This is the future home of the Risky Regencies.
Until we are ready to receive visitors here, please visit us at our current address at www.riskyregencies.blogspot.com.
This is the future home of the Risky Regencies.
Until we are ready to receive visitors here, please visit us at our current address at www.riskyregencies.blogspot.com.
Last week I promised to give away 5 e-copies of my sexy novella, Lady Em’s Indiscretion.
Congratulations to:
Karen H in NC
Maureen
Jane
Pollie the Pug
Jackie54736
Maureen and Pollie the Pug (love that name BTW), please let me know your email addresses and preference for Kindle or Nook. You can email me at elena @ elenagreene.com (no spaces).
I hope you enjoy it!
Cheers,
Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene
www.twitter.com/elenagreene7
It’s been nearly two weeks since returning to the current work-in-progress, A Hero’s Return, and I had the conundrum that the action was set in the wrong place.
It’s taken me this long to figure out the right place to put the action, which makes 100 pages of the doc not useable in its current iteration. I can reset the action, but of course that means adding in characters, and motivations, and different events.
Thankfully, I’m kind of a talking head writer, so the characters and their conversation, rather than where they are, is the focus of my writing, so it won’t be too onerous.
Working on that, and happy that fall is finally here, and VERY MUCH looking forward to seeing Skyfall, the next James Bond film.
What are you working on? What are you most looking forward to this fall?
Happy Columbus Day here in the USA.
Of course, in the Regency, the British didn’t celebrate Columbus Day, so for once a Monday holiday does not give me a blog topic.
Now, if I my blog would have been last Friday, I would have had a ready-made topic. Friday was Jane Eyre Day, the anniversary of the release of Jane Eyre in 1847, under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Just Saturday a week ago, Megan asked us all about our favorite movie version of Jane Eyre. If Megan could anticipate Jane Eyre Day, then maybe I can celebrate it after the fact.
I remember reading Jane Eyre when I was a girl. Athough it was not and never has been a favorite of mine, it is a story that has always stayed with me. I mean, who could forget the interrupted wedding day when, at the altar, Jane learns that Rochester has a mad wife in the attic? All the gothic spookiness of the fire and Grace Poole then makes great sense. Or the message wafting telepathically from Rochester to Jane? Or the miraculous cure of his blindness?
Unfortunately, I also remembered that Jane fell in a ditch and quite amazingly wound up on the doorstep of cousins and discovered she was an heiress (not exactly how it happened in the book, but that was how I remembered it). Even as a dreamy, romantic kid, I felt that was too contrived. I also thought that Rochester was much too mean to Jane and I never understood why she fell in love with him.
But, even all that stayed with me through the years until I read the book again and watched countless adaptations. That proves Jane Eyre’s greatness as a novel, in my mind. It is unforgettable.
My next book, Born To Scandal, coming to bookstores Nov 13 and as an ebook Dec 1, is an homage to Jane Eyre. It also is a story of a tortured hero who hires a governess with her own troubled past. It is also full of secrets.
On Friday, Jane Eyre Day, a quote appeared in my email (I’m signed up for a daily Inspirational Quote) that could have been the motto for my book:
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” — Charlotte Bronte.
It is a quote from Helen Burns to Jane. Helen was my favorite character in Jane Eyre, especially as personified by the child Elizabeth Taylor in the 1943 movie version.
What is your favorite quote from Jane Eyre or your favorite part of the story or your favorite character? How did you celebrate Jane Eyre day and how are you celebrating Columbus Day?
Last weekend I was in Brooklyn for the JASNA-AGM which is also a conference at which several hundred people get together and talk about Jane Austen. Weird? Absolutely. Some of us dress up for the ball on Saturday night. Some of us dress up all the time in different outfits and some of us cross-dress. There were also a few real men there too. The New York Times took some terrific pics which are much better than mine, so take a look here. As you can see we had a grand parade outside at night led by a fife and drum duo and there weren’t many people around but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.
Our plenary speaker was the amazing Cornell West who said (something like) philosophers seek the flame but Jane Austen is the fire. There were lots of great speakers including Anna Quindlen and William Deresiewicz, whose book A Jane Austen Education I’ve been longing to read and now own (signed!).
I was there as one of a subpanel of writers for a panel on publishing where we admired Penguin’s beautiful new Austen editions collaborating with graphic artists. There were shopping opportunities for books thanks to the very cool Jane Austen Books and here’s some of my loot–a fab pair of earrings and a tin of tea that was the official invite to next year’s JASNA in Minneapolis, based on Pride & Prejudice.
More pics–the view from my hotel window and a view from the Brooklyn Bridge–I played hooky to take a walk on Saturday afternoon in glorious weather. I liked Brooklyn a lot–some lovely buildings and lots of energy and nice friendly people.
I also got the chance to catch up with some of the Austen authors I know–here are Ann Herendeen, Karen Doornebos, and Cindy Jones, and here’s a great one of Ann in her gorgeous Regency finery. Sadly I didn’t get a pic of Karen in her pirate outfit. (Yes, there is an Austen connection, or so she said.)
Tomorrow I’m off again, this time to the New Jersey Put Your Heart in a Book Conference in Iselin, NJ, and if you’re in the neighborhood please stop by and meet me at the booksigning on Sat. afternoon. And please also stop by online and make me buy a waterbuffalo–my blog tour is ending soon and there is absolutely nothing to stop you signing at every single stop; in fact, please do. For every comment made I’m donating $1 to Heifer International up to $250, the price of a waterbuffalo. The whole schedule is here and today I’m visiting Carrie Ann Ryan and Kacey’s Connections.
So what have you been up to recently? Dressed up as a Regency lady or a pirate? Drunk much tea? Visited a wonderful neighborhood that was new to you?