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Monthly Archives: June 2013

Manly Pastimes and the Romantic Hero, or, Where Did You Get Those Bruises?

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Boxing_1811_Crib_&_MolineauxI’m so happy to be back again, blogging with the Riskies!! Thank you, gracious friends! I’ve been thinking about the subject of manly pastimes a lot recently as I work on my new book. (Yes, I am finally back working on it!) As I write this, my husband is downstairs watching the Bruins play hockey on the TV, providing a very fitting background of excited man-crowd sounds, punctuated by his own loud exclamations. Our Regency gentlemen had a wide range of diversions to amuse themselves and test their mettle, and just like men today, especially enjoyed the chance to compete with one another. In our beloved fictional Regency world, our romance heroes indulge in all sorts of activities, from gaming and watching horse races to the more athletic pastimes –riding, hunting, shooting, driving, fencing, wrestling, archery, rowing, skating, and, of course, fighting. I did one hero whose passion was sailing. I’m sure you can think of more.

What I wonder is, and I hope you’ll jump into the conversation, are any of these pastimes problematic for you as a reader formulating an image of the coolly elegant, romantic Regency man? The hero in my current work-in-progress is known to be one of the better card players in London, a big man who dresses well and does not make waves. He has another side to him, however –he excels at bare-knuckle fighting and is a member of a private fighting club made up of five aristocratic fellows who essentially have surpassed what Gentleman Jackson’s establishment can offer them. He is a character who first showed his face in one of my books ten years ago, but at that time I hadn’t realized he would someday claim his own story.

Boxing-Cribb_vs_Molineaux_1811The vivid brutality of the fighting contrasts so sharply with the elegance that was also so admired in this era, I find sometimes I can’t wrap my brain around it. Is it too violent to be in a Regency romance? We know that historically, fighting, or “pugilism”, was extremely popular in the Regency period. But in our fantasized version of the Regency, is there room for both “bucks” and “bruisers” among our heroes? Would a hero who is both work for you?

As so often happens, there suddenly seem to be a number of authors who are all going in this direction.

Delilah Marvelle created quite a stir with her trailer for Forever a Lord (January 2013). If you didn’t see it, here it is:

I haven’t read it yet –looking forward to it, so discussion is fine but no spoilers please!

Sara MacLean –just mentioned at a workshop I attended last week that her upcoming book –I think it’s No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (coming November? 2013) –is about a hero who does bare-knuckle fighting.

(Sigh.) But we know they will all be quite different from each other. Have you read others? Or written them? Let’s get a conversation going in the comments. I’d really love to know what you think!

rakesmistakeI will give away (by mail) a mint paperback copy of my 2002 release, The Rake’s Mistake, to one lucky poster. To be entered in the giveaway, you must give your email address and let me know you want to be entered! I’ll contact the winner to get a mailing address.

Gail
www.gaileastwoodauthor.com

Posted in Regency, Risky Book Talk | 16 Replies

Excerpt from WIP

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As my buddy Pam Rosenthal once said, the Regency makes fetishists of us all and here’s an example of it. H/h in hackney. Alone. After dirty dancing. Oooh.

“You are a gentleman,” she said with a fierceness that surprised her. “You were most kind to me tonight when you hardly knew me. You—”

“Perhaps, Mrs. Raine, I had a baser motivation than you credit me with.” His eyes were narrow, sensuous, and his gaze dropped to where her cloak had fallen away at her bosom.

She would not gratify him with any sort of virtuous rearrangement of the folds of her cloak. Indeed, she was tempted to thrust the velvet further back onto her shoulders, affording him a better view of her breasts, an impulse she suppressed immediately.

Still watching her, he raised a fingertip to his lips and bit into the soft kid of his glove, drawing it from his hand with deliberate slowness. She stifled a smile as he smoothed the glove and laid it over one muscular silk-clad thigh.

“I trust the evening’s exertions have not tired you, Mr. Giordano,” she murmured.

“Thank you, ma’am. I feel extremely refreshed. I do, in fact, have an excess of energy.” Off came the other glove to join its fellow on his thigh.

Two could play at this dangerous game. She unbuttoned her glove and drew it slowly, very slowly, over her arm and wrist, and worked her fingers free, sighing at the touch of the cool night air.

His hand tightened on the kid gloves at his thigh; so he thought to unsettle her but he did not expect her to reciprocate.

He leaned forward.

“May I assist you with the other?” His bare fingers skimmed over the crook of her gloved elbow.

The carriage jolted to a halt.

Leo snatched his gloves and pulled them on again, reaching hastily for his hat.

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Regency Wedding Redux

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Today the dh and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary and we want to take a little break to do something fun. So I’m recycling a 2008 blog I did on Regency Weddings.

We were married a gazillion years ago, before a bride would even DREAM of a wearing a  strapless gown. Before I married, I’d never read Georgette Heyer or Regency Romances and it had been a few years since I’d read Jane Austen.

But take a look at my wedding dress.

It’s a little hard to tell here, but it has an empire waist, leg o’mutton sleeves, and ribbon trim. It’s a Regency Dress!

I’d never heard of the Regency, but somehow I picked a Regency dress.

Like me, Regency brides did wear white, but they didn’t have to. In the Regency, white gowns were popular for many occasions. Other colors like pale pink and blue were also worn at weddings. The older the bride, the darker the color. Wedding dresses were worn after the wedding, too. By the time Queen Victoria became a bride and wore white, the white wedding dress was well on its way to becoming a tradition.

Princess Charlotte, who wed Prince Leopold in 1816, wore a dress of silver lamé, embroidered in silver. 

Sites that tell more about Regency Weddings:

Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion

Regency Weddings

Quick facts about Regency Weddings:

1. Weddings could take place after reading of the Banns, a license, or a special license. Banns must be read for three consecutive Sundays in the parishes of both the prospective bride and groom. A license, purchased from the bishop of the diocese, did away with the banns but the couple still had to be married in the parish church. A special license, purchased from the Archbishop of Canterbury, allowed the couple to be married in a location other than a church and without banns. Licenses were never blank; different names could not be substituted.

2. Scottish weddings went by different rules. In Scotland couples could be married by declaring themselves married in front of witnesses, by making a promise to marry followed by intercourse, or by living together and calling themselves married.

3. Weddings could not be performed by proxy. Both the bride and groom had to be present.

4. Ship captains could not perform marriages. Couples could be married aboard ship, but only by clergy. (How many times have you read that plot?)

5. Brides had wedding rings; grooms did not. The bride could give the groom a ring as a wedding gift, but it was not part of the ceremony and didn’t symbolize he was married.

Do you want a Regency Wedding? There are many sites on the internet offering custom made Regency wedding dresses:

Jane Austen Centre Giftshop
Fashions in Time

Or if you are handy, you could make your Regency gown:

Do you have any questions about Regency weddings?

Did anyone else have a Regency wedding dress?

A Reputation for Notoriety is now available as an ebook, if you are like me and prefer ebooks.

 

Posted in Risky Regencies | 6 Replies

What Not to Bare‘s Cover and Blurb

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I have a cover for my October 2013 full-length historical, What Not to Bare. Here’s the tentative blurb:

What Not to BareIn Megan Frampton’s witty historical romance, a woman is judged by her gown, and a man by his reputation—until both are shed in one sexy moment of seduction.

Lady Charlotte Jepstow certainly knows how to make an impression—a terrible one. Each one of her ball gowns is more ostentatiously ugly than the one before. Even she has been forced to wonder: Is she unmarried because of her abysmal wardrobe, or does she wear clashing clothing because she doesn’t want to be pursued in the first place? But when Charlotte meets Lord David Marchston, suddenly a little courtship doesn’t sound so bad after all.

David will be the first to admit he’s made some mistakes. But how, exactly, does a skillful negotiator get yanked from his post by his superiors and forced to woo his commander’s niece? If David wants his life back, he must persuade society that Charlotte is a woman worth pursuing, despite her rather unusual “flair” for color. But David does such a terrific job that he develops an unexpected problem, one that violates both his rake’s mentality and his marching orders: He’s starting to fall in love.

Also, my current historical, Hero of My Heart, has been downpriced for a limited time, so it’s just .99 across most e-reader platforms. Here’s the Random House link to find your format.

Stay cool!

Megan

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged , | 2 Replies