A Regency Timeline 1794
The Regency Timeline
My previous posts I’ve explained that I was working on the Regency timeline. I posted my entries for 1788 thru 1793. Now I have the entrees for 1794 and have uploaded all these years to the Regency Assembly Press website. You can see a little preview of this below in the picture. (It also seems that some of our regular followers may have missed my putting up 1792 when the post for the first part of the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, went up)
My sources which include the Internet and The Timetables of History by Grun and Stein
as well as the Chronology of CULTURE by Paxton and Fairfield should cover a lot of events. There are now over 5000 listed for the period between 1788 and 1837 when Victoria comes to the Throne. I have also just found a third book I own with timelines in it, very USA centric though. 
What Happened When by Carruth. I also have added a Dorling Kindersley book 
, History of the World.
I may post a year at time every so often in between scanning through all these to find something that will be a good article for this blog and the blog at English Historical Fiction Authors. I will also have the full listing up shortly at Regency Assembly Press.
Those who have feedback, it is appreciated or if someone would like a specific year in a future post. The very first entry is to show who was Prime Minister of Great Britain, later it was the United Kingdom, during the period of the chronology. In choosing our dates, 1788 is the first sign of madness in George the III, it is the beginning of the end of the French Monarchy with the riots in Paris, it is the time when the mama’s of the girls during the true Regency would be girls going to London for their own season, and when our heroes are young lads or babes as well.
We need to know of the events that occurred when they were children, as well as what happens when they are on stage in our stories.
Click on the link below or the picture to go to the entry. More years coming. The list is now over 5000 event entries long and growing.
Regency Assembly Press 1794 Tineline
The Writing LIfe
I am now 180+ pages (close to 60,000 words) on A Magician Murder Mystery. A had a good idea for a mystery, with a twist. What if the sleuth is a magician. I am looking for readers for this. Thirty years ago I wrote a mystery. And this is now my second. The first I know needs help. This though is working well. But then, a mystery needs a little more care I think then my regencies, etc. I could use other eyes if anyone is interested to be sure that I am hiding the clues well enough. That, the plot flows, and that the reader can put the entire thing together by the end.
I enclose a few more paragraphs from the first draft and first chapter for perusal.
Chapter 1 continue
Lance said, “Yeah I know. Take the notebook. Go ahead. Don’t be shy because Jenny is here. I’ve let Eric borrow my notebooks before. He’s sharper at details then I am. I would probably build a shadow box, and then forget to brace it, or oil the hinges, and then the marks, I mean audience would see things, hear things, or the bottom would fall out as soon as someone climbed in it.”
Eric quickly said, “Lance’s not that bad. He’s just got a better stage presence, and I do details alot.”
Jenny smiled, “Oh, I know about Lance and his acting. All about his acting.” Jenny said. She had been looking straight at Lance and then turned to smile at Eric. Eric saw Lance cringe though.
Lance said, “Enough. Just take the notebook and I’ll call you later. Here, let me get the check,” Betsy had cleared their plates and now brought her coffee to refill their cups. She also had her little pad and had pulled out the check.
“You should say thank you, you.” Betsy looked at Eric. Then to Jenny she said, “This one here always gets the check, and he tips decent too.” Just what Lance needed. A woman telling another woman that he was a catch. Lance was looking to be caught by any girl. And the way he dated the men that he did date, he wasn’t looking to settle down with any man either. From what Eric knew, Lance liked the chase. If he had finally made love to his bartender at the Palace, then he would go out a half dozen times, before some new young man caught his eye. Then it would be time to break up.
“Thank you. Betsy, you know I would leave you a great tip, but Lance always beats me to the check.”
“Hunh!” she snorted her derision. Taking Lance’s visa card, she walked to the register.
“Now tell me about your thing? Is it about your performance yesterday? What was it, a wedding?”
“Bar mitzvah and it was pretty strange. Ah, sorry, Jenny. I think you would think this is pretty boring. The mechanics of the chinese rings. Palming dollars. A few card tricks. But pretty important to me, though unless you want to do the magic, it could be pretty boring.” Eric knew if he said anything about the rings, really breaking through, Jenny would think him a nutcase. Lance probably would too. Except Eric knew that some of the old timers talked about this as well. Pulling legs of the young ones no dount.
Jenny looked at him, “Really? The scram, you’re too young to hang with the parents? How old do you think I am, Eric? Whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow night at work Lance. Thank’s for breakfast.” Jenny slid out and looked at Eric as if he was an alien from Mars, or further.
Lance waited for a minute and Jenny to leave the restaurant before laughing, “God, that was funny. I want to keep her at arms length and you couldn’t have helped more. Now she’ll think I have some sort of super geek for a friend. Perfect. And then I told her you are going to be number two if we take these tricks out in public. What’s the line in the commercial, priceless.” Lance laughed again.
Eric didn’t know what to think. The girl was pretty, but then he probably would never really see her again. Lance kept girls for about a year before they moved on. Jenny was in her fourth month. By the time the routine that Lance was thinking of was ready, it would be a year.
And if Lance really needed another magician to help him, he would get someone else. He always did. Eric had to accept the terms of their friendship for what it was.
“Look, I need to tell this to someone. I think I really did magic last night.” Eric said
Lance looked at him for a second.
“What, like Hocus Pocus?” Betsy was there with the credit card receipt papers to be signed. She laughed. Did you put something in your coffee? We aren’t allowed to serve anything but beer and wine here.”
Eric let out a deep sigh and turned to look at the waitress. “I haven’t had anything to drink since late yesterday afternoon. Can we get some privacy?”
She laughed again and took the paperwork that Lance had signed. A moment later they were alone again. “She’s right you know. That sounds crazy? I should have said more about your drinking. I know you hate working at Wal-Mart, but you can’t find something better in a bottle. You will get a real gig. I’ll talk to Ephron again. I’ll make him give you a stage show. Hell, I’ll make him let you open for me.” That Eric knew Lance would never do. If Eric blew it, like he had blown the one show he had at the Palace, it could set the mood for the following act. Lance wouldn’t ever chance that.
“I know it sounds crazy. Why do you think I didn’t want to say anything in front of anyone else? It’s like the old timers say, but I’ve always thought they were just telling a tall tale.” Eric said.
“They were!” Lance said. Then he closed his eyes and nodded. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have jumped. I can see you aren’t drunk now, and you really think this happened. Better tell me. I know I can’t leave until you do.”
Eric hadn’t planned to stop Lance, but then, Lance was right. Eric needed to tell someone and the only person he trusted was Lance. He would have tried to force Lance to listen. Eric went into the story about having drinks before he got started, and then more before they asked him to do an encore act. That he knew by the second performance he was drunk but that it was going good. Real good.
And then he did the Chinese Rings. That he was missing the broken ring and still the trick worked. That he passed out eighty dollars instead of the fifty that he had to start with. That he forced a card trick with the five of hearts. No one forced the five of hearts. His force deck didn’t have the five of hearts.
“You said it yourself. You were drunk when you started the performance. You were seeing things and your memory is all cloudy from it. You probably thought quarters were dollars and you just can’t remember the ring, because you have done it hundreds of times. It is like second nature to you.”
“Yeah hot-shot. Explain this then?” Eric pulled up on the table the eight connected rings that he had from the previous day. The ring trick didn’t have eight rings joined together. Not in the joins he had then. He was still missing the ninth ring with the break. For a minute Lance looked at the rings and then at Eric.
He grabbed the rings and looked for a break, and then he started to laugh. “That’s good. Oh, that was good. You had me believing you for a second. You got someone to sell you this. Love it. I will have to use that story when I meet up with some of the acts at the Palace over drinks.” Lance rose. “Hey, take a look at the notes on my act, and I’ll call you in the next couple days. You said this Doctor paid you three hundred for the encore performance over your usual. I’ll let you buy lunch at that deli you like.” Lance chuckled again and waved, then walked away.
Eric hadn’t set it up as a joke. It had happened. He was sure Lance would have believed him and had some idea what happened. Now what?
