Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Highlighting the facts behind the fiction with Jude Knight on mourning in the Regency Era. In the novella I am currently writing, my duchess is coming to terms with being a widow and, at the same time, losing her job. So I’ve been checking up on mourning customs. As in so many things, we look […]

Lifting the Fallen Women

Highlighting the facts behind Historical Romance with Jude Knight. In Georgian and Regency England, women who had sex out of wedlock were regarded as ‘fallen’. (Unlike men who had sex out of wedlock, who were only doing what came naturally, according to the opinions of the time.) It’s hard to know how many of those […]

Her Own Little World

I’ve been working on my story for the Bluestocking Belles’ next collection. Here’s a tidbit for WIP Wednesday, grabbed at random from my choppy draft. It appears right after the riot at a lecture on Habeas Corpus. #amwritinghonest *** Doro you idiot. You should have let him accompany you to find Chloe. You should have […]

Into the Slums with Aldridge

I travel. Sometimes I travel by boat, plane, or automobile. Sometimes I travel by book. Sometimes I explore the real world. This week I rambled through the worst sections of London with the Marquis of Aldridge. I wouldn’t normally dare go to St. Giles, Seven Dials, the Devil’s Acre etc., the lairs of thieves, murderers, […]

The Horned God and the Lake District

Highlighting Historical Romance with Barbara Monajem and the facts behind her newest release. I like to put little tidbits of historical detail in my stories—perhaps because that’s the sort of detail I enjoy reading, too. My new release, Lady Rosamund and the Horned God, takes place in the Lake District in England. I’ve been there […]

Private charity and the Great Slums

Highlighting the facts behind Historical Romance with Jude Knight and her Children of the Mountain King. In Regency Britain, one in ten families lived below the ‘breadline’, and at times as many as two in five. Many people were precariously balanced on a knife edge where illness, accidents or old age could tumble them into […]

Female Pugilism in the Regency Era

Highlighting the facts behind historical fiction with Edie Cay. Boxing was the sport of the Regency era. Pugilism was considered the noblest and manliest pursuit, and thus, the most English of pastimes. Male prizefighters were celebrities, gaining fame and fortune, but women also fought for sport. I based the character of Bess Abbott, the heroine […]

Off to Lincolnshire

Sometimes I travel by boat, plane, or automobile. Sometimes I travel by book. This week I traveled up to Lincolnshire by coach with Jade Lee and Lord Satyr. There is nothing ordinary about this little gem. The heroine is a standout, a fascinating woman with what we would now call issues (or perhaps suggest she […]

A Fortune in Pearls

When Kate escapes from her brother, she takes with her a pearl necklace, her inheritance from her mother. With this, she hopes to be able to establish herself in some sort of business. Now, this may sound unrealistic in this day and age. After all, you can buy a pearl necklace for less than a […]