I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! All the leftovers here have been consumed, and I spent far too much money online for Christmas presents–both for my family and for myself. Most of these were books of course, because books make stupendous holiday gifts!

My own new book, Duchess of Sin, is out now (shipping today from Amazon!), and I’m setting out on a blog tour (see the dates here on my blog!). I’m so proud to see Anna and Conlan’s story on the shelves now, as they had to work so hard to find their HEA.

I had lots of inspirations for this “Daughters of Erin” series, and one was my love of non-fiction about historical marriages. I can’t seem to get enough of reading about how couples of the past, whether middle-class sorts like Jane Austen’s family or the nobility, made their relationships work–or not work, as the case may be! There are certainly some spectacular failures in marital history (hello, Prinny and Caroline!). I like to imagine how my own characters will build a life together.

I recently read two books about just such couples. Couples who really had almost nothing in common with each other, except that both wives were unusually strong women and both couples were very much in love. Also they lived through times of immense conflict.

The first was Joseph J. Ellis’s First Family: Abigail and John Adams. Ellis calls them the “premier husband and wife team in all American history” and for 54 years they were lovers and friends, real partners, through very turbulent times. I love the Adamses–theirs was an enviable marriage, and I like to imagine my Anna and Conlan end up something like them, working together in everything and always passionate about each other!

The other was Katie Whitaker’s A Royal Passion about Charles I and Henrietta Maria. Unlike the Adamses, this was an arranged marriage that didn’t start all that well. But it grew into a passionate and devoted marriage. A partnership that ended in disaster, but was fiercely united. Whitaker says that this marriage was both Charles’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. I highly recommend both books!

So, what are your favorite historical couples? Do you find inspiration (or warning!) in their stories??

I’ve been so remiss in posting winners!! Here are two to make up for that:

Rachel/Jane Austen you’ve won Grace Elliott’s A Dead Man’s Debt

Amy Kathryn you’ve won Elyse Mady’s Debutante’s Dilemma

Congrats! Please email us your contact information at Riskies AT yahoo.com

By popular request (Amanda’s), here are my Vulcans. Note the properly stoic expressions. My older one is a science officer in Starfleet; the younger is still living on Vulcan and studying for the Starfleet Academy entrance exams. We always have a script. 🙂

We like to carve pumpkins to go with the theme. Here they are. We are rather proud of them, but we are not the only ones to do this. Googling around, I found some really amazing Star Trek themed pumpkins. I also found this Jane Austen pumpkin. Cool, no?

“Shared worlds” like Star Trek are a lot of fun. Other popular shared worlds are Oz, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the world of Harry Potter, and historical periods like the Regency.

People love these worlds so much that they create collections, go to conventions and play dress-up. They also get upset if there are inaccuracies (or perceived inaccuracies) in their portrayal. There are all sorts of reactions, from the reasonable to ones who have perhaps forgotten that this is all in fun? There are people who created online lists of every deviation from the books in Peter Jackson’s LOTR films. A friend who does Civil War reenactments has been criticized for using a machine to make her dresses.

And probably every author of Regency romance has or will hear from a reader upset over her depiction of the Regency.

Sometimes these are about real historical inaccuracies–Regency fans are extremely knowledgeable and authors can and do make mistakes, despite sincere attempts at accuracy. (It’s the stuff you didn’t realize to look up that bites you.) But I also think some readers form their notion of the Regency not from history, but from other books they’ve read, which adds to the confusion.

There are so many variations on the Regency. There’s the real historical Regency. There’s the Regency according to Jane Austen: accurate, but limited to the sorts of events and situations she experienced personally. (For instance, I read that she never wrote a scene with only male characters.) There’s a somewhat different Regency in Georgette Heyer’s books. A slightly different version again in the old traditional Regencies, and yet again with the long historicals.

There’s no other way to explain readers who think no one had sex during the Regency (I got that in an Amazon review once). Perhaps there are some now who think dukes regularly married courtesans. (Improbable, but why not?)

I find it hilarious–and also kind of charming–how many versions of the Regency authors have created. How many more peers of the Realm can the island possibly hold? Yeah, I’m guilty of adding my part. Though I do my research, I know that the world I depict is largely in my own head. I hope readers will enjoy it, too. That’s the whole point.

What do you think? have other favorite shared worlds? Did you “visit” any of them for Halloween?

Elena

The winner of the download of To Court, Capture, and Conquer is–Kirsten! And the winner of a signed copy of Regency Christmas Proposals is–Maureen! Congrats! Please send your snail mail addresses to us at Riskies AT yahoo.com

Yesterday I turned in revisions for my June 2011 paranormal, My Dangerous Pleasure. I’m already two days behind for NaNoWriMo and will be starting The Next Historical immediately.

So, Carolyn, when are you going to talk about the Regency?

Shut up.

Is that your lame way of avoiding telling anyone you didn’t have a blog post ready because you were busy with revisions and watching election returns?

Maybe.

I knew it.

Nobody likes a know it all.

The truth hurts, baby.

I think it’s time for a poll.