Let’s face it. I like to craft: sewing, knitting, millinery, weaving, crochet, quilting, embroidery and other stuff. I basically like to create things, make useful things and maybe one day make beautiful things. Crafting for me is also a form of research as well as fun. Of course I look things up, historic events and read what life was like but the doing is what really helps me.
For Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire, I went into the sewers in Brighton, which were built in Victorian times. London sewers were shut both times I visited the UK. However, I got to experience what a Victorian sewer smelt like and looked like so I could write with verisimilitude. Well actually what I smelt probably wasn’t even close, as I think they gave the tunnels a wash for the tour, but you get my drift. They also said that after a while your brain stops recognising the bad smell. I cannot vouch for it completely as it did pong, just not as much. I saw the bricks and the arches and some tunnels. This is a form of practical research.
On the craft side, I made costumes to help me get in the mood and understand more about the period. Wearing a corset and a bustle was eye opening. Corsets can improve your posture, change your shape so your dress drapes better. And it can make tying your shoelaces impossible. A bustle though is just a cool thing, and I understand the fascination with them. Also, I think looking at fashions for the period and how they evolved and why and then being able to have the correct costume description for the time stamp in my story.
For the Regency Romance I drafted, I sewed a white muslin dress by hand in a day or two. Just so I knew it could be done. The main character, Matilda loves to sew and make dresses for her daughter. I have attended Regency themed events, taking workshops to make a dress, a bonnet, a spencer and even shoe roses. I’ve made stays and worn them badly. I’ve dressed myself and, even though I don’t have the bloomers (they are on my list to make), the time it takes to dress, to get organised and repairs rips in petticoats etc give some insight into the life. Workshops at these events also allow others who have researched to share their knowledge and experience, from how the tea was kept and doled out, to how historic stiches were made.
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| chemisette made recently |
Writing in Regency and Victorian times allows me to unite my love of writing with the love of craft.
In May I went to a Regency-themed weekend and had an absolute ball. Not only were there workshops of various kinds, but there were also dance lessons, a ball, and all kinds of nice happenings that hint at what it was like in the past. I am not only talking about the scones, jam and cream!
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| Regency ball gown |
Of course, this type of immersive experience it’s not time travel but rather a fleeting glimpse into how the past may have been.
As a woman of the modern age, I know I have much more freedom, legally, economically and medically from women in the past. I’m not bound to a husband for the roof over my head, nor am I bound by fertility to keep reproducing children. Nor do I have my life constricted by society’s expectations or my husband’s whims. While I am fascinated with the past, with that simpler life, I know I would not like to live there. I like the fantasy of it.
Here are the book covers from my Victorian paranormal/steampunk series. Books of manners, magic and mayhem.
Latest release:
Donna Maree Hanson
Amber Rose
Book 3, Cry Havoc
A book of manners, magic and mayhem…and, perhaps, a tad too many scones.
All Ambrose Fulton wants is to enjoy his idyllic life at Hatfield, helping his wife Milly raise their little son, tolerating Aunt Prudence and entertaining their friends.
What he gets is a ferocious assault from a violet-eyed automaton that devastates the estate and makes off with his enchanted clockwork arm, brutally ripped from his shoulder. To the rescue, barely in time to save his life, come friends Edward Huntington, gentleman magician, and his wife, the monster-slayer Jemima.
Whoever sent the machine can only have wanted one thing: to glean the secrets of Huntington’s magical mechanical designs for purposes clearly nefarious. Now as well as wrangling an anxious innkeeper, a fake heir, interfering magistrates, odd magicians and some thoroughly unexpected visitors, they must uncover their mysterious enemy’s identity and stop them or who knows what evil ends Huntington’s inventions will be put to?.
Find these and all Donna's books at her store.
Donna Maree Hanson
In 2022, Donna completed her PhD candidature, researching Feminism in Popular Romance at the University of Canberra, Her degree was awarded on 30 March 2023. Donna lives in Canberra with her partner and fellow writer Matthew Farrer.
You can find Donna at: donnamareehanson.com
This trilogy is pure & wonderful escapism to another time. Loved all 3 books. Absolutely worth reading - you will be thoroughly entertained (& learn a thing or 2 about the time too).
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