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Author Archives: Elena Greene

About Elena Greene

Elena Greene grew up reading anything she could lay her hands on, including her mother's Georgette Heyer novels. She also enjoyed writing but decided to pursue a more practical career in software engineering. Fate intervened when she was sent on a three year international assignment to England, where she was inspired to start writing romances set in the Regency. Her books have won the National Readers' Choice Award, the Desert Rose Golden Quill and the Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence. Her Super Regency, LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, won RT Book Club's award for Best Regency Romance of 2005 and made the Kindle Top 100 list in 2011. When not writing, Elena enjoys swimming, cooking, meditation, playing the piano, volunteer work and craft projects. She lives in upstate New York with her two daughters and more yarn, wire and beads than she would like to admit.

Regency era people you’d like to hang out with

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I’ve been running an Artist’s Way group (doing the program based on the book by Julia Cameron).  We’re currently on Week 3, and one of the week’s tasks is to list five people you wish you could meet that are dead.

It made me think about which five people from the Regency era I would enjoy meeting. Here’s my list. Maybe you’ll share yours in the comments?

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. I think we could have some great conversations about feminism then and now.

Jane Austen (1775-1817), an obvious choice but for a good reason! I would be afraid of being too fan-girly and making a fool of myself, since she didn’t seem like one who suffered fools. But if I could keep it together, maybe we could have a good conversation about the craft of writing. Perhaps she might be interested in learning about the enduring popularity of her stories, many times and how many ways her books have been turned into movies and mini-series, and all the spin-offs.

Mary Anning (1799-1847), who found an ichthyosaur fossil at age 12 and continued to collect, sell and study fossils throughout her life, making significant contributions to paleontology. When I was a child, I wanted to be a paleontologist, so a fossil-hunting expedition with Mary Anning would satisfy two of my passions.

Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville (1785-1862), daughter of the 5th Duke of Devonshire and the famous Duchess, Georgiana. I have read her letters in Hary-O: The Letters of Lady Harriet Cavendish 1796-1809, and she seems like someone I’d really enjoy talking to. She seems to have been quite grounded despite the drama of her parents’ unhappy marriage and various intrigues. Despite marrying her maternal aunt’s lover, she had a happy marriage and loved her children dearly. I also enjoyed her observations on society, including from the time that her husband served as British Ambassador to France.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850), one of the famous Lake poets. I spent a long weekend in the Lake District, and would love to ramble around there again with the famous poet as a guide.

What Regency era people would you like to hang out with?

Elena

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Online Artist’s Way

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The Artist’s Way is a program for unblocking creativity developed by Julia Cameron. It’s not just for artists, musicans, writers, etc… It can help anyone who wishes to live a more creative life.

Back in 2002, I did The Artist’s Way for the first time, and it helped me through an episode of writer’s block. Recently, I facilitated a group of friends through the program, meeting mostly at my house, though our last meeting was on Zoom. At our last meeting, we decided that since everyone had gotten so much out of the program, and given the state of the world, we would mentor people through the program again in a Facebook group.

Over 100 people have now joined the group! If you would like to join us, you can request to join the Facebook group, Artist’s Way Sacred Circle. And here’s a link for acquiring the book, The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron.

Wishing you all peace and hope.

Elena

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Hello and e-book sale!

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Hi!  I haven’t been around for a while, due to life challenges and some health issues—I’ve had a serious problem with my right eye, which is still a bit wonky. I also haven’t been working on romance recently, though I have been working on other things.

Since people may be in more need of books to read right now, I’ve decided to put all my ebooks on sale for the next few months. Most are 99 cents, and my novella, The Wedding Wager, is free. So this is a good time to check out my books if you haven’t already, and if you enjoy my books, let others know. All my titles are listed on the Book List on my website.

I also promise you that I hope to return to romance writing. I still believe in romance. Even though I was saddened by the recent turmoil in the Romance Writers of America (you can Google it if you don’t know what happened) I am now hopeful that the organization is refocusing and moving again towards greater inclusivity. Everyone deserves love, and everyone deserves to be able to read stories with characters they relate to.

I believe in love, and in people working through problems and becoming stronger together. The best romance novels don’t do this by the characters compromising, which to me means having to give up something important to them. The way I see it, and the way I try to write it, lovers figure out solutions that are a win/win, where no one has to give up their health or happiness or change who they are just to fit in with the other’s needs. They might learn that what they thought they wanted at the beginning of the story isn’t what they really need. They might have to let go of old ways of thinking and doing things. They grow in ways that might be uncomfortable, but they become more who they were meant to be.

I also believe that at the end of a good romance novel, things don’t settle down and go back to where they were. Things get better. The love between the characters benefits everyone around them: their friends and family and their communities.

I believe this is true in our lives. There’s a lot of division and strife in our world, but we’re not going to solve it if we believe there are winners and losers. We’re not going to solve it by compromises with ideas like racism or homophobia that mean some people have to suffer so others can benefit. We’re going to solve things by understanding and working toward answers that don’t leave anyone out. I believe that in the Biblical story of the loaves and the fishes, Jesus taught people that if we share, there will be enough. This is the sort of world I want to work for, where love rules rather than fear.

Please take good care of yourselves, and keep on loving.

Elena

www.elenagreene.com

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Elena status update

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Hi, everyone. I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve been missing the Riskies while dealing with an eye issue that has been flaring up off and on since last May and taking longer to heal each time. I won’t go into details, but I have dry eyes and something additional going on in the right which several good cornea specialists I’ve seen haven’t been able to treat to their satisfaction, though I’ve been slowly getting better. I have an appointment in early April with one of the top experts in dry eye and related conditions, and I’m hopeful that she will figure this out–and how to keep it from happening again.

In the meantime, I’m trying some general health changes (like taking fish oil pills) that may help and can’t hurt. I’m also trying to get better about resting my eyes–as soon as they feel better, I start overdoing.

Since the left eye works OK, I can drive, read, write, work on the computer, etc… The problem is with how long I can do these things. Even covered by the patch, the right eye is somehow trying to focus along with the left and starts to hurt after about 10-15 minutes of eye-intensive activity. Which means I now set a timer, work in 10 minute spurts followed by as much as 30 minutes of rest. Not great for an writer and avid reader!

This is why I’ve been largely off the blog and off Facebook. I need to save my eyes for mundane things like paying bills, working on taxes, and filling out financial aid paperwork.


Anything left I’m trying to devote mostly to writing–which is progressing slowly. I’ve thought about trying dictation software, but I have a messy writing process–crappy first drafts and lots of rearranging and rewriting. I’m not sure there’s a way to use dictation software that way, or if I’d need to change my process so the messy parts happen in my head and then I can dictate the cleaner result. For now, I’m just accepting slow progress and hoping for healing. (People have recovered from conditions like this, but it takes time.)

In the meantime, things that are helping me stay sane are audiobooks and music. I’ve taken up the piano again, and since I’m starting with pieces I used to play, there’s little reading required. I’ve also recently unpacked my classical CDs and have been finding all sorts of forgotten treasures amongst them. I’ve been playing some of my favorites as a way to wind down before going to bed, since gratitude journaling and Zen doodling are out for now.

Here’s an example of the sort of piece I like to listen to before bed and a great piece for Anglophiles–“The Lark Ascending” by Ralph Vaughn Williams, performed by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, with Iona Brown as the violin soloist and Neville Marriner conducting. It’s just what I need, reminding me of walks I took through the English countryside years ago.

Do you have favorite pieces of music that help you through rough patches? Please share.

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The Great British Baking Show!

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I’m finally starting to feel better after nearly a month of being down with a sinus infection. It’s really hard being that sick when you live alone. One thing that helped me through were friends who checked in on me and brought Robitussin and neti pot salt when I ran out. Another thing that helped was comfort TV—including the Great British Bake Off.

I’m sure many of you have already watched. I had been resisting, fearing it would be too much like some of the US reality TV, which a friend described as putting rats in a cage and watching them eat each other. I was relieved to see that TGBBS is totally different.

A few things I love about it that provide some faint justification as research:

– It is set at English country estates, and baking episodes are interspersed with vignettes of scenery, sheep and wildlife. Very atmospheric!
– Contestants come from all over the British Isles, so there is a diversity of accents and dialects, also many of them draw on their local traditions and foods for inspiration.
– A few of the baking challenges involve historical foods that might have been made during the Regency.

Other aspects I love:
– The baking challenges are difficult and the standard of judging is high, but there isn’t the kind of gimmicky, almost practical joke style stuff thrown in randomly to add to the difficulty.
– The judges critique the baking but are supportive to the contestants as aspiring bakers.
One actually can see many of the contestants learning new skills and developing more self confidence throughout the challenges.
– There is competition but not the sort of backstabbing too often emphasized in reality TV. People cry and hug at the end of the session when someone is picked to leave.
– Silly baking puns and jokes like “10 more minutes to polish your choux” and “30 minutes remaining on your mirror glazes. On reflection, 29.”
– I enjoy the insights into the creative process, the choices of when and how to take creative risks while still striving to reliably create something beautiful and delicious.

Probably most of all, I love how the series showcases home bakers—people who show their love for friends and family by making delicious things. I think this correlates with the fact that the contestants are such overwhelmingly likeable people who act more like a team than competitors. (One even called the group a team.)

Also, I really want to try making some of the things they make (though not my own phyllo dough, thank you very much!)

For those unfamiliar with the show, here is a clip of Top Ten Moments:

Here is a wonderful interview with the 2015 winner, Nadiya Hussein.

And here’s a link to one of the recipes I want to try: Kate’s Sticky Toffee Apple Caramel Cake.

Does anyone else love this show? What do you like best about it? Have you tried any of the published recipes and how did that turn out?

Elena

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