Hobnail
“A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.”
Author: Cora Lee
Cora Lee is a National Bestselling author of Regency romance. She went on a twelve year expedition through the blackboard jungle as a high school math teacher before publishing Save the Last Dance for Me, the first book in the Maitland Maidens series. She then followed it up with six other novels and novellas ranging from sweet and traditional to spicy and suspenseful.
When she’s not walking Rotten Row at the fashionable hour or attending the entertainments of the Season, you might find her participating in Regency Fiction Writers events, wading through her towering TBR pile, or eagerly awaiting the next Marvel movie release. If you’d like to find out more about Cora or her books you can sign up for her newsletter, or connect with her on Facebook, BlueSky, Bookbub, or Goodreads.
Quote of the Week
It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.
–Jane Austen
http://www.jasna.org/info/about_austen.html
Friday Favorite: Greenwood’s Map of London, 1827
Our Favorite this week is a resource I’ve used countless times, both as a writer and a reader. It’s a clickable, interactive map of London originally published in 1827 and based on a survey of the city that took the previous two years. The scale is eight inches per mile, so the detail is amazing. And Bath Spa University (who hosts this particular version) has done a phenomenal job digitizing the map–you can zoom in several times and still get a beautifully clear picture.
Click the picture for more information:
Regency Word Wednesday
Black Book
“He is down in the black book, i.e. he has a stain on his character. A black book is keep in most regiments, wherein the names of all persons sentenced to punishment are recorded.”
Cora’s TBR Challenge
Everyone has one. It’s nothing to be ashamed of…no matter how big it is. And mine is pretty huge.
It’s the TBR pile.
And I’m not talking about the books you merely want to read, I’m talking about the books you’ve already bought. The ones sitting in piles and bins and on shelves in your house. The ones in the TBR collection on your e-reader. The ones that have been sitting there for months.
How big is your pile?
Yes, I’m a writer. And someday before I die, I’d like to be a published writer. But I’m also a reader–not because reading will help to improve my writing (though it will), or so I can brag about how many books I’ve read in my life (a lot).
I read because I love reading.
I love reading so much I browse Amazon and B&N and the library looking for new books, even though I have so many in my possession already. So apparently I need a little structure–and a little support–in tackling the monstrous collection of books I haven’t yet read.
A blog I follow hosts a TBR Pile Challenge every year, complete with prizes for reviews and posts. But I missed the sign-up window, so I can’t participate.
Instead, I thought I’d have my own informal challenge, and see if anyone wanted to join me. These are the “rules” I’m going to use:
1. Choose the number of books from your TBR pile that you intend to read this year. I’m going with 12, not because my store of books is so small, but because I’m participating in a couple of Goodreads challenges, too, and I want to have time to write. Plus, some of the books on my shelves are big.
2. Books must owned by you for at least six months. This is the point of this challenge–to actually read the books that have been hanging around your shelves, bins, and e-readers waiting for you to notice them again.
3. I’ll check in with a post once a month to share how I’m doing. Anyone is welcome to comment and share their progress as well, whether you start with me now or pick up the cause in June or November. I’ve also created a Goodreads shelf to help keep track of my progress. Then all my challenges will be in one place–work smarter, not harder, right? 🙂
So who’s with me? Who’s going to finally go through those books at the bottom of the pile? Or the research books that went straight to the shelf? Or the e-books on your reader you bought with your gift cards last holiday season and forgot about?
Leave a comment here or on the TBR Challenge page with your commitment: how many books will you read from your TBR pile this year?
Quote of the Week
Friday Favorite: Emma’s Love Story
Our Friday Favorite this week is what I like to call “modern music for historical romance”. It’s the story of Jane Austen’s Emma and her Mr. Knightly, set to the music of Taylor Swift’s Love Story. That might sound like an incongruous pairing, but it totally works. Take a look!
For more period drama set to modern music, check out my Pinterest board on the subject.
Regency Word Wednesday
Aground
“Stuck fast, stopped, at a loss, ruined; like a boat or vessel aground.”
London Then and Now: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
Regency romance author Grace Elliot posted a fabulous article on her blog comparing the famous Vauxhall Gardens in the late 18th century to what remains of it in the 21st. She even added photos taken during her own visit. Check it out!
Ever since visiting an exhibition about the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens at The Foundling Museum, the history of the gardens has fascinated me. So for my first foray of the New Year, I visited the site of the old Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to see if any of the great 18th century attraction has survived to the present day.
On the south bank of the Thames, the gardens’ popularity peeked in the Georgian era. Under the proprietorship of Jonathan Tyers, they grew from the equivalent of a pleasant (well, if you ignored the prostitutes and pickpockets!) country walk near a tavern, to a trendy place of entertainment with sensational lights, exotic buildings, first class music, dancing and romantic walks. Tyers was an entrepreneur and ahead of his time because he had a canny talent for advertising and marketing.
Read the rest of the article here.
Quote of the Week
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
–Marcus Aurelius
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17212.Marcus_Aurelius
Cora Lee, Regency Romance Author 