What's So Interesting About the Regency Era?

I couldn't say, definitively, but I adore it.

I wish I could remember what my very first 'Regency' was. One day I had no idea they even existed, and the next I was devouring them at a rate of knots and could. not. get. enough. The range of authors contributing to the genre was vast and their talents, formidable.

After having published three contemporary novels, with one still in the can, as it were, I didn't feel the same buzz when considering my next project. Then I got the idea to mash up Regency with Shapeshifters (a story for another time) and that's all she wrote.

That same range of authors have an immense presence on the internet and due to their efforts and generosity via blogs, I found everything I needed to know about perfume, underwear, meals, and George, the Prince Regent, who figures largely in The Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series. Also: websites out of Britain = amaaaazing. Maps of the era are easily consulted, as are playbills from 1817, along with floor plans for stately homes and that perennial favorite, La Belle Assemblée.

“I found everything I needed to know about perfume, underwear, meals and George, the Prince Regent.”

There was so much to learn, and I learned so much. Researching was sometimes annoying; as an example, I once spent the guts of an hour figuring out distances from London to Surrey and from Surrey to Kent, for a grand total of two lines of dialogue. The good news: I felt justified in taking the rest of the day off.

The time period has proven robust when it comes to holding its own in the mashup and may explain what I like about it: manners were all-important, society had the power to make or break a young lady, and shopping was a major social undertaking. Contrasting that with the rawness of Shifter life and the desire on the part of my verispellis to walk the fine line of integration in the beau monde and retain the power and grace of their essential selves, their animal selves... ooh. Fun!

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A Wolf in Duke's Clothing, the first instalment in The Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series is published by Sourcebooks and available for pre-order now!