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Fun with Research on GEEK GIRLS DON'T DATE DUKES

In only 5 days, GEEK GIRLS DON'T DATE DUKES will release. It seems unreal. I don't know if it was crazy fast or impossibly slow, but somehow, the time has passed and Leah and Avery will go out into the world to share their story with everyone!

It's definitely a trippy thing. I thought it was weird when I had one book in paperback, but now? You may as well toss me in the loony bin. ;)

I wanted to do something a little different with this book. I ADORE Regency romances, but sometimes they can be a bit predictable. Of course the beautiful young lady is going to fall for a handsome, titled gentleman, right? That's just how these things work! I know this, you guys know this, fans of Regencies all over the world know this.

Leah Ramsey knows this, so when she goes back in time, that's who she's convinced she's going to find.

Hurray for the unexpected!

I definitely got to delve a little deeper into the time period in this book than its' predecessor, THE GEEK GIRL AND THE SCANDALOUS EARL. Don't get me wrong, I still did tons of research, but this was into areas that I hadn't previously thought a lot about before. Two of them in particular - the day-to-day life of servants in the Regency period, and the history of boxing.

Servants had it pretty rough back then. Of course, since the advent of the wonderful Downton Abbey, there's been a lot more interest in historical servant life, but there still weren't a heck of a lot of resources to go by. I ended up finding a wonderful little book that detailed all the ins and outs of a servant's day, from the butler down to the scullery maid. Of course, since it was written in the 1800s, it was a bit tough and dry, but hey, the research is the research, right? From this book I recreated what I imagined would be the job of a brand new Under House Parlor Maid, and Leah had a brand new occupation. I will admit to watching an inordinate number of episodes of Upstairs Downstairs, more for the feeling than anything else.

Another supercool area I got to research for this book was the history of boxing. Pugilism was a very popular sport in this era (Gentleman Jackson's Saloon, anyone?) so having a hero who doubled as a fighter was an unexplored territory for me, and I ate it up.
I wove some of the history throughout Avery's pugilistic scenes, meshing fiction and fact together in a weird fries-with-that sort of combination. After all, I wanted the scenes to be authentic. So now I can tell you what the Fancy is, a knee man and a bottle man, and give you more about Regency boxing than  you ever wanted to know. 

Of course I'll come entertain at your dinner party!

I'll be honest, research intimidated me when I thought about having to write historical. I always swore I'd never write historical, and then I wrote a time travel, which I excused to myself by saying it was only HALF historical. And then I wrote another. And now I'm doing another, while mentally planning about six straight historicals in my head. 

Never say never, kids. Research is fun! 

Anybody done any interesting research lately? Let me know below! Oh, and make sure you enter the contest on Goodreads to win a signed ARC of GEEK GIRLS DON'T DATE DUKES. Time is running out! :)

And in case you're not a gambler, you can go ahead and pre-order GEEK GIRLS DON'T DATE DUKES on any of these fine sites:

Sourcebooks
Amazon
Barnes &Noble
Discover a New Love
Kobo

Comments

  1. I've got my entry into the goodreads contest! Fingers crossed I win :) I have the first book of this series in my TBR - found it at my library and was so stoked to see it was a series! Can't wait to read that one and this one!!

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  2. Gina, I have to say I think writing time travel is harder than writing historical because historical characters can take things for granted whereas someone from the present thrust into the past is going to note all the differences and ask all sorts of questions requiring info I can gloss over in my historicals. Maybe that's why I like time travels-they're like research for me :-)

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  3. How fun, Gina! As a reader, sometimes nothing but a time-travel romance will do for me, because it allows a whole new way of looking at the past. (I cracked up at the scene in Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl when the heroine realizes what it means not to have indoor plumbing.) Looking forward to GGDDD!

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  4. @ Ada, Hi!! I'm glad you entered. Good luck! I hope you like both Geek Girls books. I'm hard at work on #3, and this one is just as much fun. I have the best job ever :) Thanks for stopping by!!

    @Shana, I've only just started my first straight historical, so I very much hope you're right! Of course, writing the time travel first felt natural, because I was learning right alongside both my heroines. :) Thanks for the comment. :)

    @Theresa, I'm such a classy broad. I think I'm keeping my "chamber pot humor" as a running gag through all my time travels, and the upcoming historicals I'm planning. No matter if they're porcelain pot or flushable, potties are funny. ;) It may just be a one-line mention, but the chamber pots aren't going away. I giggle when I remember the scene in Geek Girls 2. I hope you like that one. ;) Thanks for the lovely words!

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  5. Hi Gina. Congrats on the new release. Love the Geek Girls!

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