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

Too Much Blogging?

In my October 12, 2008 post, I talked about Loretta Chase's departure from the Word Wenches blog.

Ms. Chase, popular author of Your Scandalous Ways, left because she needed more time for writing.

Two weeks ago, Edith Layton said she was leaving the Word Wenches blog. Just this past week, Susan Holloway Scott/Miranda Jarrett, also announced her departure from Word Wenches. And, on March 17, Cara King of Risky Regencies announced she was leaving her blog.

All three ladies left these very popular blogs for the same reason Loretta Chase did--blogging took up too much of their writing time. Do I detect a trend? Will authors now leave their blogs because blogging takes up too much time?

These ladies are all established authors, so a little less blogging probably won't hurt their sales. Yet, even I, newbie that I am, feel the drain blogging takes. I've been skimping on this blog because I've been blogging at Romantic Synonymous and Happily Ever After. Blog posts take time and energy I could spend on writing something new.

Six months have passed since I wrote that blog about Loretta Chase. I know more now that I did then. I've already decided I won't do any more guest blogs, except for very special reasons. I have one more, on May 13 at Allie Boniface's blog, that I scheduled last November. Then I concentrate on my new story and see how well everything works out.

Thank you all,
Linda