What does the Regency period in English history have in
common with the English medieval period? Absolutely nothing. Except that I
write in both genres, and I love them both. In the Regency period, manners make
the man and the woman, and in my Regency fiction, I love seeing how far my
characters can push against the edges of those rules without making them give.
Catherine
Middlebrook in HOW TO SEDUCE A SCOT wears bonnets and gloves, and
keeps her pretty curls tucked neatly away. She speaks modestly and maintains
her decorum until she meets the Waters family, and learns the meaning of
passion from the handsome Alexander, and the joy of throwing knives from his
sister, Mary Elizabeth.
Now, in the
medieval period, manners were not considered particularly important. In the
lives of kings and queens, politics ruled every waking moment. The personal
really was political, when people like Eleanor of Aquitaine spent their lives
manipulating their family members to gain political power, as in my novel THE
QUEEN'S PAWN. In the medieval period, no one cared which fork you used, because
everybody ate with dinner daggers.
In my latest
medieval fantasy, DRAGON FIRE, people eat with dinner daggers and spend time in
the forest, hunting deer for the table. In the early 1100's, the Norman French
had southern England in a stranglehold and looked at Wales and Scotland as
their next conquests. In DRAGON FIRE, my Welsh protagonist Mati finds herself
torn between the English boy she was raised with and the Welsh lord who is her
betrothed husband. She loves them both, and against the back drop of political
tension between the Princes of Powys and the Norman overlords of
England, Mati fights her own heart in the effort to chose between them.
DRAGON FIRE is
part of the larger world of Kathryn Le Veque's wildly popular De Wolfe series.The De Wolfe Kindle World is launching on October 29th, and I
am thrilled to be a part of it.
Whether they
live in 1105 or 1820, the strong women of my novels almost always
carry a blade. Strong women kicking #*% and taking names for over 800 years.
I love both of those time periods too!
ReplyDeleteI love the contrast Shana! The behaviors are so different, but people are still people and fall in love the same way. At least in my books:)
DeleteI love almost all historical romance but regency and medieval are my favorite! I think what I find familiar is that the heroes are protective :)
ReplyDeleteCrystal, that is very true. Alexander in Seduce a Scot is VERY protective, and so is Roland in Dragon Fire...I like that aspect of the "alpha" male :)
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