Impulsive Hearts

This week for our How I Write series, my accountability group is sharing shout outs for the people and sites who make our lives so much easier in the research department.If you’re looking for fabulous Regency resources, check out the sites and people listed below.

I’m not sure if everyone mentioned will see this post, but THANK YOU for your interest, your time and love of the Regency Era. You have definitely inspired me on many levels and I can only hope my own blog and pages here are as useful to others as yours have been to me. Again, thank you for all you do.

The Regency Collection and especially for the section on Neckclothitania and how to tie Regency style cravats.

Jane Austen’s World is a wonderful blog devoted to, yup, the world of Jane Austen! Lots of great Regency resources and articles to be found…

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Angela Quarles | Geek girl romance writer

Song playing right now on my playlist: “Me and Bobby McGee,” Janice Joplin

Writing and the Writing Life:

• What could be Worse Than a Cliché? Tiffany Lawson Inman has a quick search you can do on your manuscript that could help you punch up your prose.
• Dear Author reports on a disturbing practice by some self-pubbed authors: When I bought your book, I didn’t sign up to be your beta reader. Kristine Kathyrn Rusch wrote a great post about perfection, and references this new practice in her post. But mainly, at some point you need to set your manuscript down and submit it. Set. It. Down. Can’t get it perfect, and that’s okay. And Rusch tells you why: The Business Rusch: Perfection
• Alexandra Sokoloff posts about how to use the right words to create suspense (or to help build your thematic image system): Perfect words to create suspense (or anything…

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WHAT IS THE BEST AND/OR WORST WRITING ADVICE YOU’VE RECEIVED?

I started thinking about this the other day. The best advice I received was from a friend who used to work in a small European publishing house. It was, “Write three books.” The worst advice I received was, “Try to write like a mid-range author.”

So, what has been the most valuable advice you’ve received and/or the worst?

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Jane Austen's World

A Request from a Graduate Student: Hello Fellow Jane Austen Readers! Have you ever read a published sequel to a Jane Austen novel? Are you a fan of Jane Austen sequels?

My name is Cliff Bryant, and I am a graduate student at Virginia Tech, conducting a research project on readers of published sequels of Jane Austen?s novels. I want to find out how readers came to read the sequels, and whether or not you like them.

If you are interested in participating in my study, just click on the link, and take the survey. It will take less than 10 minutes, and I will release the results in a few weeks, so you can check back and see how you compare to other Jane Austen sequel fans. (Feel free to contact me with questions at cliffbryant@vt.edu.)

(Just to be clear, I am talking about actual published sequels to the…

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WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE EXCERPT?

This is a play on favorite lines. We’ll just take it a little further today. Whether from one of your writings, a movie or a book, post your favorite excerpt. Here is mine from my MS “Lady Caro’s Accidental Marriage.” Lord Huntley left England to avoid being married and Lady Caro was brutally attacked and cannot bear a man’s touch. They are now being chased by an evil Italian marquis to wants to marry Caro. This is the scene where the false betrothal they were thrown into by Lady Caro’s godmother is threatening to turn into a marriage to be performed by Lord Huntley’s cousin.

The next moment, pounding hooves and shouts destroyed the relative silence of the room. Caro’s eyes widened in fright, and she clutched his hand. “He’s here. I recognize his voice.”

Huntley brought her to her feet and held her tightly against him. “Caro, you’re safe. He cannot hurt you. I won’t let him.”

“Nor will I, my dear,” his cousin said as he patted her back.

She trembled like a blancmange, and he was afraid her legs might give way. At least she didn’t look as if she’d swoon. “Follow my lead and try to calm yourself. I will not allow him to harm you. Look at me.”

She glanced up, and he captured her gaze. “I’m here to protect you. Tell me you understand.”

Caro swallowed and hung her head. “Yes, I understand.”

He shifted slightly so that his back was to the door, and she was shielded from sight. Bending towards her, he tilted up her chin. An angry voice reached them, and he whispered, “He’ll be here in a moment. I’m going to place my lips very close to yours, but I won’t kiss you.”

Now she paled. He was afraid she’d faint. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

It was so quietly, he may not have actually heard it.

The door swung open and crashed against the wall and bounced back. “Where is Lady Caroline?”

Huntley turned and before he could open his mouth to reply, his cousin drew himself up, and, with all the authority of a bishop of the English church, said, “I suppose you are referring to the Countess of Huntley.”

Caro’s knees buckled and Huntley grabbed her waist.

Everard sidled close to them and pressed a ring against Huntley’s hand. He took it and Caro’s left hand, sliding it on her finger. “I’m sorry.”

 

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From Angelyn’s Blog

Angelyn's Blog

St. James Square was already beginning to pall as a fashionable area by the time of the Regency.  Yet the simple, classically styled No. 10 survived to become, by virtue of its occupants alone, a salon rivalling any in Kensington and Berkely Square.

No. 10 was purchased by Sir William Heathcoate, a merchant elevated to the peerage.  He married the only daughter of his neighbor in no. 11, the Earl of Macclesfield and one-time Regent of Great Britain.   His family owned the house until 1890.

During that period, the house was leased to a variety of renters, the first being William Pitt the Elder.  When he was Secretary of State, he conducted government business in the house and one time from his bed when he was ill.  The Prime Minister at the time was the Duke of Newcastle.  He had gone to No. 10 to transact some business with Pitt.  The two did not get along.  Maybe that was why…

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What Makes You Put Down a Book, Or Throw One Across the Room?

I am admittedly a picky reader; on the other hand, I will read an author more for the plot than the writing.  I love historicals and historical romances, but when I find inaccuracies, I grind my teeth. Sometimes, not often, the writing is so strong that it can overcome the problems. But because I use a Kindle these days, I download the sample chapters, which has helped a lot. Generally, if someone doesn’t care about research, it is obvious in the first chapter.

So, what makes you put down a book, or throw it?

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From Angelyn’s Blog

Angelyn's Blog

In 1874 Macmillan & Col published a leather=bound set of memoirs on Holland House.  The author was the Princess Marie Leichtenstein.

“As it was, we must think its publication a mistake….It is impossible to say what is the central figure in it.  Holland House, Charles James Fox, the mutability of human fortune, Napoleon’s snuff-box, or the knights who dined round Holland House’s table.”–The North American Review, 1874Well, what can you expect from an American critic?Her Highness was brought up in Holland House when the 4th Baron Holland and his wife, Lady Mary Coventry, were in residence.  Lord Holland was the last of his line and the couple had no children.  They adopted a little girl and she was christened Marie “Mary” Henriette Adelaide Fox.  She was thought to be Lord Holland’s illegitimate daughter by another woman, but this circumstance seems to have posed no impediment.  After all, she married a prince.

“When ladies get hold of…

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From The Regency Redingot

The Regency Redingote

Perhaps not exactly a death-trap, but the side-saddles in use during the Regency were nowhere near as safe as the side-saddles now ridden by modern-day equestriennes. All of those intrepid heroines of Regency romance novels who have ridden their horses astride may have been flaunting convention, but they were also much safer riding in that style than they would have been on a Regency-era side-saddle.

A brief account of the development of the side-saddle and how it was used during the Regency …

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Great post from Jane Austen’s World

Jane Austen's World

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and how true it is in this instance. George Scharf the elder, a popular genre painter of the early 19th century, was also a prolific drawer of ordinary scenes in his adopted city of London. One can study his drawing of the Mail Coach Bound for the West County, 1829, endlessly, imagining many tales while thinking back on the history of coach travel. This mail coach is being readied at the Gloucester Coffee House on Piccadilly, where so many mail coaches left at night. The horses are waiting to pull this heavily laden wagon. They will pull it for 15 miles before they will need to be changed. Even with improved roads, the coach will not be going much faster than 7-8 miles per hour. Scharf drew this scene in 1829, a year before the first passenger train would be…

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