I’ll give it a listen! I don’t really have a soundtrack, I love music but I kind of forget to listen to it. But on the rare occasion I do listen while writing it’s a weird mix between Radiohead, uplifting indie and electronica (aka not Radiohead) or heavy classical music if I really want to feel like I’m in the past. None of it really fits the story except maybe Mozart.
@ChX Thanks, I already wrote the bits with the background lordlings and ladies but I’ll replace one or two with your names!
You have a discord??? What is it? Do you have a Patreon yet?
As for names, my birth name was Juliane, but Julianne could be appropriate? You seem to have Virtues covered for names, how about botanical names? Rose, Violet, etc. For men’s names, I think names that were traditionally masculine but are women’s names in modern day: Dana, Lindsey, etc
Thank you! The Discord link is at the bottom of the first post. I will PM you, and I have added Julianne to the list. But I’m going to close up name submissions tomorrow, if anyone wants to sneak their name in you still have 24 hours to have your character in this WIP.
And progress-wise, except for 24 - 26 Dec I have been hard at work with editing, but I’ve forgotten how long editing takes. Again. I’m still trying to aim for that deadline but honestly I may be a few days late. Rather that then put out a subpar chapter. I’m sorry, I hope next time I’ll learn and stop underestimating editing time!
In the meantime, I hope you’ve been enjoying the holidays!
Ooh. That’s a tricky one for me because I don’t think a woman MC wearing pants would have been accepted at all. As in, you would not have been let into the ballroom wearing pants, society would have entirely ostracized you, which changes the story a lot. It wasn’t done at all. (Well, perhaps you could run around on your father’s estate wearing pantaloons and get away with it if he was very indulgent and eccentric, as long as no-one else in high society saw you. But you certainly couldn’t do it where people saw you.)
I know I do give the option to be a POC, which also wouldn’t have flied in that era, but that was very important to me and isn’t something anyone can change about themselves. (I do discuss skin colour in the story on the Discord a bit.) I do really want to try to stick to the rules of the era otherwise, because if I break all society’s norms I don’t know if we can call it a Regency story anymore? A big part of the appeal is the norms, the rules, the ton, the fashion.
What I can offer as a compromise is: there is an option to say you don’t care about fashion where I won’t describe what you are wearing. (I’ll change the scene in the Beetle prologue (the financial ruin prologue) not to give a dress option if you choose to say you’re not into fashion. I think that’s the only scene where you choose your outfit. I don’t know about the ball though, I think an MC being introduced to the queen in pants may have been jailed. Or lynched lol.) Would it work for you if the outfits aren’t described? Except for the ball.
So I discussed this on the Discord, because I wanted to know if I was being too inflexible. (Plus it’s an interesting discussion.) My takeaway from the discussion was that the option to not describe MC’s clothes was probably the most balanced one.
We did talk about divided riding skirts and some Regency women (not nobles) who wore pantaloons under their skirts. I thought that could be another option, I can write an MC who dislikes dresses and wriggles out of them as soon as she gets home, wears pantaloons under her skirts secretly and so on, which I do think I will add later (after I’ve put out this chapter.) More options is always good. But I don’t know if that will satisfy what you want.
I’m sorry if it doesn’t, but I can’t reconcile my story with a blatant pants wearing Fem MC, it’s just not Regency, and it might as well be set in another era then.
My goodness, don’t worry on my account regarding deadlines! Yours is one of my top 3 fave WIPs, and it’s only 2 chapters long! I’m just happy to see you’re still working on it. Your prose are addicting
I’ll be honest, a few days ago I left a comment wondering how in the world this was a regency story, BUT I SOMEHOW READ THE WRONG WIP. I somehow got the titles/threads for this WIP and The Shadow Society mixed up
So to do you justice I came back and read your story…
Two times in a row. Your prose is freaking magical, I have no idea how skilled writers like you can use your words in such a way that activates all the senses— I can practically see the characters and all their actions. So freaking good. I did both backstories and they both felt right in their own way.
And I have to ask, is Lancelot Linden your pet project/character? He had so much life breathed into him, I loved every scene he was in!
All this to say, your work has definitely flown up to my top five. Keep it up, I’m looking forward to it!
Perhaps it’s just my impression, but the backstory option for the family in debt and bankrupt seems less… polished? I can’t say exactly what it is, but the revenge route seems not only more interesting, but also better written, at least in the beginning. Even though my MC is bisexual, I can choose the gay/ace option when it asks my opinion about The season
For what it’s worth my first playthrough I used the bankruptcy route and I didn’t feel like anything was lacking. I did the revenge route second and didn’t like it any more than the first, but that’s just personal preference.
Haha, that’s hilarious! Shadow Society is very different, your confusion makes sense now! Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words.
Lancelot Linden, well, he’s kind of doing his own thing XD It’s hard to control him. I do enjoy writing him a lot, he always makes it fun
@Paulo The destitute route was the first one I wrote, (I was very amused by the beetles) so perhaps I wasn’t quite hitting my stride yet? Though honestly, I prefer its writing to the cheating route, the tenses I was using there makes everything feel very clumsy. But I think the cheating route’s premise is probably more exciting.
This is all a first draft, so I will give it a good rewrite once I’m finished with everything. I believe it’s best to get the whole story out before perfecting it, and I do recognize that much of the prologue (and the rest) could be better, but the important thing first up is to write it all and get it done! I don’t want to get stuck in a rewriting hell. Then I can fuss with the details after
Chapter Three is not out yet - but it will be soon, on the Season of Shadows Patreon, which has launched scarcely a minute ago. There’s a bunch of goodies there to amuse including an exclusive edition of the Morning Slander newspaper, a letter from home, a silly story about a goat, and you can vote which character I’lll write a story about for the month.
I absolutely understand if you aren’t in a position to subscribe - but if you can and are willing I’d really appreciate it. (There is a free tier, but there’s not too much happening with that right now.)
I’m going to continue working on Chapter Three in the meantime, but happy new year! Thank you all for reading Season of Shadows.
Hi, I really enjoy your work! As a history buff myself, I think it’s really impressive how committed you are to balancing historical accuracy and narrative immersion, so I hope you don’t mind if I point out a minor (and rather fascinating) discrepancy?
There was one thing I noticed as a footnote, “People in the Regency era were much shorter on average than they are now. So six foot two is indeed very tall for that time.” This is, for the most part, true, and a very good catch. However, given that our hero’s a member of the nobility who has yet to see London, this would not be their perspective - the English rich were the tallest in the world in their time: only 2.5cm shorter than today’s US standard (Komlos 2007). It’s just another good ol’ fashioned class divide. As one research paper so eloquently put it, “There is also evidence of substantial income inequality at the time insofar as the ‘‘Oliver Twists’’ of London were some 22 cm (8.8 inches) shorter than their Gentry counterparts. Such social disparities have not been recorded anywhere else in the Atlantic world.” Frankly I found it kinda shocking just how extreme the malnutrition was for the English urban poor!
Again, not a big deal at all, just an interesting tidbit I thought I’d share. Thanks for sharing your work with us! Really looking forward to the next chapter.
Wow, that’s very interesting, thank you! I know most people from that era were shorter, and I also read a blog calculating Mr. Darcy’s real height here - Mr. Darcy | Every Woman Dreams… … but I much prefer what you’re saying and it makes sense.
I initially had Christian at 6,4 (my dad was that height) but I revised a little due to my assumptions about the era. And William was even taller, he’s almost a basketball player tall in my head! So I might revise back to their original heights based on what you’ve said.
Season of Shadows update news: I’m still editing away (it’s a ton of work cause I rushed the writing, lesson learned, won’t do that again.) But should be done soon. Sorry for the wait.
That’s an interesting quirk of historical stats. It’s never as simple as it seems. Like the stat of people living a lot longer nowadays. Yes, modern medicine has increased lifespans. But that statistic is skewed by child mortality rates. Once you’re an adult, you lived into your 60s or even 70s
I need to replay this before the new Bridgerton season comes out to get into the groove I’ve really been having a hankering for your characters and setting again. Everything in this is so stylish and fun
(Please let me know if anything is wrong or you can’t access something.)
I’ve really been having a hankering for your characters and setting again. Everything in this is so stylish and fun