Having sent Scandal Wears Satin (2nd Dressmakers book) into production shortly before Christmas, and having spent a few days finding and gathering what remains of my brain, I'm happy to present the most recently arrived foreign editions.
Last Night's Scandal-Italian edition
The Lion's Daughter-French edition
Sarah Wendell of
has written another funny, smart, insightful book about romance,
Everything I Know about Love, I Learned from Romance Novels
.
Some time ago, as she was working on the book, she asked me for my thoughts on romance novels. I answered, at length...at
great
length, unsparing, as always, in my exploitation of the English language's massive vocabulary. I assumed she'd somehow scrape a useful word or two from the flood of prose.
Well, no. Sarah gave me a whole chapter, titled, "Loretta Chase Pretty Much Knows Everything." This is kind of funny: When I tell family members the same exact thing, they just laugh. Sometimes they make rude noises.
Here at her Smart Bitch Sarah page
, you can learn more about the book and, since she's making a number of appearances, you may discover an opportunity to hear her fight the good fight for romance in person.
Loretta reports:
Since these two dresses came in black & white, I thought it was a good opportunity for my readers to get out their paintboxes, crayons, or colored pencils. The color prints for October 1808 can be seen at
.
~~~
No. 3.—A Ball Dress.
A petticoat of fine clear white muslin, figured or plain. A peasant's jacket of white satin, with short full sleeve, in the Spanish form. The jacket and sleeves trimmed with silver beading, or cord. A Persian cap of Brussels’ lace, with a bunch of autumnal flowers in front. A composition brooch, representing the flower called
the pheasant’s eye
. Necklace and earrings of blossom coloured patent pearl. Gloves and shoes of pale blossom-colored kid.
No. 4.—Out-Door, or Carriage Costume
A round robe of white, or pale morone muslin over white cambric; made with long sleeves, and a high collar, edged with lace or beading, confined down the front with a row of small buttons in mother-of-pearl, and fastened round the waist with a correspondent cord and tassel pending from the right side. A Spanish mantle, and hat of morone sarsnet, shot with white (or what is commonly called a silver morone), the mantle edged, and the hat ornamented with white cord, or cut velvet. A full frill of reverse plaiting round the throat, confined towards the left shoulder with a suitable cord and tassel. Gloves of pale York-tan, and slippers of tan-coloured kid
.
—
La Belle assemblée, Volume 5, 1808
.
