Wallpaper
Feb
12
2008

My name is Lauren Dane and I love wallpaper historicals.

Yes. Yes I admit it. I like pretty dresses. I like ballrooms and rakes and scoundrels who are really dukes. I do. I don’t care that shoe buckles weren’t round until 1789 or even that this is an actual fact or not. I don’t care that Alamacks wasn’t on X street until 1891 or whatever. I really don’t.

I’m not saying you’re bad if you care about those things. I’m saying I don’t. I don’t mind learning. I like learning. But I want pretty ballrooms and jaunty caps and men who blather about horses (not in too great a detail).

I get that some people are quite serious about historical detail in their historical romances. Everyone’s got their hot buttons. I’m that way about legal stuff in books. It drives me insane to see how people write about the legal system and don’t even bother actually, um, say reading about how the law works. So generally I don’t read books with legal themes or I stick with people I know will do it right or just don’t really touch on intense details. Then again, the legal system is a current thing, it’s pretty basic and not at all that hard to get correct if you just make a passing reference to it and if you delve into ANY subject in detail, it should be well researched, historical or not.

Otherwise, I’m quite happy to read wallpaper historicals with minxes and rakes, Alamacks and ballrooms with tepid lemonade.

I just had to say that. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

7 comments to “Wallpaper”

  1. Charlene
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:33 pm · Link

    Heh. I don’t think I want to know what inspired that. 😆



  2. laurendane
    February 12th, 2008 at 7:25 pm · Link

    LOL! It’s nothing bad, I was just talking to a friend about it earlier today and felt the need to declare it.



  3. Christine
    February 13th, 2008 at 7:42 am · Link

    I don’t watch or read legal stuff for the same reason. It’s never right. Or it’s so out land there that it would never happen.



  4. Lacy
    February 13th, 2008 at 1:38 pm · Link

    We historical authors love you, Lauren!

    Indeed… pretty ballrooms and scandalous rakes…

    yummy.

    Lacy.



  5. Sasha
    February 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pm · Link

    I’m with you Lauren. I read them to escape. I want the frilly fun, naughty and sexy..details are nice, but too many can often weigh down the story in my opinion.



  6. JSL
    February 13th, 2008 at 10:46 pm · Link

    Hi Lauren,
    I have to admit, I do care about details, but definitely not to the degree you’re referring to. (I’d have no idea about the shape of buckles, etc.) It’s nice of an author does a lot of research – and incorporates that in a subtle way. Someone that comes to mind is Eloisa James – her webpage is *very* heavy on specifics, but her books aren’t pedantic.
    Some things that bother me are if something is blatently wrong. E.g. the end of the Napoleonic wars being 50-100 years off (something even I would notice.)
    The more I learn about the legal system, the more I don’t like reading books with “legal themes.” If a big deal is made about a character getting/not getting Mirandized, when irl they weren’t supposed … it’ll bother me. I blame the media, I suppose. I have to admit I enjoy watching my professors cringe a little when classmates ask them procedural question they got from tv.
    If it is excessively clear an author did no research whatsoever, I get mad. A while back I ranted about an author who wrote a book set in dynastic China. Just reading the excerpt made me want to throw my laptop across the room. It was ugly.



  7. Anya Bast
    February 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am · Link

    If you give me an exciting story with characters I care about, I can forgive many things.