Remember When . . . You Had to Rediscover an Old Love?

So I found myself rather unexpectedly working on a Regency-era romance this week. It’s fun, and interesting. I’ve always loved regencies, and in college I read so many novels written at the time and in the time that it was pretty natural to come up with an idea for a story set there of my own. But . . . well, then I left it hanging and pursued other eras, other books.

With the resurgence of popularity of regencies, though, I’ve broken this novel back out–and, as usual, realized my research from back-in-the-day was awful. I’d started the revision process a few months ago and even written out a solid outline for the story, but still. There were some details missing. For instance, my hero still lived in ###. Ever been there? Yeah, me neither, LOL. So Roseanna had to go on a virtual tour of England and figure out where it would best be set.

I decided on a little town called Bishop’s Waltham outside Winchester, in Hampshire. My hubby got a kick out of this, because a nearby county to us here is Hampshire, WV . . . which is rather near Winchester, VA . . . and there’s a school in Cumberland only a few letters off from Bishop’s Waltham. His reaction: “Do we live in Little England or something?” LOL.

Anyway, doing this research has proven to me yet again how much I love this stuff. The research itself, the places I learn about, the whole culture of 200 years ago. It’s so awesome. I learned that Bishop’s Waltham was a parole town during the Napoleonic Wars, for instance, where French officers were held as prisoners of war. I learned that there are sand boils in the moor for my heroine to got lost in (he he he). And that what is hailed as King Arthur’s Round Table is on display at the Great Hall in Winchester. All sorts of cool things for my characters to experience!

Happy sigh. I love my job. =)