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.

Regency Picnic or a Labor Day?

Updated on September 5, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Happy Labor Day!

This US federal holiday celebrates the economic and social contributions of the American worker. It was first observed in New York in 1882 and became a federal holiday in 1894. Today it has also become the traditional end of summer and the traditional way to celebrate is to have a picnic.

Today’s picnic is a leisure pastime for the ordinary people, a chance to grill hot dogs and play outdoor games, but during the Regency, a picnic was a fancier affair, and the working people of the period may have experienced it much differently than we do today.

In the early nineteenth century, picnicking was a way for the privileged classes to commune with nature, all the while consuming a feast assembled to minimize inconvenience and to enhance the outdoor experience. A beautiful site was selected some distance away. Each guest might have provided a dish to share or the host provided all the food. Entertainments were provided. The idyllic interlude was a pleasurable respite from day to day life.

Except for the servants, for a Regency picnic required a great deal of work.

Servants had to prepare, pack, and transport the food, the furniture, the plates, serving dishes, cutlery, and linens. The whole lot would be loaded on wagons but the wagons often could not reach the exact site of the picnic, so that the food, furniture, etc. would all have to be carried the rest of the way by servants, who would then have to set up everything, serve the food, and attend to the guests in any way they required. When the picnic was over, the servants had to clean up, repack everything, and carry it back.

It wasn’t until later in the Victorian period, with the rise of the middle class and the ready train transportation that picnics became a less exclusive leisure activity.

So on this day, while we celebrate our Labor day, let’s also remember the labor that used to go into a picnic.

Tonight after midnight I’ll post the winner of Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy from yesterday’s blog. There’s still time to enter for a chance to win!

See the K.I.S.S. and Teal winner of my Diane’s Blog contest, posted on Diane’s Blog today.

Regency Picnic

Updated on September 5, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Happy Labor Day!

Today’s picnic is a leisure pastime for the ordinary people, a chance to grill hot dogs and play outdoor games, but during the Regency, a picnic was a fancier affair, and the working people of the period may have experienced it much differently than we do today.

Except for the servants, for a Regency picnic required a great deal of work.

It wasn’t until later in the Victorian period, with the rise of the middle class and the ready train transportation that picnics became a less exclusive leisure activity.

So on this day, while we celebrate our Labor day, let’s also remember the labor that used to go into a picnic.

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen | Leave a reply

Carolyn interviews Diane about Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy

Updated on September 4, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Today Carolyn interviews me about Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy, the third and last book of my Three Soldiers series, out this month from Harlequin Historical.

Of course, it would have helped if I had remembered it before this very second, halfway through Sunday!

Read the Reviews!

4.5 Stars “Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy is a beautiful ending to this trilogy….Diane Gaston is truly gifted with her ability to create memorable, realistic characters that remain with us long after the story has been told.” — Debby, Cataromance

4 1/2 Stars “An insightful and refreshingly realistic romance set in the Napoleonic wars. This is a must read for those who enjoy Regency romances.” — Pauline, Bookaholics Romance Club

I’m giving away one signed copy of Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy (or one download and a signed bookmark) to one lucky commenter, chosen at random! Because I’m late you’ll have until 12 midnight EDT tomorrow to comment.

Thanks so much, Carolyn, for having me here at the Riskies (Wait. I’m one of the Riskies…) Never mind. What shall I talk about?

1. First, tell us about your book.
Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy, like the first two books in the series, begins with the same event during the pillaging of Badajoz that was experienced in different ways by each of the three soldiers. What the heroes of the first two books do not know is that meeting the French woman in Badajoz, was a pivotal moment for fellow soldier, Gabriel Deane. From his first glimpse of Emmaline Mableau during the carnage, Gabe knows he will do anything to keep her safe. When he finds her again in Brussels on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, their torrid affair makes Gabe dream for the first time of a home and a family. But Emmaline rejects his marriage proposal. Emmaline has made a difficult choice – marry Gabriel, the man she loves, or refuse him to help her war-traumatized, English-hating son. She chooses her son and Gabe turns back to the life of a soldier, where he believes he belongs. After the war, though, his regiment is disbanded. He is desperately trying to find another when Emmaline appears again, begging for his help. Will Gabe say yes and risk his heart one more time?

2. What’s the series about and can you tell us about your process for coming up with the idea?
The pivotal idea for the series was that the three British officers all witness one terrible event during Badajoz. That same event changes the course of each officer’s life and gives each story its villain.

I came up with the idea after watching the old Gary Cooper movie, The Lives of a Benghal Lancer. The idea of three soldiers bonding over their war experiences intrigued me.

3. Tell us something surprising or unexpected that you learned while you were researching this book.
I learned all about Cock Fighting! There’s a brief scene with a gamecock fight, so I had to learn all about it. I wrote about it in my Behind the Book article on my website.

I also learned the term “hill farm” to denote a Lancaster sheep farm.

4. What did Gabriel do when he got dumped? Did he 1) cry 2) drink 3) something else? If it’s something else, what was it?
Well, he didn’t cry! He’s a big, strong soldier. He did drink a lot, but not for long. Mostly he just wanted to be a soldier and hack at the enemy. Of course, there weren’t too many opportunities for him to do that after Waterloo.

5. Everyone knows that Risky Megan has this thing for Clive Owen while I am enamored of Arjun Rampal. So, if you were at a romantic spa (pretend you’re not married or otherwise in a committed relationship) and Clive and Arjun are both there and each one wants you to have a healthy smoothie with them (not a group smoothie thing) . . . then there’s this big fight over you with tables flying and fruit all over the place, it’s mayhem with a brief pause for song and dance, who wins the dance competition and what do you do afterward? I think you should probably keep the answer PG.
While these two inferior gentlemen are engaged in fruitless battle, the real man – Gerard Butler – steps in and rescues me. The rest is too PG-13 and R to explain.

6. Where can we go to read an excerpt, buy the book or just find out more?
Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy is in bookstores all month and available online. You can read an excerpt at my website and find links to online vendors.

7. What’s next for you?
One thread I didn’t tie up at the end of the series was what happens to Emmaline’s son, the one who hates all Englishmen, including Gabriel Deane. He gets his own love story, an Undone ebook short story, The Liberation of Miss Finch. After living abroad for a decade, estranged from his mother, Leo Mableau returns to make amends and encounters the young woman for whom he’d had a doomed youthful infatuation. On the eve of her marriage to a man she does not love, she asks Leo to give her one last adventure — an erotic one. The Liberation of Miss Finch will be available from ebook vendors October 1, 2011.

Don’t forget to comment to win a signed copy of Valiant Soldier, Beautiful Enemy.

What’s your answer to question number FIVE?
Do you like book series? How many books in a series is ideal? Does anything frustrate you about series?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Arjun Rampal, Badajoz, Beautiful Enemy, Clive Owen, Gerard Butler, Jane Austen, Valiant Soldier | 18 Replies

Earthquakes and Storms – Regency Style

Updated on August 29, 2011 by Diane Gaston

Earthquakes and storms! Last week was quite eventful here in the Washington, D.C., area. Luckily we got through it unscathed. Just a little fear from the earthquake and only a few buildings damaged (this image showing damage to the National Cathedral is from The Atlantic Wire ). Just a lot a twigs and leaves from the hurricane here at our house, although there were several trees down in the Washington, DC area.

I got to wondering what such events would be like during the Regency?

Would there even be an earthquake in the British Isles? Seems even more unlikely than in Northern Virginia. Turns out, I found one—almost. In The London, Edinburg, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol. XXI, July-Dec 1842, was an article titled On The Earthquake Felt In Parts Of Cornwall, On February 17, 1842. Not exactly Regency era, but close enough!

The experiences recounted in the article were remarkably like how people experienced the earthquake in Virginia.

At Berkeley Vale, Falmouth:

About twenty minutes before nine a.m., I heard a peculiar rumbling sound, more like the moaning of the wind than thunder, which was immediately followed by a shaking of the doors and windows of the house, the whole effect lasting about half a minute. In the environs of the town of Falmouth, the noise particularly attracted attention, and although but few speak of any tremor, yet all describe it either as resembling the fall of a heavy body, or like a distant explosion. Many persons were fully persuaded a steam vessel had blown up in the harbour.

This about describes what I felt in my house, and many people around this area, still recalling 9/11, first thought of an explosion, a bomb.

The article goes on:

An intelligent person, captain of Poldory mine, describes it thus :—” I imagined some of the empty railroad waggons had been let go at the top of the incline, and were rapidly rushing past the door of my house: my neighbour, a widow woman, ran out shrieking that the side of her house was coming in.”

Many here thought the initial sound came from trucks rumbling by. I was, by the way, the modern version of that widow woman above.

I could not find information about hurricanes in Regency England, although there were many accounts of hurricanes in the West Indies and “the Colonies.” What I did find was a description of a gale from the Annual Register, Vol. 60, for the year 1818.

On March 5, 1818, was this report from Portsmouth:

The whole of last night it blew the most tremendous gale from the S. S. E. that can be remembered. The Hamsley, of and from Sunderland, sunk between the buoys of the Horse and the Elbow; the crew took to the rigging, and were all fortunately saved this morning at day light by a pilotboat that went off to their relief. During the gale, the whole of the wood-work of the new Pier at Ryde was washed away, and several houses to the eastward of the pier washed down. The ships in the roads and harbour rode out the gale. The Lively cutter had her bulwarks washed away; the brig Assiduous, Jenkins, parted from one of her anchors; the brig Shillelagh had her boats washed over her side; and the Tamar sloop of war slipped one of her cables.

Images from the Hurricane Irene hitting the east coast came to mind while I read this. Houses damaged. Piers washed away. How our ships took off for the high seas in anticipation of the storm. People needing rescue. Boats damaged.

In the more heavily flooded areas of New York and New Jersey, I watched reports of the rescue of two young men who were caught in the flood. There were reports of several people who tried to be out and about during and after the storm who experienced difficulties.

Here is more of that report from 1818 Portsmouth:

It is with regret that we must close this disastrous relation by stating, the drowning of the Hon. Mr. Thellusson (brother of Lord Rendlesham), Mr. Hassall (son of J. Hassall, Esq. of Hartshorn, county of Derby), and Mr. Leeson (son of the Hon. Mrs. Leeson), all midshipmen of his Majesty’s ship Tiber, who left that ship, soon after the gale commenced, in a wherry, which was pooped by a sea at the mouth of the harbour, and was never seen afterward: the waterman (Brown) and a boy also perished. These young gentlemen, who were most highly esteemed by their brother officers, were tempted to leave the ship at this hazardous moment by their anxious desire to see the performance of Mr. Kean that evening.

I guess young men can be foolish in any era.

Did you have any problems with the earthquake or the hurricane? If not these events, what about earthquakes and storms of years past?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged earthquake, Jane Austen, storm | 9 Replies