Word Wenches

What We're Reading: August 2020

Summer’s heat (and winter’s chill down under), along with continued distancing, has led to more reading for some – certainly the Wenches found plenty of books to their liking in August. Romance, mystery, monsters, history, witches – and two books about hockey (!!) - read on to find out what we’ve been reading!

Mary Jo says:

Here I am talking about Jasmine Guillory again!  Her most recent book, Party of Two, is another smart, funny romantic comedy with interesting depths. The heroine, Olivia Monroe, is a native Californian who went east to get a law degree from Harvard, worked at a high pressure New York law firm for several years, and then decided to return to California to start a law firm with her best friend, Ellie, because they are both tired of dealing with condescending and worse male colleagues. 

Just back from New York and staying at a hotel while waiting to move into her house, she falls into a conversation with guy at the hotel bar. He's wearing a baseball cap, is really good looking, and has a great sense of humor.  She wouldn't mind going up to his hotel room for a little stress relief, but nothing happens and she goes back to her room--and sees on the TV that the bar guy is Max Powell, the hot junior senator of California. 

She tells her sister so they can both laugh about it and moves on, but Max was fascinated by her and kicking himself for not getting her phone number. When he sees her in the audience at an event a couple of weeks later, the chase is one. Max falls for her hard, but Olivia is starting a new law office and soooo not interested in a relationship. 

The attraction is strong and mutual, but the conflicts are powerful when both of them are ultra-busy and he lives a very public life. Major and negotiations and adjustment may be required! That, and a lot of cake. <G>

Summer Lockdown Playhouse

By Mary Jo

In a summer where most of us have not been getting out as much as usual, I decided it would be fun to dig out older movies we've enjoyed watching on Saturday nights.  In the nature of things, many have had historical setting because, not surprisingly I like historical movies. (Most of what we've seen has been DVDs, which I consider a more reliable technology than streaming, which is fine when it works--until it doesn't.)

So the first we watched was The Scarlet Pimpernel, a great romantic adventure story. It's been filmed several times, but the version I love (and own) is the 1982 film starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour.  Andrews plays Sir Percy Blakeney, a fop by day and a rescuer of French aristocrats from the guillotine.  He's a Georgian super hero, brilliant, Sneaky, gorgeous, and a passionately in love with his wife, the French actress Marguerite St. Just, whom he can no longer trust.

Marguerite is played by Jane Seymour, who is also gorgeous and baffled by why her doting husband has turned cold. This version diverges in some ways from Baroness Orczy's books, and I don't care.  <G> It's rousing a great fun.

BONUS: did I mention that Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour are both gorgeous? 

As a side note, the easiest way to tell when a movie was made is by the hair styles of the women.  Jane Seymour has a lot of '80s hair!

Let There Be Light . . . and Wind and Water

Andrea here, musing today about light, wind and water. Umm, no, I’m not taking up meteorology as a second career. It's just that I’ve always enjoyed taking a daily walk outdoors. I find it clears the head in so many ways—it is, quite literally, a breath of fresh air for both body and mind.

And with the pandemic shutting down so many of our normal activities, I’ve found my daily walks have become even more important, both physically and mentally. Because of my art background, I enjoy observing the little visual details around me, especially the ethereal beauty of light, wind and water. The stresses of COVID have me appreciating those little everyday wonders even more. (Right: J.M.W. Turner)

On Research

Anne here, and today I'm going to answer some questions I was recently asked about the research I do for my books.

1)  When you write your first draft, do you do all of your research first then begin writing? Or do you write your first drafts whilst you research facts?

It's a bit of both. My process is different every time, and the research depends a lot on the story and the setting. Some stories are inspired by browsing through history books—for instance Tallie's Knight which was inspired by an old woodblock print of aristocrats being carried in litters by hearty local peasants over the Swiss Alps. That was a "grand tour" story, so before I started writing I did a lot of research about the "grand tour."

Similarly with books set in non-English settings — for instance To Catch a Bride (which was set partly in Egypt) and Bride By Mistake, (which was set partly in Spain) I've had to do a lot of research beforehand. Strangely the Egyptian research was much easier than the Spanish. There were plenty of English people present in Egypt for the time I set the story in, so I was able to find journals and letters and sketches and all kinds of helpful sources. 

But Bride By Mistake was set in post-Napoleonic Spain — the war was only just over, and though Spain was experiencing internal turmoil, as various factions squabbled over the future of the country, there was not much available in English, and what there was, was all about the politics, whereas I wanted information about the state of the countryside, particularly in the north, and the ordinary people living there.

A Taste of Summer

Nicola here. It's all about fruit and nuts on the blog this week! On Wednesday Jo was blogging about coconuts and today I'm looking at the history of strawberries!

Nothing speaks of an English summer more than strawberries and cream. It’s an iconic dish that is closely associated with garden parties, stately homes and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. It’s one of the nostalgic images of “old” England and in fact the dish is celebrating its 510^th anniversary round about now.

The strawberry has, of course, been around for a lot longer than 500 years. The writings of the Ancient Greeks and Romans refer to the wild strawberry fruit and its medicinal properties but evidence from archaeological excavations suggests that our Stone Age ancestors were already eating wild strawberries. In about the 14^th century these wild plants were taken from woodlands and introduced into gardens so that they could be grown for household fruit. Charles V, King of France in 1364, must have had a particular penchant for them as 1200 strawberry plants were grown in his royal gardens. From the early 15^th century the plant also pops up in illuminated manuscripts and western art, demonstrating that it was familiar - and beautiful - to our ancestors.

A Loverly Bunch of Coconuts

joanna here,

“I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts
There they are a'standing in a row
Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head
"Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist,”
That's what the showman said!

“I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts
Every ball you throw will make me rich
There stands me wife
The idol of me life
Singing, "Roll up, bowl a ball, a penny a pitch!"
                                    1944 song

The song celebrates the coconut shy, a traditional game at funfairs and fêtes. The mark – that is to say, the customer –  throws a wooden ball at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins each coconut he dislodges.

My knowledge of this game is based on the cynical warning from Midsomer Murder’s Chief Inspector Barnaby that the shy’s coconuts will be far too old to eat.

The "coco" in coconut might come a word for "head" or "skull"

 

 

 

While we thus know coconuts were common in the UK in 1944 – edible or not – we may be unsure as to exactly when they did show up.

Are they a Regency treat?
Can our Regency ingenue be delighted by her first taste of crisp, sweet coconut flesh?

Childhood Reads and Influences

Christina here – I was chatting to some of my writing friends via FaceTime the other day and for some reason we started reminiscing about our favourite childhood reads. We came up with one great title after another and I thought back to those exciting days when I would go off to the library to browse the children’s section – there was so much waiting for me to discover! What really struck me, however, was how similar my reading experiences and tastes had been to those of my two friends – all the Enid Blyton stories (especially the Famous Five series), Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Little Princess and The Secret Garden, L M Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, and many more. And because we all write romance now, it made me wonder whether we are all predisposed to liking certain types of stories from an early age? Is it tied up with our personalities or are we influenced by those around us?

Personally, I seem to have been fixated on fairy tales, romance and happy-ever-afters right from the start. This could have been because of the stories I was told (my grandmother especially passed on lots of Swedish folklore), but as far as I can remember, my parents read me lots of different things and not just about princesses and castles. I just happened to like the romantic ones the best and I was hooked on fairy tales. Only the nice ones, though, I didn’t like the Brothers Grimm stories in their gory original versions (wasn’t Snow White’s step-mother’s punishment just horrendous?!?), and I positively loathed Hans Christian Andersen’s sad tales.

Ask A Wench--Are Titles Important?

Pat here, hosting this month's Ask-A-Wench...

How do the wenches choose their titles and are they as important as the covers? 

I had so much fun reading your comments when I answered this question last month, that I asked it of the wenches to see what they had to say. Quantum, we owe you another book!

Let the other wenches speak for themselves:

Christina:

I think titles and covers are of equal importance and as I’m slightly OCD, personally I am drawn to the ones that match – Susanna Kearsley’s Sourcebooks covers  are a case in point. (I liked them so much I had to buy even the ones I already had in another format!).

Carousel of Hearts!

by Mary Jo

I've just released Carousel of Hearts , the second in my Putney's Classics series. Carousel was published as a sweet Signet Regency and is one of my three early books that really couldn't be revised into historical romance because the tone is light and the sensuality is muted.

The story has four main characters and there is much love and much confusion. Here's the blurb:

Love is in the air, but where is Cupid aiming his darts?

Spirited and beautiful, Antonia Thornton is a baroness in her own right and her companion and best friend is Judith Winslow, a quiet intellectual with a love of natural philosophy.  Then Antonia's childhood friend, Adam Yorke, returns from India and brings his friend, the outrageously handsome Simon, Lord Launceston.  They all like each other, love is in the air--and they are all too noble for their own good! Can four confused young people sort themselves out properly before it's too late? 

 

Crossing Swords with Traditional History

Andrea here, musing again on how our fresh perspectives on history continue to weave such exciting new threads into the tapestry of the past. I love learning about extraordinary people whose stories never got told in the traditional narratives, especially when it’s someone whose life intersects with the Regency era. So I was absolutely enthralled by a recent article in the New York Times on Joseph Bolougne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

A champion fencer . . . a virtuoso violinist and composer of classical music whose sonatas influenced Mozart . . . conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris . . . a man at home in the cultured salons of Paris who hobnobbed with the Prince Regent in London . . . The Chevalier was also famous “across the Pond”—in fact John Adams called him “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, shooting, fencing, dancing and music.”

So why have most of us never heard of him? Well, my guess would be that it’s because Joseph Boulogne is the son of a wealthy Frenchman with plantations in Guadaloupe and Ann Nanon, his wife’s enslaved African maid.

Fragrance and memory

Anne here. I woke up this morning to the scent of wood fires, which isn't a common thing to smell around here, especially in the mornings. At first I thought I might have dreamt it, because I'd been semi-dreaming about an event and place from my childhood, when we did have a real fire, but no, the woodsmoke was real.

In truth, the childhood memory was probably sparked by the smoke, smell being the sense that most strongly evokes the past. So that got me thinking about some of the smells of my past and the events and associations they carry.

For instance, the smell of a bakery early in the morning takes me right back to when I was nine or ten, and living near a port in the far west of Victoria. Some big ship was due in — it was a historical event of some kind, and the whole town was talking about it. We had a family friend staying with us, a nineteen year old girl and she, like me, was eager to be the first to catch a glimpse of this ship.

Every day for a week we got up before dawn and walked down to the harbor to see if the ship had arrived. We had to pass the town bakery, and ohhhh that glorious smell of baking bread. Especially since we hadn't yet eaten breakfast. My friend being older and braver — the bakery didn't open for hours yet — knocked on the bakery door and asked to buy some bread.

They gave us hot steaming crusty rolls lavishly buttered, and we walked on down to stare out to sea, nibbling on the gorgeous crusty bread while butter dripped onto our fingers. Ever since, the scent of bread baking in the early morning brings me back to that time and place. We never did see the ship arrive, but did we regret those pre-dawn excursions? Not a bit.

Kenilworth Castle - Lavish Love Token

Nicola here. One of the things that I have missed the most about Lockdown is not doing my tours at Ashdown House, and not being able to visit other castles and stately homes whilst everything has been closed so it was very exciting when English Heritage started to re-open a number of their historical sites and I could get my history fix again. Last week, for the first time in 5 months, I went to a castle and I thought I would share the trip here for those who would enjoy a virtual history fix.

A place I’d never been to but had always wanted to see is Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. Kenilworth has a very long and fascinating history from the time of its building as a great tower in the 1120s, through a period when it was one of the favourite palaces of the Lancastrian kings, and the royal visits of Queen Elizabeth I. It was this aspect of Kenilworth’s history that particularly fascinated me, and Robert Dudley’s final, failed attempt to persuade Elizabeth to marry him. So I took The Forgotten Sister along with me on the road trip as I thought Amy Robsart would enjoy seeing the place (more on that later!)

The Windows of the Soul

  “The eyes, like sentinels, occupy the highest place in the body.”

   “The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.”

   “The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.’  Marcus Tullius Cicero

Christina here – the Roman Cicero seems to have had a lot to say about eyes, but I totally agree with him about their importance – they are “the windows of the soul” as someone said, no matter what colour they are. And we might not always notice other people’s eyes in real life, but when it comes to fictional characters, they are crucial, at least for me, especially when describing a hero. Eyes can be shifty, evasive, not looking straight at you when you’re talking to their owner. That’s not good. A hero has to have an honest, direct gaze, and just looking him in the eyes must make the heroine (and thereby also the reader) feel they can trust him and that he's telling the truth.

   “The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes – never!” Mikhail Bulgakov