Regency romp: Getting the fun started

"To watch a period romance or pick up a novel is to lose oneself in a world of silk ball gowns and walled gardens."

-- AJ Willingham, CNN, "Why Regency romance still reigns 200 years after Jane Austen

Simple, but true. Regency romance introduces readers to a world of escape. But why Regency -- when rules hardly gave women control over their own lives and romance needed a playbook?

Because half the fun is in breaking the rules.

I fell in love with all things Regency the first time I read Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." This classic love story is hard to beat (and Mr. Darcy is oh-so-swoon-worthy), but the epic scene for me comes when Lady Catherine visits Elizabeth. Their dialogue still ranks as my favorite quarrel of all-time.

(Spoiler alert -- and really, if you haven't already read "Pride and Prejudice, you really should!)

When Lady Catherine demands Elizabeth promise never to enter into an agreement with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth declares that she is determined "to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me." This became the standard by which all Regency rule breakers would henceforth aspire.

My love affair with Regency was born. And I've read them all (sometimes twice), from Georgette Heyer and Mary Balogh to Lisa Kleypas, Sarah MacLean, Lorraine Heath, Tessa Dare... We could be here all day if I tried to list them all.

Along the way, I would dream up an idea for the lords and ladies of the ton and start hunting bookstores (and later Amazon) for just such a story. What I never seriously considered was making one of those ideas a story of my own. I had a steady job as a newspaper journalist and a family to occupy the rest of my time.

The impetus for putting story to paper (or in this case, story to screen) was a fortune cookie.

Seriously!

In 2022, the family and I went out for Chinese food, and I cracked open my fortune cookie. The tiny slip of paper inside read: "You’re never too old to tell a good story." I started my first novel that night -- just to see if I could do it, and to escape into a world that was not everyday life.

That book, "Impropriety," won me my first award. I ended up rewriting major portions of it three more times. Since then, I've written all three books in my standalone trilogy and picked up two more awards for the third book, "Audacity," along with manuscript requests from the two judges.

What started as fun may one day become more, but at its heart, no matter where the journey leads, reading and writing Regency remains about losing myself in another time and place.

~ Ann Peterson (March 12, 2024)