A Simply Wondrous Cover Reveal (and a free read too!)

Last year I related how thrilled I was with the publisher of my American Wonders Collection, Revell, for creating the amazing cover for the first book in the collection, A Distance Too Grand. I truly didn’t know how the super-talented Art Department was going to top it.

But when you have the thermal features of Yellowstone National Park as your backdrop, lightning really can strike twice.

Without further ado, I give you the cover for Nothing Short of Wondrous, set in Yellowstone in 1886.

As before, the model’s dress was borrowed from a museum and comes from the right time period. Her hairstyle was patterned after a picture in a ladies’ magazine from that time. Kate, my heroine, is a hotel owner in the park, but she sees it as her job to protect the wonders of Yellowstone from any who might despoil it. The Art Director and I debated how we would indicate her role on the cover. Rifle in her arms? Guidebook in her hand? The Art Department opted for a felt hat reminiscent of the early park rangers. I couldn’t be more pleased.

We also debated which amazing feature to include on the cover. Old Faithful? Yellowstone Falls? Neither plays a particularly large part in the story (in fact, none of the characters even reaches the Falls). The artist wisely chose one of the hot pools in the Lower Geyser Basin, where Kate has her hotel. Delightful!

Nothing Short of Wondrous will be out October 20, but the hard cover and paperback are available for preorder, and I expect the e-book to be not far behind.

The Publisher 

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble 

Books-A-Million 

Christian Book 

Indie Bound (an independent bookstore near you) 

The Book Depository, free shipping worldwide 

Looking for something to tide you over until then? I have put up a free online read in the Everard Legacy series, set between The Captain’s Courtship and The Rake’s Reform: “Lady Everard’s Easter.”

Speaking of which—Happy Easter!

Queuing for Buns

It is Good Friday, a day for somber reflection, although it’s hard to be sad when we know Easter is coming! Good Friday marked another day in Regency London. It was the day to buy hot cross buns at the Chelsea Bun House (mentioned in a post nearly 10 years ago now!).

The Chelsea Bun House was on Jew’s Row, on the way to Ranelagh Gardens, a popular public garden in the 18^th century. Four generations of the Hand family managed the eatery. For most of the year, the house sold Chelsea buns—what appear to be cinnamon rolls with raisins, currants, and white icing. According to The London Encyclopedia, a poem described these delicacies as

“Fragrant as honey and sweeter in taste

As flaky and white as if baked by the light

As the flesh of an infant, doughy and slight.”

(Okay—am I the only one who squirmed a little at the last line?)

While the exterior of the single-story building was fairly standard, the interior was eclectic, with clocks and curiosities from foreign locales sprinkled about. King George II, Queen Caroline, all the princesses, and George the III and Queen Charlotte were said to be customers.

On Good Friday, however, people lined up for cross buns hot from the oven, with sales beginning as early as four in the morning. Numbers vary, but one estimate put the crowds at 50,000. Some years, the ravening customers were so many in number the shop had to close its doors and hand buns out through the shutters. In 1839, the last year of the shop, nearly a quarter million buns were sold!

Sadly, the Hand family died out, and the shop was closed and its contents auctioned. But the name Chelsea bun is still used to this day.

Hungry for more information about the Chelsea Bun House? Try this great post on Jane Austen’s World blog. 

Whether you line up for buns or not, happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I’m a bit early, but I wanted to wish you a happy Easter. And just like the Easter bunny brings eggs, I’m bringing a few presents.

1. Panorama of the Thames. This wonderful project compares stretches of the river in picture and illustration as it was in 1829 and in 2014. Look at the comparisons tab if you do nothing else. Fascinating!
2. Romancing Yesteryear Giveaway. More than 40 historical romance authors bring you a chance to win more than 50 full-length novels and a Kindle Fire in the Romancing Yesteryear May Day giveaway. Fabulous! 
3. 19^th Century Fashion: How to Tell the Decades Apart—This fun video provides a high-level overview of how ladies’ hair and fashion changed from the 1800s to the 1900s. She has other great videos available as well. Clever, and nicely done. 

May you have a lovely weekend, however you celebrate!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, my dears!  I hope your Sunday is sunny and happy, with friends and family around you, no matter how you celebrate the day.

As I was looking for inspiration for this post, I discovered several lovely Victorian or turn-of-the-century Easter cards. These were given to friends or passed out as promotional material by various companies seeking good will.  Some, like the one at the right, were sentimental over spring. 

Others were playful.

Many followed the traditional story of bunnies and baskets.

And then there were a few that were downright odd.  My sons wanted to know why a bunny brought eggs.  I don’t know what they’d think about a lamb hatching out of one!

May all your animals behave in a suitably proper manner this Easter.

Ride, Cockney, Ride!

When I was researching Easter customs (oh, lovely, lovely research!), I ran across a mention of Cockney riders distinguishing themselves at a hunt in Epping Forest on Easter Monday.  I don’t know about you, but most often I associate the term Cockney with the working-class Londoners who live near the Thames on the East Side.  In the nineteenth century, many of them would not even have owned horses, much less been known as bruising riders.  And hunting, in my mind, was generally reserved to the aristocrats and gentry out in the country.  So, of course, I had to investigate further!

It turns out that for most of the nineteenth century, Epping Forest held 7,000 acres of unenclosed woodland, marshland, and fields as part of a Royal Forest.  It was the haunt of highwaymen and gypsies, a place to bury bodies.  If you wanted to hunt there, you had to have a grant of right by the ruler. 

But over the years, a set of circumstances had led to the belief that the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and all the citizens of London had the right to hunt a stag in Epping Forest on the Monday after Easter.  And hunt they did.  Until at least 1807, the Mayor and Alderman could be found chasing through the forest after a deer, with the City of London’s own pack of hounds.  But then other Easter civic duties crowded out their schedules, and the costs for keeping a pack of hounds was crowded out by more pressing fiscal responsibilities. 

Still, the citizens of London continued attending the hunt.  And various gentlemen made a sport of it.  For a few years, one fellow encouraged ladies to join the hunt, holding a ball at his nearby country house afterward.  Even when all the deer had left the forest, tame deer were brought in especially for the hunt, their antlers adorned with ribbons and garlands of flowers around their necks. 

Every type of horse and donkey, horseman and horsewoman, of every class, showed up, with dogs of all sorts.  Because of the cost of keeping a large enough pack of hounds, the dogs were cobbled together from several owners and often had trouble staying together as they coursed.  Vendors hawked pies and drinks.  Inns in the area did a brisk business too.  People climbed trees to watch as the deer was let loose and chased over hill and dale.  I was personally enheartened to hear that the deer was caught alive and lived to run again the next year, until I read further that everyone wanted some of its coat to commemorate the affair and in one case nearly plucked it bald! 

I think I’ll stick to colored eggs and Easter services to celebrate the day, thank you very much!  And to help you celebrate, I've written a very short story about how Samantha, Lady Everard, spent her Easter in 1805.  You can find it here.

 

Wishing you a very happy Easter, however you choose to celebrate!