…and they’re written for a reader.

That’s the philosophy of Edward Mendelson, who teaches at Columbia University and has just published a book called The Things That Matter. In it he explores what the following novels tell us about the stages of life–Frankenstein, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights; and three by Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse, and Between The Acts. He gave a fascinating interview on Weekend Edition on NPR last Saturday.

He’s got some amazing things to say, for instance, about Wuthering Heights as a depiction of childhood. But what really impressed me most in this interview–other than his refreshing attitude of not looking for a message, but taking a book for what it is, a statement of the human condition–was this perceptive comment on what happens when a writer sits down to write, and he/she is…

…cooperating with hundreds, thousands of other writers; to have the support of the shape of a novel, to have the help of the English language…with its rhymes and puns and its echoes and allusions. When you sit down to write this book you’re not alone. You have all of your reading, all of the language, all of the things that you’ve forgotten that got into your head working with you, helping to shape that world…

A wonderful thought. We are not alone!

And have you checked out the current Riskies contest? See Sunday’s interview with Pam Rosenthal.

Every day I don’t write I go a little crazy. I make excuses, that I’m dealing with more important things like my children’s health and well-being or major or minor household catastrophes, but something inside me screams. If I ignore it the screams build up in the pit of my stomach and somewhere between my shoulderblades. It gets physical.

Summers can be tough on the mommy writer. This one has been no exception. For the first month or so I did quite well. Despite the flood, heat waves and a bug bite that gave me the hives, between play dates and errands, I still managed to sit down and write for at least an hour every day. I have about 50 pages of rough draft on one story and about 2/3 of a detailed outline for another to show for it.

But for the past three weeks or so, writing has been derailed by vacation, house guests, back to school preparations and threatened cuts to the local Kopernik Observatory’s educational programs, necessitating much letter-writing to the controlling museum’s board members and local politicians.

Now I have lost that tenuous connection with my characters and my stories and I am rusty as – as – well, so rusty I can’t even think of a decent simile.

My friend Therese Walsh has been going through something similar and blogged about it at Writer Unboxed. She and I are suffering from the same malaise–shall we call it Summer Writing Syndrome (SWS)?

The problem with SWS is it’s hard to recover, even once salvation arrives, as it did this morning, in the form of a schoolbus. Now there are no more excuses. The pressure’s on to produce but the creative muscles are creaky.

At least I’ve been here, done that already. To come back from a break in the writing, I know I need to cut through the nonsense. No self-flagellation about how little I accomplished this summer. No whining about being rusty–some sludge has to come out of the pipe before the good stuff. No prima donna melodrama. Just back to work. Back to sanity.

I’ve brewed my pot of half-decaf. The candle is lit. Ravel is coming from the CD player.

Wish me luck!

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

In three weeks — on Tuesday, September 26 — I’ll be holding a contest here, with great prizes. So, do you want to hear about the contest first, or the prizes?

The prizes? Okay!

There will be at least two winners, and they will have a variety of prizes to choose from. The first winner will get to choose any of these prizes she or he wishes — and the second will choose from the remaining prizes. (If there are a lot of entrants, I’ll have a third winner too!)

PRIZE A: PRIDE & PREJUDICE “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION” Book. This is an 11″ by 9″ softcover book with approximately 80 pages of color photos of last year’s film of “Pride and Prejudice.” This was the book given to Academy members to convince them to nominate everyone who worked on the film, and I suspect it’s pretty rare. As well as laudatory critical quotes, it has lots of neat bits: quotes from the production designer on her aims, from Keira Knightley on her thoughts about taking the roles, several excerpts from the script, costume designs, a picture of Sleeveless Hussy (Miss Bingley) in her sleeveless dress, and a lot more. And yes, all you Matthew MacFadyen fans — there are very nice pics of him in it. (The picture at the top of this post is the cover.)

PRIZE B: BATH MUSEUM OF COSTUME & ASSEMBLY ROOMS souvenir guidebook. This 8″ by 11 1/2″ “Authorised Guide” has 48 pages of pictures of the Assembly Rooms in Bath, descriptions of their history, and photos and explanation of the famous Costume Museum Collections there, accompanied by period illustrations.

PRIZE C: An Advanced Reading Copy of Stephanie Barron’s sixth Jane Austen mystery, JANE AND THE PRISONER OF WOOL HOUSE, which came out in 2001.

PRIZE D: Hardback copy of Steven Parissien’s GEORGE IV: INSPIRATION OF THE REGENCY. Four hundred pages about the Prince Regent himself, including sixteen black-and-white plates, this book was called “Charming, intelligent, imaginitive, witty” by the Sunday Times.

PRIZE E: Any four of the following paperbacks: Georgette Heyer’s THE MASQUERADERS; Georgette Heyer’s SYLVESTER; Carla Kelly’s SUMMER CAMPAIGN;
Carla Kelly’s MISS CHARTLEY’S GUIDED TOUR; Carla Kelly’s LIBBY’S LONDON MERCHANT; Catherine Fellows’s THE LOVE MATCH; Laura Kinsale’s FOR MY LADY’S HEART (It’s Medieval, not Regency, but it’s a Kinsale!); and Patricia Wrede’s MAIRELON THE MAGICIAN (which is fantasy set during the Regency.) Information about the condition or edition of any of the above available on request, beginning next week (September 12). (Some have well-creased spines. Some don’t.)

Those are the prizes. Now — for the contest.

Because my book (MY LADY GAMESTER) is still in print, but may not be for long, I’m making this contest all about it! To enter, you will need to read MY LADY GAMESTER (author: Cara King) by Tuesday, September 26. (I will not ask how you obtain it — new, used, library, friend — but I will mention that it is still available new through Amazon and similar outlets.)

Then on Tuesday, September 26, there will be a discussion about the book here, on the Risky Regencies blog. If you leave a comment that makes any kind of sense and shows you’ve actually read the book, your name will be entered two times in the drawing. For each further sensible comment, you will have one more entry. (Please note: you don’t have to say nice things about the book. Honest discussion is what is sought.) Then names will be drawn at random — first name drawn gets first choice from prizes A – E, and second name gets second choice. (If there are a lot of comments, I’ll have a third winner as well.)

You can start placing comments at 12 a.m. Pacific Time (3 a.m. Eastern Time, 8 a.m. GMT) the morning of Tuesday, September 26, and place them as late as noon Pacific time (3 p.m. Eastern Time, 8 p.m. GMT) the following day, Wednesday, September 27, 2006.

And, yes — I will mail these prizes anywhere in the world (except for the GEORGE IV book, which is just too heavy). So no matter where you’re living, you’re eligible.

If you have any questions about the contest, ask them here — but please be patient about the reply. I’m off to England today to see six plays in six days — including five of Shakespeare’s most rarely performed plays — so I’ll be offline much of the next week. (The plays, if anyone’s interested, are the three Henry VI plays [all in one day!], King John, and Troilus and Cressida. Plus the new Stoppard.)

So: why should you enter? (a) You may win great prizes; (b) If this contest gets a lot of comments, we’ll probably have other similar contests in the future, with even more great prizes; (c) You might just enjoy reading the book; and (d) Even if you don’t, it should be fun explaining why not to everyone else who’s read it!

So, one final point… The answer to the question “Is a contest in which an author forces entrants to talk about her book a sign of (a) runaway egomania, or (b) rampant insecurity?” is still being debated in Parliament.

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

For fun, I’m reading Ian Kelly’s Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Man of Style (Free Press, 2006) and have discovered a couple of interesting facts. Or at least things I did not know.

According to Kelly, tailors during Brummell’s heyday tended to specialize. Gronow had said Brummell favored Weston as his tailor, but Mr. Kelly’s research found that Brummell frequented several tailors. The primary ones were Schweitzer and Davidson on Cork Street, Johnathan Meyer on Conduit Street, and Weston, the only one British born. He favored different tailors for different items of clothing: Weston primarily for waistcoats; Schweitzer and Davidson for his coats and greatcoats; Johnathan Meyer for the forerunner of our modern trousers that Brummell pioneered.

Kelly states that Brummell “wore slim-cut trousers or ‘pantaloons’ that flattered his famously long-legged frame. For daywear these were made of leather, mercerized cotton, or nankeen and plain cotton in summer. Evening wear necessitated black, according to the new asthetic, and Brumell wore sheer black silk jersey, made up as breeches for Carlton House or the theatre, and as pantaloons for the clubs.”

I guess that answers my question of a couple of weeks ago about what color my hero’s breeches should be.

Brummell, like so many other gentlemen, purchased his hats from Lock & Co. The shop still exists today and in it you can actually see Wellington’s and Nelson’s famous hats.

Here is an image attributed to Brummell, but I am not at all certain it is the Beau. What do you think?

I much prefer this image.

James Purefoy as Brummell!
The BBC says: “The Taunton-born actor is heading a star cast in BBC FOUR’s Beau Brummell, a new drama at the centre of the channel’s The Century That Made Us season focussing on the 18th century, to be screened on Monday 19 June, 2006.”

Oh, don’t you wish they would air all the shows in the US???
What do you think about James Purefoy as Brummell? He certainly wears the clothes well!

One more important fact about Brummell.
Kelly could find no evidence that Brummell wore underwear.

Cheers!
Diane

Thanks to everyone for the hilarious responses to my dating-gone-bad post! Keira and Lois, send me your snail mail addresses (to: Amccabe7551@yahoo.com) and I will get some books sent out to you.

On Sunday, look for an interview from Candice Hern! We’ll be talking about her new “Merry Widows” series, history, covers, and her fabulous collections of Regency antiques. (She’ll also be giving away a copy of In the Thrill of the Night!)