Victorian Tea Time

Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments. I appreciate it.
I drew two winners of eBooks of As Timeless As Stone.
My winners are Danielle and Teresa. Congratulations to them both.

Like most little girls, I grew up playing Tea Party. Ceramic and plastic tea sets are still some of the most popular toys, if you have daughters or granddaughters, they probably have at least one. I don’t know if you’ve seen a show called Pregnant in Heels, but they had a proper English tea on one episode, serving scones, and Spotted Dick with the tea. I learned the correct pronunciation of scones from that episode. I use to mistakenly say scone with the o sound pronounced as in bone when it’s actually pronounced as in gone.

I learned so much about teas during the demonstration at the Oklahoma Steampunk Exposition, I recently attended. The picture of me above was taken there. We were served cucumber sandwiches, lemon pound cake, devil eggs, scones, cookies, and three types of tea. Our charming, expert hostess also taught us the differences in tea time in England, France, and Germany. For in Germany they usually served coffee and cake while in France they drank chocolate and served cookies or pastries or baguettes with butter and jam.

At an English tea, once everyone is seated, the hostess pours the tea, filling each guest’s cup. The spout of the tea pot faces the hostess or pourer. A tea cup is shallow and wider than a coffee or chocolate cup to give the tea room to temper before drinking. The hostess offers lemons, milk, or sugar for the tea. Milk and lemon are never added to the same cup, as citrus spoils milk. Cream is not offered as it is much too heavy for tea.

An infinite variety of tasty sandwiches may be served at tea, sometimes filled with chicken or turkey salad and cucmber sandwiches are often offered as well. The crust is always trimmed off the bread.

Do not extend your pinkie finger when drinking tea, it is rude. When stirring tea do not clink your spoon against the cup, instead swish it gently to and fro. After stirring, place the spoon on the saucer behind the tea cup. Remove the spoon before drinking your tea. Do not swirl the tea in your cup or you might slosh and stain the tablecloth.

There is specific etiquette for gentlemen attending teas. They must stand when a lady enters or leaves the room, open the door for the ladies, and escort the ladies downstairs to their carriage or cab. One would never expect less of a true gentleman.

I enjoyed sharing my new found knowledge with all you especially this week with the royal wedding. Just think William and Kate may be having tea right now. I wish you all Happy Tea Time.

I am having a blog contest, just comment below and the winner will receive a free eBook PDF download of my Steampunk/Romance, As Timeless As Stone. Also please drop by my website anytime at http://MaeveAlpin.comHere is a trailer of As Timeless As Stone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQEOp9l9ZFA

Corsets, Clock Gears, and Cleopatra

Though mainly associated with the Victorian era, there is no question aspects of the Steampunk culture have been influenced by ancient Egypt. In the entertainment field Steampunk belly dancing is on the rise. Since the top Steampunk Band, Abney Park incorporated belly dancing into its live shows, many of these dancers have been inspired to go steampunk adding googles, corsets and pantaloons to their costumes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqM9sCLIi_g In the area of interior design, Nethercraft offers an incredible collection of fabulous Egyptian walls http://www.nethercraft.com/prod_tomb.html. The Egyptian- Steampunk movement has even invaded fashion with Costume Designer, Iris Bainum-Houle’s collection, clearly influenced by both the garments of ancient Egypt and Victorian England. http://tinyurl.com/26dvuxo The latest cross genre of romance, Steampunk, has also shown Egyptian influence.

One thing that stands out in Steampunk/Romances are fresh, settings and alternate history. Steampunk/Romances are usually set in Victorian England, especially London, some are in the Old West in the same time period, and As Timeless As Stone takes place in 1830 Paris, France. But As Timeless As Stone is also an example of Egyptian/Steampunk.

In Steampunk/Romances one of the main characters is usually a scientist and In As Timeless As Stone my hero is an Egyptologist. He's also the assistant of Jean François Champollion, the man best known for deciphering the Rosetta Stone. Working for Jean Francois Champollion, the conservator of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre, Ricard uncovers a room full of artifacts Napoleon Bonaparte brought back from his Egyptian campaign and expedition. They have been hidden away from the English all this time.

This is the part of my story where magic and science combine as it does in most Steampunk/Romances. As Ricard examines these artifacts, he uncovers an ancient Egyptian statue with the head broken off. When he sets the head back in place and uses his linguistic skills to read the incantation she holds in her stone fingers, the statue comes to life. A gorgeous flesh and blood woman appears where a stone image stood just moments before. This is my heroine Seshat, who in peril for her life turned herself to stone thousands of years before.

Another big part of Steampunk/Romances are the wonderful Victorian fashions. But in As Timeless As Stone, Seshat is not impressed with layers of confining clothing. As an Egyptian priestess it is a taboo for her to wear anything made from animals, such as wool, and this comes into play when the couturier is garbing her in the latest Parisian gowns.

I hope you'll give the Egyptian and Victorian influences of my Steampunk/ Erotica/ Romance, As Timeless As Stone, a try and let it sweep you away to another place and time for a fun adventure.

Here is a short excerpt of As Timeless As Stone:
Ricard stepped back as his gaze devoured the entire woman, though stiff and lifeless. The stone looked like lush, sun-warmed skin. Her oval face was dark and delicate, with full, rosy lips. He admired her long lithe body, clad in a sheer, white, sleeveless dress, held up only by two delicate linen shoulder straps. He longed to roam his fingers and lips over her high perched breast and the thin waist which flared into curved hips and lithe thighs. Then, down to her pretty legs and her slender feet garbed in white papyrus sandals, of the station she depicted, an Egyptian priestess of the Middle Kingdom. He drank in her beauty, then he noticed the ornament lying in the valley between her breasts, a thick ankh of gold hung from a chain. His fingers absently tried to grab hold of the necklace but it was only part of the statue, no matter how real it seemed.

"What is this?" He looked at the plaque in the statue's stone hands, held beneath the ankh. The last hieroglyphic depicted the symbol for life, an ankh, held up to the woman's nose. Ricard read it silently, sounding it out, Nce xarp wt pwwne Ab etoot abrem... Toujo Abrem etoot pwwne ab... xarp wt au ai ankh qe, and translated it under his breath. "God Horus, as you turned my flesh to stone... God Horus, save me, make me whole...change my stone to flesh...give me the nose breath of life, once more."

The room vibrated and an unnatural wind swirled within. Ricard's hair stood on end, but he could not tear his eyes away from the statue. He grabbed the ankh, and this time it gave way, lifting from the statue's chest. The curiosity that drove him as a scientist, as an Egyptologist, caught hold and as strange as this all seemed, he felt he had come this far, he had to see it through. Laying the ankh against the statue's small nose, Ricard acted out the last hieroglyphic on the plaque.

He shuddered at the sound of a gush of breath. A flash of light struck inside the room. The shock knocked the breath out of him. The statue moved, but she wasn't stone anymore.

Jean François gasped and stepped back.

Ricard couldn't move. It's a living, breathing woman. He dropped the ankh and it fell against her chest, which now rose and fell with heaving breaths. Ricard managed to step back on shaky legs. He gaped at her, unable to think or speak.
Alive.

The priestess shrieked. Her brown eyes glowed with anger. "Come near me you Hyksos cobra, and you will die!" she warned in Old Egyptian.
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Timeless as Stone is available in the Amazon kindle store, Barnes and Nobles online for the nook, Fictionwise, All Romance Ebooks, and most online book stores. Please drop by Maeve Alpin’s official website http://MaeveAlpin.com