TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, in the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum, just in time for those authors preparing for the RWA Conference later this summer, members have shared additional sources for promotional materials. These new sources specialize in providing a host of promotional materials for authors and their books, for conferences, book signings and other opportunities for promoting your books. Log in to the Working on the Web forum area to learn more about these recommended promotional vendors.

Another article in the Working on the Web forum explains how to set your personal search preferences when using the Google search engine. In this article, you will learn how you can filter adult content from your search results, if you wish. You will also learn how to manage Google’s search predictions and how to control how many search results are delivered to you on each results page, among other search preferences.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will include an article on how take advantage of the advanced search features which are offered by Google. With advanced search, you can refine your search to ensure you get the most relevant results possible.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Regency Beauty — Part II by Ann Lethbridge

This is the second and final article in Ann Lethbridge’s series on Regency-era beauty products. As we learned from her last article, the use of these products was not restricted to ladies. There were a number of toiletry products which were also regularly used by men during the Regency. She includes an image of an eighteenth-century shaving stand which was sent to her by one of the readers of her first article. A most intriguing contraption.

Ann also offers a home recipe from the era on how to make one’s own lavender water. Once you understand its many benefits, would you consider making some?

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Regency Beauty — Part I by Ann Lethbridge

Regency romance author Ann Lethbridge’s most recent novel, Haunted by the Earl’s Touch, is in bookstores now. Today, she shares with us her research into Regency-era cosmetics and toiletries in this first of two articles. Did you know there were depilatories available during the Regency? And that there were also preparations available for men who had lost their hair and wanted to grow it back? The more things change it would appear, the more they stay the same.

Which of these preparations and practices would be part of your toilette?

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Regency Menu for Four by Susanna Ives

Susanna Ives, author, most recently, of Rakes and Radishes, provides us with the menu of a multi-course Regency meal for a party of four. This menu comes from Louis Eustache Ude’s The French Cook, which was first published in 1815. In addition, Susanna includes table setting diagrams for the first and second courses, which helps us to better understand how meals were presented at table during the Regency.

Do you think you would enjoy this meal, were you a guest at this table?

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Article 8:   Ask The Author By Gaelen Foley

In this month’s article, Gaelen Foley, best-selling romance author, concludes her series on the various aspects of writing historical romance novels. In this final article, she responds to a number of questions from aspiring authors at different stages in their career, as well as some of her loyal readers. There is much food for thought here, for first-time authors just planning their first novel to authors with a substantial backlist. As you read Gaelen’s answers to these questions, certainly consider the sagacity of her responses, but also think about how you might answer these same questions yourself.

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Fans from Victoria and Albert   By Cheryl Bolen

Cheryl Bolen reviews the Victoria and Albert Museum’s book on Fans in today’s article. She shares some of the history of the origin of the fan and its use in Georgian England. Fans have had a place in many Georgian and Regency novels since the origin of the genre. Do you remember that scene in Georgette Heyer’s These Old Shades, when Justin, Duke of Avon, used his new fan of chicken skin to annoy his friend, Hugh Davenant? How many romance heroines have employed a fan to great effect in a dalliance with the hero?

Fans are one of those lovely accouterments of a bygone age which few of us use today. But they are still fascinating to many of us, nonetheless. Delicate and beautiful, they can become a weapon in the hands of a woman who knows how to wield it. Fair warning, if you read this review, you may find yourself with a strong desire to own a copy of this book yourself.

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Benjamin Franklin’s Favorite Invention

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

The Glass Armonica.   Franklin always said that of all of his many inventions, this musical instrument, which could produce the pure dulcet tones of an angelic choir, was his very favorite. He got the idea while in London, as a representative of the Pennsylvania Legislature to Parliament in the late 1750s. He attended a concert at which music was played on a set of water-tuned wine glasses. He was captivated by the sound, but having an inventive turn of mind, he sought a more efficient and convenient method by which to produce it

Franklin introduced his invention in England in 1762, less than two years after George III had become king. Though he had originally dubbed it the "glassychord," he later changed the name of this instrument to the "glass armonica." In England it was also known as the "glass harp" or "musical glasses." Like Franklin himself, this instrument was very well received and it is estimated that more than four hundred musical works were composed for it. Over the course of the next seventy years at least five thousand instruments were constructed and played throughout Europe and America. Yet, by the death of George IV, it had almost completely disappeared from the musical scene.

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Jane Lark ~ Featured Beau Monde Author

Jane LarkWhen Jane completed her first novel it was because she was determined not to reach forty still saying, I want to write.
You might think Jane was inspired to write by Jane Austen, especially as she lives near Bath in the United Kingdom, but you would be wrong. Jane’s favourite author is Anya Seton, and the book which drew her into the bliss of falling into historical imagination was ‘Katherine’ a story crafted from reality.
 
Jane has drawn on this inspiration to discover other real-life love stories, reading memoirs and letters to capture elements of the past, and she uses these to create more realistic plots.
 

Illicit Love

Now she is writing Regency Romance for Sapphire Star Publishing, and her debut novel, Illicit Love, was released May, 2nd.