Word Wenches

Once a Laird

Anne here, and today I'm interviewing Mary Jo about ONCE A LAIRD, her final book in the "Rogues Redeemed" series, which was based around five men held captive in a cellar in wartime, facing execution as spies in the morning. Of course they escaped and lived to tell some wonderful tales.  (Ramsay was using the name Chantry at that time for various sneaky reasons.)

Once a Laird is about Ramsay, who made the biggest impression on me in Once a Scoundrel, where he was instrumental in freeing three ladies from a harem in Constantinople after they'd been taken hostage by Barbary pirates. I've been waiting for his story ever since.

There have been some lovely reviews of Once a Laird."  Here's one from Booklist:

"In the latest splendidly crafted addition to her Rogues Redeemed series, Putney (Once Dishonored, 2020) brilliantly utilizes all of the key elements her readers crave—engaging characters, an expertly evoked setting, an intriguingly different story line, even a quintessential cat—and the result is another exemplary-in-every-way romance.” – Booklist

 

Mirror, mirror on the wall ...

Christina here. I have always found mirrors fascinating and I’m sure that’s been true for most people ever since the first caveman/woman happened to catch sight of him- or herself in a still pond or lake somewhere. Therefore, a recent TV programme I watched (Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez on BBC2) about amazing archaeological finds in the 9,000-year old city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, caught my attention. The presenter held up a mirror that was 7000 years old! It wasn’t what we would call a mirror really, but a piece of obsidian – rounded on one side to fit nicely into the palm of your hand and polished flat on the other side to such a shine that you could see your face in it. I was astonished to think such a thing existed so long ago!

Janina Ramirez ©BBC Television

It made me start thinking about mirrors in the past and of course I went down a rabbit hole …

Clearly, still water must have been the first type of mirror, and if no ponds, lakes or puddles were available, some water in a dark bowl or vessel could have been used. But that’s not very practical if you want to see yourself from any direction other than leaning above the surface. Apart from polished obsidian, apparently volcanic glass was also used in pre-historical times, then came polished copper, bronze and silver, and later steel. These are not very satisfactory though as the reflectivity is poor and these metals also tarnished quickly so had to be polished often.

Research from my bed

Anne here, and that's a slightly misleading heading — I'm not bedridden or about to talk about naughty things or anything, I just research from my bed, using my laptop, quite often. It could just as easily take place in my writing room on the main computer. But right now I'm writing this post from my bed, so . . . 

And I'm answering a question someone sent me privately, about doing research from the other side of the world.

I have huge envy of the wenches who can hop in a car and visit potential settings, or even those who can hop on a plane. I could hop on a plane, too, of course (though not currently with our CoVid restrictions), and have, often — the photo on the right is mine from my last UK trip. But a round trip to the UK costs me several thousand dollars, and believe me, sitting in a plane for 23 hours (one way) is no fun — and that's just to get there. In any case, with CoVid, travel is a whole other set of problems, not the least of which is the requirement to be quarantined for 10 days on arrival in the UK, and 2 weeks of quarantine on returning home.

Before I became a writer, I'd travelled quite a bit—in fact I was traveling in North America, the UK, Europe and Asia when I first decided to try to write for a living. And I'd visited the UK several times and lived in Scotland for a year as a child. 

But I was absorbing the sights and sounds and smells as a traveller, not a writer.  I toured museums and fabulous old houses for the love of history and fine old houses, not with a view to setting a scene in one of them, or having a character live in them. I wrote plenty of letters, but took no writerly notes.

So for me, most of the time, it has to be virtual research.

Historical Ailments with Dr. Josh

Susan here, turning the blog over to Dr. Josh, nephrologist-toxicologist (and my firstborn) as he takes a look at some common diseases in history -- a useful subject for writers and readers of historical fiction . . .

Dr. Josh says …

As we approach the fall and winter holiday season, it’s a good time to discuss the disease historically known as consumption, and two diseases of behavior, gout and lead poisoning. The last two, particularly, had a propensity to be brought on by the revels and heavy meals of nobility in days gone by; the first just infected everyone.

CONSUMPTION, a name prompted by the progressive weight loss seen in the disease, has been around since early antiquity. One theory holds that it was due to milk drinking and cattle herding -- the bacterium causing consumption is thought to be a mutated version of a less infective bacterium that afflicts cattle. Two billion people worldwide are infected, and although only roughly 5% of these people have symptoms, the disease has been responsible for more death due to infection than any other. It has been demonized and romanticized throughout history.

The Road West

Cruising the Ohio River

by Mary Jo

September was cruise time!  As with our April cruise of the Chesapeake Bay, we an American Cruise Lines small ship cruise.  Since ACL cruises only in American waters, it was much easier and less likely to be canceled than flying to Europe at a time when border restrictions are constantly changing.  We decided on a cruise of the Ohio River, starting from Pittsburgh and ending in St. Louis.  It would be simple to get to and from, and more important, it was a part of the US that we didn't know well, and which has masses of history. 

The Ohio River was the southern border of a vast tract of wilderness that had been ceded to the US by Great Britain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American War of Independence.  The Northwest Territory doubled the size the young United States and covered all or part of what would become six states, but at the time, it was entirely undeveloped: no towns, no farms, no roads, only a handful of small forts. 

 

Forever Autumn?

by Mary Jo

Today's topic was inspired by a back room chat among the Wenches in which we extolled the delights of autumn: crisp air, vibrant colors, the recharging of energy after summer languor.  Several Wenches said they'd like it to be autumn all year round.  

But do we really want that?  So I asked: What  are your favorite seasons? Are there any you'd like to see all year round?

 

Island Stories

Nicola here. Since the time I first picked up a book I’ve been fascinated by islands, both in real life and as the setting for stories. Whether it's Five on a Treasure Island or The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton, or Robinson Crusoe or Lord of the Flies (well not so much that one, perhaps) there is something magical about an island.

Islands offer the idea of escape and retreat and also the opportunity to start afresh. They are places set apart where you can take time and space to think. They appear solitary and pure in some ways, an earthly paradise. But they can also be too isolated, even savage, which is perhaps they make such great settings for crime novels. An island, if you can’t get off it easily, is the perfect “locked room” mystery as Agatha Christie proved and countless other crime and thriller authors have used the setting.

Travels in Italy--Part One

Wench Pat here, just back from a two-week trip to Italy, combining business with pleasure. I’ve dug up some fabulous ideas for the new mystery series and enough material for a year’s worth of blogs. I should probably just post photos and not blather on!

One of the lures for this trip was the opportunity to explore the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. The winding, narrow coast drive is every bit as hair-raising as promised. We were a small group in a small bus and thankfully, most cars were smaller than us, but those giant buses. . . !  Ai yi yi. Traffic would back up on every curve when two buses met each other and had to maneuver their way out of the mess.

A Norwegian Adventure

Christina here and once again I’m going to take you all armchair travelling! A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to Norway on a research trip. My older daughter and I drove around the southern part of the country covering 1230 km in five days! Exhausting, but very rewarding.

We began our trip in the capital, Oslo, a beautiful town situated next to the Oslo fjord. In the city centre old houses mixed with new, overlooked by the royal castle up on a hill at one end of the famous Karl Johan Gate (street). Everything was within walking distance, including the cathedral, the harbour and Akershus, a medieval castle.

A Yuletide Kiss

by Anne Gracie

Anne here, interviewing Mary Jo Putney about her delicious new Christmas story, which came out last week. A Yuletide Kiss, an anthology written with Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries, brings together three couples caught out by a snowstorm and stuck at the White Rose Inn in the days leading up to Christmas.

Anne: Mary Jo, you've written linked stories before with other authors — The Last Chance Christmas Ball comes to mind — but this was only with two other authors, instead of eight. How did you work to make the stories intersect? Were there any difficulties?

Mary Jo: Anne, we were both part of the Word Wench linked story anthology, so you know that it's real work!  In LCCB, we had eight authors contributing, but they varied greatly in how much the stories connected. (Susan King's Scots got snowed in and never made it to the ball at all. <G>)