I’ve been drifting around online since I got up this morning, trying to find a good blog topic for this cold Tuesday! Having found nothing (or rather, so many things I couldn’t decide) I thought I would borrow ideas from Megan and Janet and just tell you some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about lately….

1) Writing! Like always. Just finished up an Undone short story set at the court of Mary Queen of Scots and diving back into the full-length Scottish story, plus organizing my “ideas folder.” I’m often distracted by bright, shiny new ideas that try to tempt me away from the WIP, so I jot them down in a special notebook to come back to later (not that they always stop pestering me). I’ve also been sorting some new research books I picked up at a booksale last week! Fun fun. Inspired by Diane, I may also do a little genealogical research…

2) The Oscars! I do love Oscar nomination day, which happens to be–today. (See a full list of the noms here). Out of the ridiculously bloated 10 movie Best Picture field, I’ve seen 5, Black Swan, The King’s Speech, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, and the vastly overrated Inception. My personal favorite of those is King’s Speech, but I predict Social Network will win (with Colin Firth and Natalie Portman winning Acting honors). I will probably see True Grit soon, but as much as I love James Franco I think 127 Hours would be too intense for me. The noms for Best Costumes are Alice In Wonderland, I Am Love, The King’s Speech, The Tempest, and True Grit. No arguments there, though I might have liked to see Black Swan there. Those Rodarte tutus were awesome.

3) Like Megan, I’ve been thinking about Vampire Diaries! New episodes finally start again on Thursday and I can’t wait. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to see what will happen next in the twisty plots (or which Salvatore brother will take his shirt off first)

4) Today is the (probable) anniversary of the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, a secret shotgun wedding complete with baby bump in 1533. Er–happy anniversary? (For more information on this event, check this post in The Anne Boleyn Files, an awesome blog that you should check out anyway!)

5) It’s also Burns Day! Poet Robert Burns was born on this day in 1759, which is celebrated every year in Scotland (and by people who just like his work!). A local pub here does a special dinner for it every year, which I will be attending tonight. In honor of his poem “To A Haggis” it’s traditional to serve haggis, which I will not be partaking in. (Check here for more info, and a recipe for haggis if you’re feeling brave)

6) Reading, of course! I’m in the middle of Carol Carr’s new historical mystery India Black, about a Victorian madam solving a murder. I love it so far, a great heroine and witty writing. I also have a new biography of Voltaire, and some birthday gift cards from Barnes and Noble burning a hole in my pocket as I try to decide how to spend them. Any recommendations??

Now I’m running out to yoga class so I won’t feel so bad about the shepherd’s pie and whiskey tonight! What are you thinking about today? Any favorite Oscar movies or predictions?

I hope you’re all having a lovely Tuesday! I am about to jump back into writing an “Undone” short story I’ve been buried in all weekend (I sorta forgot it was due soon, but don’t tell!), and my head is full of Renaissance-era Scotland, but right now I get to take a break and hang out at the Riskies.

There’s new book out next month that looks like a lot of fun, Fall in Love Like a Romance Author–and I have an essay in it about dating as a single writer! (If I had to find one word to describe dating–interesting. I may have to post about dating tips for romance authors here soon…). Since I’m incurably nosy about other people’s life stories, I can’t wait to read the other essays. And it’s just in time for Valentine’s Day too!

And since the Golden Globes were this weekend, of course I have opinions! I posted about the red carpet fashion on my own blog–it was one of the most interesting rc’s in a while, and bodes well for the Oscars!

As part of my New Years resolutions, I’ve been going to more dance classes as well as teaching on Saturday, and it’s been very–challenging. Especially since, after several years off, I’ve decided to get the pointe shoes out again since I’ve been strengthening my feet and legs. My toes are not thanking me. But here is a brief look at the history of the pointe shoe:

In the Renaissance era, court masques were all the rage, where courtiers could put on elaborate costumes and act out allegorical stories amid fantastical scenery, and dancing was a huge part of that. When Catherine de Medici married into the French royal family, she brought this ballet de cour (“court ballet”) to Paris and, being French, they took to the spectacle right away. In the 1600s this art form reached a pinnacle under Louis XIV, who danced in them himself as a young man. He founded the Academie Royale de Danse (later the Paris Opera Ballet). At that time, the men did most of the elaborate dancing, while women, in heavy gowns and heeled shoes, were merely set dressing.

But by the 1730s, dancing of this sort was more theatrical than court, and a style known as “danse haute”, involving leaping and twirling, became the rage. Marie Camargo started a trend by taking the heels from her shoes and heavily darning the toes. Skirts got shorter and turns got faster. By 1830, Marie Taglioni took the dance world by storm. In that year, she danced the very Romantic ballet La Sylphide on the tops of her toes, and what had just been a sort of trick before became the norm of artistic expression. (In Russia, her fans even sometimes cooked her used shoes and ate them with sauce–ugh).

The 19th century was when the classical ballets were know so well today (Giselle, Swan Lake, La Bayadere) came into being, and so many of them feature a central heroine who is an ethereal being, a spirit not bound to the earth, and pointe shoes allowed the ballerina to create this illusion by seeming to hover and skim over the stage as if weightless, while the earthbound hero is enraptured. (But it usually ends badly, alas! Though I love the endings of Giselle and Swan Lake, where love can endure even death).

Taglioni’s shoes were soft satin slippers that fit her feet like a second skin, with a leather sole and heavy darning on the sides and underside. I can’t imagine going en pointe on such a shoe. By the end of the 19th century, the new Russian ballets (choreographed by Marius Petipa in the French tradition) demanded more technique, and the Italian school pushed athleticism over all. The Italians also had 2 secret weapons–the technique of spotting for turns and a better shoe. They also had shorter skirts. (When La Zucchi danced in St. Petersburg in a short skirt against the Imperial Ballet’s strict regulations, it caused a scandal!). The Russians adapted all of this, and even strengthened the shoes. Even today, Russian shoes are usually stiffer, better for the Russian technique of pouncing onto pointe rather than rolling through. (The Danish school, on the other hand, demanded a technique that required softer shoes for more bouncy jumps and elaborate footwork but fewer sustained balances and pirouettes en pointe).

The shoes themselves haven’t developed a whole lot from the 19th century, though they are harder and boxier in the toe. They’re still made from leather, paper, burlap, glue and nails with a final layer of satin. They’re held together by 3 soles, or shanks, the outside and middle ones made of leather and the inside of cardboard. Then, with the edges of the satin and canvas between, they’re glues and nailed together. In order to wear them, they have to be broken in (there’s a brief glimpse of this brutal process in the movie Black Swan), and a professional dancer will go through several pairs a performance.

If you’d like to know more about any aspect of ballet, I highly recommend Jennifer Homan’s new history of the art, Apollo’s Angels. It’s a fascinating book.

So there you have it, a brief glimpse of the history of the ballet shoe! I feel like I need to go off and practice some plies now. What is your favorite ballet? And how are your New Years resolutions holding up now that it’s almost February? And what was your favorite gown at the Golden Globes???

I love this time of year! The holidays are behind us, and a new year always seems to promise a fresh start and a new way of looking at things (my birthday is also only a couple of weeks away, definitely a time for reassessing). I liked reading everyone’s resolutions yesterday. My own are pretty much the same–I’m finally (finally!) within about 3 pounds of my Ultimate Weight/Dress Size Goal and now I’m determined to stay healthy. More yoga classes, more bike riding, more getting off my backside and going outside, finding more energy to write more books. And eating more salad! While I’m dreaming, I’d also like to travel more and spend more time with friends. And maybe start a tango class.

But my short term goal this week is just to get started on the new book. I finally finished revisions on old projects and am at a slow promo month (no book out until March!), so it’s time to dive into a whole new project. I love it when they’re all new and bright and shiny, no sagging middles yet, no rushed endings, no characters running out of my control, just brand new notebooks and possibilities.

This book is a sequel to my Elizabethan-set The Winter Queen, and is set at the Court of Mary Queen of Scots in the early 1560s. I’m excited to be re-visiting these characters in my first Scottish setting, and I’m even more excited about all the fun research! Next to my desk right now I have Anka Muhlstein’s Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: The Perils of Marriage, Antonia Fraser’s classic Mary Queen of Scots, Jane Dunn’s Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens, John Guy’s Mary Queen of Scots, and (thanks to Michelle Willingham, who kindly brought it back to me from her Scottish trip last summer!) the Official Guide to Holyroodhouse. Guidebooks and postcards are invaluable for envisioning a setting. I’ve also been putting together my character collages and soundtracks and all the things that allow me to procrastinate on starting a book. 🙂

This is my setting:

And my hero and heroine!

And some musical inspiration:

And that’s what I’m doing this week! What are you up to? What are you writing or reading this week?

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I ate too much (of course) and have already spent my gift cards, but I did get the Eiffel Tower Barbie on my list, as well as some Hello Kitty pajamas and Balenciaga Paris shower gel, so it was a happy time all around.

I also love reading the yearly favorites of the other Riskies, and of our visitors, to see what I missed and what I need to buy from the bookstore immediately! (If I had any bookstore gift cards left, that is…). I’ve already talked about a few of my own favorites this year, like Bill Bryson’s At Home and Katie Whitaker’s A Royal Passion, but there was also a lot I enjoyed as well! Here are just a few. Were any of them on your own list? (I tried to divide them into categories, and I’m sure there are a lot I forgot!)

Fiction
Romance
(I haven’t had time to read nearly as much romance as I would like this year, but there were some fabulous ones!)

–Libertine’s Kiss by Judith James: I got to interview Judith James here at the Riskies earlier this year about this book, and it still stays in my head now! My favorite historical romance in quite a while, it has a wonderful, vivid Restoration setting, a truly rakish hero, a spirited heroine, very richly drawn and sexy.

—Iron Duke by Meljean Brook: This book has quite rightly gotten an enormous amount of buzz online, and I heartily recommend it! I’ve been obsessed with reading steampunk lately, and this is the best of the genre I’ve found, highly imaginative, complex world-building, action-packed–plus a great hero and heroine. And just look at that cover–yum

—In For A Penny by Rose Lerner: a wonderful Regency romance! A typical Regency storyline–rakish lord, marriage of convenience, etc–turned on its head in a deceptively complex story. Great characters and a well-drawn authentic setting!

Mystery

–Her Highness’s First Murder by Peg Herring: It’s 1546, and a serial killer stalks London. Who better to solve the mystery than the young Princess Elizabeth, especially after one of her own ladies is killed? She joins forces with her physician’s son to track down the killer! Very suspenseful and clever, with another well-drawn setting and fascinating characters. I imagine a young Elizabeth I would be quite a bit like the one in this book…

—Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean: the first Regency-set Dido Kent mystery, and I’m already looking forward to the next! Dido is a spinster in 1805, who has to investigate when her niece’s fiance mysteriously disappears during their betrothal ball…

—The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley: Possibly my very favorite work of fiction of the year! I can’t recommend it enough, it was sort of like a more witty Nancy Drew story (with better secondary characters). It’s the 1950s and 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, a budding chemist with a special interest in poisons, has to solve the death of a man in her family’s garden. She is definitely one of the most resourceful characters I have seen! (And the second Flavia book is out soon, yay!)

Historical Fiction

–Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin: an engrossing look at the life of the “real Alice in Wonderland” Alice Liddell (who I did not know had a royal romance with Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold as a young lady!)

—Charlotte and Emily by Jude Morgan: Like Janet, I’m a huge fan of Jude Morgan’s book, and this was no exception. I read it straight through–definitely the best Bronte historical fiction I have come across. It’s so beautifully written and feels very “real”

Non-Fiction

—Eiffel’s Tower by Jill Jonnes: An account of the building of the Tower and the 1889 Exposition, and all the colorful characters involved in this enormous undertaking (Eiffel himself, of course, as well as Edison, Annie Oakley, an Indian maharajh, Balinese dancers, etc etc). It reminded me of Brunelleschi’s Dome, another account of the times and characters surrounding a phenomenal architectural undertaking

–And along those same lines, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb: a collection of stories about famous and not-so-famous Parisians in various historical periods. I never knew what I would find when I turned the page, and I loved that! I find books like this to be enormous inspiration when coming up with my own plots and characters

—Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon by Michael O’Brien: An account of a journey undertaken by Louisa Adams from St. Petersburg to Paris in the middle of winter in 1815, across war-torn Europe just as Napoleon arrives back from Elba. A wonderful portrait of a strong and fascinating woman (usually overshadowed by her in-laws), her difficult marriage, and the culture of the times against the backdrop of an extraordinary voyage

—Fifth Avenue, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson: I was recently reading a film blog about the best movie scenes of the year that mentioned Howard Hawks’ old dictum that a film only needs 3 or 4 scenes to be a good film. In the case of one of my favorite movies ever, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, it really only takes one scene to make me ignore the film’s (many) flaws and love it. Well, really there are several bits I love, but the ending is gorgeous. It’s Audrey Hepburn in a trench coat! She can’t find the cat! And it’s raining! And “Moon River” plays and they kiss–okay, now I’m crying. But this book is a great “behind the scenes” look at the making of the movie, and how revolutionary it really was
—Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff: An attempt to strip away the myths and encrusted conceptions of Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor, etc) and find the real woman, who wielded unprecedented power in a brutal world

—Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans: A tremendous undertaking, a history of nothing less than ballet. Of course I loved it! A must-have for anyone who loves the art, it traces the evolution of technique, choreography, and performance. Very beautifully written, and engrossing.

—Wait For Me! by Deborah Mitford, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire: A memoir by the 90-year-old duchess (and last surviving Mitford sister), it was funny and charming, though some parts were definitely more interesting than others! (All the Jeeves-and-Woosterish nicknames were hilarious, though I thought she was little too hard on her sister Nancy and too easy on her Nazi-sympathizing sisters Diana and Unity…). I found some of her earlier books very helpful in researching my “duchess” books, Duchess of Sin and The Shy Duchess, and this one was no different.

My favorite “comfort read,” especially when holiday craziness gets to be too much, is Harlequin Presents! This Christmas I read two I especially devoured:

The Twelve Nights of Christmas by Sarah Morgan

And Caught on Camera With the CEO by Natalie Anderson (who is fast becoming my favorite Presents author!)

They saved my sanity this December! But now I’d like to know–where are all these Italian tycoons and Argentinian polo players who are young and gorgeous and like “ordinary” women??? Send them my way asap…

As for movies–it hasn’t been the best of movie years, but I have found some I really loved! (But there are still a few I haven’t seen yet that I am really looking forward to, like The King’s Speech, The Tempest, All Good Things, and Somewhere). A few I enjoyed are: the crazy-over-the-top Black Swan; the gorgeous, operatic I Am Love (I’m amazed Tilda Swinton is not getting more awards buzz for this!); the “the way we live now” The Social Network; the hilarious but also strangely sad Get Him To The Greek; and The Kids Are All Right.

Over at my own blog, I have a look at some of my favorite fashion looks of the year as well! I can’t believe 2010 is almost over.

What did you enjoy this year–and what are you looking forward to in 2011???