Costuming the Author, and the Reader

Fall is in the air, and Halloween is coming!  Already I'm seeing advertisements for masquerades and costume contests.  Marissa has posted in the past about the types of costumes our nineteenth century lads and lasses might have worn.  They enjoyed playing dress up.  Today’s author of nineteenth century romance is not immune, and, I'm betting, neither is her readers.  So, to get you thinking about how you might design your own outfit, here are some examples from my sister romance authors.

You can, of course, pay a seamstress to design you a costume.  I am so envious of these amazing gowns worn by the talented Collette Cameron and the wonderful Ella Quinn.  Looking good, ladies!

Or, you might be handy with a sewing machine yourself.  Several patterns are available these days.  Immediately below is acclaimed Regency author April Kihlstrom in a fetching red gown. And farther down is Golden Heart Award winner Kristi Ann Hunter in one she and her mother made together.

Then again, you might find a costume awaiting you in your favorite thrift store.  Doesn’t the delightful Georgie Lee look festive in her frugal find? 

Finally, some fashions from earlier years can be readily adapted to “faux Regency.”  When I wear this one with the flocked orange roses next to Marissa in her seamstress’s creation, I always say I must be the poor relation.  J

But then again, I have another costume I much prefer.  That's Sir Reginald with the regal Marjorie Allen.  

What do you think?  Any of these approaches appeal to you?

Many thanks to my models, most of whom are members of my beloved Beau Monde Chapter of Romance Writers of America.^TM

Translating the People in My Head

No, I’m not planning to write in another language.  I’m simply delighted that once again the artists at Love Inspired were able to take the characters in my head and translate them into a viable cover for my August book, The Courting Campaign.  This book starts a new series for me, where the staff from four estates in Derbyshire play matchmaker for their masters. 

When I start writing a book, I generally have an idea in my head as to how the main characters look.  But my head can get a little cluttered with the many characters hanging around, so I often go looking for a picture of a real-life person who’s a good approximation.  (Example of the cluttered brain?  A dear lady came up to me in church the other day and said, with a big grin, “Don’t ya know, don’t ya know, don’t ya know.”  I stared at her rather stupidly for a moment, until I remembered I had a character named Stanley Arlington with a distressing habit of using that phrase in my book Perfection.  Guess what she’d been reading.) 

So I was rather pleased with what the grand artists for Love Inspired came up with for the cover for The Courting Campaign.  And I love the back cover copy:

 

Emma Pyrmont has no designs on handsome Sir Nicholas Rotherford--at least not for herself.  As his daughter’s nanny, she sees how lonely little Alice has been.  With the cook’s help, Emma shows the workaholic scientist just what Alice needs.  But making Nicholas a better father makes Emma wish her painful past didn’t mar her own marriage chances.

Ever since scandal destroyed his career, Nicholas has devoted himself to his new invention.  Now his daughter’s sweet, quick-witted nanny is proving an unexpected distraction.  All evidence suggests that happiness is within reach--if only a man of logic can trust in the deductions of his own heart.

The young lady in my head for The Courting Campaign’s heroine, Emma Pyrmont, is an actress who has starred in two movies loosely based on Victorian society.   And she took The Vow never to be one of those Mean Girls.  My hero Sir Nicholas Rotherford, on the other hand, may be a widower with a young daughter in the book, but he is closer to Mr. Spock than Dr. Spock in real life, and he is also associated with another group of Heroes. 

Anyone want to guess who they were based on?

Heroine or Author?

You all know Regina Scott as one half of Nineteenteen and as author of the scrumptious YA novel La Petite Four…but did you know that Regina previously wrote seventeen other novels set in the Regency period of England? Yes, seventeen—you read that correctly.

So as a fun way to get to know Regina better, we’ve put together a quiz I’m calling HEROINE OR AUTHOR? Answers will be posted in the comment section, so get out your pencils and join in. And don’t forget, all of you who leave comments on the blog this week through Monday night, June 9, will be entered in a drawing to win an autographed copy of La Petite Four!

Here we go...

1. True or false: Like Hannah Alexander, heroine of A Dangerous Dalliance (a May 2000 release from Kensington and the prequel to La Petite Four ), Regina is a professional art teacher when she’s not writing.

2. Like Celia Rider in Perfection (Kensington, October 2003 ), Regina’s been known to go undercover…but not as a governess. What is Regina’s disguise?
a. Jane Austen
b. a Regency dandy
c. Queen Charlotte

3. True or false: Like Cynthia Jacobs in “Sweeter than Candy” from the Regency Reads anthology Be My Bride, Regina is the mother of sons.

4. Like Joanna Lindby in "The June Bride Conspiracy" of the Regency Reads anthology Be My Bride, Regina's had a long-time crush on a certain dashing spy. Who is it? Bonus question: what actor played him on screen?
a. James Bond.
b. George Smiley
c. The Scarlet Pimpernell

5. True or False: Like Sarah Compton of The Incomparable Miss Compton (Regency Reads, April 2008), Regina is a late bloomer.

6. Eugennia Welch of The Bluestocking on His Knee (Regency Reads, March 2008) and Regina both love to collect something, though Eugennia has far more of them. What is it?
a. parking tickets
b. Meissen figurines
c. antique books

7. True or False: Like Angelica Pruitt in The Pleasure Garden (Kensington 2005, writing as Regan Allen), Regina is the daughter of a minister.

8. Lady Emily Southwell of La Petite Four (Penguin Razorbill, out now!) and Regina share a certain physical characteristic. What is it?
a. a graceful figure
b. Size four feet
c. Dark, curly hair that's frizzier in the rain

Have fun! And if you need more Regina Scott after you've finished La Petite Four, head on over to Regency Reads where several of the books mentioned above are available in e-book form.