My Vacation in the Regency Era

My first two books, Something About Her and my current book, Cloaked in Danger, are set in the well-loved, often-waxed-about Regency era, the time frame of 1811 – 1820 when the Prince Regent ruled over England.   And I’ve been asked once or twice, “Oh, are you a Regency romance author?”

My answer? Nope.

Yes, but in some ways, that’s like saying because I take a vacation in Maui, I must live on the beach.

I’ve visited the Regency, spent some fantastic times there.  Met some great characters but in the big stage of my writing career, the Regency is a vacation spot for me.  A place I love to visit, but not the only one I want to explore.

This might seem an odd distinction, but I come from a marketing background and one of the things I know is that brand is about expectation. Trust.  And part of establishing that is letting readers know what they can expect from my books in the future.

So that’s what you can expect… my settings are a bit like vacations.  I have a long laundry list of places, real and fictional, that I want to plop down for a good, long vacation and get to know the people there.  In fact, once I wrap up with the London Willoughbys, I’m eyeing my trip across the ocean to America, to follow Georgiana.  She’s heading for a fascinating town with some very fascinating people, a few secrets worth dying over and intriguing goings-on to discover.

I think I’ll stay there a while.  I have a hankering to check out Sweetwater, Texas one of these days, too.  And yes, I imagine I’ll even hop, skip and jump a few dozen decades here and there, too.

History has provided such a rich, rich landscape of opportunity for a writer who geeks out on research and gets lost in the rabbit hole of Google at the smallest prompting.

So I hope you’ll come along on the ride with me to a variety of places.  But before we pack our trunks, Cordelia Willoughby, the Duchess of Halton, needs to be heard.  She’ll tell her story very soon.

Featured image :”Almack’s Assembly Rooms inside” by George Cruikshank – Version of illustration from the “Tom and Jerry” book (1821) by George Cruikshank (cf. Image:Jacco1.jpg). Licensed under Public Domain via Commons