Word Wenches

The WordWenches Have Moved

Hi everyone, Anne here, and this is the last Wench blog on the typepad platform.

We’re now using WordPress, which means the blog has a different internet address.  This is the new one.

https://wordwenches.com/
While you’re at it, bookmark the new address so you‘ll find us every time.

If you want the blog emailed to you, you need to go to the new site, and in the right hand column you will see this form. Pop in your email address, and the blog will come to you.  

(The image on your right is just a photo, you need to go to the new site to fill in the form and get our posts by email.)

We won't share your address with anyone.

Thanks so much.

See you on the new blog.

Anne Gracie (on behalf of the Word Wenches)

 

Dogs in Books

Anne here. We were talking about dogs and cats in books the other day, and though I've had several cats in my books, and I'm very fond of all animals, when it comes down to it, I'm generally for dogs, especially in books.

When I was a kid, I used to love Lassie and RinTinTin movies, and I snapped up any dog stories I could find. There was Finn the Wolfhound,  Old Yeller, Jack London's The Call of the Wild, Nip (a story about a collie.)

But in the main, they were angsty stories about dogs enduring hard times, and surviving, but . . . as a friend of mine's teenage son once told her, "I'm not reading any more dog stories; they always die at the end."  I remember howling at the end of Old Yeller. 

And I recall reading Nip in the back yard, and fretting about the terrible things he was enduring, and calling my collie, Bessie, over every few minutes so I could cuddle her — and comfort me. I couldn't find a web reference for that story and the book is in a box somewhere, so I can't even find the author's name, sorry.

But it doesn't need to be that way. Dogs can fulfil other functions in books and it doesn't have to break your heart. Georgette Heyer was a dog lover — I would know this even if I didn't know anything else about her because of the way she portrays dogs in her books. But here are two photos of her with her dogs (with thanks to Jennifer Kloester for them.)

In The Grand Sophy, for instance, Charles —who was pretty autocratic and unsympathetic at the start, clicks his fingers, and Sophy's dog, who doesn't usually take to strangers, immediately comes to him. And thus we know that Charles isn't as bad as he seems.

Two Winners!

Anne here, and I'm posting the names of the two people who've won a copy of my new book, The Rake's Daughter.

The first name was drawn from the many people who answered the impossible quiz on a book they hadn't yet read — such good sports you all were. The winner there was Alison B.

The second winner is Anne H, for leaving a comment about rakes on the interview Mary Jo did with me. Thank you to all those who shared their favorite rakes. 

I've emailed both winners privately.

Thank you to all who participated in the fun. The wenchly reader community is a truly wonderful group.

Anne Gracie chats about The Rake's Daughter

Mary Jo here. As always, I'm delighted to interview sister Word Wench Anne Grace on her delicious new book.  The Rake's Daughter  is second in her Brides of Bellaire Gardens series.  Besides being a lovely romance, it's a moving story of friendship and sisterhood.

The book was released yesterday, July 26th. 

MJP: Anne, will you tell us about  the set-up and setting for this series?

AG: The series is based around a large private garden in Mayfair, with access only from the back of the houses that surround it. In some of these house live young women, young women who will one day become brides . . . 

MJP:  How did Leo, Lord Salcott, a sober and hard working young lord, find himself landed with the guardianship of a young woman he's never even heard of?

AG: It was a mistake. The father of the two young women, the Rake of the title, meant to leave the guardianship to Leo's father, naming him "Josiah Leonard Thorne, the sixth earl of Salcott." But Leo's father was the fifth earl, and seeing both Leo and his father had the same Christian names, and his father had predeceased the rake, the document was legal.

MJP: Tell us about the two half-sisters, Clarissa and Isobel.

AG: Clarissa is the legitimate daughter. She is plain, shy, a little plump, and an heiress. Isobel, her illegitimate half sister, is beautiful, outspoken, and penniless.

The two lonely, motherless little girls met by accident, just before their ninth birthdays, and defying their father, who planned to dump the newly bereaved Isobel in the nearest orphanage, decided to stay together. You can read part of this scene here. The two sisters grew up together in the country, and are very loyal to each other.

A quiz on The Rake's Daughter

Anne here, and for your entertainment, here's another quiz on a book you haven't yet read, The Rake's Daughter, which comes out on July 26th. A few reviewers and some of the wenches have read it, but that's all. So it's not testing anything—you can only guess at the answers — it's just for fun.

I'm also trying to avoid spoilers here — it's intended to give you a little taste of the book to come, something a bit different from an excerpt or a blurb.

So here it is, a fun little quiz on a book you haven't read. Make a note of your answers, check them on the link at the bottom and come back and tell us how you went, and whether you enjoyed it or hated doing a quiz on something you can't know. I'll be giving a copy of The Rake's Daughter to someone who leaves a comment.

1)   When Sir Bartleby Studley discovers he has a young illegitimate daughter whose mother has just died, he:—     

a) immediately makes arrangements to adopt her.
b) gives her to one of his farm tenants to raise.
c) decides to dump her in the nearest orphanage.
d) decides to send her back to her maternal grandparents.

2)   When Clarissa Studley, almost 9, meets her illegitimate half-sister :—

a) she's initially jealous and wants her gone.
b)  she's upset because her father cares more for the girl than for her.  
c)  she decides to keep her.
d)  she's angry because Izzy is pretty and she's not.

Achieving balance

Anne here, and today, for some reason, I woke this morning feeling a bit gloom-and-doom-y. You know how it happens — news headlines come at you from all directions and you start despairing at the state of the world. Mass shootings, dreadful laws, inept, lazy or corrupt governments, Covid deaths, poverty, racism, injustice, global warming and people's refusal to face it, and . . .  I could could go on. But I won't.

The media is so eager to throw disaster and ghastliness at us, and it's pretty easy to sink into negative thinking, but though it can creep around the edge of my consciousness, I'm determined not to let it in. Some days you really have to work at achieving some balance to the gloom and doom. Today was one of those days for me.

So what did I do to counteract the gloom and doom? The first thing was to take the dog out for a good walk. It was a cold and showery day but luckily we hit a lovely patch of sunshine.

Dogs are great for mental health  — they're funny and silly and affectionate and they live absolutely in the moment, and find joy in the smallest things, which is a great life lesson. And I am lucky in that I have some lovely areas where I can walk her. 

We started off walking on a narrow dirt track beside a creek, and she loved that, diving in here and there to investigate all sorts of interesting smells. But then the little path got increasingly muddy and when everything was squishing wetly beneath my feet, I decided we'd head for  higher ground and walk on the (gasp) actual path. Yes, poor spirited of me, I know and not nearly as interesting, but strangely I prefer my feet dry. I had to make her sit for this photo, because otherwise she'd continue darting around gleefully — and heading back to muddy joy.

June What We're Reading!

Mary Jo here…

…with the Wenches' ever popular "What we're reading" blog.  Dig out your credit cards, we're going for a joy ride!

I've always known that Jennifer Ashley is a very talented, prolific author who writes historical romances, paranormals, and historical mysteries, but I hadn't found her Leonidas the Gladiator series, written under her Ashley Gardner pseudonym.  So far there are only two novels and a novella, but more are coming.  The first book is Blood of a Gladiator.

Leonidas is the premier gladiator in Rome, a rock star fighter who is recognized in the streets, but he has reached the point where he can't face any more killing.  That is the moment when he receives his freedom from slavery and can finally quit being a gladiator and make his own life--if he can figure out how.

He has no financial resources, but an unknown benefactor gives him a modest apartment and a slave of his own: Cassia, who is a scribe.  Illiterate Leonidas doesn't know what to do with  a slave who does doesn't cook or do housework, but she can help him find jobs and is very good at negotiating contracts and making sure they get paid. 

Initially Cassia is afraid of him, but he's a good guy and doesn't ravish her and gradually they develop a bond of trust.  And have to deal with unexpected murders.  Ashley Gardner creates a wonderful sense of place and what it would be like to live in Rome during the reign of Nero.  But the best part is the characters and their slowing developing relationship. 

 

Dreaming in trees

Anne here, and today, for something a little bit different, I'm going to talk about trees. I'm very fond of big old trees and spent much of my childhood up in a tree, dreaming, or reading or surveying my imaginary kingdon. I remember once, when we moved house and I was feeling really unhappy about it — it was in the city, and having come from the country where I roamed far and wide at will, I didn't like the look of all those cramped streets and houses and roads.

But then I found a big old tree in the back yard, behind the garage, and I immediately climbed it and found a spot to sit in it and gaze out over the rooftops, and that made me feel much happier.
This is a favorite painting by a favorite artist, Anita Klein and I think you will see why I love it so much. 

When Europeans came to this country a couple of centuries ago, they set about cutting down thousands of big, ancient trees. That legacy horrifies me, even though I understand that they needed to clear land  to grow food, and that the native hardwood timber was good for building, but even so, some of the old photos are so devastating to look at, knowing that they cut down trees that were hundreds of years old.

Ask A Wench: our noble ancestors!

Jean Hasbrouck House

Pat here:

The wenches thank Jane Irish Nelson for this fabulous question: Have you traced your family history? If so, what interesting stories have you discovered? And have you ever incorporated those stories into your books? Jane, you’ve won a copy of one of my books!

Wenches, being the history nuts we are, have delved into the lives and stories of our ancestors where we can and have some fabulous tales to tell…

Except me. I may have mentioned previously that both my parents were orphaned, my mother at birth and my father when he was young. I never had biological grandparents and have no family stories to tell. But after doing the DNA search on one of the genealogy sites and consulting with a cousin, I’ve traced bits and pieces. My father’s ancestors were deeply rooted in the Hudson

Huguenot cemetery

Valley of New York, well back to the original settlers. (There was a good deal of intermarriage in these early families. The same names pop up frequently on the tree.)  One of them has even written a small book with all the research he has done, although I seem to have lost the link. I have pages of research notes from family members, and all I can say is that I’m pretty sure that side of the family came from a lot of vain storytellers with too much time on their hands. <G> If I follow their irregular notes, I am descended from half of European nobility.

A panel discussion

Anne here. I recently drove up to Ballarat, a large former gold-mining city in regional Victoria, to take part in a library event — a panel discussing "The Anatomy of Romance" — my first live event in several years, thanks to CoVid.

It was chaired by historical novelist Darry Fraser, and the other speakers were Tobias Madden and me. (Toni Jordan was to have attended but she was ill and had to cancel.) 

It was a very chilly day — icy and wet — and I feared that nobody would want to venture out to hear a library discussion. But as the organizing librarian said, "Ballarat people are used to this kind of weather," and so it proved when more than fifty people showed up. At any rate I was very glad that at the last minute packing I'd tossed in my Irish ruana (the "sea-violet" wrap I was wearing.) It's soft and light and beautifully warm.

What We Read in May

Anne here, and it's that time again, where we share the books we've read and enjoyed in the last month. Brace your credit cards . . . 

We start with Christina:
My favourite read this month was Sue Moorcroft’s latest novel Summer at the French Café.  This story is an absolute delight and exactly what I needed right now to sweep me away from real life! It’s a wonderful tale of learning to trust, the importance of being open and honest with everyone, and the healing power of love. The reader can’t help but empathise with the hard-working heroine Kat from the start. She’s independent and capable, but with a positive outlook on life, and she never complains even when things go decidedly pear-shaped. A child of divorced parents, she has lots of emotional baggage, but for the most part, she manages to ignore it. Then the hero Noah arrives on the scene and he seems almost too good to be true. He has his own problems to contend with, but instead of charging in like a bull in a china shop, he stops to consider the best way of solving them. I fell head over heels in love with him – how can you not love a man as determined as he is to do the right thing for his very sensitive 8-year old daughter, while at the same time being the perfect boyfriend? Kat has to decide whether she dares to take a chance and believe that he is every bit as great as he seems, and I was rooting for this couple all the way. This is definitely the perfect summer story!  (If the links above don't work for you, try this one.)

I also very much enjoyed Under One Roof, a novella by Ali Hazelwood which she calls “STEMist”. The heroine Mara is an environmental engineer and extremely brilliant at what she does, but she’s fighting against sexism and prejudice in her workplace. She’s just been left a half share in a house by her former mentor, but she hadn’t reckoned with having to share it with the woman’s nephew Liam. At first glance he is everything she hates – a corporate lawyer working for a company that has no regard for the environment whatsoever. They try to co-exist as house owners, but drive each other nuts. But everything is not as it seems, and slowly but surely they begin to find common ground. I absolutely loved the chemistry between these two and watching the romance develop. This is only the first novella in a series of three and I can’t wait for the other two!

Pat Rice tells us about: SEVEN DAYS OF US by Francesca Hornak.

The basic story here is that Olivia Birch has been treating some kind of plague in Africa and when she comes home for Christmas, she has to quarantine for a week. So her family quarantines with her in their stately old, crumbling manor in Norfolk. Olivia is the no-nonsense doctor out to save the world. Andrew, her father, was a journalist who once thought he could save the world. Now he’s a food critic. Emma, his wife, gave up her dreams to be a mother and has buried herself in tradition. Phoebe is the younger sister with no purpose other than getting married. Into this suffocating atmosphere drops Jesse, an American son fathered by Andrew while he was in a war zone. He had been given up for adoption and is now searching for his birth parents. Nuclear explosion ensues.

Make no mistake about it, this is a deliberately literary novel, so you won’t get your fun and games happy ending, but the writing is positively compelling. The reader is dragged into their mixed-up lives and really needs to know how all these good, but confused, people fix themselves or each other. We root them on as they grope about in their darkness. I can promise that they find a new kind of light at the end of their week of togetherness, so it’s well worth diving into for your escapism addiction.

Marriages of Convenience

Anne here, and today I'm musing once more on tropes in romance novels. I say "once more", because some years ago I blogged about tropes here, and some years before that the wenches answered a reader question about the "chick in pants" trope, and had so much to say we had to split the post into two. Part 1 is here and part 2 is here.

But today I'm talking about the marriage of convenience (MoC) trope. The first convenient marriage story I ever read was Georgette Heyer's The Convenient Marriage, and I loved it to bits — and it started a lifetime fascination.

I've practically made a career out of it, though not all my book marriages were convenient: some were forced marriages, and others were . . . shall we say unexpected marriages. But what they almost all have in common is that the hero and heroine marry first as virtual strangers, and then get to know each other.

On "Stuff"

Anne here, and with only a few days to go until I leave my old house and move into the new one, I'm panicking slightly. So I hope you'll forgive me if this post is short, and not exactly book-related.

I was talking to a friend about how shocked I've been, realizing the amount of "stuff" I've accumulated over the years. Okay, I have too many books (and yes, despite those memes circulating that claim there is no such thing, there is such a thing as too many books!  But there's also a lot of "stuff".

The thing is, I'm not particularly materialistic — I'm not much of a shopper, I'm not terribly fashionable and I have no interest in owning the latest of anything. And yet still I have too much stuff.

My friend is the same. She's only been in her house a couple of years but is feeling as though she already has too much stuff. She's also not much for buying the latest "must-haves" but what I realized is, we both love finding bargains or beautiful things at charity shops, second-hand shops and fetes or auctions. 

So my theory is that at heart, at a bone-deep level, we're still hunter-gatherers. That's why in our society, most shopping is not so much a necessity, but a pastime, a hobby, a cultural social activity.

A Winner

Anne here with a quick Sunday post to announce the winner of the giveaway of AM Stuart's book, Evil in Emerald.

The winner is Karin. Congratulations, Karin — there should be an email in your in-box announcing it.

Thank you to all of you who read the post and commented.

We wenches really appreciate our readers.

If you missed the interview with AM Stuart, it's here.

 

AM Stuart—Evil in Emerald

Anne here, and today I'm talking to Alison Stuart, who, as AM Stuart, writes historical crime set in 1910 Singapore, and as Alison Stuart writes Australian historical romance set in colonial Australia, and a variety of other historicals set in different time periods. You can find them listed on her website.

I interviewed Alison when her first historical crime novel, Singapore Sapphire, was published in the USA, and you can read that interview here.  

Her latest book, third in the series, is Evil in Emerald. But if you haven't read any of her books, you might want to start at the first in the series, Singapore Sapphire. 

Anne: Welcome back to the Word Wenches, Alison, and congratulations on the publication of the third Harriet Gordon and Inspector Curran story. The first title contained sapphires, the second rubies, and now we're onto emeralds. What's the significance?

Unlikable Characters

Anne here, and today I'm responding to a question that Annette N. sent in — and for that she will receive a free book. Thanks, Annette.

Her question was: "Is it hard to write characters you don't like? Do you run into people in your stories who simply are not someone you want to know well? I can see enjoying writing characters who are fun and charming and simply nice people. But, how difficult is it to spend time with someone you dislike — a lot? And if they are supposed to be villainous, how evil do you make them?"

I like to have a variety of characters in my books — it makes for a more realistic setting — so invariably there are some unlikable characters. I think if everyone were nice in a book, it would get boring.

Unlikable characters, nasty or just difficult people, and outright villains are grist to a storyteller's mill. They can make a story more interesting or exciting, and when you have your hero or heroine come up against them, whether it's an imperious dowager, a waspish society shrew, or an evil villain lurking behind a smooth facade, confronting them brings out aspects of the hero or heroine's character that might not otherwise take place. (I'm not saying that Maggie Smith's dowager countess is unlikable — indeed most of us love her — but she is difficult, and doesn't that add to our enjoyment?)

To be honest, I generally enjoy writing the nasty ones — it's a nice break from writing characters I want readers to love. I can have fun with them. For instance I often include lovable and eccentric old ladies in my books, but in my Convenient Marriage series it was fun to have an old lady, Aunt Agatha, who was a right old tartar.

For instance when the soldier hero asks for her help with his orphaned young half-sisters she writes this:

 

Simple pleasures

Anne here, and today I am talking about simple, everyday things that we can do to make us feel better. It was inspired by this post that I saw the other day, which gave a list of small everyday ways to boost our happiness. And in the chaos of packing to move house, it really appealed to me.

The article included things like putting up images, photos or pictures that please you. Writing a "life truth" or a note to self. One example was ‘Eat chocolate at 3pm’. I could force myself to do that, I'm sure. (heh heh) (Photo by eniko kis on Unsplash )

Actually I do put up little signs to myself sometimes. The small card below is a particularly helpful reminder now I'm clearing out my house. I was also reminded of feng shui principles when rereading Mary Jo's China Bride recently.

The article suggested list-making — not so much "to do" lists but "done lists" to give you a sense of achievement. (eg Hey, I ate that 3pm chocolate! Go me!)

Another suggestion was to invest in several pairs of reading glasses. That one made me smile and nod. I have cheap reading glasses stashed in every room of the house. Saves a lot of running around searching.

One suggestion that made me laugh was to read a book. I don't think anyone here would have to be reminded of how much pleasure there is in reading.

But it got me thinking about the small everyday things that contribute to my own happiness.

Comfort Food!

by Mary Jo

In complicated times, we need our comfort foods!  What foods and drinks do you reach for when you need soothing?

Nicola is first:

I’ve been a comfort eater ever since I was a teen and over the last couple of years my eating did rather spiral out of control as a result of all the stresses in the world, macro-sized ones and personal challenges. One bag of crisps became an entire family sized bag I had to myself and the same went for chocolate. When I realised that I needed an entirely new set of clothes to accommodate me and my eating habit, I realised I had to stop.

So I signed up for a programme to help me change my mindset towards food. It wasn’t a diet because it didn’t need willpower, which was good because I don’t have any when it comes to eating. Instead it sort of reset my attitude towards food. So the brilliant thing about it is that I can still eat all the lovely comfort foods I enjoy – cheese and onion crisps, chocolate mini-eggs, hot buttered toast – but as treats rather than in huge quantities. And I’ve discovered the comfort of eating stuff that’s actually good for me: luxury jacket potatoes, lovely rich casseroles in winter.

But when it comes to the ultimate in comfort food then I seek out baklava. For those who haven’t yet discovered it, baklava is a layered filo pastry dessert filled with chopped nuts (my favourite being pistachios), sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon and cardamom. When it’s warm the filo pastry is all soft and gooey with the honey mixture, and the spices are subtle and delicious. You can cut it into square pieces to eat as sweet treats – as large or small as you like. It’s scrumptious and there’s a wonderful recipe for it here:

 

On Madness

Anne here, and today I'm musing on the subject of madness. I've always liked the Regency expression "blue-devilled" and this drawing by Cruikshank illustrates it perfectly. But blue-devilled, depressed, beset by anxiety, or mad — it's a fine line that separates them.
You might think madness is a strange subject for a Regency romance writer to be talking about, but recall if you will, the Regency period (1811—1820) came about because King George III was believed to be mad, and was incarcerated and treated for insanity. His eldest son, the Prince of Wales, was thus declared the Regent and ruled in his place until the king died.

These days some researchers believe that the poor king had a disease called porphyria, and was not insane at all. Porphyria involves a problem in the production of heme, which is a component of the protein in red blood cells. Heme production, which occurs in the bone marrow and liver, involves eight different enzymes and a shortage (deficiency) of a specific enzyme determines the type of porphyria. One of the possible symptoms of porphyria are mental changes, such as anxiety, confusion, hallucinations, disorientation or paranoia. (Information from this site.)

But the question is still being debated, and some historians today believe the king was insane after all, and exhibited classic signs of psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder.  More information about this theory here.

Ask the Wenches

Anne here.

This is a quick Sunday post, calling for wenchly readers to send us any questions they'd like to ask the wenches.

We're running low on our "Ask-A-Wench" questions from readers, so if you have any burning questions you'd like answered by us, post them below, or send them to our trusty wench wrangler, Laura.

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.

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.

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.

Editors (part 1)

Anne here, and as I've recently sent in the final revisions on my latest book, I thought I'd talk about the editing process. I'm mainly talking about "traditional publishing" which means I'm with one of the "big" publishers, in my case, Berkley, which is part of Penguin, NY. But I'll also mention "indie" publishing, where authors are doing it for themselves.

There are three levels of editing — the structural edit, copyediting, and proof-reading. These days it's all done electronically, and each part is done by a different person. Today I'm talking about the editor who does the structural edit.

The structural edit

People often expect an editor to be a bit like some school-teachers used to be, happily slashing away with a red (or blue) pen, changing sentences, and in some cases, rewriting whole chunks. In the days we had printed manuscripts and got them posted back with editorial comments written on them. I used to take them to library talks, and people were always surprised how few comments and corrections there were. 

There are still editors who do that kind of editing, I believe, but I've never had one, and I've had nine editors so far in my writing career. (That's not because I've driven them bonkers, by the way — in publishing editors tend to move around a bit, both within the company and moving to different publishers. And having babies. And I have moved publishers, too.)

Most editors these days don't correct typos, or make small or large changes to sentences or chapters. Theirs is more a "big picture" edit. They read for story concept, character development, plot, theme, structure, and so on. They spot strengths, flaws and weaknesses in the manuscript and make suggestions to make it a better book. They can see a manuscript much more clearly than the writer, who is usually too close to it — it's hard, when you've just finished writing a book to distinguish the wood from the trees.  A really good structural editor will help a writer lift a story from competent to good, from good to outstanding. 

AAW—what we're watching

Anne here, and today, because so many of us have been spending more time indoors than usual, the wenches are answering the question: Seen any good TV shows or movies lately?

Christina says – I’m afraid the answer to that is no - and not for lack of trying! I managed several visits to the cinema in the run up to Christmas but was sadly disappointed each time. First, I saw the new James Bond film, No Time to Die, which was OK but I absolutely hated the ending!

Soon after, I was seriously underwhelmed by that the new Marvel film, Eternals. Then I watched the new version of Dune. Admittedly this was beautifully made and perfectly captured the book IMO, but sadly it was part one of two (where the second hasn’t even been made yet!). Why? That’s like selling me half a book and saying I should be happy with that because it’s good so far.  And don’t get me started on A Castle for Christmas with Cary Elwes (doing a bad Scottish accent) and Brooke Shields. Although the setting was stunning, I wish I’d just watched The Princess Bride instead for the umpteenth time – at least Cary was perfect in that! Finally, I will grudgingly admit to enjoying the new Disney movie Jungle Cruise, although it tries a bit too hard to be like Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, a lot of fun!

Really, I think the only saving grace was my discovery of the TV series Endeavour (the Young Morse).  This is a prequel to the Inspector Morse series, set in Oxford and based on the books by Colin Dexter. One night I happened to catch an episode of this, which is all about the start of his career. He’s a young detective, quiet and introverted, but incredibly intelligent. Of course he always solves the murders and shows up his superiors (who don’t appreciate that for obvious reasons). And he’s just a really likeable character who you can’t help but root for. If you like crime drama that’s not too gory and you haven’t seen it yet I’d recommend it.

Pat says: While waiting for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel  to return from break, we’ve been watching a lot of old detective shows, mostly on Britbox, I think, although some can be found on Netflix.

Ninth day of Christmas

Anne here and that's the tree from which I'll be picking some peaches any day now.

It's the 2nd of January, and I'm feeling very lazy. Christmas is over, the New Year has been ushered in, and many good and hopeful wishes exchanged. But it's the ninth day of Christmastide, and I'm watching the front door warily. Thankfully nobody has yet sent me large numbers of birds and people, but if eight lords a'leaping or nine gyrating ladies came knocking on my door, frankly, I just wouldn't answer.

It's a kind of an in-between time. My friends who are Orthodox/Eastern Catholic Christians are preparing for their Christmas Celebrations which will start on or around 6th January. Some start with a Christmas Eve gathering, and others have their big day on the 7th January.  (The 6th January was Christmas Day before 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII adjusted the "Julian Calendar" (named after Julius Caesar who had made July his own special month) to make it more accurate.  The new calendar then became known as the Gregorian calendar. This caused a change that had many people feeling that somehow extra days had been "stolen" from them. (Thanks to Mike for pointing out the scrambled way I explained this the first time.) The Julian Calendar is still used in some parts of the Orthodox church. 

I used to envy my Greek, Macedonian and Ukranian school friends for having two lots of holidays. These days, I envy them less, as they go into a mad frenzy of baking and cooking in the lead-up to the big day. And this is usually in hot weather — the last two days here it was in the high 30'sC (around 100F) which is NOT good baking weather. (In the photo is a Ukranian friend's kitchen where she's making varenyky and that's only a small part of what she cooks up.)

I live in a city with a huge population of Greeks (the biggest Greek city outside of Greece) so we know all about Theofania on 6th January, and the Blessing of the Waters ceremony. It's a lot easier here for the young men to dive for the cross, as it's summer. When I saw it years ago in Greece, they had to break the ice before diving in. Brrr!

And then I have a couple of Chinese friends who are gearing up for Chinese New Year (the Lunar New Year) which this year starts on 1st February. There's a fair bit of preparation involved in that, too.

It's also the time of year people make resolutions, and most years I set about decluttering my house. For some reason, I attract clutter. I tell myself that each time I bring something into the house, I should take an equal-sized or greater thing out. But I don't.

I started with a bang in 2020 — and then, CoVid, and the boxes of Stuff I'd amassed stayed in my house, as the charity shops had closed, due to Lockdown. And when they finally reopened, they only wanted clothing — I guess a lot of people had spent their Lockdown time clearing out cupboards. And the same thing happened in 2021 and so far I've only managed to give away a small proportion of what needs to go. The hardest thing is getting rid of books, but I've run out of space, so it has to be done. Trouble is, even the libraries won't take donated books any more . . . But hope springs eternal, and I'll try again to clear some of my Stuff away this year.

In the meantime though, I'm feeling lazy, so today I might just curl up with a good book. What about you? How are you passing these post-Christmas, post-New Year days?

 

Boxing Day

Anne here, and it's the 26th of December — St Stephen's Day, and traditionally the occasion in England where church alms boxes were opened and the contents distributed between the poor of the parish. It's the day when Good King Wenceslas gave the poor man meat, wine and wood — "on the feast of Stephen."

It's also called Boxing Day, and this term is still used today in the UK, Australia, Canada, NZ and other commonwealth countries. In Regency times, this was the day when the affluent folk presented servants and tenants and the local poor with "Christmas Boxes."

In practice this could range from money, leftover food from the Christmas feast, to discarded clothing, and all sorts. It's the origin of the Christmas bonus and the custom of leaving out out small gifts for those who deliver to our homes — the paperboy, the postman, the milkman etc. It was also a day when servants who'd been kept busy on Christmas Day could have a day off to celebrate Christmas with their own families. 

But for aristocrats, it was also a day for hunting, donning the "pink" coats and heading out in the crispy dawn to hunt down a hapless fox. (Yes, the coats are actually red, but those in the know refer to the colour as pink, I know not why.) These days fox hunting is banned in the UK, and "drag hunting" has replaced it, though illegal hunts still take place.

Christmas Quiz #3

Anne here, and for your entertainment here's another historical Christmas quiz, though this time the questions are not wholly restricted to the Regency era.

As usual, you will need a pen and paper to jot down your choices, then at the end, click on the link at the bottom of the page to check your answers. Then come back and tell us how you went and which snippet of historical knowledge you found most interesting. 

1)   Who could be called the original Christmas Grinch because of his hatred of Christmas? (Note: this was centuries before the word grinch was used.)    

    a) King George III.     
    b) Benjamin Disraeli.
    c) Oliver Cromwell.
    d) Charles Dickens

2) What was banned by the Puritans in the 1660s?

     a) The eating of pork during the 12 days of Christmas.     
     b)  Plum pudding.
     c)  Mistletoe.
     d)  Fox hunting

3) Why was the fourth Sunday before Christmas called Stir Up Sunday?

    a) It was the day when the first earth sod was broken and wine poured in.
    b)  It was the traditional day for the making of Christmas pudding.
    c) Ministers gave a diatribe against sin, a kind of spiritual purification before Christmas.
    d) The day when Christmas wassail was traditionally brewed.

4) Why was George I called 'the Pudding King'?

Favorite Christmas Stories

by Mary Jo

The original Christmas story is of the journey to Bethlehem and the newborn infant who was laid in a manger, and the holiday has been inspiring Christmas stories ever since. They are stories of warmth, family, and love, of kindness and reconciliation.  One of the most famous is the poem "'Twas The Night Before Christmas" written in 1823 by Clement Clark Moore.  The depictions of Santa Claus, the chimney, and the sleigh pulled by reindeer have helped shape the imagery of American Christmases ever after.