Word Wenches

What We Are Reading-August

This month's What We Are Reading feature takes us on our usual delightful peregrinations through different worlds and different eras. So get pencil and paper ready to start making notes for your TBR pile!

Anne here: The latest in Ilona Andrews' "Innkeeper Chronicles" series, Sweep of the Blade, came out this month, and the minute I started it, I realized I wanted to go back to the beginning and read all four books in order. Which I did. I really enjoy these books and the world of the Innkeeper -- they're fantasy/paranormal, with magic, werewolves, vampires and aliens -- and a few years back that would have been enough to put me off. Not any more. 

Innkeepers are people who have a special magical bond with their inn -- they can configure it any way they want, even to breaking rules of physics -- and their purpose is to provide a safe haven for their guests, who come from all over the galaxy. The guests must be sworn to keep the knowledge of aliens etc from  ordinary humans. So we're dealing with small town Texas and a galaxy of other-wordly visitors. The books are action-packed and entertaining, and the slowly developing romance very satisfying. If you haven't tried urban fantasy before, give this one a try and start with book 1, Clean Sweep. 

The second recommendation I have is for a Regency—The Work of Art, by Mimi Matthews—which was recommended by wenchly reader Karin last month. With a starred review from Publisher's Weekly and a host of other excellent reviews, it's a classic regency, with an appealing heroine, a wounded hero and a villainous "other man", as well as a small pack of dogs — which the heroine has rescued. A delightful read.

Nicola here: This month I’ve read something old and something borrowed! The “old” was Maya Banks’ McCabe Trilogy, which I first fell in love with years ago.  When I’m in the mood for some hot Scottish historical action these three books are so much fun and I love the way that she gives the characters really powerful emotional conflicts and makes them feel very real. I have a soft spot for romances set in a time of conflict because it adds another layer of tension with divided loyalties as well as personal struggles to contend with. These romances are very satisfying!
 
I also caught up with the only Emily Larkin book I haven’t read, Lady Isabella’s Ogre, a lovely re-telling of the Beauty and the Beast theme.  Emily Larkin is one of my go-to Regency authors and this story was as fun as all her others – Lady Isabella Knox is one of London’s most eligible heiresses although she prefers her independence to any ideas of marriage. When she accidentally ruins the marriage prospects of Major Nicholas Reynolds, a war hero, she sets out to undo the harm she has done by persuading him into a make-believe flirtation. It’s lovely!

I also borrowed a copy of Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah whilst I was on holiday. I read it on a 4 day train journey across Canada from Vancouver to Toronto and this felt totally appropriate as it is a Hercule Poirot mystery and I felt as though I was living in Agatha Christie World! Sophie really does capture the essence of the old Poirot books and the character perfectly. I loved all the old stories and I am enjoying her new take on these! Closed Casket is classic crime fare with a family gathered together in a Gothic mansion, a controversial will and a dastardly murder.

Mary Jo here: The most memorable book I've read lately is Barbara O'Neal's When We Believed in Mermaids.  It's women's fiction, more specifically sister fiction, told alternately in first person by Kit Bianci, an ER doctor, and her two year older sister, Josie. The story begins when Kit sees her sister in a news video from New Zealand--except that her sister died fifteen years earlier in Europe.  Driven by a need to know, Kit flies off to Auckland--and changes not only her own life, but the lives around her.

Josie, now known as Mari, had compelling reasons for walking away from the disaster her life had become, and in the years since, she's found peace and happiness with a new family.  But she misses Kit desperately, and when they meet again, the past erupts into the present.

Barbara is a wonderful writer, and she builds her story as a mosaic as she moves back and forth between the sisters.  In some ways, their childhood was idyllic as they grew up on the California coast in their father's famous restaurant, learning food and surfing and loving the broken runaway boy who becomes part of the family and looked after the two little girls.  But in other ways, their childhood was laced with neglect and abuse, and only as the past is fully revealed can Kit and Mari become wholly healed.

As always with Barbara O'Neal books, the characterizations are wonderful, as are the descriptions of food <G>, and there's a lovely romance as well.  It made me want to visit New Zealand again!

Pat here: This is what caught my fancy this month—Some Die Eloquent (the Calleshire Chronicles) by Catherine Aird. This British cop mystery was copyrighted in 1979 but reads to me almost as if it were written much earlier. Still, we have recognizable modernisms like plastics and conservation and a husband with his wife as she gives birth—in the few minutes he gets away from the case. There is lots of dialogue and not as much setting as I’d like. Mostly, this is a character study and social commentary, which was different enough to appeal to me.

The case involves a science teacher who dies of diabetes with an unexpected quarter million pounds deposited in her bank account. It’s real small town stuff when word of the bank account gets out and is enough to bring in the coroner’s office after the death certificate is already issued. One of the suspects works at the hospital where the Inspector’s wife is about to give birth, which makes for a nice cozy. It’s an entertaining insight into a time before cell phones, when everyone knows the drunk who wrecks the bollards every night. Read if you’re in the mood for something different.

Andrea here: I’ve had a strange reading month, jumping around to various genres. Because it was getting such raves from the Wenches and Wenchly readers, I read The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMasters Bujold, which I very much enjoyed, even though I’m not a huge fantasy reader. Then I picked up a new British mystery set in the 1930s, which was fun and well-written, but the plot was SO predictable, I was disappointed that it didn’t offer any fun twist, so I can’t recommend it here.

The real “meaty” read of the month is The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. It’s a sweeping family saga of three generations of a wealthy WASP family, spanning the 1930s to present day. The modern protagonist is a historian who teaches at a university—there is a marvelous classroom scene where she challenges her students on what IS history. The touchstone of the family is an idyllic island off the coast of Maine they have owned since the late 30s where the generations have gathered every summer. The fact that family money is running out, and the professor and her cousins are facing the prospect of having to sell the island, challenges her to explore her own history—with the requisite buried secrets coming to life.

It’s beautifully written, though in places it drags a bit. I also felt the author perhaps tackled one too many elemental themes in family relationships . . . and there are some structural problems—she head-hops sometimes, and also never gives the date of a section, so sometimes I got a little lost for a page or two. But I overlooked the flaws because the story is very well done, with interesting, vulnerable characters. It's a poignant look at a traditional, orderly world—where all the rules are comfortable and known by heart—giving way to the frightening chaos of modern life.

So, what have you been reading lately?  Please share!

Dedications

Anne here. I'm down with the Dreaded Lurgy (ie the 'flu) and so this is just a quick post today. I'm talking about dedications in books.

Some people skip the dedication page, but I always read them. Most writers who dedicate books do so fairly anonymously, keeping it personal so that only the person and a few close friends would really know who it's for. Or sometimes it's simply "to my husband" or "to my wife" which is always nice. (The dedication on the right is from The Book of Delightful and Strange Designs by Andrew White Tuer)

Mostly my dedications have been the same kind of thing. I've dedicated books to my parents, to my sisters, to my dog, to writing friends, to work colleagues, and to people I've taught, as well as to readers.

The dedication in my book, Marry in Scandal, in which the heroine suffers what we understand today is dyslexia, reads thus:  To all those doing battle with reading disabilities, including the many I've taught over the years in adult literacy classes. Bet you never thought you'd have a book dedicated to you, did you?

Sometimes there's a little story behind the dedication. In the dedication of my first book for Berkley, The Perfect Rake, there is this line: "And for all those who waited patiently for "B.G." to arrive."

"B.G." was "bloody Gideon" which is what I called my hero for a big part of the writing of the book. I'd been trying to write a dark and dangerous kind of hero, and Gideon just refused to cooperate. He just strolled onto the page, being funny and flippant, and of course I fell in love with him, despite my frustration.

 

I'm a big fan of P.G.Wodehouse and I love this dedication in the front of Heart of a Goof.

To my daughter
LEONORA
without whose never-failing
sympathy and encouragement
this book
would have been finished
in
half the time.

I remember when I first read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I really wondered about the dedication, why poor Leon Werth was hungry and cold and needed cheering up. And why the author didn't help him if he was hungry and cold, instead of just dedicating a book to him. Clearly I was a practically minded child. It wasn't a children's book anyway.

Travels with my History Books

Nicola here, enjoying being back at home after an epic trip to Alaska and Canada. When I travel I do like to read up on the history of the places I'm visiting and to seek out historical sites - museums, old houses, monuments, battlefields, as well as experiencing as much as I can of a place as it is now. So today I'm sharing a bit of a whistle stop travelogue and I hope you enjoy it!

We arrived in Juneau Alaska twenty two hours after setting off from home and gratefully settled into our beautiful bed and breakfast place. Suitably restored by a long sleep, we went out to explore the city. I guess the first thing that impressed us was the location; it was a gorgeous day and the mountains and the water looked simply stunning. What a beautiful setting the city has as well as a rich history. I thought St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1894, was very striking. It has strong connections to both the native Tinglit and the European settlers, so this was my first history stop. Another quirky bit of Juneau history that I loved was the story of Patsy Ann, a bull terrier who came to the town in 1929. Although she was deaf she could tell when the steamships were coming in and would trot down to the docks to meet them, earning her the title of "Official Greeter of Juneau, Alaska!"

From Juneau we travelled up to Skagway on the ferry. Skagway still had something of the rough and ready feel of a frontier town which felt very authentic to the story of the Klondike Gold Rush. The first boatload of prospecters landed there in summer 1897 and by the autumn the town had developed from a row of tents to a place with well-laid-out streets, a number of frame buildings, stores, saloons, gambling houses, dance houses and a population of about 20,000. There were rich stories of lawlessness and profligate behaviour and equally compelling tales of the hardship many prospectors went through on the trail to the gold fields. Some of the old building remain and really conjure the raffish air of the old town. Something I hadn't appreciated though, was that the gold rush was over so quickly; by 1900 it had ended and Skagway was in danger of becoming a ghost town, although the coming of the railroad fortunately gave it a new purpose. We took some photographs in black and white to be in keeping with the historical atmosphere!

Our next stop, via the Alaska Marine Highway, was the city of Wrangell where we were staying for 5 days in the most gorgeous little float house in the harbour. As well as giving us the chance to visit the Anan Bear observatory, this stop also took us to the Le Conte Glacier, and the town of Petersburg. We'd never seen bears and the chance to watch them in the wild was amazing. Later in our trip we had the unexpected experience of meeting a bear when we were out on a walk on our own, and fortunately we remembered our bear training! We were behind a barrier when we took this photo, by the way, in case anyone thinks we stopped on the path to take a picture!

Petersburg was a very interesting place, like so many other settlements it had been a Tinglit fishing camp for hundreds of years before the European settlers arrived, in this case Norwegians who established a sawmill and cannery. Petersburg is known as "Little Norway" and the Scandinavian influence there is still strong. There's a great little museum, the Clausen Memorial Museum, that has traditional costumes on display and there is also a wonderful tradition of "rosemaling" in the town, which is decorative art that originated in Norway in the 18th century. It's so beautiful! There are painted panels on shops and houses and it's very evocative.

Alaska was wonderful and we'd love to return to travel further north and see more of the state. On this occasion though, we were heading south, down to British Columbia. In Vancouver I zoomed in on the Roedde House Museum, which is beautifully restored heritage house in the city's West End. Gustav Roedde settled in Vancouver in 1888 and he became the city's first bookbinder. There was a real appetite for culture and information in the growing city and within 5 years, Gustav had been successful enough to commission the architect Francis Rattenbury to build him a very stylish house! This has been restored and preserved to reflect late Victorian family life and it reflects the age in perfect detail. It feels as though you are stepping back in time when you walk through the front door and as always it's the little details of day to day life that are so fascinating - the children's toys and the family photographs drew me into their lives and even the charred wood over the doorway told the story of Christmas 1913 when the Christmas tree with real candles on it caught fire! Luckily the Vancouver fire department was just round the corner and the fire fighters arrived quickly and saved the house.

On to Toronto, then, via The Canadian, and a four day rail trip across Canada which was awesome. My final historical visit of the holiday was to the Fort York Historic Site, Canada's largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings and the 1813 battle site. I'd used the 1812-1814 war as background in one of my early Regency novels and it was so interesting to remind myself of the history and learn more about it. Fort York has a palpable sense of atmosphere which I think you find at a lot of battle sites. It was quite haunting. Even now, sandwiched between the railway and the freeway, it feels as though you're stepping back in time. I particularly loved the re-enactment of raising the flag and the demonstrations of military music, drill, musketry and artillery, all performed by students in uniforms of the Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry, the soldiers who garrisoned the fort at the end of the War of 1812.

There were so many brilliant aspects to our holiday, both historical and other, that it left us wanting to return to see more of both the US and Canada. Most notable of all were the wonderful people we met along the way, so friendly and generous and helpful to these travellers! it really was a trip of a lifetime and I hope you have enjoyed a peek into some of the historical highlights!

 

The Etiquette of Introductions

Susanna here. My elder son is moving in a few days, and that has me grateful that he lives in modern times, when he can freely move across an ocean to another country without having to navigate the complex social etiquette involved in introductions that our ancestors were bound by.

In another age, we’d have been busily rounding up letters of introduction he could carry over with him.

The Petals Audiobook Has Arrived!

By Mary Jo

In June, I blogged about the cover evolution of my book Petals in the Storm, from its first appearance as a Signet Regency titled The Controversial Countess to the most recent incarnation.  Here's the link if you'd like to see the cover changes over the years

Petals is my only book with a first scene that was the last scene of the previous book, only told from this hero's point of view while in The Bargain, we watched the action through other eyes.  It was that last scene that made me interested enough in Rafe Whitbourne, the Duke of Candover, to want to write a book about him.  I virtually never write dukes; generally it's only when I want a male character who is at the top of Britain's aristocratic pecking order--and pays the price for it.  

Petals is a second chance at love book.  Rafe and Margot had fallen in love and become betrothed when they were very young--and the relationship had exploded, mostly but not entirely Rafe's fault.  Now, during the post-Waterloo Paris Peace Conference, Rafe and Margot must work together to prevent a new cataclysm--and in the process, come to terms with the past. (Yes, Rafe must grovel.  It's good for him. <G>) 

Regency Chickens, Because Why Not?

 

Fourth Century BCE Etruscan chicken beaker

Joanna here, talking chicken history, with special attention to chickens in the Regency.

By this I mean historical eating chickens rather than show chickens or fighting chickens or pet chickens, though I imagine some Regency folks kept chickens and became very fond of them. I will talk about pet chickens later.

Not everyone agrees chickens are pet material.

Look in the eye of a chicken and you’ll know. It’s the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creature in this world.      Werner Herzog

In the Regency -- in most times and places -- chickens were “women’s livestock,” a minor and cozily domestic part of the farm economy, kept by the woman of the house for “egg money,” fed thriftily with scraps and garden bugs and free-range foraging.
I don't know about everywhere, but in the US in the C20 the money a woman made from her chickens was hers to spend as she would.

Might be grain. Might be table crumbs

“Chickens consumed a lot of garden waste. For example, if you’d finished picking all the peas, then you pulled up the vines and fed them to the chickens. When you had a biscuit that didn’t rise properly or bread with mold, you threw it into the farmyard. Chickens love bugs and are omnivorous, so they eat meat and, sometimes, eat each other. They also love mice.”

  Elaine Shirley, Colonial Williamsburg

A Winner!

 

The winner of the competition that arose from Mary Jo's interview of Anne about her new book, MARRY IN SECRET is Karin A.

Karin has been notified and the book is on its way.

Thanks to all those who participated.

Victorian Rail Travel

Pat here:

I’ve written Victorian romances set in the US, but I’ve never tried Victorian Britain or more specifically, Scotland. So I have to research practically every page I write. When I needed to move my characters from York to Edinburgh—along with four young children—I had to do some digging. Yes, I created an imaginary train station in my Unexpected Magic books when my characters wanted to invest in their imaginary property. I used that imaginary track to take my characters to my imaginary castle owned by my imaginary duke. (And I vow to have only one duke in my series, thank you very much)  But if I’m putting my characters on the train, what can they expect to see? How long will it take them to reach their destination? At some point, I have to add history. (Image to left is how Queen Victoria traveled--a little fancier than most cars and a very royal blue!)

Ask A Wench: The Right Shoe

Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.

–Marilyn Monroe

Susan here, with our Ask-A-Wench topic for August - shoes! With all the traveling and summer wandering the Wenches have been doing, what sort of footwear keeps us going? And is there a historical style of footwear that looks comfortable? Here's what we came up with -- 

Pat says:

I am a tenderfoot with issues. I cannot go barefoot. It’s painful. But I cannot wear enclosed shoes because my feet are two different sizes, and if there’s a back on them, the heel will rub on one and the toes be crushed in the other. I love mules, which keep my toes warm, don’t have backs that rub, and allow enough space not to crush toes. My favorites for walking are Easy Spirit. In summer, it’s sandals all the way—not the kind with straps between the toes, please. Flip-flops hurt too.

 

So I guess historically, I’d have to live in Roman times and wear those really cool sandals that wrap up the leg or maybe the lovely Regency-style mules, except they all seem to have pointed toes and high heels—for dancing, ouch.

 

Andrea says:

There are many fashionistas who will pay astronomical prices for impossibly high-heeled, pointy toed, delicate leather odes to Artistic Inspiration. I am not one of them. I do confess, however that I’m not quite ready to wear sneakers with everything either. My go-to “dress” shoes are a simple black pump with nicely rounded toe, a sturdy one inch heel and rubber non-slip  sole. (I’m short in the legs and like a little extra lift so my pants don’t drag in the mud.) They’re super comfortable and have a classic look that works for a range of occasions. (For dressier times, I have a pair that are two inches high. As I said, I believe in keeping it simple!)

Now, what really fills my closet are sports shoes and boots—tennis, squash, hiking and golf all require tech footwear in cool colors and textures. Those are the ones I get excited about.

 

Being Away and Coming Home

Anne here, and I've just arrived home after traveling and attending conferences and writing retreats for the last three and a half weeks. And launching a book, so if this blog is a little scatty and unfocused, I hope you'll forgive me.

The first conference was the Romance Writers of America conference in New York. I flew from Melbourne to Los Angeles and stopped in LA for a couple of days, because the 16+ hour flight is long enough without continuing straight on to New York, which would be around 21+ hours flying time, not including waiting time. So I like to stop in California for a couple of days and work, and walk in the sun to reset my body clock a bit. 

The New York conference was brilliant, not so much for the workshops etc — I was only able to attend two, both of which were excellent — but for the meetings with my editor and agent and others who work for my publisher. I came away from those meetings feeling valued and very positive. And of course my book came out while I was there, which was very exciting — and busy.

It was also lovely meeting up with friends from the USA and Canada, as well as some from the UK, Ireland and even some Australians who live in far flung parts of the continent and that I don't often get to see.  And as well there was a small group of lovely French readers and writers who we've met before at US conferences, and who are involved with running the French Romance Conference.

Four of the Word Wenches — Susanna, Mary Jo, Andrea and I — also appeared on a panel discussing "Surviving and Thriving."  Here's a bit of what I said: 

It's tempting, when you first start writing, to want to shut yourself away and concentrate on writing, writing, writing. And marketing and promo and obsessively watching your numbers. But getting out and about, mixing with all kinds of people, visiting new places and experiencing different things is what feeds your muse and your writing, and keeps you fresh and happy. 

Understand the things you can control -- your writing, how good it is, how much you write, how frequently you publish -- and make that your priority. You can't control sales numbers -- and marketing, promo, etc. can eat up your time, money and energy and drive you crazy to little effect.

Giving Old Books A Makeover

Nicola here and today I’m talking about reprints of my old books that come out all around the world. Although I now write timeslip books – and some of those are being published in different countries – my Regency historical romances are still regularly reprinted and reissued. It makes me very happy that books, some of which were originally written 20 years ago, are still in print somewhere in the world and hopefully reaching new Regency readers!

When I first started writing, back in 1998, I was published only in the UK. The books were shorter, sweet romances, sometimes with no sex and if there was a hint of it, the bedroom door closed quite quickly! After a few years, by great good luck, my books were selected (along with a certain brilliant author called Anne Gracie!) to be published in the US. I vividly remember the day the first one came out; not only did it feature a cover model called Mike Dale, which seemed to cause some interest, it was published in the week that I gave up my office job to become a full-time author. It also gained some pretty scathing reviews that almost sent me scuttling back to the day job, convinced my writing was no good, so the timing wasn’t great but I stuck with it.

Introducing Nevil

Susanna here. Today I’m going to tell you a love story. Not the most conventional of love stories, but it does have a meet-cute, and it happens in Manhattan, and I promise it ends happily.

A couple of weeks before I was due to go down to New York for the Romance Writers of America’s annual conference, I opened my morning paper to find an article by AP journalist Katherine Roth focused (rather wittily) on the “Typewriter’s Return”.

“At the few remaining typewriter repair shops in the country,” she wrote, “business is booming as a younger generation discovers the joy of the feel and sound of the typewriter—and older generations admit they never fell out of love with it.”

The Joys of Friendship

Andrea here, thinking today about the joys of friendship and all the special ways it can enrich our lives. Here at the Word Wenches, we all write books that have friendship and love at the heart of our stories, though we play with those elemental tropes in our own individual styles. The beauty of friendship is that it has an infinite number of ways to weave us all together.

In our occasional blogs on craft, we’ve talked a lot about the solitary life of a writer, and how we spend a lot of time in the “writing cave” with just our characters for company. (Trust me, there are times I wish I could send them back to their own abode and get them out of my hair! But as with all friends, you quickly learn to love their little quirks . . .)

 

Anne Gracie and Marry in Secret

by Mary Jo

I've loved Word Wench Anne Gracie's Marriage of Convenience series, and I pounced on Marry in Secret, which has just been released, along with an audiobook version.  Today Anne is here to talk about the book and the series.   

MJP: In a brief recap of the series, Book 1, Marry in Haste, features Cal Rutherford, Lord Ashendon, an intrepid army officer who finds himself terrorized by a gaggle of uncontrollable young females for whom he is responsible.  The book won the Holt Medallion for best historical romance, and won three awards from ARRA, the Australian Romance Readers Association: best historical, best historical couple, and Anne was named the Favourite Australian Romance Author. 

Book 2 is Marry in Scandal, and it was nominated for ARRA's Favourite Historical and Favorite Ongoing Series.  The heroine is Lady Lily Rutherford, Cal's gentle younger half sister.