Word Wenches

A quiz: Regency Slang with Food & Drink

Anne here, and for your entertainment here's a fun little quiz, all about Regency-era food and drink, and some slang expressions using them. You'll need a pen and paper to note down your answers, check them via the link at the bottom (the answers are on my website, so don't panic), then come back and tell us how you went. Above all, have fun.

1)   A squab is :— 
        a) a sour-tempered lady
        b) a bad bet
        c) a young pigeon 
        d) an oatcake 

2) A fudge is:—
        a) a false rumor 
        b) a flattering compliment 
        c) a bribe
        d) a newcomer

3) A bumblebroth is:—
       a) a sweet made from honey
       b) a long-winded sermon
       c) a soup made of leftovers
       d) a tangled situation

What We're Reading in June

The Word Wenches have been reading the most lovely books.

Mary Jo's recommendations for this month include one of my own old favorites.

Mary Jo:

I've read some new books this last month, but the only stories that really grabbed me were two oldies.  The first was Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree.  We've discussed Mary Stewart here before--the Wenches are major fans and she shaped the writing for several of us, me included.

The Ivy Tree was the first Mary Stewart I ever read, in a condensed version in my mother's Ladies Home Journal.  I was riveted, and the big story twist was like being clubbed. (I'm harder to surprise now, but it's still one heck of a twist. <G>) 

Stewart is marvelous in her descriptions of story settings, and she makes a Northumberland summer come alive with sensual warmth.  Good suspense and romance, too.  (A lot of smoking goes on, as in most of Stewart's books, a sign of the changing times.)  It's still a wonderful story. 

My other favorite book is Sarah-Kate Lynch's The Wedding Bees, which I learned about on an earlier WWR.  I think it was recommended by Anne Gracie and Pat Rice.  I was a little wary, not being over fond of stinging insects, but within a couple of chapters, I was hooked.  It's kind of magical realism with the heroine, Sugar Wallace, exiled from her beloved Southern home and each year moving herself and her bees to a new city chosen by her queen bee, one of a succession of Elizabeths.  (The current queen is Elizabeth the 6th.)

This time she's led to New York City in an apartment with a great views, a terrace for her bees, and a half dozen other units in the building occupied by miserable people.  Sugar is a healer with both her honey and her warmth, and by the end of the book, everyone in the building is happy, and they and her bees have healed her into happiness and love. A delightful story.

 

Susan brings us a most interesting mystery series and a rather famous book about writing itself.

 

Susan:  This round, I read something new to me and something much-read (I won't mention the stack of to-be-reads, half-reads, meant-to-finishes, and forgot-I-hads that I didn't get through!). I'm leisurely making my way through Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway mystery series, picking one up now and then, and Dying Fall was a very good point in the series, about halfway through so far. Archaeologist and forensic bone specialist Dr. Ruth Galloway--single mom to a toddler she shares with Nelson, a local detective chief inspector--is drawn into a major archaeological discovery by an old friend who is soon murdered.

Sister Scribes

Nicola here. Today I’m musing on sisters, real, literary and fictional. I’ve always been fascinated by the relationships between siblings. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have any full siblings that I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. Would we be very close, or different and distant? Would there be sibling rivalry between us or the sort of secrets you come across in books? What would it have been like growing up with brothers and sisters?

Today is the anniversary of the birth in 1817 of Branwell Bronte, the only boy amongst literary siblings Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Originally there were six Bronte children, five of whom were girls, so Branwell’s unique status as the only son of the family promised him more freedom and perhaps led to his being more indulged. Whilst the girls were sent away to school, in some cases most unhappily, Branwell was educated by his father at home (pictured above). The two older Bronte sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood and their deaths made a big impression on all their siblings. Maria in particular showed all the signs of developing the same literary talents as her younger sisters. One wonders what might have happened had she survived and also whether Elizabeth, who was said to most resemble Anne, would also have grown up to be an author. Branwell, meanwhile, was a writer and an artist - one of his pictures is on the right - but he never achieved the literary success his sisters did, nor was he particularly successful with his paintings.

Time for Cake!

Christina here. A friend of mine has her birthday today – happy birthday! – so naturally my thoughts turned to cake! Well, the two usually go together, don’t they? Birthdays are a great excuse for baking (and eating) cake and it wouldn’t be a special day without such a culinary treat, at least not to me. Cake can also cheer us up in these uncertain times, so why not indulge ourselves a litte? It made me wonder though – who first hit on the idea of making cake? Time to dive down a research rabbit hole …

Attribution https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128566

I don’t think anyone really knows where cake baking originated, but the first ones were probably more like bread sweetened with honey. Rather than putting the honey on top of the bread, someone decided to put it inside before baking and liked the result. I’m all for that as I confess I don’t like the taste of honey on its own. Nuts and fruit could have been added to make it sweeter (sugar came much later) as that was all they had. We know the Egyptians made special cakes for various feasts, religious ceremonies or for people to take with them to the afterlife. And then the Romans started adding eggs and butter to their bread dough, as well as honey, which gave them a cake like result. They must have brought these recipes to England when they were in control here, but then they left and the Dark Ages came … well, without cake they must have been dark indeed!

The Nurture of Nature

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” —John Muir

Andrea here, The Summer Solstice took place this past Saturday where I live (those of you in the Southern hemisphere had, of course, the Winter Solstice.) I always love the longest day of the year, and the golden glow of sunset stretching into the evening. It got me to thinking about Nature, and how aside from the four dates marking the change in season, we rarely stop and think about our connection to the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.

My musings were also sparked by the PBS series by Ken Burns on the history of the American National Parks, which I have been streaming over the last week. (you can see it here) In this troubling time of ills, both natural and man-made, I found it to be incredibly uplifting and inspiring.

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
—John Muir

Americans are polarized about so many things these days, so it’s heartening to watch a show about what writer Wallace Stegner has called “the best idea we (Americans) ever had.” The idea of setting aside grand swaths natural beauty for posterity first took shape within another time of great conflict for America. In 1864, during the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Land Grant bill, giving the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees to the state of California “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation.”

The Diabolical Baron!

The Return of The Diabolical Baron!

by Mary Jo

I've been slowly reissuing my older books digitally, and now the time has arrived to send my very first Signet Regency, The Diabolical Baron, back into the world.  It's the first in my Putney Classics Series, which will include Carousel of Hearts and Lady of Fortune. 

Back when I was writing my Fallen Angels Series, my publisher asked me to revise several of my early Signet Regencies into historical romances.  I was happy to do that with some of the stories that became Petals in the Storm, Angel Rogue, The Bargain, and The Rake, but I didn't feel that was appropriate for the three books I'm calling Putney Classics.  These stories are just too traditional Regency to become rewritten as longer, sexier historical romances. 

So, say hello to the newest edition of The Diabolical Baron! To this day, it's an object of wonder to me.  I started writing the book three months after buying my first computer for my design business.  I'd always had stories in my head (I thought everyone did!) so I decided to see if I write a story myself. 

Quotes to Preserve Your Muchness

Note the mask and gloves; Pietro Longhi (btw, a family ancestor)

Susan here, bringing to the blog today an assortment of quotes and thoughts as we all make our way through this peculiar time on Planet Earth.

In our house, we’ve mostly been staying home, not seeing much of family and friends (except virtually! lots of that!). When we go out, it’s to places practicing careful protocols and where the takeout is steaming hot—Chinese and pizza, for example. We’re donning masks and gloves, and keeping physical distance. We’re being good (one of our sons treats covid patients in a major hospital, and boy does that keep us aware and cautious). My husband I are both working at home now—me upstairs with my zillions of books, while IT Guy has taken over the dining room (three or four computers on the oak table that has withstood, over the years, thousands of Legos, crayons, countless holiday dinners—that table can take it).

Being both dedicated introverts, we’re not climbing the walls. Yet.

But now and then, the stress and the strangeness of it creeps in, and I’m turning more and more to things that help me relax, stretch, clear the mind, fill the reserves.

“You used to be much more … muchier. You’ve lost your muchness,” said the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. And I don’t want to go there, nor do you. Let’s all keep our muchness as we navigate our way through this Fire Swamp (while blithely mixing metaphors).

I hope you are faring well, and finding your own way through the swamp.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes – and some favorite images – that I hope will brighten your day.

Ramon Casas, Jove

 

“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”
--Jane Austen, Emma

Abbot Handerson Thayer, Angel Waiting

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all –

       --Emily Dickinson

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." –A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

 

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” —Hermann Hesse

 

"Peace is always beautiful." -- Walt Whitman

 

Ask-A-Wench: What was your first job?

Anne here, and today on "ask a wench" we're responding to the question, 'What was your first ever job?'

Pat begins:  Oh dear, I’m not entirely certain where to start. With babysitting? Boring. How about the candy store I set up in the local park?

That was fun but a lot of work. A friend and I had to take a cooler on the bus downtown (we were only fourteen—and our mothers didn’t have cars) to the candy wholesaler. We’d load up on everything we liked, then hauled it back to the neighborhood and sold it out of a little park building no one was using. We made enough that summer to outfit ourselves quite nicely when school started in the fall!

But I suppose my real live out-in-the-world job was a cashier at Value Village, a place I could walk to. I doubt anyone remembers them, a precursor to K-Mart. I was only fifteen (my birthday was a few months away) and not exactly legal, but the store had just opened. They were desperate to fill positions and didn’t ask questions. The entire neighborhood was thrilled to have this exciting new store (oh, those were the days!) and the lines curled to the back of the building for weeks after it opened. I swear I memorized every code in the store because the stock moved too quickly to be marked. Can you remember ever being excited by the opening of a cheap discount store?!

Of course, the best part of that job—besides the paycheck—was that all the guys went there to buy parts and oil for their cars. My IT Guy was one of them. <G>

Christina says:  My first proper job was a summer job working in an office. At the time, I’d been at university in Sweden for a year and I wanted to earn some extra money. Students never have enough, do they! My father worked for a Swedish company with branches all over the world and he managed to secure me a six-week stint in their London office, because he knew the manager. I was very excited to be spending so much time in the UK, staying with my aunt and uncle – that felt like a vacation in itself – although I was a bit apprehensive about the work as I had no idea what it entailed. And when I turned up on the appointed day, I think the manager had forgotten to tell his staff I was coming as everyone was a bit taken aback and no one knew what to do with me!

The Big Stink

Pat here—dragging you down into the sewers with me. Silly me, I started poking around Roman sewers for a plot point in next spring’s School of Magic series, and then, of course, I had to look up Victorian sewers to see how my various heroes would repair the plumbing in their respective renovations. (Ask me about our 21^st century plumbing problems, and you’ll know where I get my ideas!)

My poking dropped me down a research bunny hole I thought you might find entertaining. I don’t suppose any of you have ever seen the fabulous Victorian pumping stations in London? (That's the Abbey Mills station in the photo) Absolutely enormous, decorated better than any early 20^th century movie palace—for sewage. The mind boggles. So does the story.

The Family Tree of Life

Nicola here. Today I’m wondering what happened to all the plans I had at the start of lockdown in March. Back then time spent quietly at home felt like an opportunity to catch up with a load of things I’d wanted to do for a while, whether it was clear out the wardrobe or start a new hobby. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see this was probably optimistic; we’ve all had a lot of shocking, frightening and unexpected stuff to deal with in our different ways, my concentration is non-existent and I haven’t achieved anything close to what I thought I would. On the other hand, and on a more optimistic note, the kindness and strength of friends, family and strangers through difficult times has been truly amazing.

One of my interests before the pandemic kicked in was genealogy. I only came to family tree research a few years ago. A number of relatives had been busy working on different parts of the family history for years and I felt they had it covered and I had lots of other things to research! But then, I don’t know why or how, I started to become interested in genealogy myself and once I’d started it became totally compulsive. I even had an Ancestry DNA test done - which didn’t reveal anything very exciting at all!

A Journey Back in Time

Christina here. I should have been in Norway right now on a research holiday, but for obvious reasons I’ve had to postpone. It’s a shame, as I was really looking forward to exploring that country, but hopefully I will get there next year. I had planned to tell you all about my journey too – hopefully with lots of wonderful photos – but I will have to take you along on last year’s trip to Denmark instead. As we’re all stuck at home, I hope you’ll enjoy a little bit of armchair travel!

For an author, seeing or experiencing things first hand is always the best way of doing research, and it’s a great excuse for going places. Of course it’s not always possible to find exactly what you need, especially when like me you’re writing about Viking times, but there are ways and means. With the whole of Scandinavia steeped in Viking history, one can definitely get a feel for the setting as a whole. And fortunately there are also quite a few museums where the curators have tried to recreate the past to really give visitors a taste of what it was like a thousand years ago. Two of the best ones are in Denmark and I came up with the idea of taking my mother (who lives in Sweden) on a little road trip, thereby killing two birds with one stone – she would get a mini holiday and I’d get to do some vital research while spending quality time with her!

Rare Indulgences!

Andrea here, I’ve been thinking about the last few months, and how stressful it’s been for all of us in so many ways. The need to shelter at home has cut us off from so many daily pleasures—meeting up with friends for drinks or dinner . . . visiting a museum . . . treating oneself to a little shopping. So I am deeming myself deserving of a splurge. And it should come as no surprise that books are involved!

Viking Cruise Line, a sponsor of PBS’s Masterpiece Theater, has been offering a video channel on culture and the arts for us to enjoy some virtual travels and lectures . . .and among the recent fun offerings was an interview with the Duke of Devonshire by his son-in-law, who owns Heywood Hill, one of Britain’s most famous rare book emporiums. (You can see it here)

Now, of course, I couldn’t resist taking a virtual visit to Heywood Hill. (Oh, how I miss real-life London!) And what do I find—a carefully curated list of 80 fun bibliographic treasures, specially chosen to lift the spirits during the pandemic! (You can see the full selection here.) So, I’ve opened my virtual checkbook—because money is no object when one is drooling (of course not literally) over such a fabulous array of goodies! However, I’ve exercised great restraint and haven’t gobbled up all them, but have chosen just a few that really tickle my fancy:

Three Good Things

Three Good Things

by Mary Jo  

This is a revised version of a blog I did way back in 2006, the first year of the Word Wenches.  It's been a lot of years, but the same ideas are still worthwhile.

I think the transitions seasons of spring and autumn are the loveliest of the year.  In the northern hemisphere we have spring and lush richness of new life.  In the southern hemisphere it's autumn, with the last nostalgic flare of beauty before sliding into winter.

But now we're dealing with the challenges of a pandemic, and a lot of stress goes with that.  Financial problems, cabin fever, way too much uncertainty, perhaps worst of all, not being able to hug people we love unless they're living with us. 

 

Humor in Books

Anne here, apologetically running in late. Sorry, I forgot what date it was. Today I'm pulling a question from the list of reader questions we've received over the years. And while I'm talking about that, I'll remind you all — if you submit a question for the wenches and one of us chooses it as a blog topic a blog, that person will win a book.

Today's topic is from Constance, who said... "It would also be very interesting to know how important humor is to each of you when creating characters. I’ve always found heroes with a self-deprecating sense of humor almost irresistible, and heroines who can match them in witty retort make it even better. But it can’t be easy to create that — or is it for the extremely talented writers you all are?"

Constance, I also love a hero who can make me laugh. But writing humor is never easy, especially if I set out trying to be funny. Forced humor can be horribly un-funny and usually gets deleted. Even when I think the story I'm writing is going to be a funny one, it doesn't always happen. 

People have very different senses of humor, so what is funny to one person completely passes another. I remember so often when I was a kid, my brother and I would be cracking up laughing at some TV show, and one of my older sisters would say crossly, "I don't know why you're laughing. That isn't funny at all." Which made my brother and me laugh even harder. And of course, if you have to explain why something is funny, it immediately kills the humor stone dead.

So all I can go on is what's funny to me. My funniest scenes usually come spontaneously in the writing. I'm 'in the zone' busily writing, a character says something unexpected and another one responds, and then . . . we're off. And when it happens, it's a joy. 

Most of my books have some funny moments, but some books are funnier than others. It's something to do with character chemistry. Some character combinations bring out humor better than others — a light-hearted, flippant hero and an earnest worrier of a heroine, for instance, sparked some funny scenes in my book, The Perfect Rake.