Convince yourself into going without, but I made up my mind to grow into something else

[sovay]

It gives me great pleasure on this bright, damp Friday afternoon to announce the publication of Jeannelle M. Ferreira's The Covert Captain.

You may have heard me mention this novel elliptically in past years as selkie's lesbian Regency romance. It is that and it's wonderful. It is set in a meticulously historical, wittily written 1822 that does not in the slightest elide the many ways of being queer in England of that time; it has horses, cross-dressing, family drama, pistols at dawn, a pianoforte at all hours, and a completely viable remix of "Sweet Polly Oliver" down to the nursing, minus the heteronormativity. It has Jewish characters like you won't find in Heyer. It has high-quality smut. It has protagonists I love even better than the supporting cast, and I treasure those wherever I find them. (There is a sequel already in progress and it has even more characters I like, not to mention representation.) It is now available for purchase in both print and e-copies and I am not grabbing my entire friendlist by the lapels about it because that would be rude, but I do think the great majority of you will enjoy it. I certainly do.



Nathaniel Fleming, veteran of Waterloo, falls in love with his Major's spinster sister, Harriet. But Nathaniel is not what he seems, and before the wedding, the truth will out . . .

Eleanor Charlotte Fleming, forgotten daughter of a minor baronet, stakes her life on a deception and makes her name—if not her fortune—on the battlefield. Her war at an end, she returns to England as Captain Nathaniel Fleming and wants nothing more than peace, quiet, and the company of horses. Instead, Captain Fleming meets Harriet. Harriet has averted the calamity of matrimony for a decade, cares little for the cut of her gowns, and is really rather clever. Falling in love is not a turn of the cards either of them expected. Harriet accepts Captain Fleming, but will she accept Eleanor? Along the way, there are ballrooms, stillrooms, mollyhouses, society intrigue, and sundering circumstance.

Comments

[sovay]

Bought because, from the first pages on look-inside, the language is *wonderful*.

I hope you've enjoyed the rest of it equally!

And I think I need to look at least one thing up already.

Did it pan out?

[much_of_a]

I shan’t know for a little while - I’ve got to re-read Swordspoint next (for a panel at the UK Easter con - just re-read Lud in the Mist for the same reason), and then I think it’s probably top of my reading list.

[much_of_a]

It did.
I really enjoyed the book. The writing is very good, and the story involving. I don't have enough background on the particular romance genre to judge it on those terms, but that didn't matter - it stands alone as a good book. I did have various words/phrases to look up (which is nice) and one phrase that felt anachronistic, which probably means I need to find out more history (also good).
I was worried for the various participants at all the right points, and felt the use of he/she for Captain Fleming according to the viewpoint character was just jarring enough to the sensibilities.
I've left a review on Amazon, slightly varied from the above.

[sovay]

I really enjoyed the book.

I am very glad to hear it.

[selkie]

Oh, I'm so glad! What was the phrase that seemed out of synch? I take credit for all my mistakes (or I may be able to point you to whatever made me say the thing, e.g. a Regency slang source).

[much_of_a]

Ah - it was “fuck me seven ways from Sunday”. I’d naively thought most swearing in that period was more likely to be faith-based, and that particular phrase sounds more modern. On the whole, I assume that’s my ignorance. I don’t have a reference book on historical swearing (and if I dd it would probably be out of date), and it’s obviously rather hard to search such matters on the internet.

References to sources would be fun independently, though!

Tibs

[selkie]

I found out that French swearing was -- it's close to what you get in French Canada now -- but that the Anglo-Saxons were REALLY GOOD at Anglo-Saxon words. I doubt extremely much that Harriet would have heard those words regularly if her family hadn't been military, but if you ever, ever need a euphemism for penetrative sex, the Brits are your folk.

" {x} ways from Sunday " is from the mid-18th century. (Source: http://grammarist.com/idiom/six-ways-from-sunday/ )

Searchable Georgian and Regency idiomatic database: http://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/cant/search.php

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5402

So many ways to say fucking fucksticks, they had to CODIFY IT IN A BOOK.

[much_of_a]

Ooh - cool - thanks for the references too!