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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.

A few weeks ago, I attended my third Playford Ball!

Our local Playford Balls are where those with a lot of experience in English Country Dance get together to dance a lot of very difficult dances, both old and new. Many folks dress up — and as English Country Dance was popular for a long stretch of time, the costumes come from a variety of eras!

My two favorite parts of the ball were

(1) dancing two particularly tricky dances: “Hortonia” and “Whately Barn” (which were both designated “for those who know,” and were therefore not called); and

(2) watching one particular dance from the balcony above: the intricate patterns flowed into each other with such smoothness and beauty and it was a true joy to watch.

So: if you were going to invent a country dance, what would you name it?

Cara
Cara King, who learns country dances by practicing with her stuffed animals

And remember: next Tuesday, we’re discussing BRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

Here are some photos I took…

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Megan’s post about Ridiculous Teenagers got me thinking about a related aspect of Regency heroines. Along with a trend toward somewhat older heroines, there’s also a trend toward more sexually experienced ones. For instance, I’m noticing more widow and courtesan stories. But even among unmarried heroines, there are fewer of the old-style naïve virgin.

Personally, I find the extremes—either the clueless heroine raised under a rock and the unmarried lady who somehow knows everything and even what it’s called—need some setup to make them believable.

Just because Regency misses were not supposed to know anything about sex doesn’t make me think that was always true. There probably were some who were so closely chaperoned and secluded that they had no opportunity to figure things out. I could buy that in a story, based on the author’s setup, and I wouldn’t despise a heroine just for being ignorant (we all were once). But I also don’t like to equate “ignorant” with “innocent”.

I think there were ways a girl might have learned things, intentionally or accidentally. She might have overheard servants’ gossip. Living in the country and observing animals might spark curiosity–though I think it could lead to some funny mistakes, too! Gentlemen often owned some pretty explicit materials: books, pictures, naughty snuffboxes and the like. Though they probably tried to keep these items out of sight of ladies of the house, there could have been the Regency equivalent of stumbling onto an older brother’s Playboy stash. Moreover, if the lady had many sisters, or a large circle of friends, and especially if she went to a girls’ boarding school, I’d bet that at some point she might hear something from someone who heard it from someone else. Of course, the knowledge a heroine gets some of these ways might still be incomplete or incorrect—which could be interesting story fodder!

I could also imagine that if the heroine were raised in an eccentric, bohemian, liberal sort of family, she might know things that most didn’t. We also don’t know what mothers (or older sisters, or married friends) might have told a young bride-to-be. They might have told her to “think of England” but what if the friend or relative was herself the heroine of an earlier romance? What kind of advice might she give?

I don’t want all heroines to be alike, so for me, as long as the author has set up her background appropriately, I’m willing to believe just about any degree of knowledge.

What about you? What do you think they might have known? What sorts of unmarried Regency heroines do you find believable?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com


Turns out my local power company is about to turn out my electricity for two hours — the price of living right next to an electrical substation, I guess!!! (Or is “price” the wrong word? Because isn’t a price something you pay in exchange for something that might have worth? Ah, words…)

Anyway, due to prices or costs or random electron-associated proximities, this will be a quick post.

WORD SWORD: a metaphorical sword which one can use to divide the words (and phrases and usages and spellings) which one likes from those one does not.

So…my word sword chops down, and when the dust clears, I see:

ON THE GOOD SIDE…i.e. words and phrases I particularly like today:

iconography
happenstance
altruistic
minimalist
butterfly
miscellany
concatenation
paucity
surfeit
plethora
biscuit tin
And pretty much anything Oscar Wilde ever said.

ON THE BAD SIDE…i.e. words/phrases/spellings that I don’t much care for (or hate passionately) today:

atall
alot
alright
walla
impact (as a verb)
Left Coast
all intensive purposes
venerable
ichthyology
executive
chick flick
condominium rentals

So….what does your word sword show today?

All answers welcome!

And remember: the first Tuesday of October, our Jane Austen Movie Club will be discussing BRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

Cara
Cara King, who has a paucity of butterflies and a plethora of biscuit tins in her West Coast home, where ichthyologists dine with her (or come in the evening, at any rate)

My oldest daughter has grown so much over the summer that she needs a full-size violin and now my youngest says she wants to play too, itching to get her hands on the 3/4 size hand-me-down. Over Labor Day, my oldest tried several instruments in Cleveland and fell in love with one. So yesterday I drove 50 miles to get it from Fedex (long story), took it to my daughter’s teacher. She replaced the A-string that had broken in transit and then gave the instrument a proper workout, including excerpts from the Bruch violin concerto, before giving it the thumbs up. Whew!

It’s all worth it, even listening to all the fumbling and squawking and buzzing of beginner efforts (and I’m going to go through that all again this year). Because after a time, the hideous sounds give way to music and there are few experiences to beat watching your kid play in an all-county orchestra in a real concert hall (2nd chair, 2nd violin but who’s bragging?)

There are many instances, real and fictional, of Regency ladies playing the pianoforte or harp, but I’ve never read about one who played the violin. I vaguely recall once hearing that it was considered ungraceful. In contrast, playing the pianoforte could show off good posture and provide opportunities for flirtation (the helpful beaux turning the pages, singing along, etc…) and playing the harp would be a good way to show off pretty arms.

As I checked into this further, I found a review of several studies on the emergence of professional women musicians. I’d love to read the actual studies sometime, but the review itself listed some more interesting reasons for the unwritten ban on lady violinists:

As Gillett notes, the early nineteenth century public found female violin playing “inappropriate, improper, and aesthetically jarring.” Violins were compared to the feminine body, “most fittingly performed on by a worshipful ‘master’.” Moreover, male virtuoso violinists played with great expression and body movement, which was considered inappropriate for women. Further, violins had a long literary association with sin, death, and the devil, making them dangerous for the weaker sex.

Heavy stuff! But not surprising. I’d already learned that there was a similar prohibition against ladies playing Beethoven on the pianoforte. I deliberately had the rebellious heroine of The Incorrigible Lady Catherine play a Beethoven sonata…and got one of the highest compliments ever from a CP, who thought Catherine should have smoked a cigarette afterwards! 😉 Maybe sometime I’ll write a Regency heroine who plays the violin, but only if it it’s in character and important for her to do so.

While the tension between personal creativity and cultural restrictions can make for interesting stories, but I’m glad we’ve moved beyond that. Although I haven’t had much opportunity to hear women soloists recently, some of my favorite violin recordings were performed by women.

I love this collection of music by Vaughn Williams, featuring Iona Brown (1941-2004) who not only performed on the violin but also directed the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. If you click on the link, you can listen to excerpts including “The Lark Ascending” which I think is truly sublime.

Another favorite female violinist is Tasmin Little, whom I saw play the Sibelius violin concerto while I lived in England. I had to get my hands on the recording. The Brahms is good but the Sibelius is wonderful, intense and passionate. Unfortunately this recording is now hard to find but she has made many others. If you’re not familiar with her playing, listen to the free downloads in the “Naked Violin” section of her website.

Finally I will leave you with a video that would have proper Regency folk reeling:

Why did I not even know about this series? Did it ever appear on BBC America?

Do you enjoy reading about musical heroes or heroines in Regencies? Do you have favorite violin pieces, composers, performers? Links to share?

Elena Greene
www.elenagreene.com

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And now…by popular demand…and against the express wishes of my cat…I bring you the almost complete
Part the First
of
THE RIME OF THE VULCAN MARINER:

(N.B: the beginning of this appeared in an earlier post.)

It is a space-age mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
“By thy verdant skin and too-sharp ears,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

The star bar’s doors are opened wide,
And I’m expected in;
My skirt is small, my hair is tall,
And Kirk will buy me gin.”

He holds her with his skinny hand,
“The Enterprise–” quoth he.
“Hold off! unhand me, blue-shirt loon!”
But Spock cannot agree.

He holds her with his mental meld–
The busty babe stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Vulcan hath her will.

With Captain Kirk forgotten now,
She listens full of fear;
And thus spake on with logic cool,
The man with pointy ear.

“The ship was cleared, no Klingon feared,
Steadily did we warp
Beyond the Earth, beyond the moon,
Beyond Tau Ceti Four.

“The ship that’s trapp’d in solar heft
Is quite a sight to see.
It shines so bright, that time’s not right
And muons all go free.

“Higher and higher every day,
Till every moment’s noon–“
The leggy babe then missed the rest,
For she heard a tribble croon.

“Jim Kirk hath paced into the bar,
Yellow his tunic’s sheen;
Quaffing a glass of Scotty’s best —
I know not, but it’s green.”

The guest-star fair, she tore her hair,
Yet she cannot choose but hear;
And thus spake that half-Vulcan man,
The space-age Mariner.

“And now the Klingons came, and they
Were tyrannous and strong:
They struck us from their ships with wings,
Which to Romulans once belonged.

With failing shields and flagging warp,
As who pursued with phasers sharp
Beholds the bridge dissolve to quarks
With wormholes straight ahead,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
Into the sun we fled.

And now there came the photon blow,
And it did wondrous hurt:
And tongues of fire made us a pyre
As red as Scotty’s shirt.

And while we stewed, the Klingon crew
Did fire unending blows:
They knocked out Rand and Sulu too–
And singed the captain’s clothes.

They hit us here, they hit us there,
Till only pain we felt:
Off chairs we fell, for, truth to tell,
We have not one seat belt.

to be continued…

And be sure to stop in on the first Tuesday of October, when our Jane Austen Movie Club discusses BRIDE AND PREJUDICE!

And thanks to Trusty Todd for the Scotty’s Best stanza…

Cara
Cara King, who has never met a cross albatross

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