Anne here, talking undies - the wearing and the not wearing of. Most people today can't imagine not wearing knickers (underpants.) A few hardy souls "go commando" ie. do without them, but we could as easily call this practice "going Georgian" or even "going historical" because for most of history — I'm talking the UK here— women didn't wear knickers at all. Petticoats, yes, sometimes numerous ones, worn one on top of the other. Corsets, yes, versions of, even back to medieval times. The chemise, called a smock before the Norman invasion, and sometimes a shift, yes. But underpants? Not... Continue reading

Anne here, and the 'old friends' I am talking about are books. In the last few weeks I've been catching up with some books I haven't read since I was a teenager. Not that they're "young adult" books — no, they're written for adults, sure enough. We moved a lot when I was a kid, and public libraries and school libraries kept me occupied and happy, and my imagination well-fed all through my childhood and adolescence. But the trouble with moving, and borrowing all the time from libraries is that it's very easy to lose track of authors and books... Continue reading

Anne here, popping in with a quick Sunday announcement. Thanks to all those who contributed fishy sounding titles for our April Fools/Poisson d'avril post. Your clever and fun suggestions gave the wenches a good few chuckles. I said we'd give a prize to the best title suggestion and there were so many good ones, we had trouble deciding on just one, but in the end the decision went to Nancy G for her suggestion "Sweet Savage Sturgeon." I'll be contacting Nancy to get her address. Thanks for all the fish. Continue reading

Anne here, bringing up a discussion we wenches had recently, about a hot new trend in publishing that's caught our attention. It started with a discussion about whether readers were as demanding of hot sex in romance as publishers seem to think they are. As one wench said: "Maybe, because there's very sexy bestsellers in Romance, editors are tempted to make everything sexy. Maybe readers have come to expect this." A second (very experienced) wench said: "But of course. How else is it done? (she asks in wide-eyed editor mode.) I do have a teeny bit of sympathy. The concept... Continue reading

Anne here, back from the Australian Romance Readers Convention, where this picture was taken: it's the historical romance panel. Yes, very serious we all were. The convention was followed by a week-long writing retreat. And as it sometimes does, when you're away and sleeping in strange rooms, my mind turned to... beds. I confess I love my bed. I bought it some years back, after a stay in a fabulous hotel (for a conference) where the beds, for once, were amazingly comfortable — so comfortable in fact that I slept well every night I was there, an unusual thing for... Continue reading

No, we're not talking werewolf romance here. I've got a love at first sight scene that I've been toying with -- putting it in, taking it out... I love that moment in a romance where the hero and heroine's eyes first meet... and they might not know it's lerve... but we-the readers do. While I was dithering over my own scene, I was thinking about how I was recently interviewed on the radio, and one of the questions the interviewer asked me was whether I believed in love at first sight. I said I did. She was surprised but she... Continue reading

On Wednesday, February 27th at noon EST — Anne Gracie will be doing a live Spreecast video chat, with historical romance authors - Madeline Hunter, Jennifer Ashley/Allyson James, Julia London and Juliana Gray. The chat will launch a special contest (which for legal reasons is open only to US readers only, sorry) — with a cash prize and bundles of books. Check out the details and sign up for the chat here. Click on the little blue RSVP button and you'll get a reminder. Continue reading

For a long time audio books didn't appeal to me at all. When I was a child I used to love being read to, but that stopped not long after I learned to read. It wasn't that people stopped wanting to read me a bedtime story — it was me, being greedy and impatient. I could read much faster than they could speak, so I fired my parents and older siblings from bed-time duty and read the books myself. Continue reading

Anne here, wishing you Happy Janeiversary — on the 28th January 2013 it will be two hundred years since the publication of Pride And Prejudice, arguably one of the best-loved novels in the world, with a first line that is undoubtedly the most oft-quoted beginning of a novel. It was Jane Austen's second published novel — the first was Sense and Sensibility— but even so, it didn't have an easy passage to publication. She started writing the novel, which she called "First Impressions" in October 1796 and finished it almost a year later, in August 1797. When her father wrote... Continue reading

Anne here, asking the question, how do you hold your knife and fork? Because the way you do tells people a little about who you are. And while it's not all that important these days, in the past, the manner in which you ate (among other things) revealed your origin, class, and upbringing. This was especially important in the Regency and Victorian eras. Continue reading

Here, in the spirit of indoor games at holiday time, is a quiz about heroes who are lords (or dukes or marquesses or earls or barons, or perhaps even the sons of lords.) I hope you enjoy it. 1) Which lordly Heyer hero stole a kiss and quoted poetry on first meeting his heroine? a) Lord Bromford in THE GRAND SOPHY b) Lord Worth in REGENCY BUCK c) Lord Damerel in VENETIA Continue reading

So Christmas is over, and what have you done. . . Anne here, still deliciously replete from a Christmas dinner of rolled breast of turkey with chestnut and cranberry stuffing, served with baked potato, baked beetroot (my new discovery — delicious!) and green beans, and followed by plum pudding icecream with hot caramel sauce. And cherries. This Chinese bowl filled with fresh cherries has been on my table every Christmas for years — it doesn't feel like Christmas without it. And now it's Boxing Day — at least that's what we call it in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and... Continue reading

I was explaining the background of the story to my friends, and was explaining that there’s an old lady in the series, Lady Beatrice, who’s crucial to the plot, when one friend immediately said, “Oh, good, I always love your feisty old ladies,” and the other friend agreed. I must admit, I was a little surprised. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I’d written all that many old ladies, but on the long, slow drive home (in peak hour traffic — it was a long lunch‚ after all) I thought about it, and to my surprise I realized I actually have written quite a few. And that I really do like including them in my stories. So then I started wondering where the inspiration for these old ladies came from. Continue reading

There’s something about the ritual of sitting in a darkened auditorium, staring up at a big screen in the company of a bunch of strangers, with the scent of popcorn teasing my nostrils as I’m swept into the world of the movie. It’s almost like being a kid again, and for that reason I don’t think I’ll ever go for a big-screen home cinema. Continue reading

Anne here, posing the question, “What do Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Napoleon, Yogi Berra, Salvador Dali, Gene Autry, Eleanor Roosevelt, JFK, John D. Rockefeller and Leonardo Da Vinci have in common?” You’ve probably guessed, being smart cookies and noticing the heading for this blog and putting two and two together — yes, they all famously took naps. Thomas Edison worked for long stretches, and often boasted that he only spelt 4 or 5 hours a night, but he took frequent naps of 3 or 4 hours. He had no trouble falling asleep and could sleep anywhere. Napleon was a famous... Continue reading

A week ago I had my first-ever toothache. It’s an abscess under a crown, so... complicated stuff is going to be done. But the toothache itself, the pain (until the painkillers kicked in) and the swelling (until the antibiotics kicked in) took me completely by surprise. My jaw swelled up just like the kids who had toothache in the comics I read when I was a kid — remember? — they used to bind them around the jaw with a bandana. Well, that was me. For nearly a week I looked like a chipmunk. Continue reading

I’ve just been invited to a reunion of my high school final year class. It’s a significant year, and the organizer has put out a call for us to contact others in the year and to gather up school memorabilia, old photos and old stories. I’m only in contact with two friends from high school, but we’ve been dredging old memories. When I mentioned this to some other friends, it sparked a discussion about teachers we loved and teachers we hated and ones who made a significant impact on our lives. Continue reading

Anne here again, this time to thank Pam Hartshorne for being such a splendid guest and to usher her into the hallowed ranks of Honorary Word Wench-hood. Pam, it's our custom at Word Wenches to bestow on our special guests the exalted rank of Honorary Word Wench, joining those listed in the column below right. We also offer fabulous and extravagant gifts, which are no less heartfelt for being virtual (and an amazing bargain.) You may also use the initials HWW after your name, which will baffle some and impress others. Since you're both an historian and an intrepid traveller,... Continue reading

Anne here, doing a kind of Ask A Wench — talking about how our Wenchly anthology, MISCHIEF AND MISTLETOE (released on 25th September) came about. We think it's the first time a group of authors who blog together have brought out an anthology together. To illustrate the process, I'm using snippets of the email discussion the Wenches had in working out the concept. They're all in blue, so you'll have to guess who said what. The idea originally came up in a discussion in Mary Jo's room at the RWA National conference in Washington DC in 2009, where Mary Jo, Jo, Pat, Nicola, and I had all met for the first time as wenches. We talked about doing an anthology together, agreed it was a great idea and then... Continue reading

Time’s Echo isn’t strictly a historical novel, but tells two intertwined stories, one in the past and one in the present. The premise in both time periods is one that fascinates me: what if we could turn back time and relive our lives? Would we be able to identify the moment we made a mistake, the tiny choice that changed everything? How different would our life be if we had turned left instead of right, or if we’d turned back because we’d forgotten something rather than gone on? Continue reading

For years I've read stories where the family jewels had been replaced with imitations, usually by some spendthrift chap or a secret gambler. And the dowager declares in sorrow, or outrage, or horror, or in confidence, depending on the plot, "Paste my dear, nothing but paste." Paste is a compound of glass containing white lead oxide and potash. The mixture of lead and glass makes the compound highly reflective. These pieces are cut — the variety of shapes possible is much more varied than in real gemstones — then the back is coated with a metal coating that enhances the brilliance and sometimes a colored foil that creates the color, like the paste "emeralds" above. Continue reading

So all this reading of fairy tales retold has started me thinking about other fairytale retelling. I was entranced with fairytales when I was a kid even though I hated the way most of them ended — I still boil with resentment that the poor little girl who wanted the frivolous red shoes was so horribly punished, and every time I buy yet another pair of red shoes, I'm making a gesture of solidarity with that poor child. And as for the Little Match Girl, the image of her burning her matches one by one in the freezing night haunts me still. Strangely, though I disliked so much about fairy tales, I really enjoy the romance novel retellings of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty and one of my favorites, The Ugly Duckling. The main difference is that in modern versions of fairytales, we prefer the heroine to rescue herself, or at least to have a major role in her own rescue. And the hero and heroine get what they deserve in the end. Continue reading

The portrayal of historical language is like dialect — you need a good whiff of "historicity" to give you the flavor and effect of the era, but not real accuracy. It's like rendering dialect on the page — if totally accurate it would be tedious and difficult to read. Continue reading

You've probably heard the story about how, in 1791, the owner of the Dublin Theatre Royal, (that's it on the right,) Richard Daly made a bet that he could introduce a new word into the English language within 48 hours. He had his staff write the word QUIZ on buildings and public places all around the city. The next day everyone was talking about this strange word, asking "What is it?" and "What does it mean?" and soon it had become part of the language. Continue reading

On my way through the various sites on the web dealing with 1770's fashions I came across — and was completely sidetracked by— shoes. And yes, I'll 'fess up — I fell in love with some of them. Take, for instance, these stunning shoes on the left, made of yellow silk with elegant curved heels. Don't forget, these shoes are nearly 250 years old. Continue reading