Author Archives: Elena Greene

About Elena Greene

Elena Greene grew up reading anything she could lay her hands on, including her mother's Georgette Heyer novels. She also enjoyed writing but decided to pursue a more practical career in software engineering. Fate intervened when she was sent on a three year international assignment to England, where she was inspired to start writing romances set in the Regency. Her books have won the National Readers' Choice Award, the Desert Rose Golden Quill and the Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence. Her Super Regency, LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, won RT Book Club's award for Best Regency Romance of 2005 and made the Kindle Top 100 list in 2011. When not writing, Elena enjoys swimming, cooking, meditation, playing the piano, volunteer work and craft projects. She lives in upstate New York with her two daughters and more yarn, wire and beads than she would like to admit.

Sparkly shiny things

Updated on November 14, 2014 by Elena Greene

When I need a lift, I’m drawn to sparkly, shiny things. I like making them (here are some beaded snowflakes I made for a church fundraiser). As an author, I also like surfing around and looking at sparkly things, calling it research.

Here are a few amberearrings items I love. This pair of amber earrings from Ruby Lane is just lovely. At $3500 they are a bit out of my budget, of course. So now I’m fighting the temptation to go browse Fire Mountain Gems (my go-to jewelry makers’ porn) to see if I can get findings to create my own version. If I do that, I’ll report back on how it went.

One thing that has always fascinated me is Georgian era paste–you know, the stuff that the aristocrats in our stories use to create replicas of the heirloom jewelry they sell to pay gaming debts. To me, it always sounded like something inferior, but having seen some examples, I think it’s lovely. I’ve been infatuated with this paste parure from Georgian Jewelry for a number of years now, sadly sold but I can still admire it from afar.

The happy news is that there are jewelry makers out there creating lovely and affordable designs that can mimic favorite Georgian and Regency styles. One can find a number of them on Etsy.

These “emeralds” from Sacred Cake look as lovely as those in the parure. Maybe I need a new Regency gown to go with them.

And how about these girandole earrings from Dames a La Mode: Accessories for the Lady of Quality? (Don’t you love the store name?)

Do you enjoy sparkly things? Have any favorite period or period-inspired accessories? What are your favorite sources for them?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Frivolity, Research | Tagged jewelry, paste | 4 Replies

Fall Back in Time!

Updated on October 31, 2014 by Elena Greene

As Sandy mentioned earlier, The Historical Romance Network is celebrating historical romance with a special event. Today, authors and readeres are posting selfies taken with romance novels, using the hashtag #FallBackinTime.

So in no particular order, here we are!

Sandy, with The Wastrel by Margaret Moore.

Elena, with The Captain’s Dilemma by Gail

Carolyn of the Awesome Hair, with Rogue Spy by Joanna Bourne.

Myretta, with The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase

Gail, with Fly with a Rogue by Elena

and Diane, who couldn’t pick just one!

Feel free to join the Fall Back in Time event and post your own selfie wherever you’d like. Help historical romance trend by using the hashtag #FallBackinTime.

The Risky Regencies

Posted in Reading | Tagged FallBackinTime, Historical Romance Network | 2 Replies

Ghosts and Witches in the UK

Updated on October 31, 2014 by Elena Greene

Since my blogging day has fallen on Halloween, I’ll do my best to get into the spirit of things. (Get that? “Spirit”? Feel free to groan!)

I checked out the Internet and found many suggestions for “10 Most Haunted whatever”. Here are a few.

Listverse’s Top 10 Most Haunted Places (anywhere) has the following in the United Kingdom: Borley Rectory, Raynham Hall in Norfolk, where this famous ghost lady picture was taken, the Tower of London and Edinborough Castle.

Lists for the top 10 in the UK vary. Interestingly, Raynham Hall didn’t appear on either of the lists I checked. Haunted Rooms’ Top 10 Haunted Places in England lists the following places: Borley Rectory, Ancient Ram Inn, Pendle Hill, Berry Pomeroy Castle, Woodchester Mansion, Pluckley Village, Athelhampton House, Tower of London, Salmesbury Hall, Chillingham Castle. Visit Britain’s Top 10 Most Haunted Places lists Highgate Cemetery, Borley Rectory, Pendle Hill, Red Lion in Avebury, Ancient Ram Inn, Glamis Castle, Tower of London, Culloden Moor, Llancaiach Fawr Manor, Berry Pomeroy Castle.

Borley Rectory seems to always hit every list. I’d already read tales of the hauntings, supposedly due to a monk from a monastery that had existed on the site falling in love with a nun. According to the story, he was executed and she was bricked up alive within the convent walls. According to the Haunted Legend of Borley Rectory, this legend has no historical basis. However, there were strange incidents, reports of ghost carriages, an apparition that could have been a nun. However, there’s also some suspicion that a paranormal researcher, Harry Price, faked the phenomena he reported, and also that a subsequent resident, Marianne Foyster, may have faked paranormal activity to cover up her affair with a lodger.

Here’s an image of a purported ghost sighting at Borley.

Another of the places that seems to hit a lot of the lists is Pendle Hill, around which 12 women who in 1612 were tried and hanged as witches in what became known as the Lancashire Witch Trials. Check out this Youtube video to learn more. Given the superstitious nature of the time when these hangings occurred, some are now urging for these women to be pardoned.

The legend of the Lancashire Witches forms some of the backstory for Lucy in Disguise by Lynn Kerstan, one of the Regencies in the ebook set Regency Masquerades. The set also includes the RITA-winning Gwen’s Ghost, co-authored by Lynn Kerstan and Alicia Rasley.

Regency Masquerades will be on sale for 99 cents only for a few more days, so if you’re interested, buy it now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks and Kobo.

What ghost or witch stories or haunted places do you find the most interesting?

Wishing you a happy Halloween!

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Posted in History | Tagged Borley Rectory, ghosts, halloween, Lancashire Witches, Pendle Hill, Raynham Hall, witches | Leave a reply

NJRW Conference, NaNoWriMo and Histromnet

Updated on October 24, 2014 by Elena Greene

Sorry for the alphabet soup in the title!

Diane already talked about the New Jersey Romance Writers conference, where she, Gail and I were fortunate enough to hang out together and celebrate Diane’s finaling in the Golden Leaf with A Marriage of Notoriety. I enjoyed the published authors’ retreat (they serve wine and chocolate pretzels), workshops on the business and craft of writing, and just being with other Regency authors (there are none in my local writing circle). Here are pics of Gail and me at the booksigning.

Gail and I also spent some time on Saturday night brainstorming individual story ideas. I’ll leave it to Gail to talk about hers when she’s ready. All I’ll say is the beginning parts she read to me were delightful! As for me, I’m feeling more ready to go ahead and write prequel and sequel novellas to Lady Em’s Indiscretion.

In fact, I think I’m going to join others in doing the National Novel Writing Month challenge. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the idea is to draft 50,000 words of a new novel within the month of November.

There are naysayers who say it’s impossible to write 50,000 of publishable, readable fiction in one month. Actually, I know people who can do that (not me!) but for most writers, that is true. I’m sure loads of dreck is produced during NaNoWriMo. Probably some of it will make its way, unedited, into Kindle Direct Publishing but that’s no big deal, really. Others, like me, see the challenge as a fun way to generate ideas. We’re very aware that more time will be spent afterwards to rework and polish our ideas into readable fiction.

In years that I’m busy editing in the fall, I don’t do NaNoWriMo. But when it fits where I’m at in the writing–as it does this year–I join in. I admit, I love watching the progress meter rise! So wish me luck and anyone else doing the challenge, feel free to add me as a “Writing Buddy”. My NaNoWriMo ID is Elena Greene, with just a space in the middle.

Finally, something for all the historical romance lovers out there who would like to spread the word about this wonderful genre. A group of authors have created the Historical Romance Network. One project has been the creation of a video celebrating the variety of historical romance. Check it out here.

You’re all also invited to join the Fall Back in Time Facebook event. On November 1st, post a selfie taken while holding a historical romance. What a great way to celebrate historical romance (and an extra hour of sleep). 🙂

Elena

Posted in Reading, Risky Book Talk, Writing | Tagged Elena Greene, Fall Back in Time, Gail Eastwood, Historical Romance Network, HistRomNet, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, New Jersey Romance Writers, njrw, njrw conference | 1 Reply

Regency Masquerades Ball ~ Winners!

Updated on October 19, 2014 by Elena Greene

Congratulations to all our winners!

The winner of Lord Langdon’s Kiss by Elena Greene is Library Pat.

The winner of Poetic Justice by Alicia Rasley is Susan/DC.

The winner of The Rake and the Wallflower by Allison Lane is Maribelle.

The winner of A Perilous Journey by Gail Eastwood is Melody Gonser.

The winner of Gabriella by Brenda Hiatt is Barbara Literski.

The winner of The Rake and the Spinster by Lynn Kerstan is Edea Baldwin.

Winners, Elena Greene will email you to coordinate giving you your prizes.

Thanks to everyone for visiting the Regency Masquerades Ball! We’ve all had a lovely time. 🙂

For anyone who hasn’t yet purchased the Regency Masquerades set and would like to, get it now while it’s still at the introductory price of 99 cents!

Regency Masquerades is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and Kobo Books. Buy now for just 99 cents!