Author Archives: Diane Gaston

About Diane Gaston

Diane Gaston is the RITA award-winning author of Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical and Mills and Boon, with books that feature the darker side of the Regency. Formerly a mental health social worker, she is happiest now when deep in the psyches of soldiers, rakes and women who don’t always act like ladies.

The Last Frost Fair

Updated on November 5, 2007 by Diane Gaston

I’m doing research for a new book. I won’t say too much it yet, but part of my research has been about the last frost fair held on the Thames for a few days in February, 1814.

From about the mid 14th century to the early 19th century (the little ice age), the Thames sometimes froze solid in the winter and fairs were held on its ice. The climate was not the only reason the river turned to ice. The Thames was shallower then and the old London Bridge was built in a manner that slowed the flow of water and fostered freezing.

The first recorded frost fair was held in 1608, but the one I wanted to know about was the frost fair of 1814, The Last Frost Fair.

Joy Freeman wrote one of my favorite old Regencies titled The Last Frost Fair, which is where I first heard of the event. It seemed perfect to use in my new story and I knew just where to look for more information–The Annual Register of 1814

I have all the Annual Registers from 1810 to 1820. The Annual Registers are a little like almanacs with all the parliamentary issues, births, deaths, marriages of important people, poetry, and the most interesting news stories from the year. The Annual Register for 1814 is on google books so you can read it for yourself. The account of the fair begins on page 11 of the Chronicles, beginning on February 1 and ending February 7.
Another book with a good description of the Frost Fair is John Ashton’s Social England under the Regency, also on googlebooks.

Ashton describes the frolickers playing skittles, drinking in tents “with females,” dancing reels, more sedate coffee-drinking, and gaming booths. Souvenir cards were printed on printing presses set up on the ice. The Annual Register said the carousing went on until the ice began to break up and then people went scrambling to safety. There was some loss of life and there never again was a freezing of the river sufficient to hold a frost fair.

Have you read any books that show the Last Frost Fair?
Did you read Joy Freeman’s book and what did you think of it?
Are you curious as to what my new book is about? (cuz I’m still not telling)

Come visit my website. I have a new contest this month, continuing my countdown to The Vanishing Viscountess in January.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged The Last Frost Fair | 19 Replies

Mary Blayney Interview

Updated on November 4, 2007 by Diane Gaston

Everyone, please welcome my good friend and wonderful Regency author, Mary Blayney, who joins us today to talk about her novella Amy and The Earl’s Amazing Adventure in the anthology Dead of Night with coauthors JD Robb/Nora Roberts, Mary Kay McComas, and Ruth Ryan Langan.

“…this all-new four-novella anthology definitely doesn’t suffer from standout single syndrome—this one’s all killer, no filler.” Publisher’s Weekly of Dead of Night

Mary is giving away one copy of Dead of Night, signed by ALL the authors. Just make a comment on this blog. We’ll announce the winner on Monday.

Hi, Mary!
What’s a nice Regency writer like you doing in an anthology with J.D. Robb?

How could I say no to an anthology with Nora Roberts (w/a JD Robb)? Especially when I was told that I could write anything I wanted as long as it had a paranormal element and would fit under the umbrella title. Admittedly my first novella “Poppy’s Coin” in Bump in the Night was not bumpy at all but I’m a fast learner and I took care of that in “Amy and the Earl.”

Tell us about Dead of Night, especially “Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure.”

The anthology includes time travel, futuristic police procedural and a parallel world story. JD Robb is working with the fabulous Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke and a very nasty man claiming to be a vampire. Ruth’s Langan’s story is a time travel. Her contemporary heroine, Laurel, stumbles way back in time to meet the very alpha Conal MacLennan. Mary Kay McComas story is more parallel world than time travel. Bonnie rides a magic carpet to an alternate past, a chance to see what life would have been like with just a few changes.

In “Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure,” Amy and Simon meet, not entirely by accident, and realize that they both are curious about the origins of a coin minted in 1810. The coin is the key element in my first novella “Poppy’s Coin” and Amy appeared in that story as the nameless tourist who hears how the coin changed the lives of my Regency lovers. The nameless girl was a sweetheart and I wanted to know more about her. Then Simon appeared, driven by a need to know how a coin minted in 1810 could be in a family portrait painted in 1805. When someone offers them the chance to time travel together they agree. The story spins out from there.

Is there a connection between the novellas?

No. I call it a “romance sampler” with something in it for every fan. It is a way to try a different genre without a big commitment of time or money.

As you said, Poppy’s Coin appears again in “Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure.” How did you think of Poppy’s Coin?

My friend and talented writer, Lavinia Klein, gave me a coin known as “TheAdmiral Gardiner Shipwreck Coin,” one of thousands discovered when the ship, Admiral Gardiner, was recovered in 1985 off the Goodwin Sands beyond the Straits of Dover. The story of the ship and its cargo is fact and I included it in “Amy and the Earl,” then added my own paranormal twist. Is the coin magic? Not that I know of, but my writing career has changed dramatically since it came into my life. Which came first the chicken or the egg?

You have written some lovely Regencies, His Last Lover, The Pleasure of His Company and The Captain’s Mermaid. How was it to write contemporary characters, even if they did travel back to 1805?

It was a cross between great fun and real work. The chance to have characters speak in a contemporary voice was a great change of pace, especially when they were back in the Regency and using modern language leads to some confusion. On the other hand I am so much more familiar with the Regency world that writing characters immersed in the 21st century actually took some research. How’s that for a flip-flop?

What was risky about “Amy and the Earl’s Amazing Adventure?”

Without a doubt the riskiest thing was writing a story that was plot driven and not character driven. This is the first time I have ever tried it. The readers will have to tell me if it works.

I know you love the Regency. How come?

It is that moment in history when the world is on the cusp of change, when man is about to move from an agrarian society to an industrial one. When the individual begins to become more important than the group. I think that last transition is why marrying for love became acceptable. That is, what the individual wanted gradually became more important than what was good for the family. The tension of those two elements and the Napoleonic War make it an era filled with conflict on a level that ranges from international to interpersonal. And I love the clothes and the houses.

Did you come upon any interesting research for this novella?

You mean besides learning about 21st century men and woman? Yes, I researched the artists Guardi and Canaletto. In the process learning an interesting tidbit about Rembrandt that I used in the story. I also spent a lot of time with Google Earth and my Regency maps of London trying to find a locale that could be both a pub and a Regency town house. It was a great way to waste time, I mean research. Sure enough I found the perfect spot in a part of London I have actually visited.

What’s next for you?

At the end of January 2008, my first single title comes out. Traitor’s Kiss is the first of three books for Bantam. It is a family series and I am currently working on the second. Traitor’s Kiss features the youngest son of the five children of the Duke of Meryon. Lord Gabriel Pennistan went to Spain in 1811 as a man of science and wound up in a French prison, even though it is the English who consider him a spy and a murderer. He is rescued by the mysterious Charlotte Parnell. Each discovers the truth about the other as they escape from France. There is also a third anthology in the works and, yes, in this one the magic coin makes an appearance once again though it is essentially a ghost story. The umbrella title is Suite 606 and the title of my novella is (currently) “Love Endures”

Thanks so much for inviting me to join the Riskies for the day. Hope to hear from lots of bloggers and am happy to offer as a prize a copy of Dead of Night autographed by all four of the authors.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Dead of Night, Mary Blayney, Nora Roberts | 54 Replies

Thou droning bat-fowling hedge-pig! By Diane Gaston

Updated on October 29, 2007 by Diane Gaston

Here’s what you get when I can’t think of a coherent blog topic….

1. In revenge for Megan’s Free Rice link, I offer you the Shakespeare Insult generator, courtesy of my friend Julie. This wonderful website offers you a cornucopia of the perfect insult, like, “Thou pribbling idle-headed wagtail” or apropos of this blog,”(you) speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

I was, by the way, briefly up to level 46 of 48 on Free Rice and I have donated over 2,000 grains of rice. So Far.

2. The BBC website has a lot of interesting stuff on it, not the least of which are listings of tantalizing shows like, The Age of Excess: When Britain Went Too Far, which is about the excesses of the 18th century. If you click on Empire and Sea Power on the side menu, you get all sorts of wonderful stuff, like an animation of the Battle of Trafalgar or The Waterloo Game. Seriously, there are a bunch of intriguing articles on this site. My only complaint is that they do not call The Regency, The Regency, but lump it into the Georgian period as “Empire and Sea Power.”

3. Contrast this website with the BBC America one, which prominently features what’s new on Hex. If you dig a little deeper, however, you can find a British American Dictionary equally as cumbersome, but with the redeeming feature of showing British insulting words.

And that, I believe, brings me full circle!

Is today giving you any reason to use a Shakespearean insult or a British insulting word?
None for me so far.

I’m off to get my hair colored-with-highlights at Vidal Sasson, so I’ll see you later.

Diane-who-hopes-she-doesn’t-use-a-Shakespearean-insult-after-her-hair-is-done

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 11 Replies

My Fair Lady by Diane Gaston

Updated on October 22, 2007 by Diane Gaston

This Saturday I caught My Fair Lady on TMC.

My first introduction to My Fair Lady was from a record (those vinyl things that look like an oversize DVD ). The local grocery store ran a special on show tunes, each week an album of a different musical. My sisters and I played the My Fair Lady record, as well as the others, over and over until the words were embedded in our memories. Of all the show tunes, though, My Fair Lady was my favorite.

Shortly after, the play came to the National Theater in Washington, DC, and my sisters and I were allowed to take the bus all-by-ourselves into the city. I remember the adventure of this solo journey more than I remember seeing the play, even though it was my first experience of going to a “real” play.

I wish I could have loved the movie of My Fair Lady, but I never have. It never matched what my imagination created for My Fair Lady when I listened to our soundtrack from the grocery store. The performances are marvelous, especially Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway; however, I never thought Audrey Hepburn (who I love in her other movies) was the right Eliza. (Julie Andrews, who created the role of Eliza on Broadway, ought to have had the part)

My favorite character was Freddie (played by Jeremy Brett), who I felt had the best song, On the Street Where She Lives. I thought he was so romantic, just wanting to be on Eliza’s street, ready to do her bidding. He still was the most handsome fellow in the movie.

The story is, of course, set in Edwardian times, a beautiful fashion period, like the Regency, and a time, like the Regency, where class differences were noteworthy. Watching the movie, I realized the set rather imprinted on me what a London street ought to look like. There were lots of white buildings and wrought iron. When I went to Covent Garden, I think I expected Eliza Doolittle’s Covent Garden. In any event, I loved the movie set. I loved how the set looked when Freddie walked down the street where Eliza lived. That felt like London to me.

After watching the movie, I just have to believe that My Fair Lady was one early experience that fostered my love of England and, ultimately, of the Regency.

What early experiences led you to love the Regency?

There’s a touring company performing My Fair Lady. It is coming to The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC this December and maybe to a city near you.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Covent Garden, Kennedy Center, My Fair Lady | 21 Replies

Blog Action Day, Regency Style

Updated on October 15, 2007 by Diane Gaston

Megan said, “Monday is Blog Action Day; so far there are over 11,000 blogs participating, and on October 15, every blogger will be talking about the environment. Maybe your blog (speak for yourself, Megan! I am!) doesn’t have the hugest amount of visitors, but if every little voice joins together, we’ll create a magnificent din.”

Well, it is Oct 15 and I’m lending my voice, too!

Being such an energy and natural resource consuming society is a rather modern occurrence and confined to the more prosperous parts of our world, like the USA. It would have been much different in the Regency. In those times, the very poor survived on what we would throw away.

Janet has already taught us that our lords and ladies gave away their clothing to their servants who also had certain rights to recycle things like candle stubs and cooking fat. What the servants didn’t use was sold to the rag and bone man, the era’s answer to what we would call the junk man. The rag and bone man sold what he collected.

All the dust and ashes from the cooking fires and fireplaces also had to be collected and carted away. This was the work of the dustman. The dust was sold to brick makers and to farmers for fertilizer. In the musical My Fair Lady, Eliza’s father was a dustman.

Here is an article from the New York Times January 27, 1878, about London Dustmen:
Another set of recyclers were the mudlarks, mostly women and children who scavenged around in river mud for items of value. In London the poor would scavenge in the River Thames during low tide, searching for anything they could sell.

A bit later than “our” period (1851), Henry Mayhew wrote about mudlarks in his book, London Labour and the London Poor:

“ THEY generally consist of boys and girls, varying in age from eight to fourteen or fifteen; with some persons of more advanced years. For the most part they are ragged, and in a very filthy state, and are a peculiar class, confined to the river. The parents of many of them are coalwhippers–Irish cockneys–employed getting coals out of the ships, and their mothers frequently sell fruit in the street. Their practice is to get between the barges, and one of them lifting the other up will knock lumps of coal into the mud, which they pick up afterwards…..
Some of them are old women of the lowest grade, from fifty to sixty, who occasionally wade in the mud up to the knees. “

You can read more of Mayhew’s book here.

Of course, raw sewage was dumped in the river and the mudlarks were exposed to cholera and other diseases, as well as really nasty things like dead bodies of people and animals.

The movie poster above was for a 1950 movie about a little boy, a mudlark who overheard someone say that Queen Victoria was mother to everyone in Great Britain. He took it to heart and traveled to London to see if he could sit on the throne.

I can’t sign off without mentioning my friend Delle’s book, The Mudlark. Read more about it here.

What do I do for the environment? I recycle glass and plastic and cans. And I drive a Prius, Toyota’s hybrid car! I’ve also been conserving water because we’re really having a bad drought. And I NEVER throw out a book.

What do you do?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dustman, environment, mudlark, rag and bone man | 11 Replies