Monthly Archives: May 2010

In Praise of Pencils

Updated on May 6, 2010 by Janet Mullany

Still on hideous deadline and finally taking a day off from the dayjob to write, I found it difficult to pick a topic today. There’s so much going on–an historical general election in the UK, RWA’s national conference change of location to Orlando, FL and why I’m the only person supremely uninterested in the culture of The Mouse, and an announcement.

Oh, okay. The announcement first. I’m taking part in an anthology of Austen-inspired short stories edited by Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose with a bunch of Big Names. It will be published some time in 2011 and that’s about all I know. Exciting!

But now let’s talk about pencils. Yes, pencils. I am supremely grateful to pencils because they are about the only way I can plot, as much as I can plot anything. Pens don’t work, computers definitely don’t, but there’s something about a pencil and paper that just do it for me in terms of working things out, creating schedules or lists–it’s pencils all the way for me, baby. Maybe it has its origins in learning to read and write and draw. Does anyone else suffer from this pencil affliction?

So, pencils in the Regency. England had been a major producer of graphite since the sixteenth century, when the mineral was discovered in England in Borrowdale in the Lake District, and used first to mark sheep. The Borrowdale mine produced the purist graphite in Europe. But graphite was valuable for more than pencils: it was used to line molds to make cannon balls. Graphite was mined under great secrecy and sold under strict conditions in London. There’s a great article at The Regency Redingote, a site I only just discovered today.

At some point in the eighteenth century, the pencil was “invented”–that is, graphite secured between two pieces of wood (cedar), and produced as a cottage industry until the first pencil factory was founded in 1832.

If you’re in Keswick in the Lake District and it’s raining (which it usually is) you can drop into the Cumberland Pencil Museum to learn more and see the biggest pencil in the world.

Does anyone else experience the pencil-creativity phenomenon?
Do you have a favorite writing instrument?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Austenprose, Cumberland Pencil Museum, graphite, pencils | 15 Replies

A Day In The Life – Redux

Updated on May 5, 2010 by carolyn

What an interesting meme Amanda has begun, what with detailing a day in the writing life. Here’s mine.

I’m very tired this week since I have been staying up to 11:00 PM…

4:15 am: Alarm goes off. Oh, Lord. No way. I disturb the cat to re-set the alarm to 5:25 am and skip the gym. I am going to hell. This also means I lose 45 minutes of writing time since I would otherwise have taken the WIP with me to the gym…

5:25 am: I’m up. Shower. Dress, grab lunch for work, make the bed and head out.

5:50 ish: Drive to work. It’s possible I’ve turned off the radio to think about plotting issues with the WIP, but since I am in revisions with murderous deadline, my writing worries are not amenable to mentally drafting scenes as I drive through the wine country. Instead I listen to bad news on the radio and get depressed.

6:25 am to 1:00 pm Day job. Breakfast, lunch (at desk) snack. Database stuff.

1:00 pm: Lunch Hour: Sit in car with MacFang and revise.

2:00 pm: back to day job.

3:15 pm-ish: drive home. I turn off the radio and think about the WIP instead of revisions. Bad me.

3:55 pm: Arrive home. Determine that progeny has made it home safely and ask whether he has homework. May or may not need to speak sternly about NOT waiting until the last minute to write a paper or study for a test. Depending on the day of the week, I may be taking progeny to tennis lessons or his math tutor. If I think about this I get annoyed that I take my son to a “tutor” because the school is fine with him sitting in geometry doing NOTHING because he did geometry on his own ages ago. Instead, apparently, he does his homework or helps the other students. I pay to get him into Math that doesn’t bore him silly. Sigh. If it’s math day I sit in the car and revise. If it’s a tennis day I sit in the car and revise. If it’s Tuesday or Friday, I sit in my room and revise. If it’s Monday, I probably have to go grocery shopping THEN sit in car and revise. Return home with Son.

5:00 – 6:00 ish: cook dinner (unless it’s late tennis day, in which case, son got a burrito on the way home. Feed progeny. Also feed the dogs. Progeny and I talk about the funnies, politics or school, or his friends etc. Or else I suffer through eye-rolling from him because I am such a lame parent to even ask about his life. Every now and then it’s apparent that he is more politically aware than the eye-rolling would suggest.

6:00 pm-10:00 or 11:00: Possibly making sure son is getting his homework done or helping him study French. Doing laundry. Also making sure elderly parents are well, make note of household supplies in need of replenishment. Petting the cat, the dog etc. Checking email etc. In between revising. If I get done early enough, I might read a bit before I fall asleep. I might read anyway just to wind down from the revisons.

There are no Kit-kats in my day because if there were I would eat the whole bag the same day.

There you have it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Glamor, The Writing Life | 9 Replies

Winner of Mistress by Mistake

Updated on May 4, 2010 by Janet Mullany

And the winner of a signed copy of Mistress by Mistake is…

Julie!

Julie, please send your snailmail address to riskiesATyahoo.com to receive your prize.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged contest winner, Mistress by Mistake | 1 Reply

A Day In The Life Of An Author (Plus Title Help)

Updated on May 4, 2010 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Hello everyone! First a bit of good news–Countess of Scandal is finally available in ebook. Check it out here!

A couple months ago, my day job was the victim of budget cuts, and since then I’ve been living the life of the Stay At Home Author. How is that, you ask? Well, terribly glam of course. I wear evening gowns all day and lounge around on my Victorian chaise eating raspberry truffles from Belgium while my secretaries jot down my story ideas. Not. (Except the truffle part. Except usually they’re Fun Size Kit Kats). It’s not bad, though. I get to slob around in my pajamas until long after lunch.

So let’s take a look at a typical day in the life of an author! Say, it’s Thursday:

1) Wake up because dogs are yelling to be fed. Was having a lovely dream of walking on a Greek beach with Javier Bardem, but now that’s gone. Stumble around making tea and putting Kibbles in bowls. Eat a yogurt and a Kit Kat while reading email, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon rankings, Go Fug Yourself, and Cake Wrecks, plus doing some Very Important Research at ShirtlessActors.com. (Please note–this is sadly not a real place, as far as I know. But I do often Google “Richard Armitage shirtless” or “James McAvoy shirtless” to see if something new pops up…)

2) An hour is gone??? How did that happen? Must get the day’s page quota done. I’m working on Laurel McKee’s third book Lady of Seduction (June 2011!) and have about 80 pages or so left to go, plus fill-ins and revisions, with only (gulp!) less than a month to do it. Write one page, wonder if I should check my email to see if something Terribly Important has come up in the last 20 minutes. There hasn’t. Back to the book.

3) Lunchtime! A healthy chicken and greens pita–and a Kit Kat. Or two. Email, shower, dogs walked, real clothes put on (or at least yoga pants and a tee shirt). Should I wrote some more–or watch General Hospital?

4) Laundry and research on next book (an Elizabethan theater story with a sexy Renaissance actor/playwright/spy hero. Must Google “Henry Cavill shirtless” for inspiration). Fiddle around with YA idea. Eat a Kit Kat.

5) Now, should I go to yoga class or watch Oprah? Sadly realize if I really want to fit into my RWA conference clothes in July I must go to yoga, even if Nate is doing a kitchen remodel today…

6) My triangle pose is pitifully sloppy. Stop at China King for takeaway dinner on the way home from yoga. Keeping those RWA dresses in mind get steamed shrimp and snow peas instead of lemon chicken and egg roll. Followed by Kit Kats. Can’t understand why dress won’t fasten all the way up the back. Those are “Fun Size” Kit Kats! They’re tiny!

7) Feed dogs their dinner, think about writing more, watch Vampire Diaries instead (I do like “intense, tortured Stefan” a lot!). Call mother back. Make plans with friends for weekend. Read part of a novel. Eat a Kit Kat. Day Over.

See, I told you! Wild glamour all the time. What is your typical day like? What’s your favorite “fun size” candy bar?

And now a very important question for everyone. I desperately need a title for the Elizabethan theater story (it seems Shakespeare in Love is already taken, and the story isn’t about Shakespeare anyway!). Any ideas???

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 17 Replies

Not All Wars Are Created Equal

Updated on May 3, 2010 by Diane Gaston

I live in Virginia, a state area steeped in history, from the first English settlements to the homes of our founding fathers, to, most tragically, the American Civil War.

Our state is filled with Civil War battlefields and historic sites. Our highways are dotted with historic markers: Mosby’s Midnight Raid, Battle of Ox Hill, J.E.B Stuart at Munson’s Mill. Right down the street from me is St. Mary’s Church where Clara Barton nursed the wounded from the Second Battle of Manassas and was then inspired to found the American Red Cross.

This past Saturday, my husband and I went with our friends, Helen and Eugene, to their neighborhood historic site, Blenheim (the Fairfax, VA one, not that Blenheim), for Civil War day.

Blenheim is a unique Civil War site. It’s house was built in 1859, and its plaster walls had not yet cured enough to be painted or papered when Union soldiers were billeted there in 1861. The walls became the soldiers’ canvas for graffiti. When the house and property was acquired by Fairfax City, the house was restored to the original plaster to reveal this historic graffiti.

As we watched the reenactors or listened to the band play Stephen Foster songs, I wondered why the Civil War had never captured my interest as a romantic time period. Why had I picked Regency England instead?

We have some basis for finding the American Civil War romantic: Gone With The Wind, North and South (the Patrick Swayze 1985 version, not the Richard Armitage one), a whole list of Romance novels . But it certainly does not seem to have the same appeal as the Regency.

Most obvious for me is the difficult issue of slavery, a dark blot on our country’s history. It is hard to craft a Civil War story without somehow touching on the issue of slavery. Even if you can demonize the Yankees, like in Gone With The Wind, can you really make the Rebels heroic if they support owning slaves? How do you pick the good guys and the bad guys in the Civil War? It’s impossible!

Then there is the matter of uniforms. Let’s face it, a Civil War soldier, whether Union or Confederate, is no match for a man in Regimentals!

Do you have a favorite Civil War novel or movie? Can you see any other differences that make the Regency a more popular historical period for romance than the American Civil War era?

Speaking of men in Regimentals, I’ll be giving way a signed copy of Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady to one lucky commenter on my Diane’s Blog this week. Diane’s Blog will appear every THURSDAY starting this week.

Check my website for news!