Santa, if you sent your email to collect your Jane Austen Evening prize, it was eaten by the monsters of cyberspace, because we never received it. Please resend it to riskies@yahoo.com by Monday night, or we’ll have to give the prize to another worthy commenter!
The Riskies
Did you do Mad Libs as a kid? I certainly did. I loved how the random words we all submitted turned into wacky stories.
I didn’t know until recently that they were still published, but they are! So I was happily able to buy my nephew some Star Wars Mad Libs recently…
Now, just for the heck of it, I’m going to try to do one myself: a Jane Austen Mad Lib.
So: please suggest words that fit the following categories, and then later today I’ll post the finished version!
ABSTRACT IDEA:
ADVERB:
KIND OF PERSON:
POSSESSION:
MEMBER OF FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD:
DEGREE/EXTENT:
PLURAL NOUN:
ANOTHER PLURAL NOUN:
PLACE:
GROUP OF HUMANS:
ANOTHER MEMBER OF FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD:
So just suggest as many as you like, and I will take a random assortment of suggestions, and we’ll see what we get!
And don’t forget: next Tuesday, we’ll be discussing the Leslie Howard version of THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL!
Cara
Cara King, who owns many plural nouns
The winners of the prizes that accompanied Tuesday’s Jane Austen Evening post are:
Maddie
and
Santa!
Maddie & Santa, please send your info to me at riskies@yahoo.com, and I’ll email you your prize choices… 🙂
Cara & the Riskies
First off, I would like to welcome any newcomers or visitors to the blog! Risky Regencies is a light-hearted community of Regency writers and Regency fans, and we provide great discussions on everything from the merits of the 1995 miniseries of Pride and Prejudice to rereading Georgette Heyer.
Now, to today’s subject: the 2009 Jane Austen Evening, which I attended this past Saturday!
(In fact, I enjoyed it so very much, that I shall be giving away two Regency-themed prizes to lucky commenters today! Just comment on this post by Wednesday night, and you’ll be entered to win a DVD of the Rintoul/Garvie version of Pride and Prejudice, or the guidebook to the Bath Museum of Costume, or a book on Sarah Siddons, or another prize of your choice!)
I have now attended something like six Jane Austen Evenings, and it seems to me they get better every year.
As always, it was held in a gorgeous location (as these photos attest!)
First, we had a Regency tea, with as much scrumptious period food as one could eat, plus a variety of teas.
My favorite food this year was the sweet rosemary shortbread — I went back for more.
And more…
And more… (Oh, it was heavenly!)
I think every year, the costumes are better, and the dancers more experienced.
And this year, it seemed to me that the costumes weren’t only fabulous, but that nearly everyone was in some sort of costume.
There were moments when one could truly picture oneself back in Jane Austen’s time!
(Though the cameras, I suppose, were a tiny bit anachronistic.) 😉
Then again, with so many amazing costumes, who could blame those of us who took photos?
(And more photos!)
(And still more!)
(In fact, I took so many, that I had to do two blog posts today to hold them all…)
I even brought a camcorder this time — though I’ve yet to see how my taping turned out!
(If it turned out well, then I’m going to upload some of it to youtube, just as Jane Austen would have done herself.)
Then, after all the splendid tea, we danced all night.
(My feet were killing me by the end!)
So: if you want to comment on this post, feel free to answer any or all of the following questions:
Did you attend the Jane Austen Evening? What did you think? Which was your favorite part? (Your favorite food, or dance, or costume?)
If you didn’t attend it, which part sounds the most alluring?
Which is your favorite photo?
Have you ever attended a similar event?
All comments welcome!
(And if you want to see my posts on previous Jane Austen Evenings and Playford Balls, just click the link below that says “Jane Austen Evening.”)
Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER and dancer of Maggots
