Charlotte Henry's new release, A Rogue Not Taken

Join me today in welcoming RITA® award-winning author Charlotte Henry!

An Accomplished Woman

by Charlotte Henry

In Pride and Prejudice, Caroline Bingley famously defines an accomplished woman:

“… no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.”

“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

Jane Austen might have been describing the expectations of womanhood during her lifetime, but Lizzie Bennet seems to doubt Miss Bingley’s list could be achieved by any mere mortal. The definition of accomplished changes with time and a woman’s circumstances. What of a poor woman in Regency England? What she considered accomplished probably looked very different—keeping a tidy house, managing a tiny budget, and if she could, being able to read enough to entertain and inform herself and to write well enough to correspond with those she cared about. Even today, many opportunities to learn such things as art, music, and languages are no longer found in the home, but are transferred to schools (if students are lucky).



In The Rogue Not Taken, the second book of the Rogues of St. Just trilogy, my heroine Rowena Penrose is getting tired of people referring to her as “the accomplished one,” as though her sisters were not and she herself has nothing more to offer than the ability to entertain. The sisters are only one generation removed from the clay pits of Cornwall, so their father has been rigorous in seeing that they are brought up to be gentlewomen. With one sister a painter and the other an amateur sculptor, all of the girls have their talents, but Rowena wants her reputation in the parish to include more.

In her mind, an accomplished woman doesn’t merely entertain others. She must have other qualities, more than her address or her air. Qualities such as compassion, powers of observation, and an ability to make decisions quickly in the service of others. Don’t you think that an accomplished woman looks, in fact, far more like Anne Elliot in Persuasion than like Caroline Bingley? As for my Rowena, her real talent is in the herb garden, making cures for their tenants and anyone else in need. She’s learning from an old herbwoman with a dodgy reputation, which means she has to be discreet about her mentor. I had a little fun with expectations when I revealed the herbwoman’s true identity, forcing the hero to acknowledge that he has to appreciate people for who they are, not who they seem to be—and that includes Rowena.

What do we expect from a modern woman, I wonder? What do we consider accomplishments, or do we even think of them in those terms? For instance, I learned to sew when I was five, was cooking my own breakfast and making my own clothes by ten, babysitting the neighbors’ children by twelve, and taking the train to another city to visit by fifteen. To my family, these kinds of accomplishments were normal. (I never could master the washing machine, though, and to this day wonder why they don’t all look the same so you can figure them out!) Piano lessons were a luxury, but in my parents’ minds, music was a necessity; art not so much. So I didn’t begin to learn to paint until I was in my fifties. But while I think self-expression and a good education can round out a character and give it direction, people still can develop those extra qualities that are not so much observed, as felt by others. Care and compassion. A sense of humor that doesn’t depend on someone else’s humiliation. A world view that values the bus driver or the auto mechanic as much as the professor (spoken as the daughter and sister of auto mechanics).

And unlike in fairy tales, where the angelic heroine is given everything she wishes for simply because she’s angelic, an accomplished woman is happy to work out her own ambitions, sharing what she learns and how she grows with the people around her. In the expression of her talents and her personality, she can make the world a better place. And in that, I think, no matter the size of our sphere of influence, we all have the ability to be accomplished women!

Charlotte Henry is the author of 24 novels published by Harlequin, Warner, and Hachette, and a dozen more published by Moonshell Books, Inc., her own independent press. She writes the Rogues of St. Just series of Regency romances, and as Shelley Adina, writes the Magnificent Devices series of steampunk adventure. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, and is currently at work on a PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in the UK. She won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award® for Best Inspirational Novel in 2005, and was a finalist in 2006. She appeared in the 2016 documentary film Love Between the Covers, is a popular speaker and convention panelist, and has been a guest on many podcasts, including Worldshapers and Realm of Books. When she’s not writing, you can find Charlotte sewing historical dresses, traveling for research, reading, or enjoying the garden with her flock of rescued chickens.

Website: shelleyadina.com/charlotte-henry

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorcharlottehenry 

Twitter: twitter.com/ShelleyAdina

BookBub: www.bookbub.com/authors/charlotte-henry

Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/Charlotte-Henry/e/B07MPVJ8R1

On the Writer's Road - We are all Heroes

Hi GLIAS friends, it's Lizbeth again--coming to you from the writer's road, and I have a question. Is meeting your favorite author something that’s on your bucket list?

My super hero: Kristan Higgins

I have a second (even more fun) question. Have you ever actually met your favorite author?

It might surprise readers to know that authors also have favorite authors, and we have fangirl dreams of meeting the people whose books we love to read.

No maybe this is my super hero: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Have you ever wondered why authors, who are people we rarely see except as slightly unrealistic photos on the backs of their books, are elevated to the status of celebrity in some cases? So what if they pick up a pen or sit at a keyboard and type words. They aren’t movie stars or sports figures, right?

With my true tribe: hubby in the back, sis-in-law on the right and absolute super readers turned good friends Shari & Jon Bartholomew

Another thing that might surprise you, is that not only do authors want to meet other authors—we also want to meet readers. In fact, we’re almost as excited to meet them as we would be to meet, say, Nora Roberts.

Why is meeting Nora Roberts such a thrill? Why does a reader feel such satisfaction when an author recognizes her and knows her (or his) name? Why do authors like me absolutely love spending time with readers? Three words:

Networking. Support. Empowerment.

GLIAS' own Angi Morgan (first a fellow writer and now a serious BFF),  me, and the amazing Sharon Sala.

In this time of “me too,” and heightened awareness of women and women’s rights, we need more than ever the amazing circle made up of authors and readers—especially in the romance genre.

Networking is maybe most important to authors. All fellow authors understand each other, and we’ve all got experiences to share, writing processes to compare, and encouragement to give. Those of us in the middle of the pack look to the “A-listers” (think Kristan Higgans, Nora, Barbara Samuel…) for hope and inspiration.

Love this lady:  Barbara O'Neal (aka Barbara Samuel)

 Brand new authors look to people like me for the same. Without writer heroes (for me, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Eloisa James) we can’t survive thosethe times we want to quit (and they happen) and we can’t see the top of the mountain we want to climb.

Readers need to meet other readers to hear about new books and new authors. They need to compare stories and critiques and analyze good books and not-so-good books.

 

Smart, witty, fabulous writer Grace Burrowes

Authors and readers also need to network with each other. Readers need to know what their favorite authors’ lives are like and that they're are no different than non-writers. And authors truly hope to find readers who become friends and who’ll support not only their books but also the ups and downs of life.

Support goes hand in hand with networking. Once you’ve found your author/reader “tribe” you know you have people who’ll always need you and be there for you. For friendship, of course, but also for beta reading, for spreading the word about books, for connecting with book clubs and online groups of people who like the same thing you do. Mostly, though, we find other women (and sometimes men) who know that reading romance isn’t something to hide. That through the years, romance readers are happier, healthier, and have better self-esteem than almost any other readers. And when we forget this—we remind each other. 

My Minnesota Tribe--Fab authors Ellen Lindseth, Kathryn Kohorst and Nan Dixon. The perfect picture of support!

Finally, meeting your favorite author and readers IS empowerment. Romance has come a very very long way since the days of true bodice rippers and Fabio. Today’s heroines are strong, resourceful, bright women who overcome every kind of obstacle and bad situation. They give us the hope that any situation can be better if we work to make it so. And that true love is not just a pipe dream. Even back in the days of Fabio, romance stories were written to defy the “rules” that women were supposed to live by. They were naughty, they were scandalous. They were wonderful.

And meeting our favorite writers lets us meet strong women who write about strong women in person. That's why it doesn't matter that authors aren't sports stars or actors. They are role models and meeting role models is definitely empowering.

The point of all this is that the road to being a writer isn’t really that glamorous—just as the world of every reader is sometimes mundane, even difficult. We need each other. So—if you’re shy about meeting or writing to an author—don’t be. She’ll love hearing from you. If you’re an extrovert, please know how much you’re appreciated. If you’re a writer who doesn’t want to promote or “bother” people (ahem—of course I’m not talking about myself)—stop it. The readers want to hear from you, too.

Revel in your heroes because you’re someone’s hero, too. And we’re in a very cool tribe. We love romance!!

A true writer hero and mentor and a Minnesota "sister"- Eloisa James.

I'd love you to tell me who your favorite author is and if you've ever met her (or him)? If so, was it awesome? I'll tell you what--it always has been for me! 

See you on the road!