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.

Elena’s News

Updated on February 12, 2016 by Elena Greene

I’ve been too busy to write or even come up with a proper post on matters Regency, but I do have some news–not all writing-related, not as exciting as Carolyn’s, but I’m still happy about it.

I’ve taken a part time position as temporary, part time religious education coordinator at my UU Church, filling in while the search continues for a permanent director. It’s a great position for me right now–I’m dealing with great coworkers, a caring community of families and teachers, and amazing kids from nursery age to youth group. I had to come up to speed quickly, so the past few weeks I worked nearly full time, but it’s been a blast. On the less-than-fun side, I’ve also dealt with an upper respiratory something-or-over and some drama from my teenage daughters, but things are settling.

I’m looking forward to getting back to writing again next week. I also recently registered to go to the Romance Writers of America National Conference in San Diego! I’ve been able to catch up with some of my writer friends at the New Jersey conference, but this will be a chance to renew friendships with friends who don’t make it out to the East Coast, as well as to refresh my knowledge of the craft and business.

Here’s a picture of the Riskies in 2008, which is that last time I attended. It’s been far too long!

What special plans do you have for this year?

Elena

New Year’s Resolutions–To Bid Farewell to Scandal?

Updated on January 8, 2016 by Elena Greene

I was googling around to see if people during the Regency might have made New Year’s resolutions and found confirmation in a delightful post from The Snug Blog. The author found a 1792 etching “A Long String of Resolutions for a New Year – Design’d by G.M. Woodward” including satirical sketches of people making various resolutions including the one shown here.

I imagine they probably had a similar success rate to what people have now. Googling further, I found statistics saying that about 8-12% of those making New Year’s resolutions end up succeeding. Maybe it’s not so bad–at least those 8-12% made it, and for the rest, there’s always next year.

The problem is that starting a new calendar doesn’t mean I’ve left the baggage of the previous year behind. All the things that hindered me in the past may still be there. Any resolution that doesn’t take those things into account isn’t going to go far.

Also, if I feel the need for a change, I don’t want to wait until the New Year to start it. And if I backslide, I’m also not going to wait until the next year to start over. It’s only through setbacks and recoveries, by stringing together small successes day by day, that my larger goals have ever been met.

So I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions as such, although I do think it’s good to take time to reflect on how life is going and whether I’m living as authentic a life as I can.

The small steps I’ve been taking recently toward creative recovery include going to a coffee shop a few times a week to work on a new novella. I’m nearly done with the first draft and more importantly, I’m enjoying it.

Baby steps.

How do you feel about New Year’s resolutions? Have you made any? What helps you succeed?

Elena

Posted in Regency, Research, Writing | Tagged new year, new years resolutions | 6 Replies

Christmas Rant and Some Music

Updated on December 9, 2015 by Elena Greene

Long time visitors to the Riskies know I have a complicated relationship with Christmas. I detest the whole commercial aspect and I also despise the idea that the season magically fixes things. However, I embrace the season in my own way—which is to accept the darkness as well as the light.

Each year, I think of people who are lonely, and of the various wars, large and small, raging through families and countries. Right now it feels as if the whole world is bleeding, and it seems that every day brings more heartbreak.

I know some people like to look away, to lose themselves in a blaze of Christmas lights, of shopping, even of obsessing about “not being ready” for Christmas. (What does “ready” really mean?)

My own way of coping is to allow the sadness in as well as the joy. Music is one of the ways I can stay in touch with both.

This year I found another version of the Coventry Carol, arranged by Ola Gjeilo, performed by the CORO Vocal Artists. Its haunting melody helps me find that stillness where I can feel the heartbreak and then let it lead me toward whatever healing action I can take for myself and others.

On the more joyful side and in the spirit of the Regency, here’s a version of the Gloucester Wassail and the Holly and the Ivy by the Waverley Consort, with assorted interesting Georgian and Regency imagery. The Gloucester Wassail was first published in the Oxford Book of Carols in 1928, but it believed to date back to the Middle Ages, so it could definitely have been part of a Regency Christmas. An early mention of The Holly and the Ivy is in a book dated 1823, and the lyrics are reprinted in an 1861 collection, A Garland of Christmas Carols, where it is stated that it was found in “an old broadside, printed a century and a half since” (around 1711), so this is another carol that our Regency characters might have sung.

Here’s the refrain from “The Gloucester Wassail”:

Wassail! wassail! all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree;
With the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to visit some of my posts from past years about traditional Christmas music that hasn’t been used to sell cars, watches, or anything else:

Holiday Music, Traditional and Reinvented

Antidote for Carol of the Bells

Carols and Winners

What are your favorite carols?

Elena

Posted in Music, Rant, Regency, Research | Tagged Christmas carols, Christmas music, Gloucester Wassail, The Coventry Carol, The Holly and the Ivy | 6 Replies

Goals–announce or not?

Updated on November 12, 2015 by Elena Greene

“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh”

– David Milch

Despite this fundamental truth, I’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. For those who aren’t familiar, here’s the description from the www.nanowrimo.org “About” page:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing.

On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.

Studies have shown that announcing goals or resolutions isn’t always a good idea. Apparently, some people get warm fuzzies from just from announcing the goal, and that this becomes a substitute for actually doing the work.

There are those who sign up for NaNoWriMo and never post a word count.

However, the articles I read also say that if one treats the announcement of a goal as a commitment rather than an achievement in itself, the increased accountability can help. Here are links if you’d like to read more: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/should-you-tell-facebook-about-your-resolutions/ and http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/announcing-plans-may-kill-motivation-productivity/

What these articles don’t address is a factor that I think is very important: how people in your circle react to your announcement. Part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is the generally supportive environment on the website and the message boards.

On the other hand, announcing that you’re planning to write your first book can backfire if clueless or negative people in your life will chivvy you about when your first bestseller is going to come out. The same thing can happen with setting goals of any sort—it’s good to share them with people who will be supportive and also won’t treat you as a failure if you don’t reach your goal.

In my case, I’m not worried about the support team issue. It’s been about 15 years since I started writing and by now I know who’s got my back. The others just don’t matter any more. I do NaNoWriMo because it’s fun and suits my writing process.

Several times in the past I’ve made it past the 50,000 mark. This time, my personal goal is just to get back into the groove of writing again and continue to make progress on the novella I started during my recent writer’s retreat. I’m managing about half an hour to an hour every day and the progress is very slow but steady. I certainly won’t “win” in the sense of achieving 50,000 words, but if all goes well, I may finish the rough draft of the novella. With the original 6,000 words, I am about one third to one half done!

How about you? Do you like announcing goals and do you find it helps? Do you enjoy tracking progress and how?

Elena

Posted in Writing | Tagged accountability, goals, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month | 6 Replies

Artist Date at the Corning Museum of Glass

Updated on October 9, 2015 by Elena Greene

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends taking a weekly Artist Date: a no pressure, fun outing or activity that pleases your inner artist. The Corning Museum of Glass is one of my favorite Artist Date destinations. Recently I took my daughter and some of her friends there for her birthday celebration and was able to take some time for myself in the galleries and the studio.

For anyone who hasn’t visited CMOG, there’s a science section and a history section, where you can see everything from ancient Egyptian and Roman glass to Tiffany to modern art. There are some examples of Georgian and Regency glass—I’ll get to those later. There are contemporary glass art galleries—a whole new section was recently added. You can also watch a glass blowing demo or make your own project at their studios. Here’s a candy dish I made during this last visit.
Rounding out this plug for CMOG, I’ll say that the café is excellent and the gift shop is full of beautiful things. I especially love the jewelry. There are trinkets to suit different budgets, from this dichroic glass pendant I got on sale for $5, to more expensive, one-of-a-kind items from master glass artists. (And there are good post-holiday sales…)

Here are some of the Georgian and Regency items I enjoyed during this last visit.

The lovely enamel work on these glasses caught my eye. According to the label,

“The Beilby family painted much of the colorless enameled glass that was made in England during and after the 1760s. William Beilby (1740-1819) and his sister Mary (1749-1797) enameled glasses with floral motifs, landscapes, and pictures of architectural ruins. The most famous of their glasses are goblets bearing the royal coats of arms. These goblets mark the birth of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) in 1762.

Here’s a closeup that better shows the beauty of the enamel-work.

I love the color and the detailing on this item, labeled merely “Casket: Birmingham or London, 1760-1770”. I could see one of my heroines using it to store her jewelry.

cmog_dessert_pineapple_stands And here are some items I could see gracing a Regency dining table: “Dessert Stand: England, about 1715-80. This set consists of a revolving stand, jelly glasses, flower vases, and a central sweetmeat glass.” and “Pineapple Stand: England about 1830. This cut crystal stand was used to display pineapples, which were an exotic, highly prized status symbol in 19th century England.”