Writing A Gilded-Age Romance Together
It's Time To Party Like It's 1899!
Um, whose idea was this anyway? That’s right, two madly in love people happily married for more than 35 years decided to stoke the flames of our romance even more by writing one. It was going to be a small project, a fun thing for us to write together and privately enjoy. Then, one thing led to another and suddenly we’re 40,000 words into a massive historical romance novel set in 1899 and the principal romantic interests just barely met. Looks like we’re in this for the long haul. Which is great because 1899 — the turn of the century as it was called for the next 100 years — is the time of New York’s first subway contract, swirling preparations for the Paris Exposition of 1900, and (in our fictional world) the only winter ball ever held in Newport! Don’t you wish you were there?
Researching Out Loud
We live in Greater Boston, we love the Gilded Age architecture of our fair city, the Newport mansions, and of course the remnants of that era in neighboring New York City. When we undertook to write this book we thought we’d lightly situate it in some of that fabulous environment, add some ball gowns, throw in a few pearl chokers with sentimental brooches attached, and we’d call it good. But then we (well, one of us) got carried away and the next thing you know, we are researching what kinds of spats a man wears to a matinee performance at the opera in 1899 and what sort of walking dress a single woman would wear to visit a mansion with her aunt as escort. Especially because this is post-bustle dress Victorian age, at the height of the Gibson Girl craze. The rich costumes of HBO’s The Gilded Age would be hopelessly out of date in this period and so we have been scouring source materials to get solid leads on what our characters would actually have worn when attending Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette when it opened the Met’s season in December of 1899. (House of Worth, we’re looking at you.)
It is so fun to dig this deep! And it’s about to be even more fun. Because research isn’t just found in archives and history books. It’s found in the pinch of a high collar, the flow of an opera cloak, and the specific etiquette of an after-opera supper at a period Manhattan Steakhouse.
So, we’ve decided to live it.
Who We Are
We’re James and Megan. To our family, we’re just Mom and Dad (and even Nana and Grandad to our beautiful brood of grandchildren). We believe in love and marriage, and we believe in romance because we’ve lived it — wait until we tell you how we actually met, you are not going to believe it. But first this confession: We are not romance writers, we’re just romantics who got carried away with a fun project. And we’re not (heaven forfend) influencers, we just want to share what we’re doing — no scripting, no sponsors, no staging of exaggerated reactions.
Our Debut Mission: March 28 at The Met
The first major public effort of our research journey will culminate on March 28. We will be attending a matinee performance of La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, where famed soprano Lisette Oropesa will perform the role of Violetta. We will bask in the resonance of her voice from the equivalent of the “diamond horseshoe” of the 1899 Met, the Panterre level at today’s Metropolitan Opera House. And we intend to go fully dressed in as close to historically accurate 1899 attire as we can. Hence the questions over matinee opera attire (did you know it’s different than evening opera attire? Neither did we until we began researching!).
We have little budget here for this getaway to the city, so we won’t be having private fittings and bespoke garments tailored for us. But we’ve been finding some great things — my silver-finished, brass-handled walking stick just arrived in the mail today — and we are eager to share what we assemble along the way and give you the full scoop as we ride the carriage through Central Park on our way to stun the Met with our presence. All in the name of research, mind you.
Between now and then, we’ll be sharing:
The Wardrobe: Megan’s walking suit and jewelry, my morning suit and top hat, and many various accessories, including the cravat I have to make to get the perfect match for my spats — we’ll share what we acquire and how it works for us.
The Writing: We’ll launch weekly excerpts each Saturday from our novel-in-progress. Sometimes it will be finished text, sometimes rough outlines, and other times it will be backstory, all to inspire you to care about our lead characters and make you root for them to come together in the end!
The History: This is where we (okay, one of us) can really go down the rabbit hole. We’ll share some of the historical context we’ve added to our characters’ backstories and share favorite nuggets we find along the way.
Join Us As We Party Like It’s 1899
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to step back in time—or if you just want to see if we can actually pull off a Gilded Age romance novel—we hope you’ll subscribe and follow along.
Next stop: Introducing our protagonists.
Looking forward to following along! Good luck and have fun!