We have a tendency to think of the Victorian era as being one of refinement and high morals.
While
it’s true religion and morality played a much bigger role in Victorian culture than today, I do
have a feeling we tend to exaggerate this point. Virginity was highly guarded, but I’m
wondering
how many virgins there actual were on their wedding night.
With that in mind, I found it wonderful to come across a piece of real life during my research
that
contradicts this notion of staid moralistic Victorians. Though it was no surprise, I discovered
that Victorians liked sex just as much as we do, they were just a bit more secretive about it.
Case in point, something I found with this Google search: New York City 1870. Pretty innocuous
search. I like to conduct searches like that because you never know what you might use in a
story.
Big storms. Massacres. Terrible fires. All that lovely stuff that makes an historical romance
at
least a little bit historical.
During that search I discovered a pamphlet titled “The Gentleman’s Companion,” which, in the
guise
of warning young men away from houses of ill repute, was actually a handy guide listing all the
brothels in the city. The pamphlet lists addresses and madams, and rated whether the “girls”
were
friendly and “cheerful.” It categorizes them as first, second, and third class establishments.
Of
course, at the beginning of the pamphlet, the author warns young men away from these houses.
It’s a
service, he explains, giving the young men of New York and those visiting a way of knowing
which
addresses to stay away from. Hmmm. Perhaps a list of churches would have served the author’s
purpose a bit better—if that’s what he’d actually intended.
What a find! In that moment, I knew I had to somehow incorporate that pamphlet into my book. Of
course, I couldn’t have my hero have a copy; not very heroic of him. So I created a wonderful
backstory about Mitch, my hero in BEHIND A LADY'S SMILE. I can’t tell you what role that pamphlet plays, for
I’d
be giving too much away, but I do think it’s tons of fun!
Read the review of BEHIND
A
LADY'S SMILE
GIVEAWAY
Visit my Fresh Fiction contest page for a chance to win handcrafted sea glass pendant. The contest
ends September 30!
Jane Goodger is the author of fifteen books, most of them historical romances. Jane
began
her writing career as a journalist working for several local newspapers. Her stint as a crime
reporter in Connecticut made her realize that she much preferred writing about happy endings
versus
real life.
Jane lives in Rhode Island with her husband, three children, half-feral cat and yappy
chihuahua.
When she's not writing, Jane loves traipsing along the seashore hunting for sea glass. Her sea
glass jewelry is available in several local stores and is featured in a local art gallery.
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The Lost Heiresses
It’s one thing for a girl to lose her way, quite another to lose her heart…
Genny Hayes could charm a bear away from a pot of honey. But raised in the forests of Yosemite,
she’s met precious few men to practice her smiles upon. Until a marvelously handsome
photographer
appears in her little corner of the wilderness and she convinces him to take her clear across
the
country and over the seas to England, where she has a titled grandmother and grandfather
waiting to
claim her.
On their whirlwind journey, she’ll have the chance to bedazzle and befuddle store clerks and
train
robbers, society matrons and big city reporters, maids and madams, but the one man she most
wants
to beguile seems determined to play the gentleman and leave her untouched. Until love steps in
and
knocks them both head over heels…
Read an Excerpt
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