Summer is here!
Sort of. On a fluctuating basis. Here in central New York, it'll be in the high 80s for a few days, then plunge back into the 60s. My garden is doing well with all the rain, at least.
And, as it is summer, the writing portion of Novella Spring Garden 2025 has come to an end. I was reliably on track with Arrow Collar Man’s word count so I did hit 30k words at the right time, but the story wasn't done: it took almost another 5,000 words to tie it up. I’m pretty pleased with it, and with Robert Harper’s journey through self-loathing to self-actualization. He’s a good guy and he deserved it, though sadly he only became slightly more emotionally regulated over the course of the story, but don’t those of us who are emotionally disregulated deserve to find happiness? I certainly think so.
If you’re interested in giving a beta read, please let me know!
And now I turn back to Grand and Glorious, which is moving along at a pretty good clip. Part of this is, I’m sure, that I’m writing it in a British register — like Happy Secret, it’s rather Wodehousian, while Arrow Collar Man is set in New York. Despite being American, I find myself struggling a bit to write in an American accent and with American vocabulary. It’s ridiculous, I know.
This is not really a review blog, but I did want to note that I read K.J. Charles's “Doomsday Book“ duology, The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen and A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, as well as a couple more of her titles, and was blown away by them.
I may or may not have mentioned previously in my “Austen and Asexuality“ post that I'm not a big romance reader anymore — in the Romance Genre sense, not in the “love story" sense — but I picked these up on Libby as they were immediately available and I was curious. K.J. Charles is a big name! But I've been burned so many times on historical fiction, especially historical romance, so I'd always been reluctant to read her. (And I have to admit that I'm a bit of a hipster, and popularity can often make me instinctively stay away.)
Friends. I have been so silly. K.J. Charles is an amazing romance writer, with characters that jump off the page and an ability to plump up the story with robust subplots. I'm tempted to say that her work reminds me of romantasy, but with historical fiction blended in instead of fantasy. Also relevant to my interests, her historical settings feel deeply real and lived-in, like she hasn't just done the research, she's done the research to such an extent that she Knows It.
This portrait of the Pateshalls, chosen for the newsletter due to the Doomsday Books’ setting, shows them very well turned-out for 1810.
The captain’s outfit is so standard for fashionable gentlemen in the country that it is almost a uniform: black wool coat, buff (very light yellowish beige) wool waistcoat, and leather breeches that are met at the bottom by riding boots, polished to a high shine. There is a muslin cravat tied in a bow at his neck, and he wears tan leather gloves; he holds a black top hat and a silver-headed stick. You can see a gold fob at his waist as well.
Mrs. Pateshall is in as stereotypical a “little white dress” as you’ll find, one suitable for day or evening wear depending on the situation and how it’s accessorized. While Parisian gowns were starting to be shorter and stand away from the legs by 1810, English fashion deliberately avoided this change, and portraiture and fashion plates show longer hems and drapier skirts like hers. She has a veil, probably made of an extremely fine muslin embroidered with white thread, and brownish silk slippers with a small rosette on the toe. Her only jewelry is a pair of pearl drop earrings, and she holds her long kid gloves rather than wearing them.