-
Confessions of a Georgette Heyer Addict
I’m not actually certain when I read my first Georgette Heyer. I know it was her anthology of Regency short stories, Pistols for Two, because I vividly remembered both the cover and several of the plot lines decades later, but I must have read it before the age of twelve, because the memories are inseparably connected to a specific armchair that didn’t survive much past that. I also entered a tomboy phase about then that precluded my even entertaining the thought of such drivel as historical romance. But inevitably my tomboy phase ended and I swung to the other side of the pendulum, yearning for romance. In my inexperience, I…
-
Anatomy of a Regency Inquest
During the Regency, the British had a constitutional dislike of police, believing that an organized police force would undermine the ideals of the kingdom. So when there was a crime, they had to rely on local magistrates and volunteer constables to take care of things. Occasionally, people would enlist the aid of the Bow Street Runners in London (that’s a post for another day). But when the crime involved a suspicious death, the coroner was called in to decide if someone was responsible and if that person deserved to pay for the crime. The title “coroner” comes from the Latin “coronus,” meaning crown; from the Middle Ages, the British coroner…
-
Entails: the Real Deal
Entails are familiar to most of us---but how they are broken is another matter.
-
The Senses and Sensibility
What was up with Marianne Dashwood and Catherine Moreland anyway?
-
The Truth about Romance
Romance hasn't always meant what we think it means.
-
Finding Connections
I often feel like a great pretender as an American writing about the Regency, but my genealogist husband pointed out my own valid connection.
-
Auld Lang Syne
Let's remember the times we were good, and the times that were good to us, and move forward for old times' sake.
-
Not Your Average Occupations
"It is amazing to me," said Bingley, "that young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are... They all paint tables, cover screens, and net purses."
-
To Be Transported
When I decided to write Regency romance, I chose to emulate the writing style of that era because I want my readers to connect deeply with my characters and their stories, and I believe that is most likely to be achieved when the time and place which I am describing is as authentic as possible.
-
My Regency Love Affair
Few eras in history are as romanticized as the Regency era. But what is it about that time in history that so many of us love?
