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Monthly Archives: April 2013

Considering Culinary History

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Susanna here, rejoicing that it’s Friday at last. I’m hard-pressed to think when I’ve been more eager to see a week come to its end.

I’m currently reading Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson. It’s a fascinating look at the history not of food, but of the implements we use to cook and eat it. I’m only about a third of the way through, but I’ve already learned so much. For example, 19th century vegetables weren’t anywhere near as overcooked as you’d expect based on the long cooking times advised in early cookbooks, because cooks were advised to simmer vegetables rather than cook them at a fast boil, and also because they’d pack a lot of vegetables into a small saucepan rather than a smaller amount in a larger pot like we do today.

Consider the Fork

And here’s another fact that surprised me tremendously: You know how most people have a natural overbite, and if you don’t, your orthodontist will work to give you one? Apparently that’s a recent development in human history, and isn’t the result of a genetic change–it’s developmental, based on how we eat. When you look at older skeletons, you generally see incisors that meet edge-to-edge. The overbite starts to emerge 200-250 years ago in Europe, but 800 to 1000 years earlier in China. In both cases, the change happened first among the upper classes.

The probable explanation? Forks and chopsticks. Once people started carrying food to their mouths already bite-sized rather than tearing it apart with their teeth, their incisors started to grow in differently.

I’ve long been fascinated by culinary history, and I’m starting to incorporate it in my writing. In my July release, A Dream Defiant, my heroine is a naturally gifted cook. She’s a commoner, an ordinary English village girl following the drum in Spain with her soldier husband, and her dream for after the war ends is to take over the inn in her home village, which has a reputation for dreadful food, and turn it into a place all the travelers on the Great North Road will stop to linger over their dinners. And I have an unfinished manuscript I’m thinking of dusting off where one of the characters is a French chef I created to contrast with every fussy, melodramatic French chef ever written. The manuscript in question is a paranormal, so if you picture Anthony Bourdain, Vampire Hunter, armed with garlic and cleaver, you wouldn’t be far off.

What delicious things are you hoping to taste this weekend? I’m planning to bake cookies for the first time in ages.

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An excerpt with obligatory flashback

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Here’s an excerpt from something that may or may not ever be written. (Warning: there is a flashback that may injure the tenderhearted)

Time passing.

Ben spent a lot of his life watching time pass, looking interested or uninterested as they talked on about their concerns or business. He’d learned long ago that they didn’t necessarily expect an answer and sometimes not even a response, but a look of quiet concern and interest would do the trick.

And when an upward inflection indicated an agreement was necessary, the words came automatically. “Very true, my lord. Exactly so, sir. Indeed.”

And meanwhile his mind would wander where it would as his hands dealt with buttons and folds and all the niceties of milord’s dress.

Time passed. He waited for the time when his life, his real life would begin, a life that had started some twenty years ago, when first he met Marie.

He, wasting time (they’d say) or exploring (he’d say) his lordship’s library, with the buzz of a bee against the mullioned windows, the comforting rich smell of leather and beeswax, shafts of light with dust dancing like he was in church. But this was better than church, and with the added excitement of getting caught. Running his hands over the spines of leather books, daring to take one down and open it to pictures of strange lands and creatures, and row upon row of words. Or this, spinning the great globe, watching continents and seas blur into brown and blue and green, the surface smooth beneath his fingers, sunlight dancing off the golden bonds that held it in place..

Another hand, small and clean, reddened by daily immersion in soap and water, stilled the globe.

“That’s where you come from, Ben.” Pointing to a great brown mass like a pear upside down.

“No, t’aint. I come from here. I always been here.”

“No you don’t. Here. Africa. That’s what they says in the kitchen.”

He looked at their hands together on the globe, hers so pale and his dark, dark as the ink that named the continents and countries and cities and that he couldn’t read.

“I always been here,” he repeated. “I was born in this house, I was.”

“Silly,” she said and she touched his hand with one of her delicate fingers. The globe shifted at the movement.

The globe revolved again at her touch, and she moved it just a little more, and more again, halfway round the world.

“Here,” she said. “Here’s London. That’s where I was born.”

He looked at the familiar triangle of Britain. Yes, London. He could read that. You watched it on the milestones when milord and milady traveled to town with the servants and where he saw all sorts of people, strangers and foreigners and some even like himself.

“I’ll go back to London.” She tossed her head and removed her hand from the globe to take some of the weight of the folded linens she carried. “When I’m a grown woman, I shall be maid to a great lady and dress as fine as she, and eat meat three times a day.”

He darted in and kissed her rosy cheek. “And I’ll marry you.”

She shrieked and giggled and ran off, shoes slapping on the wooden floor, her fair hair tumbling out from under her linen cap. Her shoes were a little too big for her, just as her gown was a little too faded and short.

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Income Tax and the Regency

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cherry blossoms

**Cherry Blossoms in Washington, DC

Myretta entertained and educated us about some of the odd taxes that existed in and around “our” period. But today is Income Tax Day here in the US, so I went looking for some connection between income tax and the Regency.

There was an income tax during part of the Regency, it turns out.

An income tax was first introduced in 1799 by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, in order to pay for weapons and equipment for the impending Napoleonic War. It was a graduated income tax, levied at 2 pence a pound in incomes over 60 pounds, increased to 2 shillings per pound on incomes over 200 pounds.

The tax was on income from land, from public securities, from trade, professions, vocations and employment, income from interest, foreign income, and casual income (gambling winnings).

Although Pitt hoped that the tax would raise 10 million pounds, its actual amount for 1799 was 6 million. Later tax on dividend income was added.

Pitt’s income tax was abolished in 1802 when Henry Addington took over as Prime Minister (Pitt had resigned over Catholic Emancipation) and the Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities with France. Addington reintroduced the income tax a year later when the war started again. It was abolished in 1816, one year after the Battle of Waterloo.

There is another connection between Income Tax and the Regency. The first income tax proposed in the United States was during the War of 1812, which, of course, was with with England during “our” period. Ironically, the US income tax proposal was based on the British Tax Act of 1798. It was never levied, however, because the war ended before it came up for vote.

So….Have you complete your taxes yet? Or are you going to be in line at the Post Office minutes before 12 Midnight?

We did our taxes early this year. We sent them off yesterday!

(**I couldn’t find an Income Taxes image, so enjoy a glimpse of DC’s Cherry Blossoms!)

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Lavinia Kent and Georgianna: The Last Real Duchess

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bio_picWelcome back my friend Lavinia Kent! Lavinia is known for her hot, smart, sexy and intelligent Regency Historicals for Avon. What the Duke Wants, for example. Or her very creative Real Duchesses of London ebook short story series.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lavinia’s Real Duchesses series! But I’m not alone. Here are a few of the Amazon reviews:

“…she managed to capture intense emotions and give great characters even in a really short novella, so kudos!” — Stella (Ex Libris), Of Kathryn, The Kitten.

“Another fun, fresh addition to what is shaping up to be a fantastic set of novellas that feature tests to the bonds of friendship, cattiness, laughter, and the overpowering result of true love.” — Lisa Wolff, of Linette, The Lioness.

“The marriage of convenience is one of my favorite tropes in romance and Kent’s Elizabeth, The Enchantress is a magnificent marriage of convenience tale.” — Yvonne.

PO456_RMS_Kent_Book_Georgianna_finalLavinia has continued the Real Duchesses of London series with a brand new novella — Georgianna: The Last Real Duchess and she’s giving away a Kindle download of the novella (or a copy of a signed copy of an earlier book) to one lucky commenter.

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

Lavinia Kent returns to her iconic Real Duchesses of London series of novellas to tell the story of Georgianna, the last Real Duchess. When Georgianna’s husband. Lord Richard, unexpectedly becomes a duke, the two are brought together and then torn apart as each tries to find a place in their new lives. Georgianna had married for love – only to discover her husband’s mistress. Now the two find themselves sharing residence at the ducal estate. Are circumstance and passion enough to bring the two together? Can Richard reveal the love he has barely admitted to himself? Can Georgianna forgive him for all the hurt and lies?
Will one night of passion become a lifetime of love?

Welcome back, Lavinia! Tell us about The Real Duchesses of London series and about Georgianna, The Last Real Duchess.

I had so much fun writing this series.  I loved the idea of writing about a group of strong women who would support each other during hard times.  The first four novellas are definitely tied together in an overarching story.

Georgianna is more of a stand-alone story, although the other duchesses do appear.

I had originally hoped to write her story as full-length novel, but time and circumstance got in the way.  I had a hard time cutting some of the earlier scenes to create something tighter, but I think in the end I succeeded in creating a novella about emotional trust.

 You created quite a challenge for yourself. Both writing short novellas AND planning a series. How did you manage it?

The first four were relatively easy – except for the time pressure involved in writing a novella a month.  They left me feeling a little burned out.  I discovered that I get so attached to my characters when writing, that I needed more time to make the transition to the next hero and heroine.

I found writing Georgianna to be more difficult because I wasn’t following my original plan, but I still wanted to write a compelling love story.

What is risky about Georgiana, The Last Real Duchess?

Georgianna has to learn to trust a man who has completely betrayed her.  Everything she believed when she fell in love and married turned out to be a big lie.  She must make the decision to take a great risk, rather than live without love.

 Did you come across any interesting research while writing the novella (or the series)?

I had a lot of fun researching political cartoons when I was working on the earlier four books of the series.  I enjoyed thinking about the different ways information has been distributed over time.  We take so much for granted today about how quickly information spreads.  It was interesting to consider how differently a scandal would spread during the Regency.

For Georgianna, I researched funerals, but none of my work made it onto the page when I shortened the story.  I’m saving it for later.

RDoL- largeWhat’s the connection between the caricature of the Real Duchesses on your website and Risky Regencies? 

The fabulous Janet Mullany’s daughter drew the original sketch for the caricature.  I loved it, and it helped make the characters really come alive in my mind.

ImageYou’ve recently embarked on an indy published series. Tell us about it. How can readers find the books?

The series is called The Desire Series and consists of three books: Hint of Desire, Price of Desire, and Taste of Desire.  This series is a prequel to my books for Avon.  The hero of my first book, A Talent for Sin is the younger brother of the hero in Taste of Desire.

The series is currently on available on Amazon for Kindle, but I am working on increasing formats.

What’s next for you?

Ahh, the most difficult question of all.  Currently, I’m working on (and about to finish) a prequel novella for a brand new regency series.  This series is completely unrelated to any of the books I’ve already written.

If all goes as planned, this series will be darker and more erotic than my current books.

I’m also working on a steampunk romance that requires more world building than I’ve ever done before.  It features a wonderful hero, and I’m working hard at getting him out of my head and onto page.

Thank you for having me at Risky Regencies.  I love having the chance to visit.

And now my question for readers – one of whom will win either a Kindle copy of Georgianna: The Last Real Duchess or a signed copy of one of my earlier books.

At the end of the prequel I’m currently writing, the hero sends the heroine a gift.  I’m debating whether he should give her a beautiful enameled hand mirror or kitten.  There are reasons why each would be appropriate.

The hero has never actually seen the heroine’s face, and in the next book he will recognize the heroine because of the gift.

So, mirror or kitten?  Help!

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Able was I ere I saw Elba

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On this day in 1814, the Treaty of Fontainebleu deposed Napoleon and sent him into exile to the island of Elba. He escaped just under a year later, set sail for France, and in one of those unexpected twists of history, returned to power. No one’s quite sure how he managed to escape, but Napoleon was a man of great energy and industry, and although contemporary cartoons depict him as a disconsolate exile on a rocky island, that was artistic license.

Now one of the many differences between the rest of us and the Corsican Monster is that if we were living in a castle in this sort of scenery, we’d grit our teeth and stay put. But not Napoleon. Apart from plotting his escape, he was quite busy as Emperor of Elba, carrying out social and economic reforms. He had a personal escort of 1,000 men, a household staff, and 110,000 subjects.

But it was a time of great misery for Napoleon, the man who’d once had almost all of Europe at his feet. The Treaty of Fontainbleu also sent his wife and son to Vienna. Napoleon was so distraught he attempted to commit suicide with a vial of poison he carried, but the poison was old and only made him sick. Shortly after his arrival, he learned of the death of the former Empress Josephine.

It’s possible his English guardians on the island aided, or at least turned a blind eye to, Napoleon’s escape plans. The restored French monarchy was proving unsatisfactory, which meant that once again the balance of power in Europe was threatened. This is discussed in this fascinating article, A Sympathetic Ear: Napoleon, Elba, and the British, which also explores the phenomenon of Napoleon as tourist trap.

British seamen proved to be keen visitors. Indeed, Napoleon had embarked for Elba on April 28th, aboard the frigate HMS Undaunted, whose captain, Thomas Ussher, wrote home on May 1st: ‘It has fallen to my extraordinary lot to be the gaolor of the instrument of the misery Europe has so long endured’. By the end of the month, the man whom Ussher could not even bring himself to name had become his ‘bon ami’, and had given him 2,000 bottles of wine, and a diamond encrusted snuffbox. In return Ussher presented Napoleon with a barge, which he flatteringly reserved for his own exclusive use.

Napoleon landed in Cannes on March 1, 1815 and declared:

I am the sovereign of the Island of Elba, and have come with six hundred men to attack the King of France and his six hundred thousand soldiers. I shall conquer this kingdom.

As he progressed through France, soldiers sent to attack him instead joined him, so that he made a triumphant return into Paris on March 20. There’s a great first-hand account of his arrival here.

So, if you’d gone to visit Napoleon on Elba with the expectation that he’d probably give you lots of wine and a diamond-encrusted snuffbox, what would you take him as a gift?

catonsvilleNow onto shameless self-promotion. If you’re in Maryland, I’m going to be signing tomorrow at the Catonsville Historical Society, 7 – 9 pm in the company of some excellent authors. Looks like there will be some wine too!

 

 

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