Category: Reading

Posts in which we talk about reading habits and preferences

Cara’s signing!

Updated on March 9, 2013 by Cara King

Well, here I am in Regency dress at last weekend’s signing! (I’m not sure why the picture’s so blurry — sorry!) On the down side, I never got my hair right — it looks totally non-Regency (the curl fell out — surprise surprise).

On the up side, I found some cool gloves at the last minute (though they really ought to extend to above the elbow, of course, which they don’t — in fact, they almost look like wrist-length gloves here, they’ve slid down so far) and my nice fan (which Todd painted for me, also at the last minute). Kind chapter-mates in LARA (Los Angeles Romance Authors, my local RWA chapter) tied me into my dress. And also bought some of my books. I love LARA!

There were eight other authors signing, and it was a lot of fun! We chatted and bought each other’s books and joked about copy-editing mistakes and had a great time. And the signing went by so fast that before I got a chance to buy everyone’s books that I meant to, everyone had gone! (Well, that’s what I get for spending too much time fussing with my pens and chocolate and gloves and hair, and trying to fish out the bobby pins that kept falling down my bodice.) 🙂

If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see some little rectangles lined up next to my book — those are the Regency chocolates that I gave away. Okay, they aren’t actually Regency chocolates — such did not exist, after all! — they’re Hershey’s Miniatures, covered with Regency pictures. Todd designed them, and they turned out fantastic! Milk chocolate bore the picture of my heroine’s face, dark chocolate had her playing cards, and the other two flavors had miscellaneous Regency-era pictures.

So, here are today’s questions:

1) If you’re an author, and someone asks you to sign your book for them, do you write something inane in the front of it, wishing you could think of something clever to write? Or do you write something clever? Or what? Or are you too experienced or too sensible to worry about these things??? (Is it just me???)

2) If you’re a reader (and we’re all readers, even those of us who are also writers), have you ever met an author you admire and said something inane while trying to say something clever? (Or is it just me???) 🙂

Cara
Cara King, author of MY LADY GAMESTER — finalist for the Booksellers’ Best Award for Best Regency of 2005

Posted in Reading, Writing | Tagged book signings | 13 Replies

Regency Heroines

Updated on March 9, 2013 by Diane Gaston

Several weeks ago when I had the good fortune to join Risky Regencies, I prosed on forever about Regency heroes, fictional and those appearing on cover art (not to mention GB). It is time I spoke about Regency heroines.

When I conceive a story in my head it almost always starts with the hero. Heroes are so much easier for me. Apart from the obvious reason that I love to fantasize about dishy Regency guys, I think it is because the men in those times were able to lead such interesting lives, while the women had very few options, unless they were willing to risk social ostracism or give up on respectability altogether and live in the demimonde.

In some ways I love to explore women who were willing to risk being shamed (Morgana running a courtesan school in A Reputable Rake, for example; Emily gambling in The Wagering Widow; or even Maggie, a total imposter, in The Improper Wife ). I like even more to imagine what life would be like for those women outside of respectable society (Maddie, the ruined girl, in The Mysterious Miss M). My next Mills & Boon features a singer as the heroine, and in my next Warner–now called Hachette–the heroine is a con artist.

All of these heroines require a mindset quite different from today’s woman, and it is sometimes hard to find that point where the modern reader can identify with the Regency woman’s predicament. Why be afraid you are going to wind up a prostitute? the modern woman might say. Why not just get a job?

The reality was, the Regency woman could not just get a job. She had to have references, even for such lowly positions as house maid or shop girl. And once ruined, any respectable employment was denied her.

There are plenty of weak, victim-like Regency heroine stereotypes – governesses, servants of any sort, impoverished vicar’s daughters, ladies companions, abused wives – but I think today’s reader wants the heroine to be strong, not a victim. I truly believe there have been strong women in every era of history, certainly in the Regency as well. I like to explore how women of the time period rose above their constaints and refused to be victims.

You know what else? It is hard finding reasons for Regency heroines to engage in “intimacies” with those hunky Regency men. I think the Regency woman’s mindset about sex had to be quite different from our own. She’d worry about pregnancy each and every time, no doubt. No respectable man would want a society girl if she went and had sex with another guy first.

I’m rambling because I need to write proposals for my next two books and I don’t know who the heroines will be! My next Mills & Boon has a marquess for the hero and the next Hachette will be Wolfe’s story. I want to devise strong heroines for these two men, both of whom I know down to the birthmarks on their—
(nevermind)

So! What kind of Regency heroines do you all like the best? Which ones are you tired of? Do you want that sexy read or doesn’t it matter?

Cheers!
Diane

Posted in Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged heroines | 16 Replies

Alternate Realities

Updated on March 8, 2013 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Well, I had another post all ready to go, with a few nice pics, but Blogger didn’t want to cooperate with me. So, that will have to wait for when I have a bit more patience! In the meantime, I have a few thoughts related to Prinnyworld, and Elena’s and Janet’s excellent posts.

In the last year or so, I’ve read a few books that dealt with an “alternative” Regency world. The backdrops of the stories, and integral parts of their plots, were well-grounded in the culture and history of the Regency period–with a few notable exceptions. One of them was Susannah Clark’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, a huge tome of nearly 800 pages, but they all fly by. The year is 1808, and Regency England is full of magic–theoretical and practical, fairies and other creatures, statues in churches that suddenly shout out, all sorts of things. It comes across sort of like a “comedy of manners,” complete with footnotes and eccentric “period” spelling. There is rich mythology woven into real history (such as a blockade of French ports by an English fleet conured up out of rainwater).

Another was Madeleine Robins’ “Sarah Tolerance” mysteries (two that I know of so far–Petty Treason and Point of Honour). These are terrific glimpses into the gritty underworld of Regency London, seen from the viewpoint of a Fallen Woman turned Agent of Inquiry. A sort of Regency noir. They take a few liberties with history–for instance, Queen Charlotte is the Regent. But they are well and imaginatively done.

Another is Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, which I only recently (in the last two weeks!) picked up, thanks to all the recs online. What a fun book! It’s the first in her “Temeraire” series (T. being the dragon). Patrick O’Brian meets–I dunno, some fantasy author who writes a lot about dragons. 🙂 Dragons, of various breeds and varieties, are used in aerial combat against France (flown by the Aerial Corps, natch, a fascinating sub-caste in Regency society). There are detailed battle scenes and a great deal about both naval and aerial life. Sometimes the dragons seem more well-rounded than the rather stiff humans, but it’s a great read.

This doesn’t even count the numerous Regency-set romances that involve some sort of paranormal aspect. Would those count as an “alternate reality”? I think the whole idea is fascinating, probably because I could never really be creative enough to create my own version of history and have it work as well as these examples. What about you? Do you like books of this sort, or do you prefer your history “straight up”? What are some favorite examples of the genre?

Posted in Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged alternate reality, alternative history, Madeleine Robins, Naomi Novik, Susannah Clark | 11 Replies

I have heard the mermaids singing

Updated on March 8, 2013 by Janet Mullany

My post today is inspired by Elena’s topic yesterday about digging deeper into Prinnyland and it’s also something that’s been on my mind for a time. With no exceptions, everyone who wrote to me about Dedication said how much they liked the older hero/heroine—people seemed to love the idea of a pair of lovers who’d been around the block. And it got me thinking about how fiction treats the, ahem, older generation. The pic here is of the Wife of Bath. I’m not sure how old she was, but the average age during Chaucer’s time, thanks to warfare, the plague, and other rigors of medieval life, was in the early twenties. Aargh. Imagine a world where major decisions were made by fratboys.

First to Emma, where Mr. Woodhouse is described as being not old in years, but embracing the role of elderly hypochondriac with passion. Emma is twenty-one. So is my daughter. Mr. Woodhouse could be younger than me. Oh. My. God. (as we say in blogland). Now certainly, for women at that time, if by a certain age you hadn’t snapped up a husband, you threw in the towel, grabbed an unbecoming spinster’s cap and descended into middle age—just like Miss Bates. And, as I’ve mentioned before, Miss Bates could be the same age, or younger, than Mr. Knightley, who because he is male and rich is far above her on the status scale. Mr. Knightley’s single state is admired, not despised, because it’s seen as an act of generosity toward the nephew who will inherit his estate.

In Mrs. Gaskell’s Cranford Miss Matty is described as an old lady. She is fifty-five. No comment. Again, she’s damned by gender, income and circumstances.

So how do older people fare in romance? As you’ve gathered by now I’m not that well read in the genre. I appreciate that we don’t want to read about sagging flesh, wrinkles, gray hair etc. etc. But Sean Connery gets just, well, hotter as he ages (note extraneous pic of Mr. Connery in his prime). I once pointed out to someone in a critique group that her heroine’s wise, loving, cookie-baking, homely mom came of age during Woodstock. (Was there a special ingredient in the cookies to provide the appropriate feelgood warmth of category romance?)

A big hand to my friend Stephanie Feagan whose heroine (named Pink) has a 50-something mom who sports sexy black bras and has trouble with her A/C—the A/C repairman visits. A lot.

Prinnyland, as I remember it, is full of gracious, loving matriarchs who obsess with planning their offsprings’ lavish weddings—strange in an age where most weddings took place in the drawing room and took about ten minutes as far as I can tell. Fathers are too often dead, or if alive, embarrassing (if not to the heroine, certainly to the reader) buffoons, who invariably have screwed up the family finances or have expensive and eccentric hobbies. There also seem to be far too many Lady Bracknell knock-offs. Please, set me straight. Tell me about the many, many exceptions. Where are the hot, older men? And hot, older women?

Oh, and my next book has a subplot featuring the hero’s widowed mom and her wild fling. Her eldest son is thirty. Do the math.

Janet

Posted in Jane Austen, Reading, Writing | Tagged hero's age, Heroes, heroine's age, heroines | 8 Replies

Prinnyworld or the Real Regency?

Updated on March 7, 2013 by Elena Greene

The Word Wenches recently discussed the appeal of the Regency, touching on the popularity of “Regencyland” or “Prinnyworld” as a lovely escape from 21st century stresses.

Which it is. If I’m pampering a wretched cold or for any other reason looking for a light and/or comforting read, I’ll reach for a Georgette Heyer (stories like FREDERICA or COTILLION), a cozy trad, or a sexy Regency-set historical romp.

But that post also made me think about a comment from one of my CPs on a draft of LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE. Much of the plot revolves around London’s Foundling Hospital, pictured above. (There’s a great book on the subject called CORAM’S CHILDREN by Ruth K. McClure). Anyway, I wrote about the fate of unwanted children in Regency London, how they might be abandoned in parks to die of exposure or cast into the Thames. My CP noted that this was very sad; her way, possibly, of making me consider whether I wanted to include such grisly facts.

I pondered it a while. I know many readers want to escape into a lush Regency where nothing worse happens than maybe expulsion from Almack’s. But for this story, I wanted to show the stakes, for the foundlings who appear in the book and for the hero and heroine who care about them. I decided to not pull my punches and left that bit in.

I also included other facts I learned in the course of researching the book that I found interesting and yes, heart-wrenching, such as how many of the children were born to servant girls impregnated and abandoned by their masters or their sons, the real rakes of the Regency, unlike the charming scoundrels many of us write (I’ve written them too). I wrote about how the Foundling Hospital, for lack of room, turned away 1 in 5 infants brought to them. I used the fact that mothers left tokens behind to help them reclaim their children if they were ever in a position to care for them.

As I was writing, I kept worrying that I was going too deep into harsh reality. But that’s where this story took me. I’ve written lighter Regencies, too, like THE REDWYCK CHARM. As far as reading tastes go, it depends on my mood. I enjoy excursions into “Prinnyworld” where I can enjoy gorgeous clothes, beautiful settings, witty dialogue. But I also appreciate authors who have gone for some gritty reality. Mary Balogh and Carla Kelly come to mind. I like seeing Regency romance push some of these boundaries. Lots of interesting areas to explore: the Napoleonic Wars, the Luddites, etc…

What do you think? Does reality spoil the Regency experience for you? How real is too real? If you like the boundaries pushed, where?

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Regency of 2005
www.elenagreene.com