Mimi Matthews's Blog, page 9
June 14, 2018
The Matrimonial Advertisement: Exclusive Cover Reveal at USA Today!
Today, I’m thrilled to be over at USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog with Joyce Lamb for the exclusive cover reveal of my next Victorian romance novel, The Matrimonial Advertisement. You can click through to the USA Today website HERE. I hope you’ll all stop by and have a look! The Matrimonial Advertisement is a Victorian Gothic romance set, primarily, on […]
June 12, 2018
The Lost Letter: 10,000 Copies Sold!
Dear Readers, Today, my Victorian romance The Lost Letter sold its 10,000th copy! I am thrilled beyond belief and so very grateful to you all for taking a chance on a debut fiction author. When The Lost Letter released on September 19, 2017, I was guardedly optimistic about its chances. I hoped it might eventually sell […]
June 10, 2018
Gold and Silver Hair Powders for Fashionable Victorian Coiffures
During the mid-nineteenth century, Empress Eugénie of France was the undisputed arbiter of Victorian fashion. When she appeared at a Paris theatre in 1853 with her fair hair dusted in glittering silver powder, the fashionable world sat up and took notice. Ladies—from the upper echelons of the haut ton to the minor ranks of country […]
June 4, 2018
The Lost Letter 99¢ eBook Sale!
To celebrate next week’s release of The Lost Letter audiobook (coming June 12 from Tantor Media), the eBook version of The Lost Letter is going on sale for only 99¢! The sale runs from June 4-June 10 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo. If you haven’t yet read my debut Victorian romance, I hope […]
June 3, 2018
From Arsenic to Electricity: A Brief look at Victorian Hair Removal
In the Victorian era, ladies with excess facial or body hair didn’t have the luxury of making an appointment at their local salon. Instead, women employed various methods of hair removal at home. There was shaving and tweezing, of course, but there were also more dangerous methods. These ranged from caustic depilatories made of arsenic […]
May 21, 2018
Beauty and the Beast: From French Folklore to Victorian Romance
In 1740, French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve wrote and published a collection of stories entitled La Jeune Ameriquaine et les Contes Marins. Within, was the fairy tale La Belle et la Bête. Widely viewed as the oldest version of Beauty and Beast, La Belle et la Bête contained all of the now familiar elements […]
May 6, 2018
The Etiquette of Broken Betrothals: Victorian Advice on Ending an Engagement
In the Victorian era, a broken engagement was no small matter. If a gentleman jilted his fiancée, he risked doing untold damage to both her reputation and his own. Even so, if an engaged couple discovered that they were incompatible, Victorian era marriage manuals and books on etiquette strongly advised breaking the engagement rather than […]
April 22, 2018
The Curious Case of Miss Schwich: A Victorian Girl in Boy’s Clothing
In October of 1886, at the Marlborough Street Police Court in London, a young woman dressed in boy’s clothing was charged with stealing from her employer. Her name was Lois Schwich (sometimes spelled Schwick). She was twenty-one years old and had been wearing male attire since the age of seventeen. According to a 29 October […]
April 16, 2018
Companion Dogs as Seers, Healers, and Fairy Steeds
When considering dog folklore, we generally think of those stories which feature the Grimm, the Gytrash, or other sinister black dogs roaming the moors in the North of England. But there is more to canine folklore than the ominous black dogs of legend. Companion dogs, such as pugs and corgis, have their place in dog […]
April 11, 2018
Audiobook Narrator News!
I’m thrilled to announce that my audio publisher, Tantor Media, has cast Justine Eyre to narrate both The Lost Letter and The Viscount and the Vicar’s Daughter. Justine has done the narration for some really fantastic historical romance and historical fiction authors, including Amanda Quick, Eloisa James, Sarah MacLean, and Tasha Alexander. She’s the actress […]
