Hello, everyone! Amanda here, sitting in for Elena, who is off traveling the world. She’ll be with you on Saturday to wrap up our anniversary/new blog look week. In the meantime, I am finishing up the WIP, thinking of new projects, and coming up with all the ways I love the Riskies. (I am also going to borrow from Cara, and list some favorite posts of the past year!). So, what I like the most:
1) The friends, of course! Building a cozy little place here has introduced me to so many far-flung new friends, who share not only my love of history (some would say geek-dom of history, but they just don’t understand…) but let me ramble on about fashion, perfume, English real estate, and Orlando/James/Matthew. It’s great to come here every day, even if work is dreary or the book is stalled, and know something fun will be going on and there will be people to “talk” to.
And speaking of history geek-dom, I really enjoyed putting together this “Dating Life: 2008 vs 1543” post because I got to talk about Katherine Parr. I was astonished to hear that everyone doesn’t have a favorite wife of Henry VIII! 🙂
I also really liked doing this “Women in Politics” post, centered around the Duchess of Devonshire and her political campaigning. I am going to the Democratic National Convention next week, so things like this have been much in my mind lately. We have certainly progressed, though maybe not as quickly as women like Georgiana would have liked!
2) Interviews! I love doing interviews with authors, either ones who are already friends or ones whose work I’ve admired but have never been able to meet them in person. The last thing I need is more books on that TBR pile, but when I hear about the great ones coming out I can’t help myself! Yes, I am Amanda and I am a bookaholic. I really enjoyed this Nicola Cornick interview from July, though now that she has been recruited to be my tour guide to Hever Castle next month she might be sorry she came here!
3) Theme weeks. Once we get them together (I believe Janet mentioned something about herding cats…) they are great fun. This year we had Waterloo Week and a whole week of celebrating Jane Austen’s birthday
I also love discussions of historical movies (the rest of the year should be full of this, with releases like The Duchess and Young Victoria), writing tips, travel advice, etc. Too many things to list here!
So, what are your favorite things about Risky Regencies? What sort of posts do you enjoy the most? What would you like to see more of in the future?
I will give away copies of both my Renaissance books, A Notorious Woman and A Sinful Alliance (or, if you have already won these, a copy of one of my out-of-print Signet Regencies!), plus a silver Brighton bookmark!
My favorite things about the Risky Regencies is the posts. You get to chat with some of the greatest authors and you post about things we love to read. And such great contests.
I love the posts that you do on the historical era. The clothes the women wore, the way they lived, etc.
I’d lov to see more reviews. But I’m actually satisfied with this blog. I love it. Congrats on your anniversary!!!!!!
I love the posts on history. All of you know so much and write about it so well.
My favorite thing is the historical posts. I love learning new, authentic tid-bits about the time period.
My favorite posts are interviews. I do have a very long wishlist and a TBR mountain, but I love finding new, interesting regency authors, and can’t resist new books!
The theme weeks are great too, I loved the one celebrating Jane Austen.
When I was in school my least favorite subject was history. As I have gotten older I have become more interested in the past so I definitely appreciate your posts that talk about history and how it relates to the stories you write.
I’m so glad to hear there are people who like the historical posts! I sometimes fear I’m getting carried away with my own enthusiasm and boring everyone silly. 🙂 But we work so hard researching our stories that it’s fun to share what we’ve learned
I loved our Jane Austen week, too, and I hope we’ll do something special this year. Amanda, I’m so thrilled that you’re going to the Democratic National Convention–will you give us a report from the road? Or soon after?
The historical posts are good, and I especially enjoy the posts about one’s writing process and story wrangling. Plus, I have discovered many new good reads by visiting the the Riskies.
I am going to the Democratic National Convention next week
YOU ARE GOING TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION???
Wow. You’ll be a part of history! This is so exciting, Amanda! You and the Duchess of Devonshire, both deep into politics. Now if only you could wear a hat like she wore, instead of the silly ones people always wear at national conventions…..Something with a sailing ship or a bird or something.
Add me to the list of history post lovers. I love learning new things, particularly if they’re one free click away! I may not always comment, but I do read. 🙂 (and if this post is duplicated, it’s because Blogger is doing strange things right now).
“I’d lov to see more reviews.”
I’d be happy to do more mini-reviews of non-fiction books, but I’m terrible at explaining why I like or don’t like fiction!
“hat like she wore, instead of the silly ones people always wear at national conventions…..Something with a sailing ship or a bird or something.”
I will have to think about this one, Diane! What would be an appropriate decoration for a Georgiana-style picture hat? I suppose I could just pin campaign buttons all over the crown and stick on a little stuffed donkey or something. 🙂 I will definitely talk about it all when i get back.
I love it when authors visit here. My TBR pile just keeps getting higher and higher.
I also love the history posts and theme weeks. I particularly our period piece movies. Speaking of which, Brideshead Revisited is coming out soon with both Emma Thompson and, I think, Alan Rickman. I could be wrong and just wish he was in it, lol.
Great anniversary week so far. I just love reminiscing.
I love it when the bloggers gush over Richard Armitage. I never get tired of that. I also enjoy being introduced to authors who are new to me through the guest interviews.
Amanda! I’m so jealous of you getting to go the Convention! I was involved in the precinct and district caucuses here, but I haven’t done much since.
Oh, and I always love history and writing posts.
I’d like to see you all keep doing what you have been. It’s a great place to get a wee bit of a laugh at times, hear about books and the learning. I have learned so much from this blog.
Are you kidding? What’s not to love! I love the community here. I love the conversation and discussion. The historical posts are worth their weight in gold to me. And I love the weeks devoted to individual topics or historical celebrations. Where else can you go to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday or the Battle of Waterloo or the evolution of plumbing. The reviews are terrific and so are the author visits. I would love more reviews of research books and nonfiction works that have helped, intrigued or confounded.
I live in a wonderful little town, but it can be an intellectual wasteland, especially when it comes to a topic like English history and especially the Regency period.
Visiting the Riskies helps to restore all of the brain cells working at Wal-mart kills!
I guess the Duchess of Devonshire post was my favorite of the ones you mentioned, but I liked all three very much. It’s always fun reading the different posts from the (very) different Riskies, though I often am too late to do more than add a comment at the end…
And way cool about going to the Democratic Convention! We were just in Denver for a somewhat different convention. 🙂 Lots of good restaurants on or near the 16th St Mall!
Todd-who-is-unconventional
Hi Amanda! Happy Birthday Risky Regencies!!
I so love the pictures you are able to find on the topics you discuss! I’ve always loved historical romances for all the different things in the culture then (Regency, Medieval, Westerns) and I could read along the great posts and too see pictures of what they’d look like! I’ve never been one to look for accuracy in what I read with historical romance (because I’m reading fun fiction) but when things are brought up, I love to look them up and I know its so hard to stop learning more and more.
What I get from here sticks with me and when I do read it in a book I remember that I read about it here! And I still have a pic in my mind of what they look like from the pics you posted with them and/or your describing them. I’m looking forward to even more of that when visiting here! Thanks for all you do!
Heck, I love themes. . . theme week, theme day, I’m not picky, anything with themes, I love them. . . and during them I might not always know what to say, but I sure learn from them! 🙂
Lois
My favorite things about the riskies is all the great posts that the authors give us. I learn historical facts and enjoy the interaction.
“I live in a wonderful little town, but it can be an intellectual wasteland, especially when it comes to a topic like English history and especially the Regency period.”
Oh, I hear you, Louisa/Doggie One! When I was in school there were people to talk with about medieval French poetry or the Elizabethan Court culture or Waterloo, but not so much now. 🙂 That’s why I luv the Internet!
Todd, thanks for the restaurant recs! I will probably need them. Right now I am trying to figure out what to wear…
“but when things are brought up, I love to look them up and I know its so hard to stop learning more and more.”
This is exactly how I got interested in history, too! I read a bunch of Heyers, Cartlands, and some old Fawcett Regencies (Chesney, maybe, and Metzger) from my grandmother’s book stash. They made me wonder what the time period was really like, and I started checking out history books from the library. The novels just really brought the past to life for me, and I never got over it, LOL.
I did love the Persuasion post, Amanda — that whole week was just such a lot of fun, and had great discussions.
And your Georgiana post was fascinating!
But my favorite was probably your Waterloo Week post.
Maybe we should do more theme weeks in the future…they certainly seem to have worked well for us this year!
Cara
Oh, and I forgot to say — so cool about you going to the Democratic Convention!
BTW, my favorite restaurant of the ones we ate at in Denver is a great little German place: Cafe Berlin, at 323 14th Street — a few blocks from the Convention Center.
http://www.cafeberlindenver.com
And the free 16th Street shuttles are great! (Just bring your umbrella!) (For Denver, that is — it doesn’t rain inside the shuttles.) 😉
Keep doing what it is you are doing and there will be many happy and satisfied folks around. Keep up the good work.
Happy Anniversary! I love the interviews too. Looking forward to more fun with the Riskys.