Guest Kara Louise: The Fascination of the Regency

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome Kara Louise, whose latest book is the Pride and Prejudice retelling Only Mr. Darcy Will Do. Here she tells us about her fascination with the Regency.

Leave a comment with your email address for a chance to win the copy of Only Mr. Darcy Will Do which Sourcebooks has generously provided. Kara will select the winner. Check the comments to see who won, and how to contact me to claim your book. If I cannot contact the winner within a week of the selection, I will award the book to an alternate. Note, Sourcebooks can mail to USA and Canada addresses only.

And the winner Kara selected is Chelsea B! Chelsea, I've sent you an email. Thanks to all for coming over.

Welcome Kara!

Thanks for inviting me back with you today to celebrate the release of Only Mr. Darcy Will Do. I’ve been asked to share about my favorite Pride and Prejudice character and two things that fascinate me about the Regency era. I am going to cheat a little on both topics.

Let me preface my first answer by saying this: In writing the variations of Pride and Prejudice, it is the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy that are truly my favorites. I love Mr. Darcy’s enduring love and desire to change himself for the better, whether or not he will ever have the chance to win Elizabeth’s affection. I love Elizabeth’s wit and intelligence, and that when she realizes the error of her judgment concerning him, she is able to not only see him as the good man he is, but readily falls in love with him.

But Jane Austen gave us a wide host of characters with such unique personalities that it’s almost a joy to write any of them. If I’m in the mood to be cruel, I can write a scene with Lady Catherine de Bourgh or Caroline Bingley. If I want to be evil, what better person to write than George Wickham?

Foolish? Mr. Collins. Silly? Mrs. Bennet. Shy? Georgiana Darcy. Sarcastic? Mr. Bennet.

But other than Lizzy and Darcy, the character I really enjoy writing is Col. Fitzwilliam. He doesn’t have a very big part in OMDWD, but he does have some good scenes in the prologue of the book, getting things rolling (and a smaller part toward the end). I always enjoy allowing him the opportunity to banter back and forth with his cousin, the fastidious and controlled Fitzwilliam Darcy. He always adds a bit of levity to the scene, usually to Darcy’s chagrin!

Col. Fitzwilliam converses easily, teases his cousin mercilessly, and unwittingly moved Darcy to feelings of jealousy when he seemed to find a rapport with Elizabeth at Rosings that Darcy was not able to do. He is, however, as loyal to his cousin as anyone can be. I like that about him, too.

And here I must clear up a misapprehension. Jane Austen never gives us Col. Fitzwilliam’s first name. Several stories have been written using the name Richard, and many assume that is his correct name. While it sounds right, I chose to use the name Patrick in this particular book. I hope you don’t mind.

As for the second question, I shall talk about only one thing I find fascinating in the Regency because it pertains to my book. That is, what it was like for a governess, since Elizabeth finds herself in this position after her father’s death.

A governess would have had to have all the manners and genteel upbringing required to raise the children in a like manner. She would have been educated so that she could teach the children in most subjects, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, grammar, and even some needlework. For some subjects, like music or painting, a master may have been brought in.

She was considered beneath the family for whom she worked, but was above the servants in the household, which often left her without anyone in the household who was her equal.

Finally, a lady became a governess usually due to some financial burden within her family that forced her into this employment.

I’ll explain this by using Elizabeth Bennet as an example. She was born and raised as the daughter of a gentleman. Despite not having a governess herself, as she told Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she loved reading and probably taught herself a lot. Despite having a silly mother, she was able to learn and exhibit the countless good manners that were expected of a young lady.

When her father dies, her family is suddenly without any substantial source of income. The house is entailed away, and when Mr. and Mrs. Collins move in, the Bennet ladies all move out. I chose to have Mrs. Bennet and the three youngest daughters move to Meryton with Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. Jane takes on a governess position with the Gardiners in London, and Elizabeth goes to work as a governess for six year-old Emily Willstone.

Even though the Bennets had not been very wealthy, they were an esteemed family, but now Elizabeth’s station in life is essentially quite a bit lower. Despite the fact that she would have previously been on slightly more equal terms with the Willstones, she now is beneath them.

She is fortunate that the Willstones treat her kindly and give her time on Sundays to visit the Gardiners and Jane. When Mrs. Willstone’s sister, Rosalyn, comes to visit, she and Elizabeth enjoy each other’s company. But Elizabeth can only attend the balls and theater and dinner parties vicariously through Rosalyn, who relates to her all that took place at these events when she returns from them.

Elizabeth eventually finds herself with the Willstones at Pemberley after being invited by Mr. Darcy, a long-time acquaintance of the Willstones. There she begins to see the good in the man that she was blinded to before, while realizing how much more beneath him she now is, despite the fact that her birth, manners, and education have not changed.

I hope this has made you curious enough to see how things work out between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and you will want to read Only Mr. Darcy Will Do.

Thanks again for having me here.

ONLY MR. DARCY WILL DO by KARA LOUISE
In this fresh and original retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet’s greatest fear comes to pass—Longbourn is entailed to Mr. Collins. Elizabeth finds work as a governess in London, widening the social divide between her and Mr. Darcy and making it more difficult than ever for them to find their way to each other...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kara Louise grew up in the San Fernando Valley and moved to the Midwest in 1991, where she enjoys the relaxed pace of the country. She began writing about nine years ago, first with a story inspired by her genealogical research. But that took a back seat when she discovered the writings of Jane Austen. She has written six novels based on Pride and Prejudice, including Darcy’s Voyage, answering the “what happened next” and the “what ifs” in Elizabeth and Darcy’s story. She lives with her husband outside Wichita, Kansas. Visit her at http://karalouise.ahhhs.net/

History of Alarm Clocks

Ever wonder how the servants managed to get up hours before dawn? I mean, clocks haven't been around that long. Perhaps before they were invented , a nightwatchman or a night servant awoke the others.

However, clocks have actually been around for about 600 years. The first mechanical clocks appeared sometime in the 14th century, typically the huge ones set in towers like Big Ben (only it was made in 1858). By around 1620, Household clocks became common, and some of them even had alarms. Alarms have a "cam" that rotates every 12 hours. A lever falls into a notch which releases a train of gears that drives a hammer onto a bell over and over until it runs down. Later they had shut-off control which was a lovely addition, don't you think?

One of the earliest alarm clocks circa 15th century is a German iron clock with a bell. It was found in Nuremberg. The clock measured19 inches tall and has an open framework.

A lantern clock from about 1620 has an alarm set disc on front of the dial. A grandfather clock circa 1690 has a 30 hour hanging timepiece alarm.

Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire has been credited as the inventor of the first alarm clock in 1787. However, his alarm clock has been clearly predated by the German and English. When English clockmakers emigrated to the United States, they brought this skill with them.

Simon Willard of Grafton, Massachusetts, crafted alarm time timepieces called “lighthouse clocks” in the 1820's. There are also American wooden works shelf clocks which were made ain the 1820's and 30's which have alarms similar to many brass movement shelf clocks of the 1840's.

For further reading about alarm clocks from the 1500's, see “The Clockwork Universe, German Clocks and Automata 1550 - 1650,” Maurice and Mayr, 1980, Smithsonian, Neale Watson Academic Publications, New York. The book “Early English Clocks” by Dawson, Drover and Parkes, Antique Collectors Club, 1982, documents some early alarm clocks.

Guest Kiki Howell: Playing With The Old Rules

Linda Banche here. Today I welcome Kiki Howell and her latest book, the erotic Regency paranormal, Torn Asunder. Here she talks about those strange-to-us Regency rules of propriety.

Welcome Kiki!

When writing from the point of view of the women and men of Regency England, I find it fun to play with the rules and restrictions and systems of etiquette set by the aristocracy to set themselves apart from the masses. For example, the gentler sex, as women were referred to, could not renounce the system, live free of the social conventions of the times, but it is entertaining to let your heroine think upon it and the possible outcomes of such actions.

Propriety demanded that emotions be controlled in public, even though swooning was readily accepted among the women. But my heroines, they fight the body's inclinations to faint and rant and rave about injustices behind closed doors. I like them to fit in, obey the rules, and yet be strong and smart at the same time. Are there a lot of scenes in my books that are ‘behind closed doors’ then? Of course! In my newest novel, Torn Asunder, my heroine also has magical powers she has to hide as well. Her way of covering for her study of magic was to call herself a bluestocking, a woman who was highly educated since in the early eighteen hundreds in England women were not generally educated as much as the men.

If you think the odds are against my main gal there, well, I kept going. Arranged marriages were common with certain restrictions on the fond idea of marrying up. I set my heroine in a lower class and had her fall in love with a man whose family had already established who he was to marry. She had a lot working against her as she tried to live within the bounds of the old rules of the upper ten thousand. And, I enjoyed immensely playing with each situation. To me, it is half the fun of setting your story during those times. It builds suspense, complicates the romance and leads to interesting situations in a time in history that seems magical to me even before I add paranormal elements to it.

What is the other half of the fun you may ask? Well, frolicking within the homes, planning the meals, making the social calls, dressing up in the garments and establishing the businesses of the time. Of course, that is not even to mention visiting the pleasure haunts of Regency England like Vauxhall Gardens and such.

So, I hope you will enjoy my newest novel as much as I did writing it. Fraught with scenes of explicit intimacy, romantic spells and mystical shapeshifting, Torn Asunder is a unique blending of the age of manners with sexual magic.

Torn Asunder BLURB:
Aubrey Griffen is a witch whose true reasons for coming to London soon fall to the wayside when she catches the eye of Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalysbury. He seduces her into a whirlwind romance until the lies and threats of his mother force her to flee to Triaill Brimuir, a secret island of her ancestors off the coast of Ireland. Edmund goes after her only to be hit by Aubrey’s confusion and anger when she magically transforms him into an elemental beast of her own creation.

However, it is when Edmund’s lust mysteriously turns him back into a man that the couple are forced to deal with a family secret and untold of powers. Now, Edmund must learn to shift himself into the beast in order to save her in a battle of black verses white magic.

Genres: Historical (Regency), Paranormal (Witches & Shifters), Erotic Romance

Purchase at in ebook or trade paperback at Excessica Publishing or Amazon as well as many other retailers.

Insult like a Shakesperean Character

Ever wanted a really fun, creative insult without resorting to profanity or crudeness? Here is a list of Shakespearean insults guaranteed to bring on laughter, or at least, looks of puzzlement. Simply choose three or four and string them together for the ultimate insult.

Here are the insults and their meaning:
chutless - rude
danish - damp/must
errant - stray
fobbin - lying
gotbellied - fat
loggerheaded - foolish
quailing - weak
saucy - insolent
unmuzzled - talkative
beef-witted - foolish
dizzy-eyed - nauseated
ill-nurtured - badly educated or trained
milk-livered - cowardly
onion-eyed - crying
pottle-dep - drunken
weather-bitten - decayed
codpiece - rogue
lewdster - sexually indulgent

So there you are. Any character you create, from the Elizabethan Era to the Victorian Era, or anyone who might have a colorful vocabulary, can throw a series of fun and unusual insults. Or, if nothing else, memorize a few for the next time you want to really shut someone up ;-) Happy insulting.

Warming Our Beds through History

In Medieval times, a servant or the woman of the house heated a stone or brick at the fireside, then wrapped it in cloths and carried it quickly to the bed. By the 16th century, people were using pans filled with smoldering embers from the fire itself. The brass or copper warming pan hung by the fire. At bedtime, hot fuel was put inside, and the warmer, carried by its long handle, was rushed to the bed and rubbed between the bed linens.
Some of these warming pans had pierced patterns, and some were elaborately decorated. The piercings allowed oxygen to reach the embers, making the heat last longer, but the bed would smell of fumes and there was always a risk of scorching the linens. Also, in parts of the UK, peat was burned as fuel, which would have made a most unpleasant smell in the bedroom.
In the 19th century, closed warming pans might hold either fuel or hot water. Some of these pans, especially decorative or silver ones, were handed down, generation to generation.
Here is an insight as to the importance of warming pans. It is from Cora Millet-Robinet’s Domestic Economy, 1853.

A copper warming pan is indispensable to a household. Take care to have a big enough quantity of embers, above all some red cinders, when you want to heat a bed. Get it smouldering well before you use it, otherwise the fire will soon go out and the bed will not warm up. You must move the warming pan constantly to avoid scorching the sheets.

Novel Time

Even in the make-believe world of fiction, time matters. In my Regency novellas, time plays a prominent role.

In Lady of the Stars, my time travel, when the heroine, Caroline, suspects she's traveled into the past, she asks Richard, the hero, what the day is. He answers the day is Wednesday, July 9, 1817. I checked. July 9, 1817 was a Wednesday. Here's the calendar for 1817.

I selected that date on purpose. Astronomy is a prominent part of Lady of the Stars. Caroline and Richard fall in love as they observe the stars. Bright moonlight washes out the stars, so part of the storyline had to occur when there was no moon to interfere.

From Lady of the Stars: "The clouds thinned that very day, and the next five nights were clear and moonless, perfect for observation."

These five nights occurred on days 4-9 of Caroline's sojourn in the past, July 12-16. According to the calendar, the new moon occurred on July 14. The new moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset, so was not in the sky to interfere with their observations.

Romantic Times Book Reviews gave Lady of the Stars a 4 star review (contains spoilers). From the review: "a quick read and a delightful short romance." Thank you, Romantic Times. Lady of the Stars was also a finalist in the 2010 EPIC EBook Competition in Science Fiction Romance.

Pumpkinnapper, my Halloween comedy, also makes use of the moon's phases. The story starts on September 28, 1816, at the moon's first quarter. Here's the 1816 calendar.

The times for Pumpkinnapper were more complicated because most of the action occurs in the dark after moonset. I found the times for moonrise/moonset using the US Naval Observatory website. The times are valid only with the correct latitude and longitude, which I found at the NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS) .

At first quarter, the sun rises about noon and sets around midnight. Corrected for the latitude and longitude of Lindsell, Essex, England, using the above sites, moonset on September 28, 1816, occurred around 10PM.

Each day, the moon rises and sets about an hour later. The Pumpkinnapper climax occurs on the night before full moon, the night of October 4-5, when the moon sets after 3AM.

Here, Hank, the hero, waits until he can go to Emily's, the heroine's, house to try and catch the pumpkinnapper: "Hank glanced at the clock on the mantle above the fire. Only midnight. Moonset was at three, so he couldn't leave for at least another hour."

Why did I pick the dark after moonset? All kinds of things happen in the dark.

Pumpkinnapper is a finalist in the 2011 EPIC EBook Competition in Historical Romance.

In Mistletoe Everywhere, my Christmas novella, the climax occurs on Christmas Eve, 1814: "The almost full moon’s light glinted off the snow to bathe the area in a silvery glow." December 24, 1814 was two nights before the full moon. 1814 calendar here.

And in my upcoming Gifts Gone Astray, the climax occurs on the night of July 2-3, 1817: "The waning moon, a little past full, sailed high in the now-clear sky." The full moon occurred on June 28.

Do you like this level of detail in your stories?

Thank you all,
Linda
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!
http://www.lindabanche.com

Ladies Regency Fashion--"Undress"

The Regency era brought dramatic changes in women's fashion. Those huge hoop skirts and pinched waistlines popular in the Elizabethan Era disappeared in favor of the Roman style gown with high waistlines and lighter fabrics.

Ladies of the Beau Monde changed her clothing at least three different times a day depending on the time of day and her activities. Because the aristocracy and upper crust were so steeped in tradition and manners, they had no trouble following the rules. However, I have no doubt that arrivistes and the rising middle class found this custom bewildering.

UNDRESS
The term Undress, or dishabille, was the more casual or simpler style of gown worn at home usually in the morning. These were loose, comfortable gowns made with warmer fabrics and had higher necklines than gowns worn later in the day. Ladies often wore a cap in the morning, too. Ladies wore Undress gowns all morning until noon, depending on scheduled outings or visitors. On a quiet day, a lady might wear Undress until four or five in the afternoon. Sometimes undress gowns were quite decorative. Alison Steadman as Mrs. Bennet in the 1996 film version of Sense and Sensibility wore a morning gown in the film that closely resembled an 1815 Ackermann fashion plate. The actresses playing the Dashwood women often wore an apron or pinafore over their dresses when picking herbs or working in the kitchen. I don't know how accurate this is, or if they only did so because they were not overly wealthy and had to be very careful with their clothing.

Mornings were a time for solitude and tending to the house. For the lady of the house, her morning activities were fairly regimented. After rising, dressing, and eating breakfast, she consulted with her cook and housekeeper, and caught up on her correspondence.

Young ladies such as Jane Austen often practiced the pianoforte first thing in the morning. Ladies also read, sewed, wrote letters, made preserves, and oversaw the gardens.

When I'm staying home, I like pajama pants or stretch pants and a big soft T-shirt. (My favorite writing attire) Of course, if I were to tell my husband I planned to wear undress today, he'd imagine something entirely different ;-)

What do you like to wear when you're at home?