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The Weather: An Old (and New) England Obsession . . .
Miranda Neville lives in Vermont, but in her writing she reverts to the accents of her native 
England. Her second historical romance, The Wild Marquis, is now available from Avon. In the first of a series featuring Regency book collectors, she draws on her former experience working at Sotheby’s auction house. One commenter will win a signed copy of The Wild Marquis.
Spring has come early to New England, at least a month early. My Vermont garden is eerily free of snow and little green things are sprouting. Not that I’m allowed to enjoy this unnatural state of things. Old-timers gather in the Post Office and general store, muttering dire warnings of storms to come. These are the old Yankees, utterly stoic and laconic on most occasions. But when it comes to the weather they like drama.
“It was minus 18 at my house this morning,” one will boast. “Minus 22 at mine,” says his friend and rival. I refrain from suggesting they get their thermometers checked. Mine said minus 10, and so did the weather report on the radio. If the weather forecast says we should expect six inches of snow, in my experience we’re more likely to get two inches, max. But the old guys tell me to expect a foot, two feet, even.
I enjoy listening to the weather exaggerators, because they come from a tradition I know well. I grew up in old England and over there everyone talks about the weather. Admittedly there’s not much to inspire drama, but the cool, damp climate is a fruitful subject for moaning and complaining.
So imagine my shock when reading a section of an early manuscript to my critique partners. “You can’t do that!” they shriek. “Your hero and heroine have just had an emotionally fraught exchange and now they are talking about the weather.” I’m baffled. I’m writing about English people. English people will always retreat from an emotionally fraught exchange into a discussion about the weather. If, that is, they are unfortunate enough to have an emotionally fraught exchange.
This was a moment when I learned one can overdo realism in fiction. My characters no longer talk about the weather. But they do suffer from it. They get rained on, sleeted on, occasionally snowed on. They freeze in unheated bedrooms (good excuse for nooky). They get splashed with mud (homage to Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s petticoats). Because in the end I find I cannot entirely escape my roots.
Climate is destiny.
Do you like to talk about the weather or does it bore you silly? Do you like to read about the weather? (I’m really hoping the answer is yes, so I can return meteorological observations to my books). One answer will win the prize.
Filed in: Jaunty Post
Mar 24th
2010
6:00 am
Tonya Kappes Said:
I like to talk about all the elements of weather, do I need my rain boots? Do I need my hoodie, coat? etc.
OR when it snows like the dickens!
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Mar 24th
2010
7:02 am
kristan higgins Said:
I love weather! Talk about it, read about, watch tornado chasers on TV…I even have a Farmers Almanac I pore over. And I love a really good storm (just as long as no trees fall on my house!).
Nice to have you here today, Miranda! That’s some gorgeous cover!
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Mar 24th
2010
7:36 am
Margo Maguire Said:
Hi Miranda – lovely to have you here!
And yes – in Michigan, we talk about the weather often. But everyone I know downplays it. “Nah – it couldn’t have been minus 2. It felt like at least 10 when I went out for my walk!”
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Mar 24th
2010
7:59 am
Miranda Neville Said:
Good grief, Tonya. I hadn’t even considered the wardrobe implications. There’s nothing worse than being out in the wrong footwear (and that was definitely the truth in Regency England too).
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Mar 24th
2010
8:06 am
Miranda Neville Said:
Kristan: nice to see a fellow New Englander. From what I’ve heard, The Farmer’s Almanac screwed the pooch on this winter. And I agree on a good storm too, just as long as the power doesn’t go out for hours. Always seems to happen when I have a deadline.
Margo: Thanks so much for inviting me to blog with the Sisterhood. So Michiganders (?right word) lie about the weather too. Just in the other direction. The exagerrators like to make it sound bad so they can show how little it bothers them, too.
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Mar 24th
2010
9:12 am
eap Said:
I like to know the weather so I can picture the scence in my mind as I read.
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Mar 24th
2010
10:22 am
Quilt Lady Said:
I am a person that has to check the weather every day! I want to know whats ahead and what the week is going to be like! Like today is going to be beautiful but the rain comes in tomorrow!
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Mar 24th
2010
11:09 am
Emma Leigh Said:
Having grown up in New England I can honestly say the one thing I absolutely hate in this area is the winters. Long, cold and too much snow.
Great post, Miranda. It’s great following you around to these guest blogging spots. Have found a few new ones to follow.
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Mar 24th
2010
11:19 am
Jessica C Said:
I live in Seattle! ‘Nuff said!
We seem to often talk about the weather because it is either to complain about the clouds and rain, or to anticipate and be delighted in the beautiful clear days!
I think a meteorological bent to a book or hero would be just fine!
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Mar 24th
2010
11:25 am
Jennifer Said:
The weather seems to be the first thing my colleagues and I talk about, of course as a musician who plays outdoors a lot it’s a concern. Second to the cold, rain, snow (even a concern at spring events) or wind in NE is the bugs! Somehow they never turn up in the wonderful romantic outdoor scenes set in NE. I haven’t read about too many heroes or heroines with tons of bug bites.
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Mar 24th
2010
11:25 am
Miranda Neville Said:
eap: I agree about the scene setting. No question the weather is part of it.
Quilt lady: Too bad the forecast for the week is so often wrong. But then one can enjoy grumbling about it.
Emma: Great to see you hear. I’m with you on the length of winters.
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Mar 24th
2010
11:45 am
Miranda Neville Said:
oops, Emma. Great to see you HERE. I need a copy editor.
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Mar 24th
2010
11:48 am
Miranda Neville Said:
Jessica: I’ve never been to Seattle but I gather it’s the weather capital of the world. Sounds like a place I’d enjoy. If I wrote contemporaries I’d be tempted to have a meteorologist hero or heroine – set in Seattle of course so I could make a research trip.
Mary Jo Putney wrote a series of historical/paranormals where the heroes had control over different aspects of the weather. Now that’s a paranormal power I can appreciate.
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Mar 24th
2010
11:53 am
Miranda Neville Said:
Jennifer: I’m trying but I honestly cannot think of a way in which insect bites could enhance a love scene. In one of Julia Quinn’s books the hero and heroine have to marry because he is caught sucking a bee sting from her breast. The romance came later.
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Mar 24th
2010
12:06 pm
Serenissima Said:
I just love all the four seasons and their weather. I like to talk about the weather and I check the weather forecasts everyday. Why? I walk to work and back every weekday all the year round. So to your questions Miranda: the weather don´t bore me and I like to read about it in romance novels as well.
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Mar 24th
2010
1:55 pm
Cheri Allan Said:
Considering I woke up to Mother Nature’s confectionary coating of snow all over the yard, I think weather is a very interesting subject! A hero who launches into weather discussions is totally believable. My DH will log onto the internet and check three sites before sticking his hand out the door… As for exaggerations? We live in NH’s western snow belt. It’s always colder here and it’s snowing on us when it’s raining at your house… Honest! (Spoken like a true New ENGLAND-er, eh?
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Mar 24th
2010
2:44 pm
Miranda Neville Said:
Serenissima and Cheri: Hah! A couple of votes for more weather in novels. Excellent! But Cheri, you are indulging in vainglorious boasting if you suggest for a minute that the weather at your house is worse than the weather at my house.
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Mar 24th
2010
2:47 pm
catslady Said:
There is just something about weather because it is totally beyond your control and the extremes are, well, extreme!! Love thunderstorms and who doesn’t exaggerate how many inches of snow they received (although this year it wasn’t needed since there was so much) or how large the hail or how cold the temperature etc. The idea of being snowed in is exciting (for a while anyway lol) and what you can come up with to do when there is no electricity lol.
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Mar 24th
2010
5:29 pm
Miranda Neville Said:
Why, Catslady, do I suspect your live in a part of the country where such events are rare enough that they don’t become tedious and/or a nuisance? That said, there is something appealing about having all your plans and duties canceled by events outside your control (unless that snow storm comes when you are leaving for the airport on vacation.)
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Mar 24th
2010
7:30 pm
GinaLeuci Said:
I love reading about the weather and using it in my writing. You can’t write about winter in New Hampshire without weather playing an important part of the scene. The layers of clothes. Driving… those who can and can’t drive during a snowstorm. Plus, the weather can set the mood. So, yes, Miranda, write about the weather.
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Mar 24th
2010
8:54 pm
Miranda Neville Said:
Glad to hear you say that, Gina. I’ve been reading the copy edits on my next book and it turns out just the teeniest bit of weather chat crept in!
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Mar 25th
2010
8:50 am
Cheri Allan Said:
Ha! You are sneaky, Miranda. Just like a weather front!
On a stylistic front, I can totally see the H/h chatting about the weather and having it turn into double entendre–she might comment on how chill it is… then he might note a warming front moving in… 
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Mar 25th
2010
5:33 pm
Jessica C Said:
I got an e-mail saying I won! Thanks a bunch!
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Apr 15th
2010
2:41 pm
GladysMP Said:
The weather has been the most talked about subject in Houston this winter. We have been setting all sorts of records for both cold and rain and the rain is continuing. Since we normally grow tropical plants here with no problem, the cold and snow this year has ruined so many yards that the nursery business will have a bonanza this Spring as everyone tries to make their gloomy-looking yards lovely again. Losing huge banana trees, orchid trees, hibiscus, etc. is very expensive.
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