Jane and the Actresses is now available, a Regency mystery
involving the exotic world of the theatre.
UK paperback http://tinyurl.com/y6y5ucbx
UK kindle http://tinyurl.com/y535yyku
US kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NK1KGX4
as regards writing, it has been going slow. Sorry.
What a lovely surprise. I shall enjoy reading this very much.
ReplyDeleteAs for the writing, don’t worry. The muse will return I’m sure, fully recharged! (Let’s see if this comment still works!)
I have been scribbling a little ... I am, however, close to publishing the second Falconburg book [finally got around to templating it] and have been doing a cover
DeleteHooray! It did.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! thank you. Just got it & also treated myself to the few of your titles I hadn't previously gotten round to buying. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the next few days. Regards Kim
ReplyDeleteMany thanks! I hope you enjoy them all. Have fun!
DeleteI was relieved to have a message on Blogger saying it is only some buttons Ive never heard of which wont work so who knows!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a bit more promising. Fingers crossed. (My default response to IT problems!)
Deletemy default response to IT problems is corrective percussion treatment. But if hitting it with a hammer doesn't work I squeal for help on facebook
DeleteBought it and read it! I love how you changed it to give Caleb and Jane more time together! I really loved it.
ReplyDeleteI might have said it before, but you have thoroughly spoiled me for most average historical novels. I tried one from an Italian author that looked promising (set in my city, in a time period that’s seldom used) and..well, I was extremely disappointed (chocolate bonbons in 1806, I ask you!).
Thank you for all your hard work, descriptions and accuracy. Your books are always amazing.
April Kihlstrom isn't bad, Libi Astaire makes a few minor mistakes though on the whole her research is meticulous, and I do like MC Beaton/Marion Chesney
DeleteI am glad you enjoyed it! I am glad you like the changes.
I am hoping to start posting Bess 4 tomorrow. I am on chapter 14 so I have time to get myself confused and befuddled
Thanks for the recs! I wrote all the names down and will check them out as soon as I can.
DeleteCarola Dunn is another. I quite like Elzabeth Bailey too though a friend does not
DeleteApril Kihlstrom is I think the only American writer I know who gets the flavour of the place and period. She makes odd small mistakes but for the overall feel, I forgive her for paying a housekeeper 300 guineas a year, five times the going rate
I admit that’s not a mistake I would catch as I never properly researched the economic side.
DeleteThanks for the new recs, too!
No, and you do have to do some serious digging and have the right books, I don't think it's on the internet anywhere but my other blog though you can extrapolate from other sources. But although my first reaction was "Hold on, isn't the heroine having panic attacks over what he expects for that sort of sum?" I quickly realised it was just a failure to recognise the economic realities. It's people eating chocolate sweeties and glancing at their wrist watches which really get my goat and when both crimes are committed in the same novella [I picked up a volume of 3 stories] the book goes flying out of the window. Rather like the girl in 1815 who travels by train.
DeleteI couldn’t fling this one out of the window because I got it on Kindle, though I would have liked to. Among the many disappointments, the main one for me was the fact that my city didn’t feel like my city - and not because it was radically different at the time, that’s what I wanted to see! The setting was just... totally amorphous. It could have been any place with a French governor and a river - it didn’t even have to be the Po. Actually, it could have been any place with a French governor, the river wasn’t even strictly necessary.
DeleteAnd what’s the only thing the author uses to characterize my city? The chocolates. I already knew it was wrong, then I spent about 3 seconds on Wikipedia and found out those specific chocolates were between 40 and 60 years too early!
Unbelievable! I swear I did more research for my fan Fiction!
How disappointing! now I am given to understand that the Po valley has a special pace of life all its own though I confess that my main source on that is the Don Camillo books ... I am sure that you go to as much research as I do for fanfiction though I believe I am one of a small handful who bothered to learn Elder Futhark, Oghams and Heiroglyphs for Harry Potter fanfiction ... and I went to Florence to get the right feel for Robin and Felicia, even though the first book has them leaving it, and then rewrote huge swathes of it.
DeleteI grew up with the Don Camillo movies! I also read all the short stories, though I didn’t realize how much darker they were until I got older...
DeleteI am at other side of the valley, right at the start. Pace of life varies a lot depending on the area, though perhaps in past centuries, where most of our society was still agrarian, it wouldn’t have been felt as much.
My best (or worst, depending how you look at it) was looking into fireplace decorations up to the XVII century, also for a Harry Potter fanfiction.
wow, there are movies?
DeleteMy favourite book, black as it can be at times for anyone who lived through the Cold War, is Comrade Don Camillo. Living between 3 air bases/strategic centres, one grows up more aware of such things. When the teenage girls coming out of school see an unnaturally bright sunset and promptly shake hands all round and say goodbye and all secretly hope to get home to their parents before they die, because a nuclear blast is the most obvious reason for this, the world is sick. [It was the eruption of Mt St Helens in Oregon but we didn't know it at the time]
Alas the digital age reaches all corners.
Nice! Kat Kane has an article on that on her Regency Reticule blog though more 18th century. I confess I tend to draw on my knowledge of the Regency for wizarding habits, on the principle it's approximately where they are, socially. The heiroglyphs come in handy though, i can wander into the museum and point to some and say "In the name of Wenenfer the mighty [Osiris] a voice offering to the spirit of Meryankh, give his spirit thousands bread, beer, linen and alabaster" which freaks people out
Yes, there are six movies made between 1952 and 1965 - the last one was “Comrade Don Camillo”. The series has French actor Fernandel as Don Camillo and Gino Cervi as Peppone.
DeleteThere was also a remake made in the eighties, but we do not talk about it. (Seriously, I saw it once on TV when I was... 8 or 9 I think, and I was enraged)
I think it was more the industrial revolution in the XIX century and again in the 1960ies. Data from Northern and Southern Italy is very different, one almost can’t believe that yes, we are one country and have been for more than 150 years.
That is so cool! Be thankful you don’t live closer because I’d try to drag you to our Egyptian museum - it’s the second most important in the world after the on in Cairo.
My fanfiction is long done, but I will definitely check out the blog.
Here is a sample, from the beginning of the first movie:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgl0YzRoBfw
I must check them out. And avoid the 80s remakes. There were some good remakes of films/series of books in the 80s but some were dire [the best ones being Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, and the Scarlet Pimpernel ones.]
DeleteIf I ever, as I keep threatening, retire to Tuscany I will come on a visit. I want to see the smutty papyrus in Turin at some point anyway one day.
You are probably correct re the industrial revolution dividing the countyr, and the electronic revolution. Is it really 150 years since Gariboldi? it must be, because Godey's Ladies Book had 'Gariboldi Jackets' as high fashion in .. 1860s?
yes, I see what you mean about it being much in the spirit of the books
DeleteI bought a few of your titles and almost ended up late to work this morning as I lost track of time reading!
ReplyDeletehehehe I should say sorry, but that is a lovely compliment so I shan't ....
Delete