Imagine this: a room full of scrumptious romance novels being signed by the brilliant goddess authors themselves. Heaven! Today, after taking in an enjoyable production of Spamalot at the Paramount Theater, I attended the Book Fair at the 2008 Emerald City Writers’ Conference. I was very excited to see some of my absolute favorite authors, but I was overcome by debilitating shyness, tying my tongue in knots so that I could barely ask for an autograph. All of the brilliant questions I had thought of in the preceding days went scattering out of my head; leaves to the wind. Pity. So you get a post in which I ruminate on what I should have said or asked or done, were I not such a spaz, rather than witty and unusual tidbits about your favorite authors.

Katie MacAlister

I met Katie first, as she was my first romance author crush. She writes mostly paranormals these days, but she also has done a few contemporaries and historicals. Her heroines are delightfully klutzy, spirited, foot-in-the-mouth types. Her stories are unique, imaginative, and funny. I bought three copies of her new book Ain’t Myth-Behaving, one for me, one for my mummy’s best friend who first turned me on to Katie (with Men in Kilts!), and one for my college roommate Rachael who first told me to read romance novels (whom I’m visiting in London). I am soooo excited for the upcoming release of Holy Smokes on November 6th (Book 4 in the Aisling Grey series) and managed to screw up my courage enough to ask her if she is planning any events for it. But no, she isn’t. and then I bolted, fraidy-cat that I am. What had I been planning to ask her? I wanted to know if she has a recipe for Dragon’s Blood, Aisling’s favorite drink. I know exactly what I think it tastes like – Glugg using my great-grandmother’s secret family recipe. (Glugg is a Swedish drink with spices that is set on fire.) I also really wanted to get autographed copies of Blow me Down (yes, the Puzzle Pirate romance novel) for presents for friends, but she didn’t have any.

Jenna Petersen

Jenna is the sweetest person and made me feel relaxed enough to have a short conversation with her. She asked if I was writing romance novels and I laughed, face red from embarrassment, and said no, I’m just a huge fan, because really, who could possibly think of writing when standing in the same room as all these uber talented ladies? Jenna writes historical romances set in Regency England as Jenna Petersen and erotic fiction as Jess Michaels. I bought a copy of her latest book Seduction is Forever, which is in the “Lady Spies” series, for myself, and a copy of Parlor Games for Rachael. I would have liked to ask about her path in becoming a writer (because she’s not too much older than me) and her process in getting the novel down on paper. But I know she’s probably answered those a thousand times. She has a great website called The Passionate Pen for people who dream of writing romance novels. It has info on publishing, agents and editors, submissions and articles on writing. There is a permanent link on the right-hand side of this blog under “Writers’ Links”.

Julia Quinn

I’ve now read all but one and a half books in the “Bridgerton Series”, which Julia just ended with the recently released On the Way to the Wedding, about Gregory Bridgerton. Unfortunately she had run out of copies of that book, so I got an autographed copy of The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, which I love but already own. I pushed my copy off on my mother-in-law when she visited a few weeks ago (I’m a book pimp), so now I have a special autographed copy at home for general drooling over and re-reading when the mood suits me. The hero is kind of an ass, but I love Miranda’s strong spirit and hilarious commentary. Julia’s dialog rocks! My dialog, on the other hand, drooped miserably, and I ran away before I did something embarrassing, like kissing her feet. Oh, and then she said she had seen me on the internet (just from my name) and I was pleased and mortified at the same time. It’s terrifying to think that authors are actually reading this!

Elizabeth Boyle

I hunted down Elizabeth, and got an autographed copy of her new book Love Letters from a Duke. I had brought my copy of His Mistress by Morning, but was too shy to get it autographed too. Is that kosher at a book fair? I’ve never been to one before. Elizabeth writes Regency romances, and I first discovered her in one of the Regency anthologies that I previously posted about. She was knitting, and I could have asked her what she was making and start small talk there, but as usual my brain froze and I got my picture and scurried off. I liked the cover of the new book and I started reading it in the really long check-out line. I will probably stay up late reading it (instead of packing)!

Stephanie Rowe

Stephanie had a whole heap of new books out and I chose the latest issue in the “Immortally Sexy” aka Goblet-of-Youth series, Sex and the Immortal Bad Boy. Her paranormals are Funny. Satan, in particular, and Teresa, and really Becca and Nick and Satan Jr. and, well, all her characters are fantastic! The romance between Becca and her Markku in the last book, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot, was one of the best I’ve ever read. I loved the imagry of Nick pouring his love and emotions into Becca’s black vacuum of a soul. The long plane ride from Seattle to Copenhagen to London tomorrow will be a pleasure will all these new books!

Caroll Burnett has been singing this Once Upon a Mattress song in my head for the past few hours:

Though a lady may be dripping with glamour
As often as not she will stumble and stammer
When suddenly confronted with romance [authors].

Ah, November… the month of unceasing rain. Lucky us, it’s come early this year. Paraphrasing Bradbury:

It was a soft rain, a perpetual rain, a cold and melancholy rain; it was a mist, a drizzle, a fountain, dripping down the spine, soaking through raincoats; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains; and it never stopped.

November, and indeed most of the Pacific Northwest winter, reminds me of Bradbury’s All Summer in a Day, where children living on a foreign planet get to see the sun for only one hour every seven years. Forget Venus – come to Seattle.

So what are we to do to chase the chill from our bones and bring the memory of light back to our ashen faces? Why, write of course! The rain may keep us inside for a month (or seven) but that just gives us fewer interruptions to participate in National Novel Writing Month. What is NaNoWriMo? It’s the “Kamikaze” approach to Novel Writing. As I’ve mentioned before, everyone has a story to write and all we really need to get it out is a DEADLINE and a concrete goal. Use NaNoWriMo to get a big head start on your entry for the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Literary Contest! (Due February 22, 2008, in case you forgot.)

Who: You, Me, and thousands of other poor sods around the world
What: Write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel
When: Between midnight, November 1 and midnight, November 30. Sign up between October 1 and November 30.
Why: Because Deadlines are Magic. I never wrote a paper through high school or college that wasn’t done the Night Before It Was Due. After, of course, cleaning my dorm room, doing my laundry, calling my parents, and bellyaching to my roommate. Without a deadline, nothing gets done. With a long, drawn-out deadline, nothing gets done. Here is your chance to get that story out of your head and down on paper. Your soul will feel better for it.

Think you are too busy to do it this November? I just signed up (friend me) and I’m spending my November traipsing around the world: London through November 6, Zurich November 9-15, and Denver November 21-25. That being the case, I’ve signed up for the NaNoWriMo regional groups for all three cities in addition my hometown. When will I have time to write? That’s what airplanes are for!

As a project-oriented perfectionist, NaNoWriMo is what I need to finally get my butt in gear: a deadline and a low-bar for quality. My biggest obstacle to writing is that I always feel it isn’t good enough, despite the fact that my rational brain knows the first step is getting the ideas on paper and editing-polishing-perfectionizing comes much later. Earlier this summer I started writing a paranormal romance novel, only to write the first three chapters and then rewrite the first three chapters and then start rewriting them again…. finally abandoning the project in frustration. I need to get. it. out. Most publishers are looking for 90-100 thousand words, so NaNoWriMo will get me half-way there. I’ll have December through February 22nd to polish the first 28 pages for my entry to the PNWA Lit Contest and March through July to write and polish another 50 thousand words for a complete manuscript. Wish me luck!

The NaNoWriMo people sum it up best – “Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.”

Who doesn’t have the next Great American Novel gathering dust in the corners of his or her mind, brought out to be rehashed and embellished upon during particularly boring meetings at work, waiting until the office is organized, the kids are out of the house, free time is available to be finally written down? Perhaps it’s your memoirs, the illicit family history, the next Harry Potter, the next blockbuster screenplay… Everyone has a story rumbling around in his or her head just waiting for the right time. Stop procrastinating. What you really need (myself included) is a DEADLINE and a concrete goal to work toward. Well here is your chance!

The 2008 Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association Literary Contest has been announced and your new Deadline is February 22, 2008. That gives you and me four months to start writing. You don’t have to finish the manuscript…you can only submit your first 28 pages (including synopsis) of a full length book. Is a full-length work too intimidating? Submit a short story! Still too much? Submit a short essay! Can’t decide which category to enter? Submit to them all! (I assume, unless you are Sherrilyn Kenyon and can turn out a novel in two weeks, you already have a good head start on a number of projects if you intend to attempt this incredible feat.)

Categories!

Category 1: Mainstream
Category 2: Inspirational (new!)
Category 3: Romance Genre (wuv, true wuv!)
Category 4: Mystery/Thriller/Horror Genre
Category 5: Science Fiction/Fantasy Genre
Category 6: Young Adult Novel
Category 7: Non-Fiction Book/Memoir
Category 8: Screen Writing/Play-writing
Category 9: Poetry
Category 10: Adult Short Story
Category 11: Children’s Picture Book (can’t submit illustrations), Short Story or Ch. Book
Category 12: Adult Short Topics: (Article/Essay/Short Memoir)

Why Enter?

Accepted entries receive two valuable critiques, not to mention cash prizes for winners. Semi-finalist or Finalist? Shmooze with writers, editors and agents with your own spiffy name tag attachment that proclaims your awesomeness at next summer’s Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference and be announced at a special winners dinner. This is the chance you’ve been waiting for. You now have a concrete goal and deadline to guide your work. Carpe Diem!

This weekend is the 2007 Emerald City Writers’ Conference (incidentally, not held in the Emerald City, leading me to suggest “Romance Writing for Geographically Challenged Folks” as a new name), hosted every year by the Greater Seattle Romance Writers of America, held every year at the Bellevue Hilton. If you aren’t a writer but an avid fan, make sure you check out the Bookfair featuring some of my favorite authors, including Julia Quinn (pictured left), Katie MacAlister, Jenna Petersen, Stephanie Rowe, Elizabeth Boyle, and Alexis Morgan.

Down-and-Dirty FAQS:

When: Saturday, October 27, 2007 4 – 6pm
Where: Skyview Ballroom, Bellevue Hilton, 300 112th Avenue SE, Bellevue, WA
Why: Many fabulous Romance Writers will be there
Why2: A portion of the proceeds from the book sales will go to DAWN, Domestic Abuse Womens Network of South King County.

Title: It Happened One Autumn
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Wallflowers, Book 2 of 4
Publication Info: HarperCollins Publishers, September 2005
Genre: Victorian Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3

Lillian Bowman is one of my very favorite characters. Ever. I’m going to name my first child Lillian in the hopes that she will be imbued with her tenacious spirit and good humor. The second in The Wallflower Series, this book continues the tempestuous relationship between the spirited American Soap Heiress and the staid, arrogant Marcus, Earl of Westcliff, that started in Secrets of a Summer Night. The romance between Lillian and Marcus is very fine, though the story lacks some of the more interesting social commentary on the Victorian Era contained in Secrets and has a silly plot gizmo in the form of a supposedly “magic” perfume that makes the wearer irresistible. Such a level-headed, intelligent woman like Lillian would not be given to the fanciful idea of a magic perfume. Despite these setbacks, this was one of my favorite of the series.

Lillian is the daughter of a self-made man who earned a fortune in America as a soap manufacturer. The Bowmans unfortunately have failed to find husbands for their two daughters among the old puritan families in America, so they travel to England hoping that the girls’ impressive dowries will be an enticement to some impoverished landed aristocrat with a title. In London Lillian and Daisy find that even the promise “Marry Lillian, you’ll get a million” isn’t enough to overcome their American brass and unrefinement. Resined to the side of the ballroom through the season, the girls make friends with two other wallflowers and make a pack to help each other find husbands. Through her father’s business connections to the progressive Earl of Westcliff, Lillian finds herself a visitor to Stonycross Manor for a number of long house parties where her antics earn the ire of the strait-laced earl. Lillian and Marcus’ interactions are hilarious. Their mutual dislike and stubbornness finally flares in passion (betcha didn’t see that coming).

One thing made me slightly uncomfortable in this story – consent? I know I am nitpicking when there are so many romance novels out there with real rape scenes in them, but taking advantage of a drunk girl is not honorable. Westcliff goes from bickering with Lillian to finding her drunk and deciding, without asking her, that he can’t help himself and should just do it and marry her in the morning. Note the “not asking her” part – he doesn’t ask if she wants to marry him, but she has no choice after their little indiscretion. Of course she doesn’t say “no” and they fall in love in the end, but still, a man with the honor and impeccable self control of Marcus Westcliff should have some serious qualms about taking advantage of a drunk girl. The villain in this story threatens to rape Lillian when he abducts her, and that is a-o-kay because rape is a villainous thing to do. A hero should never even consider it.

Despite that, I really enjoyed this book, so much that I plan on rereading it this week. Lillian is awesome. I hope Kleypas writes her into further novels as a secondary character.

Title: Secrets of a Summer Night
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Series: The Wallflowers, Book 1 of 4
Publication Info: HarperCollins Publishers, October 2004
Genre: Victorian Romance
Rating: <3 <3 <3 <3

The Victorian Era is more fascinating than the Regency Era. Much more. I know, I know – it sounds blasphemous. But it’s true. The world was in upheaval during the Victorian Era: The Industrial Revolution barreled ahead at full steam, turning out technological innovations, upsetting commonly held beliefs, and overthrowing the traditional balance of power between social classes. Thank goodness. Our Regency Lords and Ladies, those pompous, arrogant asses who were responsible for subjugating half the world and its people (including starving my ancestors), who thought themselves morally and racially superior to the rest of us with the bad luck to be born to non-aristocratic parents, and who held a genuine contempt of work, really needed to be booted out on their silver-plated derrières. The Victorian Era saw the rise of a new entrepreneurial class, where intelligence, tenacity, and hard work replaced birth as the primary catalyst for wealth and power.

Lisa Kleypas captures this tumultuous time brilliantly, vibrantly illustrating the conflict between the old landed aristocracy and the rising new capitalists. This conflict is exposed in the tumultuous relationship between the hero and heroine. Our hero, Simon Hunt, is one of these new self-made men who rose from the lowly son of a butcher to be one of the richest men in England and best friend to one of the oldest and most powerful Earldoms in the country. His money buys him grudging entrance to the hallowed social halls of the aristocracy, but can’t overcome their deep seated contempt of his lowly birth. Our heroine, Annabelle Peyton, as a member of the lower aristocracy, shares their contempt, even though her family doesn’t have two cents to rub together. Annabelle has the unfortunate burden of trying to find a rich husband to support her and her impoverished family, but her pride prevents her from accepting the overtures of a member of the lower class. Her desperate state hinders her husband-hunting efforts, as the men wait for her to give up and become available as a mistress. Annabelle enlists the aid of three other awkward young women with whom she has shared the unenviable position of wallflower at balls and parties throughout the season, rich but low-born Evangeline Jenner and the American Soap Heiress’ Lillian and Daisy Bowman, each of whom has her own novel in the remaining three books of the Wallflowers Series. Lillian cracks me up. I love the scene where they play Rounders in their knickers.

In addition to the compelling class conflict, Kleypas imparts to us the awe inspired by the technological innovations of the time – truly a feat in this day and age when innovations are so commonplace as to be dully pedestrian (I can call, surf, photograph, and blog on my iPhone). I particularly enjoyed the prologue descriptions of the interactive theater show with volcanoes and a revolving audience.

Annabelle can’t deny the sparks between her and Simon, and eventually grows to understand and respect his work-ethic, even preferring it to the lazy ennui of men of her class. I can’t help but feel proud of the triumph of this decidedly American ideal – meritocracy over monarchy. The romance was sweet and sexy and completely yummy. I fell in love with Simon myself. I strongly recommend this novel to all romance readers!

With eager anticipation I have been researching places to go and things to do during my upcoming pilgrimage to the holy land of the Regency Romance genre.

The Travel Book Search

Frustratingly, there seem to be London guidebooks for most other literary genres, but not romance. There are numerous books on London through the eyes of Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wild, Sherlock Holmes, and Charles Dickens, and one genre travel guide to the Mystery Reader’s Walking Guide: London. There are half a dozen books on literary guides to London written during the late 19th and early 20th centuries – much good would they do guiding a reader through the much-changed 21st. At least a Dickens’ guide would help me identify locations in Lisa Kleypas’ Victorian-era novels, but where is London for Georgette Heyer Lovers? Stephanie Laurens’ London: Mayfair and Beyond? The Traveler’s Companion to the London of Julia Quinn? The closest I have come are travel guides to Jane Austin’s England and Bath, but not, specifically, London.

Which leads us back to writing our own.

Walking Tours of Regency-Related London

London Walks is a company that has approximately ten walking tours a day for only 6 pounds each that all look fabulous and have been enthusiastically recommended to me. A few of them relate to our topic:

- Old Mayfair – The Best Address in London!: During the 19th century, anyone who was anyone had a town home in Mayfair for the Season, including all our monied and titled heroes and heroines.

- The London Walk: Westminster and the West End: “Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, our loveliest Royal Park, 500-year-old St. James’s Palace, clubland, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch…” All the sights our characters witnessed.

- The Literary London Pub Walk: “Shades of Dickens and Thackeray; Oscar Wilde and G. B. Shaw; Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Circle (who lived in Squares and loved in triangles); George Orwell, W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot – how they were flesh and blood men and women who lived, loved, laughed, caroused, quarrelled and spun ‘words so nimble, so full of subtle flame…’.”

I will be there over October 31st, most likely sampling the Apparitions, Alleyways & Ale: the Halloween Ghostwalk Tour!!!

Map Me Baby

A recent find: an online map of London from 1827.

Ever wonder what your favorite Regency heroes and heroines wear? What do Hessians look like? What is a pelisse? A domino? A spencer? Did they wear corsets? How many different ways can you tie a cravat? Can you differentiate between a walking dress, a riding habit, a morning dress, and an evening dress?

Author Candice Hern has put Regency fashion plates and fabulous information about life in the Regency period up on her website for your cultural pleasure. From these fashion plates, Julia Quinn has dressed Kate from The Viscount Who Loved Me and Daphne from The Duke and I in her Bridgerton series here, and Elizabeth Boyle has picked out a wardrobe for her heroine from His Mistress by Morning as both the shy Charlotte and the wild Lottie here.

For more extensive costume information, and for a visual guide for researching your other favorite historical romance periods, check out the Timeline of Costume History. In particular, here are costume photographs from the early 19th century from the Victoria and Albert Museum. I especially like the photo of the Rakish Leprechaun. Why sir, what a large hat you have! The better to love you with, my dear….

I would, of course, love to attend a ball and wear a vintage Regency ball gown, but in the absence of that lovely event I’ll content myself with sharing these Regency-inspired tee-shirt designs from Cafe Press: “What Happens at Vauxhall Stays at Vauxhall” (not if Lady Whistledown has anything to say about it!) and “Almack’s Assembly Room: Your Marriage Mart since 1765!“.

Title: An Infamous Army
Author: Georgette Heyer
Publication Info: Sourcebooks Landmark 2007, originally published 1935 by William Heineman
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: <3 <3 <3

Georgette Heyer is the mother of the Regency romance genre. With detailed research of people, places, and events of the time, including extensive use of Wellington’s personal letters for this book, Heyer started our love affair with the Regency time period and paved the way for the hundreds of Regency authors who have come since. I’ve heard many accolades about her work, but this is the first time I’ve had the pleasure of reading it.

An Infamous Army takes place in Brussels during Napoleon’s second rise to power after his escape from Elba. The city was swarming with Aristocratic families from England and around Europe, eagerly dancing the night away while the military organized against Napoleon’s forward march. In this atmosphere of frenzied gaiety before the storm, the beautiful and heartless widow Lady Barbara Childe captures the attention of Colonel Charles Audley. She accepts his expeditious proposal of marriage, seemingly on a whim, but doesn’t curtail her scandalous behavior. War descends, testing the mettle of all, men and women alike, and Lady Barbara’s vivacious spirit allows her to rise to the occasion. She proves her courage and strength nursing the wounded while our hero fights on the battlefield of Waterloo.

Heyer paints a vivid picture of the city’s increasing wildness as war bears down upon it, with the prevailing attitude “to be merry while the sun still shone.” The details of the military movements and battles are very interesting, as I never knew much about the Napoleonic Wars before. Her portrait of Wellington is particularly fascinating, with his cheerful public face and serious private one.

Colonel Audley’s sudden infatuation to Lady Barbara is hard to accept; like Scarlet O’Hara, our heroine is a capricious Biatch. He’s obviously fallen in love with her face, because her personality has nothing to recommend it. And she’s a laudanum addict. In fact, the story reminds me quite heartily of Gone with the Wind; the carefree atmosphere as war approaches, the heroine’s machinations, the heroine’s personal growth during the hardship of war. Both heroes are perfect from the beginning in an annoyingly paternalistic way, while the wild heroine must suffer to realize the fallacy of her independent ways. Both are tested; both shine once they are given real responsibility; but only Lady Barbara accepts her humble pie to seize her happy ending.

The writing style left me slightly confused at times. Whether this is from antiquated language or English idioms, I’m not sure. The use of exclamation marks is excessive, giving the impression that everyone was constantly shouting. For example: ‘I thank you, Etienne! If you knew the cross humour I was in! Now! Oh, it is entirely finished!’ – Lady Barbara, page 117.

A note on the cover: Romantic. Elegant. Exciting. This cover is one of the best I’ve seen on a romance novel.

All in all, a fine piece of literature from a hallowed author.

After a month-long obsession with Regency Romance novels I have finally done it – I’ve bought tickets for a pilgrimage to the golden city. Caught up in a giddy wave of excitement, I immediately searched the internet for places to visit. I want to stroll in the footsteps of my heroines, to soak in the magic of the pleasure gardens, to drink a brandy in the dark paneled rooms where my heroes have sat, to people-watch in Hyde Park, and to dance the night away under the coal-obscured starlight of the London sky. Okay, not exactly, but you get my drift. What still exists in London that was there during the Regency period? White’s? Brooks’? Boodle’s? Almack’s? Mayfair mansions? The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens? Covent Gardens? Drury Lane? Hyde Park? Surely I’m not the first starry-eyed bookworm to want to see the Regency haunts in real life? Google, for once, has failed me – where is The Regency Romance-Lover’s Guide to Visiting London? Why hasn’t Avon Romance, the giant of Regency publishing, put out such a needed travelog? There are DaVinci Code tours of Paris, The Sound of Music tours in Austria, and Brothers Grimm tours in Germany, so where is the Regency Romance Novel tour of London? Unless, gentle reader, you can point me in the right direction, I shall have to write the book myself. It would be my honor to create such a tome to guide fellow Romance pilgrims.

Here are a few resources that I intend to look into to guide my trip research:

“A Visit to Regency London” by Victoria Hinshaw

The most promising find – a single webpage with a list and photographs of what one can see today from Regency London from a Regency romance novelist.

“Jane Austin in London” by The Jane Austin Society of Australia

Pages on Jane in London, especially the pages on pleasure gardens and
Gentlemen’s Clubs. The Society took a trip to London and visited gardens and several Gentlemen’s Clubs including Whites and Brooks, but hasn’t seen fit to put the maps, itinerary, and the like on the website. Great information on the cultural importance of the pleasure gardens, theater, art, and clubs.

The A to Z of Regency London by Richard Horwood.

Maps, maps, and more maps! Horwood’s plan of the Cities of London and Westminster (3rd Edition 1813) in book form on a scale of 14 inches per mile, with key and index. Extends Hyde Park-East India Docks; Pentonville-Walworth. Hardback, 116pp. Publication no 131 (1985). I can compare this to modern day maps to see how the city has changed.

London by Edward Rutherford

I read his Princes of Ireland about Dublin and was impressed with Rutherford’s storytelling technique. He weaves the history of a city through the lives of subsequent generations of common people.

London’s Pleasures from Restoration to Regency: Two Centuries of Elegance and Indulgence by David Kerr Cameron

This book sounds like a fabulous research book for rakish and genteel activities alike: from bear-bating to pleasure gardens to theaters to coffee houses. Unfortunately, the Seattle Public Library doesn’t seem to have it. I may have found a use for my Borders gift card, which I have been saving it for a rainy day!

An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England by Venetia Murray

Publishers Weekly mentions that “perhaps even fans of Regency romances” will like this book about the prolifigate vice and paradoxical idealized virtue of the Regency period. The author covers the period of history from 1790 to 1830.

The Traditional Shops & Restaurants of London: A Guide to Century-Old Establishments and New Classics by Eugenia Bell

Profiles the historic shops of London, some of which started in the early 1700s and are still around. Now I just have to go back through my novel and dig up the names of the shops and restaurants my heroes and heroines frequent!

Tea in the City: London by Jane Pettigrew

Like I could visit England without having a spot o’ tea. Crumpets anyone?

The Amateur Historian’s Guide to Medieval and Tudor London by Sarah Valente Kettler and Carole Trimble

This is the exact travel book I am looking for…except for the wrong time period. I want The Amateur Historian’s Guide to Regency London. My kingdom, My kingdom, My kingdom for a horse!