Upcoming for Summer

Sometimes even history geeks have to take a bit of a vacation.

Nineteenteen will be operating under a slightly reduced schedule over the summer months: though Regina and I plan what we hope will be a lively Young Bluestockings meeting in mid-July (more on that below) and are looking forward to our annual get-together and live blogging from the Romance Writers of America National Conference at the end of July, we’re also planning on taking a bit of a breather from new posts on occasion and will be re-posting some of our favorite entries from past years (yes, years—we’ve been at this for nearly three now!) We’ll still be around to answer comments, but we both have books to write and could just use a little extra time to write them in July and August.

Now, about that lively Young Bluestockings meeting I mentioned above…please update your Netflix queue and get ready to watch and comment on July 19 when we’ll be discussing the 2009 film Bright Star, written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw.

Bright Star is the story of the love affair between poet John Keats and literally the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, which ended with his death from tuberculosis in 1821. It's a visually gorgeous film, winning acclaim in particular for its costuming (appropriately enough as Fanny had a keen eye for fashion). It's lush and beautiful and romantic--not that I'm opinionated or anything--and we thought it would be fun to discuss.

So mark your calendars...and enjoy the summer!