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A School for Unusual Girls ebook is now on sale for $2.99

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The ebook edition of Kathleen Baldwin’s opens in a new windowA School for Unusual Girls is on sale for only $2.99!*

About A School for Unusual GirlsIt’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don’t fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies-plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible-until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads-or their hearts….

Buy School for Unusual Girls here:

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This sale ends April 28th.

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Visit Tor/Forge Books at ALA!

AC16-General opens in a new windowThe American Library Association’s 2016 Annual Conference is in Orlando this week! Tor/Forge Books will be there. Come say hello at Booth #2114, or at one of these events:

Saturday, June 25

  • 9:30 – 10:15 AM opens in a new windowBook Buzz Theater: The Future According to Harlequin TEEN, Tor Teen, and Starscape
    We’re pleased to present a selection of must-shelve upcoming fiction from Harlequin TEEN, Tor Teen, and Starscape. Join us as Tor’s Ali Fisher and Harlequin TEEN’s Siena Koncsol discuss some of our excellent forthcoming titles, as well as highlights from the current season. Galleys, posters, and other giveaways are available in booth #1402 and #2114.
    Location: Orange County Convention Center, Exhibit Hall – Book Buzz Theater
  • 1:00 – 2:30 PM opens in a new windowTor/LITA Author Panel: Science Fiction/Fantasy and Information Technology: Where We Are and Where We Could Have Been
    Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature have a unique ability to speculate about things that have never been, but can also be predictive about things that never were. Through the lens provided by alternate history/counterfactual literature one can look at how the world might have changed if different technologies had been pursued. For examples what if instead of developing microprocessors computing depended on vacuum tubes or something fantastic like the harmonies in the resonance of crystals? Join LITA, the Imagineering Interest Group, and a panel of distinguished Science Fiction and Fantasy writers as they discuss what the craft can tell us about not only who we are today, but who, given a small set of differences, we could have been. Featuring authors Charlie Jane Anders, Brian Staveley, Catherynne M. Valente, and Katherine Addison.
    Location: Orange County Convention Center, Room W208
  • 3:30 PM – Thomas Olde Heuvelt will be signing copies of his nightmare-inducing novel opens in a new windowHEX
    Location: Booth #2114

Sunday, June 26

  • 9:00 – 10:00 AM opens in a new windowYA Author Coffee Klatch
    Enjoy coffee and meet with YALSA’s award winning authors! This informal coffee klatch will give you an opportunity to meet authors who have appeared on one of YALSA’s six annual selected lists or have received one of YALSA’s five literary awards. Librarians will sit at a table and every 3 or 4 minutes, a new author will arrive at your table to talk about their current projects! Featuring Tor Teen author Kathleen Baldwin.
    Location: Orange County Convention Center, Room W110
  • 1:00 – 1:50 PM opens in a new windowPop Top Stage: Thomas Olde Heuvelt
    Named as “One of Europe’s foremost talents in fantastic literature” by BBC Radio, a multiple winner of the Paul Harland Prijs for best Dutch Fantasy, and nominated for a Hugo and World Fantasy Award for his short fiction, Thomas Olde Heuvelt brings his bestselling Dutch horror-fantasy— opens in a new windowHEX—to the English language. HEX has been praised by authors such as Paul Cornell, Sarah Lotz, among others, and lauded by venues including Crimezone, for “…expos[ing] how psychological fear can make a modern society spiral into dark, medieval practices…. Terrifying and tantalizingly good.”
    Location: Orange County Convention Center, Room Exhibit Hall – PopTop Stage
  • 2:00 PM – J. A. Souders will be signing copies of the first book in her young adult series The Elysium Chronicles, opens in a new windowRenegade
    Location: Booth #2114

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New Releases: 5/3/16

Here’s what went on sale today!

opens in a new windowAssassin’s Silence by Ward Larsen

opens in a new windowAssassin’s Silence by Ward LarsenEvery so often, a great assassin novel comes along: Brad Meltzer’s The Fifth Assassin, David Baldacci’s The Hit, Daniel Silva’s The Kill Artist. Now Ward Larsen brings us Assassin’s Silence, featuring David Slaton, hero of Larsen’sAssassin’s Game and the award-winning The Perfect Assassin.

When it comes to disappearing, David Slaton has few equals. Police in three countries have written off trying to find him. His old employer, Mossad, keeps no forwarding address. Even his wife and son are convinced he is dead. So when an assault team strikes, Slaton is taken by surprise. He kills one man and manages to escape.

opens in a new windowBailey’s Story by Bruce CameronBailey’s Story by Bruce Cameron

Every dog has work to do. Every dog has a purpose.

When Bailey meets eight-year-old Ethan, he quickly figures out his purpose: to play with the boy, to explore the Farm during summers with the boy, and to tidy the boy’s dishes by licking them clean (only when Mom isn’t watching). But Bailey soon learns that life isn’t always so simple–that sometimes bad things happen–and that there can be no greater purpose than to protect the boy he loves.

opens in a new windowBetter Dead by Max Allan Collins

opens in a new windowBetter Dead by Max Allan CollinsIt’s the early 1950’s. Joe McCarthy is campaigning to rid America of the Red Menace. Nate Heller is doing legwork for the senator, though the Chicago detective is disheartened by McCarthy’s witch-hunting tactics. He’s made friends with a young staffer, Bobby Kennedy, while trading barbs with a potential enemy, the attorney Roy Cohn, who rubs Heller the wrong way. Not the least of which for successfully prosecuting the so-called Atomic Bomb spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. When famous mystery writer Dashiell Hammett comes to Heller representing a group of showbiz and literary leftists who are engaged in a last minute attempt to save the Rosenbergs, Heller decides to take on the case.

Fatal Thunder by Larry Bond

opens in a new windowFatal Thunder by Larry BondJerry Mitchell, skipper of the USS North Dakota, receives a message from Girish Samant, a submarine captain and former enemy of his, requesting a meeting. Girish once tried to kill Jerry, but now he and Aleksey Petrov, a former Russian sub captain, need the American’s help to uncover a terrible truth: Nuclear weapons of the fallen Soviet Empire are being sold to people more than willing to use them.

But who has stolen the nuclear weapons? ISIS? Al Qaeda? Iran? Hezbollah? No one knows. Furthermore, nuclear explosions destroy all evidence. The world may never know who stole the nukes and set them off.

opens in a new windowOver Your Dead Body by Dan Wells

opens in a new windowOver Your Dead Body by Dan WellsJohn and Brooke are on their own, hitchhiking from town to town as they hunt the last of the Withered through the midwest–but the Withered are hunting them back, and the FBI is close behind. With each new town, each new truck stop, each new highway, they get closer to a vicious killer who defies every principle of profiling and prediction John knows how to use, and meanwhile Brooke’s fractured psyche teeters on the edge of oblivion, overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands of dead personalities sharing her mind. She flips in and out of lucidity, manifesting new names and thoughts and memories every day, until at last the one personality pops up that John never expected and has no idea how to deal with. The last of Nobody’s victims, trapped forever in the body of his last remaining friend.

NEW FROM TOR.COM:

opens in a new windowThe Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde

opens in a new windowThe Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran WildeThe kingdom in the Valley has long sheltered under the protection of its Jewels and Lapidaries, the people bound to singing gemstones with the power to reshape hills, move rivers, and warp minds. That power has kept the peace and tranquility, and the kingdom has flourished.

Jewel Lin and her Lapidary Sima may be the last to enjoy that peace.

The Jeweled Court has been betrayed. As screaming raiders sweep down from the mountains, and Lapidary servants shatter under the pressure, the last princess of the Valley will have to summon up a strength she’s never known. If she can assume her royal dignity, and if Sima can master the most dangerous gemstone in the land, they may be able to survive.

NOW IN PAPERBACK:

opens in a new windowThe Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson

opens in a new windowEllie’s Story by Bruce Cameron

opens in a new windowFast Shuffle by David Black

opens in a new windowThe Hollow Queen by Elizabeth Haydon

opens in a new windowHover by Anne A. Wilson

opens in a new windowJourney of the Dead and the Undertaker’s Wife by Loren D. Estleman

opens in a new windowLash-Up by Larry Bond

opens in a new windowThe Memory of Earth and the Call of Earth opens in a new window by Orson Scott Card

opens in a new windowPower Surge by Ben Bova

opens in a new windowQuag Keep by Andre Norton

opens in a new windowA School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

opens in a new windowValley of the Shadow by Ralph Peters

opens in a new windowVostok by Steve Alten

NEW IN MANGA: 

opens in a new windowArpeggio of Blue Steel Vol. 7 by Ark Performance

opens in a new windowShomin Sample: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner Vol. 1 Story by Nanatsuki Takafumi; Art by Risumai

opens in a new windowThe Testament of Sister New Devil Vol. 2 by Tetsuto Uesu

opens in a new windowSee upcoming releases.

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Enter the Tor Teen Newsletter Sweepstakes!

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We want to celebrate our BRAND NEW  opens in a new windowTor Teen newsletter with you! ❤ Sign up for our newsletter for a chance to win a collection of Tor Teen favorites and ARCs of two of our upcoming books.

About our newsletter: Each issue features exclusive content from authors, book news, access to special sweepstakes, and more!

Want to be the first to hear about our books? Add us on Snapchat @TorTeen! You can also follow us on opens in a new windowTwitter and opens in a new windowInstagram.

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  1. To Enter: Submit your entry by fully completing the sign-up form found at https://torforgeblog.wpengine.com/2016/03/30/tor-teen-sweepstakes/ (the “Site”). Sweepstakes begins online at 9:00 AM Eastern Time (ET) on Tuesday, March 30, 2016 and ends at 11:59 PM ET on Tuesday, April 12, 2016. Your entry will sign you up to receive emailed news related to Tor Teen as well as enter you into the sweepstakes.

Limit one entry per person or household. The entry must be fully completed; mechanically reproduced; incomplete and/or illegible entries will not be accepted. In case of dispute with respect to online entries, entries will be declared made by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry. “Authorized account holder” is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet Access Provider, on-line service provider, or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address. Entries become property of Sponsor and will not be returned. Automated entries are prohibited, and any use of such automated devices will cause disqualification. Sponsor and its advertising and promotions agencies are not responsible for lost, late, illegible, misdirected or stolen entries or transmissions, or problems of any kind whether mechanical, human or electronic.

  1. Random Drawing: A random drawing will be held from all eligible, correctly completed entries received on a timely basis, on or about Monday, April 18, 2016, by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, whose decisions concerning all matters related to this sweepstakes are final.
  2. Notice to Winners: Winner will be notified by e-mail. Winner may be required to sign and return an affidavit of eligibility and publicity/liability release within fifteen (15) days of notification attempt or prize may be awarded to alternate winner. Return of any prize notification as undeliverable will result in disqualification and alternate winner will be selected. If an entrant selected in the drawing is a resident of Canada, to be declared a winner he/she must correctly answer,
    without assistance of any kind, a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question to be administered by telephone
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    If a winner is a minor in his/her jurisdiction of residence, prize will be awarded to minor’s parent or legal guardian, who must follow all prize claim procedures specified herein and sign and return all required documents.
  3. Prize: One (1) Grand Prize winner(s) will receive 1 ARC each of Flying and Steeplejack, 1 HC each of The Glass Arrow, Riders, Seriously Wicked, A School for Unusual Girls, Solstice, Truthwitch, and 1 TPB each of Renegade and Replica.. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of the Prize: $172.90.

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Book Trailer: A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

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opens in a new windowA School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

A School for Unusual Girls is the first captivating installment in the Stranje House series for young adults by award-winning author Kathleen Baldwin. #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot calls this romantic Regency adventure “completely original and totally engrossing.”

It’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don’t fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts….

A School for Unusual Girls is a great next read for fans of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series and Robin LaFevers’ His Fair Assassin series.

Buy A School for Unusual Girls today:
opens in a new windowAmazon | opens in a new windowBarnes & Noble | opens in a new windowBooks-a-Million | opens in a new windowiBooks | opens in a new windowIndiebound | opens in a new windowPowell’s

Follow Kathleen Baldwin on Twitter at opens in a new window@KatBaldwin, on opens in a new windowFacebook, or visit opens in a new windowher online.

Where to Find Tor at the 2015 American Library Association Conference

ALA

Tor/Forge at the 2015 American Library Association Conference

Join Tor/Forge Books at the American Library Association’s opens in a new window2015 Annual Conference in San Francisco from June 26th to June 29th. Galleys, posters, and other giveaways will be available throughout the show in the opens in a new windowTor/Forge Books booth (#1013)!

Join us for the following events:

Tor Books and the American Library Association’s Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) present
“Unknown Knowns and Known Unknowns: How Speculative Fiction Gets Technological Innovation Right and Wrong”

Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/28873
Saturday, June 27th: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Moscone Center, room 2005 (W)
Science Fiction often has a predictive value, yet often overlooks the small things. Join our great panel of Science Fiction and Fantasy authors, Vernor Vinge, Greg Bear, John Scalzi, Marie Brennan and Larry Correia as they discuss their work and how it connects with technological opportunities and developments that were missed, never invented, and those that came about in ways unimagined. The panel will consider the role speculative fiction plays in fostering innovation and bringing about new ideas.
A complimentary bag of books will be given to the first 200 attendees!*

AAP’s Children’s and Teen Author Speed Dating Event
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/29874
Saturday, June 27th: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Marriott Hotel, Golden Gate B
Join authors and illustrators of children’s, middle grade, and teen fiction including Tor Teen author Kathleen Baldwin in a lightning round speed-dating event.

RUSA’s Literary Tastes Breakfast
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/28616
Sunday, June 28th: 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Moscone Center, West Exhibit Hall, 1st Floor
Join Tor authors Katherine Addison and Jo Walton as they are honored for their RUSA Reading List selections. Complimentary book signing of The Goblin Emperor and My Real Children to follow.

The 2015 YALSA Alex Awards Panel
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/28597
Sunday, June 28th: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Moscone Center, room 2002 (W)
Hear from the winners of YALSA’s 2015 Alex Awards including John Scalzi. Complimentary book signing of Lock In to follow.

Mystery Panel on the Pop Top Stage
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/pop-top-stage
Sunday, June 28th: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Moscone Center, Exhibit Hall, Pop Top Stage
Hear Forge author Rachel Howzell Hall in discussion with her fellow mystery and crime writers. Complimentary book signing of Skies of Ash to follow.

The Future According to Tor: New Titles for Young Readers and Teens
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/30169
Sunday, June 28th: 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Moscone Center, Exhibit Hall, Book Buzz Theater
Senior editor Susan Chang and publishing coordinator Ali Fisher will present a selection of must-shelve forthcoming fiction from Starscape, Tor Teen, and Tor/Forge Books.

The 2015 Stonewall Book Awards Program
Add to your calendar: opens in a new windowhttps://alaac15.ala.org/node/28698
Monday, June 29th: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Moscone Center, room 3005 (W)
Join the GLBT Round Table as it recognizes the Stonewall Book Award winners and honorees including Tor author Jo Walton. Complimentary book signing of My Real Children to follow.

The following authors will be signing complimentary copies of their books in the Tor/Forge Books booth (#1013) during the show:
Mary Pat Kelly will be signing Of Irish Blood on 6/27 at 9:00 AM.
Charlie Jane Anders will be signing galleys of All the Birds in the Sky on 6/27 at 10:00 AM.
Kathleen Baldwin will be signing A School for Unusual Girls on 6/27 at 1:30 PM.
Rachel Howzell Hall will be signing Skies of Ash on 6/28 at 10:30 AM.

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Tortuous Training Devices: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency England

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin
Written by opens in a new windowKathleen Baldwin

Part 3

You brave soul—after all my warnings you still want to time travel back to the Regency era. You must really like guys with high starched collars. Okay then, we’ve covered dress, keeping your brains under wraps, linguistic pitfalls, and the danger of fans. Now, it’s time for the all-important lesson on manners.

Pretend you are a super rich teenage girl. Well, maybe you really are super rich, I don’t know. But supposing you were mega-wealthy and lived in the biggest house in town, how would your family expect you to behave?

RichGirlWould you carry a little dog like Paris Hilton and make the rounds at all the trendiest clubs? Would your parents want you to go to college and major in something classy, like renaissance art? Or maybe you would be required to play the violin and study medicine.

Things were different for young ladies during the Regency era.

As we discussed in A Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency England opens in a new windowPart 1 and opens in a new windowPart 2 keeping your intelligence under wraps was a must. It would be okay to play the pianoforte, but not study medicine. You can have a little dog like Hilton, but you can’t go anywhere unescorted. No late night balls, soirees, or opera houses without your mother or your grumpy Aunt Agatha tagging along to keep you out of mischief.

Do’s and Don’ts, or Else…

If you follow the herd and do what everyone else is doing you’ll probably be fine.

Peggy Ann Garner as young Jane EyreHere are four helpful hints:

First: Mind your posture. Posture was extremely important to Regency high society. So keep that spine straight or else you may find yourself strapped to a torturous device called a backboard.

Backboards consisted of a slab of wood with leather straps tying the young lady into proper position. Such boards were used extensively until the 20th century.

Second: Whatever you do, don’t get cheeky. Corporal punishment was still the mode. Women and children were legally allowed to be whipped so long as the rod used to beat them was not any larger than a man’s thumb. That’s a pretty hefty stick if anyone were to ask me. So, mind your guardians and chaperones, and don’t talk back.

Another common method of reforming a smart-alecky daughter was to lock her in a closet for several days with only bread and water to eat. If that didn’t get results there was always a reform school like the one in A School for Unusual Girls.

FoodForkThird: Table manners. It was the custom to put a little bit of each kind of food on your fork, a sliver of parsnip, a penny carrot, a bite of ham, a tuft of asparagus, a small slice of roast beef. This all goes down your gullet together. Good luck. It isn’t easy. Try stabbing one pea. You may want to practice this task before you pop into your time machine.

Fourth: When a lull arises in the conversation a well-bred young lady may be expected to strike an attitude. How does one strike an attitude, you ask? Are those awful thumb-width whipping sticks involved?

No. An attitude is a pose based on classical Greek art, or historical figures such as Rebecca or Cleopatra. As in charades, guests at the gathering would then guess which historical figure the young lady was impersonating. Some of the attitudes were fairly provocative, for instance Venus or Aphrodite. Young ladies practiced their poses, and even hired tutors to instruct them, all in the hope of performing and impressing gentlemen.

You see, there were fun and games to be had after all. Just stay away from backboards and whipping sticks. Bon Voyage!

Preorder A School for Unusual Girls today:
opens in a new windowAmazon | opens in a new windowBarnes & Noble | opens in a new windowBooks-a-Million | opens in a new windowiBooks | opens in a new windowIndiebound | opens in a new windowPowell’s

Follow Kathleen Baldwin on Twitter at opens in a new window@KatBaldwin, on opens in a new windowFacebook, or visit opens in a new windowher online.

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Linguistic Landmines: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency England

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin
Written by opens in a new windowKathleen Baldwin

Part 2

For you brave souls who are planning to time travel back to the Regency era I’ve put together this short linguistics guide. But first a warning…

Hide Your Brains

No, not from zombies!

If you want to flirt with a dashing duke or snag a handsome viscount for a waltz, I suggest you disguise your smarts. During the Regency era, intelligence in a young lady was generally viewed as a liability. Brainy women were dangerous to society. Consequently, brilliant women of the time, such as Jane Austen, often lived their entire lives unmarried.

Placeholder of  -81Besides, you wouldn’t want to be considered a bluestocking now would you?

What is a bluestocking, you ask?

A bluestocking is a woman who dares to discuss controversial issues like war and politics. Oh my! She even reads books about philosophy and science. Can you fathom such behavior? Not only that, but a bluestocking insists on talking about what she has learned. Appalling!

It all goes back to the problem of being exceptional. You may remember from opens in a new windowA Time Traveler’s Guide to Regency England, Part 1, being declared “unexceptional” was a high compliment. As the young ladies in A School for Unfortunate Girls learned, one must vigorously guard against appearing too exceptional or end up getting carted off to a school to reform one’s manners.

Talking the Talk

French—ah, the romantic language, the language of nobility.

Yes, yes, I realize I’ve just warned you against appearing too smart, and now I’m telling you to learn some French. It sounds contradictory, but sprinkling a few elegant French phrases in your conversation will make you seem sophisticated and upper crust.

You needn’t get too good at it. It is perfectly all right to butcher the accent or mispronounce a word here and there. After all, Britain was at war with France and you wouldn’t want to be viewed as a sympathizer even though the English dressed like Josephine, Napoleon’s wife, and adored French lace, French wine, French silk… well, really, they admired all things French. It’s a pity England was at war with them.

Oh Sir You Flatter MeBaby Talk and Lisps

For young ladies of the ton (society’s upper ten-thousand) a baby-talking lisp was en vogue. It was considered très chic to lisp like a toddler while lacing French phrases into one’s conversation.

I ask you, what could be more appealing to a roguish Regency buck than a young lady who sounds like a lisping four year-old and knows a smattering of French. “Oh thir, you flatter me. Merci beaucoup, er, I mean, merthi beaucoup.” She blushes and lowers her fan (translation: I really think you’re hot).

Language of the Vulgar Tongue

On the other hand, young gentlemen preferred to act tough by using a cant popularized by common thieves. If a young man wanted to be seen as a cool dude by his friends, otherwise known as a Dandy or a Corinthian, he must get his hands on a coveted cheat sheet, called Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue. From this scandalous dictionary he’d learn to sling around phrases like, “My, but aren’t you a prime article.” This means he thinks you’re really good-looking. Unless he’s talking to a horse. In that case, he thinks the horse is fast, a “real goer.”

Idioms and Colloquialisms

Baldwin-Article2-Img3If a handsome earl shakes his head and says, “Mr. Smiley, poor fellow, stuck his spoon in the wall yesterday.” Whatever you do, you mustn’t laugh. This does not mean Mr. Smiley had an unfortunate accident with his eating utensils. It means the earl’s dear old chum has given up the ghost, curled up his toes, shuffled off this mortal coil. There, did I use enough idioms? In short, poor Mr. Smiley has died.

On to cheerier expressions. If someone invites you to nuncheon, they are not planning to engage you in a tournament with nunchuks. You may breathe easy. A nuncheon is a midafternoon snack with tasty biscuits and tea. It might even be held out of doors if the weather is balmy.

Which brings us to the word barmy, not to be mistaken for balmy. If someone looks down her nose at you and whispers behind her fan to a friend, “I do believe that young lady is barmy.” She’s insinuating that you are daft, looney tunes, or just plain Alice in Wonderland nutty.

I’ll be back with more semi-sage advice for all of you brave Regency time travelers.

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A Young Lady’s Time Travel Guide to Regency England

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin
Written by opens in a new windowKathleen Baldwin

Part 1

So you think you’d like to travel back in time to the Regency era? You’ve read about all those dashing dukes and handsome viscounts and you’re all agog to jump into a time machine. Very well, but you’ll need this handy guide.

Ask yourself this question: are you unexceptional enough?

You heard me correctly. Unexceptional. During the Regency era it was a high compliment for a young lady to be deemed unexceptional. The Beau Monde, the beautiful people of fashionable society, tended to dress alike and behave like the rest of the flock.

Woe unto those who didn’t conform.
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I’ve written a book about young ladies who did not fit into the Regency mold, A School for Unusual Girls. Take it from me; it did not go well for exceptional young women. They were shipped off to schools to a reform their manners. Rumors of harsh punishments and torturous training devices at these schools abounded among the Beau Monde. So watch your step!

First and foremost, you must not stray too far from the norm. It simply is not done, especially if a young lady is still of marriageable age. One mustn’t be too tall, too short, too brainy, or too brightly dressed.

The gentle reader inquires, “What about turquoise blue?”

For a ball? Are you mad? Subtlety, my dear, subtlety is the key. Picture me fanning myself vigorously to show my agitation.

Speaking of fans…

Beware the Danger of Fans

Do not, I repeat, do not purchase a fan to take on your journey back in time. That would be risky, indeed.

There is an entire language of the fan that every proper young lady must study before she is licensed to wield one of these dangerous devices.

This is absolutely essential training. Otherwise you may think you’re simply fanning to cool yourself down, but the gentleman across the ballroom thinks you are signally him for an assignation in the garden. You flirtatious vixen! And should you accidentally tap the ruddy thing against your cheek, oh heavens above, you’ve just told the gentleman that you are in love with him.

What Clothes Should You Bring?

Dress Changed for Part 1 blogAs mentioned earlier; no strong colors, the paler your ensemble, the better. Consider bringing a flimsy white cotton or silk nightgown. Tie a length of pale pink ribbon under the bust and it might serve as an everyday gown.

In the space of a few years, British aristocracy went from dressing in intricately engineered, highly ornate gowns like the ones Marie Antoinette used to wear, to dressing in simplistic Grecian gowns as did Empress Josephine. This might have had something to do with the guillotine lopping off the heads of so many ladies who wore those big gaudy gowns.

It is a trifle odd that Regency folk were so strict about the morals of their young ladies but then dressed them in nearly transparent muslin reminiscent of nightclothes. One Season it was all the rage to dampen one’s chemise (underwear) so that more of the young lady’s, ahem, charms might show. Unfortunately, that year turned out to be a brutally cold winter. Many women died of pneumonia and other lung ailments and so the craze ended abruptly.

I’ll return with more help for you brave time travelers. Until then good luck on your journey! And may you fall blissfully love with the most eligible handsome duke or earl at the ball. If Regency literature is any indication, there seems to be an abundance of the handsome devils.

Preorder A School for Unusual Girls today:
opens in a new windowAmazon | opens in a new windowBarnes & Noble | opens in a new windowBooks-a-Million | opens in a new windowiBooks | opens in a new windowIndiebound | opens in a new windowPowell’s

Follow Kathleen Baldwin on Twitter at opens in a new window@KatBaldwin, on opens in a new windowFacebook, or visit opens in a new windowher online.

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