Back to Top

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.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Updated on by

I am still holding onto the vision of having a nice writing room, but progress is slow. Here are my new bookcases, or should I say, five of them. I ordered six of these stackable bookcases, but found that the bottom shelves on two of them were broken, apparently damaged in transit. I duly called up the store and they said no problem, put the broken ones out for UPS to collect and they would ship me new ones. So I thanked the nice customer service person and did as she recommended. I packed up the two broken units, lugged them down the stairs and put them out, thinking at least I didn’t have to lug them back to UPS.

About a week later, two more arrived and I crossed my fingers that they would be intact, despite the fact that the boxes looked even more roughed up than from the first delivery. So I was not entirely surprised to find that the first box I opened contained yet another bookcase with a broken bottom shelf. At least the second one I opened was good. Once again I talked to a very nice customer service person and put the broken bookcase out for UPS to collect. I really don’t know what I’m going to do if the next one arrives damaged–maybe I’ll have to drive to the nearest store that carries them. There isn’t one within 100 miles, but at least I could make sure the bookcase makes it home intact.

Also in the things-not-working-as-hoped department, I need some roller blinds for the master bedroom. I measured the desired width–37 inches. then apparently I went downstairs and wrote down 27 inches. Again, I worked with a very nice lady at the store I ordered from, and despite it being my error, she took the blinds back and ordered me new ones.

I am grateful for good customer service people, but I’m also longing to be settled in and writing on a regular schedule! Please tell me that will happen eventually. Also, please feel free to share any recent misadventures or bloopers, so I know it isn’t just me. Thanks!

Elena

Posted in Risky Regencies | 1 Reply

Looking forward to spring (I will explain)

Updated on by

Hello.  Some of you may know that I recently moved to a new house. I had originally planned to leave the landscaping/garden alone for a year to get a feel of everything, and start planting next spring. However, I recently realized that if I don’t plant spring bulbs now (there are just a few, sadly isolated tulips right now), I would have to wait until spring of 2020. That’s just too long!

So I’ve looking through online catalogs and thinking about what I’d like.  Where I lived before, chipmunks ate my crocuses and deer ate my tulips. So I mostly just enjoyed my grape hyacinths and my daffodils.

Spring bulbs could have been a part of a Regency family’s flower garden. One of my go-to references for Regency gardening, William Cobbett’s The English Gardener (1820), mentions many of our favorites, including snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips.

Tulips were introduced to England sometime in the late 1500s. (Here is a wood block print of tulip types by John Parkinson, printed by Humfrey Lownes and Robert Young at the signe of the Starre on Bread-street hill, 1629.) There was a “Tulipomania” craze in the early 1600s, when bulbs reached prices 10 times normal, which broke in 1637. Tulips continued to be grown after that, of course, but became more wildly popular again in Victorian times.

Some interesting information on tulips: History of Tulips from the Heirloom Gardener

To learn more about the history of tulips in England and where you might see some good displays, check out “Tulips Through Time” from English Heritage.

For my own garden, I am going with a palette of mostly blue, pink, and purple (my daughters’ and my favorite colors), along with some white.

I am thinking about Siberian squills (Scilla Siberica) for early color. Cobbett lists a type of squill in his book but I think it is Scilla Italica.

For daffodils, I am thinking of going with a variety that did very well at my previous house.  It’s called “Ice Follies”. Its cups start out yellow and fade to white, and it has a leasant scent.


I also want some hyacinths. These are listed as “English wood hyacinths” which makes them sound similar to bluebells, which I think are in the hyacinth family, but these are actually Hyacinthoides Hispanica.

I’m still mulling what tulips I would like. I’m pretty sure I want pink, but there are many kinds I like. One is called “Angelique”–I had planted some of those at the previous house, where they looked lovely until the deer bit them off, leaving sad green stalks behind. I also like lily-flowered tulips, and these more conventionally shaped ones, called “Pink Diamond”, which are a lovely color.


What do you think? Which of these tulips do you like best? Do you have favorite bulbs you like to grow?

Elena

Posted in Regency, Research | Tagged , , , , | 2 Replies

Progress on the Writing Space!

Updated on by

My writing room hasn’t changed too much from the last picture I posted–boxes and boxes of books, still unpacked, alas.

However, I have been making progress on replacing the home office furniture that didn’t make it around the bend in the staircase of my new house: my big desk and a tall bookcase. I have ordered a bunch of stacking, folding bookcases from the Container Store. I had originally thought about ordering bookcases that could be assembled in the room, but then how do I get them out again? These should make it in and out (even though I AM NEVER MOVING AGAIN) and have a lot of good reviews, so I am hoping they will be sturdy enough to hold my writing library and some of my other books as well.

As for the desk, I decided to go back to a local antique store where I’d seen a lovely small desk last winter. My daughter had tried to talk me into buying it then, but it didn’t feel right to buy more furniture while trying to downsize. Luckily for me, the desk was still there, and the already reasonable price had been reduced by about 30%. Maybe it was meant to be.

Although the nice lady at the store called it “Regency”, I believe, based on the price and its similarity to some of the other vintage/antique furniture I own, that it is no earlier than Edwardian and more likely to be around 1930. Which doesn’t matter to me at all, because 1) I could afford it, 2) it will make it up the stairs, and 3) it’s really pretty! I think it would not have looked out of place in a Regency lady’s drawing room.

 

Early “desks” were often just portable writing boxes with a slanted top and a little storage inside, and then could be placed on top of other tables. Here’s an illustration.

Jane Austen used a portable desk like the one picture. Here’s a JASNA article about it.

Small desks like mine could be seen as an evolution: adding legs to the portable desk. Here’s an image of a lady from Costume Parisien with a similar small desk, or escritoire. This one is of a type called a “cylinder desk”, a precursor of what we call “roll top” desks.

Mine can be called a “drop front” or “slant front” desk. Here’s an example of one that is c. 1810, so they were definitely around.

Further evolutions of this sort of desk  added bookcases above and/or drawers or cabinets below.  I have seen all variations sometimes called “escritoires” and sometimes “secretary desks”. The term “secretary” does not refer so much to the occupation as the fact that there were places in the desk to “secret” things away.

Anyway, I am really happy with mine, and looking forward to bringing it upstairs once the bookshelves arrive and I can unpack all the books. In the meantime, I have been going out to local coffee shops to write. I have friends who say they work best in clutter, but I find it distracting and a bit guilt-producing, because I feel I should be cleaning and not writing.

How about you? Can you work in chaos or do you prefer a tidy workspace? Do you have any favorite items in your writing or office space?

Elena

Posted in Research, Writing | Tagged , , , | 8 Replies

Apologies, hope to be back soon!

Updated on by

Moving has kept me from a lot of things I enjoy–like hanging out at the Risky Regencies. This move has been more problematic than most, and I’m still dealing with items that were damaged by the Movers from Hell and other matters.

The new house has plenty of room for me, my college student daughters, and our stuff–even our books! But it lacks proper storage–especially for our books! This picture is of my future writing room. My writing desk didn’t make it around the bend in the stairwell, so I have bought a new one and will pick it up once things are more settled. Although is not quite Regency era (I am guessing early 1900’s) it makes me think of what a Regency lady might have used. I will post a picture once I get it home. One of my largest bookcases didn’t make it up the stairs (sob!) so I am planning to buy some modular shelving that can be built inside the room. For now, everything has to stay in boxes, and my writing remains on hold until I get other, more critical areas of the house functional, like the kitchen (although I did find the coffee maker).

Anyone have stories to tell of past moves. Advice for coping until I can find things?

Thanks for your patience, everyone. I will be back soon, I hope!

Elena

Posted in Risky Regencies | 5 Replies

House Hunting!

Updated on by

She was busily searching through the neighbourhood for a proper situation for her daughter, and, without knowing or considering what their income might be, rejected many as deficient in size and importance.

“Haye Park might do,” said she, “if the Gouldings would quit it — or the great house at Stoke, if the drawing-room were larger; but Ashworth is too far off! I could not bear to have her ten miles from me; and as for Purvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful.”

For the past few months, I’ve been busy selling my current house and looking for a new home, and like Mrs. Bennet in the quote above from Pride and Prejudice, I have been thinking about locations and room sizes. If I were as unrealistic about my means, I might also be dreaming of a stately home in England. Googling around, I found this list of stately homes for sale at the Telegraph: “Buy Your Own Downton Abbey” (I couldn’t find a date for this, but if you’re in the market for a stately home, I guess you could inquire!)

I rather like Mynde Park Estate, in Herefordshire, parts of which date from the 11th to the 18th century. Can’t you just picture coming up this drive in an elegant carriage?

By Roger Cornfoot, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67645180

Langham Hall, in Norfolk, is also very pretty. And it has an orangery!

By Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14339309

Since I am not, in fact, as unrealistic as Mrs. Bennet, I managed to find a nice house within my budget. Although the wheels are still turning on both house sales, it looks like this will be my new home. Although it does not boast an orangery, it does have a cute porch!

Have you had any interesting experiences house hunting?  What would be your fantasy home?

Elena, hoping to get back to writing soon!

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged , | 5 Replies