Registration for Mini Conference & Soiree

Just a reminder that registration is open for the Beau Monde’s mini conference!

Quick details: The conference will be held Wednesday, July 23rd in San Antonio (kicking off the national RWA conference!). Registration includes breakfast, lunch (featuring our keynote speaker Vicky Dreiling) and delicious treats at the soiree, plus access to six Regency-themed workshops!

For more information (and to register) check out the link here: http://thebeaumonde.com/resources/annual-conference. Early Bird prices available until June 15, 2014. Full conference fees include breakfast, lunch and soiree (available separately).

We hope to see you there!

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

Blogging best practices were the focus of the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum this month. This new article explains the value of both categories and tags, as well as the important differences between them. This information will help Beau Monde members who blog better understand how to give their readers the best possible experience in navigating their blog. Readers tend to spend more time at blogs which are easy to navigate, so it is well worth the time and effort to implement these best practices at your blog.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will feature an article on perhaps the richest treasure trove of British history to be found on the Internet. This site is an invaluable resource for those writing novels set in England during any period of history, including the Regency.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month’s article in the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum explains the advantages of offering a blogroll at your blog. Though you may hesitate to include links to other blogs at yours, once you read this article you will understand how a blogroll can benefit both you and your readers. If you already have a blog or are thinking of starting one, this article will provide you with important information on why you will want to include a blogroll.

Would you like to have access to the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary? The OED is a valuable tool for any writer of historical fiction because it allows them to verify whether a word in their manuscript was actually in use during the time in which their story is set. The print version has been discontinued and now all additions and updates go only into the online version. Though an annual subscription to the online OED can be beyond the budget of many writers, there are options for writers to get access. Next month’s Working on the Web article will explain how that can be accomplished.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

The Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum this month features an article which will be of special interest to Regency authors, in particular, those who want to know the value of something during the Regency. This article provides an overview of a very powerful online currency conversion calculator which has been developed by a team of economists. This conversion calculator makes it possible to determine the purchasing power of the British pound, and a few other currencies, from the early thirteenth century right up to the present day.

Those who are currently blogging, or are planning to start a blog, will be especially interested in next month’s Working on the web article. It will cover the reasons why including a blog roll on your blog is valuable both for you and for your blog readers.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Writing in Restaurants by Susanna Ives

Do you ever spend time with your WIP in a restaurant, or perhaps a coffee shop? Today, Susanna Ives, author of Rakes and Radishes, contemplates that very activity. She not only shares what the experience means to her, but also a photo of a lovely and restful French painting in which a young Victorian lady is reading in a cafe while awaiting the arrival of her meal.

Continue reading “Writing in Restaurants by Susanna Ives”

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

As promised, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum offers an article which reviews a selection of web site builder services for authors. The web site services reviewed range from one which is completely free to one which is full service and offers a wide range of marketing services beyond web site building. All of these web site services have been successfully employed by a number of authors, and all of them have been recommended by Beau Monde members. If you are a new author needing a web site, or if you want to refurbish your current web site, you will want to have a look at this new article.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will offer another review of another anti-virus/firewall software program to help members find the best application to keep them safe while working on the web. In addition, there will be an article on how use the advanced settings in Google.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum offers another article which reviews one of the better firewall/anti-virus software applications for computers running the Windows® operating systems, including XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. And, even better, all this protection is available for free. Any computer connected to the Internet without both firewall and anti-virus software is a gift to those who would subjugate your machine to their own purposes. Learn how to protect your computer so that you retain control and keep the bad guys out.

Due to circumstances beyond human control, the article on options for authors setting up their own web sites has had to be postponed yet again. Let us hope the third time will be the charm on this one.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Web Site Do’s and Don’ts   By Cheryl Bolen

When Jane Austen wrote her novels, she used a quill pen and a bottle of ink to make a fair copy of her manuscript on hand-made paper. She sent it off to her publisher, who had it type-set by hand, printed and distributed to book-sellers and circulating libraries. Her publisher might have taken out an ad in some of the more widely circulated newspapers. That was the extent of book promotion during the Regency. But for those who write Regency novels today, technology has made it possible to promote those books in a number of different ways. In today’s article, Cheryl Bolen shares some tips from a web mistress who has designed web sites for a number of prominent authors. Whether you have had a web site for years or have just published your first novel and are ready to set up your web site, you will find sage advice from a professional in Cheryl’s article.

Continue reading “Web Site Do’s and Don’ts   By Cheryl Bolen”

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

In February, the Working on the Web section of the Beau Monde forum features an article specifically for our members who are published authors. This article outlines an opportunity for these Beau Monde authors to promote their work on one of the largest and most highly trafficked web sites on the Internet. With the added bonus that they will also provide a service to their readers.

Next month, the Working on the Web section of the forum will feature an article for those who are interested in setting up their own web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, the Working on the Web articles include the complete guidelines for those Beau Monde authors who wish to submit a Featured Author posting to the Beau Monde blog. Whether you have just published your first Regency, or if you are a well-known, best-selling author with a couple of dozen novels to your credit, submitting a brief biography and your various web site and social media links is a service to those who enjoy your work. A Featured Author post will tell them something about you, and the links you provide will enable them to locate you on the web. As you will have learned from our ongoing series on SEO, each link to your web site or blog from another, relevant site will also help increase the search engine rankings of your site or blog. By submitting a Featured Author article for posting here, you do both your readers and yourself a service. The guidelines in the Working on the Web forum will provide all the information you need to submit a Featured Author article which can be posted without additional questions. In addition, you will learn a few tips on how a professional author should name files they are submitting for any kind of promotion opportunity. As a Beau Monde member, do be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to promote your books and inform your readers.

The article in the ongoing SEO series addresses some of the advanced navigation options which can help improve search engine ranking for your web site. However, these are advanced options which should only be implemented by an experienced web master or web site developer. But several links have been provided to SEO sites which provide the advanced information which your web master can use to further increase the search engine rankings of your web site.

In the Working on the Web forum next month, the SEO series will come to a close, ironically, with the information you will need to tell the web spiders to ignore certain sections of your web site which you would prefer not to have indexed or searched. In addition, another self-promotion opportunity for Regency authors will be discussed.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

The Working on the Web articles this month include instructions on how RWA members can set up their myRWA Forum Biography and signature line. The SEO article this month explains the basics on how a web site’s navigation links can be used to further optimize a web site to help improve its search engine rankings.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will take a look an obvious opportunity for self-promotion which many authors overlook. Our series on SEO will explain some of the advanced navigation options which can be employed to improve the SEO for that same web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month’s Working on the Web articles cover a diverse range of topics. For authors in search of just the right name for the characters in their work in progress, a review of a pair of perhaps the most comprehensive name databases to be found online, which not only offer a vast list of names, but also their meanings and their etymology. Another article posted this month was an alert regarding the most vicious types of malware to be seen on the web in some time. Known as "ransomware," this nasty new malware literally holds the data on your hard drive for ransom. This article provides details on how to protect your computer and offers some options on what to do if your hard drive is locked up with a demand that you pay the villains. Heading tags are the subject of this month’s SEO article. Though many people ignore them, this article details how they can become a powerful option for increasing a web site’s search engine rankings.

Next month, the Working on the Web forum will take a look an obvious opportunity for self-promotion which many authors overlook. Our series on SEO will explain how the navigation on your own web pages can be used to improve the SEO for that same web site.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

In the Working on the Web section of the myRWA forums this month can be found an article on the blog feature which makes it easy for a blogger to capture statistics on the number of readers of each of their blog posts. That same feature also enables bloggers to present a tighter and more appealing home page to their visitors. This month’s SEO series article covers the value of both incoming and outgoing links from other sites, how to get them, and how to know which links are a danger that can actually damage the search rankings of your web site or blog.

Be sure to check in on the Working on the Web forum next month. The SEO series will continue with an explanation about how those handy heading tags can be used to enhance the search engine rankings of your web pages. Those same heading tags, when used correctly, can make your web pages much easier to navigate for folks with visual impairments. And for authors seeking just the right name for one of the characters in their current WIP, a review of a pair of web sites which offer a plethora of both first and last names which can be searched and sorted by a wide range of criteria.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

New articles have been posted at the Working on the Web forum this month. In the ongoing SEO series is an article about which meta tag you can use to compel the search engines to display your description of each of your web site pages in their search results listings, rather than allowing the search engines to simply grab any text off the page and display that with the search results. Though these descriptions are not indexed by the search engines, they do allow web site owners the opportunity to entice potential visitors to click on the links to their pages in any search results listings. Another article covers the top three online book-seller aggregators and explains how they work, how they are similar and how they are different. For those who are building a Regency research library, or seeking early or out-of-print books by their favorite Regency authors, these aggregators are a most useful and money-saving resource. In addition, a special article was posted for those Beau Monde members who receive emails from the Beau Monde Facebook group.

The SEO article planned for the Working on the Web forum next month will explain how the images on your web pages can help increase your site’s search engine ranking, even though search engines do not index images in their databases. In addition to improving a web site’s search engine rankings, correct use of images will also make a web site more user-friendly and accessible to those with visual impairments. A blogging article is planned which will explain an important feature available for blog posts which most bloggers overlook, even though this feature is their best option to capture more accurate statistics about their visitors and which blog posts they find of interest.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

TBM Forum:   Working on the Web Round-Up

This month, new articles have been posted in the Working on the Web forum. A search engine optimization article explains how to get the greatest value from the single most important HTML tag on any web page, not only for improving your site’s search engine rankings, but also to enable your visitors to easily return to your site. An article in the safe web surfing category details how to construct strong passwords which will protect your online accounts, yet will be easy to remember, written specifically for romance authors. In this article you will also find a URL to a site recommended by online security experts where you can test your new password for strength. Drop into the Working on the Web section of the forum to learn how to build your own strong passwords, and then share those skills with your family and friends to help keep them safe on the web, too.

Next month, articles planned for the Working on the Web forum include a cautionary tale on the correct use of the keyword tag and a review of a web site which is a massive treasure trove of resources which will be of great value to any historical author, and they are all there, free for the taking.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Annual Mini Conference & Soiree!

The Beau Monde’s annual one day mini-conference and soiree will be held Wednesday, July 25th during the RWA National conference at the Anaheim Marriott in California.

Starting with breakfast and the annual general meeting, the conference will include a variety of Regency-themed workshops throughout the day with knowledgeable presenters, including Candice Hern, Isobel Carr and this year’s three time RITA nominee Vicky Dreiling. Our luncheon keynote speaker is the amazing Delilah Marvelle. Plus there will be a silent auction with plenty of Regency-themed items, critiques, etc. for you to bid on!

The evening’s soiree will include music, dancing and the winners announcement of the Royal Ascot writing contest.

Registration fees are as follows:

Soiree Only Member: $60

Soiree Only Non Member: $75

Early Bird Members: $155

Early Bird Non-Members: $175

Regular Members: $170

Regular Non-Members: $190

Early bird registration ends June 15th.

For more information and to register, please visit the conference page.

TBM Forum Debut:   Working on the Web

This month, the Beau Monde Chapter of the Romance Writers of America is pleased to announce the debut of a new section in the Chapters/Special Interest Groups area of the myRWA.org forum. This new section is entitled "Working on the Web." It is intended to be a place where Beau Monde members can come to learn, or to share, tips and tricks on how to enhance our outcomes when working on the Internet.

The World Wide Web is now a fact of life for most authors, but we all have different attitudes, needs and levels of experience as we work in the online environment. This new section of the myRWA forum will be devoted to discussing those issues so that members will have one place where they can come to ask questions, get information and/or share it. Thus, we can all better understand and maximize our usage of the Web to our mutual advantage and benefit.

Some of the topics in this new forum will include:

  • Blogging:   Tips and Best Practices
  • eBook Publishing:   Authors’ Advice and Experiences
  • General Web-Related Topics
  • Online Safeguards:   Protecting Your Work & Safe Surfing
  • Search Engine Optimization:   Getting Found on the Web
  • Social Media:   FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter &c.
  • Web Site Usability and Accessibility

This month, articles have been posted in the Working on the Web forum which explain the basic theory of search engine optimization (SEO) and how to select the necessary keywords in order to optimize your own web site. There is also an article which discusses the different digital denizens who inhabit the web and why each group tends to approach the use of the web in different ways. Visit the new Working on the Web forum to determine into which "digital" category you fall.

Next month, articles planned for the new forum include details on taking maximum SEO advantage of the single most powerful HTML tag on any web page, as well as a safe-surfing article on the whys and hows of constructing strong passwords to increase the security of your online accounts. In addition, all Beau Monde members are invited to drop in to this new section of the forum any time, to ask questions, or to share any information you have gleaned in your online travels and adventures.

If you are not yet a Beau Monde member, and would like to join us, please visit our Membership page for details.

Christine Wells – Featured Beau Monde Author

CHRISTINE WELLS

Christine Wells, today’s Featured Beau Monde Author, was a corporate   lawyer before resigning to write romance novels.

She lives in Brisbane, Australia with her husband and two small but very noisy boys and is a member of Romance Writers of America and Romance Writers of Australia.

A 2009 RITA nominee for THE DANGEROUS DUKE, Christine was also the first Australian to win the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award.

Find her at – Web

Bronwen Evans- Featured Beau Monde Author

BRONWEN EVANS

Bronwen Evans, today’s Featured Beau Monde Author, is a New Zealander who  loves story – telling – gobbling up movies, books and theatre.

For most of her life, her head has been filled with characters and stories, particularly lovers in angst.  But she’d never had the courage to write them down. In 2007, encouraged by a close friend battling a deliberating illness, Bronwen finally started down the path to publication by joining Romance Writers of Australia and Romance Writers of New Zealand.

Bronwen’s first manuscript, INVITATION TO RUIN, was completed late 2009 and was sold by her agent, Melissa Jeglinski of The Knight Agency, to Kensington Publishing early 2010, in a two book deal.

INVITATION TO RUIN was released in March 2011, and received a 4.5 star rating from RT Book Reviews and was well received in Publishers Weekly – Evans’s debut Regency is filled with sizzling romance… Strong characterizations, smooth plotting, and plenty of explicit sex will appeal to fans of modern Regencies. (Mar.)

Bronwen’s second book, INVITATION TO SCANDAL will be released early 2012.

Find her at WebsiteBlog   – Face Book
Twitter: @authorbevans