Category: Frivolity

Fun posts

Who’s Your Favorite Austen Heartthrob?

Updated on January 13, 2013 by Cara King

Time to take a poll! Please answer any or all of these three questions, about the pictured film and television portrayals of Austen characters at the end of this post! (Or you can pick someone who’s not pictured!)

1) Which of these Austen characters, as played by the specific actor, do you think has the most of what Janet calls “essential hotness”?

2) Which would you find it easiest to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with?

3) Which would you most like to marry? (This of course takes into account your answers to questions 1 and 2, but also practical matters — like who your in-laws will be, and just how disgustingly wealthy he is.) 🙂

Just put your answers in a comment — you can explain your choices if you like! I’ll keep tabs on how voting goes, and soon we will know who are the hottest, the dreamiest, and the most marriageable cinematic Austen heroes!

If any gentlemen are here, you can vote on which hero you’d most like to be! And yes, you may take into account who you would get to marry, just how disgustingly wealthy you would be, and whether or not you have to have Lady Catherine de Bourgh as your aunt!

Cara
Cara King, MY LADY GAMESTER, Signet Regency 11/05
more Jane Austen movie info at www.caraking.com!

Posted in Frivolity, Jane Austen | Tagged Austen, hotties, movies, Poll | 25 Replies

Talk Like a Pirate Monday

Updated on January 13, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

I was reading over the posts from the last few days, all the great discussion on Jane Eyre, historic castles, and The Green Fairy Book, and I couldn’t decide what today’s post should be about. Something erudite and cultured? Literary, historical? Nah–it’s officially Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arggh, maties!

OK, so I’m getting silly, I know. Maybe my brain is baked from trying to finish my WIP on time and thus have my editor still like me. But the first “real historical romance” I ever read (and by that I mean not a Cartland, a Heyer, or a trad Regency) was Virginia Henley’s The Hawk and the Dove. This was more years ago than I care to remember, I was in the eighth or ninth grade at the time, but I still remember how great I thought this book was. The heroine (the fabulously-named Sabre Wilde) has come to the court of Elizabeth I to get revenge on her long-lost husband, the also wonderfully-named Captain Shane Hawkhurst, also known as The Sea God. He is (you guessed it!) a pirate (or maybe a privateer–whatever, it’s all good), and she has long, red hair and is very “feisty,” which means she pitches fits all over the place and causes big scenes. She also wears terrific clothes. It was an immensely fun book, and it set me on a pirate-story jag that lasted for many months. I still enjoy the occasional high-seas adventure (especially when it gives me the chance to indulge my Orlando Bloom obsession a bit!), even though good pirate books are a little harder to find these days. Here’s a list of titles I liked, and I’d love to hear suggestions from everyone else. 🙂

Marsha Canham’s The Iron Rose (an absolutely splendid book, where the heroine is the pirate–I loved this one. The prequel, about the heroine’s parents, was also great–Across a Moonlit Sea)
Jennifer Ashley’s The Pirate Next Door (a great, humorous look at Regency-era piracy)
Meagan McKinney’s Til Dawn Tames the Night (another early historical read of mine–pretty steamy! The hero also has a fab tattoo)
Sabrina Jeffries’ The Pirate Lord
Amanda Quick’s Deception
Lisa Cach’s The Wildest Shore
Gaelen Foley’s The Pirate Prince
Heyer’s Beauvallet (maybe stretching it a bit? But I had to include it!)

For more info on this great holiday, check out http://www.talklikeapirate.com/buzz.html. Check it out, or walk the plank!

Posted in Frivolity | Tagged pirates | 7 Replies

Jane Austen Answers

Updated on January 13, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

OK, as promised, here are the answers to the JA quiz I posted a few days ago. (I could only answer 6 of them):

1) Emma Woodhouse
2) Sotherton
3) Whist
4) Ward
5) Collarbone
6) Broadwood
7) Eliza
8) Catherine Morland
9) Heir at Law
10) Muslin
11) A snug farmhouse
12) Gowan’s Lotion
13) M and A
14) Meryton
15) The Laconia
16) Steward

Posted in Frivolity, Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen, quiz | 2 Replies

Just for fun

Updated on January 13, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

I’m on a Jane Austen email loop, and a few weeks ago someone posted this great JA quiz from BBC Mastermind. Since I know many Regency fans are also Janeites like myself, I thought this might be a fun way to celebrate Friday! I’ll post answers in a couple of days. (Note: I’m a dedicated Janeite, and couldn’t answer all of them)
1) Which is JA’s heroine’s had lived in the world for 21 years with little to distress or vex her?

2) Name Mr. Rushworth’s country house.

3) Which card game did Mrs. Jennings arrange for old friends while Marianne awaited word from Willoughby.

4) What was the maiden name of Mrs. Norris, Mrs. Price, and Lady Bertram?

5) Which bone did little Charles dislocate allowing Anne to avoid meeting Captain Wentworth?

6) Which manufacturer made the mysterious piano sent to Jane Fairfax?

7) What was the name of Col. Brandon’s ward over whose seduction he fought a duel with Willoughby?

8) Which of JA”s heroine’s prefers cricket to books, particularly books of information?

9) Which play does Tom Bertram 5 times propose to put on before agreeing to Lover’s Vows?

10) Which material does Mr. Tilney claim to be an authority on?

11) What does Edward Ferrars say he takes more pleasure in than a watchtower?

12) To what does Sir Walter Elliot attribute Anne’s improved compexion, claiming it has done away with Mrs. Clay’s freckles?

13) At the Box Hill picnic, which 2 letters of the alphabet did Mr. Weston claim were the most perfect?

14) In which town did Mrs. Bennet’s sister Mrs. Phillips live?

15) In which frigate, captained by Frederick Wentworth, had Richard Musgrove served?

16) In what capacity did Wickham’s father serve old Mr. Darcy?

As my own bonus question–which JA heroine do you think you most resemble? (A long time ago, I took a quiz on this topic, too. It was lots of fun, but alas now I can’t find it! The quiz said I’m most like Marianne Dashwood. So watch out if I take it into my head to give a dramatic reading at the Beau Monde soiree next summer!)

Posted in Frivolity, Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen, quiz | 6 Replies

The 50′ Pink Rabbit of the Regency

Updated on January 10, 2013 by Janet Mullany

Just for fun and procrastination I googled ten basic plots and came up with some weird weird stuff as you might expect. So I thought I’d come up with my own. Please feel free to add your own:

Hero[ine] leaves home and becomes involved with 50′ high pink rabbit cult.
50′ pink rabbit arrives in town.
H/H want each other but physical object such as 50′ pink rabbit prevent their union.
H/H both want the 50′ pink rabbit, possessed of title and immeasurable wealth, but not each other.
The 50′ pink rabbit runs a spy ring and recruits H/H who become fierce competitors.
The 50′ pink rabbit writes a book called A Lot of Shades of Pink that becomes an immediate bestseller despite a rabbit’s typically incompetent grasp of grammar or basic math.
The 50′ pink rabbit receives movie deals and product endorsements and H/H plot its downfall.
The 50′ pink rabbit inherits a charming but run down B&B in a small town and hires H/H’s respective remodeling/interior design companies (note: excellent for Hero/Hero books)
H/H start new job as assistant to the 50′ Billionaire Pink Rabbit who mercilessly sexually harasses them and chews through their power cords.
50′ pink rabbit invites H/H to secret club where he/she/they are forced to wear rabbit costumes and eat carrots.
Renegade government agents H/H capture 50′ pink rabbit that is a threat to national security.
H/H rescue 50′ pink rabbit imprisoned by Pentagon for secret testing.
The 50′ pink rabbit secretly gives birth to a litter of 10 blind 6′ babies.