Julia Bennet's Blog, page 5
March 25, 2019
Knickerbockers and Pantalettes?: What Late-Victorian Women Wore underneath their gowns.
If you write historical romance of the non-closed door variety, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself researching undergarments. I’m sure there are lots of places on the internet where you can find all the information in one place, but one more won’t hurt. My books are set in the 1880s-90s, so that’s the period I’ll cover in this post.
I can’t remember who called the appearance of Victorian women in photographs ‘well-upholstered’ but the description is spot-on. Unsurprising too, once...
March 18, 2019
Victorian Mad Doctors and Clitoral Stimulation Redux
Just when I thought I knew where I was with this topic, I find this article by Dr. Kate Lister. In a nutshell, while there is next to no evidence for Victorian doctors using the vibrator to stimulate women’s clitorises as a cure for hysteria, there is actually quite a bit suggesting they used manual stimulation of the vulva or pelvic massage.
‘The Physiotherapy in Gynaecology and the Mechanical Treatment of Diseases of the Uterus and its Appendages’, 1895, via inews.According to my understan...
March 10, 2019
Eminent Victorians: Valerie, Lady Meux.
I first came across Lady Meux when writing my first manuscript (now languishing on my hard drive). I think I was trying to gain a more accurate idea of what ladies wore in the 1880s when Harmony in Pink and Grey popped up in my Pinterest search results. I’d never seen it before and I fell in love once I learned a bit more about the subject. Valerie, Lady Meux, despite her aristocratic demeanor, was a woman...
March 4, 2019
Book Cover Love 2: Romance Novel Edition.
I was going to start with a paragraph about how maligned romance novel cover art has been over the years, but I think that’s a post I’ll save for another day. I love romance covers, heaving bosoms and all. Gone are the days when I listened to the naysayers. So here are a few of my favorites. As with last week’s post Book Cover Love 1: Non-romance Edition, I’ll only include books I’ve read and enjoyed.
[image error]A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole. Find at Goodreads.A romantic comedy with a STEM heroin...
February 25, 2019
Book Cover Love Part 1: Non-romance edition
One of the things we dream about when writing a book is what the cover will look like. I don’t know how it works at other publishers, but at Entangled, authors are sent a form they can fill in with their ideas. For a debutante like me, it’s a very cool and fun experience. Obviously it’s down to the cover designers and marketing department to decide which ideas might actually make for a salable cover. Anyway, I’ve seen the mock-up and I can’t wait to be able to share the finished product.
Mean...
February 17, 2019
History as a Moving Target: Did Victorian doctors really use clitoral stimulation to treat hysteria?
As a history geek who also writes historical romance, I do a lot of research. One of the things that strikes me is how our image of the past is less fixed than we think. The 19th century as written by Jane Austen differs drastically from the version we find in a primary document like The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. And, contrary to what I’ve read in romance novel reviews over the years, members of the ton occasionally married sex workers (e.g. Elizabeth Armistead, Lady Meux etc.), trans...
February 13, 2019
The Madness of Miss Grey: An Aesthetic
[image error]It’s an aesthetic for ‘The Madness of Miss Grey’ which is due out on April 22nd.
July 20, 2018
Sunflower Wars, a brief memoir
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a 6 yr old boy came home from school with a small potful of dirt and this:
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So his mother (that would be me) placed the pot upon a windowsill and watered the contents each day. A shoot appeared, and when the tiny plant grew large enough to need support, the mother stuck a drinking straw into the earth and tied the stem with string. Whenever she was writing outdoors, she took the pot with her, basking her fragile charge in sunlight.
Time passed and th...
June 8, 2018
The Query Letter That Got Me My Agent (with commentary from Jessica Alvarez of Bookends Literary Agency)
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(Image via Pinterest.com)When I wrote my first query letter, I was deeply grateful to all the authors who’d shared their successful letters on the internet. It would seem wrong somehow if I didn’t share mine. This wasn’t the first manuscript I queried. Although I got very lucky (as you’re about to see) I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the query trenches, and I know how frustrating the process can be.
Here’s the query for The Madness of Miss Grey, then titled Heart of Ice:
Dear Ms Alvarez,
...November 6, 2017
A Frivolous Post about My Quest for the Right Pen Name
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(Image from brainlesstales.com)I’m indecisive about names. My heroines usually go through about three before I find the one that’s just right. My pen name has been no different. I’m happy with Julia Bennet. It holds meaning for me, and it’s close but not too close to my real name. Now that I’ve settled on it, it seems the obvious choice. Meant to be.
But until recently I was using Julia Jones. It was a name I could imagine gracing the cover of an historical romance, and I fell in love with...
