Bad(der) Girls and Forbidden Books

The proposal I’m working on at the moment has for a heroine a former dominatrix, a woman cast out of polite society, who took to prostitution to survive, and now has made enough money to retire. She also carries a big grudge which is where the story gets to be fun. (Cross your fingers my editor likes this idea!)

Anyway, I thought I better do some research on historical dominatrixes, and did what I usually do: Google.

I came up with Theresa Berkley, who ran a brothel devoted to flagellation during the Regency period, and who apparently invented or commissioned the Berkley Horse, which enabled her to whip anybody, well, on any part of the body. I have yet to find a picture or a good description of this, which means I get to use my imagination!

However, the reference to her was awfully circular. From Wikipedia to the Deviant’s Dictionary entry on flagellation and back again, the text identical, and all referencing the same book.

Right, says I. Let’s see this book then. So a copy of it finally arrived on Saturday. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but this source book, Index of Forbidden Books is not that list that the Catholic Church once prohibited (although I’m sure all these books are on there) but a list of Victorian erotica complete with reviews, and with lots of side-trip details, like talking about the madams of various brothels, or sharing a short story. No pictures, alas, and the only extant copy of it seems to be a Sphere 1969 imprint, although Wikipedia again tells me that the original is in the British Library or Museum or somewhere. So I think it’s the real deal.

It still feels a bit circular to me, but the author is the guy they think wrote or edited My Secret Life, about a young Victorian man’s womanizing. And that book’s credentials have been proven.

In any case, the Index of Forbidden Books is cool in that it dips back to pre-Victorian erotica, and so we get to learn about women like Mrs. Theresa Berkley. Who in the code parlance of the day is known as a “governess”. Which phrase I get to have fun with in my current WIP.

Anyway, here are some titles plucked randomly from Index of Forbidden Books:

PRETTY LITTLE GAMES for Young Ladies and Gentlemen. With Pictures of Good Old English Sports and Pastimes, by T. Rowlandson, 1845. (Yes, that Rowlandson).

MEMOIRS OF ROSA BELLEFILLE: or, A Delicious Banquet of Amorous Delights! Dedicated to the Goddess of Voluptuous Pleasure, and her soul-enamoured votaries. (Ashbee’s review begins: “This is an insipid, tiresome book...”)

THE ADVENTURES OF AN IRISH SMOCK. Interspersed with Amatory Anecdotes of a Nankeen Pair of Breeches. By Terence O'Tooleywag, Esq.

MADAME BIRCHINI’S DANCE. A Modern Tale, With Considerable Additions, and Original Anecdotes collected in the Fashionable Circles. Now first published by Lady Termagent Flaybum.


OK, so somebody’s got to name they’re crazy aunt this or something similar!

I'm glad that the titles I made up for the erotica library in SHOW ME weren't too out of line!

Well, I guess I better stop blogging and resume work on this proposal. I decided on Friday to cut everything except the first half of the first chapter. This is what we call a “false start”, or if you’re under deadline (which I’m not currently), it’s called “Oh sh--t!”

Bad Girls

This month I got an email from a fan who basically asked me: Did people in the Regency period really behave that way? (That is, have mad rampant sex out of wedlock.)

"Hell, yes" was the short answer.

The longer answer goes something like this.... if Jane Austen could allude to it in her books, then not only did it happen, but it must have been known to unmarried women in order for them to write about it.

Yes, the venerable Jane Austen knew about sex out of wedlock -- and the associated consequences -- which, not to spoil, I address in SHOW ME. I can think of a number examples of her work right off the top of my head:

Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice: runs off with Wickham and is found living in sin. Wickham is bribed to marry her, and Lydia is as happy as larry. As the saying goes. Completely oblivious that she'd just run her family's name through the mud.

Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park: gets married and then has a torrid affair and is packed off to somewhere in the country. Although I don't remember if there was an annulment or a divorce because of it. Maria behaved very badly.

Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park: a very badly behaved character. You practically get to witness her attempted seduction of the virtuous Edmund. A very bad sort -- and yet moving around in polite society. Which I think means, she's suspected of being a very bad sort -- but has yet to be caught out at it.

Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility: a foolish girl who causes scandal with the "Wickham" of the book and should have been banished from society, but of course does the right thing and becomes terribly ill and then Alan Rickman marries her. (Lucky girl.)

And I am not entirely unconvinced that Lucy Steele from Sense and Sensibility was the innocent she makes herself out to be. Why on earth else would you propose to someone if you didn't want to sleep with them? And, as I understand it, it was not uncommon for the bed to be shared prior to the wedding night -- although I think this may have been restricted to the lower classes.

OK, so Jane Austen is rampant with "bad girls" left and right. "Bad girls" in that they aren't the virtuous innocents we have been used to reading about in most modern day Regency romances. And now's our chance to write about them.

And from history, we have the ultimate bad girl -- Caroline Lamb, mad bad and dangerous to know. (OK, so she said it about Byron, but really, it applies to herself.) She ran about dressed in men's clothing, caused all sorts of scenes before Byron, not to mention being his lover, and yes, I think she was married when all this happened, but she certainly didn't behave like she was. Poor thing ended up "mad" and locked away at a family estate, I believe. Quite the Victorian moral ending to a wild life, non?

So, please, don't give me this guff about how unmarried women in the Regency were innocents. That's a load of romantic codswallop. If they haven't experienced it for themselves, they've certainly heard about it. Because there were plenty of bad girls out there then. We didn't invent this illicit sex stuff you know.

Erotic Reading Right Out Loud

I’m veering away from the historical discussion (although after a recent post, I’m ready to chant “nub, nub, nub!” just to get Jane going) and into another erotic realm.

Last week, Lacy and I (and some others) participated in an erotic reading at Babeland in Seattle. It was the second time I’ve ever written my work aloud, and the first time it’s been the erotic stuff. It was a lot of fun, listening to the readings and looking around the store at the toys available. (If you haven’t guessed, Babeland is an adult store.) Drinkies afterward was fun too but if I shared any of that, Lacy and the others would have to kill me, I’m sure.

(Yes, that's me, reading in front of floggers and harnesses and blindfolds, oh my!)


And yes, I did buy a toy -- the iBuddy, in fact, which you can plug your iPod or other mp3 player and vibrate in time to the music. I haven’t tried it out yet. I mean, I can’t call it an excuse for research, as I’ve already written the book where the modern-day heroine takes bag of toys back to the Regency period. (ONE MORE TIME, out in December.)

So I won’t. *wicked grin*

Back to the erotic reading. There were six of us rotating through the evening and it made me realize some things that are incredibly important to reading something erotic aloud.

For one thing, you can’t get off on what you’re reading because you’re in a room packed with people.

I glanced up occasionally to gauge response, but really couldn’t tell. One guy left during my reading and came back later, but I’ve no idea if that means his cell phone went off or... well, something else.

So here are some tips to reading erotica aloud and in public:

1. It is a story, like any other, and should be read as if you were telling it, not reading it: with interest and intensity. Vary the cadences of your voice. I found when I practiced at home, I was in a monotone, so I made an effort to brighten it up a bit. (No idea whether this worked.)
   
2. Use slightly different voices for different characters: for example, I went slightly higher for the heroine, and slightly lower for the hero.
   
3. Remember to breathe. (Almost forgot that one the second time up.) Pause between sentences, paragraphs and so on.
   
4. Given the language, treat explicit words as any other garden variety word -- unless its in dialogue and then say the dialogue how your character says it.
   
5. Explain the scene set up before you start. (Hmm, maybe I should’ve listed that one first.) It helps the listeners get more involved with the story if they know what’s at stake.
   
6. Revel in the wit. Relish telling the story. Grin at appropriate moments and pause for laughter.
   
7. (And I learned this from observing one of the other authors) Schmooze your audience during the breaks.
   

I’ve written a scene in SHOW ME (which also has a fair amount of “historical” sex toys in it) where the heroine reads aloud to the hero. But he’s touching her at the same time, so it was definitely a different demographic, reading aloud to a room filled with people.