Regency Romance by Jacqueline Seewald

I find Regency romances fascinating. I’ve read many hundreds of novels in the genre. In this regard, I am like many other devoted readers. Regency romance has endured for a long time and I believe will continue to be popular. However, Regency romance fans are very particular about historical references. They want them to be completely accurate. To this effect, I did extensive research, reading and collecting numerous histories of this era as well as biographies of people who lived in those times before I wrote TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS. For example, Mr. Brockton who is my heroine’s benefactor, runs a posh gaming establishment where many thousands of pounds exchanged hands each night. It is frequented by the cream of the ton. His character is based on an actual person, a gambler, who went from fish monger to millionaire and then lost it all again.

For those who are not familiar with Regency, let’s define it. When we talk about the Regency era, we mean the brief period lasting between 1811-1820 in England. However, for the sake of the novels, the era begins at the tail end of the Georgian period in about 1800. It includes the scope of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, a period of turmoil, social unrest and political revolution.

The novels of Jane Austen set in that era have caught the imagination of both readers and writers for centuries. Georgette Heyer was one of the writers who created her own novels set in the Regency era. These romances have also influenced many readers and writers. Her novels even introduced their own unique vocabulary.

At the time I initially wrote TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS, I was working as a librarian with easy access to a multitude of reference sources. So my research proved both enjoyable and relatively easy. Now the internet offers so much valuable information on the Regency era which makes research more convenient. Here are just a few of the wonderful websites I recently located:http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/social-customs-and-the-regency-world/http://www.thenonesuch.com/lexicon.html#Dictionary

http://www.susannaives.com/nancyregencyresearcher/

TEA LEAVES AND TAROT CARDS is now available at a discount from Barnes and Noble online:http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tea-Leaves-and-Tarot-Cards/Jacqueline-Seewald/e/9781594149146/?itm=1&USRI=tea+leaves+and+tarot+cards
You will also find it listed with Amazon.com, Borders.com, and in the Five Star/Gale catalog:
http://rdsinc.com/servlet/ItemDetailServlet?region=9&imprint=000&titleCode=TP907&cf=p&type=3&id=251513

Newsletter Help

With the release date of The Tapestry Shop coming ever closer, I’ve had to jockey my time between writing, and getting the word out about my book. My readers may find today’s blog helpful, as most of us have something we’d like to share, from time to time, with either friends, family, a social group, or perhaps members of your church or book club or P.T.A. For authors, marketing has become a fact of life, like it or not, and we all must look for ways to let our readers know about our newest story, methods that won’t suck up precious writing time, and won’t strain the budget.

Any element of marketing may work for some and not for others, but I thought I’d share with you something I learned this week. If, like me, you don’t know html, I’ve found a solution. I was looking for a template for a newsletter, and ran across a site that compares the Top 10 sites, rather like a Consumer Guide for email services. 

To my surprise, among those top 10, I found one that for $8 a month, will keep your email lists in groups (alumni, RWA friends, etc.) so you can send a personalized newsletter to one group or all. After they send your newsletter out, you can cancel the service until you need to send something again, and you’re not charged for those months. However, your lists are still there, and you can add names or delete them during those cancelled months.

I signed up for the free trial, and during this time, they helped me bring the look of my website to my proposed newsletter. Thus, I have an original design that matches the feel and theme I wanted. But that’s not all. They have a free webform you can put on your website so people can sign up to receive your newsletter (you can also put it on Twitter or FB or wherever). They have instant Chat help, and even made a quick video to show me how to do something. So now I have my newsletter parked on their site until I’m ready to send it out. You can publish your newsletter on the web, too. Your lists can be imported from spread sheets or CSV files so you don’t have to type all your contacts in, or laboriously copy/paste. There are other sites out there that I’m sure do the same thing, but I chose Mad Mimi, and am having fun designing my own newsletter.

Is it Magical Realism or Fantasy?

Magical Realism is a term first used by a German art critic, and over time, it evolved into a literary term. Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude) is usually the writer most referenced when discussing Magical Realism, but other authors have employed his techniques, and now there are several whose work is held up as an example of the style of writing.

Sometimes, as authors, we use the term to describe a genre, but the elements of Magical Realism can be found in several genres. There are, however, similar threads that run through stories generally recognized as being Magical Realism.

Erroneously, Magical Realism is often described as fantasy, or science fiction. It is neither of these. Fantasy is speculative, allowing us to wonder, “What if vampires were real?” or “What if there were werewolves?” Magical realism, on the other hand, is always serious, and never escapist. It tries to convey the reality of a world view that exists, or did exist.

Magical Realism tells a story from the perspective of people who live in our world and experience a different reality. It shows the world through others’ eyes. In Magical Realism, unreal elements are very real. It invites the reader to see the world like fellow humans might see it. Elements of story portray the ordinary as astonishing, and the astonishing as ordinary.

Perhaps it is best explained by saying the reader of Magical Realism remains grounded in the real world, while experiencing a scene as another might see it. Fantasy, on the other hand, is not grounded in reality, but rather in the unreal.

Only by reading authors like Marquez, or a book like Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, can we fully understand what Magical Realism is. When well done, levitation and flying carpets, such as Marquez used in One Hundred Years of Solitude, leave us sorting through the experience long after the book is finished, trying to return to what we see as objective reality. As an example, read an excerpt from one of Marquez’ short stories. It opens with this:

“On the third day of rain they had killed so many crabs

inside the house that Pelayo had to cross his drenched courtyard

and throw them into the sea, because the newborn child had a

temperature all night and they thought it was due to the stench.

The world had been a sad thing since Tuesday. Sea and sky were a

single ash-gray thing and the sands of the beach, which on March

nights glimmered like powdered light, had become a stew of mud

and rotten shellfish. The light was so weak at noon that when

Pelayo was coming back to the house after throwing away the

crabs, it was hard to see what it was that was moving and groaning

in the rear of the courtyard. He had to go very close to see that it

was an old man, a very old man, lying face down in the mud, who,

in spite of his tremendous efforts, couldn’t get up, impeded by his

enormous wings.”



The writing and scene is grounded in the real world, where an old man with wings lies on the ground.

Leave a comment and let me know if you've read any of Marquez’ books. Authors, do you use Magical Realism in telling your stories?

Do Authors Need a Fan Page?

At the RWA National conference, I sat in on an informative workshop about building your career with Facebook and Twitter. The speakers were Sheri Brooks, Cissy Hartley, and Jayne Ann Krentz. Here are some key points they made, and a few hints that might be helpful for other writers who, like me, are scrambling to keep up with how we can best use our time to market our books.

I don’t Twitter (not yet, anyway) so most of my notes were about utilizing Facebook as a tool to make friends in the reading/writing community.

The speakers emphasized the benefits of a Fan Page on Facebook. Even though you may not have “fans” that you know of, a fan page is a place to update what is taking place in your writing life. Before you say, “Whoa. I don’t have time to keep another page up,” let me explain. You can add an RSS feed on your Page, so that updates go there without you having to do it individually. It holds your book covers and any other content you want to put there, such as upcoming releases or signings.

Put Widgets on your FB page so entries will go to your Home Page. Also, use the Discussion Tab on your Fan Page. The speakers suggested holding a writers’ workshop, where people can pose questions.

Fans can interact with each other by using the Wall or Discussion Board on your fan page. Also, as admin, you have access to stats on the traffic for your fan page.

On your Fan Page, you can have a Favorites Pages box, where you highlight other pages you like. It could serve as a link-exchange tool and bring you more fans.

Once you get your Fan Page up (and you can do it all behind the scenes before you click “Publish”), put out an announcement that you’ve opened a Fan Page and that there is a contest there. A prize offering will guide them to your fan page.

So, now that I’ve told you what I learned, I’m going to try to build a Fan Page myself. Authors: Let me know if you have one already, or if it’s something you want to do. Readers: Would you like your fav author to have a fan page, where you could keep up with her books and discuss them with other fans?

Publisher information at RWA

In a departure from my usual blog postings, I'm going to offer a quick replay of what I learned in various Publisher Spotlight sessions at the recent RWA conference in Orlando this past week. In spite of the change of venue, necessary because of the floods in Nashville, the conference went off smoothly. For my workshop on Researching for Historicals, the room had been prepared and all was in readiness. That, combined with my capable moderator, Megan Kelly , herself an author with a later workshop, made the workshop a success, if I can judge by the comments afterward.

     Before attending national, I was familiar with local chapter conferences, where I honed the craft and improved my writing skills. To this day, I strongly recommend  RWA workshops to any aspiring author, no matter the genre.

     That said, the RWA National offers not only wonderful workshops about the craft, career choices, and marketing, but also includes something that smaller conferences cannot justify, financially. Bringing top-notch N.Y. editors from popular publishing houses to present panels on what they're looking for and how to submit, makes the price of the conference fee worth every dime.

     To my surprise, I learned that Sourcebooks, Grand Central, and St. Martin's all take unagented material from published authors, if done according to their guidelines. (Email me if you need further info.) Since my previous agent and I have parted ways, my ears perked up when I heard this. 

     For unpublished authors, talks by agents like Ethan Ellenberg, Kristen Nelson, and others, gave an insight as to how to write the query and synopsis that will grab their attention. They are, after all, looking for that next great author who will rise from the slush pile to the NYTimes best-seller list.

     So save your pennies (well, okay, dollars) for next year's RWA National in N.Y. City. I promise you, you'll not be disappointed.

If You Love History. . .

One of the highlights of my recent London visit was to Westminster Abbey, the church in which many historical figures were married, crowned, and buried. The abbey is a virtual history of England, and to visit there was like walking into the past.

London Skyline from the Thames

Your ticket allows entry to almost every part of the abbey and grounds. Some of the more memorable sights in the abbey were the St. Edward Shrine, Henry VIII’s Lady Chapel, and the coronation chair used by Edward I in the 13th century (and by every succeeding monarch during the coronation ceremony).

Thousands of notables are buried at Westminster Abbey, from kings and statesmen to men of ordinary birth who later gained fame, such as Charles Dickens, George Frederic Handel, and Charles Darwin.

The Pyx chamber is one of the earliest parts of the abbey, and one that caught the eye of this medievalist. The chamber was built around 1070 and has low vaulted ceilings and tile floors, giving at a medieval feel. It was probably used as the treasury in the 13th century, and Henry III may have used it as a sacristy. In 1303 the treasury was stolen while the king was in Scotland. The abbot and monks were suspected and sent to the Tower, but were later released when the real culprit was identified and hung. After the theft, builders installed heavy double oak doors, which guard the entrance to this day. Inside the chamber are two large 13th century chests, emptied now of their valuables. Earlier, the Pyx Chamber held wooden boxes (pyxes) which contained coins of the realm. The coins awaited the recurring public demonstration, where a few coins were melted down to prove their purity.

I could have spent another full day or two in Westminster Abbey, but there were other places I needed to see, like the library I’ll blog about in my next post.

Medusa Heads and a Sinking Palace

Justinian, the 6th century Byzantine emperor, built a system of cisterns beneath the city of Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey. One of these cisterns, dubbed the “sinking palace” by locals, can be seen by visitors, and is unusual because the cistern itself resembles an abandoned palace. It is one of several hundred cisterns which lie beneath a thriving metropolis of trams and city streets.

The 336 Roman columns supporting the massive structure are what give the cistern the look of a palace hall, but the columns do not match, having been brought to the site by the builders, who confiscated them from Roman ruins throughout the city.

The columns support an area designed to hold 27 million gallons of water, which was piped in from twelve miles away through clay pipes and aqueducts.

Through the years, the pipes became clogged and the cistern fell into disuse. In the 15th century, a Dutch visitor to the city discovered the abandoned cistern when he noted that families were getting water from buckets dropped through holes in their basements. The citizens discovered the Roman columns and quickly realized they had a treasure beneath their city. A clean-up operation was begun, which unearthed a mystery.

Two marble Medusa heads are wedged beneath two of the columns. One head lies on its side, the other is upside down. There is disagreement as to why the heads were brought there. Some believe they were simply put there to elevate the two columns to the required height to match the others, but others believe the heads were taken there because of the Medusa legend, and the fact that statues of Medusa were said to protect a building from damage by attacking armies.

What is known is that we will never discover the truth about the Medusa heads, nor why an emperor would have condoned the use of recycled building materials for a project so vital to the city. Could it have been his wife, that much-maligned empress Theodora, who may have suggested recycling the Roman columns, thereby teaching the emperor a lesson in frugality?