Latest News from the Regency World of Lesley-Anne McLeod

My latest newsletter just went out a few days ago, and I thought you might like to read the highlights here!

A New Contest for the New Year
The winner of the November/December contest for the book "Panoramas of England" and the fan was Joy from the U. S. A. Congratulations, Joy! Thank you to everyone for signing the guestbook. The prize in the first contest of 2010 for January and February is a well-known book first published 100 years ago in 1910 "Vanishing England".

The authors' introduction begins "We wish to describe with pen and pencil those features of England which are gradually disappearing, and to preserve the memory of them." Thank goodness they did. The book has been reprinted many times in the ensuring hundred years and this is a 1994 edition, gently used. Visit my contest page to see a larger picture of the book. I hope you will sign the guestbook again by February 28, 2009 to be entered for the new draw. Click here to go to my main website. Guestbook link is near the bottom of the home page.

COMING IN May 2010 - "The Harmless Deception" A new full length Regency romance!

Available! -"Lost in Almack's"
My newest 'Novel Byte' short Regency fiction piece "Lost in Almack's" and my four other 'Novel Bytes' are still available from Uncial Press. When Lady Genevra Haven becomes lost in the back corridors and staircases of Almack's she needs courage and ingenuity, as well as charm and confidence, to avoid social ruin and salvage her successful debut. Romance Reviews Today says "a delightfully fun and lively foray". Click here to purchase "Lost in Almack's"

Regency World News
There is a new story, especially appropriate for this new year, on my story page. Please go to The Hogmanay List

There is new information added to my Regency World at the Portrait Gallery page, the literature page Great Writers of the Regency Period and the art page Art and Artists.There is also a new picture on the Colouring Book page--of an English lady dressed, or perhaps in the process of dressing, for a morning at home.

If you would like to become my friend at Facebook, I would be delighted to meet you! And follow me at Twitter for all-Regency tweets and my latest news!

Treats for Regency fans from Regency Fancies -- at CafePress.com

Treat yourself to Regency themed T-shirts, tote bags, stationery and decorative items from Regency Fancies the store at CafePress.com that artist Shakoriel and I have established. You can buy the Fashions of Regency England Colouring Book and a variety of other products there all embellished with Shakoriel's Regency art. Visit us at Regency Fancies

That's all for this time. Watch for guest bloggers coming soon--my new venture for the blog this year. I hope to have a visitor for you on the last Friday of each month, but I'm still in the process of setting this up so watch for further details.

Lesley-Anne

A New Contest and all my Regency World news

I have been busy all week preparing for my new contest, so for this blog I thought I would bring you up to date on developments in my Regency World.

A New Contest for the Holiday Season

The winner of the September/October contest for the Regency Fancies' tote bag with artwork by Shakoriel from "Lost in Almack's" is Vanessa from the U. S. A. Congratulations, Vanessa! Thank you to everyone for signing the guestbook during the autumn.

The prize in the November/December contest is an out-of-print book "Panoramas of England". I found another copy of this great book, and thought you might enjoy a chance again to win it. And because it is the holiday season, and Christmas will soon be upon us, I will be including in the prize a delightful reproduction fan, in its own silk case. Visit my contest page to see larger pictures of both the book and the fan.






I hope you will sign the guestbook by December 30, 2009 to be entered for the new draw.

There is a new page added to my Regency World--Views of Regency London. London in the Regency era was very different from the present day city, and these pictures give the Regency reader a glimpse of the world we all would love to visit.

There is also a new picture on the Colouring Book page--of an English lady dressed for a showery day with her umbrella. This picture is period, not by Shakoriel, but I find it absolutely charming.


Perfect Christmas gifts for all lovers of the Regency World are available at Regency Fancies the store at CafePress.com that artist Shakoriel and I have established. You can buy the Fashions of Regency England Colouring Book and a variety of other products there all embellished with Shakoriel's Regency art. Christmas Gifts from Regency Fancies -- at CafePress.com

Now Available! - "Lost in Almack's"

I am delighted to announce that my new 'Novel Byte' short Regency fiction piece "Lost in Almack's" is now available from Uncial Press.

When Lady Genevra Haven becomes lost in the back corridors and staircases of Almack's she needs courage and ingenuity, as well as charm and confidence, to avoid social ruin and salvage her successful debut.

Romance Reviews Today says "a delightfully fun and lively foray".

Click here to purchase "Lost in Almack's"

And don't forget you can find me all over the Internet:
Facebook

MySpace
Follow me at Twitter for all-Regency tweets and my latest news!
My Book Videos at YouTube
and of course,
My Artist - Shakoriel

I'll be back next week, with more Regency research and information,

'Til then,

Lesley-Anne

Ruminations on Website Contests

I diverge a little from the Regency this week to ruminate on website contests. I am running a new one on my website at http://www.lesleyannemcleod.com/contest.html.
The prize in the new contest is a copy of the Fashions of Regency England Colouring Book. If you sign the guestbook before August 30, you have a chance to win the prize. This is my usual promo blurb and I've been posting it in lots of places.

We authors run website contests for profoundly commercial reasons. We want to drive traffic to our websites. And also we want to gather names and addresses for our mailing lists. And our ultimate goal is, of course, to sell more books to the people visiting our websites and populating our mailing lists. These are very self-serving reasons for running website contests.

But they are very real reasons too. If I don't sell books, I can't afford to write. Oh, I can write for myself, or for my family, but I can't afford to take the extra time and energy to put my books before the public if I don't do everything I can to sell them.

'Everything I can' means writing this blog, maintaining my website, appearing on Myspace, Twitter, and YouTube. It means offering a prize and publicizing that prize to encourage people to visit my website and hear about my books.

When I began my website contest, I had a store of romance-themed book posters left over from my ownership of a bookstore. The posters had been too pretty to throw out but I had no use for them. I thought perhaps other people might enjoy them, so I offered them as my first prizes. People really enjoyed them, but eventually I ran out of them, and looked around for other prizes.

I turned to books--Regency and history-themed non-fiction books mostly--they seem appropriate and some are out of print. And I have some other interesting prizes in the offing--hand made Mardi Gras style masks and some handmade jewelry. But right now, I'm giving away prizes from Regency Fancies--because I'm so delighted with our products and thrilled with results of placing Shakoriel's art on useful objects. I'd like to know what you find interesting for prizes and I'd appreciate your opinion on website contests in general.

So I give away these prizes on my website for commercial reasons. I also give away things because it's fun. It's often said that the giver receives more than the recipient. That is certainly true for me and my website contest. It pleases me to give someone pleasure, to give them a chance to win something, to give them something pretty or useful. The gift helps my business of course but, more than that, it gives me a lift every time I notify a winner.

I hope you will enter my contests, and I hope you will win. Don't forget to sign my guestbook--www.lesleyannemcleod.com!

Until next time,

Lesley-Anne

A new bi-monthly contest

It was April 30 the other day--and that meant I did a contest drawing. Debby from the U.S.A. won the blank journal from Regency Fancies. The prize for May and June is a packet of 10 blank notecards-with Shakoriel art--from Regency Fancies. Go here to read about the contest and view the prize.


I have done some updates to my website. I added new pictures to the Transportation page

to the Childhood and Education page

and to the Regency colouring book

I hope you will visit my website and explore the additions! Also I am just getting started on Twitter. I will be posting soon at http://twitter.com/lesleyannemc

That's all the news for now,

Lesley-Anne

I'm a Guest Blogger; New Release

Rather than cross-post, I'm going to refer you to the blog at which I am guesting today. Please visit me at Prairie Chicks Write Romance. I'm there all day today, Sat March 14, answering questions and comments. We're talking about scheduling new releases, the juggling act that writers do sometimes, and other authorly problems. Please join me at Prairie Chicks.

I'm delighted to announce that my new release, "Emilina's Conquest" is now available at Uncial Press http://www.uncialpress.com/books/emilinas/emilinas.html This is my fourth Novel Byte and will be followed in October this year by a fifth, "Lost in Almack's".

And by the way, do check out my Regency Fancies store again. We have updated it and added new products.

Till next time,

Lesley-Anne

Picturing the Regency

I have a new contest up on my website. If you'd like to enter it, please visit the home page http://www.lesleyannemcleod.com/ and go to the guestbook to sign up and be entered in the draw. The prize this time--for March and April--is a blank, lined journal with Shakoriel's Regency art on the cover. The journal is from our CafePress store, Regency Fancies www.cafepress.com/regencyfancies


When we started the CafePress store, I just wanted Shakoriel's Regency art to find a bigger market. It is so good, so evocative of the Regency period, that it seemed to me it deserved a larger audience than it could find if it remained only on my website.


I am so fortunate to have a resident artist. And I am so lucky she doesn't charge me an arm and a leg for every illustration. She's just starting out, glad for the commissions, and I'm happy to give her the work. Because you see, there just isn't a lot of Regency art available for use, for reasonable prices.

I need art for website information, for book trailers, for promotional materials and for covers. I comb out of copyright books (thank goodness for Google Books and Project Gutenberg), free clip art sites and Dover's invaluable clip art series for appropriate illustrations. There is a Regency romance writer who does a great deal of promotion, and she uses literally dozens of the grand Regency artworks to illustrate her essays, blogs and newsletters. I don't know how she affords it. I certainly can't. Most of the Regency art that you will see on book covers, websites and various publications is all copyrighted at stock art agencies. It costs a fortune to use original Regency art--at least $300-$500 for a single time use. Places like Mary Evans Picture Library, and Corbis.com, and Clipart.com, are invaluable, but they cost, big-time.


If the picture is from a book, you can't use it without permission or licensing. If it's on a website, you need to make sure it hasn't come from somewhere else without permission. I tried to get permission from the publisher to use Barbosa's art from Theresa Chris' out of print book. They didn't even answer my letter. So I am using it but with full attribution, and even then, it's a risk. The Internet is a huge problem for artists--as much as it makes their work available to the world, it also makes it available for pirating. As I work in the creative field, I am concerned about pirating. And I want my illustrations to be legal and above-board. But I do want to have lots of Regency art.

As I've said before I'm a visually oriented person. I want to see what the Regency looked like and I want to show my readers what it looked like. Shakoriel helps me do that.

Thanks, Shakoriel!

Till next time,
Lesley-Anne

Announcing 'Regency Fancies'

I have to use today's blog for advertising because I am very excited about a totally new venture that I have undertaken with my artist Shakoriel. We have developed a CafePress store offering Shakoriel's wonderful Regency costume art on a variety of products.

We have three different designs of Regency ladies on products at present--they are all from the Regency Colouring Book and lend themselves very well to product decoration. We have T-shirts, totebags, notecards and journals available as well as one or two novelties. Eventually the Regency Colouring Book will be available through CafePress also.

As we have worked on the Regency Colouring Book, Shakoriel has produced some beautiful artwork. I realized that it was a shame to own this fabulous art and not make it more widely available. We decided that CafePress would give us a venue for product design and hopefully we have chosen products you will enjoy. If you would like to see Shakoriel's art on some specific item, please let us know, and we will see if we can accommodate you.

Please visit our store at http://www.cafepress.com/regencyfancies and let us know what you think!

Til next time,
Lesley-Anne