So I’m researching what kind of eggs my hero and heroine would eat for breakfast, and I came upon this:

He goes on to recommend not eating fruit at breakfast (you might feel “heavyish” all day!) and eggs–yuck! He doesn’t want to have pullet-sperm in his stomach all day!

But cold pig’s face? YUM!!! (He recommends eating it with French mustard and shallot vinegar.)

Okay, I’ve got to get back to my revisions. Just had to share. LOL.

(this is from “The Maxims of Sir Morgan O’Doherty, Bart.”, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 16, 1824)

So I’ve been mired in this deadline for a couple of months now, and parts of my life have been sacrificed for the sake of this book. Probably the worst of it is that I see my family so infrequently that I feel like we’re ships passing in the night. I haven’t visited with my girlfriends in ages, and I’m horribly behind in emails/correspondence with all my friends and family who don’t live close.

One thing I’m also missing out on is entertainment. My days are simple: Wake up, take kids to school, work all day, feed and cart kids to their various sports, then go back to work until my eyes are crossing, then go to bed. I’ve taken an hour off here and there to relax. I got a pedicure with my daughter last weekend, and I went to the movies last week. But I need *more*! I need to relax, and I need to start interacting with humanity again!

I’m turning in this book early next week, then I have to go out of town for the rest of the week, then I’m presenting a workshop to an RWA group next Sunday. But as of the 19th of October, I’m a free woman! I’m taking a week off just to have fun…I really, really am…

I blogged today over at Pop Culture Divas about my pop culture deprivation. Please come on by and say hi. I’m especially interested in fall television must-sees as I haven’t watched TV in ages and I don’t even know what’s on anymore!

Okay, I’m crawling back into the cave! See you tomorrow for the Fun Fridays results.

Congrats to Denise B., who won the Fun Fridays contest today (per random.org)!

Okay, since I’ve been deep in this dark, dank writer’s cave and I’m late on this today, I feel like making up for my lack of timeliness to y’all by doubling the winnings for next week. So for next week, I’m going to give four books–yes, four!–to the winner! They just need to be chosen from the remaining books listed over on the bonus features page.

Here is this week’s question: What are the titles of Jennifer’s 2nd and 3rd books? (Hint: Both are sequels to A HINT OF WICKED, and both will be released in 2010! And did you know the third book has a Christmas theme? I’m so excited! Bigger Hint: You can find the answers on the FAQ page!)

So head on over to my bonus features/contest page to enter to win four books–winner will be drawn on October 9!

Well, I’m drowning in this deadline, but I have a fun contest going on over at the Dawn Halliday site! Go check it out at www.dawnhalliday.com. You could win an advance copy of A HIGHLANDER CHRISTMAS, an anthology containing one of Dawn’s stories that will be released in November.

I’ve been doing a lot of research and learning a lot about the medicine of the time (remember, pus is a good thing! They wanted to see lots of nice, healthy pus! LOL!). Once I have a moment, I can’t wait to post some of the other wild and crazy stuff I’m reading on the blog!

Until then, wish me luck. Must…finish…book……….

Oh man, it’s been a crazy week. I finished A SEASON OF SEDUCTION only to realize almost instantly that a big chunk out of the middle of the book needs to be rewritten! So I’m scrambling to get this done before the October deadline. It hasn’t been pretty around here!

In any case, I took a short break today to look at all the contest entries, in which you all took the time to send me some fabulous historical romance titles. Many I’ve already read (and yes, I loved all the ones you mentioned–authors like Loretta Chase, Elizabeth Hoyt, Julie Garwood, Laura Kinsale, Judith McNaught, Sarah McCarty, Diana Gabaldon all of whom I’ve glommed in the past. ) and titles like Outlander, Gone With the Wind, and Wuthering Heights. Many of the above titles/authors were listed more than once!

Some additions to the list:

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley (I’m in the middle of this one right now! So good!)
Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas
Shana by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss (2 recommendations!)
A Rose at Midnight by Anne Stuart
Scandal by Carolyn Jewel.
Winter Garden by Adele Ashworth
Dreaming by Jill Barnett
Tender Is The Storm by Johanna Lindsey
A Kiss in the Dark by Kimberly Logan
Candle in the Window by Christina Dodd
The Heart’s Desire by Gayle Wilson
Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak (we have the movie and I love it, but I haven’t read the book!)
Rosamund by Bertrice Small
Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small
The China Bride by Mary Jo Putney
A Knight In Shining Armour by Jude Deveraux (2 recommendations!)
The Velvet Promise by Jude Deveraux
anything by Hannah Howell
Kresley Cole’s MacCarrick Brothers Series (I actually have the first one at the top of my TBR!)
After Innocence by Brenda Joyce
The Fulfillment by LaVyrle Spencer
Night Fire and Rebel Bride by Catherine Coulter
Persuasion by Jane Austen (also on my list–I have 2 more Austen books to read and this is one of them)
Stormfire by Christine Monson (I looked this one up…wow! I don’t have the fortitude to read it now, but maybe someday! LOL!)
Cambridge Fellows series by Charlie Cochran
Lady Jane’s Ribbons by Sandra Heath
The Merry Widow Trilogy by Candice Hern
Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCraig
Marry in Haste by Jane Aiken Hodge
The Wicked Ways of A True Hero by Barbara Metzger

Today’s winner, selected by random.org:

First Name: Bonnie

Last Name: F.

Email: bonnieferguson@r…

Congratulations, Bonnie! Please go to my contest page and select the two books you’d like. Then email me with your books and your snail mail address.

This week’s question is:
Name one of the authors Jennifer is currently reading and enjoying.
(Hint: check the the top ten lists at the bottom of the About Jennifer page.)

Please head on over to my contest page and enter! Have fun!

I’m researching the eating habits of the 1820′s. It’s easy to find massive amounts of information on breakfasts and social dinners, but lunch seems to be the ignored meal, and I think I’m figuring out why. It’s because lunch is for ladies! Its purpose is to provide a light meal. Heh…here’s a description of this “light” meal:

London persons breakfast at nine, ten, eleven, and even twelve o’clock and dine at eight or nine. Between these meals comes the luncheon composed generally of cold meats such as pates, fowls, pheasants, partridges, ham, beef, veal, brawn, and generally whatever is left fit to be introduced, part of which is to be placed on a side table. On the table is to be served a little hashed fowl and some mutton cutlets broiled plainly with mashed potatoes. The repast itself is insignificant…

Insignificant? LOL! I love it…

But, you see, real men don’t eat lunch! The true purpose of lunch is to give the ladies something to eat so that they’re not so hungry at dinner they make piggies of themselves:

[Luncheon] is only taken by certain young ladies who wish to preserve the elegance of their figures, the beauty of their complexions, and above all the becoming manners of good society which interdict as vulgar eating at table like gluttons. For unless frequent meals are taken too much must be eaten at once.

So there you go. Lunch was invented so ladies could pretend to eat like birds and hence carry forth the image of being elegant and beautiful (basically, so that nobody would see them truly eat with a healthy appetite…).

Sigh.

FROM: THE FRENCH COOK, A SYSTEM OF FASHIONABLE AND ECONOMICAL COOKERY ADAPTED TO THE USE OF ENGLISH FAMILIES By Louis Eustache Ude, 1829

As my hero prepares to undress my heroine in my current book (A SEASON OF SEDUCTION starring Lady Rebecca from A HINT OF WICKED!), I am researching stays (corsets) and how they were worn in the 1820′s, and I came upon a story of a mother who has three children, like I do.

Matilda is a fine woman of good breeding, great sense, and much religion. She has three daughters that are educated by herself. She will not trust them with any one else.

Gee, so far Matilda sounds like the kind of mom I am. So I read on:

Matilda never was meanly dressed in her life; and nothing pleases her in dress but that which is very rich and beautiful to the eye.

Okay, I’ll admit to being attracted to nice clothes. In fact, just today I bought my daughter a very cute outfit at Gap Kids…

I continue reading on:

She stints them in their meals and is very scrupulous of what they eat and drink and tells them how many fine shapes she has seen spoiled in her time for want of such care. If a pimple rises in their faces she is in a great fright and they themselves are as afraid to see her with it as if they had committed some great sin.

Oh dear! My kids aren’t at pimple age yet, but I sure hope if they ever get pimples, I’ll not blame *them* for it! Now I’m beginning to worry about this Matilda…

It goes on to say that if the girls begin to look flushed, she calls in a doctor to keep their complexion from becoming too “coarse and ruddy.”

Uh. Okay.

By this means they are poor, pale, sickly, infirm creatures vapoured through want of spirits, crying at the smallest accidents, swooning away at anything that frights them, and hardly able to bear the weight of their best clothes.

This is seriously beginning to depress me. And then I read this:

The eldest daughter lived as long as she could under this discipline and died in the twentieth year of her age. When her body was opened it appeared that her ribs had grown into her liver and that her other entrails were much hurt by being crushed together with her stays which her mother had ordered to be twitched so strait that it often brought tears into her eyes whilst the maid was dressing her.

Wow. Just wow.

From A serious call to a devout and holy life: adapted to the state and condition
by William Law – Religion – 1821 – 346 pages