Monthly Archives: October 2014

Winners! And Stuff

Updated on October 28, 2014 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

The winner of the DVD of The Lady and the Highwayman is—Bibliophile! Please email me at amccabe7551 AT yahoo and I will get it mailed out to you. Be sure and let us know what you think of it!

In looking for “comfort watch” movies lately (as I still crawl on toward The End of the WIP), I found I had one more Barbara Cartland movie in my library (I know there were more–I especially remember one about a tall blonde heiress who pretended to be a ladies’ companion in order to warn the hero that his eeeevil cousin was going to kill him, though I can’t recall the title…). The one I have is the fabulously ridiculous Hazard of Hearts, with a very young Helena Bonham Carter as the wonderfully named Serena Staverly, whose father gambles her off to an eeeevil rake, who in turn loses her to the hero, Lord Vulcan. There is a castle in Cornwall, complete with cliffs and crashing waves, smugglers, and a wonderful villainess played by Diana Rigg. I must watch it again. (there are also some gorgeous Regency-fantasy costumes, as you can see from this bonnet…)

Speaking of costumes, Friday is my very favorite holiday–Halloween! I don’t have a Regency gown this year (I’m going as Queen Elsa from Frozen), but I am hoping to see some lovely creations at the various parties. What are you planning for Halloween???

Posted in Giveaways, Winners announced | 4 Replies

Horse Guards

Updated on October 27, 2014 by Diane Gaston

One of the stops on the Duke of Wellington tour was Horse Guards. Horse Guards was the office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces during “our” era, and it exists today as headquarters of two major Army commands: the London District and the Household Cavalry. We were there to tour the Household Cavalry Museum, but we were able to see the retiring of the guards.

When we first arrived, a guard on horseback was posted at the gate and the tourists were using him as a photo op, which bothered me. But I took a photo anyway.

Here’s a short video of the Guards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78PIWgzfrz4&feature=youtu.be

In Apsley House we saw this painting showing the Duke of Wellington leaving his command at Horse Guards for the last time. It is titled His Last Return From Duty. This is a drawing of that painting in the tunnel under the street between Apsley House and the Wellington Arch.

More lovely memories from my England trip!

Posted in Regency, Research, Risky Regencies | Tagged Horse Guards | 7 Replies

Book Hangover: Mary Balogh’s Only Enchanting

Updated on October 25, 2014 by megan

This past week, I read Mary Balogh’s upcoming (10/28) release Only Enchanting. You know those books that make your heart squeeze tighter with each page? How you love the characters and are hoping they make it through? Yup. I got the worst book hangover from that one, I haven’t even wanted to read a romance since*.

Balogh has written some of my absolute favorite books ever, and she’s also written a few that I’ve DNFed. But even the ones I Didn’t Finish were written beautifully, I just didn’t connect with the characters or the plot in some way.

But Only Enchanting–it is just stunning, and it’s not like it’s got any kind of huge dramatic action. If the two characters didn’t end up Happily Ever After, it’s not as though the world would have shifted; they just both would have remained unfulfilled in their lives. Which would have been sad for them, of course, but not been a crisis.

Refreshingly, when there is a misunderstanding, the hero and heroine TALK to each other. And things aren’t always perfect after, but at least they’ve communicated.

So, beyond highly recommending this book–it got me to thinking about why writers write; we want to capture that heart-squeezing moment on the page and hopefully cause that reaction in our readers.

In me writing news, my editor accepted the revision for my February 2015 novella, When Good Earls Go Bad; this week, I’m revising Put Up Your Duke, which is due to my editor on Halloween (spooky!). And then, no deadlines for a while, good timing with the holidays approaching.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend reading and writing!

Megan

*I’m reading William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which is mind-blowingly awesome.

Posted in Reading | Tagged Megan | 3 Replies

NJRW Conference, NaNoWriMo and Histromnet

Updated on October 24, 2014 by Elena Greene

Sorry for the alphabet soup in the title!

Diane already talked about the New Jersey Romance Writers conference, where she, Gail and I were fortunate enough to hang out together and celebrate Diane’s finaling in the Golden Leaf with A Marriage of Notoriety. I enjoyed the published authors’ retreat (they serve wine and chocolate pretzels), workshops on the business and craft of writing, and just being with other Regency authors (there are none in my local writing circle). Here are pics of Gail and me at the booksigning.

Gail and I also spent some time on Saturday night brainstorming individual story ideas. I’ll leave it to Gail to talk about hers when she’s ready. All I’ll say is the beginning parts she read to me were delightful! As for me, I’m feeling more ready to go ahead and write prequel and sequel novellas to Lady Em’s Indiscretion.

In fact, I think I’m going to join others in doing the National Novel Writing Month challenge. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the idea is to draft 50,000 words of a new novel within the month of November.

There are naysayers who say it’s impossible to write 50,000 of publishable, readable fiction in one month. Actually, I know people who can do that (not me!) but for most writers, that is true. I’m sure loads of dreck is produced during NaNoWriMo. Probably some of it will make its way, unedited, into Kindle Direct Publishing but that’s no big deal, really. Others, like me, see the challenge as a fun way to generate ideas. We’re very aware that more time will be spent afterwards to rework and polish our ideas into readable fiction.

In years that I’m busy editing in the fall, I don’t do NaNoWriMo. But when it fits where I’m at in the writing–as it does this year–I join in. I admit, I love watching the progress meter rise! So wish me luck and anyone else doing the challenge, feel free to add me as a “Writing Buddy”. My NaNoWriMo ID is Elena Greene, with just a space in the middle.

Finally, something for all the historical romance lovers out there who would like to spread the word about this wonderful genre. A group of authors have created the Historical Romance Network. One project has been the creation of a video celebrating the variety of historical romance. Check it out here.

You’re all also invited to join the Fall Back in Time Facebook event. On November 1st, post a selfie taken while holding a historical romance. What a great way to celebrate historical romance (and an extra hour of sleep). 🙂

Elena

Posted in Reading, Risky Book Talk, Writing | Tagged Elena Greene, Fall Back in Time, Gail Eastwood, Historical Romance Network, HistRomNet, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, New Jersey Romance Writers, njrw, njrw conference | 1 Reply

Austen, balloons, mystery purchase

Updated on October 22, 2014 by Janet Mullany

Who else is planning to watch Death Comes to Pemberley next Sunday? I thought the book was not one of PD James’s best, but quite often not so good books make good tv, so I’m cautiously optimistic. Here’s the preview. What do you think of Matthew Rhys/Anna Maxwell Martin as the dynamic duo?

More Austen news–I attended the JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) AGM in Montreal a couple of weekends ago and here are a few pics:

An amazing bonnet, with a booklet on how it was made, being offered at silent auction. It would be the sort of item that, if you could afford it, would have to be placed reverently under glass and gazed upon:

The view from my hotel room, early in the morning:

We gather, most of us all dressed up, for a banquet and ball (there were French officers [!!!] with very interesting headgear in attendance, but you’ll have to take my word for it because naturally I didn’t get any pics of them):

Old Montreal on a lovely sunny day:

And back to the topic of tv, did you see the amazing edition of NOVA this evening, Ben Franklin’s Balloons, in which French people, some of whom were descended from the Montgolfier brothers, and most of whom wore very stylish scarves, successfully duplicated early balloons and flights. You can view the preview here.

And now for the mystery household purchase: