Word Wenches

The Journey Home: An Anthology with a Past

by Mary Jo

The publishing world has changed so much in the last dozen years!  This anthology was first published in 2004, when independent anthologies were rare indeed, and it was produced as a fundraiser for the SOSAmerica, Inc. charity (CARE packages to deployed soldiers).  The volume was edited by award-winning Silhouette author Mary Kirk.

As Mary said in her introduction, "The Journey Home is about the wounded hero. The man who does what he must. The soldier who risks his life for his beliefs, his family, his country. It’s about the man who goes to war and discovers, when it’s over, he’s a different man—and maybe he isn’t certain who or what he’s become.

It’s also about the woman who loves such a hero: the one who waits at home, worrying, wondering. When her man finally returns, will her love be enough to heal the invisible wounds of combat? Will she even recognize the stranger sleeping alongside her at night?

Whether victors or vanquished, all survivors of a conflict must face the aftermath. But where do battle-scarred warriors go to lick their wounds and heal? Will they—can they—return to hearth and home? Or are they destined to live in isolation, unable to find a woman brave enough to love a man whose heart has been shattered?"

 

What We're Researching

Jo Beverley here. For a slight twist on the regular What We're Reading blog, this month we're highlighting some of our favorite research books. Some of the ones we use a lot are a bit dry or obscure, so we've each picked one or two that we think some Wenchly readers might enjoy, including some available on line.

Pat Rice.

May I take a moment to weep silently over this question? After wearing  out my local library with interlibrary loans, I spent decades collecting  an enormous reference library, grabbing wonderful volumes anywhere I traveled. If I was in a gift shop, I headed straight for the “local books” section. I went home from conferences with entire suitcases of reference finds.

And then I moved from a house with wall-to-wall shelves in every room to a cottage with almost no walls at all. Needless to say, I had to choose the books I valued most. This is an impossible job. I’m down to one bookcase of reference material in my office. I had to keep my fashion books because on-line resources simply aren’t as comprehensive. Nancy Bradfield’s COSTUME IN DETAIL shows me how gowns were constructed. I’ve had to tape together R. Turner Wilcox’s THE MODE IN COSTUME because I’ve worn it out. It not only gives me a wide variety of illustrations, but a detailed list of fabrics, accessories, and hair styles—all on a single page or two. I’ve yet to find an internet resource as easy to use.

(Jo: you can look at some sample pages of Wilcox here.

Comfort Food

Anne here, and today I'm blogging about comfort food. Of course what we class as comfort food varies from person to person, and is often culturally influenced, but it's usually something from our childhood, a simple, everyday dish of the kind that never makes it into recipe books of fancy restaurants, though some hotels and breakfast cafés might include some dishes.

But when you're feeling down, or tired, or maybe a little bit sick—or recovering from being sick— we tend to turn to comfort food. Or at least I do.

For some people it's their mother's chicken soup, or if their mother wasn't a cook, maybe a particular brand of canned soup. A childhood friend of mine always wanted canned tomato soup, made with milk and served with dry triangles of toast. She was always very specific about it. Triangles, not squares. And dry, not buttered.

Writing in the Wild

Nicola here. Today I’m talking about wild animals and getting writing inspiration in the most unlikely places.

A few weeks ago I went on holiday to Namibia in South West Africa. When I’m travelling I almost always end up wanting to write a book that involves some element of the place I’ve visited whether it be Scotland, the Arctic or the Sea of Cortes (still working on that pirate book!) However with Namibia I really didn’t expect to feel that way. This was going to be a holiday, pure and simple. Except of course that you can’t keep a writer’s imagination from working even when it’s supposed to be at rest!

We started off in the capital, Windhoek, and drove northwards. This part of the trip was all about the animals as we were heading to Namibia’s famous National Park, Etosha. I’ve been lucky enough to go on safari before but I had forgotten how exciting it can be to see animals in the wild. I love the experience at home – deer, badgers, foxes, they are all fun to watch. But out in Africa there was a different quality of experience in seeing animals in their natural habitat, animals that quite frankly I wouldn't want to bump into when I was out walking, such as lions, leopard, elephants and rhino!

Guest Tracy Grant on Mystery, Mayfair . . . and Governesses

 

Cara/Andrea, Today I'm delighted to welcome back my good friend Tracy Grant, who has come to give us a little historical backstory to the latest book in her marvelous Susanna and Malcolm Rannoch historical mystery series. For those of you who have not yet read Tracy's books, well, you're in for a treat! Set in the late Regency, they feature wonderfully nuanced, complex stories involving the world of espionage—where personal and professional loyalties are often tangled, and moral choices test the concepts of love, family and friendship. Her characters are beautifully rendered and her research of all aspects of the era is impeccable. I've been lucky enough to read an ARC, but rather than say any more, I'll now hand the pen over to Tracy and let her tell you more! Welcome, Tracy!

A Beautiful Belle

by Mary Jo

I love a movie that combines real history with period elegance, powerful themes, and a good romance, and Belle is such a movie.  It's based on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, an 18th century woman of mixed blood.  Her mother Maria Belle was an African born slave in the West Indies, but her father was a British naval officer, Captain John Lindsey, who eventually became an admiral.

After her mother's death, Dido's father took her to England and put her into the keeping of his uncle, Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, perhaps the most influential judge in Britain..  I first came across Lord Mansfield when I was researching A Distant Magic, my historical/fantasy/romance that was built around the 18th century British abolition movement.  Lord Mansfield was probably the most notable British jurist of the century, and he was influential in two court cases that helped toward the abolition of slavery and the slave trade.  

Lord Mansfield and his wife were childless and they lovingly raised their two grandnieces, Dido and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Mansfield, whose mother had died.  Using a framework of the known historical facts, director and writer Amma Assante (whose parents were from Ghana) spins a tale of what it was like to be a mixed race girl raised among British aristocrats.  

I'm sure some liberties were taken for the sake of the story, but it all works beautifully. I like the contrast of the mixed blood but well dowered Dido with her beautiful but penniless cousin.  Both want loving marriages, which aren't easy to find.  (Yes, there's a happy ending, I wouldn't recommend a movie otherwise!)  

Whither Goest Romance?

I’m editing one of my old backlist titles—I mean really old. My first historical romance was sold in 1982, and this one dates to the late 80’s. It’s a western of over 160k words, divided into three sections. I’m seriously considering re-issuing it as three separate books because the range of the story is immense. And that’s what has me thinking about the changes and direction of romantic fiction.

Obviously, the late 1970s and early 1980s, the boom years of historical romance, were an entirely different world. The technological changes since then practically make anything pre-computer seem likeancient history. Until that point, we’d not seen sex on television, and we’d certainly not read it in anything except a Harold Robbins novel or pornography.

Crafty Skills and Writing Thrills

Joanna here with this month's question for the Wenches:

Do you have a hobby or handicraft that's important to you? Does it ever find its way into your writing?

 

Mary Jo says:

Alas, I am not crafty, except perhaps in my plotting.  I learned basic sewing as a girl and made some of my own clothes because that's what girls did in that time and place, but I wasn't enthusiastic about it, and I was a complete loss at handcrafts.  I botched cross-stitch and never mastered crochet and had zero interest in embroidery.  I did learn to knit in college because it was a way to keep hands busy when we sat around and talked, and I even managed a few large needle sweaters.  But they weren't very good except for basic warmth, and I haven't knit since I got out of college. 

 

 With the exception of young Bree, the hero's daughter in Sometimes a Rogue, my female characters aren't very interested in handwork, though they can mend things as required. And now that I think of it, Laurel, the heroine of Not Quite a Wife, crocheted baby blanket squares while on a long carriage ride, but that was more because poor babies needed warm blankets.  I don't think she was much interested in crocheting for crochet's sake.  <G>  So I guess you could say that my lack of handicraft interest has made its way into my writing!

 

  On the other hand, while I don't have much gift for crafts, I have my share of interests.  As an art school graduate and a professional designer, art and design creep into stories, most strongly in River of Fire, where all the major characters are artists and don't know how they feel unless they have a paint brush in hand.  <G>  And I love music, though again I have no particular talent other than being able to do some research, but it's fun finding a four hand piano version of Vivaldi quartets on youtube, then telling my characters to take it from there.  <G>  A nice thing about writing is all the elements we can weave into our stories!

 

Nicola offers us music:

It’s interesting how many writers are also creative in other artistic fields. I have absolutely no talent for painting or drawing, or sewing, knitting or making anything with my hands. As a child I did make patchwork cushions in my sewing classes at school and I was also passably good at cookery, which I think is another creative talent. However it was music that I loved and singing was a hobby of mine from childhood.

 

 I studied music at school and learned the piano and wrote some (bad) songs. I joined my school, college and church choirs and was also a member of a local choral society that toured Europe one summer. That was very exciting. My first love was always church music but I have tackled just about everything except opera! My singing tutor was a very fierce Scots lady called Mrs Buchan who had been a professional singer and was a very inspiring teacher.

 

 A number of characters in my books are musical and have good signing voices. Some of my heroines are talented at the piano or other musical instruments. When I am researching a book I do enjoy seeing which pieces of music were popular in the period and choosing something that my heroine might be singing or playing in the drawing room after dinner to entertain the other guests. In Unmasked, the heroine Mari gives away the secret of her ancestry by singing a Russian folk song.  When I write musical characters I am always reminded of Mary in Pride and Prejudice who loved playing the piano even though she had little aptitude for it, and her father saying: “You have entertained us long enough!”

 

Susan is musical as well as craftsy:

 

 

Writers and some kind of creative handiwork are a natural fit -- the creativity often spills off the page and into some other expression like arts, crafts, gardening and so on. And if we're not craftsy otherwise, we can scribble and type a mile a minute, and that's a talent of the hands if there ever was one! 

 

 

I went to art school, so for years I did paintings, drawing, prints and so on, even while I thought about stories. I haven't made art for years (though I do want to return to it), but I always have some kind of handiwork going. I try different things rather than stick with one, so I am master of none and explorer of many. I've done lots of crochet and knitting, and usually have a knitting project going; I've churned out throws and scarves and such, and keep it simple (I love big circular needles and soft yarns, and have no patience for small-stitch projects). I've done beading, basket weaving, needlework, sewing, collage, murals, scrapbooking -- it often comes down to my degree of patience for the thing. I especially love to refinish furniture and paint rooms. My routine after completing a book usually involves painting walls or redoing furniture. Give me a ladder, a can of paint, some music and I'm happy.

 

Some of the art has worked into my novels - I've written about a painter, an illuminator, a sculptor, an art historian and so on. I also wrote about harp playing after taking lessons in Celtic harp years ago. I loved it, and better understood long-ago harpers and harp music. That definitely helped when I wrote The Angel Knight, Lady Macbeth and Queen Hereafter, and if I write about a harper again, I'll dust off my Irish harp and tune it up!  

 

Cara/Andrea brings us:

 

I have an art background, so I’ve featured a both a heroine and a hero who was an accomplished watercolor artist. But I’m also the Wench “jock”, as I enjoy sports as a way of relaxing. A while back, I took up golf—I’m pretty athletic, but it was one of the hardest endeavors I’ve ever tried— the swing may look easy, and the ball is not moving, but trust me, getting the timing right takes practice and patience! However I really enjoyed both the cerebral challenge and walking the course. After a day of writing, I love going out in early evening and playing a few holes. I can’t tell you how many plot tangles I have unraveled on the fairways. There’s something about switching gears and doing something physical that clears the brain synapses!

 

On a trip to Scotland, I visited the Old Course at St. Andrews, where golf was popular during Rgency times, and then was lucky enough to play a round with the Duke of Roxburghe, who is a passionate golfer . . .which got me to thinking! I decided it would be great fun incorporate my new hobby into a Regency romance. I did a little research on clubmaking (there are some wonderfully quirky clubs, like clerks and mashies fron that era) and then penned A Diamond in the Rough.The heroine is a great golfer but must disguise herself as a boy and work as a caddie to be allowed to play at St. Andrews. She’s assigned to teach an English lord how to play the game in order for him to play a match to win back his ancestral home, which his wastrel father has gambled away. And well . . . the game is on, in more ways than one.

 

 

Jo comes back with a very down-to-earth hobby:

 

Gardening. I'm not sure I've ever written a garden-obsessed character, but my books often have garden scenes and named plants with significance. My
characters are going to have gardens as most people in the past did until the
worst town developments of the 19th century, which led to the allotment
movement -- an awareness that people, especially the poor, need a place to grow
food and also to have touch with the land and growing things.

Most of my characters are wealthy enough to have estates and gardeners, but they still take an interest. Interestingly, my book-in-progress, The Viscount Needs a Wife, has a hero and heroine who don't. They're both London people, not fond of the countryside, and know nothing about how to grow anything. I like to be different!

 

Anne says (and this is so cool. I had no idea about the dolls):

 

I nearly always have some craft activity on the go, whether it's hand-made Christmas decorations, small things for dolls houses, or various kinds of jewellery. I'm more slapdash than meticulous, but I do enjoy making small things.

 

I used to babysit a friend's daughter on a regular basis and as a result I developed dolls house disease. I made lots of tiny things for a dolls house that one of my adult students had given me when she'd learned I was looking after a little girl and had No Dolls!!

 

It was a weekly ritual -- my little friend would arrive, we'd get out the dolls house and the box of contents and set the house up from scratch -- different every time. At the end of the day she'd tell me what new thing the dolls house needed, in that very cute imperious way three and four year olds have. "I think the dolls house needs. . . a dolls house." Or "I think next week the dolls will go . . . to the races. They'll need hats." This was after Melbourne Cup day and someone had been watching "Fashions on the Field" on TV. So I made hats for tiny dolls.

 

Currently I'm playing with jewelry. Fiddling with small things helps me concentrate and you'd be surprised how often, while apparently concentrating wholly on a necklace or bracelet, I solve a plot problem. I go through stages with the jewelry, too. Not so long ago I was making things using natural crystals, which I love, but was sidetracked recently when a friend suggested I make a beaded leather wrap bracelet -- and I was off and playing.

 

Few of these things ever find their way into my writing. I wrote one story, The Virtuous Widow, a Christmas novella that included a dolls house, and that was inspired by my little friend and our dolls house games -- she's mentioned in the dedication. Nothing since then, but you never know . . .

 

 

Pat rounds us off with some wonderfully practical hobbies:

 

I garden and I fix up old houses, so I’m going to guess those aspects of my life creep into my books on a regular basis. I believe readers have upon occasion remarked that they know they’re going to get houses and kids when they read my books. Apparently I’ve disguised the gardening fever better. Even in Formidable Lord Quentin, when the characters have plenty of fancy London houses that need no work, my protagonists end up in a neglected rural mansion battling rodents and bird nests. We have the kids and horses in that one, but no garden.

 

I outdid myself in Wicked Wyckerly, though—the heroine owns a farm and gardens, the hero owns a truly neglected mansion AND townhouse, and we have kids galore. But I’m thinking children probably aren’t a hobby!

 

 

So. What about you? What hobby brings you joy and makes you more creative? If you were to write a book, which of your avocations would sneak into the text?

 

Some lucky commenter will win a copy of any of my books they choose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scottish Victorians & Brevity

Susan here, with thoughts on brevity and Victorians - opposites I'll now try to fit together . . . 

My Victorian trilogy -- the Scottish Lairds series -- is finally available in reissue, new as e-books this month. The first, Taming the Heiress, is set in 1850s Scotland. All three books are freshly revised editions with gorgeous new covers.

These newly edited versions preserve the stories and characters while much improving the text. I may have overdone the {cough} word count in the original print versions of these books, so it was nice to apply a little judicious editing. Brevity might not be a natural fit with an authentically Victorian voice and story, but taking a red pen after a few years to three stories I still loved worked out very well.  

That’s one of the advantages of digitizing a previous print edition. We can make old stories new again for a new audience, and update our books to be tighter, sharper, focused and just better books all around for readers who may have read them before, and for new readers just discovering them.

But even editing doesn't produce true brevity. Recently I’ve fallen in love with a little series of books that I’m collecting for my baby granddaughter (who doesn’t know one end of a book from another quite yet). I mentioned these books in our latest “What We’re Reading” blog. The series, Cozy Classics by brothers Jack and Holman Wang, makes classics like Pride & Prejudice accessible to little readers through the use of twelve simple words ("sisters," "dance," and so on) and photo illustrations of adorable little felt dolls in miniature sets. The perfect story essence and creativity of these wonderful little books is such fun.

And in the spirit of my made-new-again Victorians, now shortened, focused and improved -– I wondered what few words would perfectly capture my own stories. Let's give it a try.

First, here’s a little promo bit for Taming the Heiress: 

An engineer determined to build a lighthouse on a Scottish sea rock meets the wealthy island baroness intent on stopping him—but one night and an ancient legend of love and danger challenge their hearts . . .

According to Scottish legend, the kelpie, a magical sea creature, grants good fortune to the Isle of Caransay upon finding a bride on the sea rock. When Meg MacNeill spends one night on that rugged rock as local tradition demands, a handsome man emerges from the sea—and passion takes its course. Legend fulfilled, the mysterious man disappears.

Seven years later, Dougal Stewart, engineer and deep sea diver, returns to the Caransay to build a lighthouse on the very rock where he washed ashore—but Baroness Strathlin is determined to stop construction. Little does Dougal realize that the barefoot island beauty he often meets is not only the mysterious baroness herself, but the girl he once loved that memorable night—and the fair-haired boy with her is his own son.

WAY too many words! Now to find the story's essence:   

Island. Storm. Guy. Girl. Lighthouse. 
Baroness. Diver. Kelpie. Danger! Rescue?
Love . . .  

"An exquisite and magical Highland romance." ~Booklist, *starred review

Taming the Heiress is available now, and the other two books in the series, Waking the Princess and Kissing the Countess, will soon be ready via the e-book venue of your choice.

I’ll tell you a little about the rest of the trilogy in future blogs, including an interview with a gorilla keeper at the National Zoo. What does that have to do with a sexy, romantic Victorian Scottish historical? Stay tuned to Word Wenches to find out!

               

Your turn! In the spirit of the Wang brothers’ brilliant little board books, what few words would you use to describe a favorite book?  

~Susan 

 

A Blue Plaque for Georgette Heyer

Anne here, reporting an event that took place in London a few days ago, when Georgette Heyer's house in Wimbledon was given a prestigious English Heritage blue plaque. I wasn't there (sob!) but my friend, Dr Jennifer Kloester, Georgette Heyer's biographer (and an honorary Word Wench) flew over for the opening, and has kindly supplied the photos and much of the information for this blog.

The English Heritage blue plaque scheme, founded in 1866, and thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world, identifies and celebrates "the architecture of London's streets and the diversity and achievements of its past residents."

According to Jennifer Kloester, "An English Heritage Blue Plaque is a prestigious thing. They are awarded to those people who are deemed to have made a contribution to the nation's history. Georgette Heyer has now been admitted to the ranks of those authors who have made a significant contribution to the creative and cultural life of Britain."

The Age of Creativity

Cara/Andrea here, musing on creativity . . . and, well, the A-word. Ah-ha! (No, it’s not Ah) now that I have your Attention, I shall explain. But first, a bit of backstory. I am excited about an upcoming lecture I’m going to attend in a week on the painter J. M. W. Turner. Mike Leigh, the director of the movie, Mr. Turner, will be discussing the making of the film and the artist, who is credited not only with being one of the great luminaries of the Romantic era, but also with being one of the pioneers of modern art.

Fine Feathers, Fine Birds

 Nicola here!

I’ve just returned from an amazing trip to Africa. Amongst the huge variety of wildlife we saw were these iconic birds – ostriches. I knew that in the Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth century ostrich feathers were highly prized as fashion items but I had no idea that the demand had been so high that the ostrich almost went the way of the dodo and was hunted to near-extinction. These days most the wild ostriches in South West Africa are descended from domestic stock that were farmed to meet the huge demand. So today I thought I would blog about the illustrious ostrich in history!

Magical synchronicity

Hi, Jo here, late for my blog date! Part of my excuse is -- you guessed it, lost in research. I've been lost in the delights of reading newspapers.

I set my books precisely in time, in part because there's a sequence but also because it roots me in reality. I need to run a calendar of my books anyway, if only to see the time of the week. There has to be a Sunday now and then, which will mean church. Attending church can be a mention, but sometimes it's a good occasion for people to meet their community.

I've been reading the papers on line for early December 1817. My local library had electronic access. Yours may well, too. I can read The Times, The Morning Chronicle, and the London Gazette along with many others.

I was looking for particularly fun London activities but I haven't found much, probably because this is still shortly after the tragic death of Princess Charlotte on the 6th of November and the whole country is still in mourning. However, the London theaters were open, and I could see what was on, which was good because I wanted my characters to go to the theater.