An Arrow of Righteousness

My current focus is on The Forgotten Daughter. Deadlines loom—Yikes! This one begins with a shop clerk in Manchester on the brink of ruin. *** Frances Hancock—Fanny to those who cared—always knew she was a bastard. Her mother’s husband made sure of that. She didn’t know her father was an earl until her mother died. […]

Consanguinity

The list of those a man may not marry begins with Mother, Daughter, Father’s mother…Son’s daughter, etc. and continues down a long list that includes such unlikely situations as marriage to one’s Daughter’s son’s wife The entries pertinent to my research were:Father’s daughterMother’s daughter Why did it matter? The hero of The Forgotten Daughter is […]

Weary and Sad

The week dawns with your author weary and sad. The end of last week and the weekend brought several phone calls about friends and associates in health crises, some of them covid-related, and the unrelenting drum beat of bad news from California, Louisiana, Haiti, and Afghanistan. It is down right debilitating! But I managed to […]

WIP: Fanny’s Daydreams

***** What would a hero do if a lady in need appeared on his doorstep? Lift her gently in his arms and carry her inside? Fanny puzzled over the question as she rode down Clarion Hall’s lane in a pleasant little gig, Mr. Benson at the reins. Sally forth, sword in hand, to attack the […]

Gigs and Pony Carts

…there were a variety of types of vehicles made to transport passengers in use in the Regency era. A carriage is a horse-drawn four wheeled vehicle; a coach is a variety of carriage with four corner posts and a fixed roof. Private carriages generally required 2-4 horses and were expensive to buy and maintain. Wealthy […]

WIP: Eli’s Troubles

A bit for WIP Wednesday. I made start on The Forgotten Daughter. A young woman in Manchester has discovered the identity of her natural father. Her siblings need help and she is determined to get it. Meanwhile, Eli Benson is feeling entirely too self satisfied. Two points of clarification. Earlier in the chapter Eli notes […]

Travel by Mail Coach

That the coaches carrying the Royal Mail in the first half of the 19th century took passengers and were superior to travel by stage coach in a number of ways. They were faster. They stopped for nothing. They even flew through toll gates. They traveled at night Their schedule was strict and predictable They had […]

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 Slums of London in Regency England

Highlighting the Facts behind Historical Romance with Jude Knight Like any big city, London has always had slum areas. In the early nineteenth century, they were noxious and dangerous. I’ve been studying them for the last two novels in my Regency series, The Return of the Mountain King. In 1800, over a million people lived […]