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.

Healthy Escapes

Updated on September 17, 2011 by Elena Greene

My children started school on Sept 7th. That morning, they waited for the bus in the pouring rain. The bus was late. I brought out an umbrella. When the bus finally came, the umbrella wouldn’t close, so I took it, sure that it wouldn’t still be raining when the kids returned. I was wrong. It continued to rain throughout the day and into the night. I woke up at some point, realizing the power had gone off. And it was still raining. I couldn’t fall back asleep. I remembered the flood of 2006, supposedly a “hundred year flood”. But this time, I felt the uneasy sense that something more terrible was happening.

Sadly, my gut was right. It was another “hundred year flood” but this time it was much worse. My family and I are among the lucky ones. Our hillside neighborhood became an island as the main road below us flooded. We lost power for five days (which is why I wasn’t around last Saturday) and are still having to boil our water, but our house is fine. Meanwhile, entire neighborhoods have been ravaged. We know many people whose homes have been seriously damaged and some who lost them entirely.

I strongly believe in facing reality. For many in our area, this means doing the work it takes to recover. For lucky ones like me, it means helping. Yesterday I joined a church group to help a member clean up. It felt good to be with my friends and it felt good to be useful.

But sometimes the reality just gets too overwhelming. There are times when one has to escape, at least for short time.

During the first days of the crisis, my family and I were safe and dry, but isolated, with only the radio to keep us informed of the unfolding tragedy. I tried to keep things as normal and cheerful as possible. We spent a lot of time reading, writing and crocheting. I figured out how to grill things I’d never grilled before (scalloped potatoes au gratin, even). We played Scrabble by candlelight.

Now that we’re past the crisis and into the long recovery, my friends and I are still feeling very anxious. One of us recently posted a reminder on Facebook that we all need to take breaks to have a cup of tea, do a puzzle, listen to music or escape into a good book. It’s one of the reasons I write. Creativity is healing. We all need art, songs and stories to sustain us.

When life becomes too sad and scary, what are your healthy escapes?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Wine and winners!

Updated on September 3, 2011 by Elena Greene

Earlier this week, I enjoyed an anniversary overnight with my husband in the Finger Lakes. Here’s the view from our room, across the vineyard and down to Seneca Lake. We had a lovely time and returned with two cases of wine. 🙂

I’ve been visiting Finger Lakes wineries since my just-out-of-college days, when my wine knowledge was next to nil. I can honestly say that at most Finger Lakes wineries, there’s very little wine snobbery. Staff are friendly, happy to answer questions and help you discover what you like. I highly recommend taking a tour.

Finger Lakes winemakers have been working with reds for a while, with some success, but I still tend to prefer European reds. IMHO the Finger Lakes wineries are at their best with white wines. I love their Chardonnays and especially those that have undergone what is called “malalactic fermentation” which basically transforms fruity acidity to a rich, buttery acidity. Yum! Especially with rich seafood dishes. I’ve now tried Rieslings from other places and still think the Finger Lakes Rieslings are unmatched, as did Tim Patterson, a wine writer in Wines & Vines: “My due diligence completed, there was only one rational conclusion: The distinctive character of Finger Lakes Riesling comes from where the grapes are grown. It’s the terroir, stupid. There’s only one growing area on the planet (so far) that regularly yields the distinctive balance of acid, alcohol, and texture that marks this bounty from this part of Upstate New York.” These Rieslings are full of flavor, great with many foods or by themselves.

But enough about what I like. What did they drink during the Regency? When I first started reading Georgette Heyer’s books, I hadn’t a clue as to what some of the wine terms meant. Here’s a rundown, since some of these terms are no longer in common use.

“Hock” refers to white wine from Germany; the term comes from the name of the town Hochheim in the Reingau region. “Claret” is red Bordeaux, from that region in France (blends which may include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and other grapes). Burgundy was from Burgundy (made from blends including Pinot Noir), although now the term is sometimes used to denote a wine that may or may not be similar to the French wine.

Regency characters might also drink fortified wines, with a high alcohol content because they have distilled alchohol added. These included Madeira (made in the Madeira Islands, part of Portugal), port (from Portugal) or sherry (from Spain).

I don’t know if homemade wines were commonly drunk by the haut ton, but the gentry made such wines based on fruits and herbs. There’s a recipe for “Mrs Fowle’s Orange Wine” in The Jane Austen Cookbook, by Maggie Black and Deirdre Le Faye. It would be an interesting experiment to try. I suspect the result was pretty strong, since the last steps involve adding brandy.

Do you enjoy wine and what are your favorites? Have you ever tried wine-making?

But before we chat, here are the winners of the LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE Kindle ebook giveaway:

Virginia

Sapskull

girlygirlhoosier52

Danielle Gorman

bookloveroh

Congratulations! Please send your email and the email of a friend who you think might enjoy the Kindle ebook to elena @ elenagreene. com.

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged burguny, claret, finger lakes, hock, Jane Austen, Lady Dearing's Masquerade, wine | 10 Replies

Lady Dearing’s Masquerade and Kindle Edition Giveaway!

Updated on August 27, 2011 by Elena Greene

One of the do’s and don’ts I’ve sometimes heard at romance writers’ conferences is to avoid social and political issues (“no saving the whales”). I understand the reasoning. Authors and publishers don’t want to alienate potential readers with controversial issues. And in a romance, the love story should be central.

On the other hand, if we write about characters who are interesting and well-rounded, their views and passions are going to creep into the story, and sometimes that includes social issues.

In coming up with the idea for LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, I started with the heroine, Livvy. She appeared briefly in a novella I’d written earlier, so I knew she was a childless, wealthy widow with a bad reputation and no desire to remarry. But when I started to think about her, I learned that she really wanted children. So it was natural for her to become involved with London’s Foundling Hospital.

The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram, who was appalled by the plight of abandoned children in London. The Hospital raised the children, provided a basic education and helped them find jobs. (Today, the Coram foundation continues to serve vulnerable children.) The Hospital took in foundlings but also had days during which mothers brought babies to the Hospital, generally because they could not afford to care for them. As there were always more babies than the Hospital could take in, admission was by lottery. The mothers who “won” cried as bitterly as those who “lost”. As a mother, I choke up whenever I think of this. Tokens (trinkets or scraps of fabric) were left with the children to aid in identification. Sometimes, though not often, parents were able to reclaim their children.

Strange as it may seem, the Foundling Hospital was controversial. Some people of the upper classes said it was immoral to succor children who were likely to have been born out of wedlock. I find this ironic, because many of the mothers bringing babies to the Hospital were servants who’d been impregnated by “gentlemen” of the households in which they served and in consequence, either lost their jobs or were in danger of losing their jobs.

While I was writing this book, I worried about the mix of elements. Could a story deal with such weighty issues and still be romantic and sexy? But in the end, I think I pulled it off, and I’m happy to be giving the story a new life in e-book form.

What do you think about social issues in romance novels? Should authors avoid them, or are there ways to make it work? Do you have any favorite romance novels that feature characters who feel passionately about some cause?

From comments on this post, I’ll draw five names to receive a Kindle edition of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE. If you win, you can also suggest a friend who will receive one as well. You can comment through Friday (one entry per person) and I’ll announce the winners next Saturday.

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Foundling Hospital, Jane Austen, Lady Dearing's Masquerade | 23 Replies

News!

Updated on August 20, 2011 by Elena Greene

Sorry I haven’t been around much the past week or so. My excuse is I’ve been busy with some exciting projects and I’ll do better now that I’m past the hump!

I finished formatting the e-book version of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE. It took longer than I expected, but now that I have a detailed cheat sheet it should be much easier for my other backlist books.

Anyway, LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE is now available for Kindle, Nook and other e-readers at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords!

I also just did some major renovation on my author website at www.elenagreene.com. I’ve made it more elegant (IMHO) and I also cleaned up the HTML so it is no longer “deprecated.” If you do not know what it means for HTML to be deprecated, don’t worry. I barely know either!

I’ve also brought myself into the current century by getting myself a Facebook Page, which also was more complicated than I expected. Maybe I should’ve gotten a teenager to help me! If you get a chance, please stop by and visit.

Have you risen to any recent challenges, technical or otherwise?

And look to a contest next Saturday, once I figure out how to do that with e-books. Right now I need to go find some celebratory chocolate. 🙂

Elena

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Elena Greene, Jane Austen, Lady Dearing's Masquerade | 9 Replies

Who Knew?

Updated on August 13, 2011 by Elena Greene

I recently visited the MOST (Milton J Rubinstein Museum of Science and Technology) in Syracuse, NY, where there was an exhibit on the history of human flight. It began with some information on early ballooning, interesting though familiar since I’ve read a lot of books on the subject. But there was also a section devoted to Sir George Cayley (1773-1857) who invented what was said to be the first glider in 1804.

Sir George Cayley has been called the Father of Aviation. He was the first to identify the four forces that influence flight: weight, lift, drag and thrust and designed (though never built, of course) the first airplane. The picture here is of his 1804 glider. He continued to work with gliders, designing a biplane with “flappers”, which was flown in 1849 and the first manned glider, which was flown in 1853. There’s a story that the pilot was Cayley’s coachman, and that afterwards he said, “Please, Sir George, I wish to give notice, I was hired to drive and not to fly.”

This all made me think of Laura Kinsale’s MIDSUMMER MOON, in which the heroine invents a manned glider. I can’t locate my copy (I think I loaned it to a friend) and I can’t remember if there was an author’s note. In any case, what I learned at the MOST confirms that the heroine’s invention was not out of line with what real inventors were working on during the general time period.

I love when things like this are used in books, such as the blood transfusion in Mary Jo Putney’s SHATTERED RAINBOWS (which does have a useful historical note). IMHO it’s important that the cool bit of research support the overall story, which in both these cases it does.

Have you learned anything new or unusual recently through reading historical fiction? Through visiting a museum or exhibit? Any interesting bits of research you’d like to see used in fiction?

Elena

www.elenagreene.com