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What makes a Regency “Traditional”?

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dedicationI’m always interested in the keywords used to describe books. Having already talked about what “sweet” means with regard to Regencies, I’m moving on to “traditional”.

There are various explanations of how traditional Regencies differ from Regency-set historical romance.

Traditional Regencies are short. But some of the older ones were 80,000 words or more, especially those published as Super Regencies.

Traditional Regencies are “sweet.” There are many exceptions, including some books by the Riskies. Sweet historical romance also exists.

Traditional Regencies depict the world of the Regency as described by Jane Austen and/or Georgette Heyer. True to a degree, but neither of them ever included paranormal elements like vampires. Or time travel. Or Greek deities who take a mischievous role in the characters’ love lives.

vampireTraditional Regencies are historically accurate. Not always! I’ve heard there was a Zebra Regency that included photography as if it were in common use. I’ve also read traditional Regencies with errors in titles, fox hunting in the summer, etc…, and many that seem to rely almost entirely on Georgette Heyer for background information. Although we know she did meticulous work, the sensibility in her books is largely Victorian.

One other point is that many authors of Regency-set historical romance do extensive research (I do!) although they may incorporate aspects of the setting that were not seen in books by Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer.

Traditional Regencies are light and witty “comedies of manners”. There were some pretty angsty traditional Regencies, dealing with substance abuse, PTSD and other serious themes.

rakeSo even while some of these traits often describe traditional Regencies, it seems to me that the only simple definition is those books published in the traditional Regency lines. Of course, now there are indie authors and specialty lines who publish what are generally agreed to be “traditional” Regencies.

jewelThe only definition I’ve been able to come up with that makes sense is that in a traditional Regency, the Regency setting is more consistently emphasized, described in detail (even if the detail may be incorrect or copied from Georgette Heyer), and that the setting often takes on an importance almost as if it were a secondary character.

So what do you think? What makes a Regency “traditional”?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

How Much? Historical Cost of Living and What Would YOU Do?

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First, catching up with news!

Book News!

A Notorious Ruin, Book 2 of the Sinclair Sisters series is in final edits. I should have a cover shortly. It’s getting real, folks! Readers of this blog probably know there is boxing in this story. I like it. Lots and lots.

Alphas Unleashed, a SciFi and Paranormal Romance Anthology is out now! My story is Dead Drop which is set in the My Immortals series world. There are stories by SE Smith, Mina Khan, me, and Michele Callahan. Here are some buy links should you be so moved:

Alphas Unleashed

Print is on its way…

The Next Historical

In October, I’ll have a story in a Historical Romance Christmas Anthology, In The Duke’s Arms. That’s the name of a coaching inn in Nottinghamshire. Get it? It’s going to be awesome. My story has the duke. I started writing it yesterday. The authors are:

Grace Burrows
Miranda Neville
Shana Galen
Carolyn Jewel (that would be me!)

Research!! How much did stuff cost?

I have a very good set of references on this, but it never hurts to look around for more information. I need to pull out those sources and get reacquainted with them. Allow me to digress a bit before I get to the point.

You may or may not recall that in the course of some other research, I came across information about taxes. That research also uncovered information about the British lottery. As in, you could win a lot. Which got me thinking…

Years ago, I read a story by Balzac in which a very poor character had been saving up money to buy into the national lottery using a special run of numbers. At last, the character has enough money and entrusts the money and her run of numbers to someone else to purchase the ticket. And the number wins!!! Only the person spent the money on something else and never bought the ticket. Then there’s the Conrad story (Or was it Henry James?) where a man’s son is reckless in every way the father fears and has warned him against. Except the young man places a wager that will bankrupt the boy … and he wins, and on and on, with everything turning golden for this young man. Those two stories have been bumping around in my head for years.

And so, it’s early days and everything could change, but the heroine who will find herself In The Duke’s Arms (bwahahahahah!) is a very poor relation who wins the lottery and then buys a house in Nottinghamshire. Assuming this stays as the basic premise, as I was notebooking, I got to wondering how much she should win, and what her initial expenses would be, what it would cost her to live in her house, and how much she could routinely give away as charity without compromising her future. Jane Austen, it turns out, budgeted the equivalent of $600. I have only one source for that so consider it unconfirmed.

And that lead me to this fantastic site: The Price of a Loaf of Bread. Go there. Bookmark the site. Spend hours reading. The link convention there is weird: highlights instead of underlining, so when you see that, it’s a link to more great content.

After clicking around to various places and sites, the yearly amount spent on food per average person during the Regency, was about £3.5, subject to variations depending on the harvest. In calculating my heroine’s possible expenses I bumped that figure up a bit, but not by much. I have decided, preliminarily, that she will win £75,000 pounds and spend £20-25,000 on her house, outfitting it, buying new clothes, staffing up, etc. I know from seeing period advertisements that rather large estates were advertised for £8-16,000 pounds.

And now here is my question for you:

The scenario:
You are a poor female relation, 25-28 years old, living with relatives who are heedless of you. You are a chaperone to the pretty young daughter with a fortune. Everyone likes you, though, because you are genuinely nice (even though sometimes you wish you didn’t have to be.) You can look forward to a life of dependency, as you have no fortune and are only average in looks.

And then…

You buy a lottery ticket and you win. A lot. Besides an estate, what would you buy for yourself? What indulgences would you allow yourself?

Go.

Winner of Lord Langdon’s Kiss and an Excerpt

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LLK_Page_ProofCongratulations to Theresa. You’ve won the paperback copy of Lord Langdon’s Kiss. If you do not hear from me, feel free to email at elena @ elenagreene.com (no spaces).

And because I’m still struggling to get that To Do List I posted last week under control, all I have to offer today is an excerpt. I hope you enjoy it.

He addressed her again, in a lowered voice. “Miss Ashley. I must apologize for my behavior to you on our last meeting. It was a most ill-considered action on my part.”

Her unease gave way to indignation. There was no remorse in his face, only his usual guarded look. How dare he refer to what he had done as an “ill-considered action”?

Then she understood. He feared that she would accuse him of having compromised her. Did he think she would expect reparation, or cause a scandal by disclosing what he’d done? When she thought of all she’d done to avoid causing trouble between him and his brother, she wanted to scream.

Lord Langdon was clearly in need of a lesson.

“I beg to differ, my lord,” she answered sweetly, having brought her temper under control one more time. “In my opinion, trying to ravish one lady the day before proposing marriage to another merits a rather stronger description.”

He looked horrified. She’d guessed correctly; he was appalled by the thought of the trouble she could cause.

“You do not mean—”

“Do not be anxious, Lord Langdon,” she interrupted. “I shall do my utmost to forget the incident ever occurred.”

Lord Langdon’s Kiss is available in ebook form for Kindle, Nook, Apple, and Kobo. It’s also available in paperback at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Are You Covered?

First, my apologies for missing two weeks in a row. The first time, I was just off by an  day. Last week, I just entirely forgot. Things have been crazy busy. I sent Book two of the Sinclair Sisters series — A Notorious Ruin — out for a first round read. Then I started writing a My Immortals novella, currently titled Dead Drop. It’s for a paranormal anthology and I have to write really really fast. I am on track so far.  But I have to keep to a very aggressive word count. Whew!

 

Covers

I’ve been thinking about covers lately. Looking at lots of images and covers and I’ve been thinking. In the traditional publishing world, if you were selling well enough, you might get a step-back cover. Where the front cover might be a little short width-wise but underneath is more cover and the two make a cohesive image. When you open the top cover, you see a bigger image. I liked step backs. Most of the time, they are very pretty and fun and the artwork is nice.

I’ve not seen anyone doing the equivalent in eBooks. There are a bunch of ways to deal with expanding out an images that’s probably more complicated than it’s worth — except, maybe not. In the hands of the right artist it could be neat. Plus, there’s always the simple thing of just adding another image. A super duper sexy one (if appropriate) or maybe just a beautiful illustration. I’m talking just about some extra bling in the book, not turning into an graphic novel or something.

So, I ask you, assuming you are not making an author-based decision, what kind of covers do you like? What are the things that appeal to you? Colors? Details? Couples? Just the guy? Just the girl? Potted plants?

Assuming an additional image(s) in an eBook didn’t pose a technical annoyance to you (slowing down the device or what have you), how might you feel about a second image inside the book — step-backish in that it’s kind of a cover enhanced? What if there were an illustration?

Let me know in the comments.

Oh! Hey! Also this!

If you are reading this on April 30, it’s my birthday! I’ll send a commenter a surprise thing. Not worth more than forty bucks US, because that’s my budget. It’s a surprise because I just realized tomorrow is my birthday and so I’m not prepared. International is OK.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Must be 18 to enter. My relatives are not eligible to enter. If I had employees they wouldn’t be eligible either. Winner chosen at random from among the commenters who comment BEFORE midnight April 30th, 2014 Pacific Time. This blog is in the Eastern Time zone, so technically you have until the blog says 2:59:59 AM May 1, 2014.

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