martial arts weapons

They go for a walk in the woods.

• He picks flowers which she and her chaperone squeal over with delight
• Not much walking going on here
• Even less here
• A possible declaration of love is thwarted by an attack by the creatures of darkness

He retires to the library to

• Sigh gently over a half-composed poem and figure out how best to serve the needy and poor on the estate
• Above, pants optional. Some of those tenants are very needy.
• Enter the orgy room through the false bookcase (note: they're all false. No time for reading in this world!)
• Plan strategy to eliminate creatures of darkness

Hero and heroine ride together in a carriage

• When the chaperone falls asleep, they allow their hands to touch for one precious, poignant moment
• Athletic goings-on strain the framework of the carriage
• Above, but chaperone, coachman, and postilions join in
• Fierce fight as creatures of darkness or whatever swarm over the vehicle

When they arrive in London, the heroine agonizes over whether she'll receive

• Vouchers for Almacks
• Invitations to soirees full of hot, young, single Dukes
• Invitations to orgies
• Invitation to summit to fight off creatures of darkness, which are now becoming tedious to me and will catch a mysterious virus and slink back to whence they came

The heroine becomes pregnant after

• The marriage night, thank you very much
• About page 35 but she doesn't realize it until everyone else has, including the exasperated reader
• Pregnant? I don't think so
• Hero assures her the creatures of darkness are vanquished. But wait...

Your suggestions?

Connections

OK, let's see if I can pull off this post. If not, I blame it on whatever little beastie went after Amanda's computer. My intention is to bring this around to the Regency era. (waving of hands.)

Country Living

I live in the country, and the other day, I tweeted the picture you see here. (Blogger isn't letting me add images right now so I'm off to fetch the embed code from my flickr account . . . BRB)

OK! I took that picture from the deck of my house this past weekend. What I was thinking at the time was that there was SNOW on the mountains. SNOW! Around here, we call them the Sonoma Mountains, even though everyone knows they're really just hills. The snow level has to be down to 1500-2000 feet for there to be snow on the Sonoma Mountains.

I tweeted the picture thinking everyone would be all, OMG, that's SNOW on the Sonoma Mountains and that one or two people who live where there is actual weather would tell me to grow a pair. (Hey, I stood on the deck in my jammies and slippers and took that picture! It was kind of cold. Sort of.) I just looked up the elevation of my town. It's 12-400 feet. That morning, the house was about 30 minutes and 1500 feet of elevation from SNOW and 30 minutes and let's say 12-400 feet of elevation from the Pacific Ocean.

Instead of the comments I expected, many people on twitter said they wanted to move in with me. Because, as I had actually forgotten in my excitement over SNOW!! on the Sonoma Mountains, our house has a spectacular view. In fact, most of that side of the house is sliding glass doors that look onto variations of that view. Mostly without snow, I should add.

Which Got Me To Thinking

If you live in a city, it's easy to get divorced from nature. In the US, most of us aren't getting our food from a garden or the farm, or the neighbor's farm. We get eggs from the store, not chickens. Our meat comes from the meat department, not from the butchered pig we raised.

When we eat a delicious melon, we don't save the seeds so we can plant them and eat the same melon again next year.

When we go outside at night, we can't see the stars and for many of us, we can barely see the moon.

We have declining variety in our food because we stopped saving seeds to plant.

A few stories

We have chickens at our house, and my son has grown up on fresh eggs from chickens that roam around during the day eating what comes naturally to chickens. Eggs from chickens like this taste different. They look different -- the yolks are an intense golden-yellow-orange. They behave differently in recipes.

Then a coyote ate the chickens -- during the day! and we had to buy store bought eggs while we waited for the weather to warm up enough for us to buy new chicks, and then for the chicks to turn into hens and then for the eggs to get past the tiny pullet stage . . .

The first time my son saw scrambled eggs from store bought eggs, he wanted to know what was wrong with them. Because they were anemic looking. They were pale, pale, yellow instead of a strong yellow. They didn't taste all that great either. Compared to real eggs.

Fresh vegetables from a garden are kind of the same experience.

Not Lambchops!

When I was a kid, my folks had one of our lambs slaughtered and my mom fed us lamb chops shortly thereafter. We all sat there, in silence, staring at our plates. No one moved to so much as pick up a fork. We were all thinking how we'd watched that lamb gamboling in the field. My mother sighed, took away the lamb chops and fed us Cheerios for dinner.

She could do that because my father was a physician and she had been to the grocery store to buy food. We didn't need those home grown lamb chops for survival. It's astonishing when you think about it.

The Regency!

And all that got me to thinking that if you don't have electricity, you know what dark is. You know there are degrees of outside dark at night and how incredibly bright a full moon is. You can see the stars at night.

Even if you, in the Regency past, do not yourself farm, you are aware of the seasons of farming and what that means for the food that can be easily put on your plate at a given season. Your mode of transportation is your own two feet or powered by an animal who must be fed, watered and cared for.

In the developed world of the 21st century we've gotten very far from nature, and every now and then, I get reminded of that.

Since I write stories set in the past, I think it's a good idea for me to occasionally take a few moments to think of all the ways I am divorced from nature and all the lore we no longer know-- because we have no reason to care exactly when the full moon is, for example -- and that people in the Regency did know.


Not that I'd give up my civil rights, vaccinations or my iPhone. But it's interesting to think about.

What do you think we miss most from that past? What modern invention could you least do without? Let's take medicine off the table on that last one because everyone chiming in with "Antibiotics!" and "Emergency Room Staff" would get dull pretty quickly.

Researching the Regency With Elaine Golden

Note from Amanda: Thanks to my computer choosing last weekend to have a Complete and Utter Meltdown, I was not able to post Elaine Golden's guest blog! She has graciously agreed to reschedule for today--and is offering a giveaway as well! Welcome to the Riskies, Elaine...

One of the things I love most about writing historical romance is the research. Oh, I don't particulraly care about poking around in dusty tomes, but I do love to learn little tidbits about how things were, how people thought and lived differently than they do today. I've been known to get lost randomly flipping around in an encyclopedia, or the modern day equivalent by following curious links in Wikipedia. I even keep a Historical Trivia page on my blog filled with odd historical facts (as well as blurbs and excerpts!).

The old author's adage suggests to "write what you know." Research is an essential tool to understand the dynamics of the era, and to present a story that will immerse readers in the culture and trappings of an historical romance.

The Internet is such a vast resource for historical research. There are wonderful bloggers who share their knowledge of the era, digitized maps and images and period publications, and there are endless photographs from tourists and travelers. So very many resources available at our fingertips!

And such interesting things I have discovered as I research the Regency era for my Fortney Follies series published by Harlequin Historical Undone!
--The British Regency nearly began 22 years before the Regency Act was passed on February 5, 1811. The reigning George III suffered several bouts of mental illness during his reign and in 1789 Parliament almost passed the Regency Act after a great deal of debate. Only a swift recovery from the King at that time stopped things. I blogged about it earlier this month on the Harlequin Blog.

--When researching the origin of the Regency phrase "in the pink" I discovered the phrase's origins--and a whole lot more. Dod you know the color pink was considered a "masculine" cover until the 1940s? I blogged about all things to do with pink on my site...

--The Prince Regent loved Brighton and taking the waters there. And he had a favorite bather, a local character named Martha Gunn. I've also blogged about bathing in Brighton, Prinny, and Marth on my site!

Earlier this month Diane Gaston posted some great links on Regency research. In addition to those wonderful sites, some of my own favorite Internet links include:
--The Online Etymology Dictionary: Not a traditional dictionary, but an explanation of the origin of words and what they meant at various points in time. Ever wonder if a word is historically accurate? What it meant to the Regency hero or heroine? You'd be amazed at how the meaning of a word can change so radically over the centuries!

--Historical Map overlays with Google Maps: Match historical avenues and parks to today's view of the world!

Do you have a fun bit of Regency trivia to share? Favorite website for Regency research?

Comment on this blog post for a chance to win an electronic copy of my debut Regency romance, An Imprudent Lady! I'll select two winners at random at 6 pm Pacific time on Wednesday, February 23...

And do check out other Undones! These short sexy romances are perfect when you have limited time but want a great romance to read. Michelle Styles generously shares this month with me, offering a sexy Roman-era romance with The Perfect Concubine

Presidents' Day - Things I Didn't Know

Today is Presidents’ Day, a National Holiday celebrating the birthdays of our two greatest presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (No, it is not just an excuse for some really good sales!).

I decided to look into how Washington and Lincoln might “intersect” with our England, if not just the Regency and to tell you things I learned that I didn’t know (or remember) from my American History school textbooks.

Washington, as we all know, was Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, leading the American victory over Britain in the Revolutionary War. The pivotal battle in the American War of Independence was the Battle of Yorktown, when Washington’s army defeated Cornwallis’s British Army. Cornwallis died in 1805, but certainly his life affected the Regency.

Things I didn't know:

• Cornwallis wasn’t just a bad guy, as I thought in elementary school. In fact, he took leave from the Revolutionary War to be at the side of his dying wife.
• 
  
• Cornwallis wasn’t perfect, though. He did not exactly approach the defeat of Yorktown as a gentleman. Instead, he feigned illness and sent his second in command to formally surrender his sword to Washington.
• 
  
• He did redeem himself in the eyes of Britain, though, going on to become civil military governor in India and Ireland and bringing about significant changes. In Ireland he helped to bring about the Act of Union, and in India, Permanent Settlement.
• 
  
• Half of Washington’s army at Yorktown were French soldiers under the command of Rochambeau.
• 
  
• Washington, who could not tell a lie, sent fake dispatches to Cornwallis’s superior in New York, convincing him that the American attack would be on New York and not Yorktown.

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, a year before “our” Regency time period and his leadership during the American Civil War made him one of our greatest presidents, but, in looking into how his life might have intersected with Britain, I discovered things I did not know.

Things I didn't know:

• Lincoln was almost involved in a war with Britain.

Confederate president Jefferson Davis sent two special commissioners to Great Britain, James M. Mason and John Slidell, to England and France as part of a plan to involve Great Britain into a war with America. As they were crossing the Atlantic, an American Captain, Charles Wilkes (who turned out to be a Confederate spy, which shows how convoluted this period of US history was), stopped the British ship on which they were passengers and, with no authority from anybody, had the two commissioners taken into his custody. Known as the Trent Affair, all of Great Britain rose up in outrage at this illegal act. War fever was at high pitch and British men were enlisting in the army in great numbers to sail to America and right this wrong.

• Queen Victoria’s Prince Albert was instrumental in averting this war.

The Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, wrote a harsh ultimatum to President Lincoln, basically threatening war. When this letter reached Queen Victoria for approval, she sought her husband’s advice. Prince Albert, ill with the fever that would take his life soon after, rose from his bed to draft a less volatile missive, one that would not provoke war. It was his last political act.

• Lincoln was almost involved in a world war.

During the time of the Trent Affair, Russia was the enemy of England and France. The Czar of Russia sent a fleet of warships to New York and his admirals had instructions to report to President Lincoln if Great Britain did indeed declare war on the US. Who knows what the outcome of that war would have been for the world? Russia and the US on one side; the Confederacy, Great Britain, and France on the other.

Thank goodness Queen Victoria listened to her husband.

Ain't history grand? What historical facts have surprised you recently? What are you doing this Presidents' Day?

I have a new contest on my website.

Where's Elaine Golden?????

Due to technical difficulties with Amanda's internet connection, we must reschedule Elaine for another Sunday.

But don't let that stop you from exploring her March Undone short story, A Disgraceful Miss.

Watch our Talk of the Ton window for the reschedule date.

With apologies to Elaine and our readers,

The Riskies

Good Conflict

I'm working on a fight between the hero and heroine in the balloonist story. I'm pretty happy with it so far and looking forward to the makeup sex that comes next. :)

But I realized while writing this that I don't often write this sort of scene. IMHO one has to be careful with arguments and fights and use them only where they make sense.

I'm not a fan of stories in which the characters are constantly squaring off, unless there's a really good reason. I have trouble imagining a happy ending when people can't work anything out. There's an idea out there that there are couples who constantly fight and make up and it makes things exciting. But the one couple I know in real life who are like that (and I was told early on that this was "just their way") are fighting more bitterly as they get older. They are afraid to separate and yet neither is willing to compromise, apologize or forgive. It is not romantic. It is tragic. I want better for my heroes and heroines!

I also like story setups in which the hero and heroine are thrown together and try to get along toward some common goal, while there is some other problem that they have to solve before they can be together. Conflict doesn't always have to be adversarial.

Anyway, what do you think makes a conflict work well? Do you sometimes enjoy a good fight (fictional, of course)?

Elena

Festive Friday!

Happy Friday!

It's currently approaching 60 degrees here in New York City, and that means everyone, myself included, is giddy. GIDDY, I tell you!

I've been unable to do much (okay, any) of my own fiction writing because I've taken on the job of Community Manager, Romance, for a new site, Heroes and Heartbreakers.

[In thinking about my post today, I guess it could be called Shameless Self-Promotion, only this isn't about me. It's not. Really.]

It's super-cool, and I am having a blast. If you pop by, you'll see posts from our own Laurel McKee and Carolyn Jewel, with posts from Diane Gaston happening in the future (Janet and Elena will be on-board, too, they just don't know it yet).

But I have made a vow--and an Excel file with my friend Myretta Robens--to write my own stuff next week, so I'll be doing that or facing my own and Myretta's shaming words.

This weekend I'll be watching a mooseload of Asian films so I can be inspired to return to my Asian heritage demonic hero of my Urban Fantasy. I would say it's research, but we all know better. Plus, my husband is out of town.

Okay, so enjoy the weather--whatever yours is--and see you next week!

Quick writers guide through history

I'm contemplating a change of subgenre and thought I'd share with you my thoughts on what I find (1)attractive (2) unattractive about each period. So here goes.

Romans.
1. Much nudity. Men with big swords.
2. Public unisex toilets, cheek-to-cheek. Think of the meet-cute. "I'm sorry, is that your sponge?"

Dark Ages
1. The stuff of legends e.g., Camelot. Men with big swords.
2. Filth and misery. No public toilets at all, private ones dubious.

Medieval
1. Castles. Men with big swords.
2. Filth and misery. No public toilets at all, private ones dubious. Child marriages.

Elizabethan
1. Silks, lace, velvet, swashbuckling stuff. Men with big swords.
2. Filth and misery. One known (official) public toilet on London Bridge, private ones dubious. Child marriages. Elizabeth I.

Civil War/Restoration
1. Silks, lace, velvet, swashbuckling stuff. Sieges. Men with long hair and big swords.
2. Filth and misery. One known (official) public toilet on London Bridge, private ones dubious. Plague.

Eighteenth Century
1. Silks, lace, velvet, swashbuckling stuff. Men with high heels and smaller swords.
2. Filth and misery, wigs, and you don't even want to ask about the toilets.

Regency
1. Cotton, linen, wool, elegance, manners, some indoor plumbing. Men with tight pants, swordsticks, vinaigrettes.
2. Filth and misery, repression.

Victorian
1. None that I can think of other than infrastructure and some indoor plumbing.
2. Filth and misery, repression, and everything else.

Edwardian
1. Nice clothes for women. Indoor plumbing. Men with big walking sticks.
2. Filth and misery, repression, World War I looms ahead.

No wonder we writers have to reinvent history.

Your ideas?

Historical Ninjas?

Please don't ask me why I was searching Google Books for references to ninja between 1795 and 1820. Just accept that I was and that I was expecting there to be close to zero results.

But below, is the first of two pages of results.

The examiner: Volume 9 - Page 127

Leigh Hunt - 1819 - Free Google eBook - Read ... or ngninst whose return, a Petition is depending, or of a Member who is sixty years of age, (suppose he wishes to be excused), such name, is set aside, and another is drawn to supply his place until forty-ninja be selected. ... books.google.com - More editions - Add to My Library▼ - In My Library: Change▼

►

Holy moly! Forty NINJAS? That's no lone ninja a long way from home. That's an invasion! DURING THE REGENCY! How could we not know about this?

(Because they are ninjas, that's why.)

So, of course I clicked. Who wouldn't? I mean ninjas in England in 1819 and they're all acting like, hey, let's keep picking until we have an attack force of FORTY of these motherf*ckers. Napoleon would be toast if, uh, he weren't already.

Alas, the reality was disappointing to say the least.

But if among these names is that of a Member who given a vote in the election complained of or who is a Petitioner or ngninst whose return a Petition depending or of a Member who is sixty years of suppose he wishes to be excused such name is set and another is drawn to supply his place until forty be selected When the forty nine are complete the or his Agent names a Member and the

All the rest were foreign language results. Those Romans, Germans and Italian-post-Latin speakers! Always the fake ninjas.

Kind of disappointing. So. Help me out here.

Your Task

You command the Ninja attack force in London, 1815. What do you do with them? Or, alternatively, provide a snippet of Regency Ninja Lore.

Like, A Regency Ninja is thought to have infiltrated Almack's, assassinated six debutantes and eleven Regency Bucks in pink waiscoats and vanished after spiking the orgeat with sake.

Or something.

Comment away.

The Healthy Author

So how was everyone's Valentine's Day?? I ran into one of the usual V-Day perils--having to wait 2 hours for a table even with a reservation! Luckily I had some cute new pink ankle-strap shoes and lots of good people-watching (plus a protein bar in my purse!) so all went well.


And I have to send out thanks to Michelle Willingham for sending me this link to Cataromance's Reviewer's Choice Awards, which named To Catch a Rogue one of their favorites of the year. Happy Valentine's Day to me!


And in weather news here--the snow is finally GONE (for now, anyway), and the temp is in the 60s and 70s this week. But for a couple of weeks I was pretty much stuck in the house, and for a few days I basically sat around eating potato chips, taking naps, and reading stuff I downloaded to my Kindle. Then I started to feel pretty yucky, and I realized it was because I had missed my exercise. I've always been allergic to anything that feels like "exercise"--maybe it's flashbacks to the hell that was middle school PE class. I will run on the treadmill when I have to, or even take a spin class if I'm feeling especially ambitious, but I prefer things that feel more like fun, like dance. And I absolutely swear by yoga. When I make it to class at least 3 times a week, I feel calmer, more energetic, and more creative, and my jeans fit better. It also helps me avoid the dreaded Writer's Butt Syndrome.

Writing is an entirely sedentary job. When I'm close to a deadline, my muscles start to ache, I feel tired, I eat bad stuff, and I start talking to my cats like they know what I'm saying. (I also start shopping online more). Yoga and dance helps me stay flexible and alert--the fees ought to be tax deductible, because they're a big key to feeling creative and keeping me from falling behind on my schedule. I just have to make myself do it, which is usually easier said than done.

But then there are days when I can't make it out, and that's when I break out the exercise DVDs. Here are a few I like:

The Bollywood Dance Workout (so much fun!)


Ballet Conditioning

Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss

The New York City Ballet Workout (this one is kind of a toughie, but it's a great workout)


Getting enough sleep, eating right, and meditating are also important for me if I want to stay healthy and get the writing done, especially this time of year when I just want some sunshine, darn it!

What do you do to keep the creativity flowing and stay in shape?? Any tips for fun things to try? (A friend of mine swears by Zumba, which I have yet to try...) And what did you do for Valentine's Day?

Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe winner

Artemis, you're the winner of Maggie/Margaret's grand prize! Congrats and send an email to riskiesATyahoo.com with your snailmail address.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's a special Valentine's Day gift to you. A new Romance blog-and-more from Macmillan Publishing. Heroes and Heartbreakers.com, featuring occasional blog postings by me and several other familiar names, plus short stories and more. This is what Megan has been working on for months. More from her Friday, I'm sure, but take a peek today!

Valentine's Day as we celebrate today started in Victorian times, but Regency young men did send love-notes and had assistance from The Young Man's Valentine Writer, published in 1797.

So, in celebration of Valentine's Day, here are some vintage Valentines and Regency (and Georgian) verses;

My Luve

O my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry

Robert Burns (1794)

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft swell and fall,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.

John Keats (1819)

She Walks In Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place

Lord Byron (1814)


What is your favorite love poem?

The Rocky Road

No, we're not talking ice cream...today we have one of my very favorite writers as a guest, in both of her manifestations, and with a fantastic prize. So let's get chatting and exchange our metal folding table stories--I mean, our proposal or Valentine's day stories... you'll see what I mean. Read on!

Thanks so much to the Riskies for having me—both of me—back! I write under two names, Maggie Robinson and Margaret Rowe, and I’m between Maggie’s January book, Mistress by Midnight, and Margaret’s March release, Any Wicked Thing. While both books are hot historical romances, Margaret’s book is just a little scorchier. Or as I like to say in my house, Margaret writes about things that Maggie has never done. ;)

I do like to think, though, that I incorporate plenty of romance in my erotic fiction, and I love to give second chances to my heroes and heroines. As we all know—or at least Shakespeare said so and who am I to argue—“the course of true love never did run smooth.” That’s certainly true for Sebastian Goddard, the Duke of Roxbury and his childhood nemesis Frederica Wells in Any Wicked Thing. They could not have started off in a more humiliating fashion (really, I was absolutely evil making their first encounter a night to forget instead of remember), but somehow they manage after a decade to put the past behind them.

Their journey to The End is almost the opposite of Laurette and Con’s in Mistress by Midnight, who begin beautifully but are torn apart and have a whole lot of boulders to climb over as adults. But we must torture our characters, or the books we love would sputter out after the first chapter…or maybe even the prologue.

Some of my favorite books and movies incorporate the awkward and the angsty with the amorous. I think Lord Chesterfield had it right when he said: “Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.” Human beings are so…human. We’re all searching for our happily ever after, one clumsy step at a time and sometimes travel in circuitous routes to get there.

It may be Valentine’s Day tomorrow, but sometimes love feels more like April Fools. One commenter today will get both Maggie and Margaret books AND a new DVD, Romantic Favorites Collection, with four fantastic, funny movies that illustrate exactly how beautiful and bittersweet relationships can be. Of the four films on this disc, Love Actually is probably my favorite, as it is a kaleidoscope of emotion. I’m sure you can guess that my favorite scene has earnest Colin Firth proposing in fractured Portuguese—it makes me laugh and cry at the same time, my own personal romance rule.

Do you have a proposal story or a Valentine’s memory? Tell us!

I’ll share mine. My boyfriend and I threw a party so his friends could meet my friends, and he casually announced to everyone, “Yeah, we’re getting married.” He never really asked, but I guess I answered, because we were married three months later. This is the same man who gave me a metal folding table for the basement so I could stack laundry as a Valentine’s present. He’d better come up with something a little better tomorrow.

Collages

I remember making collages in school, but haven’t done it again until recently.

In January, I attended workshops at our church on various spiritual practices: meditation, the Zen of drawing, and also one based on the book SOULCOLLAGE by Seena Frost. According to the SoulCollage® website, it is a process for “accessing your intuition and creating an incredible deck of cards with deep personal meaning that will help you with life's questions and transitions.” I am a control freak but I managed to let go and enjoy this process. I hope to find time to make more cards like this, maybe at a retreat sometime.

And this week, I made my first story collage. I first read about this process in an RWR article by Jennifer Crusie, “Picture This: Collage as Prewriting and Inspiration” also available here. I was curious about the process, knowing that it worked for authors I admire including Crusie, Jo Beverley and others. Although it is designed for prewriting, I thought it might help me to reconnect with my balloonist story, which has been sitting half-finished for over two years now.

It was fun. I used all the images I’d already been collecting to inspire the characters and the setting. Browsing through craft stores, I came up with some cool finds: the perfect brilliant blue silk, cloud patterned paper. As I was cutting the black fabric for the lower part, my scissors snagged and created a jagged pattern, like clouds of smoke, and I decided to keep it that way.

While I didn’t get any new ideas, making the collage reminded me that I do have a real story to tell. I will definitely try this again the next time I start a new story.

Have any of you tried collage as a creative and/or spiritual process? Did it work for you? Are there other processes you use to tap into your intuition?

Elena

Friday Mayhem, aka What Else Is New?

First off, thanks to Carolyn for filling in at the last minute. I rather enjoy having an M meme named after me!

Next off, it's not like life is any less busy; if anything, it's moreso. So no writing, but plenty of reading and some watching.

So I'll be yakking on a random* assortment of topics:

--A very close relative was just diagnosed with some lumps in her breast. Thankfully, due primarily to the power of Twitter, I just had a mammogram, so I know I'm safe until the next check-up. My relative was also vigilant, and it's very early for her, so we are all hoping for the best. But--since I have you here--have you had a recent mammogram?

--I have known for some time, and likely have mentioned it here, but I love pushed-in teeth. I found another fine example of same, namely Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, who was Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, and who made a name for himself first in the Danish film Pusher, directed by Nicholas Wilding Reyn, which I just saw. Sadly, googling Mikkelsen's name only reveals pictures where his mouth is closed. But just remember David Bowie prior to getting his teeth fixed, and you'll know what I mean. Ricky Gervais has them a bit, too. Pusher was a fantastic film, too, if you like gritty everything'sgoingwrong noir. I happen to love it.

--Nicholas Wilding Reyn is currently directing Drive, a film based on the book by James Sallis. It stars Ryan Gosling, and the book is noir lyric poetry at its finest. I'm halfway done reading it, and it is just flat-out brilliant from the first page on. Warning: NOT a romance!

--I've discussed this with my Reading Twin™, @tuphlos on Twitter, and she and I are both fed up with the Sniff Test--in a paranormal, when a paranormal entity just has to SMELL his beloved, and he knows right away She Is The One For Him. Um--whatever happened to courtship? That said, we are both still addicted to J.R. Ward. It's a burden, people.

--In a week, my son will have winter break. You know what that means, right? MEGAN GETS SOME TIME OFF FROM MOMDOM! Unlike usual, though, I'll still have Jobdom, so I can't laze about and eat bonbons (like, really, who eats bonbons? Not sure I've had a legitimate bonbon in over twenty years. What the heck is a bonbon, anyway? Jean Harlow ate them in Dinner At Eight, I think). But I will get to work later, go shopping without glancing at the time constantly and not have to hear about Yu-Gi-Oh. It's the little things.

--Oh! I should write during that time, huh? Okay. Will do.

--So--what commonly-used trope in romance novels is irking you (see: Sniff Test)? Do you have any odd obsessions (see: pushed-in teeth)? And what is your favorite comfort old film (see: Dinner At Eight, any Bogart and Bacall, Notorious with Cary Grant and Ingmar Bergman)?

Megan

*I actually cringe when I use the word random, because so many folks use it. But it suits the sitch, so there you go.

Cara Elliott Winner!

Karyn Gerard, you are the winner of To Tempt a Rogue! Please send us your snail mail info at Riskies AT yahoo.com...

Me Me Me Me Meme!! Plus Contest Winner

Here are my answers to last Friday's Meme:

1. When I think of Mr. Darcy, he is buck naked.

2. Lord Masterful greets YOU at a ball. You look down to see what he's staring at and discover a billet-doux from Lord Hawt.

3. One of my favorite Regency-set novels is Mary Balogh's A Summer to Remember.

4. If you could meet Lord Byron, what would you ask him? WTF? Seriously, dude, WTF?

5. You wake up and find yourself in a Regency historical novel. What's the plot? I inherit a vast fortune that comes with an evil guardian who wants to off me. As I'm climbing out the window to save myself, I fall into the arms of a masked highwayman who turns out to be Lord McHunkyPants who, just my luck, is looking for a rich heiress to marry and ravish him.

6. A Regency fairy-godmother grants you three Regency wishes. What are they? 1) Suffrage 2) The ability to sing like an angel and 3) Good taste in all things fashionable.

7. If you could change ONE fact about the Regency what would it be? Voting rights, including women. But I might insist that Shelly rewrite his essay on poetry so it actually makes sense.

8. Napoleon writes you a letter. What does he say? Darling, the key to the treasure is under the 5th floorboard in the seventh room in your cottage. Spend it madly, my love.

9. How many exquisite slippers are in your wardrobe? None unless my wishes get granted in #6, in which case the answer is 15 and I vote for Reform.

10. How do you take your tea? As hot as Lord Hawt and as black as our sins.


The Winner of the Friday Meme is.... M

M - email me (carolyn AT carolynjewel.com) so I have your email address and can set up your prize! (An Amazon Gift Card!!)

Valentine's Day Pre-Show

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope everyone had a good weekend (I went to a friend's annual Superbowl Party, but I ended up just eating too much junk food and then watching Puppy Bowl with their kids. I do love Puppy Bowl!). I dug out from under last week's storm, but they say snow is coming back tonight and I'm headed to Target and the wine shop to lay in supplies.

But being stuck in the house is not so very bad. It makes me stop procrastinating and get productive on the WIP and the website (which has updates finally! Including some Behind The Book history on The Shy Duchess!) I hit the halfway point on the Mary Queen of Scots WIP, and this is about the time the characters start to get out of control, going off on plot pathways I did not plan. It's also about the time (in this story anyway) that things start to really heat up for the hero/heroine, and I realized I actually have a few rituals I do before writing a love scene. A few possibilities that usually work well:

--Drink a glass of wine and watch a Vampire Diaries episode
--Do a little imaginary shopping on the Agent Provocateur website (and then taking my real budget to Victoria's Secret)
--Listen to some Miles Davis or the Marie Antoinette soundtrack (depending on the mood of the scene)

These usually work wonders. They're also good for getting in the mood for V Day. As probably every romance writer (and every poor husband/boyfriend who forgot to order flowers early and is now scrambling) knows, next Monday is Valentine's Day! Flowers, candy, diamonds, and restaurants that are way too crowded and have overpriced prix fixe menus. If you'd rather stay home, order in and watch a movie, there are tons of sites out there with "top romantic" movies lists. Here are just a few sites I found if you're looking for suggestions:

All Women's Talk (50 Most Romantic)
Celebrate Love (100 Most Romantic)
Cinema Blend (15 Romantic Movies Men Should Like)
The Holiday Spot (16 Romantic Movies for Valentine's Day)

And here are a few movies I find to be romantic (or at least have romantic scenes!) and that I would be happy to watch anytime. (I just stuck with feature films here, not BBC-type costume dramas or we would be here until the Fourth of July...)

--Room With a View
--Moulin Rouge
--Persuasion/Pride and Prejudice (for the Austen crowd!)
--Shakespeare in Love
--Bringing Up Baby
--Breakfast at Tiffany's/Roman Holiday
--It Happened One Night
--Last of the Mohicans
--Say Anything (one of my favorite movies as a teenager--I never did find a Lloyd Dobler though...)
--Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
--The tango scene in Mask of Zorro
--The Pere Lachais scene in Paris Je t'aime
--Bright Star
--Phantom of the Opera

But usually I end up watching Romeo and Juliet (the Zeffirelli version) around this time of year! The costumes, the music, the balcony scene--sigh...




What are your favorite romantic movies? What are you planning for Valentine's Day? And what are some of your favorite fantasy shopping places??? (Or any love scene-writing tips, if you'd like to share, LOL)

Research Treasure Trove

I'm about to start writing Leo's Story, my Diamonds of Welbourne Manor book. Amanda's The Shy Duchess will be out in March and Deb Marlowe's How To Marry a Rake comes in May. And here I am not even started....

When starting an Historical, of course, research is essential. Over the years, I've compiled a bunch of bookmarked websites about the Regency to help with research, but, let me tell you, nothing I have is as thorough as this list on Jane Austen's World.

Take a moment to look at this list! It's so comprehensive.

Some of my go-to websites appear here, like:

Correct Forms of Address This website always answers any question I have about titles, precedence, and all matters relating to address.

The Regency Reference Book
Emily Hendrickson's book is a treasure in itself in all the information she presents. This is a book you have to buy but is well worth the cost. I love that it is now on CD because I can search it so easily.

The Georgian Index
I love this site for many reasons, but one reason I return to it over and over is to find specific shops in London, so my characters can visit real places on real streets.

Greenwood's Map of London
I get very particular about where my characters live and how they walk around London, so this map of London in 1827 works very well for me.

There are so many more research sites listed at Jane Austen's World, I could spend a year exploring.

Take a look at the site and pick out one of the links that intrigued you. Or tell me your favorite research site.

And if you live in the DC area, come see me moderate a panel of Historical authors on Feb 13 at Borders Bailey's Crossroads. I'd love to see some Risky readers.

Don't forget to visit the Harlequin Blog for their Regency Bicentennial Celebration all month.

And, Maureen! email me. You were my last week's contest winner!