Word Wenches

What We're Reading in September

September is a grand month for reading. We've come up with some great suggestions.

 

Anne here: I've been really enjoying some NA (New Adult) college stories. I've mentioned Sarina Bowen in this column several times and now I'll add Elle Kennedy to the list — they've written a few book together, which is how I discovered Elle Kennedy. Both these authors are writing fresh, fun, yet realistic stories that deal with some very serious issues faced by young people at that age, while still remaining very sexy and romantic. 

 

The Shameless Hour - Sarina Bowen

Bella gets around — she's a bright, positive, lusty girl. Rafe is a hunky Hispanic boy who has been raised to respect women — which is why he's still a virgin at 20. When the double standard smacks Bella down in the nastiest way, Rafe steps in. A gorgeous story, both realistic and romantic and positive.

 

The Deal  Elle Kennedy

Another NA story set on a college campus. Hannah Wells has a crush on one guy, but an annoyingly persistent jock is after her to tutor him. They do a deal to help each other achieve their goals.

I couldn't put it down. Really enjoyed it.

 

Pat Rice brings us:

 

Neanderthal Seeks Human: A Smart Romance, is the first book written by Penny Reid. I love the brain-heavy, neurotic heroine—who has every right to be neurotic given her dysfunctional family. It’s totally a contemporary fantasy but the author’s voice is so hilarious that I kept reading anyway. Sure, it could use a lot of trimming, but who would want to trim material that contains (and I’ve seriously edited here) lines like this: “I think my alcohol-saturated forebrain lost the ability of conscious thought, but my lower brain—the Id…may have slipped my forebrain some benzodiazeprines…. I will call that part of my brain Ida.”

Adventures in Middle Earth

by Mary Jo

I've already written about my visit to Melbourne,where I spoke at the annual conference of the Romance Writers of Australia.  The day after that conference ended, it was off to New Zealand for the conference of the Romance Writers of New Zealand.  

This is my third visit Down Under, and I firmly believe that one shouldn't fly that far without seeing both countries.  As former British colonies that are a long way from the rest of the world, Australia and New Zealand have much in common.  But they are also very different, and beautiful in very different ways.  Australia is vast and ancient and has a lot of desert, while New Zealand is green and lush and--Middle Earth-ish.  

Before traveling Down Under for our third visit, we watched the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy again, partly because it's a great story with great characters, but also to feast our eyes on the stunning scenery, from the green fields of Hobbiton to the rolling grasslands of Rohan and the dramatic snowy peaks that must be conquered on the route to Mordor.  Splendid!

No Genius Here

  Pat in the hot seat: Color me addle-pated. I knew I had a blog coming up at the end of the month. Apparently I don’t recognize the 25th as the end of the month. Or didn’t realize that the month of September has disappeared so amazingly fast!

So after all the nicely researched blogs from the other wenches, I’m throwing a fast ball at you. If you aren’t on Facebook, you probably haven’t seen my lovely marketing guy’s posts about my newest release from the Family Genius Mystery series—Cyber Genius. It’s on pre-order now but will be released next week. Excerpts and pretty pics and order buttons on my website.  If you haven’t read any of the series, the earlier books are marked free or on sale, so give them a look  (the website won’t show sale prices, sorry but here’s Evil Genius for free on Amazon!)

Barbara Hannay — The Secret Years

Anne here, interviewing my friend, Barbara Hannay about her newest book, THE SECRET YEARS. Barbara is an award-winning, bestselling author. She's written many short series romances for Harlequin, and has won several major awards, including RWA's RITA, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award and Australia's Romantic Book of the Year Award (twice) — but in recent years she's moved into longer, more mainstream fiction.

I mentioned her book Moonlight Plains last month in What We're Reading, but her new book is something else again. It's been listed as a book of the month on iTunes-books, and Penguin Australia has given it one of their coveted "Guaranteed Great Read" medallions on the cover. The reviews are also glowing, and since there is a strong WWII thread in the book, I thought wenchly readers might enjoy meeting Barbara and finding out more about THE SECRET YEARS.

THE SECRET YEARS is set across two eras; World War II England (and other places) and modern-day Australia. As the blurb says, it "spans three generations of secrets, romance and heartbreak."

Anne: Welcome to the Word Wenches, Barbara. There are two intertwining stories in THE SECRET YEARS — a contemporary and a historical story, but since this is a historical blog, let's start with the historical one — your hero Harry and your heroine, George, aka the Honourable Georgina Lenton. Tell us about Harry and George.

A Historic Dinner

Ever wish you could invite some fascinating historical person to dinner? Read on! 

Susan here ~ In honor of my Dad’s 90th birthday yesterday, I’d like to share something he enjoyed doing after a big extended family dinner, usually on a holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas, though a birthday dinner would do nicely too. We would go around the table and each would say what historical person we would invite to a dinner and why – or, sometimes, who we would choose to be in some long-ago historical time. We’ve passed that along to our kids too, and the game goes on. Every time we have time for a couple of these simple questions, it’s fun, interesting, often hilarious, and we have a great time. 

So let’s play – here we are, all gathered around a long dining table after a great dinner (menu—your choice!); candles in the centerpiece still flicker in their holders, the table is scattered with wine glasses, coffee cups, desserts (your choice!) on china plates with silver forks, and napkins are crumpled or still in use. We’re sitting back in comfortable chairs, full and happy, and the question is posed:

If you had a time machine -- one that works smoothly, safely by whatever principles and laws of quantum physics govern such things, and which would work perfectly for inviting, transporting and returning guests –who would you invite to visit your home? We could also use this nifty device for traveling to times and places we’d like to visit ourselves, but for now, let’s just try a few guests.

Last time we did this at our house, my oldest son said he’d invite Socrates and
advise him about hemlock, and he’d invite a Shaolin monk from long ago China. The middle son said he’d invite Roland, Charlemagne’s elite knight, or he’d invite Leif Eriksson and ask about discovering North America, or he’d bring in a medieval Samurai lord. My husband wanted to invite Nikola Tesla or Genghis Khan (having seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, I’m not sure I want Genghis in the house!).

My own wish list is pretty long, but I’ll share a few top choices:

-- Joan of Arc, who has fascinated me since childhood. I’ve read everything I could find about her, and I’m still doing that. So many questions … 

-- Christine de Pizan, who wrote poetry and treatises in medieval France in order to support her children after she was widowed —she not only made a good living, she was one of the earliest feminists. And she wrote about Joan of Arc - great dinner partners!

-- Sir Walter Scott, because I adore his house and would love to know more about him, his stories and his knowledge of Scottish history.

-- Lady Macbeth and Margaret of Scotland – because I wrote books about them and I would really, really love to know how close I got to the truth!

Who would you invite, and why? And what would you serve for dinner and dessert?

~Susan 

 

 

Serial stories—a what a novel idea!

Cara/Andrea here, We’ve recently been talking here about our writing processes, and how time, ambiance, computer vs pen and paper affect how we create our stories. And deadlines—those were mentioned a lot too! In thinking about the subject, it seems to me that some things have been universal angts to writers across the ages. Inspiration. Struggle. How the words flow. And yes, the dreaded deadline! It’s never easy. But on reading a recent article on Charles Dickens and his The Mystery of Edwin Drood, it reminded me that during the 19th century, a phenomena developed—one that proved hugely popular with the public—that put even more pressure on authors.

Dickens, who was forced to leave home and find work in a factory after his father was put in debtor’s prison, helped pioneer the “serial” novel, which involved publishing the book in either weekly or monthly installments within the pages of a high-circulation popular magazine of the times. Pickwick Papers, his first book to be serialized, was showcased to the public in 1836, and launched the author on his way to literary fame.

Serialization was an interesting confluence of tech and creativity. The Industrial Revolution had spread to the publishing world, and the new high-powered steam presses were making possible the mass production of inexpensive magazines and newspapers. It’s said that Dickens would gauge reader reaction to the story and in response would actually noodle with his original plot to meet. For example, word is he altered Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield, to be shown in a better light.

Now, back to "Drood." His works were so popular that The Mystery of Edwin Drood created a huge crisis for his readers. Designed to be released in 12 parts, the book, which had a very complicated plot revolving around opium dens, a romance complete with evil characters, and the sudden disappearance of the hero—had just released part 6 when Dickens inconveniently passed away without having completed the story! There have been many attempts by others to finish the book since then—including one in 1873 by a printer in Vermont who claimed to have the words dictated to him by the spirit of Dickens. Um, talk about giving new meaning to the term “ghostwriter.”

Ask a Wench -- What's it like to create an interwoven anthology?

Jo here, pulling together a group post.

We had fun creating The Last Chance Christmas Ball. At times it was the sort of fun you get from a camping holiday with unpredictable weather and odd creatures invading the tent.*G*

After all, the Wenches are eight strong minded women living around the world. Even within the US we have east coast and west coast, but add in England, which is  five hours ahead of the east coast and eight hours ahead of California. Pat was getting up when Nicola and I were thinking about dinner, and Anne, down in Australia goes to bed round about the times America wakes up! Even in this modern age we often had to wait many hours for the answer to a continuity query.

But we did have fun, and as you'll see, we all love Christmas stories.

I posted about the prologue on Sunday, but if you missed that, you can read it here.

So here are the Wenchly answers to the question: What's it like to create an interwoven anthology?

Joanna: My True Love Hath My Heart.

Read an excerpt here.

I wanted to write Christmas Eve turning into Christmas Day. I wanted that moment of change. I wanted lights. I know it's not the solstice, but for me midnight on Christmas Eve feels like the old is going out and the new is coming in. That was very much the 'feeling' I wanted for my story. It's a 'Second Chance at Love' tale and my hero and heroine have to change. So this felt like the right time and place

Also, decorations. And plum pudding. And holly. All the Right Stuff. I ended up a little surprised I didn't overlap with anybody else. I feel like I grabbed the best date and ran off with it.

Susan: A Scottish Carol

(Jo.Susan shares a picture which is not of the Scottish borders in the snow, but has the right feel.)

Read an excerpt here.
Oh I just adore Christmas, Christmas love stories, winter and snow, Scotland, Scottish Regency settings -- so it was a no-brainer for me to wrap those elements into a story when we Wenches began talking about writing another holiday anthology. When Alicia Condon suggested that we interweave our novellas and focus on the same Christmas ball, suddenly we had a lot of details to work out - the central location, the occasion, the hostess and her ties to each of our characters and their past and present circumstances. Jo Beverley created a Wiki page where we shared our details, and as we asked questions and figured out solutions, helping each other, the stories began to work together. The extra effort by all the Wenches as well as our editor and copy editor in making sure all the puzzle pieces fit perfectly was worth it - I think this is a very special Christmas collection! 

(Jo. We set the story in Northumberland to make it close enough to the Scottish border for Susan's characters to plan to attend.)

With my story set in Scotland in the midst of a snowstorm that affected more than one of the guests attending Lady Holly's Last Chance Christmas Ball, it didn't seem likely that my characters - Dr. Henry Seton, Laird of Cranshaw, and Clarinda Douglas, Lady Hay, the widowed daughter of Henry's old mentor - could safely arrive at the ball in northern England. So they became stranded in a blizzard, alone and cozy inside Cranshaw Castle -- where Clary yearned to go to the grand ball, Henry was secretly relieved to miss it, and both had to face their shared past of first love, heartbreak, and the fear of starting over. With a little help from Dickens and a nod to Scrooge, Tiny Tim and a some other Christmas characters, I loved writing this story - and I hope you all will love reading our latest Wench venture, The Last Chance Christmas Ball! 

Judging a Gentleman by his Boots

Nicola here, musing on the appeal of boots. One of the things I like most about autumn is that I can get my boots out and wear them again after their summer break. I think in an ideal world I would wear boots all the time. I love them. Comfortable, stylish, practical, sexy, they cover just about every option. I was slightly shocked when I discovered I had seven pairs (that said I can’t wear the ones in the photo these days – they are just too high!) It would have been eight pairs but last year I very grudgingly threw away my all time favourite pair of wedge boots which I had worn until they literally fell apart.

A few weeks ago I went to an exhibition at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London called “Shoes, Pleasure and Pain.” The exhibition was stunning with examples of shoes and boots from different cultures going back over 600 years. The power of the shoe or boot is very strong in persuading us that we can be transformed into someone who is seductive and glamorous. It feels as though they have almost magical properties.

A first taste of Christmas

The Wench anthology will be here soon! As a first step, the prologue is available now.

On Wednesday we'll be sharing some of the process of creating this anthology, but the prologue was the last bit. Our editor thought we needed an introduction and as I was the one with a bit of time I created it from the point of view of my enigmatic heroine, Miss Clio Finch.

You can read it here.

Let us know what you think.

Is it intriguing?

Do you like the idea of stories woven around one event?

How do you feel about Christmas anthologies in general? Are there too many, not enough, or like Goldilock's chair, is it just right? And does anyone else have pantomime as an essential Christmas memory?

Happy Sunday,

Jo

Adventures in Oz

by Mary Jo

I delivered my overdue book 90 minutes before we left for the airport to fly to Australia.  I do not recommend this. <G>  But it did mean that when an east coast air traffic control meltdown caused us to miss our flight out of Los Angeles so we had a lazy day in LaLa land, it was not entirely a bad thing.  

Luckily I'd built in several extra days to allow some recovery time from jet lag, and Melbourne was worth the wait.  The Mayhem Consultant and I both loved the city, which had a vibe reminiscent of Boston or San Francisco or Seattle, all cities I love.  It's also a foodie paradise, which is never a bad thing!  (I'm told that hot air balloons floating over the city in the morning as in the picture at the right are a regular occurrence.  Fun!)

Plus, our Aussie Word Wench, Anne Gracie, lives in Melbourne, and she's a fabulous hostess for her city.  A highlight was when she took me, the MC, and Patricia McLinn, another featured American conference speaker and an old friend of mine, to the Healesville Sanctuary.  

 

The Writing Process (part 1)

Anne here. Over the past week or so, on our private loop, we wenches have been discussing various aspects of our writing processes. Writing goes through dips and troughs, periods of intense creativity and periods of fallowness, where we have to force ourselves to get words on the page, and I thought the collective wenchly wisdom of our discussion was worth sharing.

The discussion started when I related an anecdote about a friend of mine who writes--and writes well--on trains (and I'm not talking about grafitti.) In a 90 minute return trip on the train, she regularly writes around 3000 words.

One of the wenches replied: I can do 3,000 in three hours when I'm on a roll. It's clay. Sometimes good clay. Sometimes junk. It's the way I write, and clearly I can't do 3,000 publish ready words in 3 hours, or doing that daily would result in a 90K book a month. Mine take most of a year. We all have our different processes.

(Anne again: I'm not going to label who said what, just change color each time it's a different person. And though there are eight people in this discussion, using eight different colors would look silly, so there are just two. So forget about trying to work out who is saying what — on with the discussion:—

True about processes. But I seem to labor so hard to get words on paper. The only good news, is the words tend to be fairly well formed. But I’ve been thinking that getting the clay out faster, then shaping, sculpting, would be a better process. Not sure I can change, but I’d like to.

A Taste of Autumn . . .

Cara/Andrea here, Regardless of what the lunar calendar says, here in the U. S. this first Monday in September marks the End of Summer. We reluctantly kick off the flip-flops, shed shorts and bathing suits for “real” clothing and say goodbye to lazy afternoons in the hammock. Yes, the weather is still hot and the noonday sun feels as bright as a July firecracker, but here in the Northeast, I’m already seeing the first small hints of Autumn.

Apples are a big part of the traditional change of seasons—the first crop of Macintoshes are starting to appear in the farmer’s markets. Fresh pressed cider, an iconic part of my childhood, is also hitting the shelves, its cinnamon-dark hue and spicy scent setting off all sorts of sweet memories.

Cider was also an integral part of Autumn in Regency times, where it was hugely popular, but its roots go much deeper into history. It’s thought that the apple tree originated in the area of present-day Kazakhstan and spread across Asia and Europe. There are references to apples trees along the Nile River delta in Ancient Egyptian writings, and both the Greeks and the Romans created libations from apples. The Romans found that the local tribes also were making cider when they arrived in the British Isles. (It likely was learned from contact with Brittany, whose weather and soil is particularly well-suited to apple cultivation.) And by early medieval times, cider was popular throughout Europe. (The word cider is likely derived from the Hebrew word shekar, which means “strong drink.” Most cider was what we today call hard cider—fermented with natural yeast to create an alcoholic drink.)

The Norman invasion of Britain brought with it an even greater thirst for the beverage, and cider became an integral part of British life. (The famous Wycliffe Bible, created in the early 15th century, makes reference to cider!) By the 18th century, orchards were a common part of the landscape, and it had become common to pay farm laborers in Britain their wages in part with cider.

So it's no surprise that the early English colonists brought their love for cider to the New World. New England had only a very bitter type of native crab apple, so seeds from Britain were quickly planted and grafts made (grafting is important to establish a trees that bear the desired fruit—a botanist will explain this better than I can!) so the colonist in America were soon enjoying their favorite brew. The fact that barley and other grains—the raw material for beer—didn’t grow well in the rocky soil of New England helped ensure that apple-based alcohol was the beverage of choice.
According to historical records, by the end of the 18th century, New England was producing over 300,000 gallons of cider per year, and the average individual consumption in Massachusetts was 35 gallons!

As settlers headed West, they brought the apple with them—you’ve probably all heard the legend of Johnny Appleseed, a man who supposedly was responsible for planted myriad trees on the journey across the continent. Cider remained extremely popular in America until the beginning of the 20th century, when a wave of German and Middle European immigrants to the Midwest brought a thirst for beer. The farmland there was well-suited to hops and grain, and improved transportation allowed for beer to be easily distributed to other areas of the country. Cider, which has a very low alcohol content due to having less sugar than grapes, slowly gave way to the more potent punch of beer.

But it was Prohibition and the Volstead Act which caused cider to evaporate as a staple of American life. Hard cider became illegal, and many of the orchards devoted to cider apples—they are too tart to be used as eating apples—were destroyed by Prohibitionists. And with the Volstead Act limiting “sweet” cider to 200 gallons per year per orchard (to prevent people from making their own apple moonshine) the remaining orchards were hard-pressed to stay in business.

Today there is a resurgence in hard cider production. Like the microbrewery trend, local orchards are developing an enthusiastic following for their handcrafted brews. So while many people toast the end of summer with gin and tonics or other summer cocktails, I think I’ll raise a glass to cider, and salute its sweet place in history!

How about you—do you like cider (either sweet or hard)? And what’s your favorite eating apple? Mine is the Macoun, which doesn’t keep well, so is best right now. And if apples aren’t to your taste, what’s your favorite Autumn drink or food?

How Do You Read?

Nicola here. Today I’m musing not on what we read but how we read. I first started thinking about this last month when we did the Word Wench “What We’re Reading,” when one commenter, Sue M, was talking about her reading choices that month. She explained how she had burned through a couple of new books because that was how she read. First she wanted to get to grips with the plot, but after the first reading she would go back through the books in order fully to appreciate the writing and the character development. I found this fascinating because I had never really thought about the way in which I read and whether we all do it in different ways. It really got me thinking.

For avid readers (and I am assuming that is most of us here) reading is a bit like breathing in the sense that it often feels as though it happens automatically. I sit down, I pick up a book or e-book and I read. But there’s a lot more to it than that, of course. For a start, reading isn’t like that for a lot of people who may struggle with it in the technical sense or who may not find it a very interesting occupation. Not everyone is in agreement with Jane Austen: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything but a book!”

Findings

Hi, Jo here, doing a bit of exploring.

Regular readers will know I like to browse period newspapers. Usually I'm looking for a specific event or detail, or reading around a date. Sometimes I just look for amusement. I know, I know. Odd things amuse odd people!

I did start with the keyword "Dawlish", which is where I live, just to see if I could find any Regency references. I found one, and it was slightly interesting. (As always, click on an image to enlarge it.

(Added later. Lady Mallet Vaughan was the daughter of the first Earl of Lisburne, and Mallet was her Christian name. She died unmarried in Dawlish in 1858 at the age of 92.)

I'm not sure where the public rooms were. I found a bit on line from a Regency source. "The lower part of Dawlish is principally occupied by those who visit it for the recovery their health, or, in the summer, by casual visitors, and excursionists. As it is essential to the comfort of the invalid, that all his wants should be within the least possible distance of being supplied, the lower part of Dawlish contains the baths, the public rooms, and a level walk, supplied with seats, for exercise and rest. The houses on the beach, that the advantage of sea bathing may be obtained as near as possible, are as close to the sea, as their protection from its wintry turbulence allows; the machines being in front of them."

From WILLIAMS, Thomas Hewitt: PICTURESQUE EXCURSIONS IN DEVONSHIRE: THE ENVIRONS OF EXETER. Pt. II. Description of Dawlish, Luscombe and Teignmouth.