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Bliss Bennet writes smart, edgy novels for readers who love history as much as they love romance.

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Archives for April 2015

Flirting with Fleurons

April 14, 2015 By BlissBennet 2 Comments

 

240px-Aldus_leaf_unicode2619.svg

 

I’ve been obsessed of late with a small little something I didn’t even know the proper name of until just a few weeks ago. That tiny, decorative element that appears in a printed book, placed between two sections of type to indicate a pause in time, or a change in narrator or point of view. The word commonly used to describe it today is “dingbat,” but that term, according to the OED, did not come into use until the 20th century. And dingbat also refers to any typographical device other than a letter or a numeral. The older, and far more specific term, is the lovely word fleuron.

Fleuron, derived from the Old French word “floron,”  or flower, has been in use at least since Chaucer’s day, to refer to any flower-shaped ornament: “So were the florouns of her coroun whyte,” Sir Geoffrey writes in the Prologue of his Legend of Good Women, describing Alceste, the Queen of Love. The word later became more commonly applied to ornaments on buildings, or those stamped or printed on books, coins, or other objects.

 

fleuron-2
One of the most common ornaments, which I’ve included at the top of this post, is the Aldus leaf, or the heart-leaf. Other fleurons feature leaf shapes, flowers, swirls, myriad versions of the fleur-de-lis, and combinations of two or more of the above.

1-fleuron-ornaments-a-fr

 

In our age of e-books, where the user (or reading device), rather than the book publisher or designer, chooses in what font, and at what size, the book she reads will appear, the aesthetics of interior book design often go by the wayside. But I’ve been seeing signs of late that even e-book publishers are trying to put a little more design oomph into their books. The Kindle version of Carla Kelly’s new historical, Softly Falling, includes not only decorative chapter titles and drop-caps, but a simple fleuron flourish to indicate section breaks.

I want my own e-book to look as beautiful as I can make it, and also to evoke the historical time period in which it is set. So I’ve spent far more hours than I should surfing the net, searching for period-appropriate (Regency-era) fleurons.

Thousands of fleurons are mine for the downloading as vectors via the web; thousands more are embedded in downloadable typefaces. Yet few ornaments among the multitude contain information about when they first came into use, or when they were most popular. The best book source that I’ve been able to find, Phillip Luidl and Helmut Huber’s Typographical Ornaments (Blanford Press, 1985), includes a brief description of the most common ornament styles to be found in different historical periods, but for some reason the book itself includes very few examples from the period he terms “Neoclassicism” (1770-ca. 1830).

Perhaps I should forget about the historically-accurate, and just go with the beautiful?

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 7.25.47 PM

 

Does interior design matter to you when you’re reading an e-book?

 

Photo credits:

Fleuron spread: Creative Market

Fleuron type dies: The Center for Book Arts

Heart/lily fleuron: Vectorian.net

Filed Under: Book Production

On Pseudonyms in Romance

April 2, 2015 By BlissBennet 6 Comments

 

 

 

pen-names-when-best-to-use-a-pen-name

 

How much does a romance writer’s pseudonym matter to her readers? I’ve been thinking about this a lot as I mulled over potential pen names for my fiction-writing alter ego.

Historical fiction writers, especially ones who write English-set romances, all seem to have very English-sounding names: Eloisa. Mary. Sarah. Victoria. Somehow, my French Jacqueline does not fit very well with this traditional British bunch, especially in its nickname form. And my last name, Horne, is not only not very romantic, but it also has an unfortunate tendency to be mispronounced (yes that “e” is silent, thank you very much).

I’m not ashamed of my name; in fact, I’ve used it on all of the articles and books I’ve written as a scholar of children’s literature. Yet I thought it would be better to choose a different name for my fiction, both to keep my identity as a scholar separate from my identity as a romance writer, and to make my romance name more appealing to the romance audience. But what should I choose?

My first thought was to honor my foremothers. I’ve lost both my grandmothers (Helen and Evelyn), and my mother (Rhoda Helen), and thought I might honor them in some way through my choice. Elinor suggestions both “Helen” and “Evelyn” and sounds appropriately Regency-esque. And in honor of my feminist foremothers, I considered “Astell” for a surname, after Mary Astell, an early 18th century writer who is often called “the first English feminist” for her her advocacy of equal educational opportunities for women.

When I tried out “Elinor Astell” on several friends, though, I got universally negative feedback. No one got the reference to Mary Astell; in fact, almost everyone thought I said “Estelle,” not “Astell.” “Eleanor Estelle? Makes me think of that over-coiffed, bejeweled romance writer who was on tv back in the 70s,” one friend told me. Looked like this plan of honoring my foremothers might not be the wisest choice.

Back to the drawing board. What does one need for a pen name? Especially if one is a romance writer? Some research suggested the following:

• A name that’s easy to remember (alliteration, rhythm, familiarity of some sort)

• A name that uses words that evoke excitement, pleasure, and/or fun (Tessa Dare. Loretta Chase. Madeline Hunter.)

• A name that sounds lush and or beautiful (Eloisa. Julianna. Cecilia.)

• A name that sounds appropriate to the period in which one is writing (Victoria. Sophia. Elinor.). But not one with unpleasant connotations (no Agnes, Esther, or Hortense)

• A name that doesn’t sound too much like that of another writer (no Loreen Chase or Jo Breverly)

I came up with a long, alliterative list, and finally settled on Bliss Bennet. Bliss because it evokes happiness and pleasure, and because it’s the name of a friend of a friend whom I admire for her work in the ACLU. Bennet because of the connection to Jane Austen’s most famous heroine. Although I admit if I had really been alive during the English Regency, I’d likely be more of a Charlotte Lucas (or a maid to Charlotte Lucas), than an Elizabeth Bennet.

I’ve grown rather fond of saying “Bliss Bennet” over the last few months. If only writing capital “B”s in cursive wasn’t so damned difficult…

How important is an author’s name to you when you choose what romance novels to read?

Filed Under: Writer's Life Tagged With: pseudonym

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