In Memoriam: Edith Layton

Regency romance superstar Edith Layton died June 2, 2009 after a five year battle with cancer.

Mary Jo Putney (Loving a Lost Lord) announced the sad news on the Word Wenches blog, to which Ms. Layton belonged until recently. I blogged about her leaving the Word Wenches on April 25. Everyone thought she had left to spend more time writing. An illness was a well-kept secret. The news of her death came as a shock.

I adored her books. Her romances were historically accurate and full of love. The story I remember best is "Two Dancing Daughters" in the Signet Regency Romances Christmas anthology, Regency Christmas Magic. In this retelling of the fairy tale, "The Dancing Princesses", a father hires an out-of-work former army officer to find out why his daughters' dancing shoes are worn out every morning when they have supposedly spent the night in their bedroom.

The soldier and the older daughter are immediately attracted to each other, but they can't act on their desire: he, because he is wounded and has no money, she, because she can't reveal where she and her sister go every night.

The next morning, the heroine opens her bedroom door to find the soldier sleeping in the hall outside. Her urge to touch him is so great that she reaches out. At the last second, she stops, only to run her hand a hair's breath above his face. But knowing they can never be together, she pulls her hand back, and returns into her room.

As soon as the door shuts, the soldier opens his eyes. He was awake the whole time. He'd had to exert every ounce of his determination to pretend he was asleep and not touch her.

That scene remains in my mind. Ms. Layton packed more love and longing into those two paragraphs than many romances have in an entire book.

I want to write like that.

Edith, we'll miss you.

Thank you all,

Linda

And the Winner Is...

The names went into a hat, and the one I pulled out was

Loretta Canton

Congratulations, Loretta. Please send your email address to linda@lindabanche.com so I can send you the PDF copy of Lady of the Stars.

And thanks to the rest of you for coming. Stay tuned, my Pumpkinnapper release is coming up, with more giveaways.

Thank you all,
Linda

Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Bouquet--Novel Time

Welcome to my entry for The Wild Rose Press's Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Bouquet. Leave a comment by June 23, 9AM Eastern Time for a chance to win a PDF copy of Lady of the Stars. Note: You must check back after the contest closes to see if you’ve won. I will post the winner as soon as possible after 9AM, June 23.

My topic is Time. In my two TWRP Regency novellas, time plays a prominent role.

In Lady of the Stars, my Regency time travel, when the heroine, Caroline, suspects she's traveled into the past, she asks Richard, the hero, what the day is. He answers the day is Wednesday, July 9, 1817. I checked. July 9, 1817 was a Wednesday. Here's the calendar for 1817.

I selected that date on purpose. Astronomy is a prominent part of Lady of the Stars. Caroline and Richard fall in love as they observe the stars. Bright moonlight washes out the stars, so part of the storyline had to occur when there was no moon to interfere.

From Lady of the Stars: "The clouds thinned that very day, and the next five nights were clear and moonless, perfect for observation."

These five nights occurred on days 4-9 of Caroline's sojourn in the past, July 12-16. According to the calendar, the new moon occurred on July 14. The new moon rises at sunrise and sets at sunset, so was not in the sky to interfere with their observations.

Romantic Times has given Lady of the Stars a 4 star review. The review itself isn't online yet, but author C. J. Parker sent me a copy. From the review (I can't post the whole thing): "a quick read and a delightful short romance." Thank you, Romantic Times.

Pumpkinnapper, my Regency Halloween comedy, also makes use of the moon's phases. The story starts on September 28, 1816, at the moon's first quarter. Here's the 1816 calendar.

The times for Pumpkinnapper were more complicated because most of the action occurs in the dark after moonset. I found the times for moonrise/moonset using the US Naval Observatory website. The times are valid only with the correct latitude and longitude, which I found at the NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS) .

At first quarter, the sun rises about noon and sets around midnight. Corrected for the latitude and longitude of Lindsell, Essex, England, using the above sites, moonset on September 28, 1816, occurred around 10PM.

Each day, the moon rises and sets about an hour later. The Pumpkinnapper climax occurs on the night before full moon, the night of October 4-5, when the moon sets after 3AM.

Here Hank, the hero, waits until he can go to Emily's, the heroine's, house to try and catch the pumpkinnapper: "Hank glanced at the clock on the mantle above the fire. Only midnight. Moonset was at three, so he couldn't leave for at least another hour."

Why did I pick the dark after moonset? All kinds of things happen in the dark. The Wild Rose Press will release Pumpkinnapper on September 30.

Do you like this level of detail in your stories?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll hop over to the blogs of the other authors participating in TWRP's Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Bouquet. Note, all the posts in the Blog Bouquet must be posted by 9AM Eastern time on June 22. Depending on when you read this, the other posts may not be up yet.

http://AnnWhitaker.blogspot.com
http://bethcaudill.blogspot.com
http://blog.skhyemoncrief.com
http://catemasters.blogspot.com
http://christinecolumbus.blogspot.com
http://donnamichaelsauthor.blogspot.com
http://happyendingsblog.com
http://kyAnnwaters.blogspot.com
http://laurirobinson.blogspot.com
http://lindabanche.blogspot.com
http://lynnreynolds.blogspot.com
http://marywritesromance.blogspot.com
http://melanieatkins.wordpress.com
http://missmaesite.blogspot.com
http://nicolemccaffrey.blogspot.com
http://plparker.blogspot.com
http://romanticcravings.blogspot.com
http://roniadams.blogspot.com
http://sherilewiswohl.wordpress.com
http://skypuringtonwrites.blogspot.com

Thank you all,

Linda

My First Royalty Check

I just received my first royalty check from The Wild Rose Press. Enough people bought my book, Lady of the Stars, to generate some royalties.

The amount isn't much. I had to earn $25 before they would write a check. So, I made $25, but not much more.

My husband asked if I was going to frame the check. I'm going to cash it, but I'll make a copy first, and save that.

I doubt I'll receive a check next quarter. Sales tend to spurt at the release, then tail off. The good news is at least a few people were willing to pay for my story. Maybe I have some kind of future as an author.

Now for the Shameless Promotion. Next Monday, June 22, is The Wild Rose Press's Stop and Smell the Roses Blog Bouquet. Twenty Wild Rose Press authors will post special blogs and offer prizes. Leave a comment on my blog then for a chance to win a PDF copy of Lady of the Stars. Event runs from when I post my blog next week (probably late Sunday night, June 21) until 9AM Eastern time Tuesday, June 23.

Thank you all,
Linda

P.S. The above image is not my check. That picture is the check the USA presented to Russia for the Alaska Purchase in 1864.

Gazebos: How to Find a Time Portal

Welcome to my entry in the Classic Romance Revival Blog Carnival. The theme is SETTINGS - SIMPLY SCENIC OR SPECIALLY SIGNIFICANT?

In Lady of the Stars, my Regency time travel, the very scenic setting is vital to the story. The heroine, Caroline, while staying at the resort Thornbell Manor in Cheshire, England, steps through the back door of a gazebo into the past.

I modeled both the gazebo and the resort on a real place, Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York. Mohonk resides in the Shawangunk Mountains in the Hudson River valley, north of New York City. In the picture, the Catskill Mountains of Rip Van Winkle fame rise to the west

behind the House.

Mohonk is a beautiful place, from the mountain lake that fronts the house, to wooded paths, extensive gardens, and Skytop, the tower on the summit of the ridge.

My husband comes from the area, and we were married in the rose garden. In this picture, which my husband took, the rose garden is in the foreground. And before you ask, no, Mohonk did not pay me for the plug.

Mohonk's symbol is a gazebo-like structure called a summerhouse. Dozens of these little open-air structures with wooden tiled roofs and one entry dot the extensive grounds. Nailed to the lintel on the inside of the door is a metal plate with the summerhouse's number. My husband and I made a game of finding all the summerhouses and recording their numbers.

The fictitious Thornbell Manor has dozens of gazebos on its grounds, with number plates on the door lintels, and Caroline plays a game of recording their numbers (sound familiar?) until she finds that one gazebo with the back door.

There fiction diverges from real life, for none of Mohonk's summerhouses has a back door, much less with a metal lintel plate bearing the number "1817", which is the year she is transported to. That special gazebo exists only in Lady of the Stars, for Caroline's back door is a time portal, which whisks our heroine to the past, and her destiny.

The CRR festival is giving away prizes. I've contributed a PDF copy of Lady of the Stars. Note, this is a Classic Romance Revival group event. You must comment on each and every blog, leaving your name and email address, in order to qualify for a prize. For more information, see the CRR blog.

Thank you all,

Linda