Regency Romance Novels

Winner of the Telegraph ghost story competition is…

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The winner of the Telegraph ghost story competition will not be me because I wasn’t chosen as one of the six finalists, but after reading all six I thought three were brilliant ghost stories and very well written.
A Hollow Cause by Craig Drew/Gimme Shelter by Pat Black/Friends by Richard Crompton
As this was a ghost story competition, for creepy factor alone that made me go stiff as I held my breath to read the ending…I hope that Pat Black wins (I think it was better than mine), but all three of my favorite winners were well written and creepy. Mine isn’t really creepy, it’s…shock horror…a romance!

In Darkness Let me Dwell [Read more…] about Winner of the Telegraph ghost story competition is…

A week in photos…

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This week (along with writing one and half chapters for Dancing the Maypole) I went to see my friend Debbie Webbie and met her puppy Chin Chin who’s eight months old. I also managed to do some Christmas shopping and took some photos of the snow. I can’t believe how well I feel. Compared to the end of October (when I started taking pills for my thyroid along with a large number of vitamins) I feel like a champion athlete. I can walk into town and back again every other day without feeling like I’m going to die. More importantly, I can think again. For the whole of September and October I swear my skull was housing a cabbage. [Read more…] about A week in photos…

A contest to enter…

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To promote her new regency romance (which I haven’t read yet, but sounds really funny), Teresa Bohannon is having a competition for an original near mint condition comic book Perfect Love No.3 from 1951. If you love Mad Men this is what secretaries would have been reading on their lunch break! The comic is worth between $120-200 USD! I want it just for the cover. I would put this under glass and hang it on my wall, but I freely admit to loving comic books and if I win…I will read it before I put it under glass! I love the love stories mentioned at the bottom of the comic. ‘Could Love Survive The Pharaoh’s Curse?’ and ‘I Risked My Happiness on The Wheel of Fate’. Is it just me or does the first one conjure up romantic gropings amid dust covered mummies? I see Agatha Christie (and her second husband younger by fifteen years – go Agatha!) digging in Egypt and finding herself caught in a curse that… Well let your imagination run wild! I hope I win, but if I don’t…maybe you will…but only if you enter! Last entry date is Jan 31st 2011.

Hester Bateman – Georgian silversmith…

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One of the things I often say to myself is, “You don’t know something until you know it.” Perhaps I need a constant reminder of the obvious because I tend to assume things. For instance; I assumed that Georgian silversmiths were all men. Today I’ve learned that they weren’t. This shouldn’t surprise me (having researched numerous women artists from all ages), but it does. My knew piece of knowledge (like most of my interesting knowledge) was accidentally acquired. I walked into town to get a few things and stopped off at the charity shop (again) and found four issues of a magazines from 1967, ‘The Antique Dealer and Collector’s Guide’. I flipped through them all and found they each had pictures or articles about some Regency or Georgian item/artist that I had to have. At home at my desk I pulled the first one off the pile and was flipping through to find “the good stuff” when I came to an ad titled Silver by Hester Bateman. I assumed Hester was a dealer. Having admired the tea pot, I read the paragraph under this photo… [Read more…] about Hester Bateman – Georgian silversmith…

Sunset, moonrise…

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I woke up late today and saw the sun was shining through the leaves and thought I’d just pop outside with the camera for a short walk. Over two and a half hours later I finally came home cold, tired and starving, but I did get to see some lovely images (not all of which I was capable of capturing), but I thought I’d share my favorite photos of the day. [Read more…] about Sunset, moonrise…

A Book Review…

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Saturday I was really poorly. My pasty grey colouring even persuaded the Goblin I wasn’t pretending to be ill so I wouldn’t have to rake leaves off the drive (which had been our previously scheduled activity – he’s very organized and scheduled). Sitting up made me feel nearly as light headed as standing so I went back to bed (and back to sleep), but later in the day after waking up from a nap, I found myself lying there wanting to read something light. Something that wouldn’t require thinking or spawn the usual endless questions which fill my brain like bubbles from a soapy drain. I remembered of the three Georgette Heyer romances I’d bought a few weeks ago at the charity shop there was one (Cotillion) had I hadn’t yet read. The back of the book sounded boring, but I crawled back into bed with it and gave it a go. [Read more…] about A Book Review…