Happy Tuesday, everyone! I missed you last Tuesday (thanks to Angela James, Carina Press, and Megan for filling in!), but I have been thinking about many things this week. Among them are:

Author copies! I got a box full of Countess of Scandal this week, and have been ogling them ever since. So pretty! So shiny! So purple! I’ve been working on this book for a long time, but somehow nothing seems quite “real” until I hold a copy in my hands. It releases on January 26, and I’ll be doing a launch party and giveaway here at the Riskies on January 30. Join us for a chance to win one of these very copies!

Birthdays! Mine was Friday, and there was cake (Italian cream!) and presents, including this Hello Kitty watch (in its equally fab Hello Kitty box!). It makes getting older a little more fun.

And new book covers! This one is for the US release of To Catch a Rogue, Book One of “The Muses of Mayfair” (in April!) I’m so excited to see these books coming out here, and I love that you can see the actual Grecian statue from the story in the background of the cover. I haven’t seen the covers for the other two yet, or for the “Undone” story that will be out in March to launch the series (To Bed a Libertine), but stay tuned.

I also avidly watched the Golden Globes red carpet arrivals (though I forsook most of the ceremony in favor of Return to Cranford!), and am talking gowns on my own blog today…

And now for today’s regularly scheduled post, which was actually meant for last week! I had started it, but didn’t feel up to finishing it yet, so here it is just a bit late. I’m not much of a cook, but I do love to eat (as well as watch the Food Network and Top Chef)! And I love the history of cuisine. I enjoyed Ian Kelly’s book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef. As I read it, I couldn’t help but imagine him as the snarky judge on an 18th century Top Chef. And January 12 was the anniversary of Careme’s death, in 1833.

The man who came to be known as “The King of Chefs, and the Chef of Kings,” one of the first internationally known “celebrity” chefs, didn’t have a promising beginning. He was born in Paris to poverty-stricken parents in 1792, at the height of the French Revolution, and grew up working as kitchen boy in cheap cafes for his room and board. In 1798, he came to be apprenticed to the famous patissier Sylvain Bailly, who had a fancy shop near the Palais-Royal. Careme became famous for his pieces montees, elaborate subtleties several feet high made entirely of sugar, marzipan, almond paste, and other sweets in the shape of temples, ruins, pyramids, all the things antiquities-mad society loved. Bailly displayed these in his shop window, and Careme gained more fame for creating delicious sweets such as gros nougats and croquantes (made of almonds and honey).

In the meantime he branched out, doing work for the famous politician and gourmand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, who recommended him to other members of the highest Paris Society, including Napoleon (he would do the wedding cake for Napoleon’s second wedding). As he found more work, he expanded his creative repertoire from pastries to main courses and especially sauces, which would transform French cuisine. In 1804, Talleyrand moved to the Chateau de Valencay and hired Careme full-time to cook there (after a test: create a whole year’s worth of menus, without repeating a dish, using seasonal produce). He succeeded admirably, and created a new way of cooking in the process, using fresh herbs and vegetables and simpler sauces with fewer ingredients and better flavors.

After the fall of Napoleon, Careme went to London and worked as chef de cuisine to the Regent. He then traveled to Russia to work briefly for Tsar Alexander I. He ended his career as chef to the wealthy banker James Mayer Rothschild, and died at age 48. He was buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre with honors. He’s credited with numerous things, such as inventing the chef’s toque, replacing the service a la francaise (serving all dishes at once) with service a la russe (serving each dish in a course), and creating sauces that are still the basis for classic French cooking. He wrote several cook books, especially the enormous L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise (5 volumes, published between 1833-34), which included hundreds of recipes, plans for menus, table settings, a history of French cooking, and steps for organizing the kitchen.

If you’d like to try one of his recipes, there are several in the back of the Kelly book! Here is a nice simple one (albeit modified), Fromage Bavarois Aux Noix Verts, created for the Brighton Pavilion in 1817:

25 walnuts
1 pint double cream
8 ounces sugar
isinglass or gelatine
1 pint whipped cream

Take 25 peeled walnuts, and pound with one pint of cream and eight ounces of sugar. Leave to infuse for an hour, and then add the isinglass and set it to cool in the fridge for half an hour. When still not set, stir in a pint of thickly whipped cream. Set it immediately into a jelly mould and leave overnight.

Voila! Regency Jello.

What have you been thinking about this week? Who is your favorite celebrity chef or French meal?

Late breaking news! I just got the cover for To Bed a Libertine! I want her hair. (TBAL is the story of Erato, the real Muse of Erotic Poetry, who comes down to Regency England to inspire a hunky artist, so the gown is totally right for her!)

I was always taught to be quiet and respectful of others during movies and especially at live performances (unless they are the sort that invite audience participation).

Yet I’ve been surprised, at my children’s last few school concerts, to find that parents of similar age to myself will chat through the performance, maybe shutting up only when their own child is featured. Although most of the audience members at the local Binghamton Philharmonic concerts are well-behaved, I sometimes hear people humming along or crackling candy wrappers at untoward moments. While I will practically burst my eyeballs to hold back a sneeze until a break between movements!

I’m noticing this sort of thing a lot more in movie theatres, too. And it’s not children or teenagers who seem to be the worst offenders; it’s adults who seem to think everyone around them should be delighted with their running commentary on the film. If you try to shush them, they behave as if you are the one being rude. I googled around a bit and found that audience behavior seems to be a growing problem, at all sorts of entertainment venues. For instance, the San Diego Opera has posted a set of Golden Rules of Opera Etiquette to try to address it.

But maybe I’m not so old-fashioned. During the Regency and earlier periods, the theatre and opera were places to see and be seen. People socialized and often didn’t pay much attention to what was going on on the stage, unless they were heckling the performers or throwing something at them!

Today’s the anniversary of the first crossing of the English Channel in 1785 by intrepid balloonists Jean Pierre Blanchard of France and Dr. John Jeffries, an expatriate Bostonian. Blanchard had made his first balloon ascents in London in the previous year, and also made some parachuting experiments. Jeffries was the money behind the venture and Blanchard seems to have had a rather ambivalent attitude toward his sponsor. He made an attempt to claim that their combined weight was too much for the balloon, suggesting Jeffries should stay on land, but it was discovered that the Frenchman was wearing a belt of lead weights.

They left from Dover at about 1:00 in the afternoon and landed in France a couple of hours later in a tree outside Calais but the trip did not go as smoothly as planned. The two aviators found the balloon losing altitude and had to rid themselves not only of ballast but any extraneous weight including books, food, scientific instruments and even their clothes, thus becoming the first male strippers in flight. Neither of them could swim.

Here’s Jeffries’ account of the flight:

Heaven crowned my utmost wishes with success: I cannot describe to you the magnificence and beauty of our voyage…When two-thirds from the French coast we were again falling rapidly towards the sea, on which occasion my noble little captain gave orders, and set the example, by beginning to strip our aerial car, first of our silk and finery: this not giving us sufficient release, we cast one wing, then the other; after which I was obliged to unscrew and cast away our moulinet; yet still approaching the sea very fast, and the boats being much alarmed for use, we cast away, first one anchor, then the other, after which my little hero stripped and threw away his coat (great one). On this I was compelled to follow his example. He next cast away his trowsers. We put on our cork jackets and were, God knows how, as merry as grigs to think how we should splatter in the water. We had a fixed cord, &c to mount into our upper story; and I believe both of us, as though inspired, felt ourselves confident of success in the event.

They were both feted, made honorary citizens of Calais and Louis XVI awarded Blanchard a substantial pension. Blanchard continued with his balloon and parachute experiments, including the first American ascent in 1793 from Philadelphia. His wife Sophie Blanchard also made her name as a balloonist. Sadly–or perhaps they appreciated dying with their boots on–they both died in ballooning accidents.

Jeffries, however, never flew again, returning to America and resuming the medical practice so rudely interrupted by the War of Independence.

Here’s a very nice paper cut out model of the balloon (with paper dolls!) on sale at fiddlersgreen.net and more information.

Have you done anything brave, innovative, or just plain daft recently? (and, yes, writing is all of the above).

How was everyone’s holiday? Here it was good but very cold (and still getting colder! I am sooo ready for springtime). I had a great time burrowing in with new books and DVDs, working on the WIP (did I mention it’s due in February? Yep, 3 1/2 weeks away), dressing my Poodle in her Snuggie for Dogs, and eating candy. But I did manage to make it out to see a couple of movies, including the totally adorable Princess and the Frog.

This probably won’t surprise you, given my deep love for things like Hello Kitty and bright pink shoes, but I am a Disney movie fanatic. Beauty and the Beast remains my all-time favorite, not only for its sheer gorgeousness but because Belle has brown hair and likes to read books. Princess and the Frog isn’t quite Beauty and the Beast great (for one thing, the songs aren’t especially memorable, plus it’s hard to beat the Beast as a hero), but it is very charming. Roger Ebert called it “sprightly and high-spirited” which is a very good description.

The setting of 1920s New Orleans is stupendous, one of the best I’ve seen in a Disney movie. But what’s a Disney fairy-tale without great characters? Tiana and Prince Naveen fit the bill very well, and one thing I was struck by is how romance novel-esque they were (except for the being frogs part. That might be a bit hard to pull off, even for a paranormal author!). Tiana is the most self-sufficient and independent of all the Disney “princesses.” She works two waitress jobs to save for her dream of owning her own restaurant. She is focused and hard-working, and she takes no nonsense. But this is also her weakness, as she never slows down to enjoy life or the people around her. She doesn’t stop to consider love.

Prince Naveen is exactly the opposite. His character arc is not quite as well-developed as Tiana’s, but at least he has one, unlike, say, Cinderella’s prince. His whole character was being handsome and owning a castle. Naveen has been cut off by his royal parents for being a fluff-off party boy. He just wants to enjoy life, and has never worked at anything. Now he has to either marry a rich girl or (gasp!) get a job.

You see how this is fitting together? They each have strengths (and weaknesses) the other lacks, and their journey to discover this fact, from dislike to love, is wonderful. When Naveen decides he will get a job (or 2 or 3!) to get Tiana her restaurant, you know its true love–if they can defeat the evil, scary villain and turn back into humans again. Plus Tiana has some great clothes, always very important. I especially liked her streamlined, flapper-ish wedding gown at St. Louis Cathedral.

This is one of the things I enjoy most in writing romance fiction. Creating 2 characters and discovering what it is that makes them perfect for each other. What is it about them that will enable them to not only fall in love, but stay in love through all life’s trials? Though none of my characters have ever been turned into amphibians before!

Did you see The Princess and the Frog? What did you think? And who are some of your favorite romance novel (and Disney movie) pairings?

My reading this year has been largely colored by what is going on in my life. As many of you know, my husband suffered a severe stroke in January. So I’ve had less time to read than I would like, though I still read over breakfast and in waiting rooms, etc… I could not live without the solace of books!

Of necessity, I’ve read a number of books on stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI). A few of these stand out as fascinating, not just to those whose lives are affected by TBI, but to anyone interested in how our minds work. I’ve already mentioned MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, by Jill Bolte Taylor, the story of a brain scientist who suffered a stroke and recovered to write about it. It has a lot about the interaction of the left and right brain functions and insights into how to live a more “balanced-brain” life. BRAIN, HEAL THYSELF, by Madonna Siles, is the story of a woman whose friend and roommate suffered an aneurism that left her somewhat zombie-like after conventional rehabilitation ran out. Siles found creative ways to help her friend and their story is not only a page turner but full of useful advice for caregivers. THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF, by Norman Doidge, deals with neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to rewire itself. Doidge writes about recovery from brain injury, but also topics such as overcoming learning disorders, including a chapter on maintaining mental acuity as we age. The key, friends, is not only to stay active but to always be learning something new. Something I think we Riskies and friends are into anyway. 🙂

As for fiction, I feel a bit guilty to say that it’s been hard to read romance. If I were not a writer, I’d be gulping down romance novels as an escape. As it is, I find it hard to read romance without feeling the pangs of wanting to write again.

So for a time, I concentrated on reading my children’s favorites. One that stands out is the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series by Rick Riordan. It’s sort of like Harry Potter but with Greek mythology rather than magic as a backdrop. I say this just as shorthand, not to imply there is anything about this series that is not fresh and funny and delightful. I hear there’s a movie coming out in February and can’t wait to take my kids.

I’ve also read some general fiction. I was thrilled to read the published version of my friend Therese Walsh’s THE LAST WILL OF MOIRA LEAHY, which I’d already critiqued in several earlier incarnations. I also finally caught up with THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, one of those books I’d always felt I ought to read. It is a beautiful book. Has anyone seen the movie and did it do justice?

I haven’t avoided romance entirely. I read one historical in which I felt the author aimed for a Kinsalean level of hero angst and fell short. I just wanted him to get over himself! But that is just my opinion; many readers loved this book. Since then, I’ve stuck mostly with authors who rarely disappoint and who inspire me to want to get back to my own stories. My favorites of this year are older books, so you may have already read them. One of them is BEAST by Judith Ivory–I was totally intrigued by what Ivory did with her complicated, beautiful, scarred hero. I would like to see Johnny Depp play him.

I mentioned a while back that Laura Kinsale’s FLOWERS FROM THE STORM helped me hold onto hope during the dark early hours of my husband’s stroke. Since there are long gaps between her books (though they are well worth waiting for!) I have been hoarding them. This year I dove into the last one, SEIZE THE FIRE. I loved her characters, the historical background that made their angst feel so very real, and the essential goodness that helps them survive.

I allowed myself to read SEIZE THE FIRE because (hurrah!) Laura Kinsale has a new book coming out in February, LESSONS IN FRENCH. And she’s going to be our guest at the Riskies on February 7th.

So here’s looking forward to much happy reading and blogging in 2010!

Elena