Rambling in Chester

Eli had legal business with the bishop. I stopped to enjoy the medieval cathedral. Its construction dates to the eleventh century, the sort of date that makes my American jaw drop. It was built by the Benedictines and survived the dissolution of the monastery by being promoted to cathedral in 1541. Goodness. It also survived […]

Marriage laws in Regency England

Highlighting facts behind Historical Romance with Jude Knight’s research into marriage laws. Most readers of Regency romance have a fair handle on what it was like to be a resident of Regency England, but some of what we think we know is the exception rather than the rule, and some is just plain wrong. Here’s […]

Her Business Advisor

Bonding happens in mysterious ways. Clarion suggested Eli take Fanny to investigate publishing concerns in London. Was he making a business proposal or matchmaking? *** Eli said with a wry grin. “We need a plan.”  “Plan for what?” Suspicion seeped in, and her brows pulled together. Fanny’s writing, too precious, too personal, did not need […]

Teasing the Hero

I’m making good progress on The Forgotten Daughter. Eli has determined to protect Fanny, who is visiting London and who has had at least one frightening encounter. The ladies, both Fanny and Eli’s ornery sister-in-law Lucy are a bit weary of over-protective males and lack of privacy. They’ve decided to test his diligence with a […]

The Pleasure Garden

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 Maida Pleasure Gardens with Mary Lancaster and Unmasking the Hero. The author describes it like this:  Maida Pleasure Gardens, the neglected little sister of Vauxhall and Ranelagh, lurk […]

A Private Moment

Overwhelmed by opinions and advice from family about her future, Fanny is relieved when Eli pulls her aside. For Eli’s part, it is job to make a recommendation to the earl about what assistance the estate can give her. She refers to her young siblings as “the duckings” by the way. *** Eli led Fanny […]

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 […]

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 […]