Word Wenches

What We're Reading

Pat here with the Word Wenches monthly reads!

My contribution is Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly (Eloisa James)

I imagine most of you recognize Eloisa James as a wonderful historical romance writer. This first contemporary under her real name is a romance, but also heartbreakingly uplifting, original women’s fiction. Lizzie is a Shakespeare professor with cancer who agrees to take an all-expenses paid trip to Elba with her gay best friend, a horror writer, and his still-in-the-closet famous superhero actor lover. I suppose everyone in the book needs to be rich and famous and talented to make up for the fact that the protagonist is dying. She is preparing for death throughout the story. What she isn’t prepared for is the rich life  she discovers dealing with her friend’s frustration, a twelve-year-old looking for a mother, a brash breast cancer survivor, and the man of Lizzie’s dreams, a brilliant cook who creates food she hates but who pours his joy into living. As this family of friends forms around her, Lizzie is faced with actual life-and-death decisions. And this is still the most romantic, tear-jerking, lovely story you may have ever read.

Editors, Part 2

Anne here, with part two of my posts about editors, how they work, and how we writers work with them. The first part is here.

The Copyeditor 

Copyediting comes after the author has dealt with the comments the editor made during the structural edit (see previous post.) The editor reads the revised manuscript, and if she approves it, she passes it on to the copyediting department.  

In general, the copyeditor reads a manuscript looking for mistakes — typos, repetition of words or phrases, accidental English/Australian spelling (in my case), inconsistencies, mistakes such as a character's name or their eye color changing — I've done both of those. In the months it takes me to write a book, it's easy to forget tiny details, and sometimes I'll change my mind and miss changing it everywhere. Or change it back and forget.

Some copyeditors are heavy on grammatical correctness which, for me, doesn't always work as people often think or talk in sentence fragments, and not always in perfect grammar.  But I've also read books in which an otherwise good author repeatedly makes a grammatical mistake that's never corrected. (eg You've got another thing coming, when they mean another think. Or, not in dialogue, John said he would take Julie and I to the movie, when it should be Julie and me.) That kind of thing frustrates me. (By the way, despite the photo above, most editing happens electronically these days, not with a pen and paper.)

Other copyeditors are big on history, and will query historical dates of words using an etymological dictionary that shows the origin and first printed use of a word. I use the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) and the copyeditors are generally using an American dictionary, and the dates are sometimes different. And sometimes the words they flag are dated several years after the setting of my book, but they would have been in spoken use long before they made it into print.

Between the Sheets

Andrea here, musing—not snoozing—today on the subject of sleep. Or rather, the bedsheets on which I sleep. As with most common items these days, there is a mind-boggling assortment of bedsheets, starting with the stuff of which they are made.

Linen, cotton, microfiber, bamboo, polyester, and an array of high tech synthetics that sound way too nerving. And then there is the weave and finish—sateen, percale, flannel . . . And thread count. (I’ve never taken my microscope out to check it, but do you honestly do you believe the ones that claim to have a 1,000 thread count?)

Hokusai and Japanese Woodblock Prints

Christina here. Ever since I lived in Japan, I’ve been drawn to Japanese woodblock prints. They are both simple and beautiful, and the variety of subjects is endless. Mostly they depict nature and/or people and places, and one of the absolute masters of this art was Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). I think most people are familiar with his most famous print known as The Great Wave, which was actually entitled Under the Wave off Kanagawa. I love how he managed to create such wonderful scenes with just a few brushstrokes and his prints really show the Japanese way of life as it was back then.

He is mostly known for his landscape prints and paintings, but he was also the most amazing illustrator for various types of books. Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend an exhibition at the British Museum in London of some of his preliminary sketches and drawings for one such, a sort of picture encyclopedia that was going to be called The Great Picture Book of Everything. It was extremely interesting to see how he’d gone about creating the prints and where he got his ideas from. Most of the drawings were quite tiny and a little dark, but all were exquisite and showed his sense of humour and incredible imagination.

Writing Short!

By Mary Jo

More than you ever wanted to know about writing short fiction!

I became hooked on books as soon as I learned how to read, so it's no surprise that when I got a computer, learned word processing, and decided to see if I could write, what I dived into was a book: a full length Regency romance, The Diabolical Baron.

Clearly my natural instinct was to write long.  My Signet Regencies were supposed to be 75,000 words, but two of my first four drafted at about 125,000 words.  Ooops!  Nonetheless, when I was invited to write a Christmas novella for the second Signet holiday anthology, I couldn't resist saying yes, so I had to learn to write a lot shorter.

 

Ask A Wench - The Best Love Story You've Read

Nicola here, introducing this month’s Ask A Wench which has a Valentine romance theme. When I first asked the Wenches: “What is the best love story you’ve ever read, seen (or written!) and what is it that makes it so good?” there were groans all round and complaints along the lines of “How do you expect us to choose just one?”

Yes, it is a problem narrowing the field down but somehow we’ve managed it and here are our thoughts. And you’d better start thinking about your own favourites too, because at the end of the blog we’ll be putting you on the spot for your recommendations!

Anne here, finding it impossible to choose my "best love story or movie" or even a most romantic scene, because the power of a scene so often depends on context. Instead I am choosing a most romantic letter — the one written by Capt. Wentworth in Jane Austen's Persuasion. It's wonderfully romantic, especially as it's written by a stern-seeming buttoned-down Naval officer.

Heart-Shaped Book

Susan here, with a little tale of a heart-shaped book just in time for Valentine's Day. 

Years ago, when I was a PhD student studying medieval art, Netherlandish painting was my major focus. This painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a 15th-century unidentified portrait by a Netherlandish artist known as the Master of the View of Sainte-Gudule, based on the portrait-like depiction of the church of Sainte-Gudule in Brussels in the background. Several other works are attributed to this artist, dated by style or detail to 1480-1500. This master artist worked at a time when Flemish painters followed a meticulous realism and minute attention to detail that emerged from the long tradition of book illumination in Europe; 15th-century Netherlandish painting particularly flourished with artists such as Jan Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and others.

The little portrait of a man holding a heart-shaped book, painted in oil on wood panel, may have been part of a diptych or triptych, a hinged set of two or three panels; the sitter faces our left, his right as if looking toward another scene or another sitter. Double portraits often flanked a central religious scene, the sitters being patrons or saints. Perhaps the mysterious man with the heart-shaped book gazed at his wife in an opposite panel, or perhaps he looked toward his name saint or a devotional scene such as the Virgin and Child or the Adoration of the Magi.

​The man is unknown, but he may have been a nobleman or a merchant, someone who could afford to commission a multi-panel painting​--and own the treasure he displays in his hands. Bound in red leather, the little heart-shaped book was probably a prayer book, likely expensive and handcrafted. It could also have been a book of poetry or epic romance, given the heart shape. While printed books were becoming more common by the late 15th century--the style here strongly indicates a date--special books like this one would be handcrafted in every detail. The church interior in the painting's background, delicately and accurately depicted, must have had some significance for the sitter too. Possibly he had a personal connection to Ste-Gudule, the church depicted here, and his prayers may also have been directed to Saint Gudula.

 

On the move

Anne here, and things are getting shaken up in my neck of the woods. I say "things" but really, I'm the one that's all shaken up. I've mentioned from time to time on this blog that I was decluttering — well, now it's the Big Event. If you've been following my personal blog, you'll see that I'm moving.

I've been waiting to get my little house renovated for years now — it badly needs it — and my plan was to move out to give the builder free rein to do it all at once — from replastering and painting walls and polishing floorboards to a complete new kitchen, laundry, bathroom and deck. 

But the builder has been nowhere in evidence, and hasn't contacted me for more than 18 months — and he told me back in 2018 that he would start in March 2019. But I know he's been working on friends' properties, so I finally got fed up, and since it's the second time my renovation plans have fallen through, I saw a house advertised for sale, had a rush of blood to my head, bit the bullet and bought it at auction — which was quite nerve-racking. And I still can't quite believe it.

It's a lovely house, the same era as my current one, but fully renovated with lovely polished floorboards and a gorgeous kitchen, and the only thing I will need to do when I move in is get a dog door put in for my Milly-dog. The garden is also much smaller, which will be easier for me to manage. 

But now I need to sell my house to pay for the new house, so an auction date has been set (most houses here are sold by auction) for next month, so I'm madly decluttering, sorting, carting stuff to the op-shop (charity shop — short for opportunity shop) and throwing stuff out.

The Art of the Book

Andrea here, thinking about books today. Okay, that’s nothing new. I think about books a LOT! But I’m thinking specifically about the art of books today. These days, more and more of us are reading digitally, and while that’s a wonderful convenience—having loads of books on a tablet or phone is a godsend for travel or being stuck in a waiting room or grocery line—we do lose some of the elemental essence of what makes reading such a visceral pleasure.

What got me to thinking about this was an article I came across the other on modern-day artists in Tuscany who are keeping the age-old crafts of fine bookmaking alive and well. (You can read the the story and feast on the pictures here.

From Page to Screen

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Christina here. Authors are often asked if we’d like our books made into film or a TV series. (Anne discussed this in one of her posts here). Silly question – of course we would! We can spend hours imagining exactly which actor we’d like to play our heroes (Chris Hemsworth usually for me, in case you were wondering) or actresses for the leading lady role. But personally, I’d rather see some of my favourite books by other authors being turned into movies. There are so many that would make absolutely wonderful viewing!

It's rare though that when it happens, it is done right. And by right, I mean that the film actually turns out to be as amazing as the story it’s based on. I am always very reluctant to watch adaptations because I’m invariably disappointed. The producer and/or screen writer often leave out details I consider crucial, or they invent some new sub-plot – or even major plot point – that wasn’t in the book to begin with. I find that infuriating because it’s not what I want to see!

Presidential Pets!

by Mary Jo

'Tis the Year of the Tiger at the White House as the Bidens have adopted an elegant gray tiger cat named Willow after Jill Biden's home town of Willow Grove.  As anyone who has read my books can guess, I'm a serious cat lover, and I was much taken by the story of how this little gray girl interrupted Dr. Jill during a stump speech in a barn in Pennsylvania during the 2020 presidential campaign. 

Apparently the two of them bonded immediately and Willow has been fostered since then, waiting for the right time to join the Biden household.  (Willow looks rather like my Smokey, who is also an elegant gray tabby.  In my book Once a Spy, a Smokey inspired gray tabby attached himself to the heroine and joined her household under the name Leo. Cats tend to move in like that. <G>  That's my Smokey to the right.)

A Book at Bedtime

Nicola here, talking today about listening to stories, not as audio books but as serializations. On 31^st January 1949 the first edition of BBC Radio’s "Book at Bedtime" was broadcast. It ran every night for 15 minutes between 10.45pm and 11pm. The first book that was serialized was John Buchan’s The Three Hostages, a rip-roaring adventure story written in 1924. In the months and years that followed, all sorts of literature from the classics to new releases has and continues to be featured on the program, although perhaps there hasn't been as much genre fiction as there might have been. In fact only a year or so ago the BBC admitted that they were looking for happier endings after noticing that listeners had been put off by “gratuitously violent and tragic stories.” Well, yeah – I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to drift off to sleep with images of violence or misery into my mind! 

According to The Times, a brief circulated to potential producers at the time stated: “We will always aim to select a variety but we would like to be offered more titles that are pure pleasure, diversion or even comedy. Happy endings are often a bit too rare in what we are asked to consider. We can listen to sad or disturbing stories if they are ultimately redemptive, but a gratuitously violent or tragic ending is upsetting, infuriating and can seem distasteful.” The note adds that “listeners rarely enjoy being cheated with ambiguity or uncertainty”, implying a preference for plotlines that are neatly resolved. Again, that's a yes from me; I don't mind stories where some elements are left unresolved for the reader or listener to decide on, but if that happened just before I was going to sleep I'd lie awake thinking about it!