Back to Top

Category: Regency

“Mistorical?”

Updated on by

I think it was the fine folks over at Dear Author who coined the phrase “Mistorical” to describe historical romances that are, for lack of a better term, light on the accuracy. “Wallpaper Historical” is a similar term. Mistorical, I believe, is intended to describe not just books that are light on the factual accuracy, but books that appear to be set in a world that never existed. It’s a Meta-Regency setting as opposed to an actual-Regency setting.

The term mistorical is a bit perjorative in that it implies something that is wrong — hence the Latin prefix mis. There is a suggestion in there that perhaps the author is not aware of any errors. Although I think that’s true for some authors, I’m not sure about that as a blanket statement.

The Meta-Regency

The meta-Regency is, for me, a world that never existed and, moreover, is a world that the author and reader very likely both understand did not exist. The stories are built on a set of Regency signifiers that the savvy reader instantly recognizes and navigates.

It’s a world where a woman’s Empire gown can be removed by unfastening a few hooks, no one goes to Church or is genuinely afraid for their immortal soul, and no one blinks an eye when a woman demands to know why she can’t go to Oxford, as if the unfairness ought to be patently obvious (even though, historically, the “fairness” of that prohibition was so obvious as to not need discussion). Reform is in the air and the hero supports it. There may well be sexy lingerie, even though sexy underwear didn’t exist. There are horses and carriages, slippers and ballrooms, eleven o’clock tea and the use of the word “rather” in place of the modern intensifier of “fucking.” I rather think that’s awesome, my lord instead of Dude. That’s fucking awesome.

A Less Meta-Regency

Then there’s the historicals that exist in a Regency constructed through use of a greater set of known facts. In this sort of historical you are unlikely to find a heroine who decides to dispense with her corset in the name of fashion. This heroine might recognize the unfairness of not being allowed to go to Oxford, but she will also be aware that the weight of public conviction is against a change in the policy.

These books tend to explore the impact and meaning of these very real power legal and cultural imbalances and the ways in which the hero and heroine can both transgress those boundaries.

Tomayto Tomahto?

While I enjoy and tend to prefer historicals that are strong on the history, I also enjoy historicals that appear to be set in this Meta-Regency period. I have read and re-read certain “Wallpaper” historicals multiple times.

I’ve reached the point, however, where I don’t feel these two kinds of books should be lumped together at all. When I’m in the mood for the Meta-Regency, I wish I knew a quick way to find one, other than by author name. And when I want a book that gives me a more historically accurate grounding, I wish I could more easily find them, too.

There’s nothing worse than finding out you’ve just paid money for a Historical romance only to find you have a meta-Regency world instead.

So, where do you stand? Do you have a preference? Do you care? Opine in the comments.

Posted in Former Riskies, Reading, Regency, Writing | Tagged , , | 13 Replies

A Little Help?

Updated on by

I heard from a reader who told me she was looking for historicals that were less graphic. She enjoyed mine, but skipped over the sexier parts.  I recommended the traditional regencies of our own Elena Greene, of course, as well as those of Candice Hern and some of Mary Balogh’s older traditional regencies.

Fellow Risky Readers, I am throwing the question open to you. Besides Heyer, what other writers do you recommend for someone who is looking for the emotional impact of Romance, but that is less graphic in content?

Feel free to recommend contemporary stories, as well. I don’t believe she’s looking for Inspirationals. Basically, I think she wants Lord Ruin (the historical of mine she’d read) but without the graphic sex. If anything, I am even more graphic now so I was not able to point her to my other books.

Thank you in advance!

Posted in Former Riskies, Reading, Regency | Tagged , | 11 Replies

Research Book

Updated on by

I think it was last week I was pretty annoyed by a book that should have been available via Google Book search but wasn’t: The Epicure’s Almanack, written by Ralph Rylance in 1815. An academic had written about it, then published the book with a forward, which was selling originally for $50. Just typing that cheeses me off again.

Anyway, the divine Isobel Carr owns a copy and she has loaned it to me because she is awesome that way.

Danger Lurks!

I am now living in fear that the dog or the paper chewing cat will damage the book. This is not an idle worry. Here’s a picture of some of the dog’s recent work:

Bad Dog. Photo by Risky Carolyn

Bad Dog. Photo by Risky Carolyn

And here’s the cat’s handiwork, as you can see below. I believe she expects to have completely consumed this box by late 2017. She plays a deep game, this cat. Suppose she finds the book and thinks it’s tasty? (Sorry Isobel!)

See? Photo by Risky Carolyn

Bad Cat. Photo by Risky Carolyn

And so?

Yeah, so anyway, I have this borrowed book that is at high risk of mayhem because it would cost me a fortune to replace it. Having flipped through it, I must grudgingly confess it might be extra useful because of the footnotes. It’s a great resource and Ralph Rylance has quite the amusing voice. In fact, anyone interested in absorbing the flavor of Regency London would do well to have this book at hand.

I’m off to look for a used copy…

Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Research | Tagged , , , | 7 Replies

One day, After All the Editors Went Home, the Slush Pile and an Abandoned Marketing Research Plan Partied Hard

Updated on by

I’d like to continue Diane’s discussion about Historical Romance. I’ve now been writing long enough that I have “survived” cycles. At least twice since I published my first novel (a historical romance!) the Historical has been declared dead. Vampires have been dead. (BWAHAHAHAHAAHAH! Ohmygod you have no idea how fun that was to write!) Westerns: Dead. Contemporary Romance: Dead. Romantic Suspense: Dead. Zombies: The Walking Dead.

What I have continued to hear throughout my writing life is that Regencies sell and sell a lot. You can’t sell Victorian! ::::Courtney Milan:::: You can’t sell Edwardian ::::Sherry Thomas:::: You can’t sell Georgian ::::Jo Beverly:::: No more Scotsmen! And for God’s sake, not Culloden! ::::Monica McCarty::::

For a long while, the Angsty Historical was IN IN IN!! Right now, they’re a hard sell. Oh my GOD!! Nobody tell Cecilia Grant!  And what about lighthearted historical romances? Are they In or Out? The answer is yes.

Publishers will always buy more of what’s sold in the past, and they will keep doing that until 1) people stop buying them and/or 2) someone comes along with an extraordinary book that breaks with the past– because editors, while of course they buy what’s sold in the past, also, from time to time, buy a damn good book that isn’t like what’s popular. And should that damn good book break out, then of course publishers will buy more of that, too.

Now there’s self-publishing thrown in there. But first, what’s the one thing publishing DOESN’T do that every other company does? Yes. Market testing. Publishing doesn’t survey the end-user. They don’t focus group covers or (to my knowledge) A/B test anything. Publishers know next to nothing about what readers are inclined to buy. The traditional market, driven by middlemen who purchase for Big Stores, has removed publishers from the consumer who would, in the aggregate, buy more varied books except that the middleman (the stores who buy lots and lots of only a few books) has artificially whittled down the selection.

In other words, the genetic diversity required for a robust, healthy population withered away in the face of a dangerous inbreeding. The problem with limited diversity is you don’t realize it’s unhealthy until the offspring are dying. Or one of the studs or brood mares dies. In this somewhat tortured analogy, the offspring are the books, the studs and brood mares are the Big Chains.

One day, After All the Editors Went Home, the Slush Pile and an Abandoned Marketing Research Plan Partied Hard

Nine months later …..

A baby!!!

They named it Self-publishing. But all its rowdy friends call it Indie for short.

Because, really, what is self-publishing but one big genetically diverse market test for publishers? Setting aside all the missteps so far, self-publishing is a crucible from which shiny new kinds of stories emerge market-tested. Traditional publishers can watch what catches on, and place their bets with greater confidence than before. 50 Shades proved there’s a bigger market for erotic romance than they knew. “New Adult” showed up in self-publishing first. If publishers manage to get their Beer Goggles off, they may find they’re in a good place.

Oh, Historical, Where Art Thou?

As the publishing ecosystem continues its transformation, we’ll see Indie authors do riskier things with their stories — and they can do it because they don’t have to listen to anyone tell them they can’t publish a story with THAT in it. They can write in the mid-Victorian period if they want. And maybe that story will crash and burn because (all other things being equal) what readers want is a Regency. Or a Vampire. Or something else. But there WILL be new and different historicals.

So. What do YOU think?

Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Writing | Tagged , , , | 10 Replies

In the Parlor with the ?

Updated on by

I’ve been working away on my next Sinclair Sister’s novel. I keep getting interrupted with other work. Hoo boy. However, having realized the other day that I had started the book in the wrong place—

Actually, that gives an incorrect impression that somehow I would have known the REAL chapter 1, if only I were a smarter, better, writer. What I should say is I realized that my current chapter 15 would be an EXCELLENT chapter 1 and that the book will be much much better for moving all the chapters around. It happens that that are currently only two chapters after 15. When I wrote my actual first words, they were a place for me to jump in.

NOW I can get to my post

Anyway, I’ve been working on Lucy and Thrale and thinking about them a lot even though because of all the interruptions I haven’t gotten in as many words as I’d like. And then I realized that I need a place for Thrale to live. I gave him a vague location in Lord Ruin, but now I need to know about the interior and his relationship to it.

This meant I pulled out my reference books to start looking at pictures and diagrams and about five minutes later I started getting annoyed at whoever deiced homes should be build with 8 ft ceilings instead of 10 or 12 feet and THEN I started wondering about the kind of ethos in which a class of persons, who cannot help but see people living in squalid homes, build themselves houses that big and that spacious.

Sometimes, when I’m staring out my window thinking about a plot point, or character issue, I think wouldn’t it be nice to be a bird? Because then I wouldn’t have to go to work. I’d just flit around all day looking for seeds or bugs or what have you. Plus, birds don’t stay up too late and then remember 4.5 hours later why it was a bad idea to keep reading :::damnalarmclock:::

And THEN I remember that birds also do not have grocery stores. They have to get their own food ALL THE TIME and there are predators who think of them as dinner.

There WAS such a thing as Bad Taste

And so, as I flip through the pages of my Lost Mansions of Mayfair, glad, after all, that I am not a bird, I see photographic evidence of people with a lot more money than most. Some of them built big houses and then decorated the decorations until you think your eyes might actually bleed. It is in fact, possible to go too far with the bling. Seriously. There must have been some snickering going on with people who thought bling is an additive property. MORE!! MORE!!! Byzantene Good. Rococo Great! Byzantine AND Rococo BETTTER!!!!!

Then again, suppose you hired cheap with the architectural work and when you come see your new home for the first time? GAHHHHH!!! And you blew your wad on someone who thinks there’s no such thing as too busy.

While I’m on the subject, sometimes I see pictures of period gowns and I think the dress is ugly. There. I said it. Some of those dresses had too much frilly crap all over the place.

Thrale’s Fate?

So, what kind of house does Thrale have? I think maybe his father had awful taste…..

ETA: Sorry about the late post! I put the wrong date when I scheduled it. Sheesh.

Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Writing | Tagged , , | 3 Replies