Word Wenches

The Sparky Report #8

SPARKY READS

Sparky Tabasco has joined the Mary Jo Putney fan club! Living in a book-loving house, it was only natural that she start reading at an early age. The above picture shows her reading Mary Jo's latest, Sometimes a Rogue. The picture has gone viral on Facebook, and Sparky is suddenly a minor celebrity!

FIGHT CLUB

Sparky has entered the Irrascible Stage. She pounces on anything that moves and if you try to pet her, all she wants to do is fight and wrestle and play-bite. Fortunately, at 4 months of age and 4.5 pounds, she inflicts little damage. Her main target is the long-suffering Christopher, my other cat, as the below pictures attest. Christopher has a world of patience, but even he has his limits. In the 4th picture Christopher is growling at Sparky, who blithely ignores his warning and continues tormenting him. When Christopher's had enough and leaves the room, those beady kitten eyes go looking for other mischief to get into. And she usually finds it. But there is hope on the horizon. There are glimmers of good sense, hints of weighing the consequences, and even moments of peace where she seeks out my lap for 5 minutes of quiet time before the demon bug hits her and she's off on another adventure. Let's hope pictures like the below will become fewer and fewer as Sparky matures!

 

 

POLYDACTYLS RULE

For you kitten owners and former kitten owners, did your kittens go through hellion stages and did they ever grow out of it? Did you ever own a polydactyl, and if so, did you find them using their front feet in unusual ways? Sparky not only picks up things with her front paws, but she turns them palm-up to inspect them. She also uses her front paws like human hands. One day, my carpenter was taking a coffee break and had one of his hands on top of his head. Sparky reached up with her clever paw and pulled his hand down until it rested on top of her head. When he tried to pull his hand away, Sparky immediately used her paw to return his hand to her head. Now that's one smart kitty!

 

Guest Jennifer Kloester

How much do you know about Georgette Heyer? With the aid of Jennifer Kloester (Heyer Biographer
extraordinaire) Anne Gracie came up with a fun little quiz, called Ten Things You Might Not Know About Georgette Heyer. She's also interviewing Jennifer about her young adult novel called The Cinderella
Moment. The interview and quiz are up now (see below!) Join in the fun and take the quiz!

A Guest and a Quiz

Anne here, with a guest and a quiz.
The guest is Honorary Word Wench and Georgette Heyer biographer Jennifer Kloester. Jennifer has been here before, but this time she's visiting in a slightly new guise — as a young adult author. There's a brief interview with her, and then a quiz that will really have many of you knotting your brains. (Cue evil laughter.)

Anne: Jennifer, how have you found the change from writing biography to fiction?

Jennifer: It's been fascinating and great fun. I've always dreamed of writing fiction but the Georgette Heyer books had priority. Actually, I think that immersing myself in her writing has been hugely beneficial. She was such a brilliant writer and so superlatively good at plotting and character that I learned a tremendous amount from reading and re-reading her novels.

One of the delicious things about fiction as opposed to non-fiction is being able to make things up. It took me a little while to give myself permission to do that but it turned out be incredibly liberating. I love writing my characters' back-stories because I discover all sorts of things about them that I didn't know but that will influence the the things they do and say in the book.

The other big difference for me between writing fiction and non-fiction is how it feels to be published. It was thrill to have my two Georgette Heyer books published but having my first novel come out was incredibly exciting! I think the difference was that the first two books were factual but The Cinderella Moment was my very own imagined story. I still can't quite believe it's real!

Anne: Tell us a little about The Cinderella Moment. That's the USA cover above left. 

Jennifer: It's a romantic, escapist novel set mainly in contemporary Paris and is full of fashion, romance and intrigue - kind of Cinderella meets the Prince and the Pauper only in a modern setting. My heroine, Angel, is 16 and dreams of being a fashion designer. She's entering a competition called the 'Teen Couture', run by her idol, the world-famous couturier, Antoine Vidal. When things go horribly wrong, Angel's best friend convinces her to go to Paris in her place and try to fix things before it's too late.

It's a book about mistaken identity, friendship, high society, love and betrayal. Plus it's full of great clothes (probably the Heyer influence!).

Anne: Can you share a brief excerpt?

Jennifer: Certainly.

‘Lily!’ The clipped English tones sounded across the arrivals hall. Oblivious to her new name, Angel kept walking.

‘Lily! Lily de Tourney.’

Angel stopped dead. Surely there couldn’t be someone else who knew Lily? She spun round and found herself looking up into a pair of sparkling brown eyes beneath a tangle of curly chestnut hair.

She held her breath.

‘Lily de Tourney, after all these years.’ Noticing her blank look, he said, ‘It’s me – Nick Halliday. As soon as I saw Henri,’ he nodded to the chauffeur, ‘I knew it had to be you.’

She stared at him, speechless, while inwardly cursing Lily for her blithe assurances that no one in Paris knew her.

Anne: Lovely. There's a longer excerpt here, or you can buy the book here. Jen, I can see you had fun writing this book.

Jennifer: Yes, I had a great time writing it and really enjoyed the research - especially the bits in Paris. I'm now working on the sequel The Rapunzel Dilemma which is the best friend, Lily's story.

Anne: Excellent. I'm looking forward to it.  And now onto the quiz, which Jennifer provided the facts for. So many people found my Regency Slang quiz too easy, I approached Jen, as the greatest living Heyer expert — to get some obscure but interesting facts about Georgette Heyer. The information can be found or deduced from the contents of her Heyer Biography.

As with my previous quizzes, you'll need a pen and paper to note your answers, then click on the link at the bottom to get the answers. Then come back and tell us how you went — and any facts you found surprising.

Quiz: Ten Things You Might Not Know About Georgette Heyer

1) As a child Georgette enjoyed:
        a) donkey rides on the beach at Worthing
        b) competing in the local gymkhana 
        c) watching the local hunt ride out 
        d) fishing

2) When she signed her first book contract, Georgette was living in:
         a) Wimbledon
         b) Paris
         c) Weybridge
         d) Tanganyika

3) Georgette's agent L.P. Moore also represented:
         a) Barbara Cartland
         b) George Orwell
         c) Beatrix Potter
         d) Roald Dahl

4) When living in Sussex, Georgette had a cat called:
         a) Puck
         b) Winston
         c) Shakespeare
        d) Marlowe

5) Georgette's first serialized novel had its title changed without permission from Regency Buck to:
        a) The Earl's Bride
         b) The Heiress and the Beau
         c) Gay Adventure
         d) The Gay Buck

6) Georgette felt very proud of her first attempt at:
         a) jumping on horseback
         b) knitting a pair of socks for her brother
         c) writing a story when she was eight
        d) making a silk and brocade patchwork cushion

7) Georgette was reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement:
         a) twice
         b) eight times
         c) forty times
         d) twenty-three times

8) Georgette's personal favourite among her Regency novels was:
        a) These Old Shades
         b) The Grand Sophy
         c) Venetia
         d) Friday's Child

9) One of Georgette's all-time favourite characters was:
         a) Damerel from Venetia
         b) Léonie in These Old Shades
        c) her villain, the Duke of Andover, who she remade as the Duke of Avon, her hero in These Old Shades
         d) Ferdy Fakenham who later became the basis for Freddy in Cotillion

10) Georgette's husband, Ronald Rougier, assisted her with the plots of all her detective novels except:
         a) Death in the Stocks
         b) Why Shoot a Butler?
         c) Pistols for Two
         d) Penhallow

To get the answers and check your score, click here. Don't forget to come back and tell us how you went. Jennifer Kloester is giving away a copy of The Cinderella Moment to someone who leaves a comment.

Meet Historical Honey!

Nicola here. Today I am thrilled to welcome Historical Honey to the Word Wench blog! I first came across the Historical Honey website a few months ago and was very taken with their eclectic mix of historical articles, interviews and reviews, from quizzes to discover which of Henry VIII’s wives you would be to details of costume exhibitions and suggestions for great places to visit. It’s a box of historical delights!

1. Annabelle, Jenna and Polly, thank you for joining us today. Where did the idea for the Historical Honey site first come from?

It all started as a bit of joke, that we would be historical superheroes, or the ‘historical honeys’ who would bring history to the masses. Anyway, we soon got serious, dropped the ‘S’, and Historical Honey was born!

2. Historical Honey’s mission is to make history more accessible for all. Why is this important to you and how are you doing it? 

As much as we started off a bit silly, the premise of the site has always been the same. Whether you are an industry professional, a student or someone who dips in from time to time, we are genuinely passionate about creating a platform where people from all walks of life can share their interests. History is universal, and should be accessible to everybody, not just people who can understand the archaeological journal. We like to say it’s ‘history without the cobwebs’.

We know it’s controversial to say, but the majority of historical sites out there are dull, and even though the content can be fascinating, the delivery isn’t accessible and the majority of people are put off by history for this very reason. Annabelle and Polly are archaeologists, and there are publications/TV shows (which shall not be named) which in theory they should read and watch religiously…but they don’t. Why? Because they are boring.

We want to present history in a fun and engaging way. We actively encourage people to contribute and write 500 word articles on a subject of their choosing. In the beginning we thought we would get dozens of articles on popular subjects such as Rome or Egypt. To our surprise we haven’t received one yet! It’s an amazing insight into how varied peoples interests are, and there truly is something for everyone.

Whether you visit us just once or religiously every day, we hope you will learn something, have a giggle and maybe pass on a little trivia to a friend.

3. The site features all kinds of quirky articles on history, from badass history boys to how to have sex like Socrates. How do you decide what sort of articles fit the image of the Historical Honey site? What are you looking for from potential contributors? 

We can best describe Historical Honey as a pick n’ mix of historical content. Sometimes we can be silly, sometimes naughty, but it’s all what makes us human, right? Folks from history were certainly no different!

There really are no set rules when it comes to contributor articles; if someone can bring passion to a subject, it can’t help but be interesting. It really is passion that is a fundamental driver behind the whole concept of Historical Honey, and all of our contributors have passion in abundance!

Alongside articles written by contributors we also write our own, in-house; ranging from general topics, book reviews, quizzes, interviews… the great thing about working for Historical Honey is that we get to write about whatever takes our interest (as long as its historical!).

4. What are your own historical interests and passions, heroes and heroines? 

Annabelle: I am a massive medieval fan. I dream about life at the Tudor court and chat to Jenna daily about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (face to face, via text, Whatsapp…seriously, one day we should think about publishing our inane conversations about our Henners and Annie B!) It’s such an obvious one to choose but Anne really is my heroine.  We will never know what made her tick, and that’s just what holds our fascination. She had a tragic end, but her strength is something every woman can relate to.

Jenna: My parents and friends have always regarded me as a bit of a history geek. As the only member of the HH team without a background in history or heritage, I can safely say I am your ‘Average Joe’ who loves to learn about the past! Aside from my love for the Tudor and Victorian periods, my historical interests are limitless. I love to read about anything morbid; asylums, graveyards, witchcraft and bodysnatching. I am particularly passionate about fashion throughout history, and the Honey team are renowned for dressing up in historical garb! As for historical heroines, that is a hard one, as I am quite changeable! Probably Jane Austen or John Lennon; both great writers who have changed the world through their work. Both timeless artists.

Polly: I recently completed a masters in forensic archaeology and anthropology so I do love a good skelly! I love how just a few small bones can provide a window into someone's life and times - even if they lived thousands of years ago. I have a big honey crush on Charles Darwin, I love Leonardo Da Vinci (especially his anatomical drawings) but my No.1 hero has to be Agatha Christie. She was an archaeologist before women were called archaeologists, and wrote many of her stories whilst travelling around the world - what a life! 

5. If you could back in time to a moment in history, when would you choose?

Annabelle: There are too many, I couldn’t possibly choose!

Jenna: Versailles at the time of Marie Antoinette. I want to know what she was really like. Second to that, I would love to be a fly on the wall and find out what actually happened to the Princes in The Tower.

Polly: The roaring 20s - for the dresses and the cocktails!

6. Historical Honey also reviews historical fiction. What do you look for in a good historical novel? 

Annabelle: I am sucker for books which allow me get inside the head of the characters; allowing me to travel along with them on their journey. Oh and obviously, a little romance never goes amiss!

Jenna: I love to get lost in time, so descriptions of surroundings, dress, smells and food are all important in building the image in my mind of where the action is taking place. And, anything a little bit sexy.

Polly: The little details that show that an author has really read up and done a lot of research about a topic really makes a historical novel. You need to be able to trust that the author knows what they are talking about before you can trust in the story. Topic-wise, I love a good mystery or anything set during the early 20th Century. 

7. Can you give us a sneak peek of what’s coming up next in the Hive? 

Something that has always been really important to us is helping young people get on the career ladder in the cultural sector. The HH team have all personally struggled, so we are currently building a space where all industry jobs and internships from across the country will be posted. We are also in the process of recruiting industry professionals to act as mentors for young people, as and when they need it. Working in this sector is a dream for many people, but with a bit of drive and a lot of passion it can become a reality.

Additionally, we have recently launched the exciting ‘#SecretBookClub’. Members will receive a free historical novel, at random, to read. The only catch is they have to send us a short review. As the majority of us are stuck in a rut when it comes to choosing a book to read, the #SecretBookClub will allow contributors to read something completely out of their comfort zone, hopefully providing a more honest review. Whether they love or hate it, we want to hear about it!

A big thank you to Annabelle, Jenna and Polly for visiting Word Wenches today and sharing some of the secrets of the hive. If you would like to find out more about Historical Honey you can find them here:

Website: www.historicalhoney.com 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@Historicalhoney

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HHHive

If you have any questions for Historical Honey please go ahead and ask! Their question to you is which historical character would you like to exchange places with for a day and how do you think that person would cope with your life? One commenter gets the choice of one of my books as the prize.

The love of science

Hi, Jo here, talking about science, though there's nothing scientific in the picture. That's Charlie and Billy guarding my birthday presents yesterday. :) Nothing scientific in the contents, either, unless a Feng Shui book and a Himalayan salt candle count!

People in the Georgian era were very interested in science. There were many amateur scientists, including members of the aristocracy, as we can see by reading any of the magazines of the times. They submitted articles, letters, and comments from around the country, and even the world.

I have more scienctific curiosity threading through my Georgian books than my Regency ones, which is perhaps unfair. And yet, the 1760s was prime Enlightenment time, when being engaged in "natural philosophy" as the sciences were then called was as much part of everyday life for the literate as the World Wide Web is today.

Period portraits are interesting because the objects nearby indicate how the person wants to be seen. Pictures of gentlemen in country wear with guns and dogs are common, but so are ones with books, maps, and other sign of a studious nature.

The Marquess of Rothgar, key figure in my Malloren Georgian books, has wide scientific interests, but is particularly interested in the engineering side, specifically clockwork mechanisms and their many uses. Did I make his cousin, the Marquess of Ashart, interested in astronomy because they are rivals? One working with lens to see tiny things, the other using telescopes to see the heavens?

In neither case does their amateur interest play much part in the plot, but it's a strong part of their characters. It's also so true to the times. Like, as I said, the internet.

In Seduction in Silk, Perry shows Claris many of the delights of London, and she also visits Ashart's London mansion for an evening about astronomy, expecting to be bored. Instead, she's fascinated by a lecture by James Ferguson, who uses mechanical models to illustrate his points.

This is from Wikipedia. "Ferguson was born near Rothiemay in Banffshire of humble parents. According to his autobiography, he learnt to read by hearing his father teach his elder brother, and with the help of an old woman was able to read quite well before his father thought of teaching him. After his father taught him to write, he was sent at the age of seven for three months to the grammar school at Keith and that was all the formal education he ever received.

His taste for mechanics was about this time accidentally awakened on seeing his father making use of a lever to raise a part of the roof of his house — an exhibition of strength which excited his wonder. In 1720 he was sent to a neighboring farm to keep sheep, where he amused himself by making models of machines, and at night he studied the stars."

He was ten years old then. At 24 he was supporting himself by creating designs for needlework, and then by doing miniature portraits. It was a hard life, but people did more younger back then. On the other hand, some remarkable people do a great deal today when very young, sometimes impelled by hardship.

Ferguson continues his fascination with models and the stars and developed his "Astronomical Rotula for showing the motions of the planets, places of the sun and moon, &c." Soon he was giving popular demonstrations in London and around the country to the public, the nobility, and even royalty. Reach for the stars, indeed!

The odd sporting contests of the time -- long distance walking with a time limit, for example -- might seem frivolous, but I think they were part of science, part of the hunger to find out how long, how far, how fast which has pushed humanity onward and toward the stars.

In 1764 "A Gentleman, well known at Newmarket, has engaged for a considerable Wager, to ride one Horse from Hyde-Park-Corner to Oxford, and back again, within seven Hours; upon which several large Bets are depending." That would require a steady 14 miles an hour.

"A Noble Lord has laid a Wager of One Thousand Guineas, that he causes a Boat to go Twenty-five Miles in one Hour; the Experiment will be tried one Day this Week on the River near Chelsea." I haven't found a record of the result in either case, but it's the trying that counts, isn't it?

The novella I wrote as a lead in to Seduction in Silk has a hero who's an amateur botanist, a friend by correspondence with Joseph Banks and others. Dare to Kiss is only available for the Kindle at the moment.  Click here for more information.

Do you have any idea why the Georgian period seems more suited than the Regency to science throughout society? Is it true?

Do you like  Georgian and/or Regency historical romances where science or engineering play a major part? Any great ones to recommend?

Jo

GUEST: HISTORICAL HONEY

Sparky Tabasco is taking a break today to allow for the below announcement. She'll be back in fine form next Sunday.

 

 

Historical Honey

If you're doing research, you can go to no better place than Historical Honey , a Web site devoted to all things historical. On Wednesday, September 25, Nicola Cornick will interview the folks who run Historical Honey. They have a great sense of humor and make it fun and accessible. Join us on Wednesday. You won't be disappointed!

Mitteleuropa

by Mary Jo

Years ago, I read an article about riverboat cruises in Europe, and the idea immediately appealed to me.   As a friend says, rivers were the interstates of the past, and so much of European civilization developed along the waterways.  How better to explore than in a boat holding maybe 150 friendly, intelligent passengers and serving lots of really good food?

Like a plot element, the idea of a riverboat cruise simmered in my lizard brain for years, and in 2006, I thought it was time to do a cruise in Southern France.  Except that all the French cruises were booked for the time slot we had, and we ended up cruising the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It was great.

This year, I decided it was time to book that French cruise.  Urp. Once again, Southern France along the Rhone was sold out.  Which is how we ended up cruising the Danube.  Again, it was great—the Mayhem Consultant and I are easily amused, and any interesting new place will be fun.  

Prague

We started with a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, which isn’t on the Danube, but really, how could we go to Eastern Europe and not see Prague?  The city has been an intellectual and creative center for centuries, and under the blighting hand of five decades of Soviet rule, it was spared rapacious developers tearing down beautiful old buildings.

Prague lived up to its reputation, and the old city is truly spectacular, including the famous and incredibly complex astronomical clock, which dates to 1410 (!!!) and which performs its traffic stopping dance every hour on the hour. 

A high point of Prague was our tour of the Lobkowicz Palace, part of the Prague castle complex on a hill overlooking the city.  The Lobkowicz family had been Eastern European aristocrats for centuries, and they were collectors and patrons of the arts.  Then the family was forced to flee twice—first when the Nazis came, then in 1948 when the Russians came.

And here the story becomes even more interesting. After the fall of Communism in 1989, former owners could go to the courts to reclaim the family properties, and that’s exactly what William Lobkowicz did.  Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, he reclaimed the family estates and sold off several to raise the money to restore  the others. 

The Viking cruise line had a video about the palace tour, and I started salivating when they showed the family art treasures.  Original Breughels and Canalettos.  Hand written manuscripts by Beethoven, with his own scratch outs and annotations!

The tour included a lovely lunch in a gorgeous high ceilinged chamber, amazing views over the city, and a half hour chamber music concert featuring works by composers associated with Prague.  People like Mozart and Beethoven and Dvorak. 

Music

That was the first of several concerts of classic music on our journey, and reflects how much music is a part of eastern European culture.  Another concert was by the organ in cathedral of Passau, in Germany.  It’s the largest cathedral organ in Europe with almost 18K pipes, and when it played the double bass notes, the reverberations were so powerful that I half expected the plaster cherubs to be shaken off the walls. <G>   (Note: half an hour seems about right for a classical music concert for an audience of tourists.)

On a riverboat cruise, you tend to stop at a city a day and get guided walking tours of the old city in the morning, with free time or optional tours in the afternoon.  So we got an overview of great cities of Eastern Europe.  Regensburg in Bavaria has a stone bridge (called, logically enough,
the Stone Bridge, Steinerne Brücke) which was built in the 12th century and for centuries was the only really reliable crossing of the Danube for a very long stretch.

I loved medieval Passau, also in Bavaria, with its cathedral and twisting streets.  The tour their illustrated something else about Eastern Europe: the presence of war.  As the guide said matter of factly, there were no war industries in the city so the only thing the Allies bombed in WWII was the railroad station.  Hence, the medieval city survived.  (The other omnipresent topic in Bavaria was beer, which was referred to often and enthusiastically.)

Vienna

I have to say I wasn’t too taken by Vienna, though that surely is because we were shown lots of oppressive imperial grandeur from the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Nor was I very impressed by the famous Sacher tortes, though the tea room at the Sacher hotel was very lovely, and full of tourists like us who were there for the iconic experience.  (And the chocolate. <G>)

I like Budapest a great deal more—it was attractive and idiosyncratic and invited further exploration.  In the afternoon, we went to a horse show at the farm of the two Lazar brothers, who are world champion carriage drivers, and which underlined Hungary heritage of riding and horsemanship.  (Some of the riding tricks, like this one, must be like what Regency spectators saw at Astley's Amphitheater back in the day.)

I’m a born tourist and could say lots more, but what struck me most about the trip was the different feel of the region from Western Europe, which I know a great deal better.  Central Europe is sometimes called Mitteleuropa—Middle Europe, a term that is political and cultural as well as geographic. 

The history felt very close as city guides described the Roman origins of their cities, the bombing damage of World War II, and empty Jewish quarters. Even more present was the history in the Czech Republic and Hungary, countries which were under Communist domination until 1989.  Guides talked about how statues of Lenin and Stalin used to be in particular squares, how a particular square was popular for demonstrations "because there was more room for Russian tanks," and pointed out the stark, boxy Soviet buildings that were all about cheap practicality rather than aesthetics. 

This part of the world has often been fought over—Hungary is largely a level plain, perfect for raiding horsemen or oncoming tanks.  Maybe that accounts for the underlying fatalism of the culture: great music, world weary intellectuals, and brilliant scientists fleeing to the west.  In the long history of the Central Europe, Communism was a blip that is already receding into the past. 

Not that I should be drawing many conclusions based on a mere ten days in Mitteleuropa!  But it’s a fascinating part of the world, and I’m glad we had a chance to see some of it.  

Have you ever been to Central Europe?  What did you think of it?  And if you haven’t visited, would you like to?  What dreams and fantasies come to mind when you think of the romantic Danube and Viennese coffee houses? 

Mary Jo, adding a picture of a band of Prague musicians playing horns unlike any I've ever seen.  But they sure were enjoying themselves!

 

Music and The Muse

Cara/Andrea here,

Being easily distracted, I have always tended to write in silence. My brain doesn’t seem to be capable of doing two things at once—I am slightly dyslexic so thinking and typing is sometimes a comedy of errors. (You would laugh yourself silly if you saw of the pages of my manuscript before I go back and correct the gibberish.) So I have always worried that thinking and listening might not be a wise idea.

But recently I was chatting with a friend about music. He had been listening to Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony the night before and we began to muse about art, and its forms in sound, image and the written word. It was a fascinating conversation—he’s far more knowledgeable about music than I am—and it got me to thinking . . . and listening.

I immediately went out bought the complete symphonies of Beethoven. That the composer was perhaps the most important musical influence on the Regency era only piqued my interest in seeing whether I could listen to music as I wrote. (Hey, my heroes and heroines are pretty emotional and angst-y, so it seemed a perfect fit.) So I brought up i-Tunes, opened my Word doc, doubled clicked on Eroica, also known as Symphony #3 in E Flat, Op. 55, and hunched over my keyboard . . .

But before I get to the result, allow me to digress a little on the symphony’s creation. I will not embarrass myself by trying to wax eloquent on Beethoven’s life or complex personality, but highlighting few details about one of the most important pieces of Regency music might be fun, so let’s take a quick dance through the score.

Beethoven started composing the symphony in late 1803 and intended to dedicate his work in progress to Napoleon Bonaparte, for he greatly admired the revolutionary ideas of the new French Republic. The decision would cost him financially—dedicating it to Prince Franz Joseph Maximillian Lobkowitz would have earned him a handsome fee. But he stuck to his guns and called it “Bonaparte. ” However, in May 1804, Napoleon had himself proclaimed Emperor of France, and when Beethoven heard the news, he was both disillusioned and furious, feeling his idealism had been betrayed. His assistant and pupil, Ferdinand Ries described the scene in his memoir:

I was the first to tell him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, "So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!" Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor. The page had to be re-copied and it was only now that the symphony received the title “Sinfonia eroica.”(Eroica means “heroic” in Italian.)

So, did playing Eroica—a masterpiece which is considered to mark the beginning of the Romantic era in music—inspire me to greatness? Well I am at the stage in a book where I, like Beethoven, feel like seizing the pages, tearing them in half and throwing them on the floor. (Unlike the Maestro, I’d also jump up and down on them. Except I have a deadline looming, so I will refrain from such childish urges.) But that said, I discovered to my delight that music has proven to be a very lovely addition to my writing routine. Eroica is a marvelous work of genius, and I hope I absorbed a touch of brilliant creativity by osmosis. The long hours at the computer certainly were more harmonious than usual.

I also love Symphony #5 and #6, which is named “Pastoral.” Beethoven, like many of the artists who pioneered the Romantic era, was a great lover of nature, and often left Vienna to work on his music in the countryside. He said of “Pastoral”, which was written in 1802, that it was “more the expression of feeling than painting . . ."

So what about you? Do you enjoy Beethoven’s music? And do you listen to music while you write or do other tasks? If so, what are some of your favorite pieces?

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's Off to the Past We Go

Joanna here:  This month Ask-A-Wench takes us to visit any time and place in all of history.  A five-year visit.  The question is, where would you go?  And, more important, what would you pack?

Jo has a plan:

Oh, difficult! I don't think I want to go anywhere for 5 years, so I'm going to cheat and say 24 hours.

Because it irritates me that I keep finding new wrinkles on a Regency ball and so many other aspects of Regency life, I'd find the date of a top notch one and turn up in the early morning to observe. All the right clothing and accessories will be in my period appropriate trunk, though I'm sure there'll be problems of some sort.

I'll have correct period money in order to purchase what I need, tip servants etc, and a convincing letter of introduction from some relative far away, say Lancashire, introducing me to the hostess with an "as mentioned in my last letter." Hostess will assume some terrible mix up, I hope, and give me house room and entree to the ball. I will find a reason not to dance because that would really give the game away.

I'd take a smart phone, which I could keep tucked away, but use to sneak photographs and even type in little notes. And when I come back, no one will believe what it was really like at a Regency ball!

Cara/Andrea says:

I would pack a large trunk (because, y’know, that’s how the beau monde roll—none of these gore-tex ballistic nylon roller bags. My lady’s maid would faint from embarrassment, and she might break the vinaigrette in her fall) and fill it with fancy ballgowns and fripperies because my destination would be the Congress of Vienna in the Fall of 1814.

Oh, I would love to be part of all the fancy balls and entertainments—the medieval Carrousel, the Peace Ball at Metternich’s country estate, Beethoven’s concerts . . . Dancing with reigning heads of Europe, including Tsar Alexander would be, um, an experience (I might have to resort to some unladylike defenses if he tried to pinch my derriere!) Like Jo, I would definitely sneak in a modern smart phone to surreptitiously photograph all the gilded splendor. A few videos of the quadrille and waltzes would be fun as well.

 Also in my trunk would be a lovely inlaid box of watercolors, because after a stay in Vienna I would meander through the Alps and take a boat from Calais to London, where I would contrive to study painting with JMW Turner and Sir Thomas Lawrence. (And yes, I shall gladly guide you through my retrospective show at the Met this winter!)

Mary Jo would doubtless pack a fascinating suitcase, but she's living out of actual suitcases at the moment.  She sends a wave and a message --    
"Mary Jo has been touring Mitteleuropa in Real Time and has mostly  been concerned with stuffing clothing back into suitcase since garments double in size after they've been worn."

Anne wants it all:

Anne here, absolutely dithering about where and when to go to. Like the others, I would take essential supplies, which in my case would be plenty of money of the day, plus gold that could be easily traded if I ran out. I'd take lots of antibiotics and also things like aspirin — and I'd make sure my shots were all up to date. I can't imagine anything worse than being stuck in the 18th or 19th century and being ill and at the mercy of what passed for medicine in those days.

Regency England appeals, for research and for fun and for sheer curiosity -- London and Bath and several fabulous country house parties as well as balls.

But Paris at the turn of the 19th-20th century, the Belle Epoque, with the explosion of painting and the arts would be fabulous, too, even though my French is schoolgirl and rusty. Early - mid 19th Century Russia, specifically St Petersburg, would also appeal. Actually, I could combine several of these and have my very own Grand Tour, though travel in those days left a lot to be desired, and I would have to add flea powder and bed-bug repellant or whatever, not to mention some ant-nausea pills for all the bouncing in carriages and boats.

Of course, in all of these situations I would have to command the same kind of living conditions of the aristocratic class — I want comfort and freedom to do what I want. I have no interest in discovering what it's like to be a Regency-era scullery maid, or a milkmaid -- except by watching from a distance.


Susan's time and place (and bag):

I'd be off to Scotland in a flash, no question, ready to roam the heathery hills in kirtle and plaidie. But choosing the time period across the long span of Scottish history is almost as hard as choosing what to bring for an extended stay!

 I'd like to jump around -- 11th century, 14th, 16th, 18th, 19th . . . but if I had to choose just one time to stay in for a while, I'd leap to the 14th century, just after Bannockburn, when there's peace and a positive spirit building.

I'd choose to be around Stirling and Edinburgh for a touch of the Highland atmosphere while still having access to all the, er, modern conveniences of a royal fortress. Good stone walls and fireplaces, latrines and pine torches, beeswax candles, fine fabrics, good harp music, manuscript libraries and such. I'd like to be part of the royal household so I could meet Robert Bruce (Wallace, alas, is long gone), and hang about the court -- then I'd head for the Highlands and find a little croft there and set up as a healer or an artist. Maybe I'd make some paints and try my hand at that.

What's in my leather satchel? (A suitcase would be so conspicuous here!) -- well, for starters, plenty of antibiotics and some other useful medicines. Chocolate for sure, lots of that, and good black and green teas. Cotton undies, for sure. I'm not a fan of wool . . . A few books: a copy of Culpeper's Illustrated Herbal (Culpeper dates later than this, but I want to know what those plants are!), a Gaelic dictionary, some of my forever keeper reads for the long winter nights (Mary Stewart travels and re-reads well), and a box of my favorite pens and plenty of notebooks and legal pads. Did I say dark chocolate? I might need a separate bag just to have enough!    

 

Pat joins us with;

I’m going to reveal my American history roots and say I’d love to go back to the end of the American Revolutionary War. Can you imagine the joy of celebrating a new nation? And the terror of deciding how to create our own government?  I’d love to learn the real history behind the history books. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/

This would be in 1787 and I’d choose Philadelphia. I’d love to meet Jefferson and Franklin. Their intelligence and common sense awe me. Unfortunately, as a female, I probably wouldn’t have been allowed inside the convention halls, but I bet I could hear an earful at the tavern!

I’d pack whatever gold pieces I could find, toilet paper, and leggings. Philadelphia is cold and those big gowns with no long johns wouldn’t be warm enough for me!

And Joanna bringing up the rear:

I have my travel plans. 
Augustan Rome.  Arriving about 30 BCE.

I do not know a heck of a lot about Augustan Rome.  I am assuming it looked pretty much like that picture to the left, but I may be slightly mistaken and it looked more like the picure on the right. 
Anyhow, they wore pretty and comfortable-looking clothing, which is a big plus for me.

What to bring?  I got out my metaphorical suitcase and toyed with several clever ideas. I'd get me some solar panels and a recharging set up and bring my computer and kindle.  That's the ticket.  I'd have a whole library with me and my working tools.  Everything I need to write.

But let's be realistic about this.  I know how the world works.  I'd arrive and everything would stop working.  Give it a week.

I decided to go low-tech.  I'd take ballpoint pens, because it would drive me mad to try to write with a quill pen.  And notebooks. Lots of notebooks. I am as flexible as the next person, but I do not want to learn to write on papyrus.

So I packed up the suitcase with notebooks and threw in a box of pens (black, fine-line) and was ready to close the lid when I thought, "Shouldn't I bring some antibiotics in case I come down with, y'know, pneumonia?"

I threw in a couple few bottles of penicillin and started to close the lid, then suddenly thought -- "No tomatoes."  Italy without pizza.  This seemed just so wrong.
I tossed in some packets of tomato seed.  I'd grow my own, next to the impluvium.

I was shuffling around notebooks to make room for seed packets when it suddenly struck me -- soap.  No soap in ancient Rome.  Could I learn to learn to make my own?  Could I become an advocate of the olive oil rubdown and a good scrape?  Did I want to go around smelling like a salad?

Not so much.  I chucked some notebooks out in favor of two dozen bars of soap.  No toothpaste.  I'd chew mint or something.

But hey!  That put me in mind of spices!   Great Hera, I'd forgotten spices.  Cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper. 
More notebooks gone. 

That was when it struck me.  This was Europe in The Time Before Coffee.
What a ghastly prospect.
Notebooks definitely out.  Coffee in.  I'd keep five or six notebooks.  I'd learn to do rough drafts on a slate and transfer only the final work to the notebooks.  I could live with that.

I closed the lid on the suitcase.
And then I thought ...
chocolate.


If you could go on a historical vacation, where would you go and what's the one thing you would absolutely have to pack?  Some lucky commenter will receive a copy of Mischief and Mistletoe, our Wench anthology.

Sparky Report #7

Hello! Back again, later than expected, due to computer problems. Let's hope this post doesn't disappear too!

Yes, that is Sparky on the left, having fallen asleep on a paperback. The cat has good taste. *g*

Sparky Tabasco's Excellent Adventure

A few days ago Sparky captured a moth! As moths go, it was a big one, and she spent a good 20 minutes stalking, leaping, creeping, pouncing, and finally catching the erratic flapper. Once she caught it, however, she wasn't sure that to do with it. But feline instincts took over and she ate it, making faces as she did so. This was high adventure for such a youngster, and once she had a taste of bloodlust, she was hooked. In the picture, you can just see the freshly caught moth in her mouth.

The Bed Bug Bites

Sparky has a strong nesting instinct. No matter the material involved, if she can turn it into a nest, she'll do it. And that includes those flimsy plastic grocery bags. I had three of them on my desk after emptying them of office supplies, and Sparky immediately commandeered them for her own use, as you can see.

And once she got bitten by the let's-steal-a-bed bug, she advanced to the dog's very private domain:  Shona's crate. Marched right in, curled up to a bemused Shona, and fell asleep. This has become a regular occurrence, and Shona seems to appreciate the extra body heat and companionship.

Sparky has the ability to turn anything into a toy. I took a series of pictures showing Sparky playing with a variety of objects. Nothing is sacred. Below are pictures showing her playing with, respectively, a ball point pen, a staple remover, a glue stick, a wristwatch, an articulated artist's dummy, and a paint brush.

What about your cat(s)? Do they have unusual toys? Quirky sleep habits? (Or are they just plain quirky?) If you have a dog, do they get along? Inquiring minds want to know!

Oranges and Lemons, Say the Bells of St. Clements

Oranges and Lemons,
Ring ye bells at St. Clements.
When will you pay me,
Ring ye Bells at ye Old Bailey.
When I am Rich,
Ring ye Bells at Fleetditch.
     Tradtional Counting Rhyme 

There are any number of interpretations as to what this all means, but I see it mostly a reminder that poetry does not necessarily have to make sense.

Joanna here, talking about Regency oranges.

Those of us with a keen interest in botany will have noticed that oranges -- not to mention lemons -- don't thrive in the British climate.  Well, maybe down in south Devon where hopeful souls sometimes plant palm trees.  But citrus isn't plucked off the tree on Hampstead Heath or in the Welsh mountains.

What is an orange doing in an old, old counting rhyme?
Not to mention lemons.
How come?

Because the Regency and Georgian folks imported their oranges (and lemons) enthusiastically or grew them enthusiastically in greenhouses.  

orangerie

I'll just wander off track for a minute to point out that greenhouse in the Regency didn't mean a building all made of glass with a roof of glass panes.  That's Victorian.  In the Regency a greenhouse was a tall room with high windows, like this to the right.

Sometimes, they called them orangeries.
Coincidence?
I think not.

In the Regency we're talking about three different species of oranges, just because life is complicated.

Our first guest orange  . . . the bitter one.

The orange is another of those marvelous botanical productions of the Orient, like lychees and tea and peaches.  They've been cultivated in China for four thousand years, in several varieties. The bitter or sour orange, Citrus aurantium-- what we'd call a Seville orange -- made a complicated journey overland to Europe, piggybacking its way from the Middle East to Italy and Spain with the returning Crusaders.

Here's a picture of an early orange in Van Eyck's Amolfini Portrait of 1434.  This picture records a marriage and it's just bristling with nifty references faithfulness and fertility. 

See those those oranges in the Van Eyck painting, over next to the window?  Symbolic as heck.

Oranges were symbolic of marriage, maybe because the plant bears its flowers and its fully ripened fruit at the same time, thus being both the potential fertility of the innocent flower and the fecundity of the plump fruit. 
Queen Victoria wore orange blossoms in her hair at her wedding.  Maybe some of the folks reading this today wore them too.  You can look at that Van Eyck and know the symbol is more than 500 years old.

As a totally unrelated side comment, Isobel Carr points out that the little dog in that picture might just be the earliest depiction of a pet animal in a European painting. 
Its name is Max.
. . . Okay.  I'm kidding about the name.

They called the bitter orange a 'Seville orange' because that's where they were grown and shipped from in Tudor times and beyond.  Our English, French and other European folks used skin, juice, root, leaf and branch in medicine and for making cordials and syrups and orange-water for scent and flavoring.

"Nor can I blame you, if a drop you take,
of orange-water, for perfuming-sake."
    John Breval

Seville oranges nowadays are used about exclusively for making that wonderful marmalade you can still pick up in the grocery if you go searching a while for the authentic stuff.  It's the same marmalade they made in Regency times.  When you spread it on your toast, you can think about Elizabeth Bennet doing pretty much the same, except she's sitting across the breatkfast table from Mr. Darcy.

Looking next at . . . 
. . .  Ahem. 
Eyes off Mr. Darcy, if you please.  Thank you.

Turning to this second type of orange, I hear you saying, "What about the sweet orange, Citrus sinensis, my supermarket orange, the ones that the lack of is like a day without sunshine, the ones Nell Gywn sold at Drury Lane?"

I will pause an instant to offer Samuel Pepys' take on orange juice:
"and here, which I never did before, I drank a glass, of a pint, I believe, at one draught, of the juice of oranges, of whose peel they make comfits; and here they drink the juice as wine, with sugar, and it is very fine drink; but, it being new, I was doubtful whether it might not do me hurt. "

Anyhow, these newcomer sweet oranges showed up in the 1500s.  They were called sweet oranges because, well, they were sweet, and China oranges to distinguish them from the Seville oranges which were not so sweet.  'China' because, unlike their bitter cousins, they didn't migrate slowly overland.  They arrived in style by ship, brought by Portuguese and Italian merchants directly from China. 

This is when the orange became a hand-eating fruit, sold in baskets on the street.  Nell Gywn, before she became mistress of King Charles II and presumably went out of the retail fruit business, was one of the scantily clad young women who sold sweet oranges in the Drury Lane Theatre (sixpence apiece,) for the refreshment of the patrons and as a handy means of expressing dissatisfaction with the performance.

In case you were wondering -- as who has not -- whether the orange fruit was named after the color,

("Oh look! There's a whole bunch of oranges up in the tree, and some reds over on this tree and look at all those blues down here on the bushes.")

or the color was named after the fruit.  I can set your mind at rest.
The color is named after the fruit.
The word orange meandered into English from the Sanskrit word for the fruit --nāranja -- through Arabic, Old Provencal, Old French and Middle English.

Before the Fourteenth Century, folks had to refer to the color as geoluhread.  As in, "Wow. Love your geoluhread i-pod!"  Geoluhread would roughly translate as yellow-red and I am sure we are all grateful to Sanskrit for its intervention into what would have been a dismal shade with a long name.

How common were oranges in Georgian and Regency England?  How expensive? 
In the mid-1700s oranges sold on the street four a penny when hot cross buns were 'one a penny, two a penny'.  That doesn't seem outrageously expensive, does it -- two oranges for the price of a bun? 
 

lemons and oranges in 1633

Karl Phillip Moritz, about that time, wrote, "All over London as one walks, one everywhere, in the season, sees oranges to sell, and they are in general sold tolerably cheap, one and even sometimes two for a halfpenny."

By 1828, one could speak of "The China, or sweet oranges, with which this country is now so amply supplied, and at such moderate prices that all classes of society enjoy them as perfectly as if they had been indigenous to the climate."  John S. Skinne

 

a really annoyed cup, above

And our third orange? 

It was almost the blood orange.  I mean, there the blood orange was, in Italy, as a mutation among sweet oranges in the 1600s.  Really no reason it couldn't have been a trade item.
I'd love to add it to the Regency table.

But it looks like they weren't imported.  Mention is made of blood orange trees brought into England as greenhouse curiosities in the 1820s. I suppose some intrepid traveller might have brought back a box of fruit for friends any time. 

Must have been a shock when that first blood orange was cut open at the table for everyone to see.

But the third of the Regency orange trio turns out to be the mandarin orange, the tangerine, our friend Citrus reticulata, which is technically a kind of orange rather than a separate fruit altogether, if we listen to those tricky botanists who dabble in such matters.  Trees were brought to England direct from China -- the word mandarin is a dead giveaway -- in about 1805. It settled into the greenhouses of England.  Not a fruit for the street crowd.  An exotic treat.  As late as 1817, a botanist could say it was a pity none of the countries exporting citrus to England had established the tangerine as a crop. 

After 1805, your Regency heroine might be offered a mandarin, sensuously peeled, by someone who owns a very fancy greenhouse.  A spiffy little factoid.

COME buy my fine oranges, sauce for your veal,
And charming when squeez'd in a pot of brown ale;
Well roasted, with sugar and wine in a cup,
They'll make a sweet bishop when gentlefolks sup.

 

The world would be a poorer place without oranges -- and I happen to notice I've got a half-eaten clementine beside me as I write this post.

What's your favorite oranges recipe?  I used lemons to make a fancy syllabub not so very long ago, but I bet it'd be equally good with oranges.  And I love me some orange cake.  Also Benedictine-just-abour-anything.

One lucky commenter gets to pick a copy of any of my books.

Voting Downunder

Anne here, apologizing for the lateness of this posting. Guess who forgot what day it was?

I voted last Saturday in a national election and I thought I'd blog about it today. I hope you find it interesting.

Here in Australia, voting is compulsory for all citizens over the age of 18. If you don't vote, and don't have an acceptable reason (illness, absence from the country, or religious objections, for instance) you will be fined. 

People from other countries sometimes find that strange, and some think it's outrageous, but in fact, nobody forces you to actually vote — you just have to turn up to vote on the day, get your name crossed off on the register, and lodge the voting slips in the box. You don't have to fill them out if you don't want to — it's a secret ballot so nobody sees what you have marked on the voting slip.

I've never witnessed the voting process in another country, but I got the idea for this blog because of a young woman from the USA who was standing with her Australian boyfriend in front of me in the queue (line) to vote. (That's part of the queue in the pic on the left.) She was asking him questions about it all and seemed to find it interesting and very different from the system she was used to, and it made me think there might be a blog in this. She also sent me the photos she took -- so thank you Kate.

Australia is a federation, and this was a Federal election, so we had two voting slips -- one to choose our local area representative, and the second to vote for our state representatives in the senate.

The government is formed by the party who commands the majority of seats in the House of Representatives, and the parliamentary leader of that party then becomes the Prime Minister. We don't have a presidential system so the Prime Minister is It.

I usually go to vote at a local primary (elementary) school. When you arrive, there are always people from the various parties and candidates standing outside the school gates handing out how to vote cards. They don't come inside the gate — I guess there's a rule about that, so once you're in the yard, nobody bothers you. 

Because the polling booth is set up inside a school, the schools often take advantage of the situation to raise a bit of money by having stalls in the schoolyard selling food and other things, so the atmosphere is a little like a low-key market or fete. At the very least many places will have a sausage sizzle — a bit of an Aussie tradition where you get a hot sausage in a slice of bread with fried onions (optional) and tomato sauce (ketchup) mustard, etc. The money raised goes to the school, or some kind of charity. 

On Saturday the weather was lovely and at my local primary school, as well as a big sausage sizzle, there were home made cakes and jams for sale, raw honey, plants, cacti, jewelry, second hand books and clothes, an aboriginal music stall with various sticks and didgeridoos, home made soaps and lotions, face painting, Devonshire tea (scones, jam and cream), woven leather goods, tea and coffee. The queue for the sausage sizzle was nearly as long as the one to vote and my young American friend wondered whether people were given a sausage after voting. No such luck — though I do love the idea.

And there were kids everywhere, some accompanying parents who'd come to vote, some who attended that school and who were dragging their parents off to see their class room or artwork or whatever, some just playing in the yard as usual or helping out at a stall. It was a very relaxed and almost festive community atmosphere.

I voted, bought a sausage, and also couldn't resist some honey and some home made lemon butter and marmalade, and I pride myself on resisting the delicious looking home made cakes and buscuits (cookies). The lemon butter is already half eaten — I'd forgotten how yummy it is and I might make some more. There's a recipe here.

So what about you?  Do you usually vote or not? What do you think of the idea of compulsory voting? How is voting done in your neck of the woods? And are there sausages?

Same Book, Different Cover

Nicola here, talking today about why books have different covers depending on which country they are released in.

My latest book, The Lady and the Laird, has had the closest to simultaneous release I’ve ever had (within 6 weeks) in the US, the UK and Australia, and this has provided an interesting contrast in terms of the covers chosen for the three different editions.

First up is the US version. I think it’s very pretty and I absolutely love the colours, the subtle use of tartan and the landscape.

The UK cover sticks with an elegant style that has been used by MIRA for my books for the last few years. Again it’s very pretty. One reader commented: “I love the romanticism and mystery of this cover. It says classy, sensuous and intriguing.”

Last but very definitely not least is the Australian cover, which I first heard about when it caused a stir on Goodreads! It’s hard to believe but in my entire writing career I have never had a single cover featuring a bare-chested man or even one with his shirt open so when I saw my hunky, topless Scot I was pretty much overwhelmed!

Both the US and Australian covers say “Scottish historical” but in a very different way from each other. The UK one simply says “historical” I think. Interestingly when I asked readers to vote on which they liked best, people didn’t divide up according to where they came from. There were plenty of UK readers who loved the US cover, plenty of US and UK readers who adored the topless Scot, and others who thought the UK cover was gorgeous. So choosing cover art by territory is not an exact science (as it were.)

Designing cover art is a fascinating business – how do you make a book appealing to readers at the same time as capturing the spirit of the story? What is even more fascinating is that putting different covers on different editions of the same book is pretty common. Evidently publishers really do feel that what appeals to readers in the US is different from what appeals in the UK and vice versa and that German taste, for instance, will vary from Portuguese.

The story of what happened with the cover of the first Harry Potter book is pretty well known. In the UK it was called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  The cover is on the right. In the US it was called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the cover is on the left.

They not only changed the cover but also the title. And in the UK there was also an “adult” version of the book for those people who didn’t want to be seen reading a kid’s book! I don’t know if this happened in the US as well.

A different but equally interesting contrast is provided by Hilary Mantel’s historical novel Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall. The US cover is on the left below and the UK one on the right. The US cover has an instantly recognisable image of Anne Boleyn on it whilst the UK one is intriguing if a little more obscure.

It’s interesting that the major reason given for varying the covers of books depending on which country you are in is that the cultural tastes of different countries vary hugely and so what will appeal in one place won’t have the same impact in another. Certain layouts and imagery may strike a chord with readers in different parts of the world, but as we’ve seen this isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds.

What do you think about putting different covers on different editions of the same book? Do you think it’s a good idea or should books, like films, have a global identity?

Sparky Report #6

Time flies when you're having fun, and kittens grow when you aren't looking. Sparky Tabasco is beginning to take on the appearance of a mature cat, though today she's just 3 1/2 months old. (Yes, Jo Banks, she's finally growing into those ears!) Sparky's middle name should be Houdini. Due to ongoing remodeling, she has escaped the safe confines of her small indoor world so many times I can't even count them. I've learned that prolonged periods of suspicious quiet mean one of two things: (1) Sparky is asleep, or (2) Sparky has found yet another way to escape (and send me into a panic!). Thank goodness Sparky's housemates nark on her whenever she sneaks outside. Shona, my Boxer, gets very concerned when Sparky escapes. In her best imitation of Timmy's-in-the-well, Shona comes running, whimpering anxiously for me to follow her, then dashing back outside to keep vigil over Sparky until I come to the rescue.

As everyone knows, the minute you try to catch a cat, they tease you by staying just out of reach. Thankfully, I've always trained my animals to come without fail when called, and Sparky is no exception. She comes a-running when I call her. 

After all that unauthorized galavanting around, Sparky is usually tuckered out, so she finds a suitable place for a nap. If Christopher (my other cat and her surrogate parent) is around, she'll snuggle with him, as the below pictures attest. We won't mention the placement of Christopher's nose in the first picture!

   

Left to her own devices, however, Sparky has odd ideas on what constitutes a bed. Today she curled up on my dinner plate after I'd finished supper. When she was really tiny, she fell asleep on a hamburger patty I'd prepared for dinner. She's also fallen asleep in one of those plastic grocery bags. Window sills are another favored place. And she likes to bed down with the dogs, as the above picture shows. Currently, her favorite sleeping spot is on top of my printer.  As you can see by the picture, she likes her new bed.

 

 

What about you? Does your cat sleep in weird places? Does your cat sleep in your bed? Alas, I cannot allow my cats or dogs in my bedroom or I'll wake up red-eyed and snuffling.

 

Gather ye sundew....

Jo here. I'm in deadline dementia for the book on the left, so I've pulled an oddity from my files.

 From an 18th century book. "ROSSOLIS -- an agreeable spiritous liquor composed of burnt brandy, sugar, cinnamon, and milk water; and sometimes perfumed with a little musk: it is so called as being at first prepared wholly of the juice of the plant ros-solis, or drosera."

That is, sundew.

My first question is, where does anyone get that much sundew juice? I know the plant and at times have had a small one in the kitchen to catch fruit flies. It does a great job. But enough to make a drink?

An on line search suggests it's not that uncommon in Britain. Drosera anglica is also known as the Great sundew or the English sundew.  However, it is as small as I thought.

I searched a little more and found that "sundew juice" is a little misleading. The liquid was apparently obtained by steeping sundew in something like brandy.Nearly anything steeped in brandy, especially with sugar added, is likely to perk a person up, don't you think?

Ih does appear to be mainly medicinal, with claims that it will cure coughs and aid sleep. Other sources suggest that it's an aphrodisiac, and one that it will remove warts. That's a bit alarming in a drink, don't you think?"

Wikipedia says: "Sundews were used as medicinal herbs as early as the 12th century, when an Italian doctor from the School of Salerno, Matthaeus Platearius, described the plant as an herbal remedy for coughs under the name herba sole. It has been used commonly in cough preparations in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Sundew tea was especially recommended by herbalists for dry coughs, bronchitis, whooping cough, asthma and "bronchial cramps". A modern study has shown that Drosera exhibits antitussive properties.

Culbreth's 1927 Materia Medica listed D. rotundifolia, D. anglica and D.linearis as being used as stimulants and expectorants, and "of doubtful efficacy" for treating bronchitis, whooping cough, and tuberculosis. Sundews have also been used as an aphrodisiac and to strengthen the heart, as well as to treat sunburn, toothache, and prevent freckles. They are still used today in some 200-300 registered medications, usually in combination with other herbal ingredients. Today, Drosera is usually used to treat ailments such as asthma, coughs, lung infections, and stomach ulcers"

So it's not as crazy as it first sounds, is it?

Do you know any seemingly odd medicinal ingredients, past or present? I'll pass this one on. The white sap that leaks from snapped off dandelion stems will get rid of warts.No guarantees, but I've found it works.

Here's a little bit from A Scandalous Countess, where Georgia is trying to learn some country skills.

"I confess, I’m enjoying this taste of country living, but it’s an idle venture. After breakfast, set me a country task."

"A task?" Then Lizzie smiled in a very mischievous way. "I have just the thing. I'm told that one of the pigs in the home farm has the evil sleep and needs the cure."

"The evil sleep?” Georgia exclaimed. ‘I don't believe you."

"Tut-tut, your education in country lore is sorely lacking. Come along."

As they went outside Georgia said, “Very well, tell me the symptoms  and cure of the evil sleep.”

“The pig sleeps too much, especially in the middle of the day."

"That could describe Father when he’s rusticating.”

“Georgie! I don’t suppose your father neglects his food so he’s in danger of starving to death.”

“Quite the opposite. Where are we going? The home farm is that way.”

"To the orchard."

“We tempt the pig’s appetite with green apples?”

“No, we gather the chief ingredient of the cure.”

“I hope it’s not snails"

They approached the orchard, but didn't go in through the gate. Instead Lizzie walked along the wall. "Stone crop!" she said triumphantly. "We must pick the flowers. Only the yellow flowers, note. We'll need at least half a basket full."

"These are very small flowers." Georgia complained.

"Then pick faster. The pig may be gasping its last."

 

So, any odd plant cures in your family lore?

Do you remember any from novels?

Do any of them contain snail?  I have found that many in old medicine books do!

Jo

Wench Classic: Creative Process & Brainstorming

Susan here, acting as emergency blog angel for Mary Jo, who is frantically rushing to finish NOT QUITE A WIFE so that she can press SEND on another fabulous book! 

So here's a Wench Classic from the Mary Jo files: her thoughts on creativity and brainstorming, a topic not only appropos to her current situation, but well worth revisiting. She would love to know your thoughts on the subject -- so please do comment (and be sure to congratulate Mary Jo on finishing the book)! 

Creative Process and Brainstorming

by Mary Jo 

There is no one right way to write.  Which is a real bummer—it would be so much easier if there were clear and distinct Right Ways and Wrong Ways.  But the more I hang out with writers, the more I realize how much our approaches vary. 

This was most graphically illustrated at a lovely Romantic Times conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado some years ago.  I was one of nine authors on a panel about characterization.  I prepared a short presentation, as did one of the other nine.  (She and I later became good friends, since we clearly shared certain compulsive traits. <G>) 

But after we two gave our presentations, the panel still had almost two hours to fill.  The program organizer had said all we had to do was answer questions.  For two hours?  Not likely! 

One of the panelists was Judith McNaught, already a superstar.  After a silence, someone asked her a question.  She answered.  More silence.  Someone asked her another question. At which point, inspiration struck and I said, “Let’s have everyone answer every
question!”  Since we were all a little desperate, we did—and it turned into a great, educational panel as it became clear that we had highly individual ways of working.

Some start with plot, others with character.  Some used critique groups, others abhorred the idea.  Some wro te swift first drafts, then edited; others wrote slowly, polishing as they went so the book was basically done when they got through once.  The audience was delighted, and I’m sure that many left happy to know that they weren’t “doing it wrong.” 

Most of us who have been writing for any length of time have figured out what our personal writing process is.  I’m inclined to think that whatever that process is, it’s hardwired into our brains and can’t be changed except in minor ways.  I’m a plodder, condemned to inchworm my way through my books one word at a time.  When it’s done, it’s done, except for minor tweaking.  Which is good, since I’m always slammed up against a deadline.  But I’m convinced that plungers have more fun!

I have a friend who hates deadlines, so she finishes her books months in advance and lets them mulch for a while, then edits them again before she hands them in.  I’ll bet her college papers were always done early, too,  but I like her anyway.  <g>  Another friend works on one book for a while.  Then when she feels stalled, she works on another.   Still another friend gets only one idea at a time—but when that idea shows up, it’s great. 

These differences in creative process are clearly on display when we do things like brainstorm.  Pat Rice, Susan and I were having our annual brainstorming session at my house.  We’ve done this for several years now, and we all benefit. 

But we do work very differently even though we’re all historical writers.  One of us might use emotional turning points, another the hero’s journey, a third will advocate more historical research to create the skeleton of a plot. 

We’ve never really defined brainstorming rules, but it’s a given that we respect each other’s work.  The story belongs to the author who is tossing it out, and her judgment is ultimately the only one that counts.  I’m pretty much an intuitive writer, and analytic approaches generally roll off my back.  Yet I’ve gotten really valuable ideas from these brainstorming sessions over the years. 

This time, just a few minutes’ discussion helped me go from the merest wisp of a story idea to a solid sense of the book that I hope I’ll write next.  Last week, this story was the merest gleam in my eye; today I could sit down and write a synopsis.

We rotate through each other’s books, choosing what ever project the author who is up wants to work on. After we’ve whacked one story around for a while, we move on to another.

Of course, we also need breaks.  We go out to lunch or dinner, walk a labyrinth or stroll in the park, maybe settle down and do some beadwork.  My cats, especially Grady, hang around and look intellectual.  After three days, we disperse back to our caves, well armed for the new projects. 

Ultimately, of course, what matters is not process but results.  Readers aren’t interested in whether a story went smoothly or if it fought tooth and nail.  Actually, writers can’t usually tell which books will work best for readers—we just string the words together and hope for the best.  And now and then, we yearn for a different process that will be better/easier/more fun than the one we have!

Of course, everyone uses creative process even if not a writer.  How do you come up with your ideas?  How do you bring your projects to completion?  And do you ever wish you could do it differently?!

Mary Jo

As Summer Labors To An End . . .

Cara/Andrea here,
As you know we Wenches like to talk about history, so it seems right to start off today with a small snippet on the origins of Labor Day here in the U.S. (For our international readers, the first Monday of September is celebrated as a national holiday to honor the achievements of the American worker.)

The late 1880s were not a great time to be toiling in the United States—the average worker put in 12-hour days, seven days a week, and many children as young as six and seven were employed in mills and mines. As unions formed to agitate for better working conditions, the clashes between workers and businesses sometimes turned ugly.

Perhaps one of the most infamous examples was the Pullman strike in 1894, when labor leader Eugene V, Debs called for a nationwide Pullman strike to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. With the railroads crippled, the federal government intervened, sending federal troops to Chicago to break the strike. In the ensuing riots, over a dozen workers were killed. It was to calm working-class sentiment that the government quickly recognized “Labor Day,” a celebration that had been gaining momentum in a number of states, as an official federal holiday later that same year.

But on a lighter note, this weekend is also celebrated as the end of summer, with lots of parties, parades and general merriment before everyone buckles back down to school and the office routine. Of course, it’s always a little sad to see summer, with its long lazy days and laid-back pace, end. But as I look back, I’m smiling over the nice times I had over the last few months. Here are a few snapshots of the highlights of my summer fun. (Top to bottom: the flowers on the beach lagoon near where I live; I love walking in early evening during the summer and fix plot twists as I play golf; my wild raspberries which recovered from Hurricane Sandy to ripen in July; seeing fellow Wenches Mary Jo and Jo at RWA in July, where Mary Jo was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award; an August  NYC get-together with my best friends from college.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what about you? What’s one of your favorite memories from this past summer? Did you travel anywhere special? Meet with old friends? Read a memorable book? Please share!

The Sparky Report #5

A big thanks for those who sent e-mails asking for a Sparky Tabasco update. It would seem that little Sparky has a fan club!

Yesterday she weighed in at a whopping 3 pounds 10 ounces. She's come a long way from the scruffy 9 ounce orphan I found on the 4th of July. Sparky is turning into a real beauty. She's long and lean, with an Oriental body type (think Siamese--what cat fanciers call a "classy chassis") and a short silky coat. And attitude. Brother, does she have attitude!

When the carpenter fired up his noisy tools, it freaked Sparky for the first minute or two, but after she realized it wasn't going to hurt her, she relaxed. Now, the vacuum cleaner doesn't scare her. Thunder doesn't scare her. Big dogs don't scare her. The one thing that does (thankfully!) scare her is when the coyotes howl. She does a commando belly crawl and slinks away when the howling starts.

These two pictures show Sparky terrorizing my young Boxer, Shona. I love the "Mexican stand-off" picture with Sparky and Shona going nose to nose. Seconds after I took that picture, Sparky launched herself at Shona and they wrestled ferociously.

Sparky continues to add new culinary delights to her diet. Her latest additions are broccoli and green beans. The next picture shows her chowing down on green beans that I "accidentally" dropped  *g* on the kitchen floor. Sparky zoomed in, beating out the dog, and scarfed down the beans with gusto. Do any of you cat owners have cats with culinary oddities? 

Sparky tried my coffee once and decided she didn't like it. I'm grateful. She's already a pistol--I certainly don't need her hopped up on caffeine! (Why do you think her middle name is Tabasco?!!) Let's just say that every time I hear a crash somewhere in the house, I know Sparky is the cause. Once I go to inspect the damage, this is what I usually find:  little Miss Innocence, peeking around the corner to see if the coast is clear.