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Monthly Archives: May 2008

I got a bit of good news last week. NAL is going to reissue my Christmas novella Upon a Midnight Clear in October! This first appeared in the Regency Christmas Magic anthology, and now gets new life along with 3 other random novellas (though I don’t know what they are). I am very excited about this, as UAMC was one of my favorite stories I did at Signet, the tale of an injured Naval captain and a reclusive Jamaican woman who find love and new life together on a chilly Christmas in Cornwall.

I always really looked forward to the Signet Christmas anthologies. There’s just something cozy and fun about Regency+Christmas! I get out my collection every holiday season and pile them up by the tree. Whenever the crazy season gets to me, I curl up with a cup of tea and an old favorite story. That sounds nice on a 90+ degree day like this one.

In other news, May 31 is the 199th anniversary of the death of composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Though he was a native of Austria, and spent most of his career in the service of the Esterhazy family, following them as they moved from palace to palace, he did enjoy some very productive visits to England between 1791 and 1794.

In 1790, Haydn’s employer Prince Nicolas Esterhazy died and was succeeded by a thoroughly un-musical prince who fired the whole musical establishment and put Haydn out to pasture with a pension. Haydn was then able to accept a lucrative offer from Johann Salomon, a German impresario, to visit England and conduct new symphonies with a large orchestra.

These visits were a huge success, with audiences flocking to Haydn’s concerts. Charles Burney wrote of the first concert, “Haydn himself presided at the pianoforte; and the sight of that renowned composer so electrified the audience, as to excite an attention and a pleasure superior to any that had ever been caused by instrumental music in England.”

Haydn was also inspired to create some of his best-known works, such as the Surprise, Military, Drumroll, and (of course!) London symphonies, the Rider quartet, and the “Gypsy Rondo” piano trio.

So, in honor of Christmas coming early, what are some of your favorite holiday traditions? Or some favorite pieces of music (holiday or otherwise?)


Business out of the way first: I am in the final 100 pages of revising my manuscript to send to my *NEW* agent, that should be to her very, very soon (my MIL is in town, so it’s hard to revise heaving bosoms, so it’s a mite delayed).

But tonight, I plan to Sports Geek out, only there are TWO events happening simultaneously:

The sixth game of the Boston Celtics vs. the Detroit Pistons (basketball, folks) and the finals of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

I am so torn! Tall, thin men versus words! How do I choose?!?

Basketball is my favorite sport (to watch–I’ve never played), and I am usually a Knicks fan, but this year, for a variety of reasons, I am rooting for my hometown Celtics.

But then–oh, be still my beating heart–there’s a site where you can see if you would have advanced through the first round of the Spelling Bee, on through to the finals (I’ve made it through the first round, thank you very much, although I don’t have enough time today to see if I make it further).

But basketball! With people that look like this, all mean and intense and TALL and focused:

I think I will be flipping between the two, hardly the only one out there, I am sure.

Do you like sports? What teams do you root for? What Regency pastime would you like to try? Which of your obsessions surprise people when they discover it?

Megan

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Those two words, plus Let’s Pretend… are part of the essential writer’s toolbox (or those of the average six-year-old, meaning that writers haven’t quite grown up yet).

So I like to play a game where I try to translate everyday life into the Regency, partly to amuse myself and partly as research or background building. Take getting up in the morning, for instance. Now my routine is pretty simple. I can get myself up and out of the house (usually with clothes on the right way out and right way around although there have been notorious lapses), with time to check e-mail, in about forty-five minutes.

But in the Regency… first I’d need someone to lace me into my stays, unless I was fortunate enough to own a pair of front lacing stays (at left)–rare in collections, but they did exist. And chances are there would be people around, because people did not live alone, and I’d have a servant or someone to help. In fact there might be rather too many people around. Let us pass over the bathroom issue, but assume some washing might well take place.

Choosing something to wear would probably be quite easy because either I’d opt for morning dress (i.e., slopping around the house wear), or I’d put on the clothes I wore yesterday and every other day except Sunday.

Next, the urgent need for a cup of tea. If I was unlucky the fire might have gone out, although I hope I would not have been so slatternly as to forget to bank it the night before. I might have to pump water. If I had someone to boil the water I’d still be the one to make the tea because I’d have the all-important tea caddy and its key. Someone would also have to look out in the street for the milkmaid and her cow so I could have milk in my tea.

As for breakfast itself–assuming there was anything to eat in the house with the price of bread at an all-time shocking high–if I were higher up the social scale I’d have toast or cake. All more labor intensive than you might think, certainly more fiddly than putting an English muffin (yes, there were things called muffins in England, but the English muffin is neither English nor a muffin) in the toaster. No peanut butter either.

I suppose the equivalent of e-mail would be reading a newspaper (although possibly several days old, passed on by someone I knew) or receiving the day’s post.

And leaving the house for work?–chances are I’d stay home doing piecework, and trying to keep my grandchildren out of the fireplace (note to daughter: this is not a hint). Or I’d leave to clean someone else’s house.

Think of what you’d do at any given time of day. What do you think you’d be doing if you lived in the Regency? What would you miss most? What do you think you’d enjoy most?

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In Megan’s recent post on To Have and to Hold she talked about needing to have just the right bookmark before starting a book. It got me thinking about reading habits.

I am afraid my children and I are not fussy at all about bookmarks. In fact, all of us are so eager to dive into a good book we forget to provide ourselves with one. In my kids’ books I’ve found “bookmarks” including facial tissue (unused, thankfully!), doll clothing, hair ties. I’m not much better. If I can’t find an appointment reminder postcard, I just search all of our current books. Yesterday I thought I lost the case for my reading glasses; later I found it stuck in a book. The silly thing is that I have so many nice bookmarks: beaded and bejeweled ones I’ve gotten as gifts, author bookmarks I’ve gotten at conference booksignings. Every once in a while I make an effort to remember to use them…

In our household, the bathroom is a favorite reading location. Where else can you be truly alone? My oldest stayed in the bathroom over 45 minutes after bringing home the first Harry Potter. We finally had to send a search party… I also like to read in the kitchen, if I’m eating a meal by myself (we’ve got a rule about trying to be sociable at meals) or if I’m waiting for water to boil. I’ve come close to ruining dinner a few times but the good thing is my kids would understand and forgive me!

Sometimes on the weekends when I’m sick of the honey-do list, I will actually sit down, either on the couch in our family room or (now that the weather’s nice) on our closed porch, and just read for an hour or two. Heaven!

I can read any number of non-fiction books at a time but I can only read one novel. I can’t read romance at all while I’m actively writing. It’s not because I worry that someone else’s voice will infect mine. (I’ve never caught myself writing like someone else–I’d have to work really hard to do that, I think.) It’s really because when I’m reading or writing romance, I like to identify with the heroine and fall in love with the hero. I just can’t do that with two couples at once! So I read romance in between drafts.

I used to finish every book I started. If I didn’t like the beginning, I always hoped (for my sake and the author’s) that it would get better. I’ve finally realized that it hardly ever does. I don’t mind if the plot develops slowly but the characters must interest me. If not, I don’t bother finishing. Life is too short and my TBR list is too long!

So how about you? Do you have any reading quirks? What are your favorite places and times to read? Can you read multiple books at once? Do you always finish? Do share!

Elena

http://www.elenagreene.com/

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I have been talking about getting a cat for a while now… Probably a little kitten, who will be a perfect angel and never miss the litter box, and who’ll do the dishes without being reminded and all that other perfect kitten stuff.

And after saying “we should really get a kitten soon” for quite a while, we finally have a date: next weekend.

As it has been several years now, we are surely over the death of our last perfect kitty. He, too, never missed the litter box, could play the complete works of Shakespeare on the piano, and would have done the dishes without a reminder had he only possessed thumbs and the ability to understand English.

(And just to prove how unbiased I am, I will now reveal the fact that one of my sainted cat’s previous housemates referred to him as S.O.S., short for “Spawn of Satan.” Just another example of how not everyone loves Shakespeare.)

With all this cat cogitation going on, I’ve been thinking about cats during the Regency.

Because they certainly had cats. They even had spoiled little pet cats, like my perfect kitten will be. (Though I suspect that Regency kittens played Mrs. Radcliffe on their pianofortes, and helped with painting fire screens.)

There have been plenty of kittens in Regencies — particularly Regency novellas, which (if you think about it) are already kitten-sized. But I’ve done little actual research into the lives of perfect Regency cats.

And I’ve always wondered what they did for litter-boxes. With no clumping litter, did they bother? Did they just make the cat go outside?

Does anyone know?

(By the way, I just thought I should mention that my sainted ex-kitty always refused to play that “thrice the brindled cat hath mewed” part on the piano. I think he didn’t understand that brindled merely meant tabby — which he was, complete with the “M” on his forehead which stood for Multitudes of Mischief — but instead thought that brindled was some sort of slur against cats, perhaps one meaning “refuses to do the dishes until he’s allowed to finish off all the ice cream.”)

Oh, and if you have any cat information, either Regency or nowadays, please share!

All comments welcome!

And be sure to stop by next Tuesday, when we will be discussing the movie Clueless!

Cara
Cara King, who can only play Cymbeline on the kazoo

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