Author: Riana Everly
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Life Imitating Art
I’ve written a bit recently about my new series, Austen Echoes, and I’m thrilled that the first book, All the Wrong Notes, has been released and is getting some terrific reviews. If you like contemporary Austen and music, these are definitely books you’ll want to take a look at. This series of three retellings is…
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Trick or Treat: A Halloween Diversion
Trick or Treat! Happy Halloween! The kids coming around door-to-door all call out Trick or Treat, but I only have treats, and no tricks at all. Treat Number One: A Short Story Halloween has a long and spooky history. I won’t go into details, but it is a bit of an amalgam of the Celtic…
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Thanksgiving, Harvest Festivals, and an Excerpt
Here in Canada, we are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving next Monday, October 9. It might seem a bit odd to my American friends, who celebrate at the end of November, but with a cooler climate, most of the local crops are in, and that means it’s party time. I’m a historian, and this naturally…
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Austen Echoes – Writing a Contemporary Series
As I may have mentioned, I’ve been busy over the last few months writing a contemporary series of Austen-influenced novellas for New Zealand-based press Romance Café Publishing. All three stories are now complete, are well into the editing phase, and are getting close to publication. I hope to find out soon exactly what their release…
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Kitchen Trouble, Regency-Style
Life does not always go the way we plan it. I did not, for example, plan to lose four major appliances over the course of a weekend. The oven and stove had been dodgy for a while, and then half of the heating elements just stopped heating one day. All the coaxing in the world…
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The Mystery of the Missing University – Alexander Lyons in Glasgow
I’ve recently returned from a trip to the UK. I spent a delightful few days with a lovely friend in Yorkshire, and then travelled north, to Edinburgh, where I met my husband at the airport, hopped into a car, and drove further north still. This was a holiday, pure and simple. We’re both history nuts,…
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Much Ado About Something
I went to the theatre yesterday. We are fortunate to live within a fairly short drive of two world-class theatre festivals, and we try to see a few plays every summer. Yesterday we drove out to see a production of Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing. This is one of my favourite plays. In fact,…
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Austen-ku
A few years ago, a friend posted a little haiku on her Facebook page on May 1, and called it her Mayku. When I asked, she said a friend had started writing a haiku each day of May, and hoped it would catch on. My friend never did it again, but I was hooked.
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Lawyers, Barristers, and Attorneys, Oh My!
In Pride and Prejudice, one of Darcy’s and the Bingley sisters’ big concerns with the Bennet family is the terribly middle-class status of Mrs Bennet’s family. Her brother is a merchant, living in Cheapside. The horror. Her father was a country attorney, and her sister married his clerk. These are deemed to be most inappropriate…
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Chelsea Buns
My newest release, a S&S-based mystery starring Mary Bennet and her friend, investigator Alexander Lyons, takes place in London. I loved writing about London for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it’s a fabulous city and I never have enough time when I’m there. The history, the landmarks, the sights, the culture……