Update on my writing

I hope everyone is doing well and not getting too stir-crazy from the shelter in place.

Things are not that much different for me since I work from home, although it’s kind of nice having Captain Caffeine working from home, too. I try not to bother him when he’s working so we kind of ignore each other most of the time, but we usually eat lunch together, which is really nice. When he was working at his workplace, I would only drive to eat lunch with him once every few months.

Lately I’ve been working hard on my Lady Wynwood’s Spies series, a Regency romantic adventure. (If you’re a writer, I’m also blogging daily about my writing at Camy’s Writing Diary Blog in an experiment to document my writer’s process and try to improve my productivity. It might not interest every writer, but I wanted to put it out there in case it could help some writers struggling with their writing habits.)

When I’m writing Regency, I like to read a lot of Regency romances to get into the mindset of Regency England and also immerse myself in the language of that genre.

However today I realized that the majority of the books I own and have read are traditional Regency romances, which are most similar to Jane Austen’s novels, while the series I’m writing is … well, not. It’s a multi-protagonist historical romance series, with a (tiny) bit of supernatural stuff and lots of action and a bit of humor.

It’s kind of like a long-running, multi-character series like Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, except instead of an overpowered main protagonist, I have two slightly more normal people, and instead of a harem of girls, I have a team of men and women. And it’s set in Regency England without magic. It’s weird, right???

Basically, I wanted to write a Regency romance series kind of like a shoujo Japanese light novel series (aimed at young girls), of which there aren’t that many since most light novel series seem to be aimed at young men. I think Lady Wynwood’s Spies would be most similar to the Japanese light novel series Migawari Hakushaku 身代わり伯爵 (roughly translated, “The Scapegoat Earl”) by Mimori Seike 清家未森 (although I haven’t read the light novels, only the scanlated manga adaption). My series is a bit less farcical in the comedy, has a little bit of paranormal stuff, has a Christian message, and has a slightly darker overarching story mystery.

When I started writing it, I thought my series would have more scenes set in Regency high society, but it’s turning out not to have many of those scenes at all (which I’m kind of disappointed about). Most of the books I own are set in Regency high society—after all, that’s the greatest appeal of Regency romances! For me, anyway.

For a few wild and insane minutes I seriously considered changing the plot of my entire Lady Wynwood series to be more like other traditional Regency romances. (Yeah, I know, but it was only for a few minutes.)

But then I came back into my right mind and remembered that I actually really like my series plot and made it a “Regency romantic adventure” on purpose. I wanted to write a series that was like Mission Impossible but in England in 1811!

So, I’m not sure if my series is going to appeal to traditional Regency romance readers. But I’m writing a story I’m really excited about and which is probably really different from what’s already out there. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, right? I’m praying God will lead readers to my books who will enjoy it.

Everybody, stay safe!

Camy

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Laura’s Apricot Shell Shawl knitting pattern

I usually have a knitting project in mind when I write it into one of my books, but Laura’s apricot-colored shawl just kind of appeared upon the page as I was writing the first scene of Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer , and it surprised even me. I immediately went to my yarn stash to find a yarn for it, and I searched through my antique knitting books to find some stitch patterns. I made her an elegant wool shawl she could wear at home. The shawl ended up tagging along with Laura into the next book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 5: Prisoner , where it imparts some comfort to her in her trying circumstances. The two stitch patterns are both from the same book, The Lady’s Assistant, volume 2 by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, published in 1842 . A couple excessively clever and creative knitters might have knit these patterns in the Regency era, but they would have only passed them around by word of mouth or scribbled “recipes” to friends or family, and it wouldn’t have been widely use

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

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Narrow Escape contest for January!

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Keriah’s Pyrennees Shawl knitting pattern w/ @knitpicks Palette

Why I knit this shawl: I wanted to knit the sunset-colored shawl Keriah was wearing in chapter 5 of my book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 2: Berserker , so I looked for an antique pattern that might have been used during the Regency era. This one caught my eye, even though it was published in a knitting book a few decades later than the Regency era. The Spider-Net border pattern was most definitely in use in the Regency period, but it’s also remotely possible that the Alice-Maud stitch and the lacy border stitch patterns were also in use during the Regency, being passed on from knitter to knitter via hand-written receipts, by verbal instruction, or with knitted sampler squares (like how many Shetland lace patterns and Bavarian cable patterns were shared). My/Keriah’s version of this shawl would have been lacy but warm because it is knit with fingering yarn on small needles. Since Keriah was cold, I think she would have grabbed this shawl rather than something more elegant and airy.

Phoebe’s Muffatees knitting pattern

In Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 4: Betrayer , Phoebe wears a pair of lace muffatees, or gauntlets/arm-warmers that hide a rather deadly surprise. :) I actually got the idea of having her wear muffatees because I saw a lace manchette pattern in Miss Watts’ Ladies’ Knitting and Netting Book , published in 1840, page 20. However, after doing some research, I found that they were called muffatees in the Regency era, and the term manchette did not arise until a few years later. They were essentially arm-warmers worn under those long sleeves on day dresses, which were usually made of muslin too thin to be very warm. I decided to knit Phoebe’s muffatees using a Leaf Pattern originally suggested for a purse in Mrs. Gaugain’s book, The Lady’s Assistant, volume 1, 5th edition published in 1842, pages 234-237. I think there was an error and row 36 in the original pattern was duplicated erroneously, so I have adjusted the pattern. The original manchette pattern called for “fine” needles a

New contest!

I haven’t had a contest since October! Here’s new one just in time for Christmas. I’m picking 3 winners to each be able to choose 10 books from my Christian book list! And yes, that list includes my books! 1) You get one entry into the contest when you sign up for my email newsletter at http://www.camytang.com/ . If you already belong to my email newsletter, let me know! 2) You get a second entry into the contest if you Like my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CamyTangAuthor . If you already Like my Facebook page, let me know! 3) You get a third entry into the contest if you join my Goodreads group: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/49078 . If you already belong to my Goodreads group, let me know! 4) You get a fourth entry into the contest if you follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/camytang . If you already follow me on Twitter, let me know! 5) You get extra entries into the contest if you get someone else to join my email newsletter. Just email camy {at] c

Year of the Dog serial novel, chapter 13

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Year of the Dog serial novel

About Year of the Dog : A month or two ago, I remembered an old manuscript I had completed but which hadn’t sold. It was a contemporary romance meant for Zondervan, titled Year of the Dog . The book had gone into the pipeline and I even got another title ( Bad Dog ) and a cover for it, but eventually my editor at the time decided she didn’t want to publish it, for various reasons. She instead requested a romantic suspense, and so I cannibalized some of the characters from Year of the Dog and thrust them into the next book I wrote, which was Protection for Hire . Honestly, I didn’t take a lot from Year of the Dog to put in Protection for Hire , aside from character names and a few relationship ties. I was originally thinking I’d post Year of the Dog as-is on my blog as a free read, but then it occurred to me that I could revamp it into a romantic suspense and change the setting to Hawaii. It would work out perfectly as (yet another) prequel to the Warubozu series and introduc

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

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Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And

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