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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Happy Birthday!

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So last weekend was my birthday! I got many lovely gifts, including the books Vauxhall Gardens: A History (thanks to Diane for the rec!), Versailles: A Private Invitation, and The Empire’s New Clothes: The Russian Fashion Industry 1700–1917. These will all keep me busy for quite a while. But what I really love about birthdays is cake!!

The Regency period wasn’t a big one for elaborate birthday celebrations, though there might be a special meal and small gifts of books and embroidered handkerchiefs and things like that, but even then people did like their cake. They probably didn’t have one like mine (which was this “Princess and the Frog” model), so I went to consult my bookshelves to see what they might have had. I pulled out Ian Kelly’s fascinating book, Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, First Celebrity Chef.

Careme is said to have invented the chef’s toque as well as the souffle, and he lived in remarkable times, being chef for the French royal family as well as Napoleon (he made the Emperor’s wedding cake when he we Queen Marie Louise!) before moving on to the Russian court, the Prince Regent’s household, and the Rothschilds. I found this recipe for Genoises Cakes a La Maraschino in the back of the book. (The historical note states that it was made at the Bighton Pavilion and Carlton House around 1817: “Maraschino, the Prince Regent’s favorite liqeur, was used repeatedly by Careme to flavor Brighton Pavilion recipes”).

I don’t quite have Carolyn’s dedication to hands-on research, so I can’t vouch for how this tastes! If you try it let me know how it turns out…

4 ounces almonds
Half an egg white
2 whole eggs
6 ounces flour
6 ounces pounded sugar
6 ounces butter
Zest of one orange
Maraschino brandy
Salt
Cochineal

Pound together 4 ounces of sweet almonds, half an egg white and then add six ounces of flour and six ounces of pounded sugar. Mix and add the zest of an orange, two whole eggs and a spoonful of brandy, a grain of salt and a splash of cochineal. Stir this for a full six minutes with a spatula, then take six ounces of butter, softened in the mouth of an oven, stir it a little, and then put it in the corner of a tureen, mix it with a little of the paste, and then more, stirring the whole for 4 or 5 minutes longer. Spread on a baking tray to the thickness of half an inch and level with a knife. Put in a slack (???) oven and as soon as the genoises are firm, cut them in all kinds of shapes, after which put them back in the oven to crisp

What is your favorite kind of cake? What would you choose for your birthday if you lived in the Regency? (And I love this Brighton Pavilion-shaped cake…)

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Much Ado About Loving

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I seem to be talking a lot lately about books I’ve been reading, but I seem to be in the middle of a good reading run!! I just finished the tons of fun Much Ado About Loving: What Our Favorite Novels Can Teach You About Great Expectations, Not so Great Gatsbys, and Love in the Time of Internet Personals by Jack Murnighan and Maura Kelly, which mines works of literature for modern dating advice. (PW called it “…a clever, amusing hybrid of lit crit and relationship advice”). I’ve often thought novels are a great source of guidance when it comes to dating and love myself, so I snatched up this book and spent a wonderful afternoon laughing at its lessons!

Some of my favorite chapters: “The Blabbers Karamazov: The dangers of revealing too much too soon”; “Not-so-great-Gatsby: Is it flattering or creepy when a guy persists?”; “Bride and Prejudice: Does wanting to get married give you champagne goggles?”; “Madame Ho-Vary: Is cheating ever okay?”; and “Jane Erred: Why it’s silly to put principles over passion” (“When and if you’re lucky enough to find true love, don’t muck it up with mindless adherence to convention. Throw away that list of requirements….”)

And then there is “Lady’s Chattering Lover: 10 things not to say after sex.” Example #8–Tread with caution when talking about his penis (“And now it’s tiny and soft like a little bud of life!”
What romance lessons have you learned from your favorite books??

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Catherine the Great

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I just realized that it is Tuesday. I got back from a weekend trip to Santa Fe late last night, and this morning rolled out of bed and went to see what was going on with the Riskies today….

On my trip, I started reading one of my birthday gifts, Robert K Massie’s new biography of Catherine the Great. I love Massie’s work–his Nicholas and Alexandra was what got me interested in Russian history in the first place, when I read it years ago, and this book was no less fascinating. Massie has the gift of making history come alive and feel immediate and real, and in the coomplicated, fascinating figure of Catherine he has the perfect subject.

Catherine was born Princess Sophia Fredericka Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst, the daughter of a minor German princeling who had not much money or influence. But her mother’s brother had been engaged to Empress Elizabeth of Russia before dying on the eve of the wedding, and Elizabeth (an equally complex character!) had fond memories of him. Plus she wanted a young girl she could control who could give Russia an heir. She brought Sophia to Russia and married her to her nephew Grand Duke Peter, a disfigured, alcoholic obesessed with the Prussian military (a complete wackjob, in other words). But after years and years of a painful marriage, loneliness, and virtual imprisonment (which luckily gave her much time to read and plan) Catherine overthrew her deeply unpopular husband in a coup d’etat and became Empress in her own right. She reigned from 1762–1792.

Among other achivements, Catherine added 200,000 square miles to Russian territory (mostly at the expense of the Turks and the Poles), was a patron of the arts, literature, and education (she corresponded with French philosophes like Voltaire and Diderot, whose libraries she eventually purchased), opened the Smolny Institute to educate girls, wrote the “Nazna” (a code of laws), and tried to impose Enlightenment ideas on her vast empire (with mixed results). She also had at least 12 lovers, including the vastly gifted Gregory Potemkin. As she got older they got younger and dumber (the last of them, Zubov, was 40 years her junior)….

Massie’s book is full of court intrigue, seductions, romance, illegitimate children, bloody uprisings, power grabs, battles–and a 389 carat ruby. What can be better???

For more info on her complicated life, look here…

What have you been reading lately??? What books have sparked a love of history and historical heroines in your life?

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Reforming The Rake (and other romance novel lessons)

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope you’ve all recovered from the post-holidays. I’ve been working on the next book and trying to get back to exercising and NOT eating leftover Christmas candy.

I’ve also been reading fashion magazines and some celebrity gossip blogs while pretending to write. And something struck me when I was reading that Katy Perry and Russell Brand split after 14 months of marriage (something besides the fact that I thought “If she had just read a couple chapters of My Bookie Wook she would have totally known he was not a good husband bet” that is…). In romance novels we’re always asked to suspend disbelief and trust that a man with a, er, colorful past (say,your average historical Duke of Slut, TM) will meet his True Love and happily settle down for life with nary a thought to his old wild ways. Or that a marriage of convenience will work out to romantic bliss every time. Stuff like that.

I have been reading romances a long time, and I’ve also been dating a long time. I’ve never taken my dating cues from books (there are no dukes around here, for one thing). Aside from the fact that I learned one valuable lesson from these stories that has always served me well–never stay with someone who doesn’t treat you well, doesn’t respect you for who you are, or just plain doesn’t feel right. That can mean it takes longer to find the Right One maybe, but then it’s a lot easier to spot him when he does come along…

What life lessons have you learned from romance novels? Which lessons would you stay clear of? And have you read anything good lately??

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Finished! (Almost)

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Happy 2012, everyone! I have a feeling this is going to be a good, healthy, happy year. I am starting off today getting ready to turn in the WIP (just doing a final smoothing-out, taking care of little details look before it goes winging off through cyberspace to London). Wish me luck!

This has been a very different project for me, as it’s the last of 8 books in a new continuity series coming out from Harlequin Historicals later this year. (Carole Mortimer kicks off the series and I end it). It doesn’t have a name yet, but when they asked me to take part in the project they said they envisioned it as “Downton Abbey in the Regency” (a grand house, an old family mired in scandal and financial difficulties, lots of crazy things going on behind a beautiful facade, etc). How could I resist this??? I adore Downton Abbey, and can’t wait for season two to start on PBS this weekend (I’ve been trying to avoid any spoilers, but it hasn’t been easy). This project has been a very interesting one, and a good way to change things up a bit (as well as get to know some other authors), but it has also been a challenge for a pantser writer like me. Often I have no idea what is going to happen in a story until I am writing it, but I had to be far more organized with this story, following plots that were already set up and trying to be true to other writers’ characters.

I hope it has all turned out okay (fingers crossed!). Then it is on to the next project…

In the meantime, as I frantically get on with editing, let’s look at some pretty. I confess, one of the big reasons I love Downton Abbey (besides the fact that I would sit and watch Maggie Smith be a sarcastic Dowager Lady Whatever for days) is the costumes. The Edwardian period is one of the very prettiest for fashions (IMO) and they’ve done a fabulous job. So here are a few favorites, plus a Vogue pic of the 3 sisters (which shows that Edith is not really so plain after all…)

Have you been watching DA? What do you think of it? And do you like to read continuity series in romance???







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