Word Wenches

New Year, New You?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christina here. Have you all been busy making new year’s resolutions and starting the year as you mean to go on? Me – not so much.

I think one can safely say I’m a “bah humbug” type person when it comes to new year’s resolutions. In short, I gave up on them years ago because I simply never stuck to them - not even for a week in some cases. So what was the point in making them? I just ended up spending money on expensive gym memberships I was never going to use or a bunch of vegetables I soon ditched in favour of chocolate. Willpower is difficult to summon up!

There is one tradition I always follow at New Year though and it’s one I picked up when I lived in Japan. The Japanese celebrate New Year rather than Christmas and one of the things they do is to buy a little papier-mâché figure of Daruma. He is based on Bodhidharma, a monk who lived some time during the 5^th or 6^th centuries and was supposedly the founder of Zen Buddhism. These Daruma figures represent luck, perseverance, endurance, and the spirit to keep going despite setbacks – what the Japanese call ganbaru, or to do your best.

What We're Reading in December

Nicola here, welcoming you to the Word Wench "What We’re Reading" feature for December. It’s a bumper edition, including both Christmas-themed and other books, so jump right in and check out our choices, and let us know what you recommend this month!

Anne here, and as usual I've read quite a bit in the last month and have several recommendations. The first is The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley. Elderly artist, Julian Jessop is lonely and unhappy and, claiming that authenticity is the only possible solution for changing his life, he writes down how he feels in a small exercise book, and leaves it in a local cafe. The owner of the cafe finds it, and inspired by his words of wisdom, writes down her own secret dreams and fears. And leaves the book in a nearby park. And so it goes from person to person. Of course, all their paths begin to cross, and various stories begin to unfold. Quirky and fun -- I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

In crime, I’ve just finished the latest JD Kirk — A Snowball's Chance in Hell. This is  the 9th book in JD Kirk's excellent Scottish crime series. I've mentioned his books before. Crime, good characterization, humor, tension and a compelling mystery. I put his books on pre-order the minute they appear. They develop, so start with the first book in the series.

I'm also rereading E F Benson's "Lucia" novels, which I haven't read for years. They're delightful novels — very funny and gently satirical, about the intense rivalry, pretensions and ruthless one-upmanship (one upwomanship?) that takes place in the upper middle class society of a small English village in the 1930s. The series builds — for my money the pick of the crop is the middle book, Mapp and Lucia, where two strong-minded ladies battle it out for queen (or top of the pecking order) of their little society.

As the moment you can buy all six of the books in one collection for the ridiculous price of $2 (with a slight variation according to country.) But they're all good. If you have any doubts about whether you'd enjoy the books, read the first few pages of Mapp and Lucia (by clicking on the "look inside" feature on Amazon.)

A Druid Peace to You!

Since my magical Malcolms claim to be descendants of Druids, my contribution to our holiday tributes is about the pagan origins of our many traditions. As Jo Bourne told us the original December 25 date comes from the Roman solstice celebrations dating as far back as the fourth century BC. The Roman calendar and ours do not line up, hence the difference in our solstice date and theirs. What matters is that the date was well established centuries before the nativity. Since Jesus was said to have been born during a census, then his birth could very well have been some time in December. The Bible doesn’t list an exact date, so we can also assume the church simply adopted a festive date already established and Christianized it, as they did others.

The Romans used evergreens as symbols of the “return of life” as the days got longer. They hung apples on those trees as part of the celebration because who doesn’t want life and pretties in the dark of winter? But the part that interests me, naturally, is mistletoe. The Druids considered it a powerful healing symbol, cut from their sacred oaks, they’d meet (and possibly greet?) in peace under the mistletoe. So a wish for peace on the Christian holiday adopts this pagan symbol.

So the reason for the season is the birth of a new year, new life, and peace to all. Celebrate all your traditions in the interest of a better new year!

Snowy McSnowface

Susan here, wishing everyone a great winter holiday! We’ve had very little snow in our area the last couple of years, but we did have a mild, pretty snowfall a couple of weeks ago. Those few inches made the world look peaceful and beautiful for a while. It was wet snow and not much of a chore to clear, especially when the rain later that day pretty much took care of it. We did, however, bring out the shovels and our little snowblower (which doesn’t do a great job, honestly) in hopes of a real winter storm. Eh. Maybe next time!

I love snow, though the snows of Maryland, where I’ve lived for decades, are so-so compared to the deep, lasting snowfalls of my childhood in the northern neck of Upstate New York. Plows and shovels got some heavy use there. I remember walking to school along neatly shoveled sidewalks that cut between high, gleaming white cliffs of snow soaring to either side.

As kids, we had endless fun in the snow, lobbing snowballs, building igloos and forts, sledding down hills, and helping our parents shovel. For the adults, clearing that much snow was a lot of work. My dad, an engineer who owned a road construction company, would attach plows to his trucks in the winter and go out to help clear the streets. He probably called his trucks the red one, the yellow one, and so on. Business-like, and on with the work.

But in the UK and Scotland these days, they're having fun with their snowplows, holding contests to name them, generating clever, very fitting names that would make any snowplow proud.

Scottish snowplows (called gritters), are salting, clearing, spreading sand and grit on Scottish roads, and sporting names like Sir Salter Scott, For Your Ice Only, Spready Mercury ... there are British plows called Gritsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti-Slip Machiney or Gritty McGritface, and so on. Read more here and here too. 

Naming machines and boats began a few years ago when a UK research ship was christened Boaty McBoatface by popular demand—and the trend spread from the UK to Scotland and Sweden (Trainy McTrainface) and beyond. We can only hope it reaches the USA—considering what sort of year 2020 has been, we Americans need a Planey McPlaneface of our very own!  

What would you name your shovel or your snowblower? Your car, your boat, or even your vacuum cleaner? 

Mary Jo says she could call her shovel Buffalo Girl, in honor of her childhood, also in snowy Upstate NY.

As for our so-so snowblower, I think we should call it Spitty Spitty Bang Bang. Trust me, it suits. 

Hovering on the Horizon

Andrea here, with the third in our short daily "Twelve Days of Christmas" posts. With the presents unwrapped and way too many scrumptious cookies down the the hatch, the holidays now are fast approaching the last day of the year. I took walk late in the afternoon on Christmas Day (to work off a few of those cookies!) and happened to see a glorious sunset over the harbor. I stopped, mesmerized by the colors and play of light, and found myself thinking of Nature has been such a gift in this past year of stress and uncertainty. Every day—even on the darkest, gloomiest ones—I'm always surprised by some small glimmer of ethereal beauty.

A lone hawk floating high on the air currents, the pattern of fallen autumn leaves, sunlight dappling on the marsh grasses . . . These simple moments really lift my spirits. I think it's because they are elemental reminders that Earth and all living things on it are resilient. And to me that's a a hope-filled message.

So, as I looked at that brilliant orange-gold light hovering on the horizon, I decided to take it as a cosmic message that the coming year is going to bring us much bright days.

Happy Holidays! All of us Wenches are looking forward to sharing books, musings and all good things with you in 2021.

The Cats' Christmas

Christmastide:

The Cats' Christmas

by Mary Jo

This is second in the Word Wenches' annual tradition of short posts for Christmastide, the days between Christmas and Twelfth Night on January 6th. 

I don't usually get presents for my cats since they're royally pampered every day. But this year I decided to get a tall, very stable scratching post.  I opened it up, attached the base, and rubbed catnip into the sisal. 

And furry fun was had!  Spook, the solemn white and gray part Siamese cat who has never shown the least inclination to play, had fun with it, delighting in the catnip and snoozing happily on the base.

Reggie was intrigued and scent-marked the sisal.

But Princess Flufferbella had the clearest understanding of what the post was for as she stretched and scratched. 

Here's hoping they continue to enjoy their new scratching post, and spare my furniture. <G>

Mary Jo, wishing you all a happy holiday season and a bright New Year!

Happy Christmas!

Anne here, wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas. 
At this time of year, we wenches go into "Christmastide mode" where we take it in turns to post a short message every day through the twelve days of Christmas, starting from today. 

Here in Australia, Christmas Day is coming to a close, while in other parts of the world it's just starting. For many of us, it's been a quiet day, with Lockdown preventing large gatherings of friends and relatives. Still, I hope you manage to have a happy day, regardless.

As many of you know, I've often presented a Christmas quiz and others about Regency terms and food and games, and one that has often come up is the game of Snapdragon — where you snatch burning raisins from a plate or dish. Here's a fascinating post that not only explores the history of Snapdragon, but tests it for "health and safety." and comes up with a surprising conclusion. 

So that's it from me. Happy Christmas all — see you next year.

 

 

Christmas Nostalgia

Christina here. It’s been a strange year and Christmas is definitely going to be different, although I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate it with my husband and two daughters. It’s making me think about the past, however, and I’m feeling a trifle nostalgic. The Christmases we had as children always seem so much more magical than anything we can have as adults, and it’s lovely to have those memories. So today I thought I’d share the kind of Christmas I had as a child:-

It all began on the first Sunday of Advent – whichever Sunday was closest to the 1^st December. In the town where I lived that was the day all the shops were allowed to unveil their Christmas window displays (not late October like these days!) and the town’s Christmas lights were switched on. Just about the entire population trooped down to walk around and look at them. At that time of year in Sweden it gets dark before 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and I can never remember a year when we didn’t have lots of snow by then so the lights looked magical. There was also a Christmas market inside a huge underground car park (very sensible as it’s too cold to stand outside at that time of year). Lots to enchant a little girl!

Let There Be Light!

Nicola here. At this time of year when the evenings are long and dark and the days are short there is nothing that I enjoy more than seeing a light show. If there is snow (or at least a hard frost!) and stars sparkling overhead that’s an added bonus. Perhaps its’ a throwback to the distant ancestors who lit up this time of year with a number of fire festivals: Samhain, Halloween, All Souls and Guy Fawkes Night, all with bonfires and lanterns. The precursor of Christmas lights were the candles that German families would attach to the branches of trees with wax and pins as far back as the 17^th century (fire hazard alert!) A hundred years later they had developed candle holders and glass balls for the candles and the tradition of the Christmas tree lights spread across Europe. The advent of electricity, of course, meant that we could all go wild with our lights if we wanted, both inside and outside!

It was a huge treat for me to go the Christmas Lights at Cotehele Manor gardens in Cornwall this year. Cotehele is a Tudor house with glorious gardens and a fascinating history. The Cotehele Christmas Garland is a tradition dating back to last century. Normally it adorns the Great Hall of the Manor House. The flowers for the garland are grown in the gardens from seeds sown in early spring. The plants include purple and blue statice and yellow helychrysum.

The flowers are picked in the summer, each individual stem is stripped of leaves and then they are hung up in the potting shed to dry. Construction of the garland begins in November using a sixty foot long rope which is first wrapped in evergreen foliage. Between 15 and 30 thousand flowers are then placed among the greenery and the huge garland is hung in swags across the Great Hall. It sounds an amazing creation and I wish I could have seen it but this year, of course, things are different. The house was closed and so the National Trust had had the brilliant idea to bring the decorations outside.

Tis the Season of ... Saturnalia

Among other things, this happens on the Solstice

Joanna here, thinking about the Solstice. It’s the 21^st of December this year.

The Solstice can show up anytime between 20^th December and the 23^rd because the calendar in our cell phone or hanging on the wall does not fit neatly into astronomical reality.
Many of us have trouble adjusting to reality.

Thing is, the calendar counts the year as 365 days, even. The universe thinks it’s 365.256 days.

These thing do not match and no amount of refreshing your computer screen is going to change this. We are all playthings in the hands of the gods.

I suppose you could take a post-it note a quarter the size of one of the calendar days and let it dangle off the end of December. That would be more accurate.

Sagittarius, looking pretty cool

Anyhow, that’s why the date of the Solstice changes from year to year.

This year the shortest, darkest day of the year, the Solstice, falls on a Monday.

After all, it’s 2020.

On the Solstice the sun will move into Sagittarius. You’d say into the House of Sagittarius, if you think of the Zodiac signs as living in fancy houses up in the sky, which I am perfectly willing to do.

The stars of Sagittarius without the imagination. Less cool.

 

You’d think this means you can look up into the night sky and get a really good view of the constellation Sagittarius, wouldn’t you?

Au contraire, as the French would say.

When the sun is in Sagittarius it means it’s sitting on top of Sagittarius. You’d have to look directly through the sun to see the constellation. Sagittarius won’t be up at night on the 21^st. It’s going to be high in the sky at noon, hiding in the light.

 

Regency Diet

 Pat here:

Since I totally blew my blog date while buried under revisions, edits, and the start of a new book, I’m pulling out an oldie for you to consider how to approach not dieting for the holidays.

In hunting for a food that small boys might relish at a village fair, I went on a google expedition. The internet boasts a plethora of material that I would have given my right hand to own back when I first started writing. Now, instead of procrastinating— researching—by getting lost in my library, I hunt through Wikipedia, jump to Google Books, dig deep into newspaper archives, or just generally wallow in the wealth of Regency blogs and websites available with the click of a mouse.

Holiday Treasures

With the holidays fast approaching and our December Ask-A-Wench blog upon us this week, we Wenches asked ourselves: Is there a holiday decoration that you treasure, something you bring out every year, perhaps something that represents family and fond memories or has another special meaning for you? Read on to find out what, for us, adds very special magic to this already magical season -- and scroll down to the comment section to tell us about something special that brightens your holiday!   

Pat:  We’ve been collecting ornaments for decades. We’ve passed on quite a few to the kids and left a few behind when we moved, but our very first ornaments always travel with us. We were extremely poor when we had our first Christmas tree, but we had a new baby and wanted to start our own traditions. So rather than buy fancy cartons of glittery balls we couldn’t afford, we bought ornament kits and made our own. Then we added popcorn strings and cookies that no infant could resist! The plaster ones are losing their glitter and fading with the years, but the wooden ones have really held up. I still like the idea of a homemade holiday, so a few of these go on the tree every year with all the others we’ve collected.

Andrea:  I have a very special memento from childhood Christmases that I take out every year. It’s a little lamb from the vintage family crèche that my Swiss grandmother handed down to my mother. The stable—a lovely little structure built of twigs and thatch—and most of the other figurines are now with my older brother, but my younger brother and I each got to have a piece of family history. The nicks, the wobbles, the threadbare wool of my lamb all make me smile as I think back to those holidays of the past. One in particular really stands out. We would always make a big deal of setting up the creche when grandmother would arrive for Christmas. Out came the box, with all the figurines carefully wrapped in tissue paper from the previous year and we set arranging the shepherds, the animals in the stable, Joseph and Mary . . . and to everyone’s horror we came to the end of unpacking and Baby Jesus was nowhere to be found! Now, had a cow or donkey gone missing, we probably could have overlooked it, but this was BAD! 

My mother could see that my grandmother was a bit rattled. Being artistic, she an Idea. Without telling any of us, she went downstairs to her art studio and found a block of beeswax in her bookbinding supplies. (The human figures were all molded of plaster, wax and cloth.) Taking up an X-acto knife, she set to work and carved a tiny sleeping baby, found a scrap of white silk for swaddling cloth, and returned upstairs, where she carefully laid him in the manger. My grandmother was elated! Christmas could now officially continue! Needless to say, my mother’s handcarved Baby Jesus became part of family legend. (Suspicions had fallen on my younger brother, who was usually to blame when mischief happened. But he swears to this day that he had nothing to do with the disappearance!)

Christina: I have several boxes of Christmas decorations that I bring out every year and most of the things in there are special in some way. What I treasure the most, however, are the Christmas table cloths, runners and doilies, which have all been lovingly made by various members of my family. There’s a table runner made by my grandmother, a magnificent poinsettia cross-stitch by my mother, small doilies given to me by my favourite aunts, one from my daughter, and even a table cloth I made myself. These all took hours of painstaking work and make me feel close to them during the festive season, especially those who are no longer with us.

My absolute favourite is the little doily with camels – they are just adorable! It was sewn by my great-aunt Elly, a spinster lady who basically spent most of her life doing handicrafts. She used to spend Christmas with us, and looking at this item brings back so many wonderful memories of Christmases past. We had huge gatherings with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and it was such fun! I have lots of pieces of Elly’s exquisite work but this tiny little thing appeals to me like nothing else. I have used it every Christmas since I was given it and I will never part with it.
I’m currently working on a replica in different colours, but it won’t be as lovely as the original. Maybe it will remind one of my descendants of me though – who knows?

Exercising Your Demons!

Andrea here, thinking today on how we’re all spending a lot more time at home . . . and some of the ramifications involved in sheltering-in-place, especially as here in the northern hemisphere we’re fast approaching the heart of winter . . . which make it even more inviting to curl up in front of the fire with good book and a cup of cocoa.

And maybe cookies. Or chocolate . . .

Pandemic baking is one of those ramifications. NOT that I’m guilty of overindulging in sweets. (Pssst, this Andrea’s editorial assistant, and just so you know, a batch of chocolate-chip blondies just came out of the oven. But you didn’t hear that from me!) Okay, well, maybe I do have a few extra “comfort” treats. The Wenches have been sharing recipes with each other, and so many of them look SO good. (Anne and Christina have been especially bad at leading us astray!) But after all, it wouldn’t be the holidays without sugar and spice. (And butter.)

Villain to Hero?

by Mary Jo

Today's topic was inspired by a question from Word Wench reader Kay Spears, who asks:

One of my allllll time favorite romances is/was Mary Jo Putney's The Rake and the Reformer aka The Rake.  I love Reginald Davenport...he turned out to be quite a hero. My question for all wenches: How do you take a drunk/ licentious/ corrupt/ not-hero-material man and redeem him? And, when you're writing this character, do you recognize him as hero material? Or, does it come as a surprise when readers start wanting him as a hero?

MJP:  I immediately grabbed this topic for a blog, but it's such a great question that other Wenches may pick it up for blogs of their own. For asking this question, Kay Spears will get a book from me. 

Reggie Davenport made his debut in my very first Signet Regency, The Diabolical Baron. Since it was my first book, I was feeling my way and just wanted an antagonist for my hero, Richard, a Waterloo veteran who has learned that he's heir to the Wargrave earldom, a responsibility he isn't sure he wants.  Reggie is his cousin who has long thought that he was the heir. 

 

A Beastly Quiz — more Regency slang

Anne here, and for your entertainment in the lead-up to the festive season, here's a baker's dozen of questions — a "beastly quiz" on Regency slang terms involving creatures of various kinds. You'll need a pen and paper to note down your answers, then at the end, there's a link that will take you to the correct answers. After that, come back and tell us how you went. Have fun.

 

1)   To cock up one's toes means:—  

        a) to trip

         b) to die

         c) to get ready to run

         d) to tread in bird droppings

 

2) Done to a cow's thumb means:—

        a) to be exhausted

        b) to be swindled   

        c) to be overcooked

        d) to be perfectly cooked

 

3) A bear leader is a person who:—

        a) supervises prisoners in gaol

        b) is a strong leader   

        c) takes schoolboys on tours  

        d) handles bears in bear-pits

 

4) An ape leader is:—

        a) a spinster

        b) a zoo-keeper 

        c) a heavy drinker

        d) a brawler

Winner

Christina here – just a quick Sunday post to announce that the winner of a signed copy of The Runes of Destiny and a raven keyring is Jane Nelson!

Thank you so much to everyone for your lovely comments!

 

Travelling with Vikings

Christina here. Next week sees the publication of the second book in my Viking series – The Runes of Destiny. It is the story of Linnea, a twenty-first century woman who ends up travelling back in time to the Viking age. Here’s a short blurb:-

“When helping out at an archaeological dig, Linnea uncovers an exquisite brooch, but blacks out after reading the runic inscription. She wakes up surrounded by men in Viking costume, who seem to take re-enactment very seriously. Lost and confused, she finds herself in the power of Hrafn, a Viking warrior who claims her as his thrall and takes her on a journey across the seas to sell her for profit. Setting sail, she confronts the unthinkable: she has travelled back to the 9^th century. Linnea is determined to find a way back to her own time, but there’s a connection forming with Hrafn. Can she resist the call of the runes and accept her destiny lies here …”

This story was inspired by the incredible Viking travels I’d read about. Despite their reputation as ferocious marauders, there was much to admire about the Vikings, and the one thing I am in total awe of is their fearless exploration of the world around them. It didn’t happen overnight, of course, and Scandinavian people had been travelling in all directions for decades (perhaps centuries) before the era we call the Viking age. However, the refinement of their sleek, clinker-built ships allowed them to go further and faster than ever before because of the invention of the keel. It gave the ships a stability they’d lacked and allowed them to take to the high seas. The fact that the vessels were shallow with a fairly flat bottom also made it easy for them to land on any beach and to travel far along most rivers without getting stuck.

The Reading Woman

Nicola here. Today I’m talking about women and reading. At the start of this year I bought what was possibly the most pointless item of 2020, although at the time I didn't realise it. It was a 2020 desk diary in which I planned to write all the dates of the talks I was going to be giving this year, details of bookshop visits, conferences and literary festivals. This week I looked at its blank pages and although I was sorry I hadn't had the chance to use it, I still appreciated the illustrations because it was The Reading Woman Diary.

I love the idea of "the reading woman" and I love pictures of women reading. It's a celebration of something we all enjoy doing. In the introduction to the diary there are a few paragraphs about paintings of reading women and how they have always been a popular subject for artists through the ages. The reading women “turn to books for entertainment, insight and revelation.” They are educated, literate and they have the leisure to read. “Within these often-intimate portrayals lies the opportunity for enlightenment and the seductive retreat from the concerns of every day,” the diary says.