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Author Archives: diane

About diane

Diane Gaston is the RITA award-winning author of Historical Romance for Harlequin Historical and Mills and Boon, with books that feature the darker side of the Regency. Formerly a mental health social worker, she is happiest now when deep in the psyches of soldiers, rakes and women who don’t always act like ladies.

Thou droning bat-fowling hedge-pig! By Diane Gaston

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Here’s what you get when I can’t think of a coherent blog topic….

1. In revenge for Megan’s Free Rice link, I offer you the Shakespeare Insult generator, courtesy of my friend Julie. This wonderful website offers you a cornucopia of the perfect insult, like, “Thou pribbling idle-headed wagtail” or apropos of this blog,”(you) speak an infinite deal of nothing.”

I was, by the way, briefly up to level 46 of 48 on Free Rice and I have donated over 2,000 grains of rice. So Far.

2. The BBC website has a lot of interesting stuff on it, not the least of which are listings of tantalizing shows like, The Age of Excess: When Britain Went Too Far, which is about the excesses of the 18th century. If you click on Empire and Sea Power on the side menu, you get all sorts of wonderful stuff, like an animation of the Battle of Trafalgar or The Waterloo Game. Seriously, there are a bunch of intriguing articles on this site. My only complaint is that they do not call The Regency, The Regency, but lump it into the Georgian period as “Empire and Sea Power.”

3. Contrast this website with the BBC America one, which prominently features what’s new on Hex. If you dig a little deeper, however, you can find a British American Dictionary equally as cumbersome, but with the redeeming feature of showing British insulting words.

And that, I believe, brings me full circle!

Is today giving you any reason to use a Shakespearean insult or a British insulting word?
None for me so far.

I’m off to get my hair colored-with-highlights at Vidal Sasson, so I’ll see you later.

Diane-who-hopes-she-doesn’t-use-a-Shakespearean-insult-after-her-hair-is-done

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My Fair Lady by Diane Gaston

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This Saturday I caught My Fair Lady on TMC.

My first introduction to My Fair Lady was from a record (those vinyl things that look like an oversize DVD ). The local grocery store ran a special on show tunes, each week an album of a different musical. My sisters and I played the My Fair Lady record, as well as the others, over and over until the words were embedded in our memories. Of all the show tunes, though, My Fair Lady was my favorite.

Shortly after, the play came to the National Theater in Washington, DC, and my sisters and I were allowed to take the bus all-by-ourselves into the city. I remember the adventure of this solo journey more than I remember seeing the play, even though it was my first experience of going to a “real” play.

I wish I could have loved the movie of My Fair Lady, but I never have. It never matched what my imagination created for My Fair Lady when I listened to our soundtrack from the grocery store. The performances are marvelous, especially Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway; however, I never thought Audrey Hepburn (who I love in her other movies) was the right Eliza. (Julie Andrews, who created the role of Eliza on Broadway, ought to have had the part)

My favorite character was Freddie (played by Jeremy Brett), who I felt had the best song, On the Street Where She Lives. I thought he was so romantic, just wanting to be on Eliza’s street, ready to do her bidding. He still was the most handsome fellow in the movie.

The story is, of course, set in Edwardian times, a beautiful fashion period, like the Regency, and a time, like the Regency, where class differences were noteworthy. Watching the movie, I realized the set rather imprinted on me what a London street ought to look like. There were lots of white buildings and wrought iron. When I went to Covent Garden, I think I expected Eliza Doolittle’s Covent Garden. In any event, I loved the movie set. I loved how the set looked when Freddie walked down the street where Eliza lived. That felt like London to me.

After watching the movie, I just have to believe that My Fair Lady was one early experience that fostered my love of England and, ultimately, of the Regency.

What early experiences led you to love the Regency?

There’s a touring company performing My Fair Lady. It is coming to The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC this December and maybe to a city near you.

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Blog Action Day, Regency Style

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Megan said, “Monday is Blog Action Day; so far there are over 11,000 blogs participating, and on October 15, every blogger will be talking about the environment. Maybe your blog (speak for yourself, Megan! I am!) doesn’t have the hugest amount of visitors, but if every little voice joins together, we’ll create a magnificent din.”

Well, it is Oct 15 and I’m lending my voice, too!

Being such an energy and natural resource consuming society is a rather modern occurrence and confined to the more prosperous parts of our world, like the USA. It would have been much different in the Regency. In those times, the very poor survived on what we would throw away.

Janet has already taught us that our lords and ladies gave away their clothing to their servants who also had certain rights to recycle things like candle stubs and cooking fat. What the servants didn’t use was sold to the rag and bone man, the era’s answer to what we would call the junk man. The rag and bone man sold what he collected.

All the dust and ashes from the cooking fires and fireplaces also had to be collected and carted away. This was the work of the dustman. The dust was sold to brick makers and to farmers for fertilizer. In the musical My Fair Lady, Eliza’s father was a dustman.

Here is an article from the New York Times January 27, 1878, about London Dustmen:
Another set of recyclers were the mudlarks, mostly women and children who scavenged around in river mud for items of value. In London the poor would scavenge in the River Thames during low tide, searching for anything they could sell.

A bit later than “our” period (1851), Henry Mayhew wrote about mudlarks in his book, London Labour and the London Poor:

“ THEY generally consist of boys and girls, varying in age from eight to fourteen or fifteen; with some persons of more advanced years. For the most part they are ragged, and in a very filthy state, and are a peculiar class, confined to the river. The parents of many of them are coalwhippers–Irish cockneys–employed getting coals out of the ships, and their mothers frequently sell fruit in the street. Their practice is to get between the barges, and one of them lifting the other up will knock lumps of coal into the mud, which they pick up afterwards…..
Some of them are old women of the lowest grade, from fifty to sixty, who occasionally wade in the mud up to the knees. “

You can read more of Mayhew’s book here.

Of course, raw sewage was dumped in the river and the mudlarks were exposed to cholera and other diseases, as well as really nasty things like dead bodies of people and animals.

The movie poster above was for a 1950 movie about a little boy, a mudlark who overheard someone say that Queen Victoria was mother to everyone in Great Britain. He took it to heart and traveled to London to see if he could sit on the throne.

I can’t sign off without mentioning my friend Delle’s book, The Mudlark. Read more about it here.

What do I do for the environment? I recycle glass and plastic and cans. And I drive a Prius, Toyota’s hybrid car! I’ve also been conserving water because we’re really having a bad drought. And I NEVER throw out a book.

What do you do?

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Back from The Garden State

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This weekend I attended the New Jersey Romance Writers conference. Also attending were Janet and Megan. Janet, my bff Julie, and I drove up 95 and the Jersey Turnpike in my Prius, which was a pleasure, not only because I have an EZPass and can zip through the tollgates, but also because Janet is a very entertaining companion and Julie is a prime navigator, my own personal JPS (instead of a GPS–get it?).

It is a bit difficult to relate New Jersey to the Regency. I do love New Jersey, though. I love the atmosphere and the people there. Unlike many southerners who say what is polite, Jersey folks are very direct and I like that! I lived there for two years in my younger days, so it always feels a little like going home.

There were Regency authors there. Lots of them! Julia Quinn was the special presenter, giving a talk on “Dialogue: It’s More Than What You Say.” Julia’s was the best and clearest presentation about dialogue that I’ve ever heard. Eloisa James also gave a good workshop about beta heroes. But, as always, it is the informal meetings with fellow authors that I enjoy the most. I managed to spend time with Regency authors Sally MacKenzie (one of our former guests and pictured with me at the booksigning), my pal Sophia Nash, Kristina Cook, and Caroline Linden. And, of course, Janet and Megan, although I did not get to see Megan for nearly as long as I would have liked. Janet and Megan should have more photos for you.

The bookseller’s luncheon was on Sunday, and there I met an impressive young, new Regency author, Maya Rodale, whose first book, a Regency set historical, The Heir and the Spare, just came out this past August. At the luncheon, of course, Janet and I schmoozed with lovely booksellers whose enthusiasm for historical romance is heartening. So never believe it if you hear people say, “Historical is Dead.” It isn’t, and the booksellers are the ones who know!

I’m home now and back to real life. On my agenda this week are revisions of the still unnamed “Pomroy’s Story.”

What’s on your agenda this week?
Were you at the NJ conference (I saw Santa there!) and, if so, did I see you?
Were you with writer friends, at least?

Don’t forget to visit the Wet Noodle Posse blog this month if you are planning on entering the Golden Heart contest. The 2003GH finalists are sharing their tips all month–and giving away critiques!

And Happy Columbus Day

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Kudos and Contests!

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Risky Regencies had some happy news. Amanda’s A Notorious Woman was reviewed in the Chicago Tribune September 29!

The reviewer is John Charles, who does so many marvelous reviews for Booklist, an American Library Association publication. He’s such a great and enthusiastic supporter of Romance. John Charles also was one of the authors of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Ultimate Reading List. Remember? Cara and Amanda and Megan each made the Ultimate list!

Mr. Charles regularly reviews several romance titles at once in the Chicago Tribune, but it is a special thrill to know he was willing to review Amanda’s Harlequin Historical along with books from single title publishers.

Of A Notorious Woman, Mr. Charles says:
“Danger, deception and desire are the key ingredients in “A Notorious Woman,” and Amanda McCabe skillfully brews all these potent elements into a lushly sensual, exquisitely written love story.”

Read the entire review here
(it also has a review of Coleen Gleason’s Rises the Night. See our interview with Coleen here).

There’s a nip in the air, the kids are back in school, Christmas decorations are showing up at Neiman Marcus. It must be……..Romance Writing Contest Season!

And what is the big huge kick off? The Golden Heart and RITA Contests, sponsored by Romance Writers of America.

My pal Kathryn Caskie once dubbed me The Contest Empress because I entered and finaled in and won so many contests. Here’s a sample:

My Marlene medallion

Me accepting the 2003 Golden Heart

The happy Mills & Boon editors and happy me after I won the 2006 RITA for Best Regency.

So it is with great delight that I tell you that The Wet Noodle Posse (2003 Golden Heart Finalists) are blogging this whole month on how to make your Golden Heart entry the BEST it can be. If you are planning to enter the Golden Heart, or any romance writing contest, this month of blogs will give you tips from the experts. We’re all Contest Empresses on the Wet Noodle Posse. Do visit the WNP blog but come back and see us Riskies, too!

Oops! I almost forgot. Come to my website for a sneak peek at The Vanishing Viscountess! Hurry. It won’t be up for long. There’s a new contest, too. And other news…

What is your opinion of reviews and of writing contests? The Empress demands to know!

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