Winner of Hope Tarr’s Vanquished is……. snahausa87
Hope asks you to email her at hope@hopetarr.com with your name and mailing address.
Winner of Katharine Ashe’s Swept Away By A Kiss is …….Karen H in NC
Karen, you have listed an email address on Blogger. We’ll email your email address to Katharine, so look for a message from her soon.
Today is the anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. On August 16, 1819, a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Field near Manchester to demand parliamentary reform. The period after Waterloo was rife with unrest. Unemployment was high, the Corn Laws created hardship and famine, and the people were demanding parliamentary reform.
A demonstration was planned for August 16 and the great radical orator, Henry Hunt, had agreed to speak. Before the event, a letter to Hunt was intercepted and was misinterpreted by the magistrates that an insurrection was planned.
On the day a crowd of 30,000 to 60,000 had gathered. The members of the crowd represented many radical positions, but they were a peaceful, organized crowd. Even so, when the crowd cheered Hunt’s arrival, the alarmed magistrates ordered sixty cavalrymen of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry (some reports said they were drunk) to arrest the leaders.
The yeomanry charged into the crowd and panicked. They started using their sabres against the demonstators. The 15th Hussars also charged into the crowd and the 88th Regiment of Foot stood with bayonets fixed, blocking the crowd’s main exit route.
Within ten minutes the crowd had dispersed, but eleven people were dead and anywhere from 300 to 600 injured.
The leaders were arrested and jailed; the yeomanry were acquitted, and the event led to the passing of The Six Acts, imposing even more repressive measures on the citizens to stamp out any further threats of unrest. But Peterloo, along with other protests, including the Cato Street Conspiracy (which intended to blow up the Cabinet), galvanized public outrage and a dozen years later led to the desired reforms.
My September book, Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress, deals with the issue of social unrest after Waterloo. Marian, the heroine, is the secret force behind a demonstration of unemployed former soldiers, and the politically ambitious Allan Landon, is employed by Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, to arrest the protest leader for what potentially could be a hanging offense. My demonstration was fictitious, but the unrest of that period led to the Peterloo Massacre.
My hero and heroine are direct opposites: protest leader vs the protest “police”. Can you think of other hero/heroine combinations that are perfect opposites? The classic example is arsonist vs arson investigator.
Don’t forget to visit Diane’s Blog on Thursday. I think I’ll start a new contest there….
And next Sunday Michelle Willingham and I are going to be talking about our new September releases! (and giving away signed copies)
My mind is still wandering, not entirely away from RWA in Orlando, a bit still on the road, and a lot in my almost finished Book 3 of my Soldiers Series.
Something very cool from RWA.
After the Awards Ceremony (where Amanda and Carolyn were finalists for the RITA, in case you forgot…) several of my friends from Washington Romance Writers (WRW) and I were invited to Michelle Monkou‘s hotel suite. Michelle is RWA’s president as well as a member of WRW, and as president she’d done a fair amount of entertaining in her suite. Leftover from one of those events was a booklet compiled for librarians by John Charles (reviewer for Booklist and the Chicago Tribune), Shelley Mosley, and Kristin Ramsdell. The booklet defines the Romance genre and its subgenres and describes its historical origins. It lists Romance publishers and resource books and articles and electronic resources. Five Blogs were listed and RISKY REGENCIES WAS ONE OF THEM!!! Right up there with Word Wenches, The Goddess Blogs and Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book.
Speaking of blogs, I’m way behind on Number One London, one of my blog favorites. Here is a sample of some of their offerings: More on the Althorpe auction, Food Glorious Food (iconic British food), Jo Manning on Gainsborough, Famous Dandies Paper Dolls. Number One London is up for a blog award. Feel free to vote for them!
Do you subscribe to RT Book Reviews? In the September issue, go to page 44. There among the Historical reviews is the bookcover for Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress!
RT gives the book 4 Stars and says: “Three soldiers share the horrors of the Battle of Waterloo. Their powerful stories and realistic backdrop elevate Gaston’s series out of the traditional Regency romance.”
Let’s hope Book 3 lives up to that statement as well!
Regency fun!
What is on your mind this week? Do you have a goal for the week? Mine is finishing the book!
Come see me Thursday on Diane’s Blog!
I’m on my way home from RWA Orlando, still on the road with my friend Julie. The conference was a delight, even if I never had even a peek of Disney World! Of course, we was robbed in the RITAs. Amanda and Carolyn did not win this time. They will be finalists again, though, mark my words.
Wednesday night’s Literacy Booksigning and the Soiree, the Beau Monde (Regency) Chapter party, seem a long time ago, but I did promise some photos.
This is Aztec Lady! I was so happy to see azteclady in person at the booksigning to thank her for commenting on Risky Regencies. You frequent commenters are like family!
At the Soiree, from left to right: Louisa Cornell (frequent commenter), Amanda, Megan, Keira (frequent commenter) and welcome guest author, Cara Elliot
Me (Diane) and Louisa
Regency dancing. They were just getting started. Janet dragged me onto the dance floor where I made an absolute cake of myself.
Janet and Amanda striking a pose.
Keira and Kris Alice Hohls, the editor of the German Romance magazine, Love Letters. Doesn’t Keira look lovely in her Regency dress and bonnet?
The Mills and Boon (UK branch of Harlquin Enterprises) editors attended the Soiree. From left to right, Amanda, Linda Fildew (senior editor of Harlequin Historicals and Mills and Boon Historicals), Kim Young (editorial manager for M&B series and Mira), and Jenny Hutton (editor for Modern Romance)
Here it is Saturday night right before the Awards Ceremony.
Amanda with the cutest dress ever, frequest guest author Michelle Willingham, and Mills and Boon editor Joanne Grant.
As I was searching my photos for this blog, I realized I do not have even one photo of Carolyn! I have no idea why, except perhaps she really is a vampire like Janet said!
I won’t be commenting much today, because I’ll be on the road or exhausted when I get home, but I’ll be more with it next week. Til then, tell us your favorite part of the RWA conference if you attended, or tell us about your favorite Disney heroine, because I think Amanda looked as if she stepped out of a Disney animation at the Awards ceremony.
Oh, for the romantic days of coach travel!
Today I am on the road with my friend Julie. We’re driving to Orlando for the Romance Writers of America Annual Conference and it will take us two days. Should be fun, especially since we’ll spend our overnight at our friend, Maggie Toussaint‘s house.
But what if this were Regency England and we were traveling by carriage?
For one thing, we’d be hard-pressed to find a journey from one end of the UK to the other that would as long. Mapquest says our journey will be 852 miles; from Plymouth, England to Kirkwall, Scotland is only 798 miles.
If we were taking such a journey in Regency times, we would undoubtedly be traveling by coach, and at our middle class income levels, we would probably be passengers on a stage coach, like these.
On the other hand, Julie does drive a convertible, so maybe we’d be in a more sporting vehicle, and not public transportation at all.
Mapquest says our trip will take a total of 13 hours 19 minutes.
The trip from Plymouth to Kirkwall by coach, assuming there wouldn’t be the problem of mountain roads and bad weather, would be a great deal longer.
When figuring travel time in the Regency, I always rely on Shannon Donnelly who is such a great horse and carriage expert! Shannon says that a coach in the Regency could travel 4 to 12 miles per hour. (For my books, I usually estimate travel time by using 9 mph), but horses have to be rested or changed every 10-11 miles. A crack group of stable workers at a coaching inn could change a team in two minutes. Most would have taken longer, I’d guess.
So using the 9 mph estimate, our Regency trip of 798 miles would take 89 hours. That’s a whole lot more than Julie’s and my 14 hours.
I figure Julie and I will travel about 10 or 11 hours before we stop at Maggie’s house, then the next day we should only have to travel 4 or 5 hours. If our Regency selves also travel for 10 to 11 hours, we’ll go a distance of 99 miles in a day. That means our trip to Kirkwall would take us about 8 days.
And I’m not even discussing the differences of spending the night in inns, getting meals and…….BATHROOM BREAKS.
Are you traveling this summer? If you are coming to Orlando for RWA, how are you getting there? If you are coming to RWA, join us for breakfast on Friday. We’ll find a table at the free breakfast and try to make it easy to find us. If you are not coming to RWA, where are you traveling and how?
Julie is coordinating the Literacy Booksigning and I’ll be helping her all day Weds. If you have some time to spare, come and we’ll put you to work!
Thursday I’ll be blogging at Diane’s Blog and I hope to post some Conference photos. Next Monday Julie and I will be on the road again, but I’ll try to post some photos of friends in their Beau Monde Soiree Regency finery. Or SOME photos from Orlando! Maybe we’ll even get all the Riskies together for a photo!
Til then, Bon Voyage!!