A writer’s lifestyle and place in the world can be physically (if not digitally!) isolating. Jessica Andersen, author of romantic suspense and paranormal romances, notes that many authors prefer to “be in our pajamas in front of our computer not having to be social and not having to be extroverted.” However, the fictitious worlds of authors are boundless, and can [...]
Filed under Interviews · Tagged with archaeologists, Cameron L. McNeil, characters, Chocolate in Mesoamerica, contemporary romance, Debbie Macomber, historical romance, Jessica Andersen, Mayan civilization, mythology, Nightkeeper, paranormal romance, research, Robyn Carr, small town, Susan Wiigs, worldbuilding, writing
The theme of my two Regency novels, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander and Pride/Prejudice, is the m/m/f ménage told as a romance, a love story with two happy endings. At the end of the novels, the hero—a conventionally masculine man—is in loving relationships with his wife and a male partner, and each partner is aware of and accepts the [...]
Filed under Talking About Romance · Tagged with 1600s, age, Ann Herendeen, arranged marriages, economic marriages, egalitarian, England, fashion, Ganymede, gender, GLBT, homophobia, identity, Kit, law, love, marriage, ménage, Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England 1700-1830, Pakistan, Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander, Pride/Prejudice, prostitution, Regency, research, Rictor Norton, sexuality, social heirarchy, Stephanie Coontz
One of the topics that comes up a lot among historical writers is what research books are essential. If you ask your top 10 favorite authors, you’d probably end up with a pretty impressive research library (and I’d love to see other authors tell us about their Must Have Books in the comments). Here are mine. I think these books [...]
Filed under Behind the Scenes · Tagged with 1700s, 20000 Years of Fashion, and Marriage in England 1500-1800, archetypes, aristocracy, arranged marriage, children, clubs, courtship, divorce, domestic life, economic marriages, England, Enlightenment, family, fashion, food, François Boucher, gentlemen, Georgian, Hannah Glasse, Hardwicke Marriage Act, illegitimacy, inheritance, Isobel Carr, law, Lawrence Stone, love, Mark Bence-Jones, marriage, Middle Ages, mourning, Peerage Law in England, peerages, Randolph Trumbach, Regency, remarriage, research, Road to Divorce, Season, servants, sex, Sharon Laudermilk, Sir Francis Beaufort Palmer, social history, social mobility, statistics, Teresa Hamlin, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, The British Aristocracy, The Family, The Family Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, The Regency Companion, The Rise of the Egalitarian Family: Aristocratic Kinship and Domestic Relations in Eighteenth-Century England, the ton, theatres, titles, upper class, values, Victorian, wives, worldbuilding
As the title of this post probably tells you, I’m a librarian for my day job. I don’t normally wear my hair in a bun, but I do sport a pair of glasses and have been known to shush people while at the reference desk. More than that, I’ve got the cute, curly blonde thing going for me, so when [...]
Although I mainly write erotic historical romance set in the Regency time period, I still like to get the facts right. I graduated with honors from the University College of Wales with the equivalent of a Masters degree in History and if I learned anything from that experience, it was how to do my research efficiently. And, back in my [...]
Filed under Behind the Scenes · Tagged with Ackermann's Repository, architecture, biographies, Blood of the Rose, Charles Hamilton Smith, decorative arts, fashion, fashion plates, heroes, history, Kate Pearce, keepers, King Richard III, Kiss of the Rose, London, Mark of the Rose, Paul Laxton, Philip J. Haythornthwaite, primary sources, Regency, research, Shakespeare, Sir Thomas More, soldiers, The A to Z of Regency London, The History of King Richard III, Tudor, uniforms, vampires, Waterloo, Wellington's Army: The Uniforms of the British Soldier 1812-1815
For 20-odd years I have been collecting research books. I started at some point during my teens, and have by now amassed a rather eclectic collection that covers such diverse topics as the medieval warhorse, castle-building, British teapots, doll houses, anatomic waxes, secret societies, and erotic art (complete with amusing illustrations of Roman oil lamps). While at first I simply [...]
Filed under Behind the Scenes · Tagged with 1800s, A Country House Companion, architecture, Baedeker, Behind the Scenes: Domestic Arrangements in Historic Houses, Ben Weinreb, Black Forest, Captain Gronow, Castle of the Wolf, Christina Hardyment, Christopher Hibbert, Christopher Simon Sykes, clubs, Crockford's, daily life, dining, Eustace Ude, Germany, Great Houses of England and Wales, guidebooks, Henry James, His Reminiscenes of Regency and Victorian Life 1810-60, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, London, Lord Byron, Mark Girouard, Murray, Murray's Hand-Book for Northern Germany, National Trust, Newstead Abbey, Penrhyn Castle, primary sources, publishers, Regency, research, rural life, Sandra Schwab, settings, The London Encyclopaedia, visualization
I have a confession to make—I’m a lazy researcher. With apologies to Carolyn Jewel who posted here last, I try to always write what I know. That way I don’t have to research. Don’t get me wrong, I take my hat off to authors who write historicals or make up new and amazing worlds because the research that must be [...]
Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged with Addie Collins, Amy Andrews, Australia, doctors, Italy, London, Nathaniel Montgomery, nurses, Positano, research, setting, Taming the Tycoon, The Italian Count's Baby, U.K., write what you know, writing
When Carrie Lofty and I sat down to write the Vegas Top Guns series, we did it as a lark. A fun time. We’d both just finished solo historical romances and while we weren’t nearly so foolish as to think writing contemporary romance would be easy, we at least thought we’d get a break on the amount of research we [...]
Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged with BDSM, blogging, Captain Leah Girardi, Carrie Lofty, Dossie Easton, Double Down, femdoms, Fifty Shades of Gray, giveaway, Hold 'Em, Inside Bet, Janet W. Hardy, Katie Porter, Lorelie Brown, pilots, power play, research, role-playing, sadomasochism, The New Bottoming Book, The New Topping Book, toys, Tumblr, Vegas Top Guns
