Gritty Regencies coming our way?

 

It seems readers of historical romance are turning to "Romantasy" (Romance Fantasy) and contemporary fiction rather than traditional historical romance. Harlequin has officially shut down its beloved Historical line. Some author contracts have been let go and established authors are being pointed toward the new genre. 

I am a little late in discovering this. Discussion started as long ago as May 2025 and there are lots of opinions out there if you care to read them. The books of the genre I have read recently have made me wonder exactly what is changing, which is why I did a little research. Basically the main reason things are changing is money. Is it not always so? Authors write what publishers want to publish and publishers want to make money. Readers opinions matter,. If they don't buy, the publisher wants to know why. Which is why the historical romance genre is changing. 

Younger readers are more sensitive to racism and sexism. New authors try to avoid such problematic content, but the book can then feel too modern and alienates the readers who have been enjoying HR for many years and always accepted that “that’s the way it was back then.”

There is also an argument that says declining literacy must take its share of the blame. The Netflix Bridgerton show created a huge boom in period drama, but the books themselves did not enjoy the same popularity. Contemporary romance is the world we all know but historical romance is a different world and not every romance reader feels at home there.

However, while traditional historical romance has shrunk, there is hope. They say the indie and self-publishing space is thriving. Many authors are finding passionate audiences on platforms like Kindle Unlimited. Many authors are successfully blending genres—infusing magic into history (creating "Historical Fantasy") or adding grittier, mystery/sleuth plots into Regency-era settings.

Definitely food for thought for any author.

One thing Ancestry won't tell you

Evidently, we can all trace our ancestry back to a most recent common ancestor of all humans, who probably lived in either Egypt or Babylonia during the classical period.

Assuming an average generation time of 20 years, this means that we are all 120th cousins, descended from someone that was alive when the pyramids were already aging structures. (Many millions of other people living at that time also have living descendants, of course. The last common ancestor is simply the one who is an ancestor to all of us, in addition to our many other ancestors who are not common to everyone.)

Like many others I tracked my parents and grandparents and apart from one grandfather who came from Shropshire, almost every other ancestor came from the Wear Valley in Country Durham. By that I mean from Durham city up to the border with Cumberland as it was known then. And that grandparent moved up to Etherley and married a local girl.

One thing that Ancestry.com won’t often tell you (but which I soon discovered for myself) is that the genealogy that you discover may not be accurate. Inferences have to be made when you are dealing with records that are hundreds of years old. There are many surnames and first names that are quite common. (In my case, Thomas Wilsons and John Hulls crop up everywhere) There is no way to be sure that the “Jacob Carter” that turns up in one record is the same “Jacob Carter” that shows up in another from fifteen years later, even in the same general area.
Then, as now, many families were on the move. An isolated census record containing only a name is nothing more than a low-resolution snapshot. Especially, as I found, if you are checking mining communities in South Durham. Families followed the work.)

Try reading Nathan H. Lents, Ph.D., professor of molecular biology at John Jay College, of the City University of New York if you want to know more.

Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui

 This morning I saw a post on Facebook about the Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui and was reminded of the first time I ever read about the phenomenon. Joan Grant and her husband went to Scotland in 1928 and here is the excerpt I remembered:

On one of our Sundays off, Leslie and I went to Rothiemurchus intending to climb towards the Cairngorms. It was a beautiful day and we had it to ourselves. Basking naked in the sun, we ate sandwiches beside a burn. It was far too hot and peaceful for serious walking, so we decided to wander on for another mile or so, and then go for dinner to the hotel in Aviemore. Nothing could have been further from my mind than spooks when suddenly I was seized with such terror that I turned and in panic fled back along the path. Leslie ran after me, imploring me to tell him what was wrong. I could only spare breath enough to tell him to run faster, faster.  Something -utterly malign, four-legged and yet obscenely human, invisible and yet solid enough for me to hear the pounding of its hooves, was trying to reach me. If it did I should die, for I was far too frightened to know how to defend myself. I had run about half a mile when I burst through an invisible barrier behind which I was safe. I knew I was safe now, though a second before I had been in mortal danger; I knew it as certainly as though I were a torero who has jumped the barrier in front of a charging bull.

A year later one of Father’s professors described an almost exactly similar experience he had had when bug-hunting in the Cairngorms. He was materialist, but had been so profoundly startled that he wrote to the Times – and received a letter from a reader who had also been pursued by the “Thing.” Some years later, when I was living at Muckerach, the doctor told me that two hikers, for whom search-parties had been out three days, had been found dead. He showed me the exact spot on the map. It was the place of my terror. Both men were under thirty. One came from Grantown, the other from Aviemore. The weather was fine. They had spent a good night under the shelter-stone on the highest ridge, for they had written to that effect in the book which is kept there. They were found within a hundred yards of each other, sprawled face downward as though they had fallen headlong when in flight. “I did a post-mortem on them both,” said the doctor gravely. “Never in my life have I seen healthier corpses: not a thing wrong with either of the poor chaps except that their hearts had stopped. I put ‘heart-failure’ on the chit, but it is my considered opinion that they died of fright.”

Joan Grant, Time out of Mind 1956

There are videos and conversations about the Big Grey Man if you chose to Google the topic.

Try to Keep Up!

It is a long time since I paid any attention to this blog. Some of you might have noticed I have begun making changes already! (It desperately needed some love.)

Clustrmaps has diappeared from view without explanation. MapMy Visitors has taken its place. Let's hope it works well.

My most recent titles are listed on the sidebar, and now they have a direct link to Amazon so you can click to find out more about  them. 

There will no doubt be more changes coming down the line. Every update seems to bring changes where I didn't expect them but I shall try and keep up!

Never a dull moment

 Wondering this morning why Amazon has suddenly dropped off the Marketplace statistics on my KDP reports. The US always used to be the major player but as of this month it has fallen way behind. 

This has led me to checking as far as I can but I cannot see a reason for it. Unless it is because I charged a dollar more for my books? Would that do it?

Now that I am not writing - The Earl's Protection has been on sale for 12 days now - I have time to look at all these things. I really should have another go with Mailerlite and see if email lists really work or not. I have the feeling they may be just annoying to most people but the experts insist it is the way to go. Unless one chooses to go with a business venture that promises to "do it all for you - and sell thousands of titles!" There are a lot of them about on Facebook and Instagram these days. I also should look at TikTok, which so far has remained a mystery to me. Never a dull moment when you are a KDP author!

The gateway is Prudhoe Castle, built in early medieval days and still standing above the river Tyne in Northumberland

Frozen posts

 Just when I want to know how my ads are doing, KDP refuses to co-operate. It is probably my fault. I must have pressed something in my attempt to archive old ads and suddenly the page is virtually blank. I wish there was a re-set button where everything would miraculously go back to my original settings.

The other thing that  bugs me is that my ipad appears frozen on  one particular post. Nothing I do shifts it. It is a photo of three heads (of tennis players) supposedly carved into mount Rushmore, asking who the 4th great player should be. Things like Instagram and everything else work as normal but not Facebook. Has another data centre been knocked out or something?

I struggle with it and really I should be outside weeding my garden...

A love of dragons

 Discovering a book that holds me through the first few pages and beyond is getting harder and harder. So many have excellent blurbs but the inside is tiresomely boring. I suppose a lifetime of reading means that most tricks, plots and themes have been read before, and some many times. When I was twenty, anything I read was exciting because chances are everything about it was new. The themes might not have been new, but I was new to them.

Now that does not hold true though I go on searching and hoping. I have moved from historical to romance to crime and then onto  urban fantasy as long as there are dragons. True historicals take a long time to write and the big authors do not publish often. Modern Historical romance seems to have taken a dive into sex and that seems popular in certain quarters. While I don't dislike reading sex, a little goes a long way and I'd rather have more story. Contemporary romance has never been my thing. Crime has proved entertaining, even when some of it is positively frightening - the things people can think up to do to one another!  Dick Francis was always good. No doubt I will recall several more favourites from the past once I've published this little post.

But I do admit to a love of dragons. I guess it started way back with the dragons of Pern. After the author's death they seemed to disappear. (No, I never tried those written by the son and daughter.) Now they are back and I'm enjoying them.