My mother has been in the hospital and things have been crazy. I leave you with this picture of our new dog, Bella, and a request that you talk amongst yourselves about books you love. Or pets you love. My mom is much improved by the way.
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| Bella. Photo by Yours Truly |
It’s Tuesday night as I write this and in the US, as you may know, there’s an election. I am distracted. A wee bit.
Brooke’s Gazeteer to the rescue.
Ilminster, a town in Somersetshire, with a market on Saturday; seated among hills, 26 miles SW of Wells, and 137 W by S of London. Google maps confirms this.
Wikipedia tells us the following:
Ilminster is a country town and civil parish in the countryside of south west Somerset, England, with a population of 4,781. Bypassed a few years ago, the town now lies just east of the junction of the A303 (London to Exeter) and the A358 (Taunton to Chard and Axminster). The parish includes the village of Peasmarsh and the hamlet of Sea.
Peasmarsh. That is awesome.
Also from Wikepedia:
Ilminster is mentioned in documents dating from 725 and in a Charter granted to the Abbey of Muchelney (10 miles to the north) by King Ethelred in 995. Ilminster is also mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086) as Ileminstre meaning ‘The church on the River Isle’ from the Old English ysle and mynster. By this period Ilminster was a flourishing community and was granted the right to hold a weekly market, which it still does.
Barrington Court is nearby. This is a National Trust house, and the pictures here are worth a click.
You REALLY need to see the before and after restoration pictures. Wow.
What a week. And it’s only Wednesday. I just want this post to be a big sigh of relief as well as sorrow.
To my fellow Riskies who were in the path of hurricane Sandy, I am SO glad you’re OK.
I want to cry when I think of the lives lost while I thank goodness for the First Responders, who put their lives on the line, and for all the people who worked in the background before, during, after, and in the days ahead.
I’ve donated to the Red Cross relief effort and will surely do so again in the coming days and weeks. We’re only just beginning to get a handle on what it will take to recover.
I heard from a reader who told me she was looking for historicals that were less graphic. She enjoyed mine, but skipped over the sexier parts. I recommended the traditional regencies of our own Elena Greene, of course, as well as those of Candice Hern and some of Mary Balogh’s older traditional regencies.
Fellow Risky Readers, I am throwing the question open to you. Besides Heyer, what other writers do you recommend for someone who is looking for the emotional impact of Romance, but that is less graphic in content?
Feel free to recommend contemporary stories, as well. I don’t believe she’s looking for Inspirationals. Basically, I think she wants Lord Ruin (the historical of mine she’d read) but without the graphic sex. If anything, I am even more graphic now so I was not able to point her to my other books.
Thank you in advance!
Ok. Well, I was called for jury duty and now I am on a trial, which is all I am allowed to say for now. However, this means I am getting up early to do day job stuff, getting my son to school, then going to court where I DO NOT get to go home at a time commensurate with starting my work day at 5:30 AM, so I am home late and wow.
Anyway, NaNoWriMo has been derailed once again for me, though I am still hopeful of a miracle.
The WIP is going slower than I would like, but in many ways quite well.
Here is a pretty picture I took:
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| Picture by Yours Truly |
This is currently my desktop background. It looks pretty damn awesome on my 27″ iMac.
And that is all I have for you today. My internet has now failed 5 times. I am not even kidding. I have to save this now or I’m doomed.