The Unwritten Rules of Regency Ballroom Conversation

By Camille Elliot/Camy Tang

Yes, it's AI-generated — but we did our homework. Costumes are period accurate for the Regency era, and her gown is based on the fashion plate below.

What Were You Actually Allowed to Talk About at a Regency Ball?

Picture this: you're in a candlelit ballroom, wearing stays that make breathing a creative exercise, and a young man you've never met is leading you onto the dance floor. You have approximately four minutes to make a good impression. And most of the interesting things in your head are completely off-limits.

Welcome to the Regency London Season.

The Approved List

The rules around ballroom conversation were unwritten but universally understood: keep it light, keep it impersonal, and for heaven's sake, keep it safe.

Approved topics included the weather, the quality of the supper, the latest fashions from Paris, and music. Think of them as the small talk of 1811, designed to fill silence without revealing anything that might embarrass you or your family.

Jane Austen, who attended plenty of these events herself, had a lot of fun skewering this convention. In Northanger Abbey, the charming Henry Tilney meets Catherine Morland at a ball and immediately parodies the expected script, archly predicting exactly what they're supposed to say to each other—remarks about the rooms, the number of couples, and whether Catherine has been in Bath long. He's teasing, but he's also entirely accurate. That was the script.

But in Pride and Prejudice, while dancing with Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet does something rather radical—she asks questions, pushes back, even teases. Darcy is so unused to it that he doesn't quite know what to do with her. Their conversation crackles precisely because she refuses to be ornamental.

The Forbidden List

The forbidden list of conversational topics was just as clear, if never officially posted anywhere. Politics, religion, money, and anything that hinted at scandal were absolutely out. Even the war with Napoleon—which was very much ongoing and affecting nearly every family in England—was considered too grim, too masculine, and too real for polite mixed company. A young woman who voiced a strong opinion on the House of Lords risked being quietly labeled as odd, or worse, unfeminine.

Austen illustrates this perfectly with the Steele sisters in Sense and Sensibility. Anne can't stop chattering about "beaux”, speculating about which men might be interested in her, and going on and on about a doctor she's (supposedly) caught the eye of. It is a topic considered embarrassingly forward for a young woman of any refinement.

The Steeles share personal information too freely—for them there is no such thing as TMI. In a world where what you didn't say mattered as much as what you did, the Steeles said far too much.

Fashion plate of a Regency ball gown from Ackerman’s Repository, February 1809.

What Lissa Does Instead

Lissa Gardinier, the heroine of my novella Lissa and the Spy, is navigating exactly this needle-threading. Her mother has essentially given her a restricted vocabulary for the Season, and Lissa is ready to poke her eye out with a fork. It’s not that she doesn't understand the rules, but she understands them too well and finds them stifling:

She was not so obedient to her mother that she would subject herself to the torture of conversation topics such as the weather and the food at the ball, which she’d already discussed at length with her other dancing partners. So she asked a more unusual question. “Mr. Collingworth, shall you miss activities at your country estate while you are in town?”

His slack-jawed face abruptly became animated. “Yes indeed, Miss Gardinier. I breed hunting dogs, you see, and I’ve had particular luck this year with several pups …”

It's a small act of rebellion—asking about his life instead of praising the folds of his cravat—and it works beautifully.

Until it doesn't:

Last year during that first dance with Mr. Collingworth, upon seeing him excitedly discuss his dog breeding, she had been encouraged to also speak without restraint.

So she had voiced her exact thoughts rather than hiding behind a vapid facade. “Why in the world would you name a dog Lickspittle Furrybottom?”

At Mr. Collingworth’s startled look, Lissa realized that she’d said that out loud now, in this dance with him.

“… Not that it’s not a lovely name,” she added lamely.

Mr. Collingworth didn’t believe her, and his conversation faltered. She regretted that, for she hadn’t intended to be rude to him.

“Er … did I speak of Lickspittle Furrybottom?” he asked.

Lissa did a mental shriek at her mistake. “We spoke briefly about her last year. You were worried about her compatibility with Snout Droolalot.” To alleviate his embarrassment at not remembering her, she said, "I was relieved to hear that Lickspittle Furrybottom and Snout Droolalot had such a healthy litter. What are your plans for their puppies?” Talking about puppies was acceptable dance conversation, wasn’t it?

It pleased Mr. Collingworth to continue discussing puppies for the remainder of the dance.

Lissa’s desire to just say something real is the same one Austen's best heroines wrestle with. Alas, the ballroom rewarded performance and punished honesty.

And yet the characters we remember, the ones who feel truly alive on the page, are the ones who couldn't quite manage to perform perfectly.

Some things, it seems, never change.

About the Author

Camy Tang writes Christian historical and contemporary romance filled with intrigue, adventure, and faith. Under the pen name Camille Elliot, she writes the Christian Regency romantic suspense series Lady Wynwood’s Spies, set in 1811 London where secrets, espionage, and slow-burn romance unfold against the glittering backdrop of high society.

If you enjoy Regency romance with adventure and a dash of humor, you can receive her novella Lissa and the Spy free when you join her newsletter.

Lissa and the Spy

A Regency Romantic Suspense Novella

In her quest for a marriage of convenience, plain and unpopular Lissa finds herself entangled with the enigmatic Lord Jeremy Stoude, who has a secret mission for the Crown. As danger stalks them, they must navigate a labyrinth of society’s expectations and their own insecurities to find love.

Click here to get Lissa and the Spy

Did Christianity Turn Roman Slavery Upside Down? Maybe.

by Liisa Eyerly

When a novel is set in ancient Rome, it is almost impossible to avoid the subject of slavery. In the Roman Empire, slavery was everywhere. Some historians estimate that as many as one-third of the population was enslaved. Unlike slavery in early America, Roman slavery was not based on race. Masters and slaves were often the same ethnicity, spoke the same language, and sometimes even came from the same region. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Livia%2C_the_wife_of_Augustus%2C_superintending.jpg?

Most Romans saw slavery as a normal part of life. 

Philosophers like Aristotle even argued that some people were “natural slaves.” He believed certain people were meant to do physical labor and were better off being ruled by others. Whether someone became enslaved through war, debt, or punishment, very few people questioned the system itself. Slavery helped power the Roman economy, its armies, and its growing empire. Faustyna E., CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Then Christianity entered the picture.

The writers of the New Testament never directly called for the end of slavery. The Apostle Paul still told slaves and masters how to live within the system that already existed. But Christianity introduced a dangerous new idea: before God, slave and free were equal. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 that in Christ “there is neither slave nor free.” In churches across the empire, slaves worshiped beside masters, shared the Lord’s Supper together, and called each other brothers and sisters. 

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To most Romans, this sounded absurd. Roman society depended on status, rank, and legal divisions. Christianity quietly challenged those divisions by teaching that a person’s value came from God, not from wealth or social position. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/The_early_days_of_Christianity_%281922%29_%2814765643872%29.jpg

That tension appears throughout my novels set in places like Ephesus. In cities loyal to Rome, Christian communities created an uncomfortable gray area where slaves, merchants, soldiers, and nobles gathered as equals. Roman authorities did not always understand this movement, but they recognized it could weaken the social order that held the empire together, and began persecuting the followers of this strange religion.

Christianity did not end Roman slavery overnight. That would take centuries. But it planted ideas about human worth and equality that slowly began to crack the foundations of the system.  


                                                                                              Fortunes of Death

In the bustling streets of ancient Ephesus, fortunes can change in an instant. When one of the city’s wealthiest citizens is found crushed beneath his own triumphant memorial, the powerful elite demand justice—but at what cost? Enigmatic investigator Sabina faces her most perilous case yet. As secrets unravel and enemies close in, she must navigate political intrigue, dark sorcery, and forbidden love to uncover the truth. In a city where everyone has something to hide, who can be trusted? And how far will Sabina go to solve a mystery that could cost her everything?

Liisa’s books have been called a cross between Agatha Christie and Francine Rivers. Her mystery novel, Obedient Unto Death, won the Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award for a debut novel and first place in the Spiritual Fiction category. The sequel, Fortunes of Death, continues the Secrets of Ephesus series, weaving fascinating Christian twists into the historical mystery genre of the first-century Roman Empire. Liisa’s travels to Turkey, Greece, and Italy have enriched her stories with vivid depictions of New Testament culture, history, and people.

Liisa’s journey into writing proves it’s never too late to follow your dreams and share your passion with the world.

Purchase her books at:
Crossriver Media 

• Fortunes of Death
• Obedient Unto Death
• My Amazon book page

Visit Liisa at:
Her website www.LiisaEyerly.com
Author Facebook page at Liisa Eyerly Author page

 

Western Hearths: What did Wild West Miners Eat?

May brought longer days and mild weather to western mining camps, resulting in hard labor for miners. They needed quick, filling meals to keep them strong, but cooking them wasn’t always easy. A miner’s kitchen might be little more than a campfire with a cast-iron pot suspended above the flames. Mining camp meals reflected the resourcefulness required to overcome this handicap—a quality that resonates with the kind of quiet heroism we love in western historical romance.

Available Food

Living in tents, rickety cabins, and bunkhouses, miners found fresh food hard to come by and difficult to preserve. On the western mining frontier, keeping food from spoiling was a constant challenge, especially in remote camps far from towns or supply lines. Most miners relied on foods that could survive long trips and rough conditions, like salt pork, jerky, dried beans, flour, rice, and hardtack biscuits. Salt was one of the most important preservation tools because it pulled moisture out of meat and helped prevent bacteria from growing. Some camps also smoked meat or stored food in cool cellars, caves, or streams to stretch its shelf life a little longer.

Fresh food was rare unless hunters brought in game or supply wagons arrived, so miners often ate the same preserved meals for weeks at a time. Coffee, bacon, and beans became staples not just because miners liked them, but because they lasted well in the harsh conditions of the Wild West.

Miners’ Cornbread and Bean Skillet

Cornbread became a staple of mining life for good reason. Simple, inexpensive, and packed with protein, it could be made over a fire, in a Dutch oven, or in a skillet. Enjoy it for breakfast or as a hearty supper at the end of a long, hard day.

Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
1 cup milk (or water for a more authentic version)
1 egg (if available)
2 tablespoons lard, butter, or bacon grease
1 can or 1½ cups cooked beans (pinto or kidney, lightly mashed)
Optional: diced onion, salt pork, or a pinch of herbs

Instructions
Preheat a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Grease with lard or butter.
In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Stir in milk and egg until just combined.
Pour half the batter into the skillet, spread the beans evenly over this, then pour the remaining batter on top.
Cook on the stovetop or over low heat for 15–20 minutes, until the bottom is golden. Carefully flip or finish under low heat until cooked through.
Serve warm, with butter or a drizzle of molasses if available.

Bring the Past Alive

May is a season of fresh starts, the perfect time to recognize the hardworking miners whose determination and grit helped build settlements across the western frontier. 

One simple and memorable way to connect with that history is by recreating a traditional miners’ skillet at home. Rustling up a hearty meal inspired by the past gives us insight into the lives of miners. It offers us a taste of history.

Your Thoughts

Let me know what you think of the recipe in the comments, below. Also, feel free to mention recipes from mining camp days. If you have cooked over a campfire, what was that like? 

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature an early age when her father read chapters from childhood classics to her as bedtime stories. After she grew older, Janalyn put herself to sleep with tales of her own. She trained more formally in writing through Christian Writers Guild.

Janalyn writes in several genres. She is an Amazon-bestselling author for her Montana Gold western historical romance series. New York Times bestselling author Eric Wilson endorsed Janalyn’s medieval epic fantasy series, Tales of Faeraven. Readers often describe Janalyn’s books as lyrical and transporting.

Learn more about Janalyn Voigt and the books she writes at http://janalynvoigt.com

Fall in Love with the Wild West

Journey through the pages of the Montana Gold series and discover six western historical romance adventures that will affirm your faith in love. Learn More.

Gilded Age Fire Safety in the Thousand Islands

During the Gilded Age, the Thousand Islands emerged as a glittering summer retreat for America’s wealthiest families. Palatial riverfront “cottages,” grand hotels, and elaborate boathouses dotted the St. Lawrence River, affording leisure and permanence. Yet beneath the elegance lurked a constant threat: fire. In an era before modern building codes and professional fire departments, fire safety in the Thousand Islands was a daily concern shaped by geography, technology, and social class.

Most Gilded Age structures were built of wood, often richly paneled and finished, and heated by coal or wood-burning stoves. Open flames were everywhere—lamps, candles, fireplaces—and electrical wiring, when present at all, was primitive and unreliable. Add to this the isolation of many islands, reachable only by boat, and a small spark could quickly become catastrophic. If a fire broke out, help might be miles away across open water.

Wealthy homeowners responded with a mix of innovation and improvisation. Some estates installed early fire alarms or gravity-fed water systems, drawing directly from the river to supply hoses and standpipes. Stone towers, iron doors, and firebreak walls were incorporated into the designs of larger mansions, not only as architectural flourishes but as defensive measures. Boathouses often doubled as emergency response hubs, stocked with buckets, axes, and hand pumps.

Hotels and resorts faced even greater risks. With dozens—sometimes hundreds—of guests, managers enforced strict rules: no smoking outside designated areas, lamps extinguished at certain hours, and night watchmen tasked with patrolling hallways. Despite these precautions, devastating fires still occurred. Several grand hotels burned to the ground in a single night, their losses underscoring how fragile Gilded Age luxury could be.

For local communities and service staff, fire safety relied heavily on cooperation. Bucket brigades were common, with neighbors rushing by boat to assist when smoke was spotted. The river itself was both a hazard and a lifeline—isolating properties, yet providing the water that made firefighting possible at all.

Fire safety in the Gilded Age Thousand Islands was ultimately a blend of privilege and vulnerability. The same ambition that built opulent retreats also heightened their risk, reminding residents that even amid wealth and beauty, nature and chance could not be fully controlled.

ABOUT MARY'S MOMENT:
It’s 1912, and Thousand Island Park’s switchboard operator Mary Flynn is the community heroine saving dozens of homes from a terrible fire. Less than a month later, when another disastrous fire rages through the Park, Mary loses her memory as she risks her life in a neighbor's burning cottage.

Widowed fireman George Flannigan is enamored by the brave raven-haired lass and takes every opportunity to connect with Mary. But he has hidden griefs of his own that cause him great heartache. When George can’t stop the destructive Columbian Hotel fire from eradicating more than a hundred businesses and homes, he is distraught. Yet George’s greater concern is Mary. Will she remember their budding relationship or be forever lost to him?

ABOUT SUSAN:
Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has sixteen in her fiction line. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys traveling the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction.

A Steady Man in an Unsteady World

  by Tom Goodman

This month's entry at Heroes, Heroines, and History is a post from my monthly newsletter. I open each newsletter with a story from turn-of-the-century Texas, or a quick review of a book or film from that place and time. Train Dreams does not come from that place, but it comes from that time. If you love historical fiction, and if you aspire to write it well, Train Dreams its worth adding to your list of books to read and films to watch.

++++++++++++++++++

Robert Grainier is a steady man.

That’s the way the novelist, Denis Johnson, described him in his novella, Train Dreams. That’s the way he’s presented in the film by the same title, too. 

Much of the story revolves around his labor in the Idaho timber industry in the opening years of the 1900s. When he meets a woman (at church) and they have a daughter, he finds renewed purpose in his hard work.

A steady man, then. 

But a steady man in the midst of things beyond his control or comprehension.

In his own interior world, he can never quite resolve the regret for his role in an unjust act against a Chinese laborer. Nor can he settle his grief at losing his young family to a forest fire.

Things are beyond his control or comprehension in the world around him, as well. The stunning beauty and sudden danger of the forest in which he works is a point hard to miss.

In the film, he gains an ever-widening realization of just how vast this beautiful, baffling world is. 

In one scene, he stands with a friend on a forest service lookout tower and scans miles of the forest where he worked. 

In aother scene, he takes a single-engine plane flight to “see the world as only the birds do.” 

Then in 1962, as an old man, he watches through a department store window as a television displays John Glenn’s first images of Earth as seen from space. “Is that--?” he asks a stranger watching the television next to him. “That’s us,” she replies.

Train Dreams is the only book of Johnson’s that I’ve read, so far. I’m told many of the characters in his other novels and short stories are erratic and eccentric.  

Not Robert Grainier. He moves through all the experiences of his life with what one movie reviewer called a “strapping stoicism.” 

The fact that he cannot make sense of it all does not lead him to conclude that this life is meaningless.

The late Denis Johnson—a complicated Christian—once told a reporter for New York magazine, “What I write about is really the dilemma of living in a fallen world, and asking: Why is it like this if there’s supposed to be a God?” 

I read Train Dreams while I was writing my forthcoming novel. Since my story is set in East Texas timber, it made sense to read Johnson's story set in Idaho timber during the same era. I’m editing the manuscript now, and it occurs to me that a version of Robert Grainier found his way into my story somewhere along the way. One of the characters has that same stoic steadiness. 

Give Johnson’s story a look (book; film). And be on the lookout for my novel, Through Many Dangers, later this year. To find out when it drops, subscribe to my newsletter or follow me on Facebook.

Fannie Farmer- the Mother of Level Measurements

 

 

Fannie Farmer

Did you know cookbooks weren't always as precise as they are today? For centuries, women learned to cook by trial and error, watching their mothers and learning to sense the right amounts and correct temperatures. And as in anything, some people aren't intuitive when it comes to cooking. In that case, your family ate your overcooked fare, because throwing it out wasn't an option.

Enter Fannie Merrit Farmer, and the world of cooking changed. Fannie was born on March 23,1857 in Boston. She came from the middle-class, was well-educated, and very bright. An illness that left her unable to walk for a few years stole her dreams of attending college. While she recovered her health, she learned to cook and so managed the household tasks for her family. Once she was well enough, she worked as a cook and domestic in several households. Her exceptional organizational skills in the kitchen made her a desirable employee.

In 1889, she entered the Boston Cooking School. In her early thirties, she was their oldest student. She chose this school for its scientific approach to cooking and nutrition, which was becoming a popular approach to cooking in the late nineteenth century. Rather than intuitive cooking, it strove to experiment with various dishes. They used measuring cups and spoons to ensure consistency. Their experiments were systematic, for example increase the salt, or add one new ingredient, then record the result and repeat with different measurements. Seeking to find the perfect combination. Using the scientific method provided more nutritional meals. The school focused on household management, especially in middle-class homes.

It wasn't long before Fannie was teaching there and then became its principal. Fannie had a heart to create a cookbook that would teach proper cooking techniques to anyone. The ones available had instructions such as "a large handful of flour, a glob of lard, butter the size of an egg, a pinch of a spice. The problem with them is hands and eggs came in various sizes. Teacups also came in a variety of sizes, and the recipes rarely specified the size. Fannie observed the wealthy had four ounce teacups. For other classes, their cups might be as large as twelve ounces. Therefore, one cook's bread failed while another's was light and fluffy. Not everyone used measuring cups or spoons, even though they were available. Even with proper equipment, recipes weren't specific enough.

She used the scientific method to create wholesome recipes and set about writing a cookbook with exact instructions. She explained each step in food preparation and how to do it. She is the one who insisted you use a knife to level a cup of dry ingredients evenly in a measuring cup.  

 

         When she approached a publisher with her cookbook, they were skeptical. So much so that they would only print 3,000 copies if she paid for it. She raised the money. The Boston Cooking School Cookbook sold out in a few weeks. The publisher had to hurry to print more copies for a second and third printing. It became the gift for new brides and a standard for every household. It changed American cooking forever. Her recipes used exact measurements, specified level cups and measuring spoons, precise cooking times, and explained techniques clearly, even including scientific information about food preparation. Fannie Farmer's desire was to see inexperienced cooks succeed consistently.

Fannie believed cooking was not only a practical household skill but a science that could improve health. She emphasized: cleanliness, nutrition, accuracy and efficiency. She also believed women deserved proper education in domestic management rather than being expected to learn everything informally.

In 1902 Fannie left the Boston Cooking School and opened Miss Farmer's School of Cookery. Not only did she offer housewife courses, but added nursing and dietitian training.

Perhaps her own poor health caused her to expand her interests to cooking for invalids and hospital patients. She added books on convalescent cooking to her publishing credits.

Fannie Farmer never married nor had a family of her own, yet she cared about families being healthy. Her life centered around teaching, writing and lecturing, sharing her passion not only for proper cooking techniques but also healthy living.

She died in Boston in 1915 at the age of 58 leaving a legacy as the mother of level measurements. Her cookbook continued to be sold for generations. The next time you use a recipe that insists you use a level measurement, you can thank Fannie Farmer.

What is your favorite go-to recipe book, and does it give specific instructions like Fannie?

I love Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks, I have two from different years.

 

Cindy Ervin Huff is a multi-published, award-winning author in Historical and Contemporary Romance. She’s a 2018 Selah Finalist. Cindy has a passion to encourage other writers on their journey. When she isn’t writing, she feeds her addiction to reading and enjoys her retirement with her husband of 50 plus years, Charles. Visit her at www.cindyervinhuff.com.

 My book Rescuing Her Heart is available in e-book for $1.99. Today is the last day for the sale. Delilah's mother was a cook in a grand house. Her mother taught her well, and those skills came in handy as she rebuilds her life after the trauma of an abusive husband. Click here to purchase.