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Monthly Archives: May 2010

Unexpected Gifts

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I hope everyone–especially the mothers–had a Happy Mother’s Day. My in-laws visited for the weekend and we went to the new Workhouse Arts Center, created from the former prison in Lorton, VA. It is a wonderful place where artists create and sell their art, everything from photography to textiles to glass to painting and sculpture. All kinds of creativity.

So it was only fitting that my daughter gave me “art” for mother’s day, a print she found in a thrift shop (she also bought me a necklace and my son gave me chocolates, which was a whole ‘nuther great gift).

I haven’t had time yet to look up what type of soldier this is. I think he’s French…Believe me, I have a few uniform books I can look though to find out. But I love him. Mostly I love that my daughter saw this print and thought of me.

Another thoughtful gift I received recently involved my uncle, aunt and her sister, who is no relation to me. A long time ago my uncle, who lives in Florida, asked me for the Regency Fashion print I’d used for a Christmas card. I sent it to him wondering a bit why he wanted to have it.

Then a few weeks ago, I received a HUGE box in the mail with this gift inside. My aunt’s sister makes these doll wall hangings as a craft. She copied my Regency Fashion print and made a doll of it
Isn’t this clever? Even the face is similar to the print. I love the way she made the hand holding the cape open.

Like my daughter’s gift, this was both unexpected and thoughtful. It went straight to my biggest obsession–The Regency. How grand is that?

Have you received a gift that was both unexpected and incredibly thoughtful?

Remember that my day to blog at Diane’s Blog is Thursdays! Come visit me then too.
Blogging at DianeGaston.com

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Love To Hate You, Baby

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This week, RWA’s National Conference was moved from Nashville, TN to Orlando, FL. This was necessitated by the devastating flooding that hit Music City, USA; the hotel at which the conference was to be held is under at least six feet of water.

RWA moved with amazing speed, rebooking the conference for the same dates within two days in Orlando. Immediately, my close friend–and usually on-same-page-as-me-with-most-everything twin–Liz Maverick said we had to go to Disneyworld. To which I replied, “No effing way.” Only I didn’t say ‘effing.’

I have to admit: I hate Mickey Mouse. Despise him. Loathe him. I know it might be odd, in any other context but ours, to admit to hating a fictional character, a cartoon fictional character no less, but I know my fellow readers will understand.

Some fictional characters are so real you can have as potent emotions about them as you would people in your real life. For most of us, it’s the heroes and heroines we recall, but what about the people we hate? Aunt Reed in Jane Eyre, Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharpe series, Iago in Othello, heck, Scar in The Lion King!–clever, smart, wicked people who almost get the upper hand in their dealings with the more heroic characters.

Mickey, to my disgust, has nothing delightfully villainous about him. I cannot stand his white gloves, his high voice and the fact that he is not funny. I wish he were devious, the way Daffy Duck is (I know one is Disney and one is Warner Bros.; bear with me). He’s not dumb, but he’s not smart, particularly. He’s left his girlfriend hanging for years, and he has no visible means of support. I just can’t stand him or his stupid little ears.

But, meanwhile, I will be happy to be in Orlando, and am always happy to talk about the Most Wickedest of Villains here; who do you nominate? Which villain, to your mind, is the most memorable?

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In Praise of Pencils

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Still on hideous deadline and finally taking a day off from the dayjob to write, I found it difficult to pick a topic today. There’s so much going on–an historical general election in the UK, RWA’s national conference change of location to Orlando, FL and why I’m the only person supremely uninterested in the culture of The Mouse, and an announcement.

Oh, okay. The announcement first. I’m taking part in an anthology of Austen-inspired short stories edited by Laurel Ann Nattress of Austenprose with a bunch of Big Names. It will be published some time in 2011 and that’s about all I know. Exciting!

But now let’s talk about pencils. Yes, pencils. I am supremely grateful to pencils because they are about the only way I can plot, as much as I can plot anything. Pens don’t work, computers definitely don’t, but there’s something about a pencil and paper that just do it for me in terms of working things out, creating schedules or lists–it’s pencils all the way for me, baby. Maybe it has its origins in learning to read and write and draw. Does anyone else suffer from this pencil affliction?

So, pencils in the Regency. England had been a major producer of graphite since the sixteenth century, when the mineral was discovered in England in Borrowdale in the Lake District, and used first to mark sheep. The Borrowdale mine produced the purist graphite in Europe. But graphite was valuable for more than pencils: it was used to line molds to make cannon balls. Graphite was mined under great secrecy and sold under strict conditions in London. There’s a great article at The Regency Redingote, a site I only just discovered today.

At some point in the eighteenth century, the pencil was “invented”–that is, graphite secured between two pieces of wood (cedar), and produced as a cottage industry until the first pencil factory was founded in 1832.

If you’re in Keswick in the Lake District and it’s raining (which it usually is) you can drop into the Cumberland Pencil Museum to learn more and see the biggest pencil in the world.

Does anyone else experience the pencil-creativity phenomenon?
Do you have a favorite writing instrument?

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Not All Wars Are Created Equal

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I live in Virginia, a state area steeped in history, from the first English settlements to the homes of our founding fathers, to, most tragically, the American Civil War.

Our state is filled with Civil War battlefields and historic sites. Our highways are dotted with historic markers: Mosby’s Midnight Raid, Battle of Ox Hill, J.E.B Stuart at Munson’s Mill. Right down the street from me is St. Mary’s Church where Clara Barton nursed the wounded from the Second Battle of Manassas and was then inspired to found the American Red Cross.

This past Saturday, my husband and I went with our friends, Helen and Eugene, to their neighborhood historic site, Blenheim (the Fairfax, VA one, not that Blenheim), for Civil War day.

Blenheim is a unique Civil War site. It’s house was built in 1859, and its plaster walls had not yet cured enough to be painted or papered when Union soldiers were billeted there in 1861. The walls became the soldiers’ canvas for graffiti. When the house and property was acquired by Fairfax City, the house was restored to the original plaster to reveal this historic graffiti.

As we watched the reenactors or listened to the band play Stephen Foster songs, I wondered why the Civil War had never captured my interest as a romantic time period. Why had I picked Regency England instead?

We have some basis for finding the American Civil War romantic: Gone With The Wind, North and South (the Patrick Swayze 1985 version, not the Richard Armitage one), a whole list of Romance novels . But it certainly does not seem to have the same appeal as the Regency.

Most obvious for me is the difficult issue of slavery, a dark blot on our country’s history. It is hard to craft a Civil War story without somehow touching on the issue of slavery. Even if you can demonize the Yankees, like in Gone With The Wind, can you really make the Rebels heroic if they support owning slaves? How do you pick the good guys and the bad guys in the Civil War? It’s impossible!

Then there is the matter of uniforms. Let’s face it, a Civil War soldier, whether Union or Confederate, is no match for a man in Regimentals!

Do you have a favorite Civil War novel or movie? Can you see any other differences that make the Regency a more popular historical period for romance than the American Civil War era?

Speaking of men in Regimentals, I’ll be giving way a signed copy of Gallant Officer, Forbidden Lady to one lucky commenter on my Diane’s Blog this week. Diane’s Blog will appear every THURSDAY starting this week.

Blogging at DianeGaston.com
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