Lisa Kleypas has created more than a few memorable heroes and heroines. Two of my favorites are Derek Craven from Dreaming of You and Hardy Cates from Blue Eyed Devil. Both of these are strong, self-made men who are made complete by their heroines.
Join me at Heroes & Heartbreakers to read more about these two extraordinary characters, living in two different centuries.
I’m a cat person. I’d be a dog person if I lived where it was practical to have dogs. But I’d still be a cat person as well. I currently live with three geriatric cats. Meet the family.
Ishmael
Ishmael will soon be 21 years old. I’ve had him since he was about two and he’s the nicest cat you’d ever want to meet and a complete slut. He figures that the reason humans were born with hands is to pet him. He’s doing remarkably well for an old guy and still enjoys life.
Russell
Russell is about ten, but I’ve only him for about a year. He’s albino and was born deaf. But his ears were also somehow damaged at some point in his past, so he sort of looks like Shrek. I got him to keep Ish company after Ish’s other cat-cohabitants died. He’s a sweetie and has no idea what a cat is supposed to sound like, so he alternates between baaaing like a sheep and sounding like there’s a small child being murdered in my basement. I’m still not used to it.
Beau
Beau is also ten and fairly new to the family. I have no explanation for his inclusion other than that I was with a friend who had gone to pick up a cat at the Massachusetts Society for The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter at Nevins Farm and there he was. He crawled up onto my shoulder and blew in my ear. I was a gonner and he found himself a home.
Three is enough. I used to think that two was enough, but I’m determined to keep it at three or under. The trick is going to be to stay away from the MSPCA. But this does not keep me from visiting cat sites on line. Here are a few from my daily rounds:
I usually start out Cute Overload, This is not strictly speaking a cat site, but it does have its share of them and I never said I didn’t like other cute animals. I do.
From there, I move on to another not-strictly-cat site, Zoo Borns. As you might suspect from the title, the site is dedicated to new born animals in zoos around the world. I’m particularly partial to the baby orangutans.
Then, the cats. The first two are sites maintained by lovely women who foster kittens for their local Humane Society. The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee is in the Seattle/Tacoma Washington area. All I can say is thank God it’s on the other side of the country from me or I would probably have stepped over that three-cat line. Laurie Cinotto, who maintains the blog, not only has some of the cutest kittens you’ve ever seen, she’s also a fabulous photographer. My other favorite foster mother is Robyn Anderson who fosters kittens for Challenger House in Alabama and blogs about her cats and her life and Love and Hisses. Robyn’s cats are adorable and interesting and Robyn makes me laugh. And I don’t suppose you can have a post about cats on the web without talking about Maru who may be the most famous cat on the web and is certainly the most interesting.
So, if you’re interested in animals, you might enjoy these. Someday I’ll tell you about my panda obsession.
My heroine is, at this moment, out for a drive with the hero in an open carriage. They have just passed the entrance to Hyde Park and, being new to London, she wonders where they’re going.
They’re headed for a picnic in Kensington Gardens. Kensington Gardens is west of and contiguous with Hyde Park. It was carved out of Hyde Park and made what it is today by Queen Caroline, wife of George II. Queen Caroline had The Long Water and The Serpentine (in Hyde Park) created from the Westbourne Stream and separated Kensington Gardens (which was a private park throughout most of the 18th century) from Hyde Park with a ha-ha.
Here is a plan of the gardens from 1754.
Plan of Kensington Gardens 1754
Once the hero and heroine arrive at the gardens, I intend for them to get out of the carriage and take a stroll – and who knows what else might happen?
Kensington Gardens 1798
I think that, were they to be transported to the present day (which they won’t), they might recognize a lot of the gardens in which they will soon be strolling.
Kensington Gardens
There are many things, however, that they would not recognize, including the Albert Memorial (Queen Victoria made several additions to the gardens) and the bronze statue of Peter Pan, now a destination for visitors to the park.
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
I had fun finding out what I could do in Kensington Gardens. I hope that Anne and Simon have fun while they’re there and that perhaps one day you can join them.
Prints are from The British Library Online Gallery
The National Trust restoring the Octagon Room at Attingham Park to its 1813 state. Painstaking and very interesting.
Header image for the Pride & Prejudice board - French fashion plate
No, that’s not the name of a new book (although it probably will be one day). This post is about one of my other jobs. As you may know, I am the site manager at The Republic of Pemberley and have been since its inception in 1997. The Republic of Pemberley is an interactive Jane Austen site, consisting of discussion boards for all the novels as well as lots of slightly off-topic discussion and quite a bit of collateral material on Jane Austen.
This year, we did a graphic redesign of the site. For those of you who are interested in previous graphic designs, The Republic of Pemberley has albums here and here. Our new design is based on fashion plates from Jane Austen’s era.
Header image for the Persuasion board - English fashion plate
It wasn’t possible to identify the exact year of many of the plates or even assure that they were all English. All I could do was make sure that they were from the correct era and that they expressed the character of the page on which they appeared. I had fun tracking down plates appropriate for each of our pages and thought you might like to see a couple here. If you’re interested in the the rest, Take a look at the site. You’ll find plenty.
I might as well admit, up front, that I love food (I know – who doesn’t?). My extreme love of dessert is thwarted by the fact that certain factors make it impossible for me to indulge on a regular basis. I manage this sorry state of affairs by indulging vicariously in food sites. One of my favorites is Great British Puddings. There are some great recipes although, if you’re in the US, you’ll have to do some conversions to get the ingredients right . Happily, the site includes a conversion table.
The picture I’ve included is, Sticky Toffee Pudding, one of my favorites which, I believe, is considered a rather low-class choice in England. But, who cares? It’s yummy. So, whether you want to bake or, like me, indulge vicariously, this might be right up your alley.
I thought it might be fun to suggest some books and web sites that I find particularly interesting and useful. I’m going to start this off with The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses. This Database, developed and maintained by Curt DiCamillo, began as a personal project and has evolved into a fabulous reference tool including over 7,000 houses. Curt is an architectural historian and is currently Executive Director of The National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA. This database is obviously a labor of love.
I encourage you to visit the database and poke around, or use it as a first stop when you’re looking for information about a British or Irish country house. It’s a great resource.
I don’t usually read Romance set in China, nor do I read Historical Romance set in the Tang Dynasty. That is, until I read Jeannie Lin’s The Dragon and the Pearl. Now, all that might change. She’s a gifted writer and I was caught up by her evocative story-telling. Read my response to this book at Heroes & Heartbreakers and then go out and read the book.
The Mysterious Closet: A Tale by Myretta Robens in Jane Austen Made Me Do It, an anthology of Jane Austen-inspired stories coming in October 2011
