Back to Top

Monthly Archives: November 2010

Imagine my shock and horror when I realized we haven’t had a LOLRegencies contest in two years!

LOLRegencies? Yes, indeed. As your friendly Thursday blogger this means that I am destined to blog on Thanksgiving Day, and relating that to the Regency is a bit limited. Yes, they had turkeys in England. Yes, they were interested in Turkey. And yes, it’s around the time of George Eliot’s birthday usually, but I’ve talked about all of those. So in 2008 I held a contest and on the right is the picture that started it all, Lord Elgin on a collection rampage in Europe.

Our winner was Maggie, who produced this little beauty (one of a number of little beauties):

You can view Maggie’s other masterpieces and the entries here.

So how does it work?

  1. See icanhazcheeseburger.com for the LOLcats (and other animals) cultural phenomenon.
  2. Find a Regency print online (hopefully one without copyright) and caption it and send it to riskiesATyahoo.com by Monday, November 22 with LOL Regencies in the subject line.
  3. Use a low-res jpg and don’t make your entry too big–the Elgin one, for example, is 245px x 300px. If it’s too huge and I shrink it down the caption will shrink down also.
  4. Mention how you would like your name to appear with your entry.
  5. You can caption a picture using Paint as well as more complicated programs like photoshop.

And the prizes: I have a truckload of Georgette Heyer books to give away, so I’m offering two Heyer Grab Bags. Most of the books are new, a couple are slightly used.

Obligatory self promotion: I’m signing at Borders, Annapolis this Sunday, November 6, 2-4 pm. Come and say hello and buy books. My buddies Kathy Love, Christie Kelley, Stephanie Draven, and Robin Kaye will be signing too so there’s something for everyone!

Yesterday Amanda stole Gerard Butler from me, to use as the model for Conlan, her hero in Duchess of Sin. Today I’m taking him back!!

Take a look at this soon-to-be commercial.

http://www.theexfoliator.com/2010/11/nuff-said.html

Only a manly man can hawk moisturizer!!!

Will you put L’Oreal’s Men Expert, new Hydra-Energetic, Anti-Fatigue Moisturiser on your shopping list for the man in your life?

If this were Regency England, what might you purchase for that special Earl in your life?

Would you go to Floris at 89 Jermyn Street in Mayfair and ask them to create a special scent for your man?

The Floris Shop was founded in 1730 by Juan Famenias Floris. England from his native island of Menorca to seek fortune. Shortly after his arrival in England from his native Menorca he secured premises in Jermyn Street, where the shop still uses the mahogany counter that was purchased directly from the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in 1851. Beau Brummel used to discuss scents with Floris. Mary Shelley sent an order to Floris to send her two brushes and a toothbrush during her time abroad when she wrote Frankenstein.

Perhaps your dear Earl is a studious sort of man. He might prefer a book from Hatchards, the oldest surviving bookshop in London. Hatchards, on Piccadilly since 1797, has served such famous historical figures as Wellington, Byron, Queen Charlotte.

What book would you buy him? Endymion: A Poetic Romance By John Keats, perhaps? Or something educational, like The History of England: From The Earliest Times To The Death of George II by Oliver Goldsmith.

Maybe you cannot give your dear Earl such a personal gift such as scent or a book of poetry. You can always fall back on the holiday standby. Food. He might delight in some tea or spices or preserves from Fortnum and Mason, right next door to Hatchards.

Fortnum and Mason have been selling quality foods since the 1700s, started by a footman to Queen Anne, who enterprisingly remelted and sold the candle stubs, supplementing his income.

I can hardly believe we have to start thinking of holiday gifts! I don’t know about you, but I wish I could be doing my Christmas shopping in Mayfair.

Where in the world would you like to shop?

Come to Diane’s Blog on Wednesday, not Thursday, this week to learn about the exciting Harlequin Historical Holiday Giveaway, with 22 days of prizes and a Grand Prize of a Kindle, complete with several Harlequin Historicals to start your ereading!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 22 Replies

Earlier this week, I went to NYU’s Fales Library, which holds a fiction collection that is particularly strong from mid-18th century to today. The 2011 Conference for the International Association For The Study of Popular Romance will be held there, just prior to RWA’s 2011 New York Conference in late June.

So worth coming in early if you’re academically minded and also attending RWA 2011.

But I digress.

The Library’s Head Librarian took me and IASPR’s President, Sarah Frantz, into the stacks to see some of the collection. And, OMG, we got to touch a first edition of Jane Austen‘s Mansfield Park. The book was a lot smaller than books today, and was packaged in a few volumes. Running your hand over the type, you could feel the raised type. Very cool.

And I’m not one to geek out over such things, but looking at the book, at is size, and print and all, I could definitely picture one of our bluestocking heroines reading it, her head bent over to peer at the pages. It’d be small enough to hold in one hand and turn the pages with the other, and discreetly titled enough to hide what she was reading if it was necessary.

So duringthis busy holiday season, let’s all take a moment and sneak away to re-enact our favorite heroines’ favorite pastimes, and open a book and lose yourself for just a bit. It’s research, you see!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Replies

I hope your Thanksgiving Day is going well (or, if you’re outside the US, your regular old Thursday). First, a picture that needs no caption at all.

You all excelled yourselves this year, with lots of entries, particularly from Karen who … well, Karen (and her husband) had time on her hands. She sent in a record breaking number of entries and I’ll post more another time. But she is my first winner with this little gem (how did I judge, may you ask? I drank tea. Any entry that cleaned my sinuses and endangered the keyboard was a finalist):

She also displayed remarkable ingenuity and imagination with these other entries:

The other winner is Kelly, of the Jane Austen Sequel Examiner, on a subject dear to my heart:
And many honorable mentions to Alison, our own Diane, Amy Katherine …

Louise, Teresa, and Maggie…

Kwana, Kathleen, and Tracey…

and Tracenga!

Thanks for playing, everyone! I hope your day is full of reasons to give thanks.

Winners, email your snailmail addresses to me at riskies AT yahoo.com.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Replies

This is the week we start preparing for our Thanksgiving Day holiday. We generally think of the first Thanksgiving as taking place in Plymouth in 1621, with Pilgrims and Native Americans celebrating out of doors at food-laden tables. This is a very important holiday to us, a commemoration of all the gifts bestowed upon, all the things we are thankful for.

Our Thanksgiving celebrations usually involve a turkey dinner. The wild turkey is actually indigenous to North America, so my question is, did they eat turkey in Regency England?

The answer is YES. The The 16th century English navigator William Strickland introduced turkeys into England. His coat of arms includes a turkey, so it must have been a big deal.

I wondered, if I were a Regency scullery maid (which I’m convinced I must have been in a previous life), what would I see Cook do to prepare a turkey for our lord and lady?

Here’s what The Art of Cookery Made Plain And Easy: Which Far Exceeds Any Thing Of The Kind Yet Published by Hannah Glasse
said:

To Roast a Fowl with Chesnuts.

FIRST take some chesnuts, roast them very carefully, so as not to burn them; take off the skin and peel them; take about a dozen of them cut small, and bruise them in a mortar; parboil the liver of the fowl, bruise it, cut about a quarter of a pound of ham or bacon, and pound it; then mix them all together, with a good deal of parsley chopped small, a little sweet herbs, some mace, pepper, salt, and nutmeg; mix these together and put into your fowl, and roast it. The best way of doing it is to tie the neck, and hang it up by the legs to roast with a string, and baste it with butter. For sauce, take the rest of the chesnuts peeled and skinned; put them into some good gravy, with a little white wine, and thicken it with a piece of butter rolled in flour; then take up your fowl, lay it in the dish, and pour in the sauce. Garnish with lemon.

Hey, my mother-in-law has made chestnut dressing. The dressing in my family is mostly made of bread!

I can’t quite picture the hanging by the feet part.

Here’s one of the traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas dishes that I (who am so-not-a-cook) will make for our Thanksgiving. It is from my husband’s Italian side of the family:

“The Peas”
1 package frozen peas
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce (or a small jar of spaghetti sauce)
1 chopped onion
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
olive oil

In a saucepan, brown the garlic in a little bit of olive oil.
Add the peas, onions, and tomato sauce and stir
Cover and cook on low for about an hour

It is easy. Even I can do it! I’m also making the green bean casserole, but everybody knows how to do that.

For Thanksgiving we’re going to my in-laws in Williamsburg, where Amanda and I stayed when we met with Deb Marlowe to plan The Diamonds of Welbourne Manor. Most of my dh’s side of the family will come and I’m happy because both my son and daughter will be there!

Where are you going for Thanksgiving?
What, if anything, will you be cooking?

Don’t forget to enter Janet’s LOL Regency contest! I sent her my entry.

Come to Diane’s Blog . Today I’m announcing my Thanksgiving winner for the website contest, and on Thursday I have a big exciting Christmas contest to announce!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 15 Replies