TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

The Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum this month features an article which will be of special interest to Regency authors, in particular, those who want to know the value of something during the Regency. This article provides an overview of a very powerful online currency conversion calculator which has been developed by a team of economists. This conversion calculator makes it possible to determine the purchasing power of the British pound, and a few other currencies, from the early thirteenth century right up to the present day.

Those who are currently blogging, or are planning to start a blog, will be especially interested in next month’s Working on the web article. It will cover the reasons why including a blog roll on your blog is valuable both for you and for your blog readers.

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

Writing in Restaurants by Susanna Ives

Do you ever spend time with your WIP in a restaurant, or perhaps a coffee shop? Today, Susanna Ives, author of Rakes and Radishes, contemplates that very activity. She not only shares what the experience means to her, but also a photo of a lovely and restful French painting in which a young Victorian lady is reading in a cafe while awaiting the arrival of her meal.

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Butter:   A Regency Health Food?

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

All you health-conscious readers are probably shuddering at the very idea, but in actual fact, butter did help to protect the health of many people in England during the Regency, just as it had for several centuries before the nineteenth. At different times in its history, butter alternated between being considered a luxury food or fit only to be consumed the very poor. By the Regency it was a relatively expensive commodity, but it was widely available. And, it was no longer restricted to any particular social class by custom, though there was some restriction based on its cost. Regardless of social status, butter protected many of the leftover meals from the tables of all classes, when used correctly.

How butter churned it way through history …

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A Review of the Private Correspondence of Granville Leveson Gower by Cheryl Bolen

Today, Cheryl Bolen reviews the private correspondence of the man who made many Regency women swoon over his remarkable good looks. And he was a man who took advantage of his personal assets, enjoying affairs with a number of women. He also served his country in several embassy postings over the course of his successful diplomatic career. But of more importance to us, he regularly corresponded with one of his lovers, right through the decade of the Regency. Many of his letters survive, and have been published. Cheryl Bolen shares her insights regarding his lengthy and informative correspondence.

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Coaching Tokens or Half-Pennies

A cross-post from The Regency Redingote:

We have all received mailings, either via snail-mail or email, which include a "check" or coupon worth a certain amount for use at a restaurant or hotel as an inducement for our patronage. Our Regency ancestors received similar specialized currency, and though their incentive cash came in the form of hard coin, its production and use correlated to the postal system of their time.

The minting and circulation of the coaching half-penny through time …

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Tammy Jo Burns – Featured Beau Monde Author

Tammy Jo Burns sepia photo near an ornate stone bench

Tammy Jo Burns is today’s Featured Beau Monde Author.

From a young age Tammy Jo could always be found carrying around books to read while watching her grandmother’s soap operas with her. She read anything and everything she could get her hands on and even made up skits and stories for herself and her friends to act out. Once she outgrew the children’s and YA books, her mom introduced her to an entirely new world—contemporary romance. Upon discovering she had a love for history, she began devouring historical romances. One day, sitting in a college British History class, something the professor said made her think, "I wonder." She quickly called her mom (also a writer) and ran the idea by her. After being told, "Of course you can do it, you’re my daughter," the rest, as they say, is history.

Tammy Jo currently shares her love of reading with the next generation as a high school librarian, and shares her personal life with her demanding dog trapped in a cat’s body, Ajax.

Her debut novel, A Traitorous Heart, Book One of The Reluctant Lords series, can now be found on Amazon.

Find her at Facebook Fan Page@tammyjoburnswww.tammyjoburns.com

The Trees of Kingston Lacy — Part II by Jane Lark

In her previous article, Jane Lark, author of the new release, Illicit Love, shared her insights into the history of the old trees which adorn the grounds of the Kingston Lacy estate, in Dorset. Today, Jane shares more information about the history of the trees on the estate, along with a selection of additional photographs.

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The Trees of Kingston Lacy — Part I by Jane Lark

Jane Lark, author of the recently-released romance novel, Illicit Love, also loves old trees. And is fascinated by the idea of who might have walked beneath those same trees, centuries ago. Today, in her first of a pair of articles on the old trees on the grounds of Kingston Lacy, a great country house in Dorset, England, she muses on who might have strolled the grounds and enjoyed the shade of those trees. The house was built in the seventeenth century, and many of the trees on the estate were planted at that time. Which means they would have been fully mature by the Regency, providing a lush canopy of leaves over those who rambled below.

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