TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month’s Working on the Web articles cover a diverse range of topics. For authors in search of just the right name for the characters in their work in progress, a review of a pair of perhaps the most comprehensive name databases to be found online, which not only offer a vast list of names, but also their meanings and their etymology. Another article posted this month was an alert regarding the most vicious types of malware to be seen on the web in some time. Known as "ransomware," this nasty new malware literally holds the data on your hard drive for ransom. This article provides details on how to protect your computer and offers some options on what to do if your hard drive is locked up with a demand that you pay the villains. Heading tags are the subject of this month’s SEO article. Though many people ignore them, this article details how they can become a powerful option for increasing a web site’s search engine rankings.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will take a look an obvious opportunity for self-promotion which many authors overlook. Our series on SEO will explain how the navigation on your own web pages can be used to improve the SEO for that same web site.

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The Relationship between Admiral Lord Nelson and Mr. Rochester

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

The Hero of Trafalgar also has a relationship of sorts to Jane Eyre, Heathcliffe and Kathy, and Agnes Grey. Yes, those characters inhabit novels which were written by three talented sisters decades after the death of Admiral Nelson in October of 1805. He did not know the sisters, in fact they were all born more than ten years after his death. And yet, thanks to Charlotte, Emily and Anne, the name of Nelson’s favorite title lives on, even if it has lost its association with him.

Continue reading “The Relationship between Admiral Lord Nelson and Mr. Rochester”

Divorce Regency Style   By Cheryl Bolen

This latest article from Cheryl Bolen is about the sadder side of marriage, divorce. Though not a common event during the Regency, it was not completely impossible. But the process was slow and tedious and the options available to a couple were very different than the options open to most of us today.

What happened when a Regency marriage fell apart …

Continue reading “Divorce Regency Style   By Cheryl Bolen”

Some October New Releases

Lady Writing at DeskNew Book Releases from authors at The Beau Monde Chapter

 ( Regency historical ) of Romance Writers of America.

 

A Lady’s Lesson in Seduction by Barbara Monajem

A Lady's Lesson in Seduction CoverHarlequin Historical Undone, 978-1-459-24799-4

Regency Historical (Novella)

Former rake Camden Folk, Marquis of Warbury, is now consumed with desire for only one woman—beautiful young widow Frances Burdett. The Yuletide festivities at his country estate present the perfect opportunity for seduction…

After her brief, unsatisfying marriage, Frances swore never to become tied to another man. Then a passionate kiss under the mistletoe reawakens longings she thought buried forever. Can she give in to the pleasures of the body with a rogue like Cam—without losing her heart?

@BarbaraMonajem

 

My Regelance Rake by J. L. Langley

My Regelence Rake Cover

 

Samhain Publishing, ISBN 978-1-60928-952-2

Regency SF, M/M

 With his days occupied with duties as Captain of the Guard, and nights consumed with upholding his reputation as a rake, Lord Sebastian Hastings’s schedule is filled. There’s no extra time to be anyone’s bodyguard, but the royal family’s safety is a task he sees to personally.

Prince Colton Townsend has loved Sebastian for a long time, but he’s done pining for a man who has vowed never to remarry. Horses and horse racing consume his every thought, at least until he’s stuck with Sebastian dogging his every step.

At an auction, Colton is trying to ignore his sexy bodyguard when he takes on a bully to protect an abused horse. Sebastian is dragged into the fray, and their good deed sparks a string of nasty rumors.

There’s only one way to quell the political storm: marry. But instead of solving everything, Colton realizes his new husband is a bundle of secrets, none of which he’ll give up easily. Unless Colton makes one, last-ditch effort that could break his heart for good.

twitter/jl_langley

 

Season For Surrender by Theresa Romain

Season For Surrender CoverKensington Zebra, ISBN-10: 1420128868  ISBN-13: 978-1420128864
Regency Historical
HONOR AMONG ROGUES
Alexander Edgware, Lord Xavier, has quite a reputation—for daring, wagering, and wickedness in all its delightful forms. But the wager before him is hardly his preferred sport: Xavier must persuade a proper young lady to attend his famously naughty Christmas house party—and stay the full, ruinous two weeks. Worse, the lady is Louisa Oliver, a doe-eyed bookworm Xavier finds quite charming. Yet to refuse the challenge is impossible—he will simply have to appoint himself Miss Oliver’s protector…
MISCHIEF AMONG MISSES
Louisa knows her chance for a husband has passed. But she has no desire to retire into spinsterhood without enjoying a few grand adventures first. When Lord Xavier’s invitation arrives, Louisa is more intrigued than insulted. And once inside the rogues’ gallery, she just may have a thing or two to teach her gentlemen friends about daring…

"Marriage Lines" really are lines!

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

The phrase "marriage lines" is listed in the entry for marriage in the Oxford English Dictionary Online (paid subscription required). The phrase is characterized as a colloquial term for a marriage certificate, expecially that held by a bride. The first documented use of this phrase in print was in The Times on 25 March 1818.

As "marriage lines" is considered a colloquialism, it is not surprising that it is not found in written or printed form until 1818. In fact, it is a mark of its pervasiveness in the language by this time that it did find its way into print. A colloquialism is, by definition, an expression which is not typically used in formal speech or writing. But it is a common part of informal speech, the daily conversation of regular people. So, it is clear that "marriage lines" was used in daily speech by ordinary people for many years before its first appearance in The Times in 1818.

"Marriage lines" is also an idiom, as it seems quite clear it is peculiar to the English speakers of the British Isles. There is no evidence this phrase was commonly used by the populations of any of the countries of the European Continent, or even in America or Canada, except by native British speakers.

So what is the origin of this charming expression for a marriage certificate? And why were the "marriage lines" so important to the women who possessed them?

Continue reading “"Marriage Lines" really are lines!”

Courting and Marriage in the Regency   by Cheryl Bolen

Are you planning a big wedding scene in your next Regency novel, the bride in a brand-new white wedding gown and veil, a flock of bridesmaids in matching gowns, and a church-ful of guests throwing rose petals as the happy couple leaves the church? You may want to re-think all of that after you read the article Cheryl Bolen has for us today.

How couples really courted and married in Regency days …

Continue reading “Courting and Marriage in the Regency   by Cheryl Bolen”

God in Regency England ~ by Regan Walker

My purpose in writing this article is to supply Regency authors with a deeper understanding of what was in the heart of the men and women living at that time and how their view of God affected their lives. I begin with the century before this period and the time following the slim slice of history that was the Regency in order to understand the sweeping changes that occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries that bracket the Regency.

The full article, including a list sources and articles and books of interest, is available to Beau Monde members at the TBM File Library, which is part of the myRWA site. (Member login is required.)

Continue reading “God in Regency England ~ by Regan Walker”

Regency Promenade – Elizabeth Billington – by Nancy Mayer

Though Elizabeth Billington was thought to have one of the greatest voices of the age,the caricaturists loved to poke fun at her.

Mrs. Billington 1765-1818 was the daughter of Carl Weichsell, a well-known oboist, and a popular singer. In childhood she studied singing and composition with J.C. Bach, and by age 12 she had produced two keyboard concertos. In 1783, she wed James Billington, singing teacher and player of the double bass. For many years she and her brother, a violinist, provided afterpiece concerts at Covent Garden, where she became renowned for her exceptionally high vocal range and accurate intonation.
In 1802 she made her opera debut at the Italian opera house.  “The recitative was raised from its customary level.”

In 1805, according to the Times, “(she) sung with all the taste and delicacy, expression and neatness of execution that have long placed her above the reach of competition.” Her last performance at the King’s was the following year. She returned to the concert stage and to English Opera, performing alternately at Drury Lane and Covent Garden,
till her retirement in 1817.

Regency Promenade is written every month by Nancy Mayer, Regency researcher extraordinaire. http://www.regencyresearcher.com/