Risky Regencies

Regency Pianos

Updated on October 22, 2013 by Elena Greene

Since Amanda is busy moving (hope it’s all going well, Amanda!) I promised to switch days with her. And promptly forgot, in the havoc of getting back from the New Jersey Romance Writers conference and trying to get the family and household back on track!

Anyway, I’m here now. Back in the summer, I had the chance to visit the vast and wonderful Museu m of Fine Arts in Boston. There were many highlights to the visit, but an unexpected one was their varied collection of musical instruments. I’ve been meaning to blog about it ever since, but it went onto the back burner as I was finishing Fly with a Rogue and taking my oldest on college visits.

One of the most striking pieces in the collection is this superb grand piano. It was made in 1796 by John Broadwood & Sons for Manual de Godoy, ambassador to King Carlos IV of Spain. The decoration was designed by Thomas Sheraton and the jasperware cameos are by Josiah Wedgewood. I took some pictures of the details. Apologies for the fuzziness, but you can get an idea anyway.

This is certainly the sort of instrument one could imagine in the house of one of our fictional dukes.

At the other end of the room, there was this square piano, made around 1770 in England by Johann Christoph Zume and Gabriel Buntebart. At about 5 octaves, this was the first type of piano to be commercially successful and became very popular. A vicar’s daughter type heroine could have afforded to play a piano like this one.

Here is Vladimir Pleshakov playing Bonifacio Asioli’s 1795 Sonata on a 1795 Broadwood grand. According to the comments, the pianoforte pictured is actually of a later date, unfortunately.

Next week I’ll post about some of the more esoteric instruments in the collection.

Can any of you picture yourselves playing these instruments? I can–in my Regency fantasies!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Music, Research | Tagged Museum of Fine Arts, Music, piano, pianoforte | 8 Replies

Back from New Jersey!

Updated on October 21, 2013 by Diane Gaston

I had the great good fortune to spend the weekend in New Jersey (I’m not joking. I love New Jersey) at the New Jersey Romance Writers conference.

A Reputation for Notoriety was a Golden Leaf contest finalist for Best Historical, but, alas, my book did not win. The good news is that my friend Sally MacKenzie‘s Surprising Lord Jack won instead.

Fellow Riskies, Elena, Megan, Myretta, and Gail also attended the conference. I was able to spend a little time with each of them; a lot of time with Elena.

Regency and Scottish Historical author Cathy Maxwell was also at the conference and gave a very inspiring workshop on Empowering the Writer. Her message was, basically, be true to yourself, as a writer and a person. In a very moving story she made the point that Man is an unfinished product and that every morning we should wake up and decide how to complete ourselves that day. We can fill ourselves with confidence, creativity, good will, optimism, or we can fill ourselves with fear, pessimism, and ill will. It is our choice.

So, today, how will you try to complete yourself?

Posted in Frivolity | Tagged Golden Leaf contest, njrw conference | 3 Replies

Lady Dearing’s Masquerade Audiobook Winners!

Updated on October 19, 2013 by Elena Greene

Congratulations to the following winners of the Lady Dearing’s Masquerade audiobook!

Robin Greene, Lesley A, bn100, Julie, Jane A, Sheila C, Melody May, Cassie P, Billie Jo M, and Stacy

I will email you your download codes this evening, when I get back from the New Jersey Romance Writers conference. If you don’t get an email by Monday, please contact me at elena @ elenagreene.com (no spaces) and I’ll send it again.

Posted in Giveaways | Leave a reply

Are you ready for Halloween?

Updated on October 17, 2013 by susanna

Hopefully by my next post I’ll have Exciting Book News to share, but today I have a seasonal question for you:

Are you ready for Halloween?

For practically the first time since Miss Fraser was born in 2004, I can answer that question with a yes, and before October 30, too. After some discussion, Miss Fraser has elected to go as the goddess Athena this year, so we found a generic Greek goddess costume, which we’re accessorizing with a helmet, a toy spear, and a stuffed owl. And just in case she backs out of being Athena at the last minute because she has to wear a dress, I ordered a mockingjay pin, which, along with her bow and arrow set and carefully chosen clothes from her everyday wardrobe, would make a credible Katniss Everdeen costume.

Her first choice was actually Avatar Korra from The Legend of Korra, but I couldn’t figure out how to bring the costume together given my utter lack of crafting or sewing skills. I have to say, I’m proud of having raised a daughter who’s so fond of strong women in myth and literature that her heroines are Korra, Athena, and Katniss.

I even have a costume of my own planned for the first time in over a decade! I’m part of a fantasy football league at work, and we’ve decided to all dress up as our teams. My team is the War Tigers, a riff on my favorite college football team, the Auburn Tigers, whose battle cry is, “War Eagle.” If you watch an Auburn game, you’ll see both an adorable mascot in a tiger suit and an actual eagle who swoops around the stadium before the game and then perches on his handler’s arm on the sidelines looking menacing during the game.

War Eagle!

So I’m going to wear my Auburn shirt and baseball cap, and carry a stuffed tiger perched on my wrist like that eagle. Granted, maybe two of my Seattle coworkers watch enough college football to get the reference, but still.

One of these years I’m going to invest in a Regency dress–or maybe a redcoat officer’s uniform, so I can go in Napoleonic-era drag–and make that my costume.

What about you? Are you dressing up for Halloween this year, or do you have a kid to costume? If you dressed as a Regency and/or literary figure, who would you choose and why?

Posted in Frivolity | Tagged halloween, Susanna Fraser | 5 Replies

Heroes to fall in love with

Updated on October 17, 2013 by Janet Mullany

I think it’s pretty much standard that when you write romance you fall in love with the hero, even if at certain stages of the book you want to give him a smack upside the head and tell him not to be such a stubborn, insensitive, clueless idiot. And we hope that our readers fall in love with him and the heroine, or even the relationship itself. Lizzie and Darcy, anyone?

So here’s my Top Ten, in no particular order, of fictional heroes I have fallen in love with:

Black Beauty. Yes, I know he’s a horse. I was six, okay?

Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Ditto faun, and I was eight. But I fell all over in love with him again in the movie and James McAvoy’s goaty goodness. Talking of which, check out this very sexy dance scene from the very indifferent movie Becoming Jane. Ooh.

Henry Tilney. He is the best Austen hero. He knows about laundry. He has social skills, does not practice pluralism, and is the success story of his dysfunctional family.

Lord Peter Wimsey. Or, to be specific, Lord Peter Wimsey in Gaudy Night, when Harriet falls in love with him, finally, and he is translated into instant hotness. Placetne, magistra?

Sam Vine in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. A cop with smarts, a tender heart, a strong sense of justice, and a love of bacon sandwiches.

Lord Vetinari, also from Discworld. What’s not to love! An autocrat who was trained as an assassin, given to sarcasm and steepling of fingers.

Dorothea Brooke from Middlemarch by George Eliot. So she’s a girl (so was George). You have a problem with that?

Will Ladislaw, also from Middlemarch. All that exotic foreign radical hotness.

Jasper Hedges from Pam Rosenthal’s The Edge of Impropriety. Smart, shabby, beautiful hands, glasses, and actually smacks away the heroine’s hand during their first encounter because he can undo his trouser buttons faster than she can.

Temeraire the dragon from Naomi Novik’s series. Even if he does have eggs with other women I love him still.

And #11, bonus material, Will Lawrence from the same series.

How about you?

Posted in Jane Austen, Reading | 5 Replies