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Monthly Archives: October 2008


Happy Halloween! My little Gene Simmons is off at school, coming home tonight so Mommy can apply face paint and rhinestones.

I am looking forward to Falling Back, that is MY treat this year.

In writing news, I am considering changing my heroine’s name. Right now, it’s Alys, which seemed to suit her when I started, but now I am not so sure. I thought about Hyacinth–courtesy of some spam email–but that seems too frilly for my heroine. Perhaps you have some thoughts?

She looks like this picture here, she is smart, knows what she doesn’t know (in other words, is well aware she is out of her depth dealing with her current situation), is wryly witty and interested in new experience (enter: The Hero). She has freckles, too, and I am considering adding other ‘flaws’ so she’s not divinely, perfectly beautiful.

Until I have the name right, I can’t write the character. I will be browsing through name books, mainly Withycombe‘s Oxford Dictionary of Christian Names, but I wouldn’t mind some help.

Do character names jar you if they don’t seem right? What’s your favorite name for a character? How important is a character’s name in terms of defining the character?

Thanks!

Megan

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I learned from Laura Schaefer’s entertaining book about personal ads that the very first was placed by a woman seeking a husband in Manchester in 1727. So I thought I’d share a few with you. Most of the Regency era ones are very polite, or they seem to be:

If the Gentleman (supposed a Foreigner) who kindly took a YOUNG LADY from No. 13, Charlotte-street, Rathbone-Place, to Bristol, the beginning of September last, will appoint a Place and Time of Meeting with the Advertiser, whose discretion and secrecy may be relied upon, it may be attended with real benefit to the young Lady. Direct to D.G., at John’s Coffee-house, Cornhill.

Mysterious stuff. The ad was placed on December 31, 1801, in The Times, a full three months after the journey. Surely this young lady’s journey with a nameless foreigner did not result in a pregnancy? Was it an elopement that went wrong?

Or how about this one, from June, 1804, in the chapter entitled A Little Bitter, Are We?

TO M-AM-E. “Forget” you? By Heaven I cannot! Engraven on my soul is your memory, in deepest characters, which time vainly will endeavour to efface, contracted as now must be its span, since without one remonstrance, one expostulation, you can resolve for ever to forget me. Wherefore, then, often warned, persist in exciting a reluctant, indeed, but never more unfeigned sensibility, only to wound it? DO I DESERVE THIS? Is it generous? Is it equitable? But severe no longer, welcome now, is the mandate of authority, enjoining oblivion of ORL-O.

Personals were not always anonymous. Here’s an excerpt from one placed in 1802 in the Ipswich Journal:

Sir John Dinely, of Windsor Castle, recommends himself and his ample fortune to any angelic beauty of a good breed, fit to become and willing to be the mother of a noble heir, and keep up the name of an ancient family ennobled by deeds of arms and ancestral renown …. favor him with your smiles, and paeans of pleasure await your steps.

So what happened? Sir John died a bachelor six years later. Perhaps despite his pedigree, maybe he didn’t meet the basics, as defined by a modern Craigslist personal: Please have all or most of your teeth. Hair is optional.

Personals were not restricted to the educated, the literate, or the upper class. Here’s a fascinating one from The Times, dated 1832, in the Just Plain Strange chapter:

Run away last night, my wife, Bridget Coole. She is a tight, neat body, and has lost one leg. She was seen riding behind the priest of the parish through Fermoy; and, as we never married, I will pay no debt that she does not contract. She lisps with one tooth, and is always talking about faries [sic], and is of no use but to the owner.–Phelim Coole, his X mark.

Didn’t Phelim mean he wouldn’t be responsible for any debt the one-legged lisping femme fatale might contract?

Confession time. Have you ever placed or answered a personal? Had a blind date, or used an online dating service?

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Last night we finished carving our Halloween pumpkins. I felt some doubt that this was a custom during the Regency, despite Halloween anthology covers like this one, so I thought I’d look it up.

The History Channel identifies the origin of Halloween with the Celtic rituals of Samhain and says people have been making jack o’lanterns for centuries, carving scary faces into turnips (pictured below) or potatoes and setting them in windows or near doors to frighten away evil spirits. It also says the practice is related to an Irish legend of a stingy blacksmith named Jack and the Devil (read more here).

I found the same story at www.jack-o-lantern.com which also says that when the word first appeared in print, it referred to a night watchman or man carrying a lantern. Halloween History says the word was used for the phenomenon of ignis fatuus, lights appearing over bogs and marshes. For all I know, both may be true. I didn’t have time to search further!

Halloween History also says that:

“Throughout Britain and Ireland, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or swede. But not until 1837 does jack-o’-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the carved lantern does not become associated specifically with Halloween until 1866. Significantly, both occurred not in Britain or Ireland, but in North America.”

So yeah, people probably did carve jack o’lanterns during the Regency, though they may not have called them that and probably wouldn’t have used pumpkins, which Cobbett wrote was “a thing little used in England”. I also think it was a country custom, not something the gentry or aristocracy would have done except perhaps on a whim.

Anyway, here are our creations. My kids are still into Greek mythology, so we have Medusa, the Minotaur and the Cyclops.

Anyone else doing anything fun with pumpkins…or other vegetables? That you’re willing to share, of course. Planning costumes for themselves, children or pets?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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To begin with, a little scheduling:

Next Tuesday, join us when (through the Jane Austen Movie Club) we’ll talk about our favorite heroines in Jane Austen movies.

And the following Tuesday, I’ll finally unveil JANE AUSTEN’S “PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.”

(I meant to have it ready for today, but I was kidnapped by a masked man who kept me busy with vocal warmups all evening…)

Now, the topic of the day:

Gateway Regencies!

After all, if a gateway drug is something that lures the inexperienced on to using more and more drugs…

then a Gateway Regency is clearly a Regency that gets a reader hooked on the genre.

So…what Regencies were your Gateway Regencies?

Which ones lured you to try more, and more, and more…

until reading Regencies was…

more than just a terrific means of entertainment…

more than just a great way to relax…

more than just a window on the past…

more than just a mentally stimulating pastime…

but became a way of life.

(Or a great fantasy life!)

Have you gotten anyone else hooked on Regencies?

If so, what Gateway Regencies did you supply them with…

or recommend to them?

Which books, which authors?

Did you ever recommend a fabulous book, which ended up being not the best book to hook someone with?

If a friend came to you today, and said she (or he) wanted to give the Regency genre a try…

and asked you what Regency to start with…

which book or books, or author or authors, would you recommend?

What sort of books in general would you recommend? (New, old, short, long, mostly history, mostly romance, mostly comedy, or what?)

Or are you of the opinion that Regencies are your private little world, and you don’t want your friends and family to read them too?

All answers welcome!

Cara
Cara King, who could be crushed under the weight of the Regencies she owns if there’s a big enough earthquake

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