Word Wenches

A Little Summer Break

Susan here. Summer at last, warm and sunny (at the moment, thundery and rainy), soon to get even hotter, kids are on summer break -- adults should be too! So here's a quick summer break for you: a gallery of some of my favorite summer-themed artworks -- bright, beautiful images that evoke a sense of summer, of heat and sunlight, sea breezes, lazy days, roses and sunlight and a touch of fun. If it's summer where you are, I hope you'll be able to find time to rest and soak up some warmth and sunlight for yourself! 

 

The ancients loved summer too -- this is part of a Roman mural from the Villa of Livia, now in the Palazzo Massimo (National Roman Museum, Rome). In the original villa, this mural spanned the walls of one room with a peaceful panorama of fruit trees, flowers, birds, and blue skies. 

A Short But Sweet History of Brownies!

Andrea here—with the first day of summer just two days away, and the cold, rainy spring finally showing hints of sunny warmth where I am, I can't help but find myself thinking of long, lazy outdoors days. Preferable with a book.

And a brownie.

Many of you have probably gathered that I’m rather fond of chocolate in all its glorious guises. (So much so that the main character in my Lady Arianna Regency mystery series is an expert in the history and culinary possibilities of chocolate . . . because what doesn’t taste better with chocolate!)

Now, my research on the subject has been mainly in the origins of the first edible chocolate. But as I said, with thoughts of summer—and brownies—dancing in my head, I decided some modern sleuthing was in order. And so, allow me to share a small nibble on the origins of THE BROWNIE! (Yes, yes, hard work, but someone has to do it.)

Seven Windows

Anne here, standing in for Mary Jo, who will be blogging on the 26th instead. And because I suspect you've heard quite enough from me in the last week or so, I'll keep this one short and sweet.

When I was I rummaging through my old photos for Jo's Ask a Wench post last week, I found quite a lot of views from a window. I do love a room with a view. And that inspired me. So here are several views from windows of my past, and I'm going to make this a little competition — a kind of visual quiz — and ask you to guess where each the window is from. There are clues at the end of the post.

Window 1  (on the right)

 

   

Window 2 on the left
   So cute and round.

 

 

 

The Bestest Time Evah

 

Pat's cool vacation

Vacations, vacations, wonderful vacations.
It's summer time (up here in the northern hemisphere) and folks are travelling.

So I asked the Word Wenches, What do you remember as a really great vacation?

 

Pat remembers one totally-for-fun expedition.

From Pat:

Our vacations are often working vacations, or combining two purposes like family and travel, and after a while, they all tend to blend together a bit. So perhaps I’m most nostalgic about a trip IT Guy and I made alone, just for the fun of it, shortly after he retired. We finally had the freedom to leave at any time of the year we liked—no job, no kids with school, no social or business obligations.

We were a bit uncertain about our newly limited budget, so we didn’t want to do any big splurges, but we had one place we’d dreamed of for decades—the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Yes, we’d traveled that direction once before, while writing California Girl  about a Route 66 trip. At the time, we could only admire the gorgeous balloons floating across the sky as we drove through. They were magical and all too brief. So this time, we made the trip just for the festival. I wasn’t writing a book about it. No research was involved, just pure enjoyment. We went with a tour so we didn’t have to worry about finding the best rooms or parking or any other hassle.

And it truly was the most magical trip I can remember. We saw the balloon glow and the dawn patrol and watched the race from our room when we left the grounds. We sat back and embraced the beauty of the countryside and the mystical blue skies.

And I even sneaked in a visit to a special tea room to meet with an author friend of mine and catch up. All in all, a very memorable trip!

Andrea is one of several Wenches who get their wilderness on.

Andrea: There are so many vacations filled with special memories—from the sublime to the absurd—so it’s impossible to pick a favorite. Spending time with family and friends, exploring history, just chilling out . . . each has its own unique and wonderful vibe.

 But that said, a backpacking trip with my two brothers to Wind River range in

Andrea, intrepid mountain hiker

Wyoming not long after I had graduated from college and started working in New York stands out as one of the ones on the “keeper” shelf.

As happens when the rhythm of going off to school and college begins, it had been a long time since the three of us had been together in the same place for more than a day or two at holidays. My younger brother had recently moved to Wyoming to work for a mining company. He loves the outdoors—as do I and my older brother. So when Big Brother suggested we pack our knapsacks and do a fishing trip with Little Brother up in the alpine lakes, I was all in.

 

Hiking through THIS country

 So off we went, hiking in 16 miles up to Island Lake, a remote spot at 11,000 ft (the last few miles are a real huff and puff when you’re carrying 60 lb on your back!) Oh, but was it worth it. We were camped on the water’s edge, surrounded by a semi-circle of peaks called Cirque of Towers. In the late afternoon sunset, the towering majesty of the stone alight in pink and gold was breathtakingly beautiful. We also hiked  one day up to the top of highest peak in the continental U.S. at 13,000 ft. Again, unbelievable views.

 But the truly special moments were sitting around the campfire each night, really having a chance to connect and talk the journeys we had been on so far. We were up there for a week—one rarely takes that sort of quiet time with people who matter in our lives, and that sense of renewing bonds and shared experiences still resonates with me.

I did mention fishing, right? So I have to add an anecdote. Both brothers are serious fishermen, and take pride in their flyfishing skills. Off they went each afternoon, after casting pitying looks at moi, their novice sister. One day, they laughingly left me an old rod with a hook baited with a worm, and told me to have fun, ha, ha, ha. So of course I throw the line in after they left . . . and promptly reeled in a 24” lake trout! I wish there had been cellphone cameras back then. The looks on their faces when they saw my monster were priceless. (Need I say, their fish were mere minnows in comparison!) I still tease them about that to this day!

 

Nicola's favourite holidays are very Scottish:

 

Scotland. A house by the beach

Nicola: It’s wet and windy here in the UK at the moment so there’s no better time to revisit one of my favourite holidays which was also wet and windy! Yes, it was last year on the very northernmost coast of Scotland. I’ve been on many amazing trips, some even to hot places (!) but in the end I just keep going back up north!

The first great thing about it was that we were staying in a cottage that was literally on a beach. Now I live as far from the sea as it is possible to get in the UK so going to the seaside is always a huge treat for me – and Angus as well of course. To fall asleep to the sound of the waves and to get up, open the door and be out in the dunes was totally amazing for us.

... both of them dressed for the weather

The area is rich in history, from the Viking settlement at SmooCaves along the coast to the ancient graveyard just across the sands with its tiny ruined church and many legends. Next to us was the Castle of Durinas, built in the 18^th century on the site of a medieval palace. The castle, like our little cottage, was available to rent for holidays and fortunately it was vacant that week. I played the “I’m a historical author and I’d love to look round” card, which I don’t do very often but I simply had to see inside… I got the full tour with local guide Duncan and his adorable dog. Together we explored the ancient passageways and they told me stories of ghosts and pirates which, of course, will one day make their way into a book. If you’d like to go and stay there, the link is here!

The final icing on the cake, as it were, was that just down the road was a craft village where I spent plenty of time browsing the workshops, and on the site there was also one of the best cafes in the north of Scotland that served hot chocolate that could make even the coldest, rainiest day less driech!

Panda in a suitcase.
Have cat, will travel

Mary Jo brings us her great vacation and a cat picture.
Any vacation is better with a cat picture so I'll show that first.

Oh, Jo, how can you be so cruel as to ask about a favorite vacation?  I've loved them all, and you can see that both The Panda and I are always ready for a new adventure.

arched niches in the walls

I haven't blogged about my trip to Greece before since it was pre-Wenches, but it was a great chick trip with me, my sister, and our former sister-in-law, whom we like so much that we kept her.  <G>  We spent several days in Athens in the Plaka, the historic area of the city, and had an amazing view of the Parthenon from our

Santorini

windows.  Then on to Santorini, the Greek island I've most wanted to see, and it was amazing. 

I could drown you in pictures, but I'll go with just this iconic one that shows the rugged volcanic bones of the island and part of the caldera, which is the circular sea left when the volcano blew the island into component parts. There is also the dazzling white and blue colors that say "Greece," and also make up the Greek flag.  Sigh. I want to go back.

 

Once upon a time, Anne took her first expeditions a writer.

Cats of Rhodos

Anne here. 

I can never pick any "favorite", whether it's a book or a vacation or a piece of music.  Looking back it feels as though much of my childhood consisted of holidays — we camped in tents when I was small — in fact, my mother left Dad and my three older siblings in the tent when she went off to give birth to me in hospital. They were camping at the beach near my grandparents' home. Travelling was something my family did constantly. As a child I travelled all over the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe with a caravan, and once I grew up, I went off with friends and tramped the bush and hitch-hiked around Tasmania and New Zealand. Whenever I could I headed off on holiday.

 

But Jo, when she passed this question to the wenches, added "..

Anne's foot in Connemara
(see it, bottom left)

. special points if a vacation inspired your writing." 

And that decided me, because there was one year when I went off travelling around the world on my own, for the better part of a year. We have this wonderful thing in Australia called Long Service Leave, and after you've worked for an employer for 10 years, you are entitled to time off on full pay.

So I took my long service leave, and added leave without pay to it, and went off with my backpack to explore the world.  

 

Penllyn in Wales

I was a bit nervous at first, but it turned out travelling solo, you meet all sorts of wonderful people that you probably wouldn't if you were with someone else. It also gave me time to think and ponder — a luxury that had been in short supply in my working life. And stories began to spin in my mind. Then, when I was in countries where I didn't speak the language, and didn't feel comfortable going out in the evening for anything other than dinner, I started to write in the evening. I sat on beaches in Brittany and wrote, I sat on Greek islands and wrote, I sat in grubby stations and wrote. The ideas came thick and fast and I loved it.

 

I came home at the end of that year with several A4 notebooks full of stories and ideas, and the firm intention of becoming a writer. And that, dear readers, is how a vacation inspired me to become a writer.

 

 

And back to Joanna again.

I have always admired the adventurous Australians one meets, hiking about in the far corners of the globe.

I hadn't realized they were taking writerly notes.

 

As for me:
I have lived a lifetime of vacations. So much travel, all of it wonderful and interesting. I am so lucky.

Picking one vacation more or less at random . . .
In the summers when I was young, my father used to take us to Maine to go fishing.

 

I am not the first of us to talk about fishing.

 

Yer typical Maine lake, but without a boat

Now, for me, fishing consists of sitting in a boat with a line dunked in the middle of a lake, admiring the scenery and thinking deep thoughts. Every once in a while you actually catch something, which is gratifying and leaves you with a lifelong disdain for any fish that isn't in the pan pretty much as soon as you dock on dry ground.

Catching fish makes you feel very clever.

I knew an actual Maine Guide and asked him how one survived when lost for long periods of time in the wilderness

and he said to forget about chasing down deer or hitting a rabbit over the head with a rock.

Carry fishhooks and eat fish.

But I digress.

A Maine stream of the type I do not catch fish in

There are other types of fishing that involve going out on the sea and being sick the whole time. Or you can hike through the bushes and trip over rocks and eventually get to a stream where you do this thing with throwing your hook upstream to entice fish but mostly it gets tangled in a tree.
Not my fish shtick, as it were.

 

The Carnegie library in Calais Maine because one cannot fish all the time

The lakes remain with me. Vivid hours with my father and a sister or two, listening to the woods, feeling the wind. Silence and bird calls everywhere around.
It just doesn't get any better than that.

 

 

And you? What's your great vacation? Where did you go and what do you remember? 

Bringing old books back to life

Anne here, pondering the changes e-books have brought to my reading and buying habits. I've always been a voracious reader and re-reader, and a big buyer of books. I do love libraries, and use my local ones often, but when I love a book, I want to own it. And if I love an author I want all their books living in my house, there to be taken down whenever the impulse takes me.

I remember when I first discovered Eva Ibbotson, I borrowed them one by one from the library. But then my library started culling books, and when several favorite books disappeared forever I decided to buy my own copies. But to my dismay, the Eva Ibbotson books for adults were all out of print. There was no alternative but to use the web to track down secondhand copies. I paid a fortune for some of those copies, some of them former library editions, most from the US and UK and of course, the postage was ridiculous. But the books were gold so I didn't begrudge a cent.

Anniversary Winners

Here are the winners of the Wench 13th Anniversary #giveaway.

 

Each wench will contact her winner individually to obtain a posting address.

 

Thanks so much to everyone who left good wishes and participated in the discussion and the competition. Thanks also to all those who've followed us in the past. We hope you'll all continue with us on into the future. 

 

Wenchly readers are the BEST!

 

Andrea's winner:  Vicki W.

Mary Jo's winners: Molly M. and Ghazal M.

Pat's winner: Pat--Annette N.

Susan's winner: Nancy M.

Jo's winner: Kareni

Nicola's winner:  Lucia 

Susanna's winner:  Margot

Anne's winners: Theo and Shelley

 

(The flowers are mostly Australian native flowers, arranged by Swallows Nest Farm in Tasmania. Photo used with permission)

Roses Around The Door

Nicola here. Today I’m looking at roses, literally out of my study window and also as a historical symbol. It’s that time of the year in the UK when the rose is in full bloom. It’s a sign of summer and the sight of roses growing around a cottage door (or window) is one of the quintessential images of an English country village.

The rose is also a symbol of a lot of other things: A red rose is for romance, of course, whilst innocence or purity is symbolized by the white rose, friendship with yellow roses and passion with orange.  I’m currently writing a book set in the 15^th century during the period known now as “The Wars of the Roses” although this term wasn’t coined until the 19^th century. The red and white roses were of course said to be the rival emblems of the aristocratic houses of York and Lancaster. In Shakespeare's play Henry VI rival nobles plucked them from bushes in the Temple Gardens, as depicted in this painting by Henry Payne. The different roses are the perfect embodiment of the antagonism each side had for the other, with the thorns and the red for the blood spilled in the conflict.

New Audiobooks and Giveaways!

by Mary Jo

Producing audiobooks from my back list is time consuming and not inexpensive, but I continue to do them because so many people really like listening to audiobooks. My current goal is to make audio available for all seven of my Fallen Angels books, and we're getting close!  Several years ago I started with audio versions of Thunder and Roses and Dancing on the Wind along with the non-Fallen Angels book The Bargain. 

The economics of producing audiobooks changed dramatically so I put the audio program on hold for several years, but the marketplace is always changing, so now I've started producing them again. I started with Shattered Rainbows last autumn, and here's a link to my blog and interview with my wonderful English narrator Siobhan Waring.

Production and distribution take time, so the audio versions of River of Fire (Fallen Angels 6) and One Perfect Rose (Fallen Angels #7) have become widely available at just about the same time. 

I've always loved River of Fire, where my battle hardened hero Kenneth has the soul and talent of a painter.  In order to save his bankrupt estate, he reluctantly takes a position as secretary to famous artist Sir Anthony Seaton, who may be a murderer. 

Dazzled by the creative atmosphere as well as Sir Anthony's prickly but fascinating painter daughter Rebecca, Kenneth dares dream that he might become an artist himself. But what will Rebecca do when she learns that Kenneth has been spying on the household and may destroy her father? 

(I'm listening to River of Fire in my car now, and thoroughly enjoying it. <G>  Not surprisingly, it takes me back to my art school days!)

One Perfect Rose, 7th and last of the Fallen Angels series, has always been a popular favorite, and I'm delighted to finally have Stephen's story available in audio.  Stephen, the Duke of Ashburton, is brother of Lord Michael Kenyon, the hero of Shattered Rainbows.  Reserved Stephen has always done his duty, but after the death of his tyrannical father and distant wife, he's ready to explore a new freedom.

Then a grim diagnosis send him bolting away from his grand position to come to terms with his life.  Traveling anonymously, he falls in with a welcoming family theater troupe, and becomes enchanted with their adopted daughter, Rosalind, who radiates the warmth he's been seeking all his life.  But can they find a happy future together?  (Don't worry, it's a romance!) 

Production has started on Fallen Angels #3, Petals in the Storm, and the final Fallen Angels book, Angel Rogue, (# 4) will go into production immediately after.  The whole series should be available by the end of the year! 

My distributor, Findaway Voices, has given me some free giveaway codes for each book, so I will give away five codes for each of these two new audiobooks to some of you who leave comments between now and midnight Thursday. 

The codes are good only in the US, Canada, and Australia and must be used IOS or Android devices, such as a Samsung phone or an iPod or iPad or whatever.  They use a special app that must be downloaded to your listening device.  I managed to do it, so it's not difficult. <G>  

(I'm delighted that the codes now work in Australia--last autumn, the codes were good only in the US and Canada.  I hope Findaway keeps adding more territories!)  

So if you're in the US, Canada, or Australia with a suitable electronic device, let me know if you'd like a free audiobook and maybe you'll win one of these books! 

Mary Jo

PS: Findaway Voices sets up author stores where you can buy direct from them using the Author Direct app.  Here's a link to their MJP store.  The three books I did with Findaway Voices are listed there.

SATURDAY NOTE!  Winners have been chosen and I'll be emailing directly with the codes, but this will take a couple of days.  Sorry!

 

By the Numbers—A Regency magazine for Smart Ladies!

Andrea here, with summer nearly upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, my thoughts are turning to reading (that is to say, I’m ALWAYS reading, but the long lazy, afternoons of the beach reading season always encourage thoughts of relaxing with the printed page—whether it’s old-fashioned ink or pixels.) It also got me to thinking of the historical heroines that we Wenches write, and how reading was an even more important part of their lives.

No television! No streaming! No social media! How on earth did they (assuming, of course, that they were among the privileged few who didn’t have to work endless hours to eek out a living) occupy their time? We know from first-hand accounts that letter writing and letter reading occupied a good amount a lady’s leisure, as did perusing the popular periodicals of the era.

What We're Reading in May

Susan here. What did we read in May, and what did we add to our TBR stacks? Here are some highlights and delights from the books on our  shelves (and tables, and chairs, and in baskets, and stacked here, there...)! 

Joanna:  

Every once in a while I think how great it would be if I could write novellas or short stories without twisting myself into knots. So I’ve been looking at collections of short stories by authors I already know I like. One of them struck me in particular.

Small Magics by Ilona Andrews. This is five or six stories set in the Ilona Andrews universe. (Magic, warrior women, shape shifters, post-Apocalypse world, folks fighting with swords.)  A couple YA stories, a couple little love stories.

Can I call them warm and funny when they’re full of monsters and bloodshed? I enjoyed this lot, anyway, and it might be just what you need if you don’t have time to sit down and concentrate for a long stretch.

Mary Jo: 

Here's a pile of what I've been reading!  By chance, two of my favorite authors had releases on May 7th and arrived at the same time. Yum!  Did I have the self control to space the reads out? You're kidding, right?

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs:  I adore Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson books.  Her characterization, worldbuilding, and plotting are amazing, and there's romance and humor woven in as well.  Mercy Thompson is a coyote shape shifter and Volkswagen mechanic, and through no fault of her own, she is continuing getting drawn into lethal situations involving werewolves, vampires, and the fae.  They are all immensely more powerful than she is, but she has the wiliness of a coyote and a genius for surviving.  (Over the course of the books, she had mated and married the totally hot and wonderful alpha werewolf next door--and drives him crazy with her fearless refusal to not do the right thing.)

Tightrope by Amanda Quick.  The historical pseudonym of Jayne Ann Krentz, this is the third in her Burning Cove series set in a fictional California town in the early 1930s.  The glamorous little town is popular with movie stars and Hollywood movers and shakers. <G>  Amalie Vaughn was a famous trapeze artist until a near escape from murder convinces her use her inheritance to buy a mansion in Burning Cover and turn it into a B&B.  Then things start happening!  

Also in my book pile is an advance reading copy of Seduction on a Snowy Night, a Christmas anthology I'm in with other Kensington authors Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries.  The book will be released 9/24 (available for preorder now.) 

The pile also include a research book, and leaning against the stack is my e-reader, though you can't see it.  No shortage of books here! 

Anne:

I, too read and loved STORM CURSED by Patricia Briggs. Pat and Mary Jo put me onto Patricia Briggs some time back, and since then I've read and reread her books. In fact, in preparation for the arrival of the new Mercy Thompson book, I reread all of that series, and enjoyed it as much the umpteenth time around. If you haven't read her, start with MOON CALLED. 

I seem to be in a paranormal reading mood, because I've also been rereading various Sharon Shinn series — another author who Mary Jo put me onto after I'd noticed a stack of her books on Mary Jo's "keeper" bookshelves. Her stories are action filled, full of magic, with wonderful world-building and characters I really connect with. I have the "Archangel" series in paperback but the series I've most recently reread is the Twelve Houses. Start with MYSTIC AND RIDER. 

I read mostly on my e-reader these days, so when Susan asked for photos of the books we'd been reading I was a bit stumped, but luckily I had all these in "real" on my bookshelf. And they're not even set up photos -- I didn't rearrange, I didn't even dust! And can you spot a few other favorite authors slipped in awaiting tidying? I've run out of shelf space -- again. Hence the e-reader.

I did read a new contemporary romance — ONE SUMMER IN PARIS by Sarah Morgan. It's more a women's fiction story, but there is romance as well. A US woman organizes a holiday in Paris for her 25th anniversary, only to be told that her husband wants a divorce. A teenage girl in England escapes family pressures by taking a job in a little Paris bookshop, even though she doesn't speak French. The two meet up, become unlikely friends and learn from each other. A slowish start but once they hit Paris it's wonderful.00