Heather Moll's Blog 
Excessively Diverted 

Jane Austen’s letters are filled with her observations on fashion, and this includes jewelry. In her letter to Cassandra from May 26-27,...

We all know that by whatever metric or conversion calculator you use, Austen’s Mr. Darcy is very rich. He owns a lot of land, supports...

Inns for travelers existed for centuries before the Georgian era, but it was the Royal Mail’s development in the 17th century that...

A challenge with writing historical fiction is getting the word usage right. I like putting in as many regency era details as...

Nikki Payne has a follow-up to Pride and Protest with a modern adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. I am SO glad I was asked to read an...

In January 1817, Jane Austen wrote to her niece Caroline Austen: 'Your Anne is dreadful - . But nothing offends me so much as the...

Michaelmas Day is September 29, and it’s one of Britain’s four quarter days. Traditionally, quarter days were when servants were hired,...

I wrote an article for the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation about women’s education in Austen’s works. I was curious about what different...

There are plenty of clergymen in Austen's novels, but what was a "living" and how did one get one? What's the difference between a rector...

…and the only literary pursuit which engaged Harriet at present…was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that...

My son keeps a cat and when he asked me if people in Jane Austen's time kept cats as pets, I had to think about it. I know that dogs were...

Surely the idea of an evening out watching a fireworks display, possibly one set to music, is a modern notion, right? There is to be a...

After my young helper didn't care for the last regency thing we baked (Georgian Chocolate Tart) because it wasn't sweet enough, I thought...

Jane Austen always informs us about the financial status of her characters. It wasn't a taboo topic like it often is today. James Morland...

Jane Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra are filled with irreverent humor. In December 1798, Cassandra was visiting family in...

Precedence might seem strange to us in the twenty-first century, especially for those of us living in places without hereditary titles....

All the writing advice out there discuss the importance of that opening line—that hook—that gets your potential reader to sit down, pay...

In Nine Ladies, our regency time traveler to 2011 has to navigate a strange world with strange customs, and one of them is grocery...

It’s rare to get “real” mail, something handwritten that arrives in the mailbox. Texts social media have replaced it, but I think there’s...

I can reattach a button near enough to the right place so it gets into a buttonhole. I only got as far as cross-stitch bookmarks as a...