Monthly Archives: January 2008

Rebinding Old Books

Updated on January 21, 2008 by Diane Gaston

Remember me mentioning my Annual Registers? Annual Registers were compilations of important information of the previous year: world events, politics, news stories, births, deaths, marriages, promotions, even poetry sometimes. I wrote a bit more about them at History Hoydens last week.

When we both were very new Regency authors, my friend Kathryn Caskie called me to say that an antiquarian bookseller had several Annual Registers he was willing to sell, enough for each of us to have a complete set of 1810 to 1820. Was I interested? Was I!!! He sold them for $20 each, which was a bargain for us and a steal for him, because they were in such bad shape he probably would have thrown them away.

Here’s what they looked like, covers falling off, binding torn or missing, tape holding them together:
I priced rebinding, but it was much too expensive and I couldn’t justify spending more money on these books. They were usable and that was enough for me.

Then my husband’s friend came to visit. He’s a printer, which I always knew, but I didn’t know he was also a bookbinder! He had an old binding device and materials which he gave me with instructions on how to rebind my books!

Today I mustered the courage to give it a try. Here’s how I did it.

Step 1. I gathered the materials. (This is my dining room)

Step 2. I removed the old binding (I’m going to use that rolling pin)

Step 3. Next I lined up the cardboard.

Step 4. Then I glued it down and used the rolling pin to press it down and force out all the air bubbles. (This is my second try, using black cardboard)

Step 5. I glued on the inside lining and positioned the binding glue strip.

Step 6. I then placed the pages in the new binding and put it in the machine.

Finished!

I’m a little sad to let the old binding go, especially on the books that have the least damage, but now I’ll be able to handle the books without them falling apart and crumbling in my hands and without the pages coming loose.

Have you ever rebound books? Or have you ever taken a chance on doing any kind of craft that you never did before?

(I can’t wait until tomorrow and Cara’s discussion of Northanger Abbey!)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Annual Register, binding books, Kathryn Caskie | 18 Replies

Prom Night!

Updated on January 19, 2008 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

I don’t watch many reality TV shows. I’ve never gotten sucked into Survivor or American Idol or The Bachelor, but when I do find one I like I tend to get a wee bit obsessed. And the two I love are Dancing With the Stars (sadly not on right now!) and Project Runway. Last week’s episode was wondrously fabulous! It involved making prom dresses for picky 17 year olds! Woo hoo!

I didn’t agree with the winner or the loser of that challenge, but that was beside the point (though I have to say, honestly Christian, what were you thinking??). The point was designing a beautiful dress that was also age-appropriate, and also pleasing and flattering to the client (even if the client was a bit of a looney). It made me think of my own prom dress, and the terrible angst involved in shopping for it, and finding the right shoes and jewelry and hairdo. And the great joy of talking it over with all my friends every day for a month before the Big Night! (The talking and shopping were actually more fun than the actual prom itself, but that’s another story…)

It made me wonder what was out there for today’s Prom Girl, so I did a Google search for ‘prom dresses.’ Here are a few I found, along with various historical figures who might have worn them.

Catherine the Great

Emma Hamilton

Isabella of Spain

Marie Antoinette

Caroline Lamb

Elizabeth I

This one I’m not sure about–who do you think would wear it?

What was your prom like? Did you get your dream dress/date? What would you wear if you were going to prom now???

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 27 Replies

The Power Of The Internet

Updated on January 18, 2008 by megan

Elena blogged about the Cassie Edwards situation earlier this week; the whole kerfuffle came to light because of the internet: The Smart Bitches discussed their opinion of Ms. Edwards’ body of work, someone wondered just why it was the way it was, they did some googling, and voila, accusations of plagiarism ensue. It seems quite clear that it would not have happened without the internet. Who would have found those old books and compared them if it meant hours and hours in dusty libraries?

Your opinion of what Ms. Edwards may or may not have done aside, I think this situation, this possibility, is a good thing–transparency of information is fabulous, whether I’m searching for a butternut squash recipe, or want to see 1814 walking gowns, or a Biblical quote for my vicar’s daughter to spout during an argument with the hero.

The internet is also an incredible word-of-mouth vessel. For example, a blog-friend, Kristie, has been on a Crusade to get people to watch the BBC version of Elizabeth Gaskell‘s North & South. I had heard of it from an offline writing friend, but hadn’t gotten around to watching it, especially since my local library didn’t have it. Thanks to Kristie, who lit a fire under my posterior, I got it from the New York Public Library and watched it this week.

I have to say, thank goodness for the internet. I wouldn’t have known about the splendor of North & South, and the compellingly dark charisma of the hero, played by Richard Armitage, without it. Any fan of romance, and history, and alpha-sexy Mr. Broody-Pants-type heroes should try to see it.

In other ‘What has the Internet Done For Me?’ testify stories, my husband and I are renovating a house right now (fingers crossed: March 1), and we’ve done TONS of research on the web: Paints, stoves, refrigerators, lighting, building codes, etc. Would we even have a clue about anything without it? Unlikely. Not unless we wanted to spend tons of money on reference books or loads of hours in that same dusty libraries.

I find recommendations for books, food, movies, foxy guys, connect with friends, meet new friends (hi, Kristie! hi, Cindy!), introduce myself and my writing to potential readers, and have made some lasting connections that have escalated beyond the keyboard (hi, Myretta! hi, Tracy!).

And, of course, without the Internet we wouldn’t all be gathered here, sharing a love of Regency romances.

What do you love most about the web?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 19 Replies

My yearly rant and more of the same…

Updated on January 17, 2008 by Janet Mullany

One of our best-known newspapers wants to do a story for St. Valentine’s Day on romance writers’ bedrooms. Now it is for the Home section, but even so…read the whole entertaining mess at Smart Bitches.

Why do romance writers (and by implication their readers) suffer so in the media? Why are these stereotypes still around? Can we really keep blaming this pink old lady and her dogs? [insert mental pic of Barbara Cartland and her Pekinese here, because Blogger will not let me do the real thing. Thanks]

Here’s my theory. It’s the cult of the storyteller. This is why I find the Cassie Edwards/plagiarism case is so richly ironic. It didn’t matter that Ms. Edwards’s style left something to be desired (to put it mildly) because she was a storyteller. She could spin a tale, tell a story–actually that was debatable–but a lot of people thought so. Somewhere, somehow, a divide developed between those who cared about words and language and those who thought the story mattered the most, when in fact one carries the other.

And now suddenly the words do matter in romance. Unfortunately, they matter because the words in question belonged to someone else.

[mentally insert a fab fairy story illustration here.] The honorable, pre-literate craft of the storyteller relies on the linking catch-phrases–

a year and a day
once upon a time
as I walked out one midsummer morning
they lived happily ever after–

that blend the familiar to the new and unexpected. The mass-market storyteller is allowed, if not encouraged by the industry, to rely on a certain amount of repetition and same-ness; but because storytelling is not a special gather round the fire and eat some more of the mammoth Ug caught occasion, that may result in cliche, staleness, sameness.

So what does this have to do with the lady in pink with the fluffy dogs and diamonds? Why doesn’t romance get respect? It’s not because romance writers are storytellers vs. wordsmiths, or whatever terms you want to use, it’s that romance keeps the divide wide and deep by its insistence that the story is the most important thing, and the only important thing. It is in fact rather like this post where I can’t put the pix in because Blogger is having a bad hair day or something. You know they should be there but they’re not. We know that romance is such a huge market that you can have all sorts of romances and all sorts of writing, but sadly the cliches about the genre and its creators prevail.

It’s a pity it took a drastic case of plagiarism for us to be reminded that the words are important too.