My kid is practicing letters, so I thought I’d post a quick update.

I’ve been researching religion during the Regency Era. I have a pretty good idea of the state of American religion at the time, but had little idea about the beliefs of the Church of England. Seeing as religion is very important to one of my main characters, I wanted some authenticity. Only I found it difficult to track down good sources. Most Regency researchers like to talk about the style and parties. I finally found a great blog post on the subject: https://www.google.com/amp/s/georgianera.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/the-faith-of-georgian-england/amp/.

While reading through, I found that my character’s beliefs were a bit different from Anglican beliefs. Ugh. Joy. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make his beliefs work with being an Anglican clergyman. Then I discovered Charles Simeon.

One of the things I love most about writing is when I find a perfect connection, whether it’s one I invented for the plot or one I found in research. Rev. Simeon was one of those connections. While he remained an Anglican to the end of his life, he embraced very Evangelical views. Perfect! There were Anglicans with views more similar to my character! And what’s more, Simeon taught at Cambridge during the Regency, which happens to be where my character goes to school. I did a happy dance all last night while reading through one of the 21 volumes of sermons Rev. Simeon wrote in his life. I’m finding some fantastic things that connect to my plot, which I’m sure will turn into fantastic conversations.

While perusing Pinterest yesterday, I also came across the unfortunate story of a man named Bathurst. He was a diplomat who vanished without a trace on his way home from Austria. They found his coat and his pantaloons, but no body they could positively identify as his. His wife went to the continent to find him, but came back with very little except a letter to her, which they found in his pantaloons pocket. Historians are fairly positive he was killed by the French government, as they were at war and he was trying to get Austria to enter on England’s side.

He disappeared a couple of years before my story takes place, and since one of my characters disappears for a little while, I thought it would make a nice connection to real events as the other characters worry about a repeat event.

In other news, I’m nearly done with my Regency dress. Just some hand stitching, hemming, and buttons left. I’ve been watching the 2009 Emma while doing my hand stitching. I think it’s my favorite version.

I tried to test some ideas for my hair this morning, and it was a mess. The curlers I got tangled my hair so badly I briefly contemplated just cutting my hair in a moment of despair. 😆 I did end up cutting one of the curlers, though. Needless to say, I’m not using them again. I’ll go back to my old curlers or a curling iron.

Hope you have a great weekend!