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Monthly Archives: October 2016

I’m super excited to share the news that I’ll be giving THREE workshops at next year’s Historical Novel Society conference in Portland. I’m giving my popular History of Underthings workshop, co-presenting my Georgian and Victorian “kickshaws” workshop with Delilah Marvelle, and I’ll be giving the big Friday night kickoff workshop: Hooch Through History. If you want to join me, registration opens at the end of the month.

As soon as I’d hashed out the details of what they wanted for the Hooch workshop, I saw that Steven Grasse (booze god, creator of Sailor Jerry rum and Hendrick’s gin) was going to be talking about his book Colonial Spirits at a local bookshop. I immediately made plans to go, and I’m so glad I did. His talk was entertaining and informative, and the sample colonial cocktails were amazing.

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Of course I bought the book (research!) and I’ve really been enjoying perusing it. How can you not love a book that’s intro includes: “These drinks may get you drunk. They may put hair on your chest. But they will not, we are proud to say with some measure of confidence, kill you.” Well ok then …

There’s a ton of interesting information in the book (both historical and anecdotal) as well as many recipes that I’m dying to try out! I’ve done a little brewing in my life, and I may have to put that experience (and a few friends and their brewing supplies) to work in the coming months.

I absolutely have to try out George Washington’s recipe for small beer. I know we’ve all read about small beer, and I’ve actually had it at reenactments, but I’ve never made it. In case anyone hasn’t heard of it, small beer (or small ale) is an ale with a low alcohol content that was commonly consumed by people the way we consume water today. I’ve always read that small ale was made by reusing the mash (so brew ale, then brew again, like reusing a tea bag). But George Washington and Grasse disagree. So this is going to have to be attempted.

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Luckily, some of the recipes don’t require brewing and I had all the ingredients on hand. So there was immediate experimentation (in the name of science and history!). My first experiment is the Hop Flip. It’s a combination of rum, beer, molasses, and a raw egg. Flips go back to at least the 17thC. They began as beer, rum, and some kind of sweetener, heated with a hot poker (basically, it’s a type of hot punch, something to warm your bones on a cold, damp night).

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I’m horrified to report that it’s not bad. Basically a lot like a hot, alcoholic egg cream. Not something that will be taking over from the Hot Toddy for me, but I’m not sorry I tried it and I’d totally make it again at an event.

Are there any historical drinks you wonder about as an author or a reader? Let me know in the comments and I’ll try to cover them in the upcoming months.

conker Did you know that in Britain, the second Sunday in October is “National Conkers Day”?? Yes, yesterday you should have pulled out your best hardened-up horse chestnut on a string and challenged some other conker player to a match. What, you didn’t know? Well, I confess I didn’t either until I ran across this factoid while doing research for my current revisions.

So, this time it started because my heroine needed to climb a tree. Not just any tree, but a big old one, tall with spreading branches that would be stout enough for the job –not to mention that earlier in the story a cheetah needed to perch on one of said stout branches of the same tree.  horse-chestnut-tree-4  (I do know that cheetahs don’t climb trees. You’ll need to read the story –The Magnificent Marquess wasn’t originally and in the new version still won’t be your standard Regency romance.)

I thought a horse chestnut ought to do the trick, and they are common in Great Britain in modern times, but –I was pretty sure they aren’t native to Britain. So first thing to check: when were they introduced? Second thing to check: how big can they grow?

I’ve learned that in doing research, assumptions are the biggest stumbling-block (and often the hardest thing to recognize!). That’s where the conkers come back in. I found the info I needed (trees introduced from Persia/Turkey/the Balkans in the 16th century, can grow to 100 feet high). I thought about having children in the story engage in playing conkers since the tree was there.

 

Have you ever played conkers? I haven’t –but my husband says he did in his youth. I was aware of it as a thing people (mostly boys) used to do, and I assumed that conkers was a game well-venerated through the ages, human nature being what it is. And actually, it is. Just not with horse chestnuts.

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2014 World Conkers, photo courtesy Jez Shimell

It seems, at least according to the sources I saw, that in earlier times conkers was played with snail shells, cobnuts, even stones, but conkers with horse chestnuts (they claim) is 20th century. I also saw the date 1848 given in several sources as the year of the first recorded conkers game, on the Isle of Wight. Victorian, and not with horse chestnuts, apparently. Now the World Conker Championships are held in Northamptonshire on the second Sunday in October every year.

1200px-stringing_conkersIt would take some more digging to verify if the sources I saw were actually correct. I did not take the time to look further. Too many rabbit holes out there, and time is always short. Who could prove they were the first person ever to put a horse chestnut on a string? I am not convinced that it was not being done during the Regency, or earlier, but it was also not important for my story. The point is the surprise. So often things I assume are old enough to be Regency turn out not to be. This is just one example.

I love doing research, and I do a lot of it. I like to think my stories “could have happened” even though I made them up. But the hardest part of doing story research isn’t finding the information –it’s figuring out what bits you need to check!

Of course, in the end, the story is what matters most. And all of us story-tellers hope that when the reader is engaged deeply enough, any glitches we missed won’t matter. What research pitfalls have you encountered, as a writer or a reader? If I had tripped over this one, would you have known, or cared?

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Using random.com, Caroline Warfield has selected the winner of her giveaway from her visit with us on Sept 30. A-n-d the winner is: JUDY!! Caroline tells me Judy has already received her choice of either Dangerous Works or Dangerous Secrets, from Caroline’s “Dangerous”series. Congratulations, Judy!! Thanks for visiting us at Risky Regencies!

trafalgar_by_radojavorYesterday was the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Shouldn’t we take a moment to remember it? Famously the battle where Admiral Nelson was killed, it is considered by historians to be hugely significant for a different reason –they cite the battle as the defining point in the power of the British Navy that dominated the 19th century world from then on.

As with most topics, once you poke the surface, there are so many directions to go in! For one, there is the fact that Nelson’s ship, H.M.S. Victory, hms-victoryis still a commissioned British Navy vessel, 257 years after she was built. She is the official flagship of the First Sea Lord of the British Navy. Has anyone visited or seen it?

Then, there are all the artistic renderings of the death of Nelson, a dramatic event guaranteed to capture the public’s imagination, as well as that of countless aspiring and established artists.  Benjamin West’s painting is probably the most famous, with an epic feel in the lighting and composition. death_of_nelson

 

Accuracy was not important to West, who included portrayals of all sorts of people who weren’t actually there, not to mention that Nelson didn’t die quite so instantly. But the same flaws can be pointed to in most of the other paintings –the one by Devis, for instance, which shows Nelson dying below decks in a glow of unearthly light. They were never intended to be a historical record. deathofnelsondevis

Nelson himself was a fascinating character of our period. It just seems like we should give him a passing nod on this anniversary and consider the impact his life and leadership had on the rest of the century that followed after his death. Hats off!!

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Bound by a Scandalous SecretGenna, the heroine of my upcoming book (Nov 22), Bound By A Scandalous Secret, is an aspiring artist who wishes to make her living with her art, but she has grown up in the country and has never actually met another artist, let alone another woman artist. I wanted her to meet a real woman artist of the time period.

My research led me to Amelia Long (1762-1837). Amelia, nee Hume, was the daughter of an amateur artist and she studied under watercolorist Thomas Girtin, a friend and rival of Turner, and also of Henry Edridge, a painter of landscapes, miniatures, and portraits. She painted landscapes which were exhibited at the Royal Academy.

After a trip abroad to Italy, Amelia married Charles Long, a politician and art connoisseur who was a friend of William Pitt and an art advisor to the Prince Regent, who later became George IV.

dover_castle_illustration_by_amelia_longAmelia and her husband Charles purchased Bromley Hill where Amelia redesigned the gardens, which were much admired.

In 1826 Charles became Baron Farnborough.

In Bound By A Scandalous Secret, I wanted Genna to tour Carlton House, the extravagant house of the Prince Regent. In my first version, I just made up a guy, but when I discovered Charles advised the Regent, he was perfect for being her tour guide.

I just love when those sorts of synchronism happen!

Do you have a favorite woman artist?

 

 

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