The Official Essex Sisters Companion Guide Read Online Free PDF

*grin*
    That little conversation (and Imogen’s thought process) changed the whole complexion of her participation in the evening . . . and made it quite delicious in my point of view!
    In the blog above, I’m talking about how to turn a sex scene into more than Tab A and Slot B by having the character actually talk about gender roles. Rafe and Imogen carve a space within the norms of sexual behavior that allows their lovemaking scenes to reflect the two of them.
    One of the most popular scenes in the entire series is the chapter in Pleasure for Pleasure in which the Earl of Mayne rips open his future wife’s pink, sparkling dress and cross-dresses in order to show her how to attract men. Though it’s fairly common for Regency heroines to dress in breeches, Georgette Heyer established the reverse in The Masqueraders, when a Jacobite sympathizer avoids capture due to his command of female dress. As a professor—moreover, one who has published work addressing issues of sexuality and gender—I was fascinated to discover that the scene has attracted academic attention.
    Jody and I decided to include this thoughtful, well-written article by Anne Bornschein titled “When the Hero Puts on a Dress,” which analyzes the fan-favorite scene from Pleasure for Pleasure . Romance writers think about “gender performativity”—i.e., how a person signals gender to society—all the time, though we may not put it into those words. Our Regency heroines have to act like “ladies,” in the simplest example. In contrast, Mayne’s excursion into a drag teaches my Regencyheroine how to act not like a lady, but like a woman. He teaches her to perform “desirable woman”—because his kiss makes her understand that she is a desirable woman.

The Place of Research in Writing Historical Romances
    It takes me around eight months or so to actually write a book. I work out the emotional dramas myself, but when it comes to historical detail, I get tremendous help from my research assistant, Franzeca Drouin. I managed to find some old e-mails that we exchanged while I was writing the series; they give a peek into the interaction between an author and her researcher. I talked in the section above about my characters needing to “perform” the part of a lady; one of the crucial aspects of polite society was an excellent command of etiquette. I can handle table manners, but I need Franzeca when it comes to aristocratic titles.

    Franzeca
    We had a fairly lengthy exchange about the use of titles in the books, which I thought you might enjoy. You can see my responses following Franzeca’s commentary. And notice the book title that she refers to— Something Wanton ? At some point, that title was nixed and replaced with Much Ado About You . Another interesting point is that Rafe started out “middle-aged” before I changed my mind and turned him into a possible husband for one of the sisters. On one level, this should be a simple discussion, but it isn’t. In Regency England, one’s title and rank determined the course of one’s life, and I can spend hours and hours figuring out precisely which title to give a character.
    Franzeca: Okay. Here’s what’s shaking on the titles used in Something Wanton [ Much Ado about You ].
    If the sisters’ father was an earl, then they would all be Lady Tess, Lady Annabel, etc. They would not be Miss Essex, or the Misses Essex. If, however, their father was a Viscount, then they would be officially as the Honourable Teresa Essex, but could be addressed informally as Miss Essex. Would it be worth making that change, as we have more information, and perhaps a surfeit of, Earls coming up?
    Eloisa: I think the easiest thing would be to turn Tess’s father into a viscount then, because that way we don’t have to catch 6 trillion Miss Essexes and Miss Annabels. SO: if we change Tess’s father to Viscount Essex, then they stay Miss Essex (Tess), Miss Annabel, Miss Josephine and Miss Imogen,