There are times when I wish some of the manners of historical England transferred over to today. Then maybe people would be nicer to you in retail situations. I helped a guy today you said, "Whats up dog." as greeting to me, and he looked like he was on something. Ugh. Also they seemed to have such spirited witty conversations.
Today I realized why I am really glad that I don't live in that time period, and it isn't even anything obvious such as running water, electricity, or this computer. It is because it was sooo complicated to know what to call people and who was more powerful than who. It was a minefield of social customs. At least today it doesn't matter, I can say Mr. or Mrs. to anyone and not have to worry about how much money they have or how powerful they are. Granted I haven't had the chance to really test it but I'm sure it hold true.
If you want to check out all the strangeness that is the precedence table go to:
http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles07.html

I have been reading a lot about the romance genre because I know that as I start telling my friends and family what type of book I am writing, I am going to have some interesting reactions! I found one article gives a really great argument about why romance novels are not trash, which is something that I may have to argue in the coming weeks. Sarah Wendell says that romance isn't just about the sex, it is about putting another person ahead of you, and showing that person everyday that you love them. I completely agree with this and I can see this in every great romance book that I read. Check out the article at 

http://www.yourtango.com/201054929/why-romance-novels-are-smarter-than-you-think/page/1

Also check out the website Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, that Sarah is the co founder of.

I started the word document that is going to hold my novel. It is going to be a historical romance set in regency England because that is what I love to read and I heard some advice somewhere that you should write what you would want to read! My word document doesn't contain very much at this point. I have been thinking about my plot today while I should have been concentrating on other things and I caught myself staring into space while I was at Starbucks! Luckily no one noticed or else this is just normal for that particular Starbucks. It's hard to tell.

After drinking my vanilla latte, I went apartment hunting and realized a few important things: I have no idea how a manor house was set-up, what the streets looked like or what all the carriages they used where called. For all my historical  romance reading and Jane Austen obsessing, I have not learned very much about the time period. I guess I will just have to read one of Jane Austen's novels again. Sigh..... I wonder which one would be best!?

To conquer 90,000-10,000 words of romantic historical fiction.

This is the length required by Avon Books and since I love reading books published by then. Therefore I will strive to meet their requirements. It is a daunting task. I have written 8-10 page papers in college, but those have all been double spaced and usually in the largest font I could possibly do. Unfortunately there is no way to double space 10,000 words!

To do this I am going to write a chapter a month for the next year, with May being the beginning month. This means I only have to write 833 words per month! I'm not sure if that makes me happy or not.

Here is the website to Avon Books if you are interested. It is a really nicely put together website and the submission requirements are at the bottom of the home page.
http://www.avonromance.com/