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Monthly Archives: August 2008

The Weekend After

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So, I used to think RWA was the loudest, the most crowded, the most emotional group experience there was. But that was before I saw 80,000 people screaming as fireworks went off, confetti flew, and history got made. It was truly amazing. I don’t want to bore everyone here by prattling on about politics. I can only say I see now what drove women like the Duchess of Devonshire and the Countess of Bessborough (and Abigail Adams and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) to get out there and work so very hard. The idea that it’s within our power to affect real change in our lives is wonderful stuff, especially since within the space of just two generations we have come so very far (when my grandmother was born in early 1920, women still had four months to go before they got the right to vote). No matter what happens in November, I saw great things happen this week, and I will always be grateful for that.

And now, I am exhausted and hoarse, running on little sleep and lots of strong tea! But I want to say happy 211th birthday to another extraordinary women, Mary Godwin Shelley. Mary Shelley was born August 30, 1797 to the philosophers and radicals Mary Wollstonecraft (who died in childbirth) and William Godwin. In 1814, she fell in love with one of her father’s political acolytes, Percy Bysshe Shelley (who was married), and eloped with him to the Continent (along with her wild stepsister, Claire Clairmont). She didn’t marry Shelley until 1816, after the suicide of his first wife Harriet and the death of their first baby.

In 1817, she spent a famous summer with Shelley, Claire, Byron, and John William Polidori in Switzerland, where she came up with the idea for her most famous work, Frankenstein. They went to Italy in 1818, where they had 3 more children (only one, Percy Florence, survived childhood). In 1822, Shelley drowned when his sailboat sank during a storm in the Bay of La Spezia. A year later, Mary returned to England, devoting the rest of her life to the memory of her husband, the upbringing of her surviving son, and literary endeavors. She died in 1851 at the age of 53.

She is mostly (only?) known now for Frankenstein, but she also wrote historical novels such as Valperga and Perkin Warbeck, and the apocalyptic novel The Last Man, as well as travelogues such as Rambles in Germany and Italy.

A couple of sources on Mary Shelley I really like are Miranda Seymour’s biography Mary Shelley and Janet Todd’s Death and the Maidens. (When I was a teenager, there was a terribly cheesy movie I rented once. I think it was called Haunted Summer, and it was fun, though I don’t know if it’s still out there! Young Frankenstein is also fantastic, though maybe not strictly in the tone of Shelley’s book…)

Happy Birthday, Mary Shelley! And happy Long Nap Weekend to me! What is your favorite Mary Shelley work?
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Happy Birthday To Us!

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Hello, everyone! Amanda here, sitting in for Elena, who is off traveling the world. She’ll be with you on Saturday to wrap up our anniversary/new blog look week. In the meantime, I am finishing up the WIP, thinking of new projects, and coming up with all the ways I love the Riskies. (I am also going to borrow from Cara, and list some favorite posts of the past year!). So, what I like the most:

1) The friends, of course! Building a cozy little place here has introduced me to so many far-flung new friends, who share not only my love of history (some would say geek-dom of history, but they just don’t understand…) but let me ramble on about fashion, perfume, English real estate, and Orlando/James/Matthew. It’s great to come here every day, even if work is dreary or the book is stalled, and know something fun will be going on and there will be people to “talk” to.

And speaking of history geek-dom, I really enjoyed putting together this “Dating Life: 2008 vs 1543” post because I got to talk about Katherine Parr. I was astonished to hear that everyone doesn’t have a favorite wife of Henry VIII! 🙂

I also really liked doing this “Women in Politics” post, centered around the Duchess of Devonshire and her political campaigning. I am going to the Democratic National Convention next week, so things like this have been much in my mind lately. We have certainly progressed, though maybe not as quickly as women like Georgiana would have liked!

2) Interviews! I love doing interviews with authors, either ones who are already friends or ones whose work I’ve admired but have never been able to meet them in person. The last thing I need is more books on that TBR pile, but when I hear about the great ones coming out I can’t help myself! Yes, I am Amanda and I am a bookaholic. I really enjoyed this Nicola Cornick interview from July, though now that she has been recruited to be my tour guide to Hever Castle next month she might be sorry she came here!


3) Theme weeks. Once we get them together (I believe Janet mentioned something about herding cats…) they are great fun. This year we had Waterloo Week and a whole week of celebrating Jane Austen’s birthday

I also love discussions of historical movies (the rest of the year should be full of this, with releases like The Duchess and Young Victoria), writing tips, travel advice, etc. Too many things to list here!

So, what are your favorite things about Risky Regencies? What sort of posts do you enjoy the most? What would you like to see more of in the future?

I will give away copies of both my Renaissance books, A Notorious Woman and A Sinful Alliance (or, if you have already won these, a copy of one of my out-of-print Signet Regencies!), plus a silver Brighton bookmark!

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Eccentric Glamour, Etc

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This week, I am still suffering from Post Conference Brain Freeze, plus Near Deadline Dementia, so I have not much left over for blogging. No research tidbits. No writing tips. No new lipsticks or perfumes to recommend. Naught. Zilch.
So, I will turn for help to a very amusing book I recently read, Simon Doonan’s Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You. Not only will it give you a laugh, it just might also help in constructing the perfect Eccentrically Fabulous (hereafter referred to as EG) heroine!

Mr. Doonan, like many of us, deplores the new trend for “fake hair extensions, fake nails, fake spray tans, fake lips, and fake boobs.” He implores women everywhere to “seek out eccentrically glamorous alternatives to the ubiquitous cheapness and tackiness that currently pass for personal style. Banish the badonkadonkdonk! Say no to porno chic! Say no to ho! And yes to Eccentric Glamour.” He gives us profiles of various modern EG women like Dita Von Teese, Tilda Swinton, and Lucy Liu, and tells us the best way to find our own EG style. It’s easier than you might think, as there are really only 3 routes to EG (with a few sub-genres. Sort of like “historical romantic suspense,” or “urban fantasy Harlequin Presents” if you will). They are:

1) The Gypsy
This is for those who are “a hazy, lazy, rustic, poetic, ethereal free spirit,” or have always wanted to be. “There is much to recommend the Gypsy lifestyle. First, it’s incredibly romantic. You can be wild. You can be tempestuous. You can be Carmen.”

There is the Euro-glam Gypsy. The Isadora Gypsy (I like this one! Doonan says “She wears panne velvet and vintage lace and medieval-ish robes and turbans a la Edith Sitwell. She adores massive rings, beading, and devoree velvet.” She also spends a lot of time “contemplating the translucency of an Art Nouveau vase on the Portobello Road.”) And there is the Green Gypsy (think Natalie Portman), and the Hollywood Gypsy (who claim Ali McGraw as their patron saint).

2) The Socialite

“Of all the three styles, the Socialite has the least amount of eccentricity. Her style has a classic panache. She herself is not particularly creative. She leaves that to the Valentinos, Lagerfelds, and Puccis of the world,” but “she has a wicked wit.” Jackie Kennedy, Babe Paley, and CZ Guest “are the primordial ooze from which all subsequent Socialites emerged.”

3) The Existentialist

“This is the edgy, belligerent, provocative, creative face of eccentric glamour,” Doonan tells us. “There are no A-list celeb Existentialists: Jennifer Connelly and Charlotte Gainsbourg are about as close as it gets. The Existentialist is an angry rebel who eschews the superficiality of contemporary culture.”

Their variables include: The Existentialist Gamine (think Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of Funny Face. “There’s nothing quite like a black turtleneck to suggest an inner life, even where there may be none”). There is also the Rive Gauche Existentialist (“The elder sister of the Gamine”); the Existentialist Garconne (think Garbo and Dietrich!); and the Existentialist Ghoul. But be careful when trying the Ghoul–“Adopting this kind of scary look limits your social interaction to those who are dressed exactly as you and is therefore recommended only for the very young.”

Once we have found our EG niche, Doonan urges us to “Go forth and shop!” That, I can do. I haven’t quite figured out exactly where I fit on the EG continuum. I think I am a bit of an Isadora Gypsy/Existentialist Gamine, but that changes every day. The heroine of my WIP, Thalia Chase (the third of the “Muses of Mayfair”) is definitely a Gypsy. Her sisters Calliope and Clio, the heroines of Books One and Two, were respectively a Socialite and an Existentialist. They have definitely banished the badonkadonkdonk! (Or whatever the Regency equivalent would be…)

Now, it’s your turn. What kind of EG are you? What about favorite heroines (either from your own writing or for favorite books)? For instance, it’s pretty clear Jane Eyre is an Existentialist, but what is Elizabeth Bennet??? Discuss! (and be sure and join us next week as we celebrate our 3rd birthday! Lots of prizes and fun)
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RWA Wrap-Up, Etc

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I read this horoscope yesterday:

“Here’s a passage from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Breakfast of Champions: ‘Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making champagne.’ This scenario has some resemblance to what you’re doing, Capricorn. Fortunately, you’re much smarter than two pieces of yeast, and so you will not do the equivalent of drowning in crap. But I bet you’ll create something comparable to champagne.”

This is very encouraging, considering I have hit the point which comes in every WIP where the story seems, well, crap. A terrible idea from top to bottom. I want the characters to fall off a cliff and leave me alone. Yes, I am on the downhill slide, about 30 pages left to go. Along with recovering from RWA, it’s a slog. But hopefully, all unknowing, it’s slowly changing into bubbly champagne. I do like champagne, and luckily there was plenty to be had in San Francisco!

Here I am with Risky Megan!

With Diane and Michelle Willingham at the Harlequin party (I think this is before the infamous tree felling!)

Some mysterious dandy with Elena at the Beau Monde Soiree

And with Megan…

And with Deb Marlowe!

It was wonderful to meet so many of you “in person” at RWA! I can’t wait for next year. In the meantime, what were some of you own highlights of conference? And wish me luck on finishing my yeast, er, champagne…

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