After last week’s post about my reading of the non-fiction book Empire Adrift, I had some comments that I should write a novel with that setting and I have to say thanks for the encouragement! I pitched a (very vague) idea for a Regency romance set in Rio to my Harlequin editor and got the go ahead, so yay! I have a few books to write ahead of it, but look for it in (maybe) 2013…
And what am I reading this week? I am reading a wonderfully fascinating travel book, Ina Caro’s Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History By Train. Caro has a great method of travel–25 easy day trips from Paris that trace the development of French history from the building of St. Denis in the early Middle Ages to the transformation of Paris by Baron Haussman and Napoleon III in the mid-19th century. She moves from places like Chartres and Reims as well as places I haven’t heard of (like Blanche of Castile’s fortress at Angers) to Renaissance chateaus like Blois and Chambord, Versailles (of course), Paris sites like the Carnavalet and Conciergerie, and Malmaison. I now have several more places on my To Visit list for the next time I’m in Paris, and I love her method of organizing a visit in historical chronological order (which could work wonderfully for England as well!)
So even though I’m stuck at home working on deadlines at the moment, I can pretend I’m in Paris or Rio or anywhere else my daydreams take me! What are you fantasizing about this week??
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I would be very interested to read a Rio-set historical novel, having lived there for almost two years recently. We visited both major palaces more than once. The one in Rio at Quinta da Boa Vista is now where their natural history museum is housed. The building itself is in surprising decay, but you can see the bones of what it once was, with terraces, ballrooms, and an artificial lake and grotto.
The imperial palace in Petropolis is much better preserved and is very impressive–the nobility built the whole town out there in the hills to get away from the heat and the slave-market world of Rio itself.
Fascinating!! Lorraine, if you have any tips on research resources let me know…
I’m fantasizing about going to Washington Romance Writers Spring Retreat this weekend! And I’m really going!
I think a Rio-set historical sounds fabulous!!
As always, a cottage on the Irish coast or a castle in the Scottish Highlands.
More realistically, I would be happy with all these boxes sorted and things put away. I am afraid there isn’t enough room in the house for it all.
This sounds like an interesting book. Those are just the type of trips I like to take. I can hope she does one for England, Scotland, and Ireland (one or all) by the time I get to travel there.
Librarypat, I’ve often thought I’d like to spend a year in London and take trips out from there.
Amanda, thanks for sharing this book!
Diane, have fun!!!