Rachael Miles's Blog, page 3
February 16, 2016
Winter fashions at Paris, 1819
The winter of 1818-19 was a mild one, but that didn't stop fashionable Parisians from sporting fur on outdoor excursions. Muffs and fur-lined witzchouras (a broad-collared cloak with sleeves and often a hood) kept the Parisian ladies warm. If riding in a carriage, some ladies chose satin pelisses trimmed with chinchilla.
And what hat could one use to pull it all together?
Some ladies chose a black beaver hat, ornamented with metal buckles; others preferred velvet hats, in a variety of colors, decorated with cockleshells. The equestrian set preferred hats of a "carmelite-colored down, lined with a jonquil-colored sarsnet."
I had to look that particular color combination up, and here's what I found. According to Charles O'Neill's 1869 Dictionary of Dyeing and Calico Printing, the color carmelite--named after the monastic order--is a 'yellowish orange mixed with brown' made by 'saddening orange or using logwood to brown it" (123). (I wonder how does one make orange happy?) According to the OED, sarsnet (or sarcenet) is a 'very fine and soft silk material made both plain and twilled." Picture this then: a hat with an orangy-brown colored down lined in pale yellow silk.
The other favorite colors of the season are equally interesting. According to the Belle Assemblee, those are "the nakara, or field poppy, dead leaf, London smoke, and morello cherry." (What color do you think 'dead leaf' is?)
I'll talk about indoor fashion in another post. But if you want to read the original article from the January 1819 issue of the Belle Assemblee now, I've transcribed it at my website: http://bit.ly/1Xx0aLC
And what hat could one use to pull it all together?
Some ladies chose a black beaver hat, ornamented with metal buckles; others preferred velvet hats, in a variety of colors, decorated with cockleshells. The equestrian set preferred hats of a "carmelite-colored down, lined with a jonquil-colored sarsnet."
I had to look that particular color combination up, and here's what I found. According to Charles O'Neill's 1869 Dictionary of Dyeing and Calico Printing, the color carmelite--named after the monastic order--is a 'yellowish orange mixed with brown' made by 'saddening orange or using logwood to brown it" (123). (I wonder how does one make orange happy?) According to the OED, sarsnet (or sarcenet) is a 'very fine and soft silk material made both plain and twilled." Picture this then: a hat with an orangy-brown colored down lined in pale yellow silk.
The other favorite colors of the season are equally interesting. According to the Belle Assemblee, those are "the nakara, or field poppy, dead leaf, London smoke, and morello cherry." (What color do you think 'dead leaf' is?)
I'll talk about indoor fashion in another post. But if you want to read the original article from the January 1819 issue of the Belle Assemblee now, I've transcribed it at my website: http://bit.ly/1Xx0aLC
February 15, 2016
Win 35+ & a Kindle Fire
Dear all,
In case you missed it, you still have a day or two to sign up for the big giveaway of historical romances sponsored by Patricia Rice.
2 winners--both get the books! though only 1 gets the kindle fire!
After you sign up, share! every time one of your friends sign up, you get 3 extra chances to win!
I’m giving away Jilting the Duke!
Enter the contest by clicking here: http://bit.ly/MagicalValentines
Hope you win!
In case you missed it, you still have a day or two to sign up for the big giveaway of historical romances sponsored by Patricia Rice.
2 winners--both get the books! though only 1 gets the kindle fire!
After you sign up, share! every time one of your friends sign up, you get 3 extra chances to win!
I’m giving away Jilting the Duke!
Enter the contest by clicking here: http://bit.ly/MagicalValentines
Hope you win!
February 11, 2016
Big Giveaway!!!
To celebrate Valentine's Day, I’ve teamed up with Patricia Rice and over 35 fantastic authors to give two readers more than 35 historical romances, and a Kindle Fire to one lucky winner!
I’m giving away my book . . .
Enter the contest by clicking here: http://bit.ly/MagicalValentines
I’m giving away my book . . .
Enter the contest by clicking here: http://bit.ly/MagicalValentines
February 10, 2016
5 stars for Jilting the Duke
It's a lovely thing to write late late into the night (most people call it morning), then wake up to good reviews. And it's especially nice when the reviews come from bloggers who focus on romance.
Today, I awoke to a surfeit of such riches.
Jilting the Duke garnered 5 star ratings from
Historical Romance Lover ( http://bit.ly/1o34WVn )
Diana's Book Reviews ( http://bit.ly/20oIdis )
and Love Saves the World ( http://bit.ly/1RpJ5TA ). (One caveat, Love saves the World's star rating appears at Amazon).
Especially delightful for me, Love Saves the World commented at some length on aspects of the novel that no other reviewers had yet addressed, including this sentence: "I appreciate that Rachael Miles has presented us with a story not about our "one true love" but of the different kinds of love that exist and can exist side by side. "
I had hoped that would come across--thanks to Love Saves the World, I know it did!
Reviewing is different from reading--and I value the work of all the reviewers of Jilting who have offered their time and consideration to my debut.
Today, I awoke to a surfeit of such riches.
Jilting the Duke garnered 5 star ratings from
Historical Romance Lover ( http://bit.ly/1o34WVn )
Diana's Book Reviews ( http://bit.ly/20oIdis )
and Love Saves the World ( http://bit.ly/1RpJ5TA ). (One caveat, Love saves the World's star rating appears at Amazon).
Especially delightful for me, Love Saves the World commented at some length on aspects of the novel that no other reviewers had yet addressed, including this sentence: "I appreciate that Rachael Miles has presented us with a story not about our "one true love" but of the different kinds of love that exist and can exist side by side. "
I had hoped that would come across--thanks to Love Saves the World, I know it did!
Reviewing is different from reading--and I value the work of all the reviewers of Jilting who have offered their time and consideration to my debut.
February 9, 2016
Forgery in the Early 19thC
In Jilting the Duke, the villain Charters hides forged bank notes in Lady Wilmot's possessions, then calls the magistrates to search her property.
The situation was a serious one: having forged notes in one’s possession was as much of a crime as forging them. The crime was called 'uttering' forged notes, and the penalty was either execution or transportation.
Whereas for us, 'to utter' means to speak or to put into expression, an older--and contemporaneous in the early 19thC-- meaning was 'to put goods on the market' or to 'put into circulation.'
Between the 1790s and the 1820s, the numbers of forged bank notes rose dramatically. By 1802, the Bank hired an additional 70 clerks… just to detect forgeries. On average, thirty or more people were executed each year for forging or holding forged notes.
There really was a Parliamentary committee charged with developing ways to make bank notes more difficult to forge, and their proposed solutions included special paper, special inks, more elaborate designs on the notes, special printing techniques—all things we are familiar with today.
If you want to know more about the bank crisis in the early 19thC, write me a note. I love to hear from readers!
The situation was a serious one: having forged notes in one’s possession was as much of a crime as forging them. The crime was called 'uttering' forged notes, and the penalty was either execution or transportation.
Whereas for us, 'to utter' means to speak or to put into expression, an older--and contemporaneous in the early 19thC-- meaning was 'to put goods on the market' or to 'put into circulation.'
Between the 1790s and the 1820s, the numbers of forged bank notes rose dramatically. By 1802, the Bank hired an additional 70 clerks… just to detect forgeries. On average, thirty or more people were executed each year for forging or holding forged notes.
There really was a Parliamentary committee charged with developing ways to make bank notes more difficult to forge, and their proposed solutions included special paper, special inks, more elaborate designs on the notes, special printing techniques—all things we are familiar with today.
If you want to know more about the bank crisis in the early 19thC, write me a note. I love to hear from readers!
February 4, 2016
A legal problem...
Before the Married Women's Property Act, women in the UK had no legal status, if married. Any property a woman brought to a married became her husband's after the marriage ceremony.
Children were also property--and they belonged to the husband. Repeatedly we find stories of wife sent away with no ability to see their children, if it is denied by their husbands. We find Rosina Bulwer-Lytton in a real life example or in a fictional one the main character in Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novel, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman.
In Jilting the Duke, then, Sophia Gardiner, Lady Wilmot, is in a precarious position. If her late husband Tom had wanted to, he could have "willed" their son entirely into the care of a male guardian. And if she appears to be unfit as a guardian, one of her male relations (or the child's) could petition to have the care of her son taken from her. This is the threat Phineas--her unappealing brother--makes: to take her child--and with it her child's fortune.
But luckily Tom had other things in mind for Sophia--and her co-guardian Aidan Somerville, Lord Forster.
To read a discussion of the guardianship, check out the extract available from http://jensreadingobsession.blogspot....
You'll also find a drawing for a free copy of Jilting the Duke.
If you have questions, please let me know. I love to talk to readers.
Children were also property--and they belonged to the husband. Repeatedly we find stories of wife sent away with no ability to see their children, if it is denied by their husbands. We find Rosina Bulwer-Lytton in a real life example or in a fictional one the main character in Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novel, Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman.
In Jilting the Duke, then, Sophia Gardiner, Lady Wilmot, is in a precarious position. If her late husband Tom had wanted to, he could have "willed" their son entirely into the care of a male guardian. And if she appears to be unfit as a guardian, one of her male relations (or the child's) could petition to have the care of her son taken from her. This is the threat Phineas--her unappealing brother--makes: to take her child--and with it her child's fortune.
But luckily Tom had other things in mind for Sophia--and her co-guardian Aidan Somerville, Lord Forster.
To read a discussion of the guardianship, check out the extract available from http://jensreadingobsession.blogspot....
You'll also find a drawing for a free copy of Jilting the Duke.
If you have questions, please let me know. I love to talk to readers.
February 2, 2016
Botanical Pleasures
In Jilting the Duke, the heroine Sophia Wilmot is a botanist and a botanical illustrator.
Botany had become by the end of the 18thC a science appropriate for women. By 1800, books like William Mavor's The Lady and Gentleman's Botanical Pocket Book argued that 'botanizing'--rummaging about in the countryside looking at plants-- was actually good for one's health! Here's a great quote:
But when Sophia teaches the hero Aidan Somerville, Duke of Forster something of what she knows about plants, he turns it into a seductive moment:
For more on flowers, botany, and the language of flowers in 1819, check out my website rachaelmiles.com--then let me know what you think. I always love to hear from readers.
Botany had become by the end of the 18thC a science appropriate for women. By 1800, books like William Mavor's The Lady and Gentleman's Botanical Pocket Book argued that 'botanizing'--rummaging about in the countryside looking at plants-- was actually good for one's health! Here's a great quote:
"Whether we consider the effect of Botany as enlarging the sphere of knowledge, or as conducive to health and innocent amusement, it ought to rank very high in the scale of elegant acquirements (Mavor vi).
But when Sophia teaches the hero Aidan Somerville, Duke of Forster something of what she knows about plants, he turns it into a seductive moment:
"Then he had kissed her, naming all the flowers by their botanical names in a line from her lips, down her neck, and to her breasts, and back to her mouth, until her kisses, sweet against his lips, turned mad with longing. In his youth and inexperience, he'd mistaken her fervor for love."
For more on flowers, botany, and the language of flowers in 1819, check out my website rachaelmiles.com--then let me know what you think. I always love to hear from readers.
January 29, 2016
Words in their Historical Context
One of my obsessions in writing about the Regency is in making sure I use words that could have been used then. Of course I can't look everything up, but I try to mark words that give me pause.
I find out fascinating things--both about words I can't use and the words I can.
Here's today's word(s):
In 1819, one couldn't be ambivalent--a term that came into English from very early20thC translations of Jung and Freud.
One could however be mealy-mouthed, equivocal, or ambiguous.
If you like to know what was happening in 1819, check out my website: rachaelmiles.com . There I've collected articles from actual magazines and newspapers.
As always, I love to hear from readers. Be sure to write questions using the 'ask an author' feature here. Or connect with me through one of the other possibilities (FB, email, twitter) listed up there in my author profile!
I find out fascinating things--both about words I can't use and the words I can.
Here's today's word(s):
In 1819, one couldn't be ambivalent--a term that came into English from very early20thC translations of Jung and Freud.
One could however be mealy-mouthed, equivocal, or ambiguous.
If you like to know what was happening in 1819, check out my website: rachaelmiles.com . There I've collected articles from actual magazines and newspapers.
As always, I love to hear from readers. Be sure to write questions using the 'ask an author' feature here. Or connect with me through one of the other possibilities (FB, email, twitter) listed up there in my author profile!
January 26, 2016
High praise...
In the pleased and very honored category...
Omnivoracious.com asked four top romance writers to recommend a debut writer.
Mary Jo Putney chose Jilting the Duke,saying
If you want to read the whole article, go here: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2016/01/...
Omnivoracious.com asked four top romance writers to recommend a debut writer.
Mary Jo Putney chose Jilting the Duke,saying
"The Regency is a well-traveled setting, so it's always exciting to discover a strong new voice. Rachael Miles' Jilting the Duke, which will be a February 2016 release from Zebra Shout, is such a new voice. Well written and well researched, Jilting the Duke is a complex story of love gone wrong, tangled secrets, and ultimate reconciliation. Plus—suspense elements!"
If you want to read the whole article, go here: http://www.omnivoracious.com/2016/01/...
