Regency Clothing and the Trials and Tribulations Thereof...

Now I have read many, many Regencies and historical novels in my time, and one of the subjects I have always found fascinating were the descriptions of the clothing characters are wearing. There are many errors made when it comes to this subject, but I think that my reading history has given me quite a lot of basic knowledge to work with.
By the same token, however, I really would like to stick to historical accuracy as much as possible, so I have been trolling the internet for days (since I started this project, really) for ideas, images, and descriptions of what people during this period wore. Thank heavens the world is infatuated with Jane Austen and the Regency in general, as there is a plethora of material out there.
I even started up a Pinterest account to keep a record of inspirational images. Follow me there by using the link button over on your right, by the way.
There's one subject in particular I am working on at the moment that I would like to touch on, and that is the matter of debutantes being Presented at Court. There were all kinds of rules for dress, conduct, and the expected ceremony of the presentation itself, and I am quite mired in the details at the moment, since Salome is about to be presented to the Prince Regent. I am fudging the history here a bit, and will likely be called out on it by someone, but oh well, she needs to be Presented, and it's going to happen in 1811, whether there were Drawing Rooms or not.
There were no Presentations from the time of the King's birthday in 1810 until April of 1812, because the King was quite mad, literally nuts, and the Regent had enough stuff to deal with than watching a bunch of women come and bow before him. The Queen couldn't be bothered either, but that is neither here nor there. If anyone would like to question me on the subject, I'll tell them that yes, I do have my facts straight, I am just choosing to ignore them, so HA! K, nuff ranting.
So, contrary to fashion at the time, Court Dress still required hoops under skirts, a towering headdress of feathers, probably pearls, although there was concession in what colors debutantes could wear. Most chose light, pastel colors, brighter colors being reserved for older, married ladies. Salome will be wearing white, the traditional color you would expect from a debutante.

Contrary to her fellow maidens however, Salome has a loathing for all things super frilly, so there will be no giant flounces of ruffles and lace, she's keeping it simple with a silk and sheer cotton (ecru) confection embroidered and dotted with tiny pearls. Her hair is upswept, of course, with pearls entwined all throughout, and her feathers are ostrich (the usual), and she's breaking out of the box here, but she's going with albino peacock feathers just to be obtuse and different. I am imagining a quite elegant figure here. Something like what you see to the left. That lovely lady is Alexandra Feodorovna, otherwise known as the last Tsarina of Russia. Her gown is more Victorian in design, but I think you get the feel for what I am describing when it comes to Salome's dress. Below is another example of what appropriate Court Dress was like for the time.

As far as her hair, I am picturing something like this, only with entwined pearls, and let's not forget the feathers! Something like this one, only way bigger and over the top!

Let's not forget our hero, now, he has to have special clothes to come calling on royalty of course, so here's a little something Donovan would find himself trussed up in, only I picture him wearing black not red, everything else is pretty spot on:

So that pretty much sums up where I'm at for the moment, hope you've enjoyed the imagery!

What Did You Learn Today?

My brain is filled to overflowing with more undoubtedly useless trivia, except perhaps as it pertains to my current novel. I have been steadily researching to add more accurate detail to my story, and as I continue, I will post about the random things I learn and include in my story. Today, however, I would like to focus on a topic I have always taken an interest in, though never had the means to pursue fully.
I have always loved horses, and what girl doesn't, really? When I was very young, we had a few horses, I couldn't tell you without asking my mother for specific details what breeds they were, but at a very young age, I learned to ride Western. I was astride a horse at the age of two, with my mom's assistance, but could ride by myself before I even started school. I was riding horses before I could ride a bike, and when I learned that, I liked to pretend my bicycle was a racehorse.
All of the women in my family are decidedly short-statured, and it stood to reason that I would be as well. I grew up reading books like Black Beauty, books by Marguerite Henry, and my absolute favorite was Walter Farley, who wrote The Black Stallion series. (Although I always preferred Flame, the Island Stallion, over the Black.) I dreamed of becoming a jockey and riding in the Kentucky Derby.
Alas, by the time I was twelve years old, I was already too tall and too heavy (not fat, just, well, have you SEEN some of those jockeys?). So I decided I would become an equine veterinarian, instead. By this time, my parents had divorced, and we no longer actually owned horses ourselves, but my step-sister showed Arabians all the time, and I thought she was just sooooo cool because she got to ride in such pretty costumes, on such pretty horses, and she even met Patrick Swayze once! Hey, it was the 80's, that was a really big deal.
Then I discovered the length of time it would take to obtain my specialized degree in equine medicine - 8 years. That seemed like a millennia to a pre-teen. Not only that, but did you know that there are only 28 vet schools in the entire US, so the competition is fierce! So that really put a damper on things. I was a smart kid, granted, but I wasn't sure I had that kind of dedication. It was around that same time that I discovered romance novels, and the idea of becoming a writer was born.
Well, needless to say, here I am years later, and nary a degree in vet medicine, nursing, or even assistant do I have. But I still have that love of horses...
Sorry, I know I am getting long winded here, so let me hurry up and get to my rambling point. My heroine has a dream, too. She wants to turn her plantation home in Charlottesville, Virginia into a stud farm and breed champion racehorses. Well, for starters, she's in the right place. Secretariat was from near there, and Virginia is noted for its many, many horse farms. Luckily, my hero also shares the heroine's (and mine) passion for horses.
Which brings me to my research today. One simply cannot broach the subject of racehorses without a look into the pedigree lines that developed today's modern Thoroughbred. Nearly all Thoroughbreds can trace their lineage back to three primary Arabian studs, the Darley, the Byerley, and the Gandolphin. These were horses brought from Turkey and Arabia to England and bred with other horses to develop a fast racer. So of course, this is what I had to look up. I chose to give my heroine a Stallion with Byerley Turk lineage, and added a Mare to her stables of Gandolphin heritage to give her the best fighting chance for developing a prime racing breed. (Note the Gandolphin was the featured star of the Marguerite Henry book, 'King of the Wind'.)
Horse racing was a huge pastime of the Regency Era, which brought together all types of people, especially the ton. One of the biggest events of the Season was the Epsom Derby, which took place in early May or June. The winner of the Derby in 1811 was a fantastic horse by the name of Phantom, who won by a head at the last moment at 5/1 odds. Naturally, my hero and heroine will be attending this particular race, and my plucky lady will have placed bets on the winner. Great excitement and bonding moment between the pair, don't you think?

What's In a Name?

I have probably posted on this subject before, but it bears repeating! Deciding on names for characters is blasted hard. I am the proud owner of quite a few baby name books, which came in handy for deciding on names for my actual children, but the children of my novels require even more effort. Why is it so hard?
Well, for one, you want the name you pick for your main characters to have some kind of deeper meaning, to stand out from the crowd, and in the case of historicals, you don't want to veer so far from the name trends of the time that you alienate yourself. I don't have too many issues with main characters, they seem to come to me with a little name tag on their chest that reads: Hello, my name is:
The real difficulty for me comes in with secondary characters. You can't have a whole story filled up with only your main characters, that would be rather boring, don't you agree? They are bound to come into contact with other people in the course of their adventures. In the case of my latest project, I have to fill up plenty of ballrooms and such with Regency appropriate names, and heaven's mercy, titles. So how delighted am I that I just found this website: Regency Name Generator
Fantastic! Now every time I want to make a random character, voila! I have a name to fit. Hope this resource helps others with my dilemma, you're welcome.

What's for Dinner?

Ok, I really think maybe I haven't been eating enough lately. Why, you ask? Well, because I was just noting that just about every single chapter I have written so far has mentioned food of some kind. Haven't noticed that yet? Well, you probably will.

Now I love food, but I have an even more practical notion about why I have made mention of this so often (which I hope will become less as I go on), and this is simply because I don't think enough attention is paid to normal, everyday activities like eating, bathing, and relieving oneself in the course of natural bodily functions in books. I mean, these are things that everyone has to do... so why don't the characters in books do them? Or are the authors just leaving all that interesting stuff out.

For instance, in Syndra's case, she has never had to experience catching, preparing, cooking, etc. her own food. It's always been done for her. She's never had to think about bathing, someone has always come and done it for her. She's never... well, you get the point. She has had a very sheltered life.

Malik, on the other hand, has had extensive practice in living off the land and procuring his own nourishment, and thusly, will usually be doing these tasks. However, keen mind that Syndra has, she wants to know how to do everything, why things are this way, why you do things that way. Really kind of annoying, but she's a smart gal so she catches on quickly and doesn't have to have things explained to her twice.

Now I am going to go back and do a brief re-write, because I read something somewhere recently about how there's never a comment about hairy legs in romance novels. Um, yeah, historical romances especially... like they were shaving their legs back then. So I am going to address this point in my book. Syndra gets waxed, oh yes, indeedy! Ouch, that's a lot of skin that's being subjected to that, but hey, she's used to it. What she won't be used to is wandering around the countryside with all these prickly hairs popping out all over the place. So, it won't be dwelt on, but it will be mentioned, which I hope some readers might find endearing. Makes it all seem more real, yeah?

Ok, ok, back to food. What kinds of foods will they eat in Lunatia? Well, in the palace, you will obviously find lots of rich, succulent foods. Lots of spices, that sort of thing. I am envisioning curries, stews, whole roasted animals, that sort of thing. If you've been reading along, Chapter 5 coming soon has some interesting stuff involving food.... hmmm... But on the road, food is much simpler, they'll be catching fish, harvesting berries and other fruits, greens, catching rabbits, hey, maybe Malik will shoot a deer... Prolly not, awful lot of meat for two people... Maybe when they get some company.

Bread is like my favorite comfort food of all time, and I am seeing lots of fried bread (see: cornbread), flat bread (ie: pita, tortillas), that kind of thing. Best examples of what kind of foods you might eat in Lunatia? Take a trip to an Indian or Moroccan restaurant, and that's what you'll likely find in the palace, on a more subdued scale in the country.

All this being said, I am going to find a recipe for you, so let's have:

Lunatian Chicken (aka Chicken Jalfrezi, courtesy : www.indian-food-recipe.com

Chicken breasts - 1/2 kg
Oil - 1/2 cup
Onion (Piyaz) - 2 no's chopped
Ginger (Adrak) - 1 inch striped
Soya sauce - 1 tablespoon
Vinegar (Sirka) - 2 tablespoon
Ketchup (Sauce) - 1 teaspoon
Tomatoes (Tamatar)- 2 no's diced
Green chilies (Hari mirch) - 2 no's
Red chili powder (Lal mirch) - 1/2 teaspoon
Pepper powder (Kali mirch) - 2 tablespoon
Mono sodium Glutamate - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Wash, clean the chicken thoroughly and cut chicken into long thin strips.
Heat oil in a pan and add onions and fry until transparent, then add ginger, chicken and
soy sauce and fry for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, green chilies, chili powder and salt and cook on medium heat, stirring
occasionally for 5-6 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low, add vinegar, black pepper, mono sodium glutamate and ketchup, cover and cook for another 10 minutes.

Now, I would imagine it would be ok to leave out the MSG, but you would want to serve this with some kind of bread, I like Parantha (you can find a recipe above), but for a cheap substitute, find some really soft pita and you'd be ok. Enjoy!

A Note about Wikipedia...

The Wikipedia is a wonderful Internet resource. But if you are researching on the Internet, it is important to realize that the Wikipedia is a communal tool. It strives for accuracy and reliability, as well as including references, just as any good research tool would. However, because the Wiki consists of data that is compiled and added to by users, it may not be 100% accurate all the time. Anyone can submit to the Wiki, and even though there are people who go back through each submission and check for accuracy and such... Well, I will just leave it to you to imagine how many people are online and capable of typing anything they wanna type, whether its real or not.

I love the Wikipedia as a starting point and as a general reference tool, same as you would use any reference tool. If you want a quick definition or full description about something, it's sufficient. If you need more indepth or specific information, you can get good resources from there as well, but you need to dig further than the Wiki will give you. Plus, the Wiki will warn you if an article needs to be checked for errors or needs references. Pay attention to these.

If you've never come across the Wikipedia before, check it out, because it is awesome!

Research

*Just a warning to everyone* Some of what I may be discussing or forwarding you to might be somewhat disturbing. My general thirst for knowledge means that I feel I must research every detail that might be applicable to my story, even if it is somewhat gory. Now that I've warned you, go ahead and read on.

Whoa, why the big brouhaha? Well, today I am going to talk about what it means to be a eunuch. See, Malik-Tor (new change to his name), is facing the prospect of becoming one of this club, and he's not too excited about it. Find a definition of what a eunuch is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eunuch (one day I will figure out how to make a hotlink...)

Anywho, it's one thing to say he's facing losing his manhood, and one to wonder exactly what that might entail. So I was curious and went web-browsing. I won't list all my links here because I was at it for quite awhile.

Castration was pretty popular in a number of cultures, especially in China, India, and even amongst the Early European Church. (See Castrati in Wikipedia) Eunuchs were often quite revered or placed in positions where it was an absolute must to have someone trustworthy. Government positions, harems, that sort of thing. Anywhere the possibility of someone seeking more power and passing it on to their offspring was likely. Political overthrows were entirely possible in many places, and being a eunuch meant you couldn't have children yourself, therefore less likely to have personal aims to strive for.

There are a number of methods one might choose to castrate a human, and I was thinking... Just what would the people of Lunatia think was appropriate? Castration generally falls into two categories: medical and chemical. I won't discuss chemical because its a more recent development, and when I think of Lunatia, they are somewhere pre-Industrial Revolution, and they've been doing this for centuries, so chemical is not likely where they would have gone with this.

Medical castration as well comes in different forms as well, but let's discuss the two main ones, surgical and burdizzo.

Surgical castration means exactly that; you can cut off everything completely, you can completely remove the testicles, or you can just cut the vas deferens, which is what happens during a vasectomy. (However, after a vasectomy, because the testicles are intact, sex drive is unimpaired. For Lunatians' purpose, we want to get rid of this as well, so vasectomy is not the way to go here.) The primary method chosen by ancient cultures seems to be complete removal, and yes I do mean complete, the WHOLE package is gone. Surgery can be quite risky, what with all the blood vessels involved, plus the chance of infection. Plus, the mental pictures here are quite gory, and I don't think it lends itself to a good chance at explaining delicately.

Burdizzo castration is similar to the methods chosen when castrating animals, which is done ALL the time, for any number of reasons. Basically, there is a giant clamp (called a burdizzo) applied to the testicles (everything else is left intact), which cuts off the supply of blood to those organs. This kills the organs, they shrivel up and are re-absorbed by the body. There is a chance this method might fail; perhaps the clamp is placed incorrectly, or the body might recover. However, if you were going to be "nice" about it, this is probably the best method.

I read testimonials online from men who desired castration, for whatever reason, including horror stories about people who chose to do it to themselves. It seems to me that they agree that the burdizzo method is the most "gentle". I don't care what anyone says.... OUCH and OMG are what comes to mind. But I have to with where the story takes me....

Ok, so there's the gory details. I chose burdizzo, simply because it seems the method most likely to have been chosen by my people. If you equate it to castrating animals, its also the easiest, most efficient, and least likely to kill somebody in the process, which they would want to avoid at all costs as well.

My dilemma now is how much of this information do I include in my story. I've read lots of romance novels where the author does everything possible to disguise the facts of life with fancy prose or pretty imagery, but I don't want to have to decipher what an author means, I want them to give it to me straight, and doesn't sacrifice my tender sensibilities. I will admit, even I have been shocked by some of what I've read when an author has obliged, so I want to be somewhat delicate or too many people will just stop reading right then and there. It also makes it harder to fit into a genre and get published. After all, the idea is to keep people reading, buy your stories, and make money. Publishers can't do this if you are making people sick to their stomachs.

What I am thinking of doing is making my characters have a discussion about these details, get it out there to let people know exactly why Malik-Tor is in such a panic... I mean, wouldn't you be????? Keep it short, simple, and to the point, and then not dwell on it. This suits Syndra-Kai's personality quite well, she's like me in that way, don't beat around the bush, just tell me how it is already. Being a Princess, this is not likely how she would be treated, but she is tutored by her mother's Companion, Xan-Rul, who has undergone this procedure, and he won't lie to her.

So there you have it. Do you think it wise to include a discussion like this into the story? I think it's important to give a sense of urgency early on that this is really not a good situation Malik-Tor finds himself in, and he will do anything, agree to anything, to get out of it. Syndra-Kai has literally got him "by the balls". OMG, bad pun, but I'm sorry, THAT is funny...