Word Wenches

Intrigue and Mistletoe

 

 

Mischief and Mistletoe is out in the big wide world as of last week.  I am so delighted to be part of this anthology. 

Let me just meander aside here for an instant and mentiion that I haven't written a short story since I was in Grade School, so the whole concept was a bit baffling.  I had ta kinda feel my way through this.

Since I write Regency spies as my own particular metier, I figured my contribution to the anthology should be ... Regency spies.

I'm sticking with the secrecy and intrigue, of which there was any amount lying about in this time period, but shifting my focus just a bit.  One of the sad realities about spies in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries is that much of the spying they engaged in was against their own countrymen.  While the English crown certainly worried about the French armies milling about across the Channel, they were somewhat more terrified of the disaffected at home. They spied upon them diligently. 

In several of my books, my protagonists have been patriots on opposite sides of the long, bitter political struggle between France and England. In this short story, I considered the problems of a spy working in his own country. It's his duty to go undercover in England, playing a part, lying to Englishmen.

My hero, Jack, pretending to be a man he isn't, courted Elinor.  In the

pictures are attrib creativity+, jennydowning, 1sox4.

end, he betrayed her trust and broke the bone and sinew of her life when he uncovered the treason of her uncle. 

Just a job.  Just another job. 
He hadn't counted on falling in love with her.

Now it's two years later.  Christmas is the end of the old year, the beginning of the new.  From ancient times this has been the season of renewal and forgiveness.  I bring Jack and Elinor together, sheltering from the storm under the same roof, and ask the question, "Can she forgive the man who lied to her and betrayed her?"

Oh.  There's a secret list gone astray, naughty Latin texts, and a dangerous French agent flitting here and there about the corridors of the old inn.  The usual.   

So ... what's your favorite book about 'second chances' and 'forgiveness'.  I'm thinking Susan Elizabeth Phillip's Nobody's Baby But Mine and Sherry Thomas' Not Quite A Husband.

Wenches 'n Smugglers

I'm loving these Wenchly blogs about our stories in our new anthology, Mischief and Mistletoe. And I feel so honored to be part of the first published anthology by a blog group! 

My own story, "A Wilder Wench," came about because I wanted to play with one of my favorite themes, the rebel/outlaw/smuggler hero (or heroine) vs. the upholder of the law. Lovely fun writing this one -- the wench is wild indeed, a smuggler's daughter gone proper, who reverts to wilder ways just this once to save her brother. The hero, a viscount and sheriff, considers himself a bit dull now, by choice, as he was once a bit wild himself. Throw in smuggling, thievery, a Yuletide snowstorm, steamy romance and a stack of custard pies, and you have my concoction for Mischief and Mistletoe.  

I love whisky smuggling Highlanders - I've written them before, in an anthology, April Moon, with Merline Lovelace and Miranda Jarrett, and in The Highland Groom, one of my historical romances written as Sarah Gabriel. If you're a fan of Scottish heroes and romantic adventure, and you're fond of stories that mix rebellion, danger, and a bit of mischief, you too might be partial to smuggling heroes -- and heroines. 

The smuggling trade in Scotland flourished particularly in the 18th and early 19th centuries along the Solway coast and was widespread inland as well, from the central and upper Highlands to the eastern regions. Highland whisky, widely acknowledged as the finest available, was an illicit product thanks to English laws that favored heavy excise taxes. The Scots, being pragmatic, stubborn and independent thinkers, resisted the English laws, feeling they should be able to do as they pleased with their own barley crops. And they pleased to make uisge beatha, the water of life, as it had been made for centuries, with the finest barley malt and the purest Highland water.

The "barley bree," as Robert Burns -- himself an excise officer because poetry didn't pay -- termed it, was produced in hidden glens and pockets in the hills and transported (often quite boldly) down to the rivers and lochs to be taken over water to England, Ireland, Europe and even America. King George IV greatly favored a particular Highland whisky - famously ignoring that it got to his table courtesy of Scottish smugglers. 

Malt-based Highland whisky was made in small batches of much higher quality than the cheaper grain whiskies produced in the Lowlands and England. What Highlanders smuggled is similar to the finest stuff available today. The English taste for excellent, affordable malt whisky bolstered the illicit Highland whisky trade even as the government tried to quell it (pictured - Dougie MacLean's own Caledonia whisky for the Edradour label, made in the old way). Add revenue officers who were often outsmarted and out-dared by tough, clever Highland free-traders, and it’s a great recipe for fiction.

In Mischief and Mistletoe, I blended whisky smuggling with excise officers and a girl who poses as a highwayman to protect someone she loves. Edward Armstrong, Lord Dunallan, is a revenue officer and acting sheriff of the same Highland region where he is also a reluctantly inherited viscount -- and when he meets the local vicar's niece, Cristina Heron-Shaw, at a supper party, he recognizes the girl he protected at risk to himself years before -- and recalls that her father was a notorious smuggler. Cristina recognizes Dunallan, too, dismayed to find he's now sheriff -- just when she's planning to ride out on that snowy night to stop the coach that carries documents condemning her brother, wrongly accused of smuggling and currently cooling his heels in Dunallan's jail. A night of cross-purposes, wild rides, midnight passions, a snowstorm and an old vow --not to mention a little custard pie action -- made "A Wilder Wench" a truly delightful writing adventure for me. I hope you'll love it too.

Here’s an excerpt, where Dunallan has captured a highwayman—rather, highway-wench—and has had an encounter with a leftover pie . . . 

He kicked the door open, rusty latch giving, and strode across the hall and up the stairs. She was a featherweight, this troublemaking girl, he thought, as he pushed open the door to his bedchamber, the only decently furnished room in the place. He hardly thought about the location, preoccupied with the horses still to be stabled, the wicked weather, the blasted pie sliding over his brow, the fact that the vicar’s niece was a bandit.
    He dumped her on the edge of the bed and stood back. His grandfather’s dogs bumped against his legs—the terrier and the deerhound had followed him up the steps.
    The girl sat up, setting a hand to her head. She had lost the hat, and her hair fell in a golden tousle, smeared with apple custard. Turning, Edward brightened an oil lamp on a side table, then snatched a linen towel from the washbasin stand and handed it to her.
    In silence, she wiped the glop from her hair. He fisted hands to hips.
    “There’s crust over your ear,” he said. 
    She reached, but the piece dropped to the floor to be snatched by the terrier. The girl looked up at Edward. “I am sorry about the pies. I’ll make more.”
    He huffed. “The tolbooth, where you'll soon be, lacks a kitchen.”
    She blinked, eyes wide and blue. “You’ve custard on your nose.”
    “Miss Heron-Shaw,” he said, rubbing his face, “first, are you hurt? How is your head?”
    Touching her forehead, she winced. “It aches a bit. But I am fine. I should go—“ She began to stand, then sat abruptly.
    “Rest,” he advised. “And explain yourself. What the devil—“
    “I cannot tell you, exactly. And please do not swear.”
    “Pardon. We will stay here until you are ready to talk. Just what were you about tonight?”
    She picked the desserty bits from her hair and let them drop to the dogs; they gobbled up and eagerly awaited more. "Tonight?"
    He hooked his foot around a chair, drew it to him and sat so close that his knees nearly touched hers. Extracting gooey pie bits from his hair, he brushed at the custard on his coat sleeve. “So, you rode out this evening with a plate for a neighbor, and then robbed a courier. Do not deny it,” he said, when she began to protest. “I saw you and apprehended you.”
    “I did bring something to Mrs. MacDonell.”
    “Dressed like a brigand?”
    “It is cold outside.”
    “I see. Perhaps the scarf about your face gave you an irresistible urge to waylay a gig.”
    “I am not a thief. I only meant to help someone.”
    “By taking my papers?” he asked abruptly.
    “P-papers?” She ran her fingers through her tangled hair. “Your papers?”
    "Aye." Edward plucked a wedge of crust from her hair. His fingers smoothed over curls so fine and soft that his heart bounded. “You took a valuable parcel that belongs to me, and I want it returned,” he said, low and ominously.

Which do you prefer, a bad boy hero or a law-abiding one? Or perhaps you like a bit of both in your heroes -- reformed to the law, or reverted to rebellion! And how do you spell whisky/whiskey? In America we tend to use the -ey ending, though the Scots definitely prefer the -y ending, thus my choice for the story.

I'd love to give away a copy of Mischief and Mistletoe to a reader who comments on this blog, so go for it!  And if you would love to order the book or ebook now, now, now - please click here! The Wenches thank you!

Susan

A Wicked Wench in Wales!

Nicola here, and today I’m talking about the background and inspiration to my story in the Word Wench anthology Mischief and Mistletoe.

It’s been fascinating to see the posts by the other Wenches on what makes their heroines wicked. My heroine, Lydia Cole, is the landlady of the Silent Wench Inn in a dark and dangerous corner of Wales. It’s the first time I’ve set a story in Wales and I wonder why I’ve waited so long because the setting really appeals to me. It feels wild and lawless, the perfect place for a handsome and rakish hero to be marooned on a winter's night.

It was a co-incidence that I was on holiday on the west coast of Wales around the  time that we were discussing ideas for the Wench anthology but I think it must have been serendipity. We were staying in a seaside cottage close to the town of Newport and as soon as I visited it I knew it was the town where my heroine Lydia Cole would hide when she runs away from society to reinvent herself. I won’t give away too many details of Lydia’s “wickedness”; let’s just say that the Silent Wench Inn doesn’t simply offer refreshment to travellers, it runs a fine sideline in other less respectable activities too, some of which are downright illegal. Records show that Newport was a trading port from the 16^th century onwards and it's geographical position made it an ideal centre for free trading. Smuggling in Wales continued a lot later into the nineteenth century than it did in many other parts of the British Isles.

I also wanted to bring Newport Castle into the story. The west coast of Wales was fought over for hundreds of years. The Normans established a barony in Newport in the 13^th century and the site of their first wooden motte and bailey castle can still be seen. Subsequent stone castles were destroyed when the Welsh fought back under Prince Rhys Ap Gruffydd and later under Owain Glyndwr. The current castle is a seriously spooky looking place, a nineteenth century renovation of a medieval building. I actually saw a bat fly out of the open window!

One little detail that I picked up from the history of Newport and wanted to incorporate into my story was the school. The first school in Newport was established in 1809 funded by and named after Madam Bevan of Laugharne. It was part of a nationwide movement of “Circulating Schools” set up to give children in rural communities the opportunity to receive an education. In my story Lydia may be complicit in some illegal trades but she also teaches at the school and is an important part of the local community.

The other inspiration for my story was Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. This evocative description could have been written to describe Newport:

“It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobbled streets silent and the hunched courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.” 

 I substituted winter for spring and away I went with On A Wicked Winter Night!

Today Wench Pat is offering a copy of Mischief and Mistletoe to one commenter in North America and I am offering a copy to a commenter from "the rest of the world" so you get two Wench giveaways for the price of one!

The question:

Where do you stand on stories where the hero or heroine breaks the law? Does it depend on the circumstances or is it just plain wrong no matter the reason? Do you have a favorite book with a law-breaking hero or heroine?

My Wicked Wench

Hi, Jo here, talking about my story in the anthology Mischief and Mistletoe. When the idea of a wicked wench came up I immediately thought of a vague idea that had been rattling around in my head for a long time -- "The Triumph of the Red Fingernailed Lady."

Not a story per se, but a concept.

I don't know if the "Red Fingernailed Lady" means anything to you. It probably depends on how many Mills & Boon/Harlequin romances you read in the olden days, but they often had a particular dynamic. The millionaire (back before inflation -- they're all billionaires now!) somehow connects with the Poor But Honest (PBH) heroine, often an orphan who is hired to care for his child/mother/wheelchair-bound sister etc etc.

He is already connected with a woman of his own world who considers him her property. She is sleek and perfectly turned out, including perfect nails, generally blood red....

When the RFL sees that Her Man is ridiculously taken with the innocence of the unmade-up and poorly dressed heroine, she will stop at nothing to show her up in his eyes. Of course in the end innocent goodness is perfect protection from sneaky malice, etc etc.

Here's a bit of the storyline from Country of the Falcon by the great Anne Mather. "...it was not long before Alexandra had exchanged one danger for another-that of falling in love with him. For Declan was far too old and experienced for her, he thought of her, and treated her, as a child and in the sophisticated Clare Forman he had a more than willing woman of his own sort anyway . . ."

I don't know what it says about me, but I soon wanted to turn this scenario on its head. I didn't like the RFLs as presented, but I didn't much like the PBH twits either. (Twits because they always fell for the RFL's schemes.) I was also bothered by the hero loving her for her sweet naivity and the RFL getting no points at all for fighting spirit.

Do any of you remember those sorts of books, and did you have the same reaction as me? I suspect that many did, which is why the RFL had to be so nasty. If she was simply well-groomed and sophisticated too many readers might be on her side.

However, you'll note that I kept reading the books! As readers we're not at all logical, are we?

Back in the '70s I began a story in which the free-loving, drug-enjoying heroine snatches the guy from a sanctimonious drip. Never got far with it, and I'm sure it would never have sold, but the urge was there, even then, and at mention of a Wicked Wench....

I wrote Miss Brockhurst's Christmas Campaign.

No, Penelope Brockhurst is not truly wicked, and she's not really a RFL, but she is a sophisticated lady of the ton, and has a reputation as well. She's known as Miss Breakheart because she's jilted a number of men. She's belatedly realized why, and she intends to hook her one true love over Christmas at his parents' home. When she arrives there, however, she finds him about to engage himself to a vision of sanctimonious propriety.

What's a red-blooded lady to do but set out to undermine her rival get Ross Skerries for herself?

You can read a short excerpt here. http://www.jobev.com/novellas.html#PENN

Enjoy!

As I'm in Britain, I'll send a copy of Mischief and Mistletoe to one randomly selected commenter who lives in the UK or Eire.

Do you remember the Red Fingernailed Ladies?

Are they still around?

Is naivity v sophistication still a good dynamic in a romance novel?

Jo

The Emerald Isle: or, What I did on my vacation, part 2

 by Mary Jo

At the end of August, the Mayhem Consultant and I sailed from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2 purely to enjoy the leisure and romance of a transatlantic crossing.  But once we reached England, we certainly weren’t going to waste being in Europe! 

We’d vaguely planned to go to Ireland some day.  I’d spent a week there many, many years ago when I was living in England, and the MC had never visited Ireland at all.  Clearly, it was time. <G> 

Neither the MC nor I have any known Irish blood, but no matter.  We loved Ireland for its beauty, wonderful friendly people, and deep sense of history. Rather than ramble on indefinitely, here’s a few bits and pieces, with a modest selection of pictures.  (Ireland is a very photogenic country!):

Travel the easy way:

We decided to try something new: instead of hiring a car ourselves, we’d hire a car with a driver/guide to take us around.  No stress, and a driver who not only knew the fun, off the beaten track places, but could tell us the history.  We worked through an agency recommended by a friend of a friend, and Ireland Chauffeur Travel turned out to be a good pick.  We worked out an itinerary, rooms were booked, and it worked as smoothly as silk. 

We were particularly lucky with our guide, John Daly. Besides being capable, welcoming, and knowledgeable, he’s a certified tour guide with a special expertise in Irish history.  Hog heaven for a historical novelist! 

Because my next book, Sometimes a Rogue, has a section in Ireland, I was particularly keen to see the southeast and Kinsale in particular.  Good choice.  Kinsale is a lovely little town with a small harbor perfect for my needs, lots of good B&Bs and restaurants, and a totally cool fort on the edge of town.  The MC also had a special request: as a native Baltimorean, he wanted to visit the original Irish town of Baltimore.  We did.  It was small. <G> (Above is an image of St. Bridget's Well, an ancient holy well turned Christian.  But it's not near Baltimore.)

Bed &Breakfast:

Most nights we stayed in B&Bs, which I love for their friendliness and quirky individuality, not to mention the great breakfasts.  The people of the British Isles really  know how to do a proper breakfast, which generally includes fruit, cereal, eggs, several kinds of pig meat, and such accessories at grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, toast, marmalade, maybe fried bread or even baked beans.  There are regional variations among the breakfasts, but eggs, meat, and toast are pretty universal.  Even Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, has its Ulster Fry. 

No guest has to eat more than they want, of course, but for sure no one leaves hungry.  The Irish variation often includes black and white pudding—a form of blood pudding.  I tried it the first morning in the spirit of experimentation, but didn’t get very far.  One B&B owner said they no longer offered it for breakfast because only the Irish would eat it. <g>

But one thing we were served everywhere in Ireland and loved was the marvelous Irish brown soda bread.  It’s crumbly and tasty and goes well with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any other time you’re in the mood.  I have become one of the many Americans who would love to be able to duplicate it at home, but my research indicates that Irish whole meal flour is needed, and it’s a low gluten kind of “soft” flour that grows naturally in Ireland.  Good natural buttermilk is needed, too, not anything heavily processed.  I am on the hunt for the proper ingredients.  I am in danger of becoming obsessive. <G>

Irish Food:

The British Isles in general have had an unenviable reputation for the quality of the food, but that has changed a lot in recent years. Ireland is a great country for produce and dairy, and restaurants have taken enthusiastically to locavore cooking.  Most of the places where we ate were willing to give you the name of the chicken who laid your breakfast egg. (I exaggerate only slightly. <g>)  Lots of fresh fish and lovely little salads and potatoes.  (I may not be Irish, but I do love potatoes.) 

Memories in Stone:

In choosing pictures for this blog, I tried to avoid choosing too many images of rocky things.  It was hard because Ireland has so many old castles, churches, forts, famine houses, and more.  Not to mention the natural rock. 

We skipped the beautiful Ring of Kerry, a famous scenic drive, which meant many coaches on the same road.  Instead, we opted for the quieter Dingle Peninsula, which has been inhabited since the Iron Age.  John Daly pointed out “famine houses:” tiny stone houses that held too many people who had to survive on too little land.  We also visited a small but very intact Iron Age fort.  (Above)

The famous Cliffs of Moher (pronounced “More”) tower up to 700 feet in the air and are a grand sight.  We visited them by boat on a sunny afternoon, which was great fun, since the boat had occasional impulses to imitate a bucking bronco.  <g>  But more impressive was seeing them the next day from above in the haunting mists. 

“You must stay in a Castle!”

It was our Wench Anne Gracie who said that if we were to visit Ireland, we must spend a night in a castle.  Ever agreeable, I told the agency to find us one, and they booked us into the magnificent Ashford Castle.  It turned out to be a historical romance fan's dream.  <g>

The oldest part is Norman and dates back to the 13th century.  The condition was bad in the 19th century when the Guinness brewing family bought it and spend a million pounds restoring and adding to the castle.  (And that was when a million pounds really MEANT something!)

Now it’s owned by an American group that operates it as a luxury hotel, and it was fabulous.  By luck, we were upgraded to a suite that was remarkably like what one of my Regency heroines might live in, only with electricity. Most of the guests were average Americans like us who were enjoying the fantasy of living like lords and ladies.  I want to go back and do one of their falconry sessions.

Goodbye to all that

One of my favorite sites was these high crosses.  Ancient monuments to faith, the rich carving can include bible tales, and even carved cats. 

When John Daly left us at a Dublin airport hotel so we could fly home the next day, a rainbow appeared as we were going in.  Does that look like a good omen for returning to Ireland?  I’m taking it as such!

Have you been to Ireland?  Would you like to go?  Inspired by Scotland's "Homecoming" celebration, which invited people from around the world with Scottish blood to return, in 2013 Ireland is hosting "The Gathering," an open invitation for members of the world wide Irish diaspora to return (and spend money.) It's a good excuse for a visit! 

In the meantime—does anyone know how to make great Irish brown soda bread on this side of the Atlantic? 

Mary Jo's "you will return" rainbow

Wicked Holiday Wenches

  Anne started such a wonderful discussion of Wicked Wenches that I’m not certain there’s much room to jump in. But writing a 10-12,000 word story has taught me something about writing short, so I may practice short blogging, too.

The difficulty of writing “wicked” in short form is that there’s very little room for redeeming a truly wicked sin, much less an entire character. I’d like to try it sometime in novel form, but for the sake of a short story, I tried to make it easy on myself. I created a character who really did something no good romance heroine should do—deliberately lied by a rather spectacular omission and betrayed a loyalty. Readers would have screamed in outrage had I pulled this stunt in the normal course of a story, because of course, it’s pretty impossible to carry out the lie she was perpetrating, although the disloyalty could be justified.

But in short form, events have to move swiftly. So there’s no time for deception to reach the level of true wickedness—or stupidity, which is what I’d label the actions of most heroines inclined to such stunts. Damaris knows what she’s doing is wrong and is fully prepared to accept the consequences, because she knows she’s doing it for good reason.

And because this is essentially a feel-good holiday story, even though she’s caught out and is faced with the harsh judgment of those she’s fooled, love does overcome all.

The one really difficult part of writing short is that there’s little room for both romance and plot. Most of the wenches resolved this by having the hero and  heroine know each other before the story started. I, on the other hand, needed anonymity for my mischief. So I had to end on a hopeful note for two lonely people and let readers reach their own conclusions.

Interestingly, a holiday spirit seems to imbue the story with just the right note of hope. Is this the reason so many of us enjoy Christmas anthologies? Any other theories as to why Christmas stories are so popular?

Alone on a wide wide sea!

by Mary Jo

I’m just back from a rather splendid vacation, which started with a one week transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary 2, followed by another week in Ireland.  Both are thoroughly blog-worthy.  

The Mayhem Consultant has long wanted to make a classic transatlantic cruise such as used to be required to get to or from Europe, and I agreed that it sounded like a fine idea.  The Queen Mary 2 is not a cruise ship, but the last and largest of the great ocean liners: ships designed to transport people from place to place.  They use more steel than cruise ships and have a higher freeboard (height above the water).  Crew members like to explain the differences. 

Though the QM2 also takes people on cruises, including an annual round the world cruise that lasts about three months, she is the only liner that still offers scheduled transport between New York City and Southampton, England.  When I contacted our cruise agent about taking the QM2, she said, “You know it’s seven days at sea?”

Yes, I knew.  We liked the idea of seven days at sea.  And now that we’ve experienced it, we like the reality.  I saw no land and only one other ship in those seven days—a container ship, maybe.  The rest of the time, what did we see?  We saw the sea.

It’s incredibly restful, which I loved since I’d turned in a manuscript mere days before and I really needed rest!  The ship was filled with lounges and cozy corners full of people reading.  (It seemed to be roughly 50/50 between print books and e-readers.)  I did my part by reading through line edited pages of SOMETIMES A ROGUE and adding my own corrections, which I’m incorporating now.  It was a nice way to work.

The QM2 is the flagship of the Cunard Line, which includes the Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Queen Victoria.  Samuel Cunard, a Canadian from Halifax, founded the line after winning the contract for regular mail service between the United Kingdom and North American in 1840. 

The Cunard Line was known for quality and safety, and over the decades absorbed other lines, including the White Star Line which owned the Titanic.  These days Cunard is part of the Carnival cruise line empire, but it retains a firmly British tone and many of the passengers were British, which I enjoyed.

It’s also unabashedly classist, with the different classes using different dining rooms based on the cost of the staterooms.  The top of the tree nobility dine in the Queen’s Grill.  A notch down is the Princess Grill, which I think of as gentry.  The third class, the average folk, dine in the very large and beautiful Britannia restaurant.  (Above)

There are also masses of smaller eateries.  Our favorite was Sir Samuel’s, a quiet coffee shop and wine bar where one could get a pleasant lunch or dessert.  There’s also a huge buffet restaurant for people who don’t like to dress up.

But the real secret of modern day cruising, whether a liner like the QM2 or a regular Caribbean cruise vessel, is that they fulfill posh fantasies beautifully.  The staff, many of them from countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, are wonderfully warm, welcoming, and very hard working. 

Even a passenger staying in the cheapest inside windowless stateroom is treated like royalty with multi-course meals, wine stewards, and crisp napkins snapped open and laid across one’s lap.  It’s a way to experience a modern day version of the Regency.  <g> 

Since I’m a history buff, crossing the Atlantic on a classic ocean liner brought up thoughts of what travel was like in the old, pre-airline days.  As a girl, my mother sailed from California to China when her father took up a teaching position in the Peking medical school.  She was only ten. 

How long was her family at sea?  Weeks, surely.  Perhaps months.  Long enough for the ship to become a way of life.  What was it like to sail from England to Australia?  I think that could run six to eight months in the days of sail.

The QM2 is a very large ship with stabilizers that made for a very smooth voyage.  How different it would be in a small ship that was much more at the mercy of the elements! 

Some of my books have included sailors and long voyages, and I did my best to imagine myself in a seafaring world, but actually traveling to Europe by sea made the experience more visceral.  There was a leisurely feeling to the days since they didn’t vary much, though NYC at the beginning was warm and sunny, and each day thereafter was cooler as we headed north and east to Southampton.

The QM2 is so tall that as we left New York’s harbor, the ship captain went on the ship wide loudspeaker to say that there was indeed enough clearance to get under the Verrazano Bridge. <G> 

Believe me, it’s quite an experience to sail by the Statue of Liberty as we steamed out of New York Harbor.  Seeing Lady Liberty brought images of immigrants arriving in America and seeing her as a hope for a better future:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

We had very good weather (the Mayhem Consultant has a sideline in weather magery <G>), but there was one day of pure white fog that was so featureless that it made me think of the Starship Enterprise moving through space.  There was no horizon, no sky, barely a sense of the sea through which we moved.  It was all a peaceful white cocoon pierced by the occasional muffled blast of the ship’s foghorn to warn other vessels that a Very Big Ship was in the vicinity.  (The QM2’s horn is deep and powerful and has a real sense of presence. <G>) 

We arrived at the bustling docks of Southampton very early in the morning, as Cunard ocean liners have done for going on two centuries.  Already we’re thinking that someday we’d like to make the return trip from Southampton to New York.  If that happens, we’ll be able to see Lady Liberty as she was designed to be seen: greeting foreign visitors to America. 

Cruising continues to grow in popularity, and this is not the first Word Wench blog on ocean liners: last year Nicola Cornick interviewed Michelle Willingham for a discussion of the research Michelle did on 19th century liners for her book The Accidental Countess.

Have you ever traveled on an ocean liner?  Taken a cruise?  Would you like to?  Some people totally love the idea of shipboard life where you get to visit interesting places while staying in a mobile hotel.  Others totally do not get it.  <G> 

If cruising appeals to you, where would you like to go?  Or where have you gone?

Mary Jo, who is very fond of being on or around water

Honorary Word Wench, Pamela Hartshorne

Anne here again, this time to thank Pam Hartshorne for being such a splendid guest and to usher her into the hallowed ranks of Honorary Word Wench-hood.

Pam, it's our custom at Word Wenches to bestow on our special guests the exalted rank of Honorary Word Wench, joining those listed in the column below right. We also offer fabulous and extravagant gifts, which are no less heartfelt for being virtual (and an amazing bargain.) You may also use the initials HWW after your name, which will baffle some and impress others.

Since you're both an historian and an intrepid traveller, I thought you could combine research and travel with this wonderful steampunk plane, which I'm sure will also travel in time, one you master the basic controls. I know it might look a little flimsy, but I assure you, that's quite deceptive. There was a more impressive one here, but alas, t'was not available under creative commons.I'm sure you could borrow it, though, and I suspect that's you in the very spiffy pilot's outfit.

There's a wee bit of self interest in this, in that not only will it enable you to write more fabulous historical novels (while not neglecting your wonderful romances) but you can also visit your friends in different parts of the world.

Thanks again for being such a lovely guest. All the very best with TIME'S ECHO.

To all those who left comments—thank you all so very much— a winner has been chosen, and it's Joss Alexander. Congratulations, Joss.

 

Mischief and Mistletoe — the genesis

Anne here, doing a kind of Ask A Wench — talking about how our Wenchly anthology, MISCHIEF AND MISTLETOE  (released on 25th September) came about. We think it's the first time a group of authors who blog together have brought out an anthology together. To illustrate the process, I'm using snippets of the email discussion the Wenches had in working out the concept. They're all in blue, so you'll have to guess who said what.

The idea originally came up in a discussion in Mary Jo's room at the RWA National conference in Washington DC in 2009, where Mary Jo, Jo, Pat, Nicola, and I had all met for the first time as wenches. We talked about doing an anthology together, agreed it was a great idea and then... got swept up in various activities and forgot about it.

In August, 2010 Pat raised the idea again on the wenchly loop. Her email started: I'm procrastinating major big time, as may be obvious. <G> She suggested we could each write a story of around ten to twelve thousand words, either with an overall story arc, or based around a loose theme.
"We just need a tie-in factor."

Anne: I have to say, we all seized on the idea with enthusiasm and the suggestions flew thick and fast. The discussion went something like this:

*We could set all the stories under a full moon or at the time of a full moon.

*Love the anthology idea, and the idea of a loose theme, by moonlight or otherwise.  

*I quite like the idea that the moon is involved -- maybe "They met  by moonlight" or  "Wenches by Moonlight" or something like that. One moonlight scene in each story and that's the connection.

*With any concept we'd have to make sure we had a variety of themes and no outright repetition of them. But beyond that, lots of scope for variety.

*This is why I like doing short projects.  Feeds the muse, who likes variety.

Anne again: Most of us loved the full moon idea but then we discovered it had already been done, so that was that. But we thought Winter might be a good time of year to set the stories in. We thought we should have wenches in the title, as it was a celebration of the Word Wench group, and then for a while we debated the idea of wicked wenches.

*I keep thinking Wicked Wenches. Then the link could be wickedness. I think it would have to be a  fairly serious badness, but it could be theft, a really bad lie, sex, treason, all kinds of things. Or even, probably only by one Wench, an  unjust reputation for wickedness. Or does anyone fancy the 7 deadly  sins? *G*

*The Wicked Wenches has possibility! Since there are 8 of us, 7 sins probably aren't enough. And I'm not sure I want to argue over who gets Gluttony. :-)

*Deliberately wicked - because she has no choice. I like. Oh there are so many wicked little things a heroine could do that can be justified in a romance plot...

*What are the side effects if we brainstorm this during a retrograde?  <g>

*Actually, considering that the idea was first bruited about more than a year ago at the DC RWA conference, returning to it on a retrograde makes sense. 

*I'm not sure about having "wicked" in the title. It suggests more erotic stories, and I don't think that's what we're going for here.

Anne here: We all agreed that we wouldn't have "wicked" in the title, because it would make people expect more erotic stories, but we still liked the idea of some kind of wickedness in the story. But how wicked is wicked? And could we still make our heroines likable?

*I don't know that I would want to put a level of badness, since it could be relative. A proper young lady who slips outside to kiss under the full moon might be called a wicked wench by her parents. Just depends on the level of conflict we want.

*True, but I always feel cheated if a story in an anthology seems to wimp out on an edgy concept. I don't think it means the wickedness has to be awful, but it has to  have that edge to it. But you're right that it's relative. The proper young lady being caught with her clothing considerably disheveled, with a man with a very wicked reputation could do it. Whereas if the Wench were a whore, it wouldn't be seen as wicked at all!

*I "vote" for Wicked Wenches, with maybe a moonlight theme, if others like it. (In other words, I'm easy, and quite happy to go with the flow.)  

*My vote would also be for WICKED WENCHES, and if people want to add moonlight, all the better. <G>  

*Yup, I'm happy with this. I suspect the "wicked" will push me out of my comfort zone, which is a good thing.

*Good point about comfort zone. It's always good for us to go out on the edge, wherever that edge is for us personally.

*I'd say as soon as anyone has a wicked concept they want to use they should toss it out so that others can try not to use the same thing.

*Okay, if we want to do Wicked Wenches, then we want to make it deliberately edgy? Not sweet misses kissing in the moonlight but a miss who has deliberately done something she knows is wrong.

Anne again: I'll spare you the rest of the discussion — we made long lists of different kinds of wickedness, and as for titles — well, we have dozens. But the stories were, in the end, linked in the following ways:— a dash of wickedness during the winter season, which for some of us also meant the holiday season. Hence the title, Mischief and Mistletoe. Most of the stories also involved an inn, named after a wench of some sort. Mine was the Wench and Haggis Inn, so you can guess where my story is set.

Mine's called The Mistletoe Bride and here's the set-up. Ronan McAllister must marry an Englishwoman to receive his inheritance but having one distastrous marriage behind him, he's reluctant to marry again. His lawyer offers to find him a dying woman to marry and reluctantly Ronan agrees.(You can read the scene here)

Of course the scheme goes wrong, there is a mix-up at the inn, and Marguerite Blackett-Smith finds herself with a wicked choice. Here's a tiny snippet of the story.

     The thought of having to leave this cozy, friendly house and take up residence with an uncle who was the most notorious skinflint in the county made her stomach sink with dread. But there was no help to it — they thought she was Peggy Smith and—
    And Peggy Smith was dead.
    Peggy Smith, who'd promised to marry a man for money and then disappear from his life, no questions asked.    
    What if . . ?

I have to say, I really enjoyed writing this story. It did stretch me out of my comfort zone a little, writing a heroine who deliberately does something wicked, but I liked Marguerite and I really enjoyed watching Ronan open up to her in the end.(You knew it was going to end happily, right?)

I also really enjoyed reading the other wenches stories — it's a wonderful demonstration of our different voices and I have to say, I'm very proud to be part of this collection.

So, I'm giving away a copy of Mischief and Mistletoe, and I want to ask you, how wicked is wicked when we're talking romance heroines? Are heroines harder to redeem than heroes? Have you ever read a book where the heroine was, in your view, unredeemable? Did any author make you change your mind? Or if you don't want to wrap your head around wickedness, what's one of your favorite holiday stories? 

Time's Echo, by Pamela Hartshorne

Anne here, introducing Pamela Hartshorne, an English writer who writes for Harlequin as Jessica Hart, and whose mainstream historical novel called Time's Echo, is about to be published under her real name. Pam's led an adventurous life — she's travelled widely, has worked as a journalist, a cook on an outback cattle station, and as a production assistant in the theater. She has a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of York, and she's an excellent, award-winning and best-selling romance writer (& a RITA winner.)(Photographs © Kippa Matthews)

I've always been a huge fan of her contemporary romances and can't wait to read Time's Echo. It's had some wonderful reviews already: "a novel of superb power," and "a tantalising novel that moves effortlessly between the past and the present, detailing the lives of two women joined together by tragedy. This is female fiction at its riveting best." And just yesterday, a word of mouth recommendation of a friend of mine who had no idea I was interviewing Pam, telling me about this "amazing" book that I had to read.

Anne: Pam, after years as a historian and a writer of contemporary romances — presumably quite separate activities — you've branched into writing a mainstream historical novel. What inspired you to do this?  

Pam: I turned 50 in the same year that my 50th romance was published, which coincided in its turn with a spectacular crash and burn on the relationship front, and I realised that I really needed to change. I’ve always loved the idea of a time slip (What if you could know what it was really like in the past?) and having spent years working on a PhD about Elizabethan York, it seemed sensible to put my research together with everything I’d learnt about story-telling over the previous 20 years. (The relationship has since been resuscitated, btw, so I had to give John an acknowledgement for being the inadvertent instigator of my career change!)

Anne: When we first discussed this interview, you told me Time's Echo was "a time slip, set partly in the 16th century and partly in the present, and is part historical fiction, part ghost story, part psychological thriller and part romance." It sounds fabulous — I love time slip novels, and Nicola Cornick, who's already read it, says it's wonderful. My copy was ordered from here.  Tell us about the story.

Pam: I’m thrilled that Nicola enjoyed it and will wait nervously to hear what you think, Anne! As you say, Time’s Echo isn’t strictly a historical novel, but tells two intertwined stories, one in the past and one in the present. The premise in both time periods is one that fascinates me: what if we could turn back time and relive our lives? Would we be able to identify the moment we made a mistake, the tiny choice that changed everything? How different would our life be if we had turned left instead of right, or if we’d turned back because we’d forgotten something rather than gone on?

One day in 1577 Hawise (pronounced Ha-wees-a) Aske smiles at a stranger in the market place and sets in train a story of obsession and jealousy, of love and hate and warped desire. Drowned as a witch, Hawise pays a high price for that smile.

Grace Trewe comes to present-day York intending to spend as little time as possible sorting out her dead godmother’s affairs before moving on, the way she has always done before. Having survived the Boxing Day tsunami, Grace knows how lucky she is to be alive. She looks forward, not back.

But in York Grace discovers that the past cannot always be ignored. Her godmother, Lucy, has been dabbling in the occult, and Hawise is searching still for peace. Through Grace, she has a chance to relive her life, but will she be able to avoid making the same mistakes again? The more Grace is drawn into Hawise’s life in the Elizabethan city, the more parallels she finds with her own life. For Grace, too, has failed a child. . .

Is Grace possessed? Or is she suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? Either way, she learns that she cannot move on until she has come to terms with the past.

Anne: It sounds wonderful. Tell us about Grace. Do your characters spring to life on the page, fully formed, or do they slowly emerge in the writing?

Pam: Hhhmmnn, that’s a difficult question. I think I’d say both in the case of Time’s Echo. When I set out to write the story, I was expecting to find the present day story easy enough (I’d written 50 contemporary romances, right?) but I thought I’d struggle with the need to make the past authentic without alienating the reader. As it turned out, Hawise wrote her own story. I don’t remember ever thinking: I’ll make her do X or say Y. She just jumped into the screen and took over the writing – I wish that happened more often!

But when it came to Grace, I found it much harder, to tell you the truth. I think it was partly to do with the concept of a time slip. This extraordinary, fascinating, frightening thing is happening to her, and at the same time she’s dealing with the consequences of undiagnosed PTSD. So Grace has a lot to deal with and that doesn’t leave much room for frivolity or fun. For a long time I tried to make her one of my flirty romance heroines, but that just didn’t work. Grace is stubborn and sensible and furiously self-reliant and once I let her be herself, we got on a lot better!  

Anne: I'm always fascinated by the spark of inspiration where a writer gets an idea —a face, a piece of music, a painting or a snatch of conversation and thinks "there's a story." Was there such a spark for Time's Echo?  

Pam: It was more of a slow burn than a spark. My PhD was based on local court records in Elizabethan York, and I spent so long working on them that I felt as if I got to know the individuals who were presented for various petty offences.

The entries tend to be very brief, but one incident stood out: a miller called Miles Fell was fined for not muzzling his dog, a mastiff bitch which had bitten Nicholas Ellis on the leg. I don’t know what it was about this entry that made me picture it so clearly. I felt as if I knew what Fell was like (he turns up in the records a lot) and I imagined all the other individuals I “knew” watching him with his dog and poor Ellis hopping around holding his leg.

Once you’ve got a scene in your mind, it’s hard to let go of it. I began to think of what it would be like if you came across that entry and remembered it, if you knew exactly where they were and what had been said … Would that be fascinating or would it be frightening - or both?

Anne: What kind of research did you do for this novel?

Pam: Witchcraft (old and new), the Boxing Day tsunami, PTSD, de Clérambault’s syndrome, sociopaths, exorcism, herbal remedies, regression, New Age religions - and just about everything to do with everyday life in the 16th century! I soon discovered that a PhD about mending the streets and disposing of waste wasn’t much use when it came to knowing about childbirth or marriage rituals, or what people then wore or had for breakfast . . .  all of it fascinating.

I loved doing that research – and there’s still so much to read. Wherever possible, I like to read primary sources for the historical background; reading what people actually did and said in their own words makes the past so much more vivid. I’m currently reading the Assize Court records for the Elizabethan period and finding them really intriguing – so many stories there! I’m less rigorous for the present day stuff, I’ve got to admit. It’s amazing how much you can find with a little judicious Googling!

Anne: You're an avid traveller. Do you write while you're travelling or do you keep the activities separate?

Pam: I wish I could write when I was travelling – I love the idea of tapping away on my laptop under a vine-laden pergola in the sunshine somewhere - but sadly I only seem to be able to work when I’m at home in my study in York. On the plus side, it means I’m never tempted to take a laptop, so I’m able to cut myself off completely when I’m away. I always mean to ponder my next plot, but the moment I leave home, my mind goes blissfully blank. I tell myself that inspiration is simmering away on the back burner but I just don’t realise it. . .

Anne: Do you have a writing routine?

Pam: I write three drafts - a shitty first draft (to quote Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird), a shitty second draft and a final draft, which usually involves a complete rewriting – and my routine depends very much on how close I am to a deadline. I’m hopeless when writing the first two drafts. Every Monday I vow to have a week when I do nothing but write, but I always end up frittering away my mornings, and most of the afternoon too. I am so easily distracted! I really only write effectively after 9.00 at night, which means my days are spent feeling guilty about not knuckling down and then having a late night frenzy of writing.

I wait until I’m really terrified by a looming deadline before I have a real routine for rewriting the entire book. I’ll set my alarm and get up at 6.30, and make myself write 500 words before my shower. Then I have to do another 500 before coffee, 1000 before I’m allowed lunch and so on. I don’t know why I can’t make life easier for myself and write steadily all the time but I seem to need the adrenalin rush of pure panic. My next deadline is 31st October, and I need to rewrite 120,000 words before then; think of me lashed to my keyboard for the entire month!

Anne: Ouch! Best of luck with it. Can you give us a small taste of Time's Echo? 

On her way to meet Francis Bewley for the first time in the orchards outside the city walls, Hawise encounters Sybil Dent, a cunning woman reputed to be a witch.

I begin to turn away, but Widow Dent lays a hand on my sleeve. It is gnarled and knotted and mottled with age, but there is strength to it, too, that stops me in my tracks, and Hap whimpers.    
        ‘Go back,’ says the widow.
        Her eyes have taken on an eerie blankness, just as they did that day Elizabeth and I met her. ‘Go back,’ she says tonelessly. ‘Go back while you still can.’
        I look down at her in confusion. ‘I don’t understand. Go back where?’
        ‘Back the way you came,’ she says. ‘Or take a different path.’
        I bite my lip. I am late as it is. What is the point of taking a different path?
        ‘Go back!’ The urgency in the widow’s voice makes the fine hairs at the back of my neck stand up.
         Frightened, I step back from her and click my fingers for Hap. ‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I have to go.’
         Picking up my skirts, I run along the path, to the ash tree and to Francis, with Hap at my heels. I choose not to go back. I go on.

Anne: I can't wait to read it. There's another excerpt here. So, Pam, what are you working on next?

Pam: I’m back in Elizabethan York, writing another time slip called The Memory of Midnight. Although the premise of a time slip is the same, it’s a very different story, and much darker in lots of ways. I’ve been making myself uneasy with some of the scenes! As I mentioned above, this has to be finished by the end of October, and there’s a lot of work to be done yet. . .

After that, I’ll be putting my Jessica Hart hat on to write another romance – my 60th – so I’m looking forward to a change of tone for that, and then I’ll be slipping back to the past again!  

Anne: Ooh, good, I'm so glad you're not giving up romances — I love your romances.
Thanks so much Pam, it was lovely to have you on Word Wenches.

Thank you for inviting me, Anne. I often read the Word Wenches blog - so it’s a real thrill for me to be here with all you experienced historical authors!

To celebrate, I have a copy of Time’s Echo to give away. It’ll be no surprise to learn that I’m a huge fan of historical novels. John of Gaunt, in Anya Seton’s Katherine, was the first historical hero I fell in love with, but there have been so many gorgeous heroes since. . .

Leave a comment below telling me which hero from any historical novel you would most like to meet, and I’ll put you in a lucky dip. I’ll post a book anywhere in the world, so if you’re a winner, Time’s Echo could be winging its way to you very soon!

Meanwhile, do visit my website and blog, or drop in on my Facebook page – I’d love to see you! Or let’s meet on Twitter: I’m @PamHartshorne.

The Life of the Lady's Maid

Nicola here. The third series of Downton Abbey starts in the UK this week and so today I thought I would look at the role of the lady’s maid. The lady’s maid has frequently had a bad press. Dramatists of the 18^th century portrayed her as a vain, twittering creature. Lower servants tended to dislike the lady’s maid, partly for her affectations to gentility and partly for the fact that she had the ear of the mistress of the house. Certainly in Downton Abbey Lady Grantham's maid O'Brien is a complicated and interesting creation who reflects many of these elements but has a few saving graces. However the role of a lady’s maid was an exacting one.

 The maid of all work

 Margery, the heroine of my latest book, Forbidden, was a lady’s maid when her life was turned upside down with a sudden and unexpected inheritance. It was interesting to study the sort of work Margery did and the way her life had progressed up until that point in order to see how dramatically it would change with her elevation to the Ton.

Margery’s story is fictitious, of course, but it is based on the kind of life any number of women might have had in service at the turn of the 19^th century. She started her working career at the age of twelve as a maid of all work in a modest household in a small country town. (Her back story is given in an earlier book in the Scandalous Women of the Ton series, One Wicked Sin.) Her employer, Mrs Goodlake, was the wife of a successful tradesman. As such Mrs Goodlake had a small staff, much smaller than one would find in a grand country house. Rather than having a specific function, such as scullery maid or housemaid, Margery had to turn her hand to most jobs, from working in the kitchens to carrying the water up to the bedrooms. These “general maids” played the part of housemaid, parlour maid and cook as the need arose. Whilst a nobleman and his family might employ twenty or more indoor servants (there were, for example, twenty eight indoor servants at Ashdown House in the Regency period) a gentry or middle class household might be able to afford only two or three.

The fact the Margery could turn her hand to anything came in useful when she went to work for Lottie in One Wicked Sin. Lottie had a small cottage and only one female servant to answer the door, do the cooking and take care of just about everything else. Margery performed much the same role for Susanna in Notorious. The benefit of such a role was that she became close to her employers and was warmly appreciated, as much a friend as an employee. It was through the connections of these ladies that Margery progressed in her career because next she went to be lady’s maid to the Marchioness of Darent and then to Lady Grant and so became a senior servant in a large household at the tender age of only twenty three, with the potential to become a housekeeper in good time. This was a huge leap for maid-of-all-work.

The Senior Servant

A lady’s maid was a personal servant and as such was senior, highly-prized and comparatively well paid. One of the perks of being a lady’s maid was that you received your mistress’s cast off clothes to wear or sell as you pleased (which gave Margery the original idea for exchanging her confectionery for cast offs in the bawdy house.) A noblewoman of the highest rank might in fact possess several personal servants. In 1772 the Duchess of Marlborough had a lady’s maid, three housemaids, two footmen and a male French hairdresser in her personal entourage. The hairdresser was very skilled and earned £42 per annum, almost at the top of the servant pecking order, but more modest households than Blenheim Palace would expect the lady's maid to pick up the hairdressing responsibilities. 

So what were the requirements of a good lady’s maid? She had to be discreet, cheerful, obedient, healthy enough to be able to work long hours, considerate enough not to fall asleep on her employer in the carriage, virtuous enough to withstand the attention of male servants, honest enough to care for the jewellery, educated enough to read to her mistress, and have an expert knowledge of needlework, hairdressing and fashion. In return she would be rewarded with a room of her own, she would take her meals with the housekeeper and in a superior household she would be expected to attend only one lady. 

Contemporary opinions on the nationality of lady’s maids are very amusing. French maids were considered to be the height of chic for their fashion sense and their skill with a needle and comb. However in times of war they were a liability in case their loyalties were compromised. Swiss maids were considered safer and more trustworthy but were criticised for lacking vivacity!

The lady’s maid had to dress, undress and re-dress her mistress as many times as was necessary during the day. She would lay out her mistress’s clothes in the morning and tidy the room after the mistress was dressed. She would then occupy her day with sewing and ironing unless required to accompany her mistress on an outing. She repeated these activities during the day as required until it was time for her mistress to retire to bed, whereupon she would brush her hair for a half hour as well as help her undress. It doesn’t sound very exciting unless one was maid to a lady who travelled a great deal, in which case you would get to see the world.

One aspect of the maid’s work that did sound rather more interesting was the creation of various concoctions to help a lady with problems such as freckles and sunburn. These potions would be made in the stillroom using anything from herbs such as lavender and rosemary to milk, lemons, lard and bullocks’ gall, which the housemaids also used to clean marble!

A rather sad reflection on the role of the lady’s maid comes from one contemporary writer: “Your elevation into comfort and luxury – your better clothes, your seat in the dressing room and in your master’s carriage – are only circumstances in your service and are not given to you to last…” It is a clear indication that as a lady’s maid got older not all could rely on the loyalty of their mistress in keeping them at her side.

Some lady’s maids did become housekeepers but this was not common and it was a promotion resented by the housemaids who felt that they had more appropriate experience. Some also married above their station but again they were warned on the dangers and temptations: “If you have any personal attractions, beware of the least familiarity with any of the gentlemen of the family. Anything of the kind will lead to improper consequences.”

I have collected a pretty extensive collection of books about life below stairs and it was fun to be able to draw on this for the background to Forbidden. It was such a different world from that of high society and to explore it gives a very different perspective of Regency society. It also emphasises how different life was with servants in the sense that there was a lack of privacy that was taken for granted at the time whereas these days many of us would shudder at the thought of a personal maid who had so much intimate knowledge about persons and our lives! I think I would much prefer to have been an outdoor servant (if only they had employed women gardeners) or perhaps the stillroom maid!

Do you think you would you have enjoyed any of the roles in the Servants' Hall? Do you have the skills - or the patience - to ba a lady's maid? Would you have preferred living in a large aristocratic household or a small one?

Where and what

Hi, Jo here, first sharing a photograph my husband took of dew on a crocosmia flower. Click on it to expand. It's really pretty.

We're finally having some consistently nice weather here in Devon, though it has the autumn chill in it, and some of the annuals which seemed to have decided their year was over have perked up again, which is lovely.

I'm not, however, blogging about flowers and gardens today, but on geography/nationhood and historical romance. I'm hoping to read your thought on why as readers we seem to have such a fixed idea about what stories suit what places, particularly in Britain.

In the past, Edinburgh and Dublin had societies to rival London, but have you read an historical romance set there? If you have, I'd truly like to know so I could extend my study of this phenomenen. It seems to me that we reserve the aristocratic delights for England, and mostly for London, and expect rougher adventures in Scotland.

Check out this great site about Georgian Edinburgh, with plenty of photographs.

I mentioned geography above, because some people might say the difference in stories is dictated by geography, but the land doesn't always follow national lines. Large parts of northern England are very similar to lowland Scotland, so could be suitable for wilder stories, but I haven't seen any set in Northumberland, Durham, or Cumbria/Cumberland. Know any?

(Yesterday I listened to an interesting radio programme about the Isle of Bute, off the west coast of Scotland, not far from Glasgow. I learned that it straddles the geographic/georlogical division of Scotland, so that even though it's only about 15 miles long the northern part is highland granite and the southern part lowland sandstone.)

Ireland is a special case because of it's troubled history. Perhaps assemblies and balls and characters concerned about fashion and frolics simply don't seem appropriate, but it was an elegant, fashionable place in the Georgian age. This photograph could as easily be of London at the time. What do you think? Is it Ireland's struggles that make fun romance sit poorly there?

(Photo credit. Henrietta Street, Dublin "The original Georgian Dublin street, it dates from the 1720's. It featured recently in David Dimbleby's "How We Built Britain" as an example of urban decay."   © Copyright JP and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)

Then we have Wales. I confess to not knowing enough about Wales so I don't know if Cardiff or any other town there had a gracious Georgian age. I do know that there are very few Welsh historical romances. Mary Jo set Thunder and Roses there, and Mary Balogh, a Welsh woman herself, set at least one novel there, but it simply doesn't seem to suit the romantic imagination of most readers.

I do think this is reader driven, but we writers are all readers, too, with many of the same pre-conceptions and emotional responses.

On to England. In the Georgian age, the north was far from the administrative south and could be wilder and unruly. My Countess of Arradale, with vast estates in Yorkshire, rules with a medieval touch still, summoning her laborers and tenants like an army when required. Instead of the rapacious duke dragging a woman off to his highland lair, why not a chilly place in the wilder heartland of Yorkshire. It wouldn't spark the reader imagination in quite the same way, would it?

(The photo is of a farm near Hathersage, which is actually just over the border into Derbyshire, where the Peak District is wonderfully dramatic. I have the pic because my father-in-law's brother worked there, and my father-in-law frequently visited.)

So let's explore this subject, and there's a book prize for a random pick of responses.

First, what historical romances come to mind set in Ireland and Wales? Any favorites set there? You can include earlier books if you wish, but I'm mainly looking at 1700 on.

If you can't think of any, of if you've not liked any you've tried, what's wrong with Wales and Ireland as a setting?

If you think it's a great setting, are there types of romances you'd love to see set there?

What about Scotland? No shortage of Scottish romances, but is there a different type of story you'd love to see set there?

And England, would you like more stories set in the wilder parts? Do you have some great ones of that sort to share here?

The winner will get the choice of Dangerous Joy, a Rogues book set in Ireland, or Secrets of the Night, a Malloren novel set in wilder Yorkshire.

Have at it!

Jo

 

 

An Interview with Jamie Quaid

Word Wenches breaking news: The identity of the Jamie Quaid you’ve been seeing in your Wenchly newsletter (and if you don’t receive our newsletter, go click that button over there and subscribe!) is none other than...drum roll please... Patricia Rice, restless roving author always in search of something new and fun to try. She’s gone over to the dark side (just for a bit) -- and is pleased to announce not only a new book, but a new writing persona. Jamie Quaid's debut release is BOYFRIEND FROM HELL,
the first book in her new urban fantasy series, Saturn’s Daughters.

Justine (Tina) Clancy is an ordinary law student with a faulty arrest record, a part-time job in Baltimore's environmentally hazardous Zone, and a family secret so bizarre even she doesn't believe it. That is, until in a fit of fury she damns her boyfriend to hell—and that's exactly where he ends up. Much to her surprise, Tina is one of Saturn's daughters, with the power to wield vigilante justice. But between finding a way to free Max from hell, saving her own neck, and solving a mystery that threatens the Zone and her newfound friends -- how is she ever going to study for finals?

Publishers’ Weekly loves Boyfriend from Hell: “Without a vampire, werewolf, or fallen angel to be seen, this strong debut is a pleasantly fresh take on a well-worn genre.”

Recently Wench Susan spoke with Wench Pat/Jamie about Boyfriend from Hell:

Q. Jamie Quaid's Boyfriend from Hell is a fun, fantastic book that lets you offer a great new author persona and a chance to try something new. How did this story and its characters come about?

Pat/Jamie: My fellow wenches have as good an idea of how this book happened as I do, since it traveled a strange and winding road. The original foundation of the book came from a cornfield... Driving hundreds of miles with nothing more than corn as far as the eye could see, with the radio booming bad music, I must have hit some trance state where the bug hitting the windshield translated into a character damning her cheating boyfriend to hell and watching him go splat against a wall. Try turning that scenario into a book sometime! The idea reeled through my head for months but as hard as I might try, I couldn’t turn a hero dying in the first chapter into a romance. So I threw it out for my fellow brainstormers to play with and lo and behold...an urban fantasy took shape. Not your normal fangs and fur type of thing, but a browbeaten heroine coping with a world that grows madly awry one fine day. One trauma too many really turns Tina into a kickass heroine I’m proud to claim.

Q. As one of the brainstorming authors who watched the book take shape, I can verify just how much fun that was! The book just took off from your very first idea, growing into a story with unique characters, a terrific plot, really a great series concept. And having read an advance copy, I can also attest to how much fun the BFH is - wry, funny, one of those books that just captivates.

Tell us more about the story -- what was the most fun for you in writing Boyfriend from Hell?

I loved just about every page of writing BFH. It was remarkably freeing to let the story flow and watch all the wonderful characters come to life! It took me a couple of tries to realize that I simply couldn’t give Tina superpowers and let her run the world her way, no matter how tempting that might be. So every time she does something outrageously improbable, there has to be a consequence. And then explaining that consequence to the world around her... makes any heroine think twice about what she’s doing. Just trying cutting a rapist in half and see how that plays out when the cops show up. The fun really begins as I fling weirdnesses into the plot and look for a way to make sense of them. An invisible thief? Who needs the usual petty crook? Why not an unhappy gay teenager terrified of bullies who suddenly learns to vanish? The chemically-polluted Zone I’ve created has a lot to answer for! And trying to place it within the reality of Baltimore adds more spice, so to speak. (For those of you who don’t know Baltimore—that’s where McCormicks processes their spices)

Q. How does writing urban fantasy differ from writing romance?

No sex and no hero are the biggest differences. Since I’m writing a light story, each book will have its own happy ending, so that part stays the same. I can have an ugly heroine and she can say nasty things, if it’s in character. She can flirt with three different hunks and reject them all. Instead of concentrating on a developing relationship, I concentrate on developing my heroine so she can achieve her goals. I love watching Tina develop from disenchanted student to confident lawyer—although she’s not quite there at the end of the first book. And if her ultimate goal is justice for all, she may never achieve all she wants!

Q. Boyfriend from Hell has a great sequel lined up. Can you tell us something about it?

Yes! Damn You to Hell:  in the sequel, The Zone is blasted with gaseous fumes and pink flakes, old people are beating each other up, the locals are falling comatose, and Tina’s hunky neighbor gets arrested for murdering her boyfriend’s mother. Can she save her new home, her best client, and not send anyone else to hell?

Boyfriend from Hell will be out from Pocket on 9/25, and the publisher is running a fun “date from hell” contest -- click here to check it out! 

Check out Jamie's gorgeous website (still in the primping stages) here. 
Order it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble -- and read an excerpt of BFH here!

Questions and comments for Pat, er, Jamie? She's reserved an ARC of Boyfriend from Hell for one lucky commenter, so comment as fast and often as you can!

 

Goodbye, Summer!

Today traditionally marks the unofficial end of summer here in the U.S. No more lazy beach days, or hanging out in the hammock in the backyard—it’s back to work and back to school for most of us, Now, many of the Wenches are taking advantage of the long weekend to grab a last fling of fun with friends and relatives too, so we’re sending a short postcard to all our readers—best wishes and here's hoping you all have enjoyed a wonderful summer.

Now,  to celebrate the season before we pack up our beach towels, let’s have a last little bit of extra fun! Did you go somewhere great, or have a special get-together with family and friends or experience any other memorable moment? Please share your favorite highlight from the past few months!