Five-ish Thoughts on...RomCon Day 0

RomCon 2012 is a reader-focused romance convention held every year in Denver, and this is my first time attending (yay!). It doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, but I flew into Denver this morning to acclimate and hang out with my (very pregnant) best friend. I also ran into my beloved fellow 2011 Golden Heart finalist Maire Claremont (she won the historical category!) and her partner in crime Delilah Marvelle, who is hosting the Chocolate Mangasm party on Saturday - it’s supposed to be 100 degrees this weekend, so things could get messy. But I digress. Without further ado…Five-ish Thoughts on RomCon Day 0

1) Conference centers should maybe think about what events are booked at the same time. RomCon doesn’t officially start until tomorrow, and maybe this other event ends today, but right now there’s a bizarre overlap between the pre-RomCon events and a conference for Korean Christians. Our giveaway bags have all sorts of inappropriate things; their giveaway room has religious tracts in Korean. And while I was watching the cover model photo shoot (more on that below), the rousing sounds of piano hymns on their side came through the movable wall while the photographer on our side ordered people to take clothes off, flex abs, look fierce, etc. Awkwardest photo shoot ever!

2) Male cover models do a lot of push-ups. I watched one guy casually hold a girl in his arms for five or ten minutes (yum), take a break, and then start doing push-ups. Apparently on long shoots they have to do push-ups to keep the blood flowing so their arms are as defined as possible. I didn’t question the physics of this, since I was too busy enjoying the show, but the amount of work these models put into staying defined and photo-ready is incredible.

3) Cover models aren’t just defined - they’re dehydrated. One model walked into the shoot saying that he couldn’t wait to be done so he could drink water again. They cut back on fluids to be as lean and tight as possible. I heard a rumor from one of them that some of them do it by drinking alcohol the night before, but I think as you get older, drinking the night before is a recipe for a puffy face and a vertigo-inducing hangover. Er, not that I have any experience with that. Again, this job is not for the faint of heart.

4) People give you funny looks if your carry-on sized bag weighs 50lbs. I checked a roll-aboard sized bag filled with excerpt booklets to give out at RomCon, and it weighed in at 49.6lbs. It wasn’t overweight, but they tagged it ‘heavy’ anyway to warn the poor baggage handlers that this bag felt like a pile of rocks rather than clothes for an easy weekend getaway. By the way, if you want an excerpt booklet, find me at RomCon or RWA Nationals or email me your mailing address (mailto:dearsara@sararamsey.com) - we’ve got Regency excerpts from Sabrina Jeffries’s Christmas novella, as well as Darcy Burke, Leigh LaValle, Heather Snow, Erin Knightley, and Valerie Bowman.

5) San Francisco has made me weak. I grew up in Iowa, but now I can only tolerate a narrow band of temperatures between 55 and 70 degrees. If the excitement of hanging out with a bunch of romance readers and writers all weekend doesn’t kill me, the heat or the desiccating lack of humidity might. I’ll be the mummified body over by the bar.

That’s it for the unofficial day before RomCon! If I don’t pass out from dehydration or exhaustion (which is actually dehydration/exhaustion, not code for an overdose like the Hollywood starlets use), I’ll post a recap of Day 1 tomorrow!

I Covet: Nancy Boy Hand Soap

While I adore the Regency, I must say that the hygiene issues back then would have really gotten me down. I'm not exactly OCD (although people I've lived with may disagree...), but I must have clean hands at all times. And my mother can attest that this trend started early - as a toddler I was apparently pretty calm and well-behaved, but I screamed like I was dying if I got mud into my sandals. Today's "I Covet" feature,  Nancy Boy Hand Soap, isn't specifically Regency, but it does involve Castile soap...close enough, right? Nancy Boy is based in San Francisco, with a tiny boutique on Hayes Street (a trendy, up and coming gentrified neighborhood with cute bars/shops/restaurants, for those of you who want to picture it). Their product lines are relatively small, but everything they make is to die for.

I was walking down Hayes Street one day and could smell them from several stores away - one whiff of their elusive, wonderful Signature scent hooked me forever. From their website: "Signature is our most popular scent. French lavender makes it calming and restorative, but the Washington peppermint and Tunisian rosemary give it clean, fresh, bracing notes to which both men and women are drawn." Doesn't that sound divine?

If you want a bit of this scent to brighten your darkest days, try the hand soap (perfect for my unacknowledged OCD-ness, since it doesn't dry out my hands). Or, get a candle in Signature scent so your whole room can smell alluring. Best of all if you get the soap, though - for a few moments, you can live like a Regency heroine! This is a Castile soap, which means it's oil based and quite runny (fair warning; it took me awhile to get used to runny hand soap) - but Castile soap was quite popular in Europe, and the fancy set would have used Castile soap instead of lye or other, harder soaps.

Let me know if you try them! Or, if you have other great scent recommendations, please share them in the comments...I'm always looking for new candles, scents, and other ways to brighten up my life (without spending a fortune on diamonds ;)

Anzac Day!

I haven't posted in ages, but it's Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand (or rather, it was yesterday for them...it's already tomorrow there, if I'm not being too confusing). Anzac Day is April 25, and while I won't claim any sort of expertise on the history of Australia, New Zealand, or their armed forces, I did go through a slightly obsessive phase over World War I and World War II. And I visited Australia and New Zealand for four weeks in 1999, which was totally amazing. And whenever I go to Europe I meet awesome Australian travelers, who are always the most fun to hang out with in random situations. And I loooooove that "Down Under" song by Men At Work, which I probably shouldn't admit...

Anyway. Anzac Day. Anzac Day commemorates the veterans of all wars that Australia and New Zealand have fought in, but it initially started as a remembrance of the landing at Gallipoli in 1915, when Australians and New Zealanders (Anzacs), as part of the Allied forces, invaded that part of Turkey seeking to control the Dardanelles and the sea route to Istanbul, Russia and the Black Sea. The casualties on both sides were massive, ultimately resulting in a Turkish victory many months later. But even though Gallipoli was small in comparison to the brutal, dragging, disastrous trench warfare of the Western Front, it had a major impact on the development of the national identities of Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey, which at that point was part of the last gasp of the Ottoman Empire but eventually remade itself as a democratic, secular society.

You can read all about Anzac Day and Gallipoli on Wikipedia or any number of other resources on the web, but I'll leave you with two quotes:

I do not order you to fight, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can come forward and take our places. - Lt. Col. Mustafa Kemel's orders to the Ottoman 57th Infantry on the morning of the invasion, when the defenders had run out of ammo and only had bayonets left. All of the 57th either died or were wounded at Gallipoli, and Mustafa Kemel went on to become Ataturk and lead independent Turkey.

-----

Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, Who sent their sons from far away countries Wipe away your tears, Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace After having lost their lives on this land they have Become our sons as well. - Dedication read by Ataturk (Mustafa Kemel) in 1934, during the first commemoration by Anzac veterans at Gallipoli.

The pictures are from the Australian War Memorial in London, and I took these when I visited in 2008. It's a really lovely setting - at Hyde Park Corner, opposite the southeast corner of Hyde Park (steps from Rotten Row), in the same little park as the Wellington Arch, and across Piccadilly Street from Apsley House (Wellington's home, which is now a great little museum).

And that's my bit of Anzac Day remembrance - not at all related to the Regency, but my love of history and deep, abiding empathy/sympathy/fascination/sadness for those who fought and died in both world wars sometimes trumps the Regency. I hope to blog more regularly, though, so look for more Regency ramblings soon!

Release Day = Graduation + First Day of School

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. Heiress Without a Cause has been quietly available on Barnes and Noble all last week, but today is the official launch. It's like the first day of school, my birthday (before the stupid terrorists ruined it forever), and graduation all rolled into one. In many ways, it's like a graduation -- the culmination of a lot of work over several years, ending in one lovely day full of celebrating and laughter and merriment. Some of my friends are taking me out tonight, which will be a great way to end the day, and I've gotten some wonderful emails and tweets and comments from all over the world. So today is truly a day to celebrate and reflect on everything that's happened over the last few years (preferably with some champagne and possibly a mani/pedi).

But in other ways, it's more like the first day of school. Will the other kids (readers) like me? Am I wearing the right clothes? Am I smart enough to handle the work? What's that smell in the cafeteria? (I've been shamefully neglecting my kitchen this weekend...). While all the work of getting my book out in the world has culminated in this, the next phase of work -- connecting with readers, writing to deadlines, mastering the art of juggling writing and promo -- is just beginning.

Still, it's an exciting day, and I'm going to enjoy it. Thank you for celebrating with me, and I'm so glad you're here as I kick off the next phase. If you want to stay updated when the book launches everywhere, or if you want to be invited to signings/events/launch parties, please sign up for my mailing list.

And really, if my outfit is a wreck, promise you'll tell me?

Vocab for the Regency Challenged

In the lead-up to the launch of my debut book, I realized that I have a lot of family and friends who may want to read my book but have no knowledge whatsoever of the Regency period. So, I put together a fast-and-loose set of definitions for some of the most common Regency terms, trying to equate them to modern-day events wherever possible. I'll keep adding to it as more words come up, so leave a comment if there are any that I missed!

• stays: Regency-era corset.
• French pox: before the French were known as surrender monkeys, they had a reputation for syphilis. Really, the British and French should be nicer to each other.
• protector: a high-class mistress has a dedicated 'protector' who pays her upkeep in exchange for sex (or 'conversation', if you prefer to believe that). So, Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, if he had just bought Julia Roberts a house rather than marrying her.
• ton: a French word, short for haut ton, which is basically the English aristocracy. You can only be part of the ton through birth. If you are a dude who makes an insane amount of money, you could marry your daughter to an impoverished baron who needs the funds - you still wouldn't be accepted in the ton, and she would be smirked at all her life, but her son would be accepted. Awesome plan, right?
• foxed: drunk (see: end result of my launch party).
• Gretna Green: a town on the Scottish border famed for its quickie marriages, since it was easier to marry in Scotland than in England. Like eloping to Vegas, only with less gambling/neon lights/Elvis and more haggis.
• your grace: a duke or a duchess is called 'your grace'; all other nobles (marquesses/earls/viscounts/barons, in that order) are called 'my lord'. Oh, and an earl's wife is called a countess, and a marquess's wife is called a marchioness. Aren't you sad that the US got its independence?
• bluestocking: a woman who likes studying, reading, and learning things. Clearly she must be shunned.
• ape-leader: a spinster, usually over the age of thirty (shut your mouth about my age) - at that point, a woman was 'on the shelf' and likely wouldn't marry. Supposedly called an ape-leader because the afterlife punishment for failing to marry and procreate is to lead apes in hell. Awesome!
• rake: sort of a cross between a manwhore and a metrosexual.
• gentleman's club: a place where men could go to eat/play cards/discuss politics. Men visiting London could live at their club rather than renting a house. So, it's a cross between the YMCA (sans swimming pools and Village People) and a hot nightclub (sans strippers or women of any kind). White's and Brooks's are two of the most famous.
• demimonde: another French word, describing the world inhabited by high-class mistresses and courtesans. They were some of the most famous women of their day, and everyone knew who they were - but well-bred ladies pretended they didn't exist. It's like if we all knew who the Kardashians were, but we weren't allowed to talk about them incessantly.
• manroot: I'm confident you'll figure this out in context.
• Newgate: a freaking awful prison in London (although all prisons were probably freaking awful then). It housed everyone from debtors to murderers, and sometimes their families too. Jailers extorted prisoners, demanding money for everything from food to fresh air.
• toilette: the general act of getting ready (clothing, hair, etc.). The most famous courtesans/actresses, particularly in the years preceding the Regency, would invite men to watch their toilette - not in the dirty pornographic way that isn't appropriate for this blog, but rather in a sort of reverse striptease.
• reticule: a handbag. In the era before my beloved Marc by Marc Jacobs, when people had nothing better to do, a lot of women made their own bags.
• set-down: a blistering insult meant to trim someone's sails/cut them down to size. My fave!
• cut/cut direct: worse than a set-down. A cut involved pretending not to see someone you knew. A cut direct was done by staring at someone, then refusing to acknowledge them. Pretty much considered the most humiliating thing ever, although clearly these people had never seen Carrie.
• fast: daring. A woman was 'fast' if she dampened her chemise so that her gown clung to her body, or if she wore drawers (which were still scandalous during the Regency; it was more appropriate to go commando back then).
• Mayfair: the most fashionable neighborhood in London during the Regency (and still one of the most expensive today).
• rustication: if someone was out of money, or in disgrace, they usually went to their estate in the country to 'rusticate' (like a rustic).
• toad-eating: sucking up or trying to curry favor.
• marriage mart: all the events of a London social season added up to a marriage mart, in which mothers were hell-bent on ensuring their daughters didn't become ape-leaders, and men were either looking for brides or trying to avoid it all by chilling at their clubs.
• on dit: a French word for a bit of gossip. The English sure did like their French words, even when they were at war with France off and on for centuries.

Like I said above, I'll keep updating this list as I get questions, so leave a comment if anything isn't clear. And anyone who comments on any blog post between now and Sunday, 1/22/12, at 11:59pm PST is entered to win one of three free copies of Heiress Without a Cause!

What the #%&@ is the Ton?

One of my relatives read HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE last night and called me to tell me he was halfway through. I was flattered that he actually read it -- given that I've known him my entire life, I was hoping he'd shell out $3.99 for it, but reading it was a bonus. And he seemed to enjoy it, although he did say there were fewer submarines in it than the stuff he normally reads (note to self: create a heroine who is into submersibles). Anyway, he mentioned that he'd had to look up more words with this book than anything he's read in a long time. "Ton" was the hardest, since a Google search for "ton" won't easily turn up an explanation on English upperclass society, but there were all sorts of words that flummoxed him ("flummoxed" included, although I don't think I used it in HEIRESS). And that led me to wonder...how do readers approaching their first Regency romance understand what the heck is going on? I read my first Regency almost twenty years ago, so I can't remember a time when I didn't know the difference between a curricle and a phaeton, or that a marquess is ranked higher than a viscount.

What words or social customs did you find confusing when you first started reading Regencies? Anyone who comments on my blog between now and Sunday, January 22nd, at 11:59pm PST will have a chance to win one of three Nook copies of HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE - so have at it! Tell me what words I should define for new Regency readers, and I'll enter you in the drawing. I'll also post my definitions on Sunday, and hilarity shall ensue.

And by the way, "the ton" is short for "haut ton", a French phrase that the English used to describe their aristocratic class -- the dukes, earls, barons, and other titled people and their families who were part of the "upper ten thousand". It's sort of like a cross between the 1% and being a Hollywood A-lister, except you are born into it and can't rise into it (unless you were extremely, absurdly wealthy, and even then it would take a couple of generations and some great marriages before your family would be accepted). So Suri Cruise would be haut ton, but that upstart Snooki would never be invited to anything.

Guest Blogging Today at History Hoydens

The official release date for HEIRESS WITHOUT A CAUSE is one week from today (although I'll whisper to you that it's technically available as of this morning for the Nook at Barnes and Noble) - and I'm a nervous wreck. Luckily, I have very kind friends who are willing to hold my hand (virtually, at least; physically, my hands are chapped from too much dishwashing in the aftermath of a dinner party last night, which makes me feel less like a Regency heroine and more like a charwoman). My friend and fellow San Francisco RWA chapter member Isobel Carr interviewed me for the History Hoydens blog today. I talk all about my favorite bits of Regency history, my hatred of the word 'pantaloons', and how Ferguson's hair used to be red until I was told that people were picturing Carrot Top instead of a hottie mchotterson as I intended. Check it out here - and a random commenter will get a free copy of HEIRESS!

Writing Retreats - Finding Your Focus

I'm not afraid to admit that my writing has been a bit unfocused of late. I traveled like mad this summer, which is why my blog went on a bit of an extended hiatus. I also submitted my latest book to publishers this spring, and I'm always a bit of a basketcase during the submission process (perhaps a post for another time). But now that I'm settled and eager to get back into my writing, I needed to jumpstart my process and find my focus again. Ironically, I found that the best way to focus was to run away again.

It's so easy for 'real life' to get in the way. Since I work from home, it's also easy to find supposedly-legitimate reasons to procrastinate - laundry, cleaning, cooking, watching "Bones" marathons. I also have trouble saying no to friends who want to get together, since they know I don't have anything else going on (as though the writing doesn't count, or can easily be put aside).

All of that is my problem, not anyone else's. But if you're struggling with similar issues, going away to write for a few days may do wonders, if it's within your budget. I found an extremely cheap vacation rental in Squaw Valley, Tahoe, which was perfect for my needs. Vacation rentals (found on sites such as vrbo.com and airbnb.com) can be perfect for a writer's retreat - you can look for places with kitchens or kitchenettes, desks or dining room tables, and other amenities that make your retreat feel more like a productive haven than a prison. My unit had a kitchen and dining room table so that I had plenty of space to work (and could cook my own meals), while the living/dining combo meant I didn't have to spend all my time in the same room where I was sleeping.

All in all, it was wonderful - I wrote ~40 pages, did a lot of revisions, and took care of other writing-related tasks. But if you can't afford to get away or have too many responsibilities at home, think about how you can create your own retreat where you are. Can you lock your bedroom or office door for a day and let your family fend for themselves? If you're single and have another writer friend in the area, can you swap places for a few days so that it feels like you're going on vacation to someplace new? Changing your scene just a bit can have long-term impact in terms of how motivated and energized you are about your project.

Have you gone on a writing retreat? Does it work for you? Or have you found other ways to keep yourself energized in your daily life? Please share in the comments - I'd love to hear what works and doesn't work for you!

Recently Read: JUST LIKE HEAVEN by Julia Quinn

Just Like Heaven by Julia QuinnMy rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was just what I needed when I read it - a fun, airy story without any uberangst. Julia Quinn's Bridgerton books are some of my all-time favorites, and "Romancing Mr. Bridgerton" will forever hold a place on my top-ten list. Compared to that, "Just Like Heaven" is...well, just like, but not quite as, heavenly (sorry, couldn't resist).

That said, it was wonderful in a light sort of way. There's virtually no conflict, and the conflict is so lacking that I found myself wondering if JQ would ever get through an agent/editor submission these days, since they're beating the conflict drum with all the intensity of the cave trolls and orcs going to war in "The Two Towers". But the lack of conflict is made up for with the lovable characters, the wonderful internal/external dialogue, and the simple joy of revisiting the Smith-Smythe musicales that played such a central role in the Bridgerton series. Fans of JQ will love it; people who like their heroes and heroines angry/wounded/betrayed/bitter/desperate, not so much.

View all my reviews

How to Final in the Regency Golden Heart

I'm over at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog with my fellow '09 Regency finalists - we're discussing what it takes to final in the Regency category of the Golden Heart. If you're entering, considering entering, or even just thinking about how to polish your Regency manuscript, please stop by!