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.

JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB: Favorite Heroines

Updated on November 4, 2008 by Elena Greene

For this month’s JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB, we have an election!!!

Okay, not exactly. But we are voting! So fulfill your patriotic duty (to the great nation of Austenland) and vote on the following issues:

With which Austen adaptation heroine would you most like to share a pot of tea?

Which is your favorite performance?

Are there any Austen heroines who you don’t feel have ever been well-portrayed on screen?

Are there any Austen heroines whom you like more in the book than the film, or vice versa?

All answers welcome!

(And here are a bunch of pictures to jog your memory!)

Cara
Cara King, who votes that movie theaters start serving tea

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Jane Austen Movie Club | 14 Replies

Jack O’Lanterns

Updated on October 29, 2008 by Elena Greene

Last night we finished carving our Halloween pumpkins. I felt some doubt that this was a custom during the Regency, despite Halloween anthology covers like this one, so I thought I’d look it up.

The History Channel identifies the origin of Halloween with the Celtic rituals of Samhain and says people have been making jack o’lanterns for centuries, carving scary faces into turnips (pictured below) or potatoes and setting them in windows or near doors to frighten away evil spirits. It also says the practice is related to an Irish legend of a stingy blacksmith named Jack and the Devil (read more here).

I found the same story at www.jack-o-lantern.com which also says that when the word first appeared in print, it referred to a night watchman or man carrying a lantern. Halloween History says the word was used for the phenomenon of ignis fatuus, lights appearing over bogs and marshes. For all I know, both may be true. I didn’t have time to search further!

Halloween History also says that:

“Throughout Britain and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede. But not until 1837 does jack-o’-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the carved lantern does not become associated specifically with Halloween until 1866. Significantly, both occurred not in Britain or Ireland, but in North America.”

So yeah, people probably did carve jack o’lanterns during the Regency, though they may not have called them that and probably wouldn’t have used pumpkins, which Cobbett wrote was “a thing little used in England”. I also think it was a country custom, not something the gentry or aristocracy would have done except perhaps on a whim.

Anyway, here are our creations. My kids are still into Greek mythology, so we have Medusa, the Minotaur and the Cyclops.

Anyone else doing anything fun with pumpkins…or other vegetables? That you’re willing to share, of course. Planning costumes for themselves, children or pets?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged halloween, jack o'lanterns, samhain | 15 Replies

Gateway Regencies

Updated on October 28, 2008 by Elena Greene

To begin with, a little scheduling:

Next Tuesday, join us when (through the Jane Austen Movie Club) we’ll talk about our favorite heroines in Jane Austen movies.

And the following Tuesday, I’ll finally unveil JANE AUSTEN’S “PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.”

(I meant to have it ready for today, but I was kidnapped by a masked man who kept me busy with vocal warmups all evening…)

Now, the topic of the day:

Gateway Regencies!

After all, if a gateway drug is something that lures the inexperienced on to using more and more drugs…

then a Gateway Regency is clearly a Regency that gets a reader hooked on the genre.

So…what Regencies were your Gateway Regencies?

Which ones lured you to try more, and more, and more…

until reading Regencies was…

more than just a terrific means of entertainment…

more than just a great way to relax…

more than just a window on the past…

more than just a mentally stimulating pastime…

but became a way of life.

(Or a great fantasy life!)

Have you gotten anyone else hooked on Regencies?

If so, what Gateway Regencies did you supply them with…

or recommend to them?

Which books, which authors?

Did you ever recommend a fabulous book, which ended up being not the best book to hook someone with?

If a friend came to you today, and said she (or he) wanted to give the Regency genre a try…

and asked you what Regency to start with…

which book or books, or author or authors, would you recommend?

What sort of books in general would you recommend? (New, old, short, long, mostly history, mostly romance, mostly comedy, or what?)

Or are you of the opinion that Regencies are your private little world, and you don’t want your friends and family to read them too?

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, who could be crushed under the weight of the Regencies she owns if there’s a big enough earthquake

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 24 Replies

Originality

Updated on October 21, 2008 by Elena Greene

Last week, a scene from the Project Runway finale had me thinking.

The judges compared designer Kenley’s gown (left) to a recent creation by Alexander McQueen (right). Kenley complained that the judges called her a copycat. Annoying as Kenley is, I don’t think she ripped off the design. I didn’t hear the judges say so either. What I did hear is their advice to her to become more aware of what other designers are doing.

I wondered whether this advice–no doubt excellent for the fashion industry–makes sense for romance writing. Many publishers do in fact advise aspiring writers to read their line before submitting. However, I think the intent is to get more submissions that suit the current line, not avoid similar stories, which is more often my concern. I sometimes worry that I’ve accidentally hit upon a similar idea to something that is already out there, even (horrors!) something so popular and successful that my own attempt would inevitably raise suspicions.

But I stress about this less than I used to. When I heard that Victoria Alexander wrote a book with a balloonist hero, I steeled myself to read it, ready to ditch or alter my own balloonist story if it seemed too similar. As it turns out, HER HIGHNESS, MY WIFE is a fun read but the plot and characters are completely unlike mine. Even the ballooning element is different, as her aeronaut uses hot air and mine uses hydrogen. You may think this does not matter but consider the fact that in a hydrogen balloon an aeronaut can, um, stay up much longer. 🙂 But I digress.

I know some authors who don’t read in their own genre because they want to avoid unconsciously absorbing others’ ideas. I won’t go so far; I enjoy historical romance too much to give up the pleasure. But I’m also not about to embark on a major survey of what sort of historical romances are currently out there, either to try to fit in or to deliberately make sure I’ve written something that is completely unlike any other story. I don’t have the time!

Although there are a lot of elements in a single garment, a novel is still a more complex creation. Two writers working in isolation could very well come up with some similar ideas, especially if they’re fascinated by the same bit of history and using the same sources. But if they are drawing from within themselves, the resulting novels are still going to as different as the two writers.

I found a cool quote by James Stephens:

Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.

I like that! How about you? Do you think authors should read in their own genre or not? Which do you think results in greater originality?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged creative process, originality, project runway | 23 Replies

JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB: The Duchess

Updated on October 16, 2008 by Elena Greene

Welcome to a surprise meeting of the Risky Regencies JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB!

(Janet, I hope you feel better soon!!!)

Today we’re discussing the new movie THE DUCHESS.

Based on the Amanda Foreman biography of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, who lived from 1757 – 1806, THE DUCHESS tells her story from just before her marriage until several years in.

The movie is visually sumptuous, as these pictures show. (By the way, if you want to see any of the pictures bigger, you can just click on them!)

Here’s some useful background info on the movie itself:

DIRECTOR: Saul Dibb

SCREENPLAY: Jeffrey Hatcher, Anders Thomas Jensen, and Saul Dibb

Jeffrey Hatcher, by the way, wrote the play and screenplay for the Restoration theatre drama STAGE BEAUTY, and co-wrote the screenplay for the Heath Ledger CASANOVA.