Monthly Archives: March 2008

Words We Really Like

Updated on March 19, 2008 by Elena Greene

I like words.

I know — shocking revelation for a writer to make. But there it is. I like words.

And some words, I really like…either for their sound, or their meaning, or some strange essence they possess…

Today, words that fall into my “really like” column include:

deciduous

concatenation

lucidity

paraphrase

plethora

soothing

bombast

peregrination

shutters

How about you? What words do you like to say, read or write, due to their inner (or outer) beauty?

All opinions welcome!

Cara
Cara King, author of the soothing and rarely bombastic MY LADY GAMESTER, a book that does not contain the words “deciduous” or “concatenation”

Everyone Is Irish On St Patrick’s Day

Updated on March 17, 2008 by Diane Gaston

Growing up, I always loved St. Patrick’s Day with its celebration of all things Irish. To me, the Irish people were plucky, brave and proud–survivors of terrible adversity. I lapped up tales of the potato famines, of how the Irish emigrated to America, and of how they battled discrimination when they landed. I cheered the triumph of Irish Americans in our society. Countrywide celebration of St. Patrick’s Day is evidence of a hard battle won.

I was, therefore, very proud of my Irish heritage. Whenever I heard my mother’s maiden name spoken, I could envision the rich, green countryside of our ancestral home.

I was well into adulthood when I happened to ask my mother and aunt, “During which potato famine did our ancestors flee Ireland?”

Their response:

“Ireland?”
Long pause.
“Well, I suppose we might have an Irish relative somewhere but we came from Alsace-Lorraine.”

I was devastated.
Not only was I not Irish, but I had concocted a history for myself that was totally false. How could I do that?
I was writing fiction even before I knew it!

Nonetheless, what I love about the Irish and Ireland I still love about them, even if the connection is only in my heart. I like to hint at the attitude about the Irish during the Regency. There was a lot simmering under the surface.

I tried to show a little of this in Innocence & Impropriety My hero and heroine of that book are Irish.

Many important figures in English history around the Regency time period have Irish roots. Castlereagh and Wellington, for example, were descended from Irish landowners, although they were anglicized protestants, more English than Irish, you might say. There were also several Irish literary figures within a hundred years or so of the Regency, also anglicized protestants. Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Bram Stoker, W. B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, to name a few.

It will be exciting to read Amanda’s Grand Central books set in the time of the Irish rebellion, even if we do have to wait until 2010. In the meantime, we can get our fill of Irish Medievals from Michelle Willingham.

By the way, go to Harlequin and click on the clover. You can purchase Michelle’s Her Warrior King for 40% off.

Can you think of any other Irish Historical romances that we should put on our TBR piles?

And who out there is Irish today?
I am!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Her Irish Warrior, Innocence and Impropriety, Saint Patrick's Day | 15 Replies

Early St. Patrick’s Day!

Updated on March 15, 2008 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Saturday, everyone! St. Patrick’s Day is not actually until Monday, of course, but I’m off to the St. Patrick’s Day Ball tonight (with my black and white dress, plus a green chiffon shawl and a big fake emerald ring–thanks for the accessories advice last week!). Plus I got an early St. P’s Day present this week. I sold a trilogy to Grand Central Publishing!!!

Now, how does this fit in with the Shamrocks and Slip Jigs theme? The series, tentatively called “The Daughters of Ireland,” is set in Ireland and London around the events of the 1798 Rebellion. I’m very excited to get to tackle a book set in Ireland amid so much drama and upheaval–Ireland is very big in the McCabe Family. It seems like a place just meant for romance and passion.

Book One, called Countess of Scandal (but which will probably be something different later) comes out sometime in 2010. It features the first of the three Blacknall sisters, Elizabeth (Eliza). She is a young, rich widowed countess, the daughter of a wealthy Anglo-Irish family. But she has a secret–she writes seditious pamphlets for the United Irishmen, and hides fugitives in the cellars of her vast Dublin townhouse. She’s devoted to Irish freedom, but a serious problem pops up in the person of her childhood sweetheart, Will Denton, the son of her family’s equally wealthy neighbors. He left her when she was young to join the Army and go off to the West Indies, breaking her heart. Now he’s back–and he’s Major William Denton, sent to Ireland to quell the growing unrest. He knows Eliza is up to something dangerous, and is just as determined to stop her as she is to fulfill her mission. If they can keep from falling hopelessly in love all over again.

I am very excited about this series! Of course, now I have to actually get to work and write them…

And, in the spirit of All Things Irish, here are a few facts I found about Guinness (to go with your corned beef and cabbage):
–Arthur Guinness started brewing the famous stout in Dublin in 1759, having purchased a dormant brewery with 100 pounds from his godfather’s will. He signed a 9000 year lease on that brewery, with an annual rent of 45 pounds (still in effect, I would think)
–10 million glasses of Guinness are drunk every day around the world
–A pint of Guinness Draught has fewer calories than a pint of 2% milk or a pint of orange juice
–The Guiness Storehouse in Dublin is one of their most-visited tourist attractions, with over 750,000 visitors every year

So, Cheers to everyone this St. Patrick’s Day! I’m so happy to share my news with all the Riskies! What are your plans for the holiday?

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 20 Replies

My Mind Has Blown

Updated on March 14, 2008 by megan

Last week, I talked about word-of-mouth and two books that topped the AAR Annual Poll. So, as promised, last week I started to read If His Kiss Is Wicked by Jo Goodman.

So now my mind is blown. I’m on page 152–152!!–and the hero and heroine have not had any sexual contact, not a kiss, even!

AND Jo Goodman has a few sections that seem to be in double point-of-view at the same time, in other words, you can hear both sides of the h/h’s brain. Double Mind-Blowing!

Common wisdom, by which I mean every single writers’ workshop, says the current trend is to have sex, or a sexual encounter, within about the first ten pages. Also, agents and editors and writers will all warn about multiple POVs, following it up with the Nora Caveat, by which they mean “Nora Roberts has multiple POVs, but she can do it, you can’t.”

And this book got tied for the Best Romance in 2007?!? Yow! I don’t argue as to its merit, it is excellent, and compelling, and has intriguing characters and a great set-up, etc., but I am amazed that a book that broke two of the most steadfast Romance Writing Rules won.

So, yay! Yay for Rule-breakers! Yay for Adventurous Readers! And for you Adventurous Readers, what rule do you like to see broken? For Adventurous Writers, what rules do you like to break?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Megan | 14 Replies

Herschel revisited

Updated on March 13, 2008 by Janet Mullany

I found out just today, that (1) it was a Thursday and therefore my day to post and (2) on March 13, 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus. This is very fortuitous, because the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath is one of my very favorite places–I blogged about it long ago on September 8, 2005, when we were all brand spanking new here; and Elena blogged about Herschel’s sister Charlotte a couple of years ago. Search the blog for Herschel and you’ll find all sorts of references–his name just keeps coming up.

So who was Herschel and why was he so important? In the words of Patrick Moore, patron of the Herschel Museum, William Herschel was the first man to give a reasonably correct picture of the shape of our star-system or galaxy; he was the best telescope-maker of his time, and possibly the greatest observer who ever lived.

And his achievements were all the more impressive because Herschel, a refugee from Hanover (Germany) was self-taught and became an astronomer more or less by accident. He was a musician by training, who received a telescope in lieu of payment, looked the instrument over and decided he could create a better one.

The Museum, at 19 New King Street in Bath, is a modest building in the sort of street where artisans lived. It’s beautifully and faithfully restored to the period, and filled with Herschel’s telescopes and books. Sadly, the Octagon Chapel nearby, one of Bath’s most fashionable churches in the eighteenth century, where Herschel held the position of organist, was closed and badly in need of restoration. (Or at least it was when I last visited two years ago. The organ itself, pictured here, no longer exists. And people in the museum were hopping mad that the city was pouring money into the new Thermae Bath Spa.) Does anyone know what the latest on the Octagon Chapel is? Jane Austen–you may have heard of her–was one of the many visitors to Bath who attended services there.

But back to Herschel. The small house on New King Street was flooded with visitors including the King, after whom Herschel named the new planet, Georgium Sidus, but the name never caught on. He was awarded the Copley medal and elected a member of the Royal Society, and then appointed Astronomer Royal in 1782, which necessitated a move to Slough, near Windsor. His descendants, some of whom were also astronomers, lived in the same house until the mid-twentieth century. Guess what happened to the house…

How do you feel about preservation vs. modernization? If you were in charge of a historic city, what would your priorities be? How would you reconcile commerce with history?