(when you let it pass you by and you go oops)
Writing historical romance is fun, and by fun I mean: am I being anachronistic in making Valentine’s Day into A Thing in the Regency Era? Especially when I’ve decided that 14th February would be a great day for my FMC to celebrate her birthday?
Cue furious search-engining to discover that the convention of celebrating the day through the exchange of romantic sentiments on card stock predates even my early 19th century characters.
The earliest known Valentine is credited to Charles, Duke of Orleans, but this in incorrect, which is very disappointing to me for obvious reasons.
The poem sent to his duchess (who is likely Bonne D’Armagnac, his second out of three) is in fact a more general commentary on the medieval practice of holding a Valentine lottery, in which:
…everyone was assigned a partner, generally not their husband or wife, who was supposed to be their ‘Valentine’ for the year. This was a rather artificial enactment of the concept of courtly love, in which knights were supposed to devote themselves to the service of a married lady. In the poem, Charles excuses himself from the custom, apologetically telling his allotted Valentine that he’s too old and tired.
The above is from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts Blog, which I cannot recommend more highly.
Being a historical romance writer also gives one the chance to come face-to-face with the arrogance of contemporaneity – we’re not the ones who’ve ever had an idea about something!
Anyway, all this to say!
In other news, I am undertaking to independently publish – as in either self- or assisted-publishing – my next trilogy of Regency era shapeshifter romances, The Shifters of Lowell Hall.
Those who have been waiting for Jemima and Matthias’ story will find it in Running from the Wolf, in which you will also meet Matthias’ twin Nathaniel and his vera amoris, or fated mate.
I am not forgetting about fans of O’Mara: I won’t spoil A Duke at the Door but the sudden appearance on the scene of a certain horse Shifter was, of course, meant to be.
Follow me on my socials (click on the icons below) for updates and for a sneak pic at the lil series trailer I’ll drop closer to the time!
See here for The Shapeshifters of the Beau Monde series
Susanna Allen | Writer 
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