D.W. Wilkin's Blog, page 141

Regency Personalities Series-William Henry Percy

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.

William Henry Percy

24 March 1788 ��� 5 October 1855

William Henry Percy was the sixth son of Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley, and his wife Isabella Susannah Burrell, daughter of Peter Burrell.

Entering the navy as a first-class volunteer on board the 64 gun HMS��Lion in May 1801 and going with it to China, Percy returned in November 1802 and was posted to the HMS��Medusa as a midshipman. (Soon afterwards, his elder brother Josceline was appointed its appointed acting lieutenant.) He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1807. Promoted to commander in 1810, his first command was the troopship HMS��Mermaid in 1811. Percy and Mermaid transported troops between Britain and Iberia for the Peninsular War).

He was made post captain on 21 March 1812, but his next command (of the 20 gun HMS��Hermes during 1814, operating on the North American coast) came to grief when he lost 50 of his crew wounded or killed in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Bowyer, Mobile and then had to set fire to his own ship to keep her out of enemy hands. A court martial determined that the attack was warranted by the circumstances. Still, this was his last naval service, though he did carry back to England despatches announcing the British defeat at the Battle of New Orleans.

For a while during his retirement he was a commissioner of excise and – thanks to the influence of his maternal aunt’s stepson, Brownlow Cecil the second Marquess of Exeter – he sat as Tory MP for Stamford, Lincolnshire from 1818 to 1826. He was made a rear-admiral on the retired list on 1 October 1846.

Percy died unmarried in October 1855, aged 67.

1st book in the Masqueraders Chocolate House series

I and five others have released the first in what could turn out to be a few, an anthology centered around Bath of the Georgian and Regency period. All proceeds go to charity, specifically the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The Chocolate House

All For Love

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Our Authors are noted and award winning storytellers in the genre of Georgian and Regency era Historical Novels:

David W Wilkin

Francine Howarth

Giselle Marks

Jessica Schira

Susan Ruth

Elizabeth Bailey

 

A Sensual blend of Chocolate, Romance, Murder & Mystery at “Masqueraders”.

The beautiful City of Bath, famous for its Roman Spa, its Abbey, its Pump Room & Assembly Rooms, and Sally Lunn���s bun shop, is a place made famous within the literary world by the likes of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and other authors of Georgian and Regency historical novels. Thus Bath is renowned as a place for intrigue and romance, but few readers will have stepped across the threshold of Masqueraders���, a notorious and fashionable Chocolate House, that existed within the city from 1700 to the latter part of the reign of William IV. What happened to it thereafter, no one knows, for sure. Nor does anyone know why Sally Lunn���s bun shop disappeared for decades until it was rediscovered.

So it could be said, essence of chocolate drifting on the ether denotes where the seemingly mystical Masqueraders��� once existed, and it is that spiritual essence that has brought authors together from around the globe, to pen a delightful collection of Georgian & Regency romances, that are, all, in some way, linked to The Chocolate House. We sincerely hope you will enjoy the individual stories, and be assured all the royalties earned will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London.

The stories:

A Rose by Any Other ��� Giselle Marks.

A Fatal Connection ��� Elizabeth Bailey

The Runaway Duchess ��� Francine Howarth

Death at the Chocolate House ��� Susan Ruth

A-Pig-in-a-Poke ��� Jessica Schira

A Little Chocolate in the Morning ��� David W. Wilkin.

My story (As the author and owner of this Blog, I feel I can tell you more) is the story of Charles Watkins the Marquis of Rockford (for those who want the nitty gritty, ask and we can discuss the very specific creation of name details that went into this) who has recently come into his title and estates, his father dying just about a year before. Now he is to return to London after his mourning is over to use his seat in the House of Lords in aid of the war against Napoleon. He is not in Town to seek a bride though the dowager Marchioness should like that he attain one.

No, certainly not the schoolmate of his younger sister Emma, Lady Caroline Williamson, the daughter of the Earl of Feversham. A girl as young and silly as his sister, he would never wed, and certainly not fall in love with. But rescuing her from the clutches of a man who was old enough to be his own grandfather, that he could do with ease, and perhaps Panache.

Available at Amazon Digitally for your Kindle for $2.99 or Physically in Trade Paperback

Regency Personalities Series-John Townshend 4th Marquess of Townshend

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.

John Townshend 4th Marquess of Townshend

28 March 1798 ��� 10 September 1863

John Townshend

John Townshend 4th Marquess of Townshend was the son of Lord John Townshend, younger son of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend. His mother was Georgiana Anne Poyntz. He served in the Royal Navy and achieved the rank of Rear-Admiral. Between 1847 and 1855 he also sat as Member of Parliament for Tamworth. In the latter year he succeeded his first cousin in the marquessate and entered the House of Lords.

Lord Townshend married Elizabeth Jane Crichton-Stuart, daughter of Lord George Stuart, younger son of John Crichton-Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, on 18 August 1825. They had five children:

Lady Audrey Jane Charlotte Townshend (d. 1926), married firstly, Greville Howard, son of Charles Howard, 17th Earl of Suffolk and had issue. She married secondly, General Redvers Henry Buller.
James Dudley Browlow Stuart Townshend (d. 1846), unmarried
Anne Maria Townshend (d. 1899), married Alexander Sherson
Elizabeth Clementina Townshend (d. 1910), married John St Aubyn, 1st Baron St Levan and had issue
John Villiers Stuart Townshend, 5th Marquess Townshend (1831���1899)

Lord Townshend died in September 1863, aged 65, as result of a fall from his horse in the grounds of his home, Raynham Hall, and was buried at East Raynham, Norfolk. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son John. Lady Townshend died in 1877.

Regency Personalities Series-Thomas Girtin

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.

Thomas Girtin

18 February 1775 ��� 9 November 1802

Thomas Girtin

Thomas Girtin was born in Southwark, London, the son of a well-to-do brushmaker of Huguenot descent. His father died while Thomas was a child, and his mother then married a Mr Vaughan, a pattern-draughtsman. Girtin learnt drawing as a boy (attending classes with Thomas Malton), and was apprenticed to Edward Dayes (1763���1804), a topographical watercolourist. He is believed to have served out his seven-year term, although there are unconfirmed reports of clashes between master and apprentice, and even that Dayes had Girtin imprisoned as a refractory apprentice. Certainly Dayes did not appreciate his pupil’s talent, and he was to write dismissively of Girtin after his death.

While a youth, Girtin became friends with J. M. W. Turner and the teenagers were employed to colour prints with watercolours. Girtin exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794. His architectural and topographical sketches and drawings established his reputation, his use of watercolour for landscapes being such as to give him the credit of having created Romantic watercolour painting. He went on several sketching tours, visiting the north of England, North Wales and the West Country. By 1799, he had acquired influential patrons such as Lady Sutherland, and the art collector Sir George Beaumont. He was the dominant member of the Brothers, a sketching society of professional artists and talented amateurs.

Jedburgh Abbey from the River

In 1800, Girtin married Mary Ann Borrett, the 16 year old daughter of a well-to-do City goldsmith, and set up home in St George’s Row, Hyde Park, next door to the painter Paul Sandby. By 1801, he was a welcome houseguest at his patrons’ country houses such as Harewood House and Mulgrave Castle, and able to charge 20 guineas for a painting, but his health was deteriorating. In late 1801 to early 1802, he spent five and a half months in Paris, where he painted watercolours and made a series the pencil sketches which he engraved on his return to London. They were published as Twenty Views in Paris and its Environs after his death. In spring and summer 1802, Girtin produced a panorama of London, the “Eidometropolis”, 18 feet high and 108 feet in circumference which was exhibited with success that year. It was notable for its naturalistic treatment of urban light and atmosphere. That November, Girtin died in his painting room; the cause was variously reported as asthma or “ossification of the heart.”

Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire

Girtin’s early landscapes are akin to 18th-century topographical sketches, but in later years he developed a bolder, more spacious, romantic style, which had a lasting influence on English painting. The scenery of the north encouraged him to create a new watercolour palette of warm browns, slate greys, indigo and purple. He abandoned the practice of undershadowing in grey wash and then adding pastel patches of colour, in favour of broad washes of strong colour, and experimented with the use of pen, brown ink and varnish to add richer tones. Girtin’s early death reportedly caused Turner to remark, “Had Tom Girtin lived I should have starved”.

The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have collections of his work. The British Museum was given significant Girtin watercolours by the collector Chambers Hall.

An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Soaked and Wild

An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Soaked! and WILD!

I have been a fan of this series of computer games since early in its release of the very first game. That game was done by one programmer, Chris Sawyer, and it was the first I recall of an internet hit. Websites were put up in dedication to this game where people showed off their creations, based on real amusement parks. These sites were funded by individuals, an expense that was not necessarily as cheap then as it is now. Nor as easy to program then as it might be to build a web page now.

Prima Books released game guides for each iteration of the game, Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3) but not for the expansion sets. And unlike the first two works, the third guide was riddled with incorrect solutions. As I played the game that frustrated me. And I took to the forums that Atari, the game publisher hosted to see if I could find a way to solve those scenarios that the Prima Guide had written up in error. Not finding any good advice, I created my own for the scenarios that the ���Official��� Guide had gotten wrong.

Solutions that if you followed my advice you would win the scenario and move on. But if you followed the

���Official��� version you would fail and not be able to complete the game. My style and format being different than the folks at Prima, I continued for all the Scenarios that they had gotten right as well, though my solutions cut to the chase and got you to the winner���s circle more quickly, more directly.

My contributions to the ���Official��� Forum, got me a place as a playtester for both expansions to the game, Soaked and Wild. And for each of these games, I wrote the guides during the play testing phase so all the play testers could solve the scenarios, and then once again after the official release to make changes in the formula in case our aiding to perfect the game had changed matters. For this, Atari and Frontier (the actual programmers of the game) placed me within the game itself.

And for the longest time, these have been free at the ���Official��� Forums, as well as my own website dedicated to the game. But a short time ago, I noticed that Atari, after one of its bankruptcies had deleted their forums. So now I am releasing the Guide for one and all. I have added new material and it is over 150 pages, for all three games. It is available for the Kindle at present for $7.99. It is also available as a trade paperback for just a little bit more.

You can also find this at Smashwords, iBooks, Kobo and Barnes and Noble

(Click on the picture to purchase)

Not only are all 39 Scenarios covered, but there are sections covering every Cheat Code, Custom Scenery, the famous Small Park Competition, the Advanced Fireworks Editor, the Flying Camera Route Editor which are all the techniques every amusement park designer needs to make a fantastic park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

Scenarios for RCT 3

1) Vanilla Hills

2) Goldrush

3) Checkered Flag

4) Box Office

5) Fright Night

6) Go With The Flow

7) Broom Lake

8) Valley of Kings

9) Gunslinger

10) Ghost Town

11) National Treasure

12) New Blood

13) Island Hopping

14) Cosmic Crags

15) La La Land

16) Mountain Rescue

17) The Money Pit

18) Paradise Island

Scenarios for Soaked!

1) Captain Blackheart’s Cove

2) Oasis of Fun

3) Lost Atlantis

4) Monster Lake

5) Fountain of Youth

6) World of the Sea

7) Treasure Island

8) Mountain Spring

9) Castaway Getaway

Scenarios for WILD!

1) Scrub Gardens

2) Ostrich Farms Plains

3) Egyptian Sand Dance

4) A Rollercoaster Odyssey

5) Zoo Rescue

6) Mine Mountain

7) Insect World

8) Rocky Coasters

9) Lost Land of the Dinosaurs

10) Tiger Forest

11) Raiders of the Lost Coaster

12) Saxon Farms

Regency Personalities Series-Cecilia Underwood 1st Duchess of Inverness

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.

Cecilia Underwood 1st Duchess of Inverness

1785 ��� 1 August 1873

Cecilia Underwood

Cecilia Underwood 1st Duchess of Inverness was the second wife of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, sixth son of George III. As their marriage was in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, it was considered legally void, and she could not be styled either as the Duchess of Sussex or a Princess. She was created Duchess of Inverness, in her own right, by Queen Victoria, on 10 April 1840.

Cecilia’s exact date of birth is not known, although it is around 1785. Her father was Arthur Gore, 2nd Earl of Arran; her mother, Elizabeth n��e Underwood. She was styled Lady Cecilia Gore at birth, the courtesy title of a daughter of an earl.

Lady Cecilia’s first marriage was to Sir George Buggin, in May 1815. The marriage produced no children and Sir George died on 12 April 1825.

She later married Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III, at Great Cumberland Place, London, on 2 May 1831. The Duke of Sussex had already married Lady Augusta Murray in 1793, but that marriage was annulled in 1794 as it contravened the Royal Marriages Act 1772 which required that all members of the British Royal Family seek permission of the sovereign before marriage. However the Duke of Sussex’s second marriage also contravened the Act, making it legally void.

As the marriage was not considered legal in the UK, Lady Cecilia could not take the style Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex. Instead she assumed the name “Underwood”, her mother’s maiden name, by Royal Licence and was known as Lady Cecilia Underwood. The couple resided at the Duke’s apartments in Kensington Palace.

However, Lady Cecilia was not accepted as a full member of the British Royal Family. Strict royal protocol restricted Lady Cecilia at any functions attended by other members of the Royal Family, as she was unable to take a seat beside her husband due to her lower rank. To compensate for this, in 1840 Queen Victoria created her Duchess of Inverness, in her own right, with remainder to the heirs male of her body lawfully begotten. This recognised her husband’s subsidiary title of Earl of Inverness.

The Duke of Sussex died at Kensington Palace and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. The Duchess of Inverness continued to reside at Kensington Palace until her death in August 1873. She was buried next to her second husband.

Space Opera Books presents ECO Agents:Save The Planet a Young Adult Adventure

First ECO Agents book available

Those who follow me for a long time know that I also write in other fields aside from Regency Romance and the historical novels I do.

A few months ago, before the end of last year and after 2011 NaNoWriMo, (where I wrote the first draft of another Regency) I started work on a project with my younger brother Douglas (All three of my brothers are younger brothers.)

The premise, as he is now an educator but once was a full on scientist at the NHI and FBI (Very cloak and dagger chemistry.) was that with the world having become green, and more green aware every week, why not have a group of prodigies, studying at a higher learning educational facility tackle the ills that have now begun to beset the world.

So it is now released. We are trickling it out to the major online channels and through Amazon it will be available in trade paperback. Available at Amazon for your Kindle, or your Kindle apps and other online bookstores. For $5.99 you can get this collaboration between the brothers Wilkin. Or get it for every teenager you know who has access to a Kindle or other eReader.

Barnes and Noble for your Nook Smashwords iBookstore for your Apple iDevices Amazon for your Kindle

Five young people are all that stands between a better world and corporate destruction. Parker, Priya, JCubed, Guillermo and Jennifer are not just your average high school students. They are ECOAgents, trusted the world over with protecting the planet.

Our Earth is in trouble. Humanity has damaged our home. Billionaire scientist turned educator, Dr. Daniel Phillips-Lee, is using his vast resources to reverse this situation. Zedadiah Carter, leader of the Earth���s most powerful company, is only getting richer, harvesting resources, with the aid of not so trustworthy employees.

When the company threatens part of the world���s water supply, covering up their involvement is business as usual. The Ecological Conservation Organization���s Academy of Higher Learning and Scientific Achievement, or simply the ECO Academy, high in the hills of Malibu, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is the envy of educational institutions worldwide.

The teenage students of the ECO Academy, among the best and brightest the planet has to offer, have decided they cannot just watch the world self-destruct. They will meet this challenge head on as they begin to heal the planet.

Feedback

If you have any commentary, thoughts, ideas about the book (especially if you buy it, read it and like it ;-) then we would love to hear from you.

Regency Personalities Series-Sir Peter Parker 2nd Baronet

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the��many period notables.

Sir Peter Parker 2nd Baronet

1785 ��� 31 August 1814

Peter Parker

Sir Peter Parker 2nd Baronet was the descendant of several Royal Navy flag officers. His father was the son of Admiral Sir Peter Parker, and his mother the daughter of Vice-Admiral John Byron. Educated at Westminster School, he entered the Royal Navy in 1798, serving under his grandfather and his grandfather’s friend, Lord Nelson in Victory. He rapidly rose through the ranks, and was promoted in May 1804 to Commander. The next year he took command of the brig Weazel. The Weazel was the first British vessel to sight the Franco-Spanish fleet leaving C��diz, an action that precipitated the Battle of Trafalgar. For this service he was promoted to Captain.

Parker was briefly a Member of Parliament. He was returned unopposed as a Tory for the Irish borough constituency of Wexford at a by-election held on 3 March 1810. He resigned the seat in 1811 and was replaced at a by-election on 1 July 1811.

In 1810, he was given command of the frigate Menelaus, which he commissioned. Within weeks of commissioning she was involved in the suppression of a mutiny aboard Africaine. The notoriously brutal Captain Robert Corbet had been appointed to command Africaine and the crew had protested and refused to allow him to board. The Admiralty sent three popular officers to negotiate with the crew and ordered Menelaus to come alongside. If the crew of Africaine refused to agree with the appointment of Corbet, Parker had been ordered to fire on the ship until they submitted. The crew eventually agreed to allow Corbet aboard and Menelaus did not have to fire on Africaine. In the summer of 1810, Parker sailed for the Indian Ocean to reinforce the squadron operating against ��le de France, where he participated in the capture of the island in December 1810.

In 1812, Menelaus was part of the blockade of Toulon in the Mediterranean and operated against coastal harbours, shipping and privateers off the southern coast of France with some success. In 1813, the frigate was transferred to the Atlantic for service convoying merchant ships to Canada in the War of 1812. Menelaus was subsequently employed in raiding American positions along the Maryland coastline, destroying a coastal convoy in September. In 1814, Parker was ordered to operate against French ships in the Atlantic and recaptured a valuable Spanish merchant ship in January.

In 1814, following the French surrender, Menelaus was sent to Bermuda. From there Parker joined the British forces in the Chesapeake Bay under Admiral Sir George Cockburn and took part in the blockade of Baltimore. A bold and efficient commander, he became known for his ferocity in destroying American farms and property along the Chesapeake. Having for several days raided Kent County, Maryland, he landed a shore party and attempted a night attack on a detachment of Maryland militia at Fairlee, Maryland on the night of 30 August 1814. Unexpected resistance from the militia precipitated the Battle of Caulk’s Field; while British and American sources differ on the result of the battle, Parker was one of the casualties. Leading his marines, he was hit in the thigh (as his grandfather had been at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island), but unlike his grandfather, Parker died on the field of a severed femoral artery.

Parker’s body was sent to Bermuda, and subsequently interred at the family vault at St Margaret’s, Westminster, a public funeral with military honors being held on both occasions. He was eulogized by his first cousin, Lord Byron.

Parker married Marianne Dallas, daughter of Sir George Dallas, 1st Bt.. They had three sons:

Commander Sir Peter Parker, 3rd Baronet (1809���1835), promoted to commander on 3 March 1834, then of HMS Vernon
? Parker (d. bef. 1835)
George Parker (February 1815 ��� 23 November 1817), died of croup.

Space Opera Books Presents A Trolling We Will Go Omnibus:The Latter Years

A Trolling We Will Go Omnibus:The Latter Years

Not only do I write Regency and Romance, but I also have delved into Fantasy.

The Trolling series, is the story of a man, Humphrey. We meet him as he has left youth and become a man with a man���s responsibilities. He is a woodcutter for a small village. It is a living, but it is not necessarily a great living. It does give him strength, muscles.

We follow him in a series of stories that encompass the stages of life. We see him when he starts his family, when he has older sons and the father son dynamic is tested.

We see him when his children begin to marry and have children, and at the end of his life when those he has loved, and those who were his friends proceed him over the threshold into death.

All this while he serves a kingdom troubled by monsters. Troubles that he and his friends will learn to deal with and rectify.

Here are the last two books together as one longer novel.

Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides! and We���ll All Go a Trolling.

Available in a variety of formats.

For $5.99 you can get this fantasy adventure.

Barnes and Noble for your Nook

Smashwords

Amazon for your Kindle

Trade Paperback

The stories of Humphrey and Gwendolyn. Published separately in: Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides! and We’ll All Go a Trolling. These are the tales of how a simple Woodcutter who became a king and an overly educated girl who became his queen helped save the kingdom of Torahn from an ancient evil. Now with the aid of their children and their grandchildren.

Long forgotten is the way to fight the Trolls. Beasts that breed faster than rabbits it seems, and when they decide to migrate to the lands of humans, their seeming invulnerability spell doom for all in the kingdom of Torahn. Not only Torahn but all the human kingdoms that border the great mountains that divide the continent.

The Kingdom of Torahn has settled down to peace, but the many years of war to acheive that peace has seen to changes in the nearby Teantellen Mountains. Always when you think the Trolls have also sought peace, you are fooled for now, forced by Dragons at the highest peaks, the Trolls are marching again.

Now Humphrey is old, too old to lead and must pass these cares to his sons. Will they be as able as he always has been. He can advise, but he does not have the strength he used to have. Nor does Gwendolyn back in the Capital. Here are tales of how leaders we know and are familiar with must learn to trust the next generation to come.

Feedback

If you have any commentary, thoughts, ideas about the book (especially if you buy it, read it and like it ;-) then we would love to hear from you.

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles: David W. Wilkin

dwwilkin:

I am interviewed today at Susana’s Parlour

Originally posted on Susana's Parlour:

Thanks for having me at the Parlour and putting togeher this anthology centered around the anniversary of the victory at Waterloo. Should the allied forces have lost there, Napoleon defeating them in detail, then perhaps we would be celebrating the 200th anniverary of the end of the Napoleonic wars in 2018 or later. Had Napoleon succeeded on the day it would have bought him time, but the revolution had too many other issues working against it to succeed.

I found it interesting as the project evolved that I was the only man in the group. There are several other men who write not only in the period, but with some dabbling in the romantic aspect of a Regency era novel. And when able to write about such a battle as Waterloo, that the result would cause a historical change (though the revolution had to fail and Bonaparte doomed to���

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