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Monthly Archives: October 2008

Food, wonderful (?) food

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I’m trying to be enthusiastic about food.

Now, to those of you who know me, that may sound odd, because formerly I loved to eat. In fact I did rather too much of it. Then came adventures with teeth, where for some time I nursed along two temporary crowns and a gap, and had to think every time I put something in my mouth whether it could dislodge a crown and whether it was therefore worth the effort. (Yes, we romance writers are such glamorous creatures.)

Now I sport a full working mouth of teeth again and decided I should build on the momentum of losing weight by joining Weightwatchers. I’m finding it a slow, tedious process, the program altogether too damn perky, and some of the food weird. (Brownies made with black beans? Eew.)

I’m not that enthusiastic about food and it’s not helping the weight loss process, so I’m trying to take an interest. I mourn the brief tomato and peach seasons of the summer; the first time my farmers’ market had heirloom tomatoes, I brought some home, along with a loaf of expensive artisan bread, and made myself a massive tomato sandwich. I think it was the highlight, gastronomically, of my summer.

I’m thinking hard about the pleasures of winter squash and of the delicacies of winter-harvested brussel sprouts; yes, I know 90% of you are turning up your noses, but believe me, brussel sprouts turn deliciously sweet in frost, even if you have to saw through the stalks. I’m indebted to the wonderful Tiny Farm Blog for this picture and other interesting stuff.

So, what would Regency folks eat in October? According to Sarah and Samuel Adams, you’d get the last of the artichokes and scarlet beans, the first broccoli, and cabbage, carrots, endive, leeks, onions, potatoes, beets, parsnips, spinach, and small salad (not sure what this is; does anyone know?). Just imagine what you could get if you had a greenhouse. Yum. (The pic, by the way, is from Colonial Williamsburg, not England.)

What are you planning on eating and cooking this fall? Any sources of good recipes you’d like to share?

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Plausible Sex

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Look, like a lot of you, I wrestle with the oxymoronic construct of wanting to read super-sexy scenes AND historically accurate stories.

It’s really hard (no pun i.) to put the characters into situations that are satisfying in a modern sexual context as well as maintaining the period’s standards.

So us authors end up justifying ourselves (and our characters) with bizarre situations to explain the action.

I’ve been working on a synopsis lately–my best one yet! (which isn’t saying much)–and I have to figure out a way to have the heroine want to have sex with the hero, even though she’s traveling to her fiance’s estate. All without making her a total, moral-less slut.

So I’ve come up with giving him nightmares, which she wants to comfort him from, and her feeling free of society’s strictures for the first time in her life, and plus he’s really hot, but I still think it’s going to be tough sell.

What books juggle this difficulty well? What situations could you see one of our heroines putting aside her societal rules and getting it on with Mr. Hottie? What explanations of such behavior bother you in our books?

Thanks–

Megan

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Beautiful Grounds

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Diane’s post on Mapping the Ton had me thinking about settings and how we use them in our stories, whether they are real places or our own creations.

I often like to do country settings, perhaps because I have so many happy memories of walking and riding through the English countryside. I sometimes choose counties I’ve visited. Sometimes I choose an area based on the mood of the story or what seems right for my characters.

I used a Sussex setting for LORD LANGDON’S KISS, as that’s where I lived during my UK assignment and thus knew best. For THE INCORRIGIBLE LADY CATHERINE, I wanted a setting that was wilder, to match my rather tempestuous heroine. I ended up using the northern Lake District, around Ullswater. I even had my characters stroll through the area that inspired Wordsworth’s famous poem about the daffodils and was delighted with how the art department depicted that scene (I am less delighted with the depiction of the hero, but enough of that!) I used the Cotswolds for THE REDWYCK CHARM; I felt the more rolling, pleasant landscape suited to the lighter story.

SAVING LORD VERWOOD had a darker thread, which I thought worked best in the far reaches of Cornwall (all sorts of cool ancient sites and great craggy cliffs to push people off). When inventing fictional stately homes, I like to use real houses from the same area as inspiration. Not that I incorporate every detail of the architecture or imitate exact floor plans, but I like to know some of the materials and building styles used. Though I adore Palladian mansions, for Verwood’s home I wanted something older. I found what I was seeking in Trerice House, pictured above. I think the art department captured the essence very nicely (the hero looks hot, too.) 🙂

For LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE I used Finchcocks as inspiration. It’s a lovely Georgian manor in Kent that also houses a museum of historical keyboard instruments (well worth a visit). Among the cover art suggestions, I also included a picture of an orchard in Kent, with a traditional oast house (used for drying hops) in the background.

So I don’t know how the cover ended up the way it did. Though I do like the overall layout and the color, the close up is reminding me of how very UN-Colin-Firth-like the hero looks. And that hair is giving me the shakes!

Moving on to my current work-in-progress. Part of the story will be set in Norfolk, so I have been looking around for inspiration from real stately homes there.

Holkham Hall (home of Coke of Norfolk of agricultural fame, pictured to the left) is gorgeous but not quite what I have in mind for this story. Felbrigg Hall (on the right) is a possibility.

However, Mannington Hall (pictured below, a medieval manor house now better known for its gardens) is very appealing. It even has a moat! I’ve already written a hero who owned a stone circle but never one with a moat. That could be interesting…


What sorts of settings do you enjoy? Do you have favorite counties, or favorite stately homes?

If you write, how do you come up with imaginary settings?

And do you enjoy seeing settings used in cover art? Personally, I tend to prefer them over clinches and headless male torso covers. Maybe like Elizabeth Bennet, I’m a pushover for “beautiful grounds.”

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB: Bride and Prejudice

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Welcome to the October meeting of the Risky Regencies JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB!

Today we’ll be talking about BRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

So please, chime in a say what you liked, what you didn’t like, and how much you enjoyed seeing Naveen Andrews dance.

And if you haven’t seen it, let us know if you want to!

To aid the discussion, here are the major credits:


DIRECTOR: Gurinder Chadha

SCREENPLAY: Paul Mayeda Berges
and Gurinder Chadha

CAST:

Aishwarya Rai: Lalita Bakshi
[Lizzy Bennet]

Martin Henderson: William Darcy

Nadira Babbar: Mrs. Manorama ChjamanBakshi
[Mrs. Bennet]

Anupam Kher: Mr. Chaman Bakshi
[Mr. Bennet]

Naveen Andrews: Balraj Bingley

Namrata Shirodkar: Jaya Bakshi
[Jane Bennet]

Daniel Gillies: Johnny Wickham

Indira Varma: Kiran Bingley
[Miss Bingley]

Sonali Kulkarni: Chandra Lamba
[Charlotte]

Nitin Ganatra: Mr. Kohli
[Mr. Collins]

Meghnaa Kothari: Maya Bakshi
[Mary Bennet]

Peeya Rai Choudhuri: Lakhi Bakshi
[Lydia]

Alexis Bledel: Georgina ‘Georgie’ Darcy

Marsha Mason: Catherine Darcy
[Lady Catherine]

And if you need some questions to get you started, how about:

If you had to marry either Mr. Collins or Mr. Kohli, which would you choose?

All answers welcome!


Cara
Cara King, drinker of tea and typer of words

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“Mapping” the Ton

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When I’m writing a Regency, I like to try to be as authentic as I can be, so I do a lot of examining period house floor plans, looking at lots of photographs, thinking about carpets (see the comments on Andrea’s blog yesterday!). I almost always have a “real” house in mind for my characters, and I almost always try to set that house in a real place.

Much of Scandalizing the Ton takes place in Mayfair, so I did a lot of looking at maps of the area, trying to make certain I put Lydia’s house in a “real” part of Mayfair. When I wrote the first draft, the opening scene took place behind Lydia’s townhouse, in the mews. Note the cover. You can see the door of a stable in the background.

After I sent in the first draft of the manuscript, my editor, Linda Fildew (pictured on Amanda’s blog last Saturday), said one of the other editors walked through Mayfair at the location I’d given Lydia’s townhouse and there were no mews there. On the corner, however, there was a fence with a gate into the garden. So if you read the first scene , you’ll notice that Lydia and Adrian meet on the pavement and go through the gate to the garden. The cover had already been designed by then.

This wasn’t the end of my mapping woes, though. I received additional revisions. I thought I’d share a bit of how it went:

Linda: I’ve been poring over maps from the early 1800s and am struggling with the road layout. P1 Chesterfield Street appears to run south of Charles Street when the story has it running alongside Hill Street which is north of Charles.
From a modern map this road is called Chesterfield Hill, but can’t find this on the 1802 map of London’s streets that I’ve been looking at. Could I ask you to check this, please? You may have better recourse to maps than I do.

Diane: I’ve discovered the problem! On the modern map, the street that intersects with Hill Street is named Chesterfield Hill (Chesterfield in 1827 intersects with Curzon and Charles). In 1827 Chesterfield Hill was named John Street. I’ve made the changes.

Isn’t this the best? My editors walk Mayfair and pore over period maps!

The map I used for Scandalizing the Ton was Greenwood’s Map of London 1827 available online. Part of the Mayfair section of the map is shown above.

My question….Does it matter to you that the geography is right?

For more about the history of gossip and scandal that inspired Scandalizing the Ton, take a peek at my Behind the Scenes feature. For more of my mapping adventures check this Behind the Scenes.

I have a new contest on my website, several chances to win some of my backlist.

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