Wow, I can’t believe it’s been two years since we started posting here at Risky Regencies! It seems like only a few weeks (and yet Saturday always seems to sneak up on me, and I have to scramble for something to post about). I’ve loved meeting so many new friends, having a place to share a love of history (and cute Austen movie heroes), celebrate new book releases and writing milestones, commiserate on things like Hair Color Disasters, and just be silly sometimes (or maybe the silly bit is just me?). Anyway, I’ve loved being a part of Risky Regencies, and hope we have many more anniversaries to celebrate in the future!
My prize is an autographed copy of my August book A Notorious Woman (look for its sequel in April ’08, to find out what happens to Nicolai), plus a fancy beaded bookmark from Ganz (I don’t have a pic, but trust me, it’s pretty!).
It was hard to pick some “favorite” posts! Once I started looking back on them, I realized that what I said about scrambling to find topics every Saturday was all too true. But here are a few I enjoyed:
Megan and Amanda Chat About Amanda’s New Book!
(Because I always get nervous when a new baby, er, book makes its appearance on the shelves, and chatting with another Risky about its debut made it far less painful!)
Hair Matters
(If you want to know just how shallow I really can be–plus, I took great comfort from hearing about other people’s hair disasters)
Picturing Characters
(I always love hearing how people “see” characters! And I love searching the Web for pics of hunky actors and beautiful costumes and calling it research)
Carnival!
(Party! Need I say more? Also, I love sharing research tidbits with people I know will appreciate them–unlike, say, my family, who is very tired of hearing all about women in the French Revolution and how to make Venetian masks or violet perfume. Love of research also leads me to the next post, because a smackdown between Baroque composers is always something to see…) Gluckists vs. Piccinists
Be sure and vote for your favorite post! And, to win our Grand Prize of a $25 gift certificate to Amazon (wish I was eligible for this one) sign up for our Risky newsletter at riskies@yahoo.com.
Be sure and put “Newsletter” in the subject line, and we’ll send (brief) updates of Riskies’ releases and news, upcoming guests, and fun prizes.
Visit us tomorrow, when we conclude our anniversary week with a visit from Claudia Dain! Hear all about her new release The Courtesan’s Daughter (and comment for the chance to win a copy!)
And thank you for making Risky Regencies so much fun! It’s been the BEST two years…
Hmmm. I am torn between picturing characters and Carnival! I too love to troll the net looking for hunky heroes and beautiful heroines (mostly hunky heroes to tell the truth!) But the carnival post was absolutely fascinating. I still have some of the links you gave in my favorites list! I just love tucking away new research for use at a future date!
I loved picturing characters since it is fascinating and I enjoyed the photos. I always imagine characters when I am reading any novel and this was an intriguing post.
“just love tucking away new research for use at a future date!”
Doglady, I do this, too! Since I read a lot of nonfiction, and never know what I might need for future projects, I keep a notebook where I jot down any interesting factoids and citations. I must be weird, because I think this is huge fun! 🙂
Diane, I think that with each new book I’ll do a post about how I decided what the characters looked like (with pics, of course!). I like to hear what other people “see” when they’re writing, too.
Amanda, add me to the Picturing Characters list. It’s funny how I picture a lot of the heroes I read about to look like Christian Bale….*sigh*….
~Andrea
Of course I liked Megan and Amanda chat!
“It’s funny how I picture a lot of the heroes I read about to look like Christian Bale….*sigh*….”
Good choice, Andreaw! 🙂 I saw “3:10 to Yuma” last week and was struck (as I was when I saw “The New World”) by how he just seems to really inhabit period roles. I completely believed he was living in the 19th and 17th centuries.
Megan, I thought you might like that one, LOL
I like the Carnival! post. I hadn’t known anything about the history of it or the origin of it so it was interesting to learn.
I loved the carnival post!! And especially the part about making venetian masks. 😉 The history of Carnival was very interesting too!
Hair Matters, I mean really, who hasn’t had a bad hair day. Right?!?
BTW that’s only second to Picturing Characters. I love visuals! That picture of Isabelle Adjani is so pretty!
“That picture of Isabelle Adjani is so pretty!”
I bet SHE’S never had a bad hair day! French women never do. 🙂
Well, at least I’m finishing the week just as consistently as I started it. . . because. . .
Love the picturing characters! I’m never that good at doing it myself, but love seeing what others come up with!
But. . .
chatting about new books is always fun!! 🙂
but then
hair matters! 🙂 It’s always great to know the stuff grows back, even if we have to live for a while with something we really don’t want to live with! LOL 🙂
So ah, yep, I’m nothing if not consistent. 🙂
Lois
Speaking of Christian Bale, he did so many period characters as a kid, I guess it’s in his blood! Did anyone else see Newsies? (Love it! I was pretty much the only human being who saw it on its original theatrical release.) Plus, of course, Henry V and Empire of the Sun…
But back to the subject… I really like all the posts! Hard to choose.
Extra points for Hair Matters because (a) you tied in your life and history very well, (b) you have a clever pun in the title, (c) it’s really good, and (d) it seems that I never read it before! (I’d thought that when I returned from Europe I’d read all the posts I missed, but I guess I didn’t!)
But I also *love* the Gluck and Piccini post. I learned new stuff, plus it’s funny!
And your interview with Megan is great, as is your Carnival post. And of course, I love Picturing Characters — my Earl of Stoke was, after all, Russell Crowe in Gladiator. 🙂
Can I vote for all of them? 🙂
Cara
Amanda, Diane, and I bonded over Amanda first posts about Project Runway and Dancing with the Stars. Then we discussed GoFugYourself (though Diane resisted mightily) and fashion. So those posts hold a very special place in my heart.
If I have choose from the list Amanda gave, then “Gluckists vs. Piccinnists: The Final Smackdown” is my favorite. First of all, that WOW picture. Then there’s Gluck’s music, which often gets overshadowed in the company of the other known composers of Austria and Germany. I love Gluck and his style of music. And thank goodness for his modernization of opera–character-focus, rather than plot-focus.
Speaking of Christian Bale, he did so many period characters as a kid, I guess it’s in his blood! Did anyone else see Newsies? (Love it! I was pretty much the only human being who saw it on its original theatrical release.) Plus, of course, Henry V and Empire of the Sun…
Oh, no, Cara! My kids and I LOVED that movie. I think we saw it about 6 times in the theater, which is more times than I saw 300 or P&P.
For my daughter’s birthday I managed to snag a life sized display of Christian Bale and the other Newsies that had been in our local Video store. I think we still have it somewhere.
I never understood why Newsies wasn’t a big hit.
Christian Bale was also in a make of Treasure Island that was quite good. And he was amazing in Empire of the Sun.
I saw 3:10 to Yuma last week and loved it. Wonderful acting by everyone and a wonderful story.
I enjoyed the Carnival post. I liked hearing about the cover which I think is gorgeous and I liked all the historical facts too. I like to learn while enjoying a good book 🙂
Amanda, Diane, and I bonded over Amanda first posts about Project Runway and Dancing with the Stars. Then we discussed GoFugYourself (though Diane resisted mightily) and fashion. So those posts hold a very special place in my heart.
Oh, I agree, Keira! What would I do without the two of you to obsess about Project Runway, Top Chef, the hair-cutting one–(so memorable). And I’m still valiantly resisting Go Fug Yourself, although I almost went there to see what they said about the Emmy gowns.
Now to pick a favorite Amanda post? Too hard. I did love Amanda and Megan’s Chat about A Notorious Woman, and I learned stuff in Gluckists vs Piccinists. And I’m a sucker for Picturing Characters and all of Amanda’s various adventures.
Aren’t my fellow Riskies a talented bunch of ladies. The only thing better than us are our readers!
I loved the one on Carnival. I was fascinated by it’s history and about the creation of the Venetian masks.
And since today is the last day of “Remember When…” I went back through the archives to search for the first post by Laurie Bishop, one of the first Riskies. This is what I found. A very happy anniversary to Laurie!
It was fascinating to learn more about Carnival! 🙂
I so enjoyed the post on Carnival; the following is very interesting:Venetian masks are usually made with leather or papier-mache, with traditional shapes including the bauta (a mask that covers only the upper part of the face) and the moretta, a black velvet ladies’ mask originating in France. The most common is the white volto, worn with a black tricorn and cloak (very stark and mysterious!).
Well, it seems like most Risky visitors are party-loving people! 🙂 I have piles of research notes about Renaissance Venice, I’ll have to get them out and pull together some new posts. Also, for my April ’08 book, I have scads of factoids about Henry VIII’s court, so beware–research posts ahead come spring… 🙂
Oh, no, Cara! My kids and I LOVED that movie. I think we saw it about 6 times in the theater
Yay, Diane! You and your kids and I should form a “Saw Newsies in the Theater” club or something. 🙂 And I agree — why wasn’t it bigger? It had that great Alan Menken music that everyone loved in Beauty & the Beast and Little Mermaid…and great dancing (I think better choreography in a film musical, and better photography of it, than in pretty much any other film musical in the past 30 years…)
And where else could you hear Christian Bale and Bill Pullman sing? 🙂
Cara
I enjoyed reading the post about the history of Carnivals in Venice. Venice is such a romantic place to read or dream about.
I really enjoyed Hair Matters.
My favorite post was Picturing Characters.
Ooooh, a hard choice.
But I have to go with Carnival. There was something dark and mysteriously magical about that one.
But I guess the same could be said for bad hair. ;-j
I liked Carnival and the Venetian masks, but I have to say picturing characters, since I do the same thing when reading along.
My favorite was Hair Matters because it was nice to read that for once I was not the only one with bad hair days!
I liked Picturing Characters because when I read I always do the same and it is nice to see how authors get inspired 🙂
I love both picturing characters and hair matters.
Another tough choice! I found the post on Gluck very interesting, because I don’t know that much about the history of opera. And the post on Picturing Characters was interesting in a different way–mainly how different people are in the way they imagine fictional characters. But I think my favorite was Carnival. It makes me want to go out and celebrate. (Or more likely, stay in and read a book about other people going out and celebrating.)
Todd-who-grows-more-indecisive-by-the-day
Cara wrote:
Did anyone else see Newsies? (Love it! I was pretty much the only human being who saw it on its original theatrical release.)
Perhaps you were the only human being who saw it; but it did well with the very significant extraterrestrial demographic.
Diane wrote:
I saw 3:10 to Yuma last week and loved it. Wonderful acting by everyone and a wonderful story.
I thought the acting was excellent, but I most appreciated the way that they didn’t exaggerate the violence of the Old West.
Todd-who-would-have-stayed-hidden-in-his-room-the-whole-time
I cannot believe I completely forgot to mention the Gluckists vs Piccinnists smackdown!! It has to be one of my favorite blogs ever, as I am a retired opera singer. I have performed both of the Gluck operas you mentioned and I think he is SO underrated as a composer. Most important, unlike some other composers, his work is FUN to sing!! I had to laugh when you said you wanted to be an opera singer until you figured out you had a horrible singing voice. When I first retired, I taught private voice lessons. I even taught the daughter of a state senator . . . who COULD NOT SING. She knew it, her parents were in complete denial. I finally told them I would not waste any more of my time, their money, nor would I subject their daughter and myself to an hour of torture twice a week!! The senator was not happy, but I still hear from the daughter who is now a terrific attorney.
I picked picturing characters and If I could I’d pick Megan and Amanda’s new book. I love chatting with authors about their ideas and books.
One more shout out… Todd glad to see you here this whole week.
On the other hand… Bertie!Where’ve you been hiding?