Rumor to the contrary, I did not fall down a huge rabbit hole and disappear, although I have been missing from this blog for a couple of months in a row (and that theory is not at all unreasonable)! Has anyone else felt time was racing past at a speed too fast to measure?

Where have I been ? What has been keeping me so occupied? Writing. I wish it was something more exotic, but that’s the truth. I have been working on three projects at once (well, there are also some other projects that aren’t writing ones–aren’t there always?).

Two of the writing projects are related to my Regency series, Tales of Little Macclow.

Book Four (His Lady to Love) is coming along. The heroine is Scottish –what the heck is she doing in Little Macclow, a tiny village in Derbyshire?

And the other related project is a series prequel. It will be free to my email subscribers. If you enjoy my blog posts here, are you on my list? I send chatty newsletters that I consider letters to my friends, but not more often than once a month (sometimes less). If you’d like to join my community, here’s a link to sign up: https://eepurl.com/gbknuH (You can get a free short story.)

Neither of these projects have covers yet, sorry! No pictures. I’m scouting for stock photos of attractive redheads, however, if you happen to have any favorites!  And the prequel takes place around 1780, so the images for that one are going to have to be quite different. (Anyone have a guess what it’s about?)

But ah, the third project. That has been sucking up the largest amount of my time, but is almost done!

I should have a release date (or announcement!) very soon! British Regency author Jayne Davis and I teamed up to write this guide to help our fellow authors. There are so many common mistakes an author can make when writing this sub-genre, especially if they’re not British, and since readers of Regency romances skew heavily to the American market, more American authors tend to write the books, too.

As Jayne and I explain in the book’s intro): “One problem all historical fiction authors share is not having lived during the time we are describing. But non-British authors also have the disadvantage of not being steeped in the language, culture and history of the country. And we all have the problem of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’.”

Writing Regency England aims to help authors to get the language and setting right, and also some of the historical aspects that often trip up authors (laws on marriage and divorce were very different then, for example). It can’t cover everything an author needs to know (that would require an encyclopedic scope), but it casts light on many topics about language, setting, and society where errors are commonly made (including ones we’ve made ourselves) and gives a good starting point for further research.

Do you know anyone who might like to have this book? The holidays are coming –maybe it would make a good gift! I’ll give an update very soon. Meanwhile, I must get back to work!

When Queen Elizabeth II gave royal assent to the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act it meant that both sons and daughters would have an equal right to inherit the royal crown. Until then daughters could inherit only if the monarch had no sons. This was a big royal step to equality, but what of the non-royal titles?

Our basic knowledge of history (from school, private study, or extensive reading of historical novels) has gotten ourselves used to the idea that titles and/or property are always inherited by the oldest male heir; if not the oldest living son, then the oldest, closest male heir. We think of Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice, for example.

This might have been the most common type of aristocratic inheritance in the UK, but it was not the only one. There were titles and property that women could inherit, even as far back as the 1300s.

It all depended upon how the title was created. (Isobel explained it very well in her blog post, A Duchess in Her Own Right). Peerages that daughters could inherit were more typically Scottish, but there were English ones as well. Most of these titles were baronesses, but there were also viscountesses, marchionesses, and countesses. There were even Duchesses. The 1st Duke of Marlborough’s title passed to his daughter.

Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough

Peeresses who inherited titles in their own right could not sit in the House of Lords, though. That did not change until 1948.

The monarch could also create peeresses in their own right. George IV created three: Joan Canning, 1st Viscountess Canning; Catherine Fitzgerald, 1st Baroness FitzGerald and Vesey; Charlotte Strutt, 1st Baroness Rayleigh. The King or Queen could also create life peerages which ended upon the death of the title holder.

In my latest book, The Lady Behind the Masquerade, Kitty inherited the title Baroness Walsingham, because the villain, Turstin, had faked his own death and the title fell to her, having been written that way at the time of the title’s creation which could have been in the 1300s. It was unusual, but it could happen. Can you think of other Regencies or Historicals where the woman bore a title in her own right?

Would you like to win a copy of The Lady Behind the Masquerade? I’ll be giving away both The Lady Behind the Masquerade and Secretly Bound to the Marquess in Isn’t It Romantic Book Club’s Fall into a Book September 22 and 23. Join Isn’t It Romantic Book Club on Facebook and fall into 300 books!

Is summer heat making you yearn for the cold temps of winter? Or are you one of those folks who finds the long stretch of summer without a major holiday too unbearably boring? These are two of the reasons people give for celebrating “Christmas in July” –at least, if you’re in the northern hemisphere and/or once the 4th of July is over if you’re American! Years ago I knew a family who held a Christmas-in-July party without fail every year. They would break out all the lights and decorations, do a random gift exchange, the whole bit. It was fun!
Of course, there is also the commercial push, an excuse to hold sales when there’s no other real reason. From the Hallmark Channel to Best Buy ads, it’s hard to escape!

But I’ve always found the concept a bit curious. (Learn more below.) So why am I talking about it now?
Do you like to read Christmas stories outside of the holiday season? I enlisted my #2-in-series book, Lord of Misrule, in two separate “Christmas in July” book promotions running this month (kind of accidentally, but it seemed like a good idea at the time)!

The first promo is just for historical Christmas stories, which may suit your interest if you follow this blog. Find it here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/christmasinjulyhistrom/otm7wj9bjs. I would appreciate any and all clicks because it shows I am sharing this! You might discover a new-to-you author. They aren’t all Regencies, so if you specialize you might need to sift through them a bit, depending on your taste. Be warned, they are all different heat levels, too. There are 75 books in all, which goes to show how popular this sub-sub-genre is!!

The second promo, at N.N. Light’s Bookheaven.com site, includes a chance to enter a drawing for a $75 Amazon US or Canada gift card (you must have a US or Canadian Amazon account), in addition to highlighting a large bunch of Christmas set stories. These are a mix of all genres, however, so if you’re only looking for historical settings, you’ll need to sift through more. I saw a number of familiar names in there, so it’s worth looking.
If you haven’t read Lord of Misrule, the story is being featured today (July 12) at the promotion webpage: https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/post/lord-of-misrule-cijf . Find out what I love best about the holiday season, and why I think this book captures the spirit of Christmas in its pages!

Where did “Christmas in July” first come from? I looked it up because I can never resist a good rabbit hole. It’s certainly not a Regency thing –Christmas then wasn’t the Big Thing we have made of it in modern times. And the playful concept didn’t seem to fit with the staid Victorians, even though they revived or glorified a lot of the other Christmas traditions we think of as old!
The phrase is first noted in an 1892 French opera named Werther, translated into English in 1894. A group of children rehearsing a Christmas carol in the story are told they’re “rushing the season” when they sing “Christmas in July”, but that was not the beginning of it as an event. That honor goes to a North Carolina girls’ summer camp, Keystone Camp in Brevard. In July of 1933 the director of the camp, Fannie Holt, thought up the idea of a Christmas party with singing carols, gift exchanges and all the trimmings, and it became an annual tradition there.
Then in 1940, the movie “Christmas in July” starring Dick Powell and Ellen Drew came out, popularizing the phrase across the US. During the 40’s, some prominent US churches adopted the concept to spread charity ahead of the season, and the US Post Office and military services adoptted it to promote early mailing to those in service overseas during WWII. And from the US, the idea spread internationally.
Have you ever celebrated Christmas in July? Are you a fan of the idea, or does the commercialization of it in current times turn you off? Does reading a Christmas book in mid-summer help you cool off as you think about a snowy setting or the love and wonder that come with the season? I’m sure you agree with me in wishing we could keep that sense of magic all year round.