What was life like for the widows of Jane Austen’s world? When a woman’s husband died, she was expected to spend a full year (long enough for a baby conceived in her marriage to be born) in full or deep mourning. During this time she was expected to dress in all black, refraining from public appearances. Movie adaptations of Sense and Sensibility portray Mrs. Dashwood in widow’s weeds. The next six months she would wear subdued colors like … Continue reading →
What do you do when someone opens their mouth and stupid falls out? So, yeah, we recently had a doozy of a week. You know the kind where you seem to get hit by stuff on all sorts of fronts—some that seemed to appear out of nowhere just to keep things ‘interesting’ in the ancient Chinese curse sort of way. I just love ‘interesting times’ don’t you? After finishing off the week with half a … Continue reading →
#64 Crazy Stalkers Ever have the feeling that you’re being watched? I certainly do. Twelve shiny eyes seem to follow me around the house, wherever I go. Even if I close a door behind me, pink jellybean toes reach for me as high pitched voices cry out in anguish at my absence. In short, I have a band of personal stalkers. Some days, I grant you, the attention is nice. The writing life … Continue reading →
So what’s wrong with a little romance? According to a regency era perspective, nearly everything. It’s Valentine’s Day and there’s romance in the air. What’s wrong with a little romance, right? Especially in the pages of a good book. A regency romance; the hero and heroine looking longingly into each other’s eye, declaring their deepest love for one another. She weeps as she lets him know how she was waiting for this moment, as everyone … Continue reading →
I always love getting to ‘dress the set’ as it were of my books with bits and bobs from the era. Food is often one of those bits; the sights and smells and tastes of a place are so evocative, aren’t they? So I often find myself in a deep dive looking for what my characters would have been eating and what it would smell and taste like. In my last book, one of my … Continue reading →
