Research-Napoleonic Wars

Smuggler's Captain takes place in December 1796, with Her Captain's Honor taking place one month later in January 1797. So what was happening in the world during that time?

The War of the First Coalition was more a series of wars than a prolonged war that we think of like WWII. There were allies. Sorta. English, Portuguese, Dutch, parts of what is now Italy,  (Spain for a bit), and Austrian against the French and some remnants of the Polish lands (they'd been torn apart by Austria, Russia, and Prussia), and Spain from 1796.

This, by later scholars, was considered a true World War. 

War of the First Coalition | Military Wiki | Fandom

War of the First Coalition - Wikipedia

• In December 1796, The British government begins work on a 40-acre site at Norman Cross, becoming the first ever prisoner of war camp that was made specifically for POWs. 
• December 18, 1796 British Navy ship HMS Courageux is wrecked on the Barbary Coase, 464 of the 593 onboard were lost.
• January 3, 1797 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).
• January 7, 1797 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as the official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).
• January 13, 1797 – Action of 13 January 1797, part of the War of the First Coalition: Two British Royal Navy frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, drive the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l'Homme aground on the coast of Brittany, with over 900 deaths.
• January 14, 1797 – Battle of Rivoli during the War of the First Coalition: French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte defeat an Austrian army of 28,000 men, under Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi, near Rivoli (modern-day Italy), ending Austria's fourth and final attempt to relieve the fortress city of Mantua.
• January 26, 1797 – The Treaty of the Third Partition of Poland is signed in St. Petersburg by the Russian Empire, Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia.

Tidbit Tuesday-Breakfast

 Before my normal 9-5 job, I usually ate breakfast when I was hungry. Normally around 10-ish. But with my working hours starting at 8:30, I had to adapt. I couldn't eat my breakfast at work (that's definitely frowned upon!) but even after 20+ years, I'm still not happy with this new routine.

Apparently, I was meant to eat during Regency times.

Regency breakfast image from Pinterest.

According to a Jane Austen letter as well as a snippet from Pride and Prejudice, breakfast in the country was at 9 or 10 am. I can definitely get behind that! Breakfast was also a social affair, with everyone dining together. I'm sure that was more for the food's sake than sociality, but I'm not sure.

Breakfast in London was much later, because they kept later hours.

Regency History: Breakfast in the Regency

Breakfast in the Regency Era and their Definition of Morning | Jane Austen's World (janeaustensworld.com)

Regency Dish: Breakfast – Regency Reader (regrom.com)

Self Care Monday-Walking Away

 Contrary to popular belief, walking away is not quitting. It's taking care of yourself. That whole saying about doing what's best for you? That includes walking away from something that's not in your best interest. 

Recently a longtime co-worker got married and quit. Do we miss her? Hell yes. Are we jealous? HELL YES! But what she said to me when she was debating how long to stay was "I don't want them to win." (It's a long sordid tale about layoffs, potential layoffs, and toxicity.) 

What I told her I want everyone to understand. Staying in a horrible work environment (or relationship of any kind) isn't sticking it to someone. it's not letting them win. It's draining and hard and not worth it in the end. So if you have to walk away, walk away! 

Do what's best for you. Sure, there are always extenuating circumstances, but really think about what's important and what's best for you. 

Walking away isn't quitting. It's winning.

Christmas with You-Cover Reveal!

Isn't it amazing! I love it! Graziana made it from GM Book Covers Design. She's amazing to work with and so lovely.

Available July 3, 2022, Christmas with You! This is a quick, 10,000-word Christmas story set immediately after One Day with You. It's a Christmas in July celebration! Not part of my VIP-ers? It's free and easy to register, and you get some fun freebies like my Louise and Malcolm series. 

 

Another Word Search!

I created another word search because I love them so much. They're my favorite sort of word games. I'm not very good at crossword puzzles, but finding something? Like those hidden object games or word searches--those are my thing. 

This one is based on Sins of a Rogue. I hope you enjoy!

Once again, I'm 99% certain I embedded this correctly. Let me know if you have a problem!

Self Care Monday-Negativity

 If you spent more than 30 seconds with any self-help idea, you'll hear about pattern interrupt. But I learned something the other day that really changed how I think about myself. This wasn't even from a self-help site, but it really struck home.

"Stop."

That's all he said. 😎

When he found himself being negative, mostly to himself but also just in general, he said that aloud. Literally interrupted his thinking with a verbal command. According to him, it took a month or so to really stop thinking so negatively, but it worked.

The moral of the story? Stop talking down to yourself and if you have to yell at yourself to stop doing so then do it! Why? Because you're worth it.😍

My Socials

Where can you find me? Usually petting my pup, who insists on laying as close to me as possible, laptop be damned. Otherwise? I have several social media accounts where I try to post daily (working on that!) and new and exciting writing-and-pup related things.

 I'm now on TikTok! If that's your thing, please give me a follow. But I also try to cross post to Instagram and Twitter. 

See what I mean by right there? She's watching me! Probably judging, too.

Tidbit Tuesday-Flobarts

 What, you may ask, is a flobart? Research is a funny thing. You look up a random name of a town along the French coast and stumble upon a rabbit hole of fascinating information!

When looking for a French Channel coastal town for Louise in One Day with You, I found Wissant, a real beauty of a locale. What I normally do when looking for a town is find one on the map, search for it online to see if I can discover anything more than a name, and go from there.

Wissant is a real town, inhabited since at least the early Middle Ages. At one time, it was the port town, before coastal erosion and the rise of Calais. And then I found this line in the (very) short Wiki page:

Wissant has been a fishing village for a millennium: along with Audresselles it is the last fishing village in France to use a traditional method of fishing using a wooden boat called a flobart 

A flobart? I've no idea what that is. There's no link within the Wissant or Audresselles Wiki articles. But there is a French language (very) short Wiki page! (You need to translate it.)

Yes, it's just a fishing boat, but it's a cool fishing boat! An historic fishing boat that's still in use today. This type, according to the French Wiki page, is similar to the Venetians mentioned in Julius Ceasar's diary on the Gallic Wars.

The flobart is what Louise's father and brothers use when fishing off the French coast. 

Wissant - Wikipedia

Flobart — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org)

Photo from the Flobart Wiki page.

Self Care Monday-Caring for Yourself

 I see this a lot, oh, take time to self-care! Like hello, do I have time for that? NO! I don't have hours and hours to take a hike or drive to the beach for a sunrise (sunrises are sooo early!!) Or even taking half my afternoon to pamper myself. If I'm taking time in an afternoon, it's to nap. Not because I got up to see a sunrise but because I'm constantly exhausted. 

This isn't to say you shouldn't. If you have the time and inclination, take all the time you need to get out of your head and take care of yourself. Me? I feel guilty taking more than say 30 minutes on anything related to myself and not to working on something.

Which is a problem, don't get me wrong. I'm working on it!

All of which leads me to say--you don't have to spend 1/2 your free time trying to self-care then stressing about it and not making any progress. I take a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening. Just a few each day.

Sometimes I mediate, sometimes I watch more than 1 episode of a show and not do anything else while watching. (I'm all or nothing with TV. I'll binge 7 seasons of Doctor Who in 5 weeks or I'll watch 1 episode every couple of weeks and rarely get anywhere.)

Bottom line? Take a tiny bit of time for yourself even if it's to listen to your all time favorite song. You can sit still and relax for the length of a song.

Smuggler's Captain Reviews

I want to make a huge shoutout to everyone who's read and reviewed Smuggler's Captain. 😍 It really does mean the world to me that you've taken the time to both read my story and write a review! 

If you've read and enjoyed Smuggler's Captain, then please think about joining my review team!

 

Tidbit Tuesday- UK Post Office

In Christmas with You, Louise is eagerly awaiting a letter from Malcolm. Though I don't even mention post office deliveries or have it happen on-page, it got me thinking.

 Having read and watched Pride & Prejudice multiple times, I had a vague understanding that when you received a letter, you paid for the letter. Which sounds like a hugely complicated system of paperwork but whatever. 

Who sent it, who received it, who paid, who didn't, who needs to pay because the receiver refused. And this went on for nearly 200 years!

The British Post Office (the GPO or General Post Office) was established by Oliver Cromwell (1657) and later confirmed by King Charles II (1660). (According to 3 sources, but not this 4th.) With the Restoration, the GPO created post offices where you could bring your mail. Or packages, mostly all that we ship today. 

The item was then moved to a distribution center (still same as today) and sorted for other distribution centers then sent out for delivery. It was here that the receiver paid the post fee. This fee was based on distance carried. When the item arrived, the receiver had the right to refuse and therefore not pay. This made fees ridiculously complex and oftentimes very expensive. 

I'm not sure what happened to the refused items, I presume they were delivered back to the originator, and they then had to pay--but I have no idea. I'd also presume they'd pay twice the rate, there and back, but again, no idea. The articles I read skipped over what I consider a very important piece of post office history!

It wasn't until 1840 that the first uniform stamp was introduced, the Penny Post, and that equalized rates.

The History Press | A short history of the Post Office

Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain - Wikipedia

General Post Office - Wikipedia

The History of the Post Office | Blog | Automatic Access

Photo from https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/a-short-history-of-the-post-office/

Self Care Monday-One thing

I'm really good at this concept for the first couple days. Then I forget, misplace my list, am too tired...etc., etc., etc.

But this is the Do One Thing per day concept I try to live by. Instead of cleaning the whole house in a day (do people really do this?!)  Take one thing and do it. Oh, that recycling is piling up. Take it out. Then check it off your list, real or imaginary!

Oh, the laundry. Yes, the laundry. Always the laundry! But doing a load a day instead of all at once has really saved my sanity. Towels, sheets, clothes, all separate and on separate days. Plus then it doesn't pile up (as much!) as if I do them all on the same day.

It goes for my writing life, too. Today is writing a single chapter or editing one. Tomorrow is to make sure I have posts for the week. The next day is back to writing. Doing it all in the same day always takes longer than I think it will and then I run out of time and patience with myself and more importantly, energy.

Bonus-Word Search!

 Hello!

I made a really 😎cool😎downloadable PDF of a word search for Husband of Convenience. You should be able to click on the link and download and print out a copy. I did test it and it worked, here's hoping it wasn't just on my computer!

As an added measure, I embed it in this post.