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Monthly Archives: February 2010

Mardi Gras Blog Party!

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Happy Tuesday (Fat Tuesday), everyone! I hope everyone has dug out from under the snow and is ready for a party. It’s been busy here, ending one writing project, starting another, revising another, but hopefully I can have a Hurricane and some King Cake while I settle in to watch the Olympics again tonight. I also got another new cover (for the US release of To Deceive a Duke in May!), and thanks to Julia Justiss who sent me a link to a new review of Countess of Scandal at All About Romance (A-, yay!), plus another new one at Single Titles. And I’m at the Unusual Historicals blog all week, giving away a copy…

Mardi Gras has a very long history. In mid-February the ancient Romans used to celebrate the festival of Lupercalia, and after the rise of Christianity the tradition of a winter-time party continued (though it was re-fashioned as one last hurrah before the deprivation of Lent). It came to America in 1699 along with French explorer Iberville, who sailed into the Gulf of Mexico to launch an expedition up the Mississippi River. By March 3 he had set up a camp about 60 miles south of current-day New Orleans, and remembered it was Mardi Gras in France (thus the site was named Point du Mardi Gras). The French tradition took hold immediately in the new French settlement, and by the late 18th century raucous masked balls and festivals were commonplace at this time of year, only to be curtailed when the Spanish came to power and banned masking. In 1803 New Orleans became US property, and the ban against masked festival continued until the local Creole populace convinced the governor to make masking legal again in 1823.

The first documented parade was in 1837, but soon things got way out of hand. The local press in the 1840s and 50s called for the end of the celebration, due to violence associated with the parties. In 1857 a group of 6 men took over and formed the Comus organization to keep things (somewhat) under control. They were the first group to use the word “krewe”, and they also started the custom of having a parade with a unifying theme, a ball after the parade, and secret Carnival societies. In 1871 the custom began of choosing a Queen of Mardi Gras, and in 1872 Mardi Gras had a pivotal year. The Grand Duke Alexei Romanov of Russia visited, the krewe of Rex debuted along with the Knights of Momus, and the Queen was joined by a King of Mardi Gras. Purple, green, and gold became the official colors, and “If Ever I Cease To Love You” became the official song.

In 1882, the Krewe of Proteus debuted in an Egyptian-themed parade; in 1890 the first marching band, The Jefferson City Buzzards, marched (hard to imagined a parade without marching bands!), and things expanded with the first African-American krewe in 1894 (the Original Illinois Club) and the first all-female organization in 1896 (Les Mysterieuses).

This is only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to the history of Mardi Gras, of course! It’s a long, fascinating, and very special subject. You can find more here at MardiGras.com along with help planning your visit to New Orleans. You can have a party even if you’re at home, though! Here is a recipe for King Cake:

  • PASTRY:
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  • 2/3 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • FILLING:
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 2/3 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • FROSTING:
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water

Directions

  1. Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup of butter. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with 1 tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
  2. When yeast mixture is bubbling, add the cooled milk mixture. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the remaining white sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes.
  3. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours. When risen, punch down and divide dough in half.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
  5. To Make Filling: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup raisins. Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the cinnamon mixture and mix until crumbly.
  6. Roll dough halves out into large rectangles (approximately 10×16 inches or so). Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough and roll up each half tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form 2 oval shaped rings. Place each ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1 inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
  7. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Push the doll into the bottom of the cake. Frost while warm with the confectioners’ sugar blended with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water.

And one for a Hurricane:

Hurricane recipe

1 oz vodka
1/4 oz grenadine syrup
1 oz gin
1 oz light rum
1/2 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
1 oz amaretto almond liqueur
1 oz triple sec
grapefruit juice
pineapple juice

Pour all but the juices, in order listed, into a hurricane glass three-quarters filled with ice. Fill with equal parts of grapefruit and pineapple juice, and serve.

And some music!

What are your plans for Mardi Gras??? Anyone else as obsessed by the Olympics as me?

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 18 Replies

The Cool Kids

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(Warning: this is going to be a post that depends a lot on you, because I am interested to see what everyone thinks!) Often when I’m wasting my time, er, doing valuable research online I love to read blogs about fashion, beauty products, opera and ballet, jazz, all sorts of things, and I especially love blogs about movies. (Even though this means my Netflix account is totally out of control because of it). One of my favorite movie blogs is the Self Styled Siren, a wonderfully witty and intelligent look at classic movies. She recently had a fascinating post called “Unearthing the Uncool”.

This post started with a statement the Siren made on Facebook: “It is much easier to proclaim dislike for a popular movie than to admit liking an uncool movie,” which sparked a fascinating stream of comments and proclamations of love for movies and actors that are generally deemed “uncool.” (For instance, the Siren defends the 1940 Pride and Prejudice, stuff like Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Stewart Granger, and, gasp!, even Kevin Costner). I myself have a deep and abiding love for movie musicals, like The Sound of Music, Brigadoon, and Camelot, that others often hoot at derisively. (you know who you are, haters!). I know this is also true in literary fiction, and that in mysteries some sub-genres are looked at as “cooler” than others, so I started to wonder if this could apply to romance novels. We definitely don’t seem to have that “cool”/”uncool” divide that movies do, though I suppose there are genres or authors that have a cooler reputation than others. Is it “cool” to admit to liking old-skool stuff like Whitney My Love? (I think I just came to reading historicals too late, when tastes had changed, to get into them. I had very different romantic fantasies). Is it “uncool” to admit we can’t really get into, say, urban fantasy, which seems very cool (as I mostly can’t, much as I want to!)?

Traditional Regencies certainly used to be “uncool,” considered by some to be dry books for stereotypical grannies (I had someone tell me once I couldn’t possibly write them, I looked too young! Which was flattering, of course, but kinda made me want to get all lecture-y on them about the intelligence and variety of trads. Ditto for a friend of my mine who ONE TIME read a Regency, didn’t like it–even though she couldn’t remember the title–and decided they were all like that one). But now that they’re obscure and out-of-print and all that, maybe they’re like some little indie band out of Austin. And on some book blogs there are often threads like “books you like that no one else has read” or “books everyone liked that you hated,” which I guess can be sort of like cool/uncool. Mostly, though, romance genres seem to be pretty much anything goes. If I don’t like something, someone else will, and vice versa, and I like it that way. The variety is what makes it fun.

So I am sending it to you! Do you think there is that “coolness” factor in romance fiction? If so, what would it be? And what movies do you love that others make fun of?

(p.s. I have not seen that movie The Enchanted Cottage, but I totally want to! I mean, look at that poster. People were whispering about them! The whole town!)

Posted in Former Riskies, Risky Regencies | Tagged | 12 Replies

Reader Challenge with Some Winnings — Your Input Required

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The Riskies have decided to try something a little different for us. And you. A Regency Read Along.

What’s that, you ask?
Well, we’d all read the same book, something Regency set, and then we’d have the opportunity to discuss what we liked, disliked, adored, were bored or what have you, in re the selected book.
The peeps who stop by this blog are pretty awesome and I know I’d love to know what you guys thing about a book. I think we could have a pretty awesome discussion.
If I can manage it, I thought I’d see if I can talk an academic sort into providing some questions, background and/or literary thoughts to supplement the discussion. Nobody has to write an essay. No quizzes. Just discussion about a Regency Romance.
We’ll offer a prize or two to some of the people who join in our discussion, too.
The vague parameters are that we’d chose a book to read then start reading sometime in early March, (after various and sundry parties are done reading RITA books). The book would be by an author who is no longer living so no one has to feel they shouldn’t offer a criticism or complaint because he or she does not want to hurt any one’s feelings. After some period of reading we’d start talking about the book.
Pretty simple, I think.
Here’s where your help would be appreciated.
I thought we could start with a book by Georgette Heyer. There are two that occur to me right away because I haven’t read them yet:
  • These Old Shades
  • Devil’s Cub
But that is not a long list. What are your suggestions for a book to read? Any thoughts about the event itself?
Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 25 Replies

Risky Read Along — The Book! Your Opinions Requested

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The people have spoken. Our read along choice is Heyer’s Venetia.

How about a start-reading date of March 10?

I think that should give everyone time to get to their favorite library, bookstore or online retailer to obtain a copy.

It occurs to me that some of us may be the Thrive Under Pressure types and may feel the need to delay reading until the very last minute and then engaging in a Venetia fest of page turning. Others of us may be the Steady As She Goes type who will adore a schedule.

I don’t wish to force anyone into an unsuitable reading style and yet we must accommodate the group. The goal, of course, is to reach a point when we have all read the book and can then yak away about what we think whilst having our minds blown from the insights and opinions of other esteemed Read Alongers.

Therefore, I propose a reading schedule with ongoing discussion of the book over the course of, say, 2 to 3 weeks. Anyone who wants to read the book in a big gulp toward the end can certainly do that, but no complaining about spoilers. We Risky types can deal with a little chaos, I’m sure.

I also propose that we be amenable to change — if it turns out we’re all a bunch of over achievers and everyone reads the book by the first weekend, then we adjust accordingly.

Do please weigh in with your suggestions, thoughts, time frames etc., in the comments.

Also, I feel compelled to mention that I elected to obtain the HQN edition of Venetia and while it has a lovely cover and must say I’m disappointed with the quality of the paper. It’s newsprint. For the money, I expected something a bit more durable. I suppose I won’t feel about about writing notes on the pages. I haven’t started reading yet . . .

Comment away.

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged , , , | 9 Replies

Risky Read Along — Poll Results

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our Read Along Poll!

Venetia is by far the popular winner with 9 of 40 votes. There is not, however, a Kindle version. Sourcebooks doesn’t seem to have released this book at all (yet) so there’s no digital version available from them either. Paper copies can be purchased just about anywhere and there are library copies available as well.

The next two vote getters are Cotillion and Regency Buck with 5 votes each. There are Kindle versions of each of these as well as Adobe eReader versions available from Sourcebooks.

Google Books has several copies, but none are available for viewing so we’re out of luck there.

There are paper versions available for all these titles.

The Riskies will discuss amongst ourselves, considering any feedback you may care to leave, so please do so in the comments.

I’ll start the comments off by saying it seems a shame not to read the runaway vote getter, even though I totally understand wanting to read it digitally and would probably prefer to do so myself.

Hmm. What an interesting development, though. I think even a year ago we would not be discussing whether the lack of a (legal) digital copy mattered to a reading decision. The issue would have been whether there were sufficient copies available used or via a library, since this is an out of print title.

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged , , | 4 Replies