Eva S, please email riskies@yahoo.com to claim your copy of La Petite Four!

And Santa, could you email me (Amanda) at amccabe7551@yahoo.com for your copy of To Taste Temptation? (It seems our email keeps bouncing yours back!)

Thanks to everyone who commented!

My kittens are here!

Naturally, I’d say more, but the orange kitty has already figured out that walking on the keyboard is the MOST FUN EVER.

And as you can see from the picture, he also likes to read my Regency research books.

I wonder if E. Beresford Chancellor ever pictured the uses his book would be put to?

(Although if he had cats, I bet he did.)

Have to run now…cat eating my shoelaces!

(Actually, that was my idea…it has temporarily distracted him from the function keys…)

Cara

Regina Scott’s debut Regency-set YA novel, La Petite Four, is available now from Penguin Razorbill!

Riskies: Welcome back to the blog, Regina! Tell us about La Petite Four.

Regina: It’s a romp of a young adult Regency about 4 friends making their debut in 1815 London, and running afoul of a handsome young lord who may have more up his sleeve than a nicely muscled arm. But why tell you when I can show you?? Here’s the La Petite Four video, courtesy of the Class of 2k8, a group of 27 authors with YA or middle grade novels out this year.

Riskies: What gave you the idea for this story?

Regina: One of my traditional Regencies, A Dangerous Dalliance, featured an art teacher who is coerced into chaperoning 4 students on an Easter holiday visit to a Great House. The four students–Lady Emily Southwell, Priscilla Tate, and sisters Ariadne and Daphne Courdebas–help the teacher blossom and catch the eye of the new earl. They also solve a mystery along the way. Readers had written me asking if I would ever tell the girls’ stories. When I decided to try a YA, I knew exactly which story I wanted to tell first!

Riskies: What was the research like? Did you find any unusual or unexpected facts?

Regina: Lady Emily wants to be an artist, a rather shocking pastime for the daughter of a duke. At first, I hoped she would join the Royal Academy of Arts school, but as I went deeper into research I was shocked to learn girls weren’t allowed! One of the required courses involved sketching nude models, and it wasn’t considered “proper” for young ladies to view nudes. Some women actually posed nude, but that’s another story. Even Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser, founding members of the Royal Academy, were treated differently. In a famous painting, Johann Zoffany depicted the founding members of the Academy, all standing around models. Kauffman and Moser are seen only as paintings on the wall! Of course, one of the great things about writing today is that you can sometimes address these historical issues. I created a group of aristocratic artists, men and women, who paint only for charity–The Royal Society for the Beaux Arts, and gave Emily the dream of becoming a member there instead.

Riskies: What are some of the challenges and rewards of writing for the YA market?

Regina: Today’s teens are amazing! I’d barely put my toe in the water on MySpace, and I had friends everywhere, many teen reviewers with their own blogs and webpages. These are mostly girls who read voraciously, then talk eloquently about what they’ve read, sharing their thoughts with dozens of other teens with similar interests. I don’t think I was half that organized at their age! I only hope I can do them justice in my books by writing about similar teens with dreams and spunk.

Riskies: What is “risky” about this book?

Regina: Historical YA without a paranormal elements is a risk these days. The Luxe came out recently, but it was more glitz and garters. I’m more giggles and gowns. I also stretch the boundaries of what is considered appropriate for the Regency period. I tried hard not to break the rules, but I did push them! I made them go as far as they could go to meet what my publisher thought would excite teen readers.

Riskies: Tell us about your own blog, Nineteenteen!

Regina: It’s dedicated to sharing things teenagers did during the 19th century in England. Marissa Doyle and I are having so much fun! The more we share aspects of the 19th century the more we find to write about. The language of flowers, a decade-by-decade look at fashion, even the first rollercoaster! I focus on the Regency, and Marissa is more early Victorian. We both love to tell stories and share cool stuff we’ve found in the our research. It’s been exciting to see our readership grow.

Riskies: I saw that some of the your Regencies are available at Belgrave House through their Regency Reads line! How does it feel to have them out there again?

Regina: Very gratifying! The stories are finding a whole new group of readers, and I’m enjoying hearing from them. I’m also honored to be one of the Regency Reads authors, with my books alongside those of Emily Hendrickson, Allison Lane, and Barbara Metzger. It’s a great resource for Regency lovers!

Riskies: What’s next for you?

Regina: I’m happily playing in this new world of YA fiction! I’m also working on a contemporary fantasy based on Native American mythology. And, of course, I’m hoping readers will want more stories like La Petite Four! I’d love to tell Priscilla’s story next.

I got a bit of good news last week. NAL is going to reissue my Christmas novella Upon a Midnight Clear in October! This first appeared in the Regency Christmas Magic anthology, and now gets new life along with 3 other random novellas (though I don’t know what they are). I am very excited about this, as UAMC was one of my favorite stories I did at Signet, the tale of an injured Naval captain and a reclusive Jamaican woman who find love and new life together on a chilly Christmas in Cornwall.

I always really looked forward to the Signet Christmas anthologies. There’s just something cozy and fun about Regency+Christmas! I get out my collection every holiday season and pile them up by the tree. Whenever the crazy season gets to me, I curl up with a cup of tea and an old favorite story. That sounds nice on a 90+ degree day like this one.

In other news, May 31 is the 199th anniversary of the death of composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Though he was a native of Austria, and spent most of his career in the service of the Esterhazy family, following them as they moved from palace to palace, he did enjoy some very productive visits to England between 1791 and 1794.

In 1790, Haydn’s employer Prince Nicolas Esterhazy died and was succeeded by a thoroughly un-musical prince who fired the whole musical establishment and put Haydn out to pasture with a pension. Haydn was then able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra.

These visits were a huge success, with audiences flocking to Haydn’s concerts. Charles Burney wrote of the first concert, “Haydn himself presided at the pianoforte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England.”

Haydn was also inspired to create some of his best-known works, such as the Surprise, Military, Drumroll, and (of course!) London symphonies, the Rider quartet, and the “Gypsy Rondo” piano trio.

So, in honor of Christmas coming early, what are some of your favorite holiday traditions? Or some favorite pieces of music (holiday or otherwise?)

I have been talking about getting a cat for a while now… Probably a little kitten, who will be a perfect angel and never miss the litter box, and who’ll do the dishes without being reminded and all that other perfect kitten stuff.

And after saying “we should really get a kitten soon” for quite a while, we finally have a date: next weekend.

As it has been several years now, we are surely over the death of our last perfect kitty. He, too, never missed the litter box, could play the complete works of Shakespeare on the piano, and would have done the dishes without a reminder had he only possessed thumbs and the ability to understand English.

(And just to prove how unbiased I am, I will now reveal the fact that one of my sainted cat’s previous housemates referred to him as S.O.S., short for “Spawn of Satan.” Just another example of how not everyone loves Shakespeare.)

With all this cat cogitation going on, I’ve been thinking about cats during the Regency.

Because they certainly had cats. They even had spoiled little pet cats, like my perfect kitten will be. (Though I suspect that Regency kittens played Mrs. Radcliffe on their pianofortes, and helped with painting fire screens.)

There have been plenty of kittens in Regencies — particularly Regency novellas, which (if you think about it) are already kitten-sized. But I’ve done little actual research into the lives of perfect Regency cats.

And I’ve always wondered what they did for litter-boxes. With no clumping litter, did they bother? Did they just make the cat go outside?

Does anyone know?

(By the way, I just thought I should mention that my sainted ex-kitty always refused to play that “thrice the brindled cat hath mewed” part on the piano. I think he didn’t understand that brindled merely meant tabby — which he was, complete with the “M” on his forehead which stood for Multitudes of Mischief — but instead thought that brindled was some sort of slur against cats, perhaps one meaning “refuses to do the dishes until he’s allowed to finish off all the ice cream.”)

Oh, and if you have any cat information, either Regency or nowadays, please share!

All comments welcome!

And be sure to stop by next Tuesday, when we will be discussing the movie Clueless!

Cara
Cara King, who can only play Cymbeline on the kazoo