Class Warfare

Many of the Riskies--probably all, when I review all of our books--have had our heroes and heroines cross class lines to find love.

Right now, I am revising a manuscript where a genteel woman meets and falls in love with a member of the aristocracy. And I am reading Loretta Chase's Silk Is For Seduction, where a dressmaker meets--and presumably falls in love with--a member of the aristocracy. A duke, no less.

Now, we've all discussed how dukes are very thick on the ground in our romances, and that it would be near impossible for a duke to actually marry someone who didn't share some of his aristocratic blood lines. So just pretend the hero or heroine is a member of the aristocracy, but not as high as a duke; can you suspend disbelief enough to think they'd fall in love? I know it happened in real life, if rarely, and could those couples look forward to a married life of ostracism from the ton? How different would their worlds be?

In my heroine's case, she's never left the small village where she grew up, and now she is heading for London, where she will be introduced as the hero's wife. I'm wrestling with how much she would know already, in terms of polite behavior, and if she would be absolutely freaked out upon encountering London. She does take things in stride, generally, but it would still be a shock.

Last question, do you like reading romances where the couples cross class lines? Which are your favorite?

Thanks!

Megan

Domestic Matters

TGIF, everyone! No, it's not Elena today, it's me, Amanda, popping in as a substitute (I was a bit catatonic on Tuesday after a deadline...)

Even though I've been in my writing hole a lot lately, I have managed to get out and enjoy the early spring weather (I've been wearing shorts! In March!) and also reading. One book I picked up is Lucy Worsley's tremendously fun If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home. (Worsley is the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, a job of which I am deeply, deeply envious). As a fan of historical domestic trivia, I gobbled it up, and I'm hoping the series that goes along with it comes out on DVD in the US soon). It's similar to Bill Bryson's equally fascinating At Home, but a little more fun and anecdotal. It follows the progression of 4 main living areas--bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen--from medieval times onward. (just a quick note--while there are lots of fun facts as well as wonderful illustrations and lists of references, this is mostly "upper and middle class" life, not a comprehensive look at all classes...)

A few fun facts I gathered:

--It was 1826 when coiled metal springs replaced the old rope bed cords that had to be tightened often (and cotton replaced itchy wool as mattress covers). And did you know it took over 50 pounds of feathers for a feather mattress??

--Men's underwear (drawers) began to appear regularly in the 17th century (William III was very fond of garish colors like red and green!), while women's fashions "simply precluded wearing knickers. So ladies went commando and squatted over a chamber pot when required." Regency fashions, with thinner fabrics and slimmer silhouettes, required drawers, but they were still Not Talked About. Here's an account of what happened when, on a walk with friends, the Duchess of Manchester went keester over teakettle over a fence in 1859: "The other ladies hardly knew whether to be thankful or not that a part of her underclothing consisted in a pair of scarelt tartan knickerbockers which were revealed to the view of the world in general"

--In Tudor times, a medicinal remedy for a frigid wife was to run "the grease of a goat" on her ladyparts. This seemed to help--though probably not for the reasons they thought (that a goat was lusty, therefore this would transfer the goat's characteristic to the people). Enemas for constipation were administered via a pig's bladder attached to a tube--one night Henry VIII used this remedy and it was reported he gave his velvet-covered toilet "a very fair siege."

--In medieval times people actually bathed quite frequently, washing hands and faces frequently and taking soaking baths with various herbs (bathhouses became quite popular when knights brought the Middle Eastern custom back from the Crusades). But the "dirty centuries" began about 1550 and lasted to about 1750, "during which washing oneself all over was considered ...to be weird, sexually arousing, or dangerous." Also, to get stains out of linen, a great bleach was urine...

That's just a small touch of what can be found in this book! There is stuff about dentistry, makeup, toilets/sewers/toilet paper ("stool ducketts" were squares of linens used in Renaissance bathrooms), cluttered living rooms, heat and light sources, food and drink (the once-rare luxury of tea; the constant state of at least mild drunkeness in the Middle Ages), and so much more. It's such a fun book.
What have all of you been reading while I've been buried here at home???

All About Bread

Today I'm sharing all my bread secrets. Bread, but rather unlike the stuff we eat now, was the staple food of the Regency, for the poor in the form of the quartern (four pound) loaf. The Corn Laws, protecting landowners from foreign imports of grain, caused the price of bread to rise dramatically and created much hardship.

Bread in its basic form is yeast, flour, salt, and water. That's it. Regency yeast would have been skimmed from frothy nasty stuff in beermaking or a form of sourdough from a baker. It would not have had much rising power and the wheat was a soft (i.e. low in gluten) variety so the bread would have been rather solid. Bread takes a hot oven and most poor people bought bread, not owning the fuel or a suitable oven to bake it, thus putting them at the mercy of ever-rising prices.

I use a sourdough and here it is. Looks disgusting, doesn't it. By the way, sourdough is very easy to make and maintain. I read all sorts of dreadful rubbish online about the complexities and terror of sourdough, but here's the dumb easy way: 2 cups flour, 2 cups water, half Tbsp. yeast. Mix. Let it stand loosely covered (rogue yeast in the air will come a-courting). Stir and take out a cup or so every day, add an equivalent amount of water and flour. After a week transfer it to the refrigerator where it will need a stir and feed weekly. It will go on indefinitely, smelling like beer and producing thin brown liquid (alcohol) and sometimes a rather revolting skin. Some sourdoughs are very old. Mine is only a month or so old.

I make a lot of bread so I don't usually measure but generally 1 Tbsp yeast to 2 C liquid makes a couple of loaves. I use the sponge method, where you start off with the elements--yeast, water, sugar (not essential but cheers up the yeast). Myth #1: you don't need to bring your liquid to a boil and let it cool, even if using milk--milk is all pasteurized now. You don't even have to warm it, but again, it keeps the yeast happy. Myth #2: you must keep everything warm. Cold slows down the yeast but it's heat that kills it, which is what happens when you bake--otherwise it would eat the oven.

It is a time consuming process but consider this--you can let bread rise overnight, or during the day in the refrigerator. You can freeze dough and bring it back to life at room temperature. It's very forgiving. I started yesterday's bread at 4:30 and it was cooked ten hours later but that's because my sourdough does not work fast. You can make a whole bunch of dough and store it in the refrigerator, where its flavor will improve, and cook it up as you need it.

Since sourdough takes a long time to prove (raise the bread dough) I usually toss in a little yeast, about half Tbsp, and a Tbsp or so of sugar, and enough flour to make a sort of mud. Then you beat the crap out of it. 200 strokes should give you a nice smooth bubbly mud, and the bubbles show that the yeast is having babies. Good!

Cover it with a damp teatowel (or plastic wrap) to keep bugs and cool breezes out and let sit. I gave mine a couple hours in a mid-60 room and this is what happened. Many bubbles. Many yeasty HEAs and epilogues.

Stir down and add in the elements now that inhibit rising--salt, a good splash of olive oil, and I added in some cooked and cooled quinoa and rolled oats this time to up the protein. And then you add in flour. Lots of flour. Incidentally this is the method, if you just keep adding and adding flour, that is the "no-knead" technique. It's a workout. But we're going to knead.

You dump it out onto your floured work surface and it's a horrible sticky mess. (The black thing is a plastic tool for scraping out the bowl.) You knead in more flour. Your hands look like a zombie's. (Go to youtube for lots of kneading demos.) I love this part of the process when the dough starts changing, becoming smooth and shiny. And you end up with this, on the right.

At this point I abandon my nice ceramic bowl and use my dollar store plastic containers because it's so much easier to assess the progress of the bread. You want it to double in size which will take a few hours. Slow rising = good flavor. But you don't have to watch it. You can go write or read. And then, you meanie, you punch it down, which means you press it down with your knuckles (right) and let it rise all over again. You can skip this step; last night I pulled off a large chunk to make pizza (no pics, we ate it all).

After it's doubled again (or got pretty close) you punch it down once more and transfer it to your working surface. I'd decided to make mine cinnamon-walnut-raisin bread so I rolled it out and added those ingredients, and then folded it over and over to knead them into the dough.

Here's the dough shaped into loaves and put into my amazing French bread pan made by Chicago Metallic (this is an excellent site for bread porn, as is the King Arthur Flour site). It's perforated which creates steam and a crunchy crust.

Cover it and let it rise some. I usually lose track of how long this takes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. You need a hot oven. You can put an egg-milk wash on your loaves if you like. You know when they're done if they look like, well, bread, and have some color and sound hollow if you tap the bottom of the loaf. This is why it's essential to invest in a high quality bread pan where you can tip the loaf out and examine it.

And here they are, all cooked and lovely:
Yum!

Tell me what you like to bake. Bread, cake, cookies? Try some bread and let me know how it turns out.

Looking at Details (Post Regency Visual Rhetoric)

The images in this post are from my copy of GWM Reynold's Penny Dreadful series, Mysteries of London. The publication of the series spans the period from about 1837 to 1844.

I apologize for the images: I don't have the correct lens for these kinds of pictures, and I didn't want to scan them because then I'd have to lay the book flat and further break the binding.

Cross-Dressing in 1831

There are readers (and authors) with strong opinions about cross-dressing heroines. I have heard some people state categorically that such historicals are wildly inaccurate. That might be true. Depends on the book, I suppose. Below is an example of a cross-dressing heroine for a story that opens in 1831. It is, in fact, the opening of the wildly popular and successful Mysteries Of London, a series that made GWM Reynold's fortune, by the way.

Obviously, the popular culture liked some ladies dressed as men.

There are many other interesting things present in this illustration (above), such as the smog. The horse's ass is another. It has, I'm pretty sure, just relieved itself. Or maybe is actually in the process. Then again, as you'll see, there are many tricks of shadow.

Keeping in mind the choices the artist made, note the pregnant woman in tatters with three young children and just to left, a plainly well-off couple. What does that suggest about the consequences of poverty and a woman not being able to control her fertility?

Ah, the cross-dressing heroine. Her hair is down, which seems odd if you wish to be taken for a man. The "meta" conversation about this illustration is to what extent the illustrator either deliberately, by instruction, or sub-consciously, drew a figure that possesses so much of the feminine that I look at that picture and say, yeah. Chick. Not fooled.

It's interesting, I think, that so many of the figures appear to be looking at her and they don't look happy.

Sorry for the poor quality. Too lazy to go take a better one. However, this picture (above) fascinates me most because of the hats hanging from pegs above the door.  This is a well-to-do home. Now, how handy is that? Pegs for the gentlemen's hats? So much for the butler carrying away the hats. Maybe in the really rich houses.

Note as well the key in the door to the left. Keys in the doors. Yeah.

She's a Lady. She's Not A Lady.

Hmm. What messages might there be in the next two pictures?

In the picture above, there are obvious things such as the house, surroundings, the woman's position and posture that tells us she's wealthy and a lady. The table next to her has books and a flower. Itty-bitty flower and flower pot, which is interesting.

I don't think I've ever read a historical where the flowers in a room were anything but large bouquets. In this book, however, there are plenty of examples of small pots containing very small greenery. They show up in several of the illustrations.

Well. The woman above is NOT a lady. So say I. Because, look at her. She's not sitting up straight and the upper bit of her gown looks to be about to fall off any minute. And what's that on HER table?

No books. Alcohol.  I believe in the foreground those are pipes. This is not a neat table. It's cluttered. She has been drawn so that she looks dissolute. And thus, we see the signs of dissolution.

The LADY is plainly thinking wistful thoughts. Oh, Howard, how I miss you, my darling. I cannot even read my book without you. 

The NOT A LADY does not look wistful. She looks tired. (I will represent to you that in the rest of this illustration there is a man standing by the fireplace.) She looks like she's thinking: If that asshat asks to see my tits again, I'm going to smack him. Why doesn't he ever ask if I want a foot rub? Oh, fuck it, I want a drink.

The Case of the Missing Package

 (above) Ohh-la-la! They are kissing! ::giggle:: And look at his ... you know. Hey. Wait a minute!

Where the hell is his dick?

That's some fine tricks with shadows.

What do YOU think?

Tall Dark and Disreputable Winner

The winner of a signed copy of Deb Marlowe's Tall, Dark and Disreputable is......

Louisa Cornell!!!!

Louisa, we know your address, so I'll have Deb put that in the mail for you!

Collecting Quotations

I love to collect inspirational quotations. I even subscribe to an email Inspirational Quote of the Day. Today's inspirational quote:

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death."
-- Robert Fulghum
(author of All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarden)

Another favorite of mine:

It is never too late to be who you might have been.--George Eliot


This got me thinking to search for some inspirational quotes from "our" era, the Regency:

Let's start with--who else?

"There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere."
--Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)

Here's another:

"Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any."
--Duke of Wellington

This one will surprise you:

"The highest of distinctions is service to others."
--King George IV

The Poets:

"He ne'er is crowned with immortality Who fears to follow where airy voices lead."
--John Keats

"Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray."
--Lord Byron
(It was hard to find a quote of his that was not pessimistic or cynical)

"I can give you a six-word formula for success: 'Think things through - then follow through.'"
--Sir Walter Scott

The Brontes:

"There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad."
--Charlotte Bronte

"I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind."
--Emily Bronte

"But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose."
--Anne Bronte

What are your favorite inspirational quotes or quotes from the Regency?

(The painting is The Artist in the Character of Design Listening to the Inspiration of Poetry by Angelica Kauffmann 1741-1807)

Deb Marlowe Talks About Tall, Dark and Disreputable

I'm excited. Our guest today is Harlequin Historical author and pal Deb Marlowe, talking about her March release, Tall, Dark and Disreputable. Deb, Amanda, and I have known each other for years, even before Deb and I had books out, but we became especially good friends after the 2003 Regency Tour to England. When Harlequin gave the three of us an anthology, The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor was born, complete with its spin-off books and short stories. (the last of the Welbourne Manor books, A Not So Respectable Gentleman? is mine, coming out in August, by the way)

Deb will be giving away one signed copy of Tall, Dark and Disreputable to one lucky commenter, chosen at random.

 In Tall, Dark and Disreputable, Deb again brings her unique characters, a mystery to be solved, and rich historical detail to a great story, but don't just take my word for it. Look at what the reviews say:

Marlowe pens another winner full of memorable characters, authentic historical details and lots of action, mystery and passion. Regency historical fans are in for a treat--RTBook Reviews.

A beautifully written tale of two people's struggle for independence and freedom of choice, Tall, Dark and Disreputable turns into so much more--Cataromance

I didn't want to put this book down. The pace is fast and the chemistry between Portia and Mateo sizzles off the page--Rakehell

Welcome back to Risky Regencies, Deb. Tell us about Tall, Dark and Disreputable.
   

Tall, Dark and Disreputable started because I fell in love with a character in my first book.  Mateo Cardea is a charmer!  He’s an American of Sicilian descent, a former privateer, and the  smooth talking Captain of a merchant ship.  I couldn’t wait to set him loose on Regency England!  At the start of TDD he's returned to England because he's found that his family legacy--the shipping company he's prepared his whole life to take over--has been willed to someone else.  And not just anyone else, but to the woman he refused to marry long ago!  He arrives in England furious, but he finds Portia Tofton is in trouble too.  She needs his help to save the estate that her late husband gambled away  They find that they have to work together to unravel a family legend--and their feelings for each other.

How did you come up with the idea for Tall, Dark, and Disreputable?

I wanted to explore the idea of a family curse or legend and how it might affect the lives of the people who came after.  It's hardly fair, is it, that they would have to deal with a situation brought on by others?  But isn't that what we do?  We thrust our characters into difficult and unfair situations that they must make the best of, then sit back and watch!

What is risky about the book?

I suppose it is risky because Mateo is not a Duke, a Lord, or even an Englishman.  And Portia is the daughter of an Earl, but she's turned her back on her early life.  It's a story of two people who want to live according to their own dictates in a time that it was difficult to do so. 

Did you come across any interesting research when you were writing the book?

Portia is a gardener and a lover of landscape design.  I had a grand time researching all of the rich history associated with gardening in the period.  So many estates had such lovely grounds and gardens and I immersed myself in the world of Capability Brown and Humpry Repton.  In fact, I have an article about Regency Gardens on my website.  You can check it out at http://www.debmarlowe.com/articles/regencygardens.shtml 

Tall, Dark, and Disreputable was released in the UK in 2010. What is it like to promote a book that you probably moved on from two years ago? Did you have to reread the book to remember it? (I would have)  

Well, I did get it out to revisit, but it didn't take long to bring it all back!  I absolutely adore the cover for the NA release--it really lives up to the title!  I'm so thrilled that it has come to North America at last--I really loved writing Portia and Mateo's story and I'm having a blast reliving it again!

What's next for you?

In June I have a new release:  Unbuttoning Miss Hardwick.  It's the tale of a reclusive nobleman and the woman he hires to help him organize and display his incredible weapons collection. It’s a rollicking story with such disparate elements as a mysterious Hindu spear, party planning, an obsession with men in boots and the very difficult feat of dropping the masks we hide behind in order to embrace love.

Question for Readers:  Portia and Mateo both have pressing needs that seem to preclude any chance at them having a real relationship.  They are not sure they can trust each other, let alone give up their most important dreams for a chance at love.  What about you?  Have you ever made a sacrifice in the name of love?  Or known anyone who did?  Did it work out?

Comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Tall, Dark and Disreputable. Winner will be announced Monday night.

Drive's Loving Hero

So last night I saw Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, which did not do well at the box office and got mixed reviews.

I loved it. It's based on the book of the same name by James Sallis, which I read, and so I was prepared for the darkness, the protagonist's reticence, the violence. What was conveyed so wonderfully, however, was the developing relationship between Gosling's character (who's never named, either in the movie or the book) and Irene, played by Carey Mulligan.

They never say out loud how they feel about each other, but just a few minutes of watching the film and you know.

Eventually, Gosling's character does something extraordinary for Irene, only he never says it. It's that kind of selflessness that is the defining moment for the hero in my current WIP, a Regency-set historical. He's selfish and arrogant, so when the heroine figures out he's done something selfless, she knows he truly loves her, and that's when she commits her heart to him.

Gosling's character and my hero could not be farther apart from each other in terms of personality, but the choice they make for love is the same. Amazing.

Megan

"A dreadful accident"

I’ve been reading the Letters of Harriet Countess Granville, daughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who married Viscount (later Earl) Granville. She moved in the highest circles, lived an active social life in England and abroad, for her husband served as ambassador to France for intervals between 1824 and 1841. There are lots of interesting tidbits in her letters and I’ll probably talk more about them in future posts.

This week I’d like to talk about how often she wrote about the dangers of carriage travel.

At one point she writes to her sister:

“Let me warn you of Alconbury Hill, that is, of a horse there that will not back. Off we pelted from the middle of a hill with a curl at the bottom, and would not stop for ages. In short, Granville owns that we were run away with. I never met with such a dreadful danger before.”

In another letter she writes:

“As I was turning into Berkeley Square I met four soldiers carrying a litter covered with a sheet. I asked Samuel what it was. He said they were carrying a dead man home. I tried to avoid it, but the people got round me and I was obliged to stop whilst they passed quite close to me. I asked one of the crowd how it had
happened and he said he had been squeezed by a mob in Pall Mall. A sort of nervous horror made me scarcely able to get on, when I saw Granville Somerset galloping up to me. He said, ‘You must have seen Worcester’. ‘No.’ ‘You must, they were taking him this way.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘They say he has had a dreadful accident, and I am going to my mother.’ I leave you to imagine with what feelings I almost ran to Brook Street. Here I found the lobby full of soldiers and servants, the men standing by the litter, and the Duke of Beaufort above, leaning his arms and head on the banisters. To end my story, they found him on examination only stunned, and severely bruised, but not dangerously hurt. I staid whilst they shaved and probed the head. He had been bled on the spot eighteen ounces by a surgeon who fortunately passed at the time. My first account was incorrect. His horse took a fright, ran away and threw him out of his gig against a door-post.”

I’m not sure which is scarier, the thought of being crushed in a mob, thrown from a gig, or being bled 18 ounces. It’s clear that life in London was not all balls and lobster patties.

In historical romance, we authors sometimes use carriage accidents to kill people off, usually so someone can inherit something: a title, wealth, debts or other serious responsibilities. I’ll admit to killing off the hero’s parents in one book, in an accident going down Kirkstone Pass in the Lake District. My husband and I drove down that pass while on vacation. Later, when I read a historical account of an accident there, I wasn’t surprised. It must have been quite treacherous during the Regency and probably still is, in bad weather.

Other times we use carriage accidents in a more fun way, to force our characters into situations where they’re forced to get to know one another better. Georgette Heyer used the combination of a snowstorm, a curricle-and-pair and a donkey to strand the hero and heroine of Sylvester at a secluded country inn.

What I think is great about these plot devices is they are totally believable. Much as I love horses—I used to ride regularly—some can be a bit nuts, and even the gentlest horse can be spooked. I’ve only once been run away with. Though I managed to stay calm and in the saddle until the horse tired, but it brought home the dangers of the sport to me in a very real way.

To me, the occasional horse-related accident in romance feels realistic, far more so than scenarios in which the hero’s black stallion gallops for hours without rest or teams of horses transport characters from London to Cornwall in less than a day.

Here’s a great page I found at the Regency Collection on the dangers of carriage travel, which apparently ranged from floods and snow to escaped lionesses.

What do you think of horse-related accidents in romance? Do you find them realistic, or do you think they're overused? Any favorites?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

New cover and tabloid book blurbs

First, here's the new cover for Dedication, coming from Loose-Id next month, and you'll hear all about it as time goes on. There's more information on my site. Isn't it pretty!

My task of the day is coming up with a blurb for another book that will be out sometime ... soon. It's called The Malorie Phoenix and was originally written as an option ms. for Signet Regencies (remember them? Polyester dresses, no sex?). So on p. 7 the hero and heroine (who was, uh rather young, but the age of consent then was 12... No, of course she's not 12! But she's not 21 or 31, but inexplicably she's a virgin) are at it. And I was going to send this to Signet? Thank goodness the line ended.

I can't but help think of this in tabloid language which isn't helping me with the blurb.

Earl's Son Bonks Virgin at Vauxhall Gardens
"I didn't ask to see ID," says Benedict de Malorie, officer in some regiment or other. "I thought she was doing her bit for the Napoleonic war effort."

Suspected Criminal Tangles with Aristocracy
Alleged pickpocket Jenny Smith, who refused to give her age, today accused the younger son of the Earl of T--- of fathering her child. "And he was pretty incompetent in the sack," Miss Smith reported as she emptied her pockets of three handkerchiefs, a fob seal, and a cravat pin. "Where the heck did these come from? I've never seen them before in my life."

Vauxhall Gardens Shock Horror
... and so on.

So let's take a look at a few tabloid interpretations of favorite books

Red Carpet Shocker at Meryton Assembly
Neither Fitzwilliam Darcy nor Elizabeth Bennet were available for comment following their encounter at the Meryton Assembly. Ms. Bennet, described by close friends as "in remarkably good shape following a night of dancing" has been seen working at her embroidery.

Willoughby Does It Again!
"I've no idea what her problem is," John Willoughby said after accusations made publicly last night by Marianne Dashwood. "She obviously came out of rehab too soon."

Just Friends
Pooh and Eeyore denied any romantic entanglement again today after they were seen sharing honey and thistles in an intimate thicket. "I think we should give them their privacy to work things out," commented John Watson, long time companion of hottie Sherlock Holmes.

OK, now it's your turn...

The Alpha and The Zed

I have this book, Brooke's Gazeteer. The longer title is The General Gazetteer, or Compendious Geographical Dictionary containing [blah blah blah] the Known World with the [blah de blah de blah] Illustrated by 8 maps. Originally written by R. Brookes, M.D. 13th edition. 1807.

The great thing is that all 8 maps are intact.

Here is the very first entry:

Aa: a river of Dutch Brabant, which waters Helmont, and joins the Dommell, near Bois le Duc

Interestingly enough, there are five more entries for Aa. All of them rivers in, respectively, the United Provinces, Wesphalia, France, Courland, and Switzerland. But here's a picture of the one I think they mean:

You can see this picture plus read the Wikepedia entry about it. It's a short entry. Bois le Duc is also in the Netherlands. There is a cathedral there. (St. John's in case you were wondering). Google is unable to provide directions from Petaluma CA to St. John's Cathedral in the Netherlands, but here's a map to give you an idea (you have to click through or scroll a LOT to either side to get the full distance effect):


View Larger Map


It would be a long trip for us Left Coasters.


The VERY LAST entry is:

Zytomierz: a town and fortress of Poland, in Volhinia, seated on the Circireif, 120 miles E of Lucko. Lon. 29 22 E, Lat 50 35 N.

There is a You Tube Feed for Zytomierz, which is . . . odd.

It appears that in the Regency, Zytomierz was, in fact, in Poland. Today, however, it appears to belong to the Ukraine. See this set of coordinates which is actually kind of handy and slightly amusing if you read the very very small print at the bottom.  Just who are you, Pierre Gorrison? 

Well guess what? We go from the River Aa in the Nederlands to Zytomierz, the Ukraine (formerly Poland) and right back to the Nederlands.

Why, you ask? Because Mr. Gorrison is Dutch. He is also on Twitter. @PeterMcAllister AND he lists eBooks in his twitter profile bio. (We are writers and readers here at the Riskies, @PeterMcAllister. We DO eBooks in a big way.)

The only thing more 6-Degrees of Separation would be to find out that Gorrison is related to Dr. R. Brooks, 18th/19th Century Geography geek. OK, maybe it would be even weirder if he was related to the John Deane who neatly wrote his name and the year 1807 in the back of my Brooks's Gazeteer. Or if one of you knows him. THAT would be weird.

I suspect this blog post will blow his mind (assuming he has Google Alerts). The things people Google and blog about.

I was going to blog about Regency geography, but I got distracted. Sorry. How about that Napoleon?

Is It Tuesday Already??

I am on the downward slide of a deadline, so no real post this week! But check next Tuesday, when I'll talk about a great exhibit I just saw of a selection of decorative arts from the V&A (including this gorgeous portrait of Madame de Pompadour)....



Wish me luck! I am now ducking back into my hole...

Winner, The Reluctant Marquess

Robin Greene, you're the winner of a copy (print or digital) of The Reluctant Marquess. Please send your contact info to riskies AT yahoo.com and we'll put you in touch with author Maggie.

The Look Of Love

I have a new "guilty pleasure" book for you. The Look Of Love: Eye Miniatures From The Skier Collection, the catalogue of the Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art's exhibit of eye miniatures dating from the 1780s to the 1820s.

Jo Manning, author of My Lady Scandalous, the biography of famous courtesan Grace Elliot, and of many fine Regency romances, contributed fictional vignettes about certain eye miniatures, imagining the circumstances of the creations of the jeweled pieces of art. The addition of these vignettes to the catalogue seemed an inspired idea, because the identities of most of the subjects in the collection are unknown.

Apparently it was George IV, then Prince of Wales, who commissioned the first eye miniatures. When the Prince secretly married the Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert, they exchanged miniatures of their eyes, painted on ivory and set in jewels, as tokens of their love. Soon it became the fashion for lovers and loved ones to bestow these tiny portraits of a single eye, made into brooches, pendants, even rings, on their favored ones. It was the perfect love token for clandestine lovers--one eye was enough to spark the memory of the person, but not enough for another person to identify whose eye it was.

Some eye miniatures were not secrets. They might be gifts between husbands and wives, mothers and sons, betrothed couples. Some were sad mementos of a loved one who died. But the identities of so many miniatures that were gifts from secret lovers are lost to us.

What remains are beautiful, sometimes spooky, images set in gold, surrounded by gems, or decorating tortoiseshell boxes. Some of the jewelry include woven locks of hair on the underside of the miniature. One includes the miniature of a hand; others, inscriptions such as "Esteem the giver." One of the most unusual settings is a tiny image of an eye on a toothpick box. Another, in the book but not in the exhibit, is an eye painted onto a porcelain teacup.

These were gifts whose only purpose was to convey love. What an inspiration for romance writers and readers!

Read Jo Manning's guest blog on the exhibition at Number One London.
Here's an article on the exhibition from Vanity Fair.
More information on eye miniatures from Antiques Roadshow.
Preview of a scholarly article from Jstor.

I found an artist who will paint an eye portrait, but I think one of us (Amanda???) once found someone else who accepted commissions for eye miniatures.

Have you read (or written) about eye miniatures in any Regency Historicals?

Welcome Maggie Andersen

Today our guest is Maggie Andersen who's paying an afternoon call from Australia via the magic of the internet. Welcome Maggie! Tell us about your book.

The Reluctant Marquess is a Georgian romance. Lord Robert, the Marquess of St. Malin, and Charity Barlow have very different views of marriage. A marriage between a city rake and a country-bred daughter of an academic requires quite a period of adjustment. Charity believes marriage is about love. To Robert marriage is merely an arrangement to produce an heir. He then plans to pack Charity off to one of his country estates. Charity is not the malleable young woman Robert expects her to be. She fights for what she believes in and much conflict ensures.

What drew you to the theme of an arranged marriage?

Writing about married couples interests me. What happens after the wedding? It’s not always the expected happy ending, particularly, when they come from such different worlds. To complicate matters, Lord Robert appears to be carrying a hurt from his past. Charity is a practical woman and sees it as her role to help heal that hurt.

You've also written books set in the Victorian and Regency period. Which is your favorite?

The Regency is my favorite era. I read Georgette Heyer at a young age and loved her. She created such charming worlds, I wanted to keep dipping into them. When I’d read all her books dozens of times, I began to create my own.

Did you come across anything surprising in your research for the book?

My mother was an artist, and instilled in me a love of art at an early age. I’m interested in art history particularly. When researching for The Reluctant Marquess, I was interested to discover that during the reigns of the third and fourth Georges it was seen to be unfeminine for a woman to do anything with professional skill. The only career open to a Georgian woman was marriage. She would have considered a loveless marriage infinitely more respectable than the pursuit of a profession. If a suitor presented himself it was her duty to love him, or at any rate marry him. The kitchen and the nursery were her sole spheres of action. She was expected to treat her men-folk with respectful admiration and accept their judgments in a spirit of childlike faith and obey them with unquestioning submission.

Women who wished to be creative were forced to invent a kind of ‘mock art’. Modeling in clay was seen as unfeminine but modeling in wax or bread a feminine occupation. Filigree and mosaic work was copied in coloured paper, Dresden china of rice paper, flowers of lambswool.

Frustrated by the conflict in her marriage and how little of interest she could do as a marchioness, Charity rebels in a small way by carving in wood, a skill she learned from her grandfather, which was a distinctly masculine pursuit.

What's your writing process?

I rough out the plot first, although that may change and go off in tangents. How the story ends stays fairly fixed in my mind. Names are important, I seldom change them. They help to shape the characters in some mystical way. I edit what I have written the following day which carries me on to the next scene.

What do you like to read/which writers have influenced you?

Georgette Heyer was a great influence as I’ve mentioned. Victoria Holt’s Victorian Gothic romances inspired me to write Victorian mysteries. Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca was just marvelous. I think my alpha heroes developed from reading these writers. My favorite contemporary historical romance writers are Eloisa James, Joanna Bourne and Deanna Raybourn.

What's next for you?

I have two books coming out later this year. A Baron in Her Bed, (Book One, The Spies of Mayfair Series) set in the Regency era, is released in September. Book Two and Three will be released next year. The Folly at Falconbridge Hall, a late Victorian mystery romance, is released in December.

I have a copy of The Reluctant Marquess to giveaway (world-wide, print or e-book).

The Riskies will pick a winner on Monday evening, March 19, from participants. So let's chat. If you were a Georgian heroine, which artistic pursuit would you choose?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today is St. Patrick's Day, a day where people with--and without--Irish heritage take time to drink green beer and shamrock shakes.

Right. Go on with your bad selves and all.

So anyway, speaking of self-identification, I've been revising my Regency-set historical, and my heroine is a vicar's daughter, raised in a small village, who ends up marrying a marquess.

Imagine how off-kilter one would feel entering into the ton; not only would you not speak in the same accent, you wouldn't know the families, nor the customs, nor even how to behave during a dance (I do presume she knows how to dance in the first place). It'd be like being a brand-new entrant to a family that had known each other forever, had their own in-jokes, vernacular, and habits. She has to ask herself if she wants to continue to belong to this world, given she feels so out of place and knows her husband has married far beneath him.

Of course you know how it ends, but meanwhile--what do you do when encountering those incredibly awkward situations? What should my snappish, smart heroine do?

Signs of Spring

It’s been a mild winter, weather-wise, but a rough one for my psyche. I won’t go into the details, but some stressors I’ve been dealing with should ease up in the next month or so, and I’ll have more time to write and do other fun things.

Seeing my crocuses looking this gorgeous (with my Ice Follies narcissi not far behind) helps me feel hopeful! Also being able to paint my toenails and wear sandals again.

I’m also looking forward to a retreat my writing buddies and I are planning for next month. As in past years, we’ve rented a house near Taughannock Falls on Cayuga Lake, where we always do a lot of writing, interspersed with walks through the park or kayaking on the lake. In the evenings, it’s romantic historical films, wine and chocolate. I can’t wait!

Below are pictures I took last year of the falls and of a patch of wildflowers we admired on one of our walks. Later, I discovered that this plant is called bloodroot, for its red sap which was used as a dye by Native American artists. We also see trilliums, trout lilies, Dutchman’s breeches and many other wildflowers during our spring retreats.



















Anyone else into flowers, wild or otherwise? What are you looking forward to this spring?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

Downton Thumbs Down

I am immensely relieved that Downton Abbey is over for the moment, although I am sure it will be back with a vengeance, bigger, better and all the rest of it. I tried to like Downton Abbey and I couldn't. I tried to watch it and couldn't stomach a full episode although one time I did fall asleep. Yet I was hit upon all sides by cries of adulation and delight and the declaration of it being the best and greatest thing to hit Romancelandia. Ever.

Now considering I couldn't/wouldn't watch the whole thing I know I'm not qualified to give an unbiased opinion. But here are the things I found objectionable:

1. A waste of good acting talent. Hugh Bonneville can do more than utter Brideshead Revisited-type platitudes; Maggie Smith can do more than throw out a one-liner. I've no objection to good actors making a quick buck, but they must have very bored and for the most part the script was dreadful.

2. As the granddaughter of household servants and someone who's researched servants for several years, I found the oversentimentalized, syrupy representation of employer-servant relationships offensive. Some households may have been run on such democratic and caring/sharing principles, but most probably weren't.

3. History cleanup. Oh dear oh dear. After attempting to watch an episode which included a world war one scene, I ended up at the history channel watching a series about archaeologists excavating the trenches. They'd found human remains, pitiful bones in the clay. The contrast between this and the sanitized "war is hell" of Downton was shocking and made me feel very sad.

4. People cleanup. Such nice clean polished servants. Really? No red hands? No stained clothes? No sweat?

It may be fun but it's not history and it's not the truth, tho I will grant you the clothes are nice even if the women are too skinny to carry them off. They liked their babes a bit more bootilicious then. What I find interesting is that the series was compared favorably to Upstairs Downstairs, which for the most part worked, even though it too was sentimental and twisted history around. I wonder if it was because of the origins of the show, the brainchild of Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh (who both appeared on it). Fay Weldon wrote the first episode. But it appears the show from the beginning had a feminist, definitely downstairs focus, which Downton never really had.

If you haven't seen them, Red Nose Day (a comedy fundraising day in the UK) did two episodes of Uptown Downstairs Abbey: here and here.

And here's some more fun stuff, first a list of signs for travelers, and if you have a yearning to own a real Austen-BBC costume the Jane Austen Centre of Bath is selling some on ebay.

If you want to share unfashionable negative feelings about Downton Abbey, this is a safe place to do so. Or tell us about a tv series that got it right.

We're all in Trouble Because I've been Thinking

Here's what I've been thinking.

1. It's important, to me, to know a lot about the historical era I write about (The Regency).

2. Some things were invented/discovered/thought of AFTER the Regency

3. People haven't changed all that much.

4. People today have been affected by things invented/discovered/thought of AFTER the Regency.

5. Because of No. 4, people in the Regency used/believed/needed things we don't today.

So. If you're going to write historical fiction, you should know about the things invented/discovered/thought of AFTER the Regency so you don't have your hero driving a car a wee bit before Henry Ford started mass producing the automobile.

Number 5 is interesting, though. There's all these things we know nothing about that people in the Regency used every day. And it shaped their world and their view of the world.

How you interact with the spaces around you is different if there's no electricity. When you enter a darkened room, you don't automatically reach for the light switch and speed along into the room on your merry way.

Instead you have to go a little slower, maybe. You, or your servant, might be carrying a light source already. But it's not as bright as electric light, right?

And if you don't have your light source with you, then there should be one by the door. Where else would you put it? It has to be by the door so you don't kill yourself walking about in the dark.
 
Since the room is darkened (assuming you didn't bring your light with you) you have to pause to light a candle or a a lamp or something else before you proceed.

Now you're carrying something flammable.... I'm not aware of non-flammable light sources until electricty came along (no sun, doh, the room is darkened, besides, the sun IS a flammable object)  you need to be paying at least a little bit of attention to how and where you're walking.

Your light source is also unlikely to light the entire room the way turning on the electric light does. Again, you probably have to watch your step.

We know there were clever ways to increase the amount of light in a room, mirrors, for example.

I really do sometimes just sit and think about all the ways things were different and how that shaped what people did. In the dark I can proceed to the light switch and flick. Instantaneous light fills the room. Now I can walk quickly to my destination. Also, I am not wearing layers and layers of clothes.... I am less encumbered by my clothes, I'm pretty sure, than a Regency lady was by hers.

I do my thing and turn out the light on my way out.

The Regency woman is either still carrying her light source or still followed by the servant with the light or is headed where she won't need the light. But the light needed in the darkened room can't be disposed of with a flick. Someone has to deal with that.

That what I was thinking lately. About all those extra things people had to do or think about. More steps. More work. More time.

Thank you Mr. Edison. And Mr. Tesla.

Tuesday Deadline Deadlock

So this week I am on a very tight deadline. Basically, I have been trying to write a book in about a month--after writing a book in about two months. Over Christmas. This I do not recommend, but it is one way of making sure things get done. :) This week I'm trying to get as much done as I can toward the March 27th deadline so I can take Saturday off for St. Patrick's Day, so there is no room left in my head for blogposts. I have NO idea what to talk about.

But my friend Kathy Wheeler has a great blog post up about managing time, and making time for things that are important to us. So I'm borrowing a topic from her and telling you what I've been doing lately...

1) Writing (obv), while not taking breaks to eat Peanut Butter Eggs (the joys of deadline+Easter candy time) and watch Dr. Oz in order to freak about about new germy things I never thought about before

2) Thinking about washing some of the laundry that has mysteriously spread out from the laundry room onto the kitchen floor, but it will probably have to wait until I turn in the book. By then it will have taken over the living room too, and swallowed up the cats

3) I did make time to go to yoga class. When I skip it (which I'm always tempted to do) I get all twisted up into the shape of my desk chair, and then there is also the matter of the Peanut Butter Eggs, so exercise is always a must. I don't want to finish the book, only to find that my favorite "going out and celebrating" dress no longer fits...

4) Almost setting fire to my kitchen. Unlike Kathy, who managed to get the gas stove under control, I tried to broil a steak in the oven and heard a strange crackling noise. When I opened the door, you guessed it, flames shot out. Luckily I put it out quickly, but the house smelled for days afterward, the dogs have only quit giving me scared looks, and I realized everyone is happier (and safer) when I just get Thai takeout. Yay for shrimp pad thai and chardonnay!

And the pic--well, that will probably be me, giving in to exhaustion when I hit "send" on the WIP!

What have you been doing this week?? What are some of your time-management tips?

The Traffic of Women's Hair

Somewhere (here, perhaps?) recently I learned of a new-to-me website, Hillman's Hyperlinked and Searchable Chambers' Book of Days. What a treasure this is!

The Chambers' Book of Days, 1869 version, is organized according to calendar days and offers tidbits of history associated with those days. The tidbits might be of events or biographies, and also includes important births and deaths on the date. But it also contains some less momentous historical incidents.

Here's one from March 12, 1825, titled The Traffic of Women's Hair:

As a rule, the women of England do not sell their hair. There is, however, in England, a large and regular demand for this article, to make those supposititious adornments which one sees in every hair-dresser’s window. It is stated that a hundred thousand pounds’ weight of human hair is required to supply the demand of the English market. It is mainly brought from the continent, where women of the humbler rank may be said to cherish their hair with a view to selling it for money. Light hair comes mostly from Belgium and Germany, dark from France and Italy. There is a Dutch company, the agents of which make annual visits to the towns and villages of Germany, buying the tresses of poor women. 

In France the trade is mostly in the hands of agents, sent out by large firms at Paris. These agents, going chiefly to the Breton villages, take with them a supply of silks, laces, ribbons, haberdashery, and cheap jewellery, which they barter with the peasant women and girls for their tresses. Mr. Trollope, while travelling in Brittany, saw much of this singular hair-cropping going on; as the women in that province all wear close-fitting caps, the difference between the cropped and the uncropped was not so perceptible as it otherwise would have been. The general price is said to vary from about one franc to five francs for a head of hair half a pound to a pound in weight: but choice specimens occasionally command more than their weight in silver, owing to the eager competition of buyers to obtain them.

In England, something of this kind is going on in country villages, but not (it is supposed) to any great extent. A feeling of womanly pride rebels against it. Occasionally, however, evidence peeps out to show that poor Englishwomen know that there is a market for such a commodity. One instance of a ludicrous kind occurred at a metropolitan police-court some years ago.

On March 12^th, 1825, the court was thronged by a number of poor women, who seemed excited and uncomfortable, and who whispered among themselves as to who should be the spokeswoman to tell the tale which all evidently desired should be told. At length one of them, with a manner half ashamed, told the magistrate that one Thomas Rushton, a barber, called at her poor abode one day, and asked politely to look at her hair. Whether she guessed his errand, is not clear: but she took off her cap at his bidding. He professed to be in raptures with the beauty of her hair, and offered her a guinea for it. Being in straitened circumstances she accepted the offer. The rogue at once took out his scissors, and cut off the whole of her hair. ‘See, your worship,’ said she, ‘what he has done.’ His worship did see, and found that there were only little stumps of hair left like pig’s bristles. The fellow put her hair in his hat, put the hat on his head, and ran off without giving her a single coin. All the other women in the court had been defrauded of their tresses in a similar way, and probably all on the same day—for the rogue could not afford to wait until the exploit got wind. The poor women declared that they had been rendered quite miserable when they came to show their husbands their cropped heads—which may well be imagined.

It may be added that, about a hundred years ago, when false hair was perhaps more in use than it is now, a woman residing in a Scotch burgh used to get a guinea from time to time for her tresses, which were of a bright golden hue.

 Being someone who has been traumatized more than once by a mere bad haircut, I can well imagine how these poor woman felt. To have your hair stolen must have been a very painful thing.

In 10th grade I remember telling a hairdresser that I wanted to grow out the layers in my hair. She took that to mean I wanted to match the shortest layer and I wound up with a haircut that resembled a little dutch boy. Oh, the trauma!!!!!! I had to send my sister onto the school bus ahead of me to warn my friends not to make fun of it. 

What was your worst haircut?

Historical Series

So I have mentioned my day job, which is being the Community Manager at HeroesandHeartbreakers.com. One of my primary responsibilities is to assign blog topics, and to see what's working and what's not, and follow up in response.

One of the things I knew prior to starting the job--duh!--is that paranormal romance is the most popular genre. Not only that, once we started gathering a relatively large community, I saw that PNR posts inspire the most passion.

So why is that? It's not like historical fans aren't passionate, nor that they don't visit the site and read the posts. They just don't get all hot under the collar (and other places...) the way PNR fans do.

One of the reasons why, I think, is that although historicals are released in series, they don't have ongoing cliffhangers. Or if they do, it's not the Fate of the World that is in balance, but perhaps discovering who a spy is, or who stole the jewels, or who someone's parents are, or whatever. Not earth-shattering stuff.

I also think that historicals, once the HEA is achieved, don't have many places to go; in PNRs, there is always a world to save, or demons to kill, or vampires to stake. A couple can BE a couple in subsequent books and still be interesting. How interesting would it be to see Lord and Lady Whomever live their lives, have great sex, and be all spoony about each other?

I have to admit, as someone who gets bored once the couple is happily together--even at the end of the book--it wouldn't be interesting at all.

There are historical mysteries featuring ongoing couples, but their working relationship is more important than their romance, at least in the ones I've read. They're not as passionate anymore because they have to concentrate on solving the mystery.

So--any thoughts about how a historical series could spur on the kind of passionate response a PNR series has?

Megan

Carrot or Stick?

Recently a friend sent me a link to stickk.com. According to the website, StickK is a method for setting and achieving goals developed by Yale economists. You make a commitment contract (for exercise, weight loss, writing, or just about any other goal) and if you don’t meet your goal, you donate a sum of money you designate to a cause of your choice.

It got me thinking about my work-in-progress and the snail’s pace at which it is progressing. In my defense, I’ve been really trying to work for an hour every day. When I miss, it’s usually due to issues related to my disabled husband, the kids or the house. (It is NOT a good thing when you are on a first-name basis with your plumbing and heating guys.) But there are days when I’m tired and the words don’t come.

Although it sounds like StickK works for a lot of people, I’m not sure it would be right for me. I already have a tendency to beat myself up, so maybe I don’t need a program like that to do it to me.

One thing I have learned helps my productivity is seeing my progress visually. When I participated in National Novel Writing Month a few years ago, I loved logging my daily wordcount and watching the graph update. So this week, I decided to look for something similar. Here’s my progress bar from storytoolz.com.



Unfortunately, life intervened on Wednesday and Thursday and so I haven’t had the fun of updating my wordcount. As for today, a dear friend and I are taking a mental health day and going for what is probably our last hurrah of the season on the ski slopes.

Next week I will be productive. I promise!

How about you? What sort of motivation do you find works best?

Also, Heaven Sent is my working title, but I’m worried that it sounds too much like an inspirational romance. What do you think?

Elena
http://www.elenagreene.com/
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

Another Visit to Montpelier

Five years ago (yes, this blog has been going for that long and more) I blogged about visiting Montpelier, James Madison's house in Virginia. Last weekend I finally got back to see the house in its restored glory. I was worried I wouldn't like it as much as I did last time when it was a construction zone, down to lathe and plaster. I remember standing in the drawing room and feeling shivers down my spine when the docent said that Jefferson, Lafayette, and Madison had all been in this room together, and that analysis of nail holes gave them clues as to where Madison had hung his paintings. Now, with the room fully restored, and the paintings (or reproductions thereof) hung, it was the full reveal--beautifully done but lacking that leap of the imagination the room demanded in its unrestored state.

No pics allowed in the house, but I took a few of the outside. Here's the view looking west toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, barely visible on the horizon, the final frontier of the republic at that time.





When Lafayette visited he gave Madison a cedar seedling which grew into this magnificent tree, and one of Madison's black walnuts survives next to it.

The garden created by the Dupont family, who were the last private owners of the house, is quite lovely, even when there's not a whole lot in bloom. It's full of bits and pieces they picked up in Europe (ah those were the days).

There's a lot of interest now in the slaves who worked on Madison's estate and excavations have revealed the buildings where they lived and worked. Here are the reconstructions of those buildings. One of their most famous slaves was Paul Jennings, who did the heavy lifting when Dolley Madison rescued the Gilbert Stuart painting of George Washington from the White House when the British invaded. He was also present at Madison's death. His memoirs, A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison are available on google.

The restoration is not yet complete. We saw a room full of odds and ends that may or may not have been owned by Madison. Madison didn't mark his books, astonishingly, and when Dolley sold the house in 1844 to her son from an earlier marriage, he sold stuff right and left to pay off gambling debts. There was also a room where the original plaster/lathe was revealed and an exhibit of costumes worn by Eve Best as Dolley Madison in the PBS American Experience episode.

Tell me about your favorite historical sites or places you'd like to visit.

Coming up For Air

Yesterday I turned in my revisions for Not Proper Enough, the sequel to Not Wicked Enough, which I hope you have all rushed out to buy, because I could use another couple of sales, let me tell you.

Whenever an editor says to me something along the lines of "My revisions are really light, I don't think they'll take long," I kind of die inside because that inevitably means there are 3-4 offhand comments that require massive rewriting to properly address. Likewise, I've had revision letters that apologize for the huge changes requested and then when you look at them, the huge changes take a couple sentences to fix. Literally.

This time was an in between case. Yes, the revisions were thought to be light but I revised A LOT on my own and to support the revisions requested. Plus the day job required a kind of dreadful amount of my time and attention, so wow. It's been a tough 2 weeks.

The good news is, as I was working through the MS, I kept thinking, gee, this is WAY better than I remember. And way hotter.

I am brain dead mostly.

And now, as the kitty sez. We all wait for the awesomeness that is Not Proper Enough. September 2012.