Joy Lynn Fielding's Blog, page 2

Of dragons and doodles

With The Red Dragon of Oxford coming out on 15th January, I’m excited to share some pictures of the beautiful Book of Kells. This exquisite medieval manuscript inspired the text known as the Rosea in my book.

The Rosea is about a century younger than the Book of Kells, dating from the late ninth century. Despite the age gap, there’s a close resemblance, with the same beautiful Latin script and vividly coloured illustrations. The pigments used for the real book, including gold and lapis lazuli, were phenomenally expensive. Perhaps this is why the colours remain so vibrant twelve hundred years later:

I love the way that not only are the initial letters are turned into beautiful pictures, but seemingly random ones throughout the text are transformed into artistic doodles.

Vaguely aware that the Book of Kells had been exhibited in Australia some years ago, I started wondering how they kept it safe during its travels. Apparently, along with being moved in great secrecy and with a security price-tag of £1 million, it was given its very own black box with a homing beacon. It was also insured for £50 million. I wonder how the underwriters arrived at that valuation — it’s not as if there are other books quite like this one.

The efforts that go into safeguarding the Book of Kells leave me with a twinge of guilt about what happens to the Rosea.

If you’d like to find out more about the Rosea along with Mark and Rufus’s story, The Red Dragon of Oxford is now available for pre-order here.

Dragons in Oxford on 15th January

I’ve been a bit quiet of late because I’ve been busy writing. Which means a new book is coming out. The Red Dragon of Oxford is about dragon-shifters and Oxford and is the first in a new series, Wings over Albion. It releases on 15th January.

Dragons aren’t real. Or so I used to think.

Oxford isn’t exactly what I’d imagined. Sure, the colleges are romantic, and everyone is brilliant enough to trigger my impostor syndrome. I expected that.

The dragon, however, was a big surprise.

I saw him on my first day. The beautiful beast spoke to me, then disappeared. I’ve been looking for him ever since.

But when I’m not on a wild dragon chase, I spend my time in the library. I’d like to think I’m only there to study, but who am I kidding?

I’m there for him.

Rufus Mortimer is the world’s hottest librarian. He’s strict, enigmatic, and sexy. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. 

But he has a secret. One that could destroy everything.

So now, all I have to do is find a dragon, earn my doctorate, and try to not to let my new romance burn my life to the ground. Easy, right?

I wish…

The Red Dragon of Oxford is a sweet and spicy paranormal m/m romance with a guaranteed happily ever after.

And in the meantime, Queer Romance Ink has given A Star to Sail By a lovely five-star review:

“The story is full of surprise, betrayals, cruelty, sex, secrets and ordeals…Crispin and Billy are amazing characters. If you enjoy historical books where the lead characters are gay, this one has it all.”

I do wonder why I wrote Billy and Crispin’s Caribbean adventures at the height of our summer heatwave instead of saving them for now, when I’m typing this with a hot-water bottle on my lap. Oh, well. Lesson learned for next year.

Mouse-skin eyebrows and an Amazon voucher

The more I read about Regency and Georgian Britain, the more fascinated and appalled I become by some of the things that were commonplace back then. Cosmetics are one of those things, with women (and, on occasion, men) painting their face with white lead and vinegar, using lipstick made from Plaster of Paris, and applying Gowland’s lotion, containing mercury, to remove pimples and freckles (and a layer of skin along with them, I presume).

18th century woman with well-defined eyebrows – hopefully her own.

It’s said that those with sunken cheeks would resort to light balls of cork to plump out their face (Fop’s Dictionary of 1690 as well as an unflattering entry in Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811 – “Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks”). How they ever managed to talk, let alone eat and drink, is beyond me.

Early in the Georgian period, thick eyebrows were fashionable. Women’s eyebrows were often darkened with a variety of substances including lead, burnt cork and soot. There’s a widespread belief that some ladies shaved off their own eyebrows and glued on false ones made from mouse skin. It makes a good tale, but when I read a little further, I began to question its veracity. Along with a cartoon, the main sources for this are from satirical and somewhat misogynistic poems. That are many books from the period that address facial cosmetics, the dying of beards, the dressing of hair and the construction of wigs, and it seems to me strange that instructions on how to affix and care for mouse-skin eyebrows are missing. I hope for the sake of historical mice that it is untrue!

One of the verses is from Matthew Prior in 1718:

            Helen was just slipt into bed

            Her eyebrows on the toilet lay

            Away the kitten with them fled

            As fees belonging to her prey.

So how does all this relate to an Amazon voucher? I’m undertaking a blog tour this week to celebrate the release of my Regency romance, The Earl’s Awakening, and as part of the tour, there’s a Rafflecopter for an Amazon voucher. Good luck!

More pirates!

For those who, like me, can’t get enough of books about pirates at the moment, I’m delighted to share an author collaboration to list queer pirate books (of a variety of ilks) in one place.

The timing has been chosen to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Tuesday – always a joy, especially in the workplace…

I hope you find some new authors and books to enjoy!

The Earl’s Awakening releases today

My books are rather like buses – you wait for ages without one, and then three come along almost at once. My steamy Regency – described by one five-star reviewer as “gloriously carnal” – is out today, available at Extasy Books, Amazon, and other online retailers.

One glance and his past life was history

Leander Talbot’s life changed forever when his wife died. He is now reluctantly venturing back into society, knowing that, as the Earl of Ockley, he must marry again to produce an heir. But he can’t bring himself to the sticking point. Instead, he spends his time evading the matchmaking mamas of the ton.

The dark and dangerous Duke of Arden is an infamous libertine. It is said that he seduces innocents, and there are even more sinister tales whispered of his predilections. Only the wild young blades who form his retinue know the truth, but he is shunned by all save those wishing to court notoriety.

A chance meeting brings Leander into Arden’s orbit. Ignoring the warnings about Arden’s intentions, Leander is drawn into a seductive world of sexual indulgence. There, he finds the freedom he craves from his overbearing family. By the time he suspects Arden might have ulterior motives, it may be too late to save his reputation—and his heart.

Putting the pleasure in pleasure gardens

The Museum of London has summarised perfectly London’s pleasure gardens of the Georgian and Regency years – part art gallery, part fashion show and part brothel.

The gardens were designed purely for entertainment, featuring whimsical architecture, miniature waterways, and extensive shrubberies that provided opportunity for all sorts of visitors. The gardens swiftly developed a reputation for being debauched places, with one visitor wishing “there were more nightingales and fewer strumpets”.

Below: Vauxhall Gardens 1809

That didn’t stop the cream of society from visiting, though! Anyone who was anyone might be seen at one, promenading in their finery, dancing, listening to concerts (Handel was practically artist in residence at Vauxhall Gardens in the 1730s and 1740s), and eating and drinking in the booths where art by Hogarth and others was displayed,

As the disgruntled visitor’s complaint suggests, the entry fee designed to exclude the riff raff had little effect on the number of prostitutes who congregated at Vauxhall, and who, by all accounts, found it a lucrative hunting ground. The main walkways through the trees were lit by lamps, but there were also the dark walks. As the name suggests, these were unlit and so provided cover for any number of private activities. Early in the eighteenth century, magistrates enforced the lighting of the coyly named Lovers’ Walk in an attempt to deter wanton behaviour. Their insistence sounds rather Canute-like to me – one might as well try to hold back the sea as to deter lovers from seeking places to be private together.

You might think it’s a perfect place for clandestine assignations, and that’s precisely what the rakish Duke of Arden concludes in my forthcoming book The Earl’s Awakening. It’s released on 8th September and can be pre-ordered from Extasy Books, Amazon, or your favourite online bookseller.

Vauxhall Gardens in 1751, showing the extent of the shrubberies and the opportunities for assignations.

Chance to win an Amazon voucher

To mark the release of A Star to Sail By, I’m undertaking a blog tour. I’m very grateful to all the bloggers who are so kindly hosting me and am plucking out one at random to link to the Rafflecopter that’s running with an Amazon voucher as its prize. Pop on over to Archaeolibrarian – I dig good books if you’d like to enter.

A Star to Sail By (next book, I’m going with a title that doesn’t take as long to keep typing out!) has also received a lovely review from MM Romance Reviewed – “A compelling story…entertaining with some action and danger, hurt/comfort, and some real emotional growth from Crispin…An unexpectedly wonderful read.”

Out today – A Star to Sail By!

I’m thrilled that I can finally share Billy and Crispin’s rum-fuelled adventures with you!

Out now at Amazon.

Abducted by pirates, a naval officer is torn between duty and desire.

All Crispin Merrick has ever wanted is to be a captain in the Royal Navy. But once the war ends, the navy places him on half-pay, and he’s reduced to serving on a merchant ship. When pirates board the vessel and force Crispin to join their crew, his dream has never seemed further away.

Billy loves the freedom he has as a pirate. As master gunner aboard the most beautiful ship to sail the seas, he couldn’t be happier. But then his captain tasks him with guarding the naval officer they’ve taken on board. Billy loathes the navy. He hates its officers even more.

Forced to spend time with Billy in his tiny cabin, Crispin is increasingly fascinated by the pirate. He’s still fighting the attraction he feels when disaster strikes the ship. Beset by danger, Billy and Crispin have to work together to survive. But how can they trust one another when they detest everything the other stands for?

The book contains material some readers may find upsetting. Full details are given on the contents warning page of this site.

Did pirates wear socks?

I love autocomplete and the random paths it takes me down. When I was researching pirates, I found some excellent books on the subject, but I also – of course – used Google. I started to type in a perfectly reasonable question that autocomplete turned into Did pirates wear socks? Another I stumbled across recently was Can dragons blow out candles? The sort of thing that would never occur to me, and I love that there are people out there thinking about these important issues.

When I looked into Caribbean pirates’ footwear before writing the book, I found opinions are split. Some say they wore sandals and others say their feet remained bare. The sandals side argue that climbing the rigging in bare feet would have been very uncomfortable; the barefoot people argue that it would be safer to climb with bare feet.

Looking at various engravings of famous pirate captains from the time, they’re variously wearing shoes or boots, but there are often bare-footed pirates around them. And given that I have a bit of a horror of feet, studying them in engravings is not something I undertook lightly! I’m still not quite certain on pirates’ footwear. The one thing I am (almost) sure of is that pirates did not wear socks.

A Star to Sail By is released on 30th August and is now available for pre-order.

Very high pines grow here about

They really don’t make maps like they used to. I love this one from 1751 of New Providence Island in the Bahamas. As well as the aforementioned pines – were they really so much higher than ordinary pines? – there’s the cautionary ‘This part of the country is little known’. For an island that’s about twenty-one miles long and seven wide, it seems to lack something of a spirit of adventure.

I’m also not at all sure what’s happening to the ship in the top left-hand corner. Is it blowing up? On fire? Or simply firing its guns? Regardless, I think every map would be better for a little more random illustration and commentary.

The reason I’ve been thinking about New Providence is because that’s where part of A Star to Sail By is set. I’m thrilled to report that MM Bookworm Reviews has given the book a lovely 4.5 star review: “I really liked this book as I didn’t know what would happen next…I would definitely recommend this for readers who love historic adventure romance on the high seas.”

The book’s available for pre-order at Amazon. And if you’re not already familiar with MM Bookworm Reviews, it’s a site to bookmark – as well as reviews, it has a comprehensive listing of forthcoming m/m releases organised by month, and a handy reminder of each day’s releases.

Now back to persuading myself not to draw exploding ships on my ipad screen when I have my maps app open…