Tuesday is Halloween! This is by far my favorite holiday–there are no presents to buy, no relatives to argue with, just candy and costumes and spooky things. What could be better? (As you can see from the photo, which is a picture of my parents’ house decorated for the holiday, Halloween has long been a big deal in the McCabe family). It made me curious–what was Halloween like in Regency times?

A few factoids I found while scanning the Internet: Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated November 1, halfway between the Autumn and Winter solstices. This was a time of year for endings–harvests brought in, firewood laid on for winter. And, as the old was being “stitched” to the new, it was thought that the veil between this world and the next was very thin, and spirits, both good and eeeeevil, could roam among us. One of their traditions at this time seems familiar to us today–houses were lit by rustic lanterns known as “neeps,” carved from turnips and rutabagas and beets (pumpkins came from the New World in the 17th century). Flickering lights were set out in hopes of welcoming homes the souls of loved ones and chasing away unwelcome bad spirits.

When the Romans conquered Britain in the year 43 AD, they brought with them their own religion, but liked incorporating holidays already in place (not ones to shy away from a party, those Romans!). They added a celebration to their goddess Pomona, which leads to our bobbing for apples and eating candy apples. Of course, then the Romans in turn were replaced by the Christian Church, who went on to change the holiday yet again, trying to replace it with festivals of Christian meaning. All Saints’ Day, a feast honoring all the saints who don’t have their very own feast days, was November 1, with a vigil the night before. All Souls’ Day was placed in November 2, a day for remembering lost loved ones still in purgatory. The night of the vigil, the 31st, was known as the “Hallowed Evening,” shotened eventually to Halloween.

In 1786, Robert Burns’ poem Halloween showed that even by Georgian times the holiday was going strong. The poem talks about the “tricks” of the day, as well as time-honored superstitions like eating an apple in front of a mirror in order to see your beloved (apples again!). Even though there wasn’t really a Halloween as we know it in the Regency, there was a hige fascination with the Gothic, the weird, the spooky, with books like The Mysteries of Udolpho (and Northanger Abbey!), Frankenstein (1816), and, on these shores, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820). (I have a friend who pesters me every Halloween to watch the Johnny Depp movie with him, but I refuse, having been far too frightened by a viewing of The Shining a few years ago to ever, EVER, watch another scary movie!).

There are also a few Regency romances out there with Halloween settings–some that come to mind are Sandra Heath’s Halloween Magic and The Magic Jack O’Lantern, Mona Gedney’s Lady Hilary’s Halloween (and Anne Barbour’s book of the same name), and Teresa DesJardien’s Haunted Hearts. I even did a couple of books that, while not set specifically at Halloween, feature ghosts and masquerade balls (A Loving Spirit and One Touch of Magic).

What are some of your own favorite Halloween traditions and books? And what is your costume this year? (I’m going to be a pirate!). Happy Halloween!

No, this post isn’t about Nicole Kidman, or designer gowns, or the Oscars (though I kinda wish it was! I can always talk fashion…) But it is about awards. Contests. Shiny trophies. Pretty medals. We here at Risky Regencies are on a mission to Save the Regency RITA category! With the loss of Signet and Zebra’s traditional lines, we may have to dig a little further, think outside the box, to find enough titles for the category to help it qualify. But we’re confident we can do it! The Regency is a more popular setting than ever before–the vast majority of historical romances feature the period, and readers love it. I know that the genre has a vital (if re-defined) future, and a great way to show that is to maintain the vitality of the Regency category.

Last year, our own Risky Diane won the Regency RITA with The Reputable Rake, a book that could easily have been slotted into the Short Historical category, yet fit well within the Regency niche thanks to its vivid, well-drawn setting (Diane will talk more about this on Monday!). I know that I’ve read several titles this year that would be great in the Regency category, and have also heard that some smaller publishers are starting their own Regency lines. So, if you have a 2006 Regency-set book of your own, or know someone who has, then please encourage them to enter. The deadline is November 30, and you can find all the info at RWA National.

One good point to make about a possible benefit to entering this category is that there may not be quite as much competition in a smaller category, therefore upping chances of being a finalist. There are so many great books out there, and we want them to be noticed! And, let me tell you, being a finalist is just plain fun. 🙂 I’ve been a Regency RITA finalist twice, and both times floated through conference pretending to be Gwyneth Paltrow on the red carpet! It gets your books a little extra attention, gives a small ego boost, and looks great on a resume or author bio. Of course, the day inevitably comes when conference is over, the ego deflates, and the next book has to be written, but that’s another post…

So, tell us about your contest experiences! Good, bad, ugly, we want to know. Any books or new authors you’ve discovered through contests? Let us know!

And join us to Save the Regency Category!

My post this week is going to be a bit of a mish-mash (I know–what else is new??). Like Megan, I’ve been working on a new proposal, and have expended a lot of energy at the day job pretending to be entering sales data into the computer while actually revising my synopsis or looking at websites on Imperial Russia and Go Fug Yourself (shhh! Don’t tell). I’ve also spent a lot of time watching Project Runway and Dancing With the Stars, my current obsessions in life. My thoughts are always occupied with things like “Is Laura right–did Jeffrey have help sewing his collection? And wow, that past drug addiction thing really explains those tattoos. And how can I end chapter two on a cliffhanger?” And, after reading Janet’s post, “I must eliminate all ‘manroot’ from my WIP! And ‘petals of passion.’ And stop beginning sentences with ‘and’.”

Anyway, to get off the Irrelevancy Train and onto my post. My topics this week are inspired by Elena’s post on the forthcoming Persuasion movie, and by Janet’s post on language (sort of). I love costume films, and I’m not really terribly picky about what I watch. Good, bad, horrible, bizarre–if it has long dresses and accents of some sort, I’m there. On Megan’s ‘guilty pleasures’ post, I could have listed a dozen. Not that I don’t sometimes gripe about them afterward, or pick apart the details of the costume design and the sets, but that’s all part of the fun.

And one thing I found to be a great deal of fun this past week was Masterpiece Theater’s new version of Casanova (part two airing tomorrow night). I was wary after that dumb Heath Ledger/Sienna Miller movie a few months ago, which totally wasted the glories of Venice and some not–bad costumes on a film far too dull even to be a guilty pleasure. I’m also usually not much for the ‘modernist’ approach to costume drama–Moulin Rouge gave me a headache. But Casanova is charming and so full of giddy fun I totally enjoyed it. There’s also genuine emotion, and a sense of exhiliration in some of the scenes (like Casanova’s engagement ball with the former castrato Bellino–it’s a long story, involving unexpected revelations of the sausage variety. The clothes are a swirl of reds, golds, and bright blues, with soaring music and unrealized love). It’s not perfect–nothing ever is. I’m not entirely convinced that David Tennant (pictured above–he’s also the new Dr. Who!) grows up to be Peter O’Toole. And Henritte’s hairdo is VERY distracting. It must take hours to tie in all those bows just so she looks like she forgot to take her curlers out before she left the house. But it’s all great fun. I can’t wait to see what happens in Part Two!

The other part of my post has to do with language. Every year the Washington Post sponsors a neologism contest, where they ask readers to send in alternate meanings to common words. The results are always entertaining! Here are a few of my favorites from this year:
Flabbergasted: appalled over how much weight you have gained
Abdicate: to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach (sadly applied to me!)
Esplanade: to attempt an explanation while drunk
Negligent: describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown
Gargoyle: olive-flavored mouthwash
Balderdash: a rapidly receding hairline
Pokemon: a Rastafarian proctologist
(There was also a Style Invitational, where readers were asked to take a word, alter it by adding, subtracting, or adding one letter, and supply a new definition. Some favorites:)
Bozone: the substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating
Cashtration: the act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period
Sarchasm: the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it
Osteopornosis: a degenerate disease (this one got extra credit!)
Karmageddon: it’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the earth explodes and it’s like a serious bummer

So, now it’s your turn. Any new costume films you like? Or hate? Or any ideas for your own neologisms? I would try and supply one myself, but I’m afraid my mind is affected by the bozone layer at the moment, and entirely taken up with constructing my dreaded synopsis. Plus, wondering if Mario and Karina on Dancing With the Stars actually ARE an item off the dance floor, or if that’s just a D-listed rumor. Plus, wondering if I have now spent far too much time reading D-listed.

Have a great weekend!

And the two winners of the BBC/A&E 10th Anniversary limited edition Pride and Prejudice package, which includes both the DVDs of the award-winning miniseries and the illustrated companion book, are:

drumroll, please……..

Maureen
and
aBookworm

Congratulations to both of you! Just send your contact info to Cara at caraking1@yahoo.com, and then sit back and wait until Colin Firth arrives in your mailbox.

We wish we had enough Colin Firth Darcys that we could send one to every one of our fabulous commenters — but we don’t. Of course, if you like, you can visit the A&E online store and order your very own Colin Firth Darcy.

And if you’ve enjoyed visiting us this week, do come back often! We have lots of fun here, plus passionate discussions about topics ranging from SENSE AND SENSIBILITY to Regency rakes, from 19th century medicine to writer’s block, and from books we love to covers we hate.

Remember — Mr. Darcy will be here….waiting for you….

Risky Regencies

Random number generators are fabulous things, but they still need a human being to input all the data…which takes time. But in a few hours, check back here to find out the winners of our A&E 10th Anniversary PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Contest!

The Riskies