Love is worth the risk
Or, villains in other words! Last week my work in progress came to a grinding halt. After a few days of dazed staring at a blank screen I realized that I had no idea what my villain was up to. Not really. I had built in a small mystery but not enough. This fueled a […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Edie Cay about Ladies boxing in Georgian England Regency England is a well-researched topic. I was able to use plenty of respected secondary sources that compiled information, like maps and descriptions of London. However, when researching Regency boxing, sources became very focused, and when researching women’s participation boxing, resources were […]
If you don’t participate in the Belles’ Brigade (the Bluestocking Belles’ street team on Facebook) you missed an interesting discussion last Saturday. The topic for Saturday Brunch was group projects—how a group of highly creative friends goes about creating a collection of stories to publish. Let me summarize it. As you can see, keeping everyone […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Bronwyn Parry on historical wool textiles. Calamanco, camblet, lastings, shalloons… chances are, you may never have heard these terms. They’re the names of various worsted (wool) textiles that have virtually disappeared from our cultural memory, and yet they were once so common that everyone in Georgian and Regency Britain would have […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Jude Knight’s thoughts on inspiration in a garden Creative inspiration is an amazing thing. Artists — storytellers in particular — are often asked where their ideas come from. The answer ‘everywhere’, though true, is unhelpful. What questioners really want to know is ‘why did this idea strike you at this time’. […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Cerise DeLand on the little details that make an English house a heroine’s home. I’ve often delighted in touring English houses. In every nook and cranny, I’ve found little joys that I’ve tried to add in my novels. In my fictitious Dudley Crescent that I invented for this series, Delightful Doings […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Nina Beaumont and insights into the Congress of Vienna. I have just released SAPPHIRE MAGIC, book 1 of my 5-book Fearless Women Historical Romance Series. The story takes place during the Congress of Vienna, and I would like to tell you a bit about this fascinating period. If my heroine, Arabella […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Jude Knight on gun rights and constitutional law in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. I was researching English gun rights before the recent massacre in my peaceful little country. I wanted to know what English law said about armed retainers in the early nineteenth century, because I want my characters […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Valentines From Bath You might think a novella, shorter and often simpler than a full novel, would not require much research. You might be wrong. Writers of historical romance always begin with questions. Questions breed research. Sometimes they lead us down the infamous rabbit hole. One thing to keep in mind: […]
Highlighting Historical Romance with Jude Knight I’m doing the pre-format check of the Bluestocking Belles’ latest box set, Valentines from Bath, and I’ve been creating relevant advertisement to use as breaks between stories. To get them correct, I’ve dived into one of my favourite research resources: the British Newspaper Archive. This database offers nearly 30 […]