Word Wenches

What We're Reading

Pat here with this month’s blog on what the wenches are reading.

I just finished Hubble Bubble by Jane Lovering, published by an interesting English firm called ChocLit. Hubble is an intelligent combination of chicklit, women’s fiction, and romance, and I’m hoping this is a new trend because I love all three, and together, they’re powerful. In this book, the heroine is quite happy with her life for a lovely change. Yeah, there are a few flaws in the picture, but when her friend suggests they answer an ad to learn how to make wishes come true, our heroine doesn’t have anything she wants to wish for. She goes along because she’s a good friend. I have no idea why a strong, stable heroine appeals to me, but it does.

The hero, on the other hand, is a bit of a mess. Of course, he’s beyond sexy and successful, but he’s fully aware he’s a POS.  He has demons in his past that eat at him. What we end up with is a heady brew of friendship and family that combust in lovely and powerful ways. I’m eager to try more books by this author and publisher.

********

Anne here. I've been discovering some of the older style romances I hadn't ever read. I came to romance novels late, and many simply weren't  available here— though Mary Stewart certainly was, and I've been re-reading her over the last few months. She died recently, aged 98, and leaves a wonderful legacy. Vale Mary Stewart.

A window into the past.

Hi, Jo here, talking about the restless politics of 1817, but also sharing a window into life in the past. As I said back in December, My Company of Rogues books began in 1814 because the plot tied into Napoleon's abdication. I've written 15 Rogues books since and managed to progress slowly because I knew that as the post-war years marched on, the political situation would become darker.

Peace after war is euphoric, but the aftermath is usually difficult. Wars are expensive, so even victorious countries have huge debts. Peace can open up markets, but it often also allows in competition. Economies are often depressed just when large numbers of men return home seeking work and feeling entitled to the good things in life. The result -- unrest, and even riotous rebellion.

There is a house in New Orleans….

by Mary Jo

RWA has conferences for professional and aspiring writers.  They are serious and often rather stressed as ambitious and sometimes desperate writers try to make headway. 

In contrast, the Romantic Times conferences are a great big rollicking party. <G>  There are actually a lot of very good workshops at RT (I was on three panels), but it's first and foremost a conference for readers.  The authors are there as bait, to see our friends, and to promo our books.  
 
A major reason I opted for this recent conference is because I love New Orleans.  It's a great city and we were right on the edge of the French quarter.  Go out the front of the hotel, and there was Canal Street.  Go out through the garage and there you are on a very narrow little street with great little restaurants and shops.

THE SPARKY REPORT #33

Zzzzzzzz . . .

Whew! After a wonderful week of celebrating the Word Wenches' 8th anniversary, Sparky is all tuckered out! Time to catch a little shut-eye to recharge the batteries.

And once those batteries are recharged, what better way to expend some of that energy than going outside to smell the air. This is something Sparky can't get enough of. I'm sure there are many new and exciting scents wafting about.

My, what a lovely, fresh smell!

 

Green grass, new leaves, growing things. Divine!

Next on the agenda is mouse hunting. In a very short period of time Sparky learned that patience is the key. Find a vantage point, sit absolutely still, and when a mouse or shrew appears, POUNCE!

 

High atop Mt. Lookout, waiting for an unsuspecting mouse or shrew.

 

Patience pays off! A nice fat shrew is the reward.

 

Play time! Toss that mouse, fling that shrew! (Sorry about the blurred picture. Mom was trying to get artsy.)

 

Now, for a bit of grass as a palate cleanser.

 

And finally, a nap in Mom's wastepaper basket, where I shall dream of plans for my very first birthday in two more weeks! (June 6, in case anyone was wondering) *g*

 

Related articles

The Sparky Report #32

8th Anniversary Part 2

Anne here, introducing the second part of our 8th Anniversary celebration, where we look back over a few favorite posts from the past eight years. The first part was here. In this thrilling episode, Pat Rice talks about getting naked (yes more nakedness!), Susan King expos—er, reminisces about where we work, Mary Jo gives the inside skinny about wearing Regency-era corsets (a post much beloved of German corset fetishists), and finally I wrap up with a little bit of down-under culture in the shape—the very fine shape—of Australian Rules footballers.(The photo below is from this site) 
And finally, I list the books we're giving away to eight lucky commenters — one book each.

We'll start with Pat:
Like Jo, I think there’s no better way of celebrating the Word Wenches’ survival of eight years of blogging then with our Getting Naked blog. If nothing else, the “naked” blog was a metaphor for how such different writers could strip down to their souls and reveal themselves in public. Writers are intensely private people, and presenting our thoughts for public consumption was a fascinating and terrifying new idea to us at the time.

Wonderful Wenchly Eighth Anniversary

 Joanna here, at the Great Word Wenches Eighth Blogiversary. 

 Today we're celebrating by harking back to our favorite blog posting evah!
There'll be four blog links today.  Four on Friday.

This is my own fourth Word Wenches anniversary.  I'm still the newest Wench -- the baby Wench, as it were.  So proud and happy to be here.   

When I went looking for my favorite posting, I had quite a number that called to me.  I could go back to the one about women fighting with fists and swords.  Or the 'fireworks and explosives' post.  Or the one about Regency liquor.  (I sense a certain disreputable trend in my posts that had hitherto escaped my notice.)  But on the whole, I decided we'd go with a cleaner topic.  Bathing.

So here is Georgian and Regency Bathing Customs  - here.

 

Nicola says:

It’s lovely to be celebrating the 8th anniversary of the Word Wenches blog and with it our wonderful Wench readers and a huge variety of blog posts.

It was very difficult to choose a favourite from my time as a Wench and I got completely distracted reading through old posts and thinking anew about a range of fascinating topics relating to history and writing and much more besides. In the end, like Andrea, I chose one of my first posts as a wench, One Man and his Dog.

I was so excited to be a part of the group (I still am!) and so keen to share my quirky research interests with a group of like-minded people. The blog illustrates a couple of my passions - dogs and Prince Rupert of the Rhine - and I know I am not alone in loving both of these disparate subjects! In addition, Prince Rupert is a character in my current work in progress and so there is a nice connection from one of my early Wench posts to my writing now.

So here is a link to the blog post, with thanks to my fellow wenches for being such an amazing group and to our readers for being such  fun to chat with!

Cara/Andrea here,

I think one of the reasons the Word Wenches have thrived for eight years in an internet landscape where sites come and go at the speed of light is because we all have wide-ranging and eclectic interests. (that’s an erudite way of saying we are quirky!) Which makes choosing a favorite from the blogs I’ve done over the years no easy task. Like a magpie, I tend to collect bright shiny tidbits of arcane information. I call it research . . . and usually the esoteric historical information I find fascinating does end up in my books. But most, I just find the stuff fun to know.

However, after going over my contributions to the blog, I’ve decided to spotlight the very first post I did for as a Word Wench. There are two reasons—firstly because I was—and still am—thrilled to be part of such an amazing group of writers. Not only do we share a passion for writing and history, but on a more personal level, we have become a close-knit, supportive group of best friends. Secondly, I’m choosing it because it illustrates the sort of offbeat historical subject that set fire to my imagination. And what makes it even more fun is that there is an audience of kindred spirits who seem to share my passion. So without further ado, here is a link to the history of gunpowder. And I’ll also add my own colorful fireworks of thanks to all you readers whose enthusiasm for our posts keeps us going!

 Sherrie drops in to say --

From Sherrie Holmes and Sparky Tabasco, happy anniversary to all the Wenches for 8 wonderful years! As your  blogmistress, I've been privileged to come along for the ride from the very beginning. It's been a trip! I can remember when I was first approached by Mary Jo about researching blog venues and then becoming the blogmistress to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes. Blogging had really exploded back then, and many authors were dragged, kicking and screaming, into the blogosphere. Now, blogs are a great way for authors and readers to connect, and a side benefit has been the wonderful friendships that have been formed as a result. Here’s to another glorious 8 years!

And Jo:.

I was delighted to be invited to join the Word Wenches back in 2006, and then it seemed quite an achievement to reach our anniversary in May 2007. Of course we wanted to do a group blog worthy of the milestone, so what else but Getting Naked With the Wenches? The topic was "nakedness in the past -- the fiction and the non-fiction."

I pulled together the first of three posts on nakedness. In this one the Wenches discussed bathing habits -- naked or not?-- and even the definition of nakedness, which uncovered (sorry!) this from the OED. 1761:  "The streets were...filled with naked people, some with shirts and shifts on only, and numbers without either." There are pictures.

We also discussed nakedness in sex. No pictures in the blog, but there's a link, with appropriate warnings. Enjoy!

 Stay tuned for Friday's posting when we'll hear from Anne, Pat, Susan and Mary Jo.  On Friday we'll offer a plentitudeand a half of Wench Book Swag to lucky commenters on either of these posts.  What kind of book swag?  Let me say -- ARC!  Let me say -- Newly released books.  Let me say -- audiobook!

 So ...  What's your favorite Wench post from the eight years of Wenchdom?

Everything Old is New Again

Cara/Andrea here,
All authors are told that a key trope in writing is to do a dramatic opening scene to catch a reader’s interest, and then build the backstory that helps develop the plot. So I’m going to play around with a variation of that today (and no, the first line is not going to be ‘It was a dark and stormy night . . .” Though I confess, I’ve always rather like the idea of playing with that one.) So here we go:

A metallic click caused Marcus Fitzherbert Greeley, the seventh Earl of Killingworth to look up from his ledgers.
“Who’s there?” he called sharply.

THE SPARKY REPORT #32

It's been a few weeks since the last Sparky Report, and a lot has happened since then. Sparky is now officially an indoor/outdoor cat. Despite my diligence, she frequently escaped out the door, and when her escape attempts were foiled, she made everyone's life so miserable that I threw in the towel. Now that the weather is nice, she uses the cat door at will and we've settled into a routine of sorts, with frequent yard checks by me just to make sure all is well.

I have a little over 3 acres, so there's plenty of room to explore and practice hunting. And speaking of hunting . . .  

Sparky's first kill: an earthworm!

Sparky has graduated from earthworms to shrews. She is slowly ridding my yard of those tiny critters, but I do wish she wouldn't bring their bodies into the house for me to stumble upon in my bare feet!

 

You'd think Sparky would burn off some of her high octane energy outside, but not so. True to form, she is constantly on the lookout for trouble.

Here's Sparky doing her meerkat imitation as she gauges the distance from porch railing to roof

And here is the result of Sparky playing in a bucket of potting soil I'd been using to repot some house plants.

 

After a day spent getting into trouble, here's what Sparky does in order to recharge her batteries:

And once those batteries are recharged, it's time to find more trouble to get into. (Like destroying a roll of aluminum foil!)

Getting by With a Little Help

Hi.  Joanna here.  For this week the Ask-a-Wench question is:

You all belong to Word Wenches, obviously.  Is there another writers' group or organization in your life that gives you support and enjoyment?  Or is there another, perhaps altogether different, formal or informal group that influences your writing or help you in your writing life?

Mary Jo says:

There are so many valuable writing groups that it belies the idea that writing is a solitary profession!  Most writers love to get together and talk about writing, the business, and, of course, our work sin progress.  My first group was the Maryland Romance Writers, the local chapter of the Romance Writers of America.  There were only ten members, but they knew a lot more about writing and publishing than I did.  I'm still a member of MRW, it's grown much larger, and it's still very supportive.

typical frantic scene at RWA National Conference

 

All RWA groups, both regional and national, have been great places where I've learned and met lifelong friends, including most of the Word Wenches.  I have a special fondness for Novelists, Inc. which is for popular fiction authors from all genres.  It's always offered terrific support for the business of writing, and it's become a leader in helping writers master the emerging world of independent publishing.

Yet the Word Wenches are unique.  We all write and love historical novels, and there is structure because we've all committed to posting regularly on this blog.  That's business, but we've gone beyond that to become a sisterhood.  We share information and laughter and offer sympathy for life's downs as well as congratulations on the ups.  Not to mention sharing pet pictures and stories. <G>  We like each other, we cheer each other on, and there is no queen bee.  Which is why we're still here, doing what we do and enjoying it.

Anne says:

I second what Mary Jo said about writing no longer being the solitary occupation it used to be. Email and affordable phone calls has changed all that. I have writing friends all over the world, with whom I can talk over a writing problem or brainstorm an idea or share a piece of writing.

 

The Word Wenches have become a friendship group, not only a blogging group, even though we only see each other very occasionally. I have another group of writer friends with whom I go away each year for a week of writing, brainstorming, discussion and friendship. We've been doing it for seven years so far, and we support each other through life's ups and downs, as well as the writing and publishing adventure. This was our first retreat.

 

(Joanna slipping in with a comment.  That link above, about Anne's writer group, is just chock full of tips on How To Build Your Own Writer Group With A Great Retreat.  I mean, that link is gold.)

 

 

 

 

Regency Romantic Adventure with Alison Stuart!

Nicola here, and today I am thrilled to be interviewing author Alison Stuart on the blog. I've been a fan of Alison's books for a while and when I heard that she was forsaking the 17th century to write her first Regency I was intrigued by this change of era. Having had the pleasure of reading Lord Somerton's Heir I can confirm that it has all Alison's trademark adventure and action as well as intriguing characters and passionate romance. So, over to Alison!

AS: Thank you so much for inviting me to join the august company of Word Wenches today!

NC: It's a pleasure to have you visiting the blog, Alison. Please tell us a little about Lord Somerton’s Heir.

AS: I think my publisher (Escape Publishing) summed up the story of LORD SOMERTON’S HEIR rather succinctly in a recent promo piece: “A Regency romantic suspense about a widow who wants to move on, a war veteran with an unexpected inheritance, an estate in desperate need of a Lord, and an unexpected attraction that complicates everything.”

LORD SOMERTON’S HEIR is about the characters and in Sebastian and Isabel I found two damaged people seeking forgiveness and redemption.  Dark shadows haunt both characters and a mysterious death stands between them. Sebastian and Isabel have to work hard for their HEA! There is also a cast of secondary characters that I had a lot of fun with, particularly Sebastian’s batman, Bennet, who is guaranteed to lighten the mood.

Our Love of History

Hi, Jo here, unable to resist playing with a medieval shield at Chirk Castle - which refers back to my childhood fascination with history.

Our recent discussion of our first historical romance had me thinking about where my love of history began. I can't remember, perhaps because my father fed me on romantic historical stories from an early age. Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, Crusaders, Cavaliers and Jacobites, including of course Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Of course I can look back on such stories with a jaundiced eye, but they were just the thing to enthrall. I feel sorry for children today who seem to be mostly taught more recent and "relevant" history. Yes, they need to know about 20th century wars, the fights for social justice and women's rights, but I doubt such subjects capture their hearts at a young age.

Guest Alison Stuart

Good day! Here's another date for your reading calendar:  on Wednesday, May 14, Wench Nicola Cornick interviews author Alison Stuart. How best to describe Alison's books? In her own words, they include history, mystery, romance, and ghosts . . . sometimes all in the same book!

Sparky Tabasco, the Word Wenches mascot, invites you to come by for a visit this coming Wednesday. She promises you won't be disappointed! (And since Sparky's been reading Wench books since she was a kitten, she has very good taste)

A Look at Lima

by Mary Jo

When I blogged about our cruise on the upper Amazon, , I threatened another blog about Lima, the capital city of  Peru.  I don't make idle threats. <G>  But never fear, mostly I'm going to show pictures.

I spent very little time there, just two overnights in a hotel, and a coach tour of city highlights the morning before we flew into Amazonia to catch our cruise boat, but Lima made a strong impression on me.

Peru itself is a fascinating country, sharply divided into three distinct climate zones.  The coastal area where Lima is located is harsh, narrow desert, and the city's microclimate produces months of fog but almost no rain despite its closeness to the Pacific Ocean.  Most of the city's water comes from rivers that flow down from the Andes, the dramatic mountain backbone  of the country.  (Luckily, our touring day was lovely and sunny.)

A Parcel o' Rogues

Susan here, with two newly released e-books to tell you about--my Border Rogues trilogy is at last complete (and wait 'til you see these gorgeous covers!) 

Rogues and rakes and romantic tales –- they often go together, though in the technical sense of the term, “rakes” and “rogues” probably shouldn't be the most most appealing of guys. But when these tawdry, rowdy sorts are conjured in the pages of a romance novel and cast as heroes, sometimes magic happens, and dictionary definitions are tossed on their ear. Rogues in the romance sense often can be powerful heroes, handsome, intriguing, compelling guys with dark secrets, with grievances and burdens nobly carried and kept close to the vest. These are men who have something to learn about life and love, and have some character growing yet to do. He's quite likely to be doing something downright illegal, but for good reasons that balance out in the end. A rogue can be a delicious challenge for the author as well as the heroine. If he doesn't come to terms with his own secrets and burdens, he might never change, find himself, find love. 

Books II and III of the "Border Rogues" trilogy is set in the 16th century Scottish Borderlands. The Raven’s Wish, the first book, is set in the Highlands, where its Lowland hero encounters a quirky Highland lass with a whopping case of The Sight. It was released in e-book a couple of years ago, and recently it got a great new cover.

Now the other books in the series, The Raven’s Moon and The Heather Moon, are finally out too. These were bestselling, award-winning historical romances years back, and now they are all finally available in e-book editions -- with stunning new covers. I also had the chance during production (an advantage of the old book to e-book process) to edit the books again. They're freshened up, tightened up, and ready for new readers.  

The Raven’s Moon and The Heather Moon are, like Raven’s Wish, set in Tudor times in Scotland. Wrting these, I dove in with relish to explore the Scottish side of the Tudor thing, and both Raven’s Moon and Heather Moon are set along the Scottish-English Border during the 16th century.

No more rough-and-tumble place existed in 16th c. Britain than the Border region. Mary Stuart, from infancy, was on the throne of Scotland and the Tudors, Henry VIII and Mary Tudor and finally Elizabeth I, ruled England. Scottish and English rogues had free rein and notorious reputations as cattle thieves and rascals, a rowdy bunch who could be pretty nasty—and sometimes very noble. These “naughty men,” as they were often called then, were the Border reivers, the men of the “riding clans”—Scotts and Johnsons, Elliotts, Maxwells and Armstrongs and a host of other Lowland names. They dominated the Borderlands in ways that strongly parallel the American Old West. It was wild time in Scottish history, populated by men who were never, ever tame. And I wanted to know more.

So I conjured up three stories with Border heroes who seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be bad boys and rogues—but were far from it. “The Border ballads and legends have cast a gloss of romance over it,” wrote George MacDonald Fraser in The Steel Bonnets, his study of the Scottish Border reiving society, and “there is a tendency to regard the high midnight of the Border reiver as a stirring, gallant episode in British history.” True, this was not a romantic era—heinous acts and incidents occurred, and men fought and died over territory that was bitterly disputed and could not be sorted out in maps and documents and loyalty to anyone’s satisfaction. But it was yet peopled with strong, fascinating characters who strongly believed in their own right to land and liberty, from their own perspectives.

How Research Gave Me the Home I Didn't Want and the World I Needed

Pat Rice here, asking you to welcome Patricia (Pooks) Burroughs and her new historical fantasy, THIS CRUMBLING PAGEANT, released just last week.

Award-winning screenwriter and best selling novelist Patricia Burroughs loves dogs, books, movies, and football. A lifelong Anglophile, she treasures her frequent travels in the British Isles researching The Fury Triad, the epic fantasy that has taken over her life and heart.  She and her high school sweetheart husband are living happily ever after in their hometown of Dallas, Texas.

And here's Pooks---

All I needed was a place for my magical family in This Crumbling Pageant to live. I knew it was a manor house of some sort, that they were wealthy, that they didn’t live in London.

The Fury family is known for its extraordinary music, its powerful magic, and its historic role as kingmakers. But the Furys have their secrets as well, none so dangerous as Persephone—the daughter whose Shadow magic spills from her, unchecked. Unless her powers are concealed, she’s not only ruined in Society, but marked as a target for those who would use and abuse her magic.

GUEST PATRICIA BURROUGHS

Hey, who's that coming down the road? A guest, you say? Patricia Burroughs, you say? Awesome!

Mark your calendars for tomorrow! Wench Pat Rice will be interviewing fantasy author Patricia Burroughs. Patricia (or Pooks as she is known) is a native Texan with a vivid imagination. That imagination is put to good use in her fantasy books. Join us for the Pat and Pooks show on Monday, May 5, and find out about one author's fantasy world!

 

Patricia Burroughs

Grammar and other bugbears

Anne here, responding to a reader question from Laura S. who said: My two book clubs provide the exposure to award winning books. I do have a concern, though. I find grammatical errors that I would think an editor would correct—and sometimes the author has studied or taught English.

For example, “I hate thinking of US leaving the poor girl to suffer”. That should be OUR leaving the poor girl. (That was not a direct quote.) There are many times when the possessive should be used. One owns the action. <snip>

I love reading all the Word Wenches’ books and I don’t believe I find grammatical errors in them, but I would like for you all to discuss it among you. Look through several books and see how many times you see “him doing something”. (Laura wins a book for this question.)