Word Wenches

Ask a Wench for February: The Perfect Romance Convention

Joanna here, thinking how nice it would be to get away from all this rain.

Which leads to how the Wenches from time to time go to Writers’ Conferences where they attend sessions that help make them better writers and give talks that help other writers do the same, but mostly they hang out in coffee shops and gossip with friends because that’s what folks do at conferences.

So ... what would be the most interesting spot for a conference if you could pick any time and place whatsoever?

Some thoughts on this.

 

Pat:  Oh my, this poses entirely too many choices. I’ll simply go with the first one that pops to mind—

Ranelagh. Maybe Mozart is playing
(Click on the image for a close up_

Ranelagh Gardens in its heyday, about 1765 when the likes of Mozart played in a rotunda painted by Canaletto.  Vauxhall would be another choice, but I like warmth, and the rotunda was heated.

Neither of them are available today in all their glory, so it would be a great joy to see how they looked as our characters wandered about, rubbing elbows with dukes and princes in the case of Ranelagh, and with maids and merchants if we choose Vauxhall.

We could have sessions with genuine lords and ladies and ask them all those eternal questions on how they wish to be addressed (do you really wish to be addressed as Your Grace, Duke? Or would your closest friend address you by the name you had growing up, Kingsley, as in Marquess of?). I would not presume to give a talk on the address question, but I would be happy to speak to The Future and Women’s Rights in Our Novels, if asked.

Iceland – In the Footsteps of the Vikings (Part II)

Christina here. Today I continue the tale of my recent journey to Iceland. (You can find Part I here):-

A trip to Iceland would not be complete without a visit to two special places - Thingvellir (Þingvellir) and the Geysers. We drove south east to Thingvellir first, the place where the Vikings held their annual meetings (Alþingi) to dispense justice and decide on laws. It's a natural rock formation, a bit like a canyon with an amazing waterfall – Öxarárfoss – on one side. In a spectacular setting up on a hill overlooking a huge lake nearby, the waterfall came as a complete surprise. It’s hidden away among the rock formations that form two curtain walls, like fortifications on a castle. Views over the surrounding landscape are out of this world. There is a large grassy plateau below, where the Vikings taking part in the Alþingi would have raised their tents and camped out. When we were there, the place was incredibly windy and I nearly froze to death as the rocks acted like a wind tunnel. It was so cold!

Things improved at our next destination, the famous geyser Strokkur which wasn’t all that far away. The whole area smelled like rotten eggs because of the sulphur in the water, but it was fascinating to see the geyser erupt every five to seven minutes without warning. It was the only one at present, as another one nearby is dormant right now. All around were little smoking springs, as if the brown soil itself was smouldering. There were also pools of various sizes, beautiful and very inviting, but at 80-100 degrees extremely dangerous! You can’t even stick your hand in or your skin would burn off. Strokkur was not as big as I had imagined it, but still impressive and I’m so glad I got to see it.

Iceland – In the Footsteps of the Vikings (Part I)

Christina here. When I planned out my current Viking time travel series a couple of years ago, it seemed like a great idea to have one of them set in Iceland. This massive island in the North Atlantic was more or less empty before the Vikings arrived to settle there around 860-870 AD. As my story took place in 875 AD, it made sense to have my characters be part of those first groups of settlers.

Of course, this would necessitate a research trip to Iceland – I’d wanted to visit for a long time so great excuse, right? Then Covid happened. For 18 months I waited to see if travelling would be possible again, and in the meantime, I had to work on my story using only information gleaned from books, travel blogs and other peoples’ remembrances. Definitely not ideal!

By early June this year, I had less than a month to finalise the edits for the book (TEMPTED BY THE RUNES) when at last the borders opened and travel was allowed! I jumped at the chance and with my husband quickly organised a trip which, despite hassle with paperwork and tests, turned out to be magical, so I thought I’d tell you about our journey. Here’s the first part:-

The main Icelandic airport, Keflavik, is about an hour’s drive away from the capital Reykjavik. First impressions of Iceland were of vast skies and a strange, flat and rather barren landscape with volcanic rock covered in moss, but with mountains in the middle. One of them, Fagradalshraun, recently erupted, but by the time we were there, all you could see was a cloud of smoke in the distance.

Ask A Wench - One Special Book

Nicola here, introducing the July Ask A Wench. This month we’re talking about a book that is special to each of us, whether it’s something that was recommended to us, or a book that was given to us a child, or something we came across on our own that sparked a new reading interest. The results are fascinating and varied, funny and poignant, and we hope you will enjoy them and contribute a special book of your own to the discussion! As you might imagine, choosing just one book was a real challenge to such a bunch of avid readers and the horrified response was "One book only?" We hope you don't find the task as hard as we did but we think you just might...

Mary Jo writes:

Georgette Heyer, the gateway drug

When Regency addicts gather, the topic of "My First Heyer!" often comes up. I found my first Heyer when I was in college and browsing for cheap books in the bargain basement of the Economy Bookstore in downtown Syracuse, NY.  I didn't know it was illegal to sell stripped books, but as a poor student, five cent books were appealing and they had a lot by this Heyer person.

 After much perusing, I walked out with Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle, which looked like an interesting parody of the Gothic romances. 

 And that day, I changed my future, because that led me to fall in love with Regency romances.  Heyer's voice and wit and characterizations and plotting appealed to me in a way that the historical romances of the day didn't. I read and reread my favorites, and in the process developed something of a Regency voice myself.

Which is why years later, when I got my first computer and learned how to use the word processing program and decided to find if I could write the stories that were always jumbling in my head, I started writing the book that became The Diabolical Baron. 

 By sheer chance, I'd found the genre niche where I fit during a time when the romance genre was expanding and editors were looking for new voices. And in the process, I found a career as a writer that had once been only the vaguest of dreams.

 I've written a whole lot of books since then, including fantasy, Georgian, Victorian, contemporaries, fantasy, and Regency fantasy YA.  But by and large, I've stayed true to Regencies because it's such a great period to work in.

 And it all started with a five cent stripped novel by Georgette Heyer…

 Andrea:

I was a senior in high school, and I don’t remember how the topic came up, but my Mother and I began discussing books. Now, my mother was an avid reader, but her tastes ran to The New Yorker and non-fiction books. She didn’t read a lot of novels. However, she had once told me that she polished her English when she first came to this country (she was from Switzerland and came to NYC to attend Pratt Institute, an art college) by going to the public library and asking the librarian to give her some of the classic works in English literature. So, when I started talking about books we were reading in English class and what I was really enjoying, she asked in an offhand sort of way what I thought of Pride and Prejudice.

I paused for a moment and said, “Umm, I’ve never read that." Her eyebrows shot up in shock. “You’ve never read Austen?” (I was ashamed to say I hadn’t.) “You must!” she intoned, in a tone that was more of an order than a suggestion. “Get it tomorrow at the library. I think you’ll like it.”

Well, I did . . . and I did (like it, that is—or rather, loved it.)  Of course I immediately ran out and read all the others, and fell in love with the Regency romance. it took me a little longer to discover Heyer, and then the Signet Regencies, so it was P&P that ultimately changed my life.  That I was drawn into writing by the classc Regency romance tropes is all because of Austen. And as footnote, our local library has a well-known summer sale of used books (it’s huge, and people come from all around New England to browse through the huge tents set up on the lawns) and next time it came around, my Mother bought me a lovely multi- volume set from the 1920s of Austen’s novels. I still have it, and it's one of my special book treasures.

Christina:

I get very fed up/bored/annoyed with people who denigrate romantic fiction, as if it’s some kind of lesser type of reading material, so I retaliate by being biased against so called literary fiction. That means I don’t normally buy Booker Prize winners or anything recommended by the posh literary reviewers in papers like the Sunday Times. However, a friend once gave me Possession by A S Byatt (which had just won the Booker Prize) and told me I had to read it. I said thank you, of course, without actually having any intention to do so, but eventually I figured I’d better in case my friend asked me what I thought of it. And OMG, I was completely blown away! Yes, it was very literary, with incredible prose and long Victorian style poems, but the actual story (or stories plural as it’s a dual timeline novel) were fantastic. I was totally spellbound and later watched the film of the same name as well, which I thought was a wonderful adaptation of the book. So I guess this taught me to be less judgemental in my choice of reading material and that you never know where your next great read is going to come from. I would recommend Possession to anyone who wants a truly epic love story. Here is a photo of my copy - I bought myself the first edition as a treat.

Anne:

This is such a hard question — I have so many special books that I simply can't make up my mind. But if I narrowed it down to childhood beloved books, I'd have to say The House at Pooh Corner and Winnie the Pooh, by AA Milne, which I knew chunks of by heart, well before I could even read. My parents and older siblings used to read the stories aloud, and it taught me that books could make me laugh. Those books are full of wonderful humor and gentle wisdom. I've never grown out of reading them — they speak to adults as well as children.

Many years later, when I was teaching adults how to read, I remembered the lesson of those AA Milne books — that reading could be fun. So much of the curriculum was about serious practical reading and writing, and it never occurred to my adult students that books and reading could be anything other than work. So I did my best to find things to make them laugh, or take their breath away, so that reading was not just something hard and boring they had to do, but was something that could also be a pleasure. Thank you AA Milne, and Pooh and Piglet and Eeyore and Wol and all the rest of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. And thank you to my family who read those stories aloud, over and over.

Pat here:

Since I’m normally surrounded by less experienced readers, I spend more time recommending books than having people mentioning them to me. Although, I once had an elderly neighbor recommend the Pollyanna books. She brought me a stack of them when I was twelve. By that time, I was reading the likes of ATLAS SHRUGGED, and Pollyanna was more than a wee bit twee for cynical me. But I was desperate for reading material back then and would read cereal boxes if handed one.

 My one great story recommendation—which was great at the time and wouldn’t be so great now—was way back in the late 70s. I was a young mother, a fan of literary and historical fiction, with a limited book budget. The library generally provided what I needed, but I liked having a paperback when we traveled. So as I stared at the array of colorful covers at our local Kmart, a little blue-haired old lady pointed at one historical, but slightly spicy cover, and whispered, “Get this one. It’s really good.” So I bought it. That book was the FLAME AND THE FLOWER.

 I had never read anything other than classic literary romance before, so I was captivated—and a bit wide-eyed at the graphic scenes. I went on from there to grab every historical romance I could find, learned which ones I liked, and when I couldn’t find them—started writing them for myself. There was no turning back after that. So there was one recommendation that made a difference!

(and the image is of that original copy that set my career in motion!)

Susan writes:

I'll pick just one among the many books that I have found unforgettable, books that have had a profound impact on me as a person and as a writer -- I could go way back to Pippi Longstocking (hey, I was six, that book turned my life around!) or Jane Eyre (in high school, I read it over and over, literally would close it and start it again). Those and more are on a special keeper shelf that I'll tote around with me until I'm, well, not around anymore. Today I'll choose a more recent read from that shelf: Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers was a profound reading experience for me. It is the story of four women among the 900 Jews on Masada just before the Romans arrived to place them under siege. The power of the story, the characters, the writing, spoke deeply to me--I've rarely been so completely immersed in a novel. The story is vibrant, gritty, whole cloth, the characters walking that landscape so strong and real that the book displaced the world around me. Part of its impact for me is that it not only pulled me in, but demanded something of me, the little reader in her safe little world -- I came to love these characters, cared about them, felt dread and hope for them. Hoffman weaves such a tight net of reality with language, image, and historical authenticity that I was in awe--and more than that, I realized the story was asking courage of me. The Dovekeepers is a powerful reading experience and I found it unforgettable. I will one day draw up my courage again and give it another read. It will be worth it. 

 

Nicola: I've mentioned before that my grandmother had a big collection of romance books hidden away at the back of the wardrobe in her spare room which I discovered at about the age of eleven. One of the books on the shelf was Madam, Will You Talk, by Mary Stewart. I'd already discovered the Regency genre via Nanna's collection of Georgette Heyer books and now it was the turn of Romantic suspense. As you might imagine, this opened up a whole new world for me. Glamorous and exciting stories with danger and adventure, set in places like the South of France, Corfu and Greece that were impossibly exotic to me! It was amazing! I was transported all over the world through my reading, and the books were so romantic too!

I was lucky enough to find almost all Mary Stewart's books in my local library and grabbed them one after another, detouring from romantic suspense into the Arthurian world of The Crystal Cave and its sequels, which also enchanted me. Eventually I tracked down every one of Mary Stewart's books and created my own collection, but one evaded me - the novella The Wind off the Small Isles which had been published in the UK only in 1968 and never re-published. I looked for that book in every secondhand shop I came across which in the days before the internet and online shopping was a life's work! Eventually I tracked it down to the famous Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland, and couldn't believe it! I snapped it up and here it is. Inside it's inscribed "To Pat, with love and best wishes, Feb 1969, from Eve and James." I hope Pat enjoyed as much as I still do!

So now it's over to you - please share with us the one special book that means a lot to you and tell us how it came into your life!

An Interview with Nicola Cornick!

Christina here and today I’m delighted to be interviewing Wench Nicola Cornick about her new book The Last Daughter, which is published in paperback, ebook and audio here in the UK in three days’ time, on 8^th July. In the US, it will release in paperback on 16^th November as The Last Daughter of York, and both have amazing covers, although I will admit to favouring the UK one as it has such wonderful jewel colours.

Nicola, it’s lovely that it’s my turn to welcome you as a guest to chat about this story, which is one of my absolute favourite books this year. I was lucky enough to read an ARC and I loved it – the mixture of history, mystery and timeslip is just superb and I simply couldn’t put it down!

The Princes in the Tower by Millais

Please can you tell us briefly what The Last Daughter is about?

The Last Daughter is a dual time novel set in the present and the Wars of the Roses. The historical strand looks at the mystery of the disappearance of the princes in the tower in 1483 through the eyes of Anne Lovell, wife of Richard III’s best friend Francis. This is linked to the modern day story where Serena Warren is trying to discover what happened to her twin sister Caitlin, who disappeared at Minster Lovell ten years before.

I loved that The Last Daughter is based on the many stories about the Princes in the Tower, the two young sons of King Edward IV, who disappeared after their uncle Richard of Gloucester took the throne for himself and became King Richard III. There have always been a lot of rumours and speculation about their fate, but the truth is that no one knows what actually happened. When did you first become aware of this story and what fascinated you about it?

What We're Reading--June 2021

Pat here: I think this is our favorite post every month. The wenches all madly grab up each other's recommendations, then eagerly await what our readers are loving. Good thing for credit cards!

This month I'm recommending INTERVIEW WITH A DEAD EDITOR (Book#1 in the Lucky Lexie mysteries.) I’ve always enjoyed Shanna Swendson’s books, and I was delighted to realize she was writing mysteries now.

Lexie had just been laid off from her reporter’s job when she surprisingly gets a call for an interview for an assistant editorship in the most perfect small town in Texas one could ever find. Sure, half the town is descended from a freak show that got side-railed there a century ago. And unfortunately, the editor who was supposed to interview her is dead upon arrival. But the food is great. The ghosts—well, the original newspaper owner from the 1930s smokes too much. When a snowstorm and a mysterious car ailment prevent Lexie from turning around and leaving, she gets caught up in solving the former editor’s murder, of course. Shanna is a great writer with a sense of humor, and even though I figured out the killer early on, it’s a fun tale, and I’ll be back for more.

An Interview with Christina Courtenay!

Nicola here, and today it is my very great pleasure to be interviewing the Word Wenches' very own Christina Courtenay about her new book Whispers of the Runes which is published tomorrow in the UK in print, e-book and audio, and in North America in ebook and audio with the print edition to follow in September.

Christina, welcome to the Word Wenches as a guest rather than a contributor today! It's very exciting to be chatting to you about Whispers of the Runes, which is book 3 in your highly-acclaimed and hugely successful Viking Runes series but also works brilliantly as a stand alone book. It's difficult to choose favourites from among the books in this series because they have all been wonderful but this may be the one I enjoyed the most!

Tell us more about this particular story and how it fits into the series.

Christina: This book features the best friend of the heroine from book 2, and also the middle brother of the hero of that story.

When jewellery designer Sara is propelled back to the ninth century, after cutting herself on a Viking knife she uncovers at an archaeological dig, she is quick to accept what has happened to her because this is not the first she’s heard of time travel. Although acutely aware of the danger she faces when she loses the knife – and with it her way to return to her own time – this is also the opportunity of a lifetime. What better way to add authenticity to the Viking and Anglo-Saxon motifs used in her designs than to study the real thing?

As luck has it, the first person Sara encounters is Rurik Eskilsson, a Viking and fellow silversmith who is also no stranger to the concept of time travel. Agreeing that Sara can accompany him to Jorvik, they embark on a journey even more perilous than one through time. But Fate has brought these two kindred spirits together across the ages for a reason and it takes them a while to figure out what that is …

Your research is amazing, so much depth and fascinating detail that is dropped into the story lightly but enriches it so much. I loved the way that you incorporated such wonderful silversmithing and jewellery design details into the story and the way that their skill and shared interest in jewellery design was such a bond between Rurik and Sara. Please tell us more about that element of the book.

Christina: Thank you! The hero, Rurik, had already appeared in the previous book, and as he was a silversmith, I thought it would be fun for the heroine Sara to be a jewellery maker/designer as well, although obviously she’s used to 21^st century techniques. It gave them something in common, but was also the perfect opportunity for conflict between them as they’ll go about things differently and won’t always agree on the best way. I decided to have her specialise in Viking and Anglo-Saxon designs so that actually ending up in the 9^th century and staying there would be an opportunity she can’t resist. I love jewellery myself and doing research on silversmithing was definitely no hardship! I was supposed to have done a one-day course in order to try it out, but sadly that was cancelled because of Covid. Luckily, the lady running it was able to answer my questions via email instead (and I hope to do the course at a later date). And I might have bought one or two items as well in the name of research …

There were actually many different styles of Viking jewellery, depending on which era they are from. I prefer the so called Urnes
style myself, although that belongs to a later period so unfortunately I couldn’t use that for my characters.

I would agree that buying a few items for yourself is essential research! Your depth of knowledge of the era is one of the reasons your books always create such a vivid historical world. How do you research the Viking background and do you have any favourite discoveries from your research?

Christina: It’s been a long process of collecting all the information I could possibly find about the Vikings – their history, culture, customs, clothing, food, housing etc. I’ve read countless books, watched TV programmes and YouTube videos, spoken to experts and read scientific articles, and I have visited as many museums as I could. I’ve travelled in Sweden, Denmark and the UK, and most recently I’ve been to Iceland as well. There are so many wonderful museums telling the story of the Vikings and highlighting various aspects of their society and I’ve enjoyed them all.

I think my favourite discovery has to do with the Viking ships though – I get terribly seasick but when I took a trip round Roskilde harbour in a reconstructed longship, I found out that it was a very smooth ride and I was absolutely fine. In Iceland, there is another museum dedicated to a reconstructed longship and the information there explained how they were built so cunningly that they could easily cut through enormous waves without becoming swamped. I am in complete awe at their boat-building skills!

Your books shine a light on the role of women in Viking society. Could you tell us some more about this fascinating subject?

Christina: Viking women were valued for being intelligent and hardworking. They were equal partners in running a farm and had charge of all things domestic. If the husband had to go away for any length of time, the wife was trusted to manage everything in his absence. He didn’t leave another man in charge in his stead because that wasn’t necessary.

Most of them expected to marry – not for romantic reasons, but purely practical. Marriage gave a woman social status and economic security, and family connections and kinship on both sides were extremely important in Viking society. If, by any chance, a marriage didn’t work out, the woman could divorce her husband so they had rights that the ladies of other countries had to wait nearly a millennium to gain!

Rurik, the hero of Whispers of the Runes, is no stranger to the concept of time travel and this was a refreshing change in this genre. What do you enjoy about writing timeslip and time travel books?

Christina: With timeslip (or dual time) books, I love the fact that you get two love stories for the price of one. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to connect them and keep the reader invested in both timelines – not always easy! Time travel stories are a bit different and I like that I can have a lot of fun with the characters as they try to adapt to each others’ centuries and ideas (sometimes unwillingly). Throwing a person into a situation where they are completely out of their depth really shows you their true character. There can be clashes on all sorts of subjects, as well as the discovery of shared beliefs and values, which might surprise them.

Would you be open to the idea of travelling in time yourself? If so, where would you go and what would you want to do?

Christina: I would only want to do this if I had a guaranteed way back and it was for a very limited time period. Also, I would need to know exactly what year and where I was going to. No point ending up in Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials for example! I think that if it actually happened for real, it would be quite terrifying so I’m not sure I’d like to go alone either. And I’d want to make sure I brought enough gold or silver to buy myself out of any sticky situations – being poor in the past was definitely not a good thing.

That's very well thought through - you've obviously considered it thoroughly! Perhaps some of us could form a time travelling consortium and make the trips together! or if not there is always the books...

Can you give us a few hints about the next book in the series?

Christina: Yes, it’s called TEMPTED BY THE RUNES and will be out in December of this year. It’s the story of Maddie, the younger sister of Linnea (heroine of Book 2) and Geir, younger brother of Rurik and the hero of Book 2, Hrafn. When Maddie happens to find a small knife with runes on the handle, she knows exactly what it represents – the chance for her to time travel and have her own adventures in the past. Unfortunately for her, the brief visit turns into a somewhat longer one, and when she meets Geir he becomes determined to persuade her to stay for good ...

Thank you so much for telling us more about Whispers of the Runes, Christina, and very best wishes for publication day tomorrow! You can find out more about Christina's book on her website here. To buy a copy of Whispers of The Runes, click here!

Feel free to ask Christina anything about Whispers of the Runes, her books, writing, research and of course those fascinating Vikings!

Christina's question for you is this: "Are you a jewellery fan? What sort of items are your favourites?" One lucky commenter between now and midnight Thursday will win a signed copy of Whispers of the Runes!

Serendipity or Help from the Gods?

Christina here. As writers, we do a lot of background research for our books and personally I like to go and look at the settings for my stories if at all possible. Having decided that my hero and heroine were going to end up in the north-east of England (Northumbria and Mercia as it was called in the 9th century), I really wanted to visit those places for myself to see first-hand what it was like. I persuaded my poor long-suffering husband to come with me, and as we had two very elderly dogs they came along for the ride too. And what a ride it turned out to be!

A 775 English miles roundtrip in two days – it was what I would definitely call an epic journey. And all done in torrential rain, which is very tiring for the driver (mostly my husband). But somehow it all worked out very well and although this might sound very fanciful, I actually felt as though the Norse gods were with me, helping me to find exactly what I needed. Because the weirdest thing happened – although it was raining the entire two days – and I’m talking deluge here, not just a shower or two – each time we stopped at a site I wanted to see and photograph, the rain stopped for just long enough to give me a chance to do that. Coincidence? I started to doubt it. I mean, what are the chances?

AskA Wench: does writing get easier?

Anne here, and this month the Ask-a-Wench question is one often asked. It started off as "After so many books, does the writing get easier?" To which every single wench emphatically answered "No."  Not much of a blog there.

So we changed it to: "After so many books, does the writing get easier or harder? What is the hardest part of creating a story?" which gave us a little more to talk about.

Pat says:  Without even knowing how the other wenches respond to the first part of this question, I can almost hear them all shouting: “Heck, no!” in probably ruder terms. With each book, we learn a little more and have to think a little harder. And then, if we wish to stay creative and original as the number of published books piles up, we have to stretch our imaginations further and further to give readers new stories.

For me, the hardest part is, and always has been, writing a plot. Characters are easy. They populate my head. They kick around, chattering, demanding this scene or that—scenes that do not necessarily work with my perceived plot or any plot at all. Occasionally, this works and new ideas take off, but only in straight romance. If I mean to include a mystery. . . My characters aren’t heavily into logical clues and need to be taken by the hand—or the throat—and forced into line. And then it’s up to me to keep timelines and clues and characters straight so the plot follows without readers stopping and saying “Hey, what? Didn’t they just do that in the last chapter?” With my memory, that’s a real challenge!

Chaises Longues

Christina here, and today I’m waxing lyrical about a piece of furniture - the chaise longue, a perfect place for reading!

I can’t remember when I first became aware of the existence of chaises longues, but it must have been when I was quite young. At that time, I didn’t even know it was a French expression as I hadn’t begun to study that language. But because Sweden had appointed a Frenchman as their king in the early 19^th century (long story, but they invited one of Napoleon’s generals to become king and he accepted) there are a lot of words in Swedish that are borrowed from French. This was one of them and I knew it under the weird Swedish spelling – schäslong.

What I clearly do remember is that from the moment I first saw one, I wanted to own one, desperately!

WWR — What We're Reading in May

Anne here, bringing you the latest reading recommendations from the wenches. There's a fair bit of crime — some cozy, some police procedural, some medieval mysteries, there's time slip and WW2, there's a delightful word exploration book, and there's even some romance! 

Pat recommends THIEF OF SOULS  by Brian Klingborg She says: I enjoy the occasional police procedural if the writing is strong and there’s a good hook. The author kept me reading,  and the setting was an unusual hook—a small town in northern China. The protagonist, Lu Fei, is a middle-aged (although they keep calling him young, he’s forty) inspector on the police force, never married, who drinks too much, and is good at martial arts. Okay, raise your hand if you’ve read that before. <G> But it all works. Young women are being murdered, their organs removed, then sewed up again. The author takes us through the workings of the police department, all the petty government hang-ups, the interdepartmental fighting, all the things we normally see in the usual Brit and American police stories, only with a Chinese twist. I had to look up the author to see how he knew these details, and he’s apparently lived in China but isn’t Chinese. Still, it felt authentic.

Inspector Lu has never married because he wants to marry for love. He quotes Confucius but he’s an independent thinker and an honest cop. You really have to like him because he tries so hard. And better yet, the author manages to keep the killer a secret almost to the point that Lu works it out. So we get to feel smart and not too annoyed with our hero when it takes him a few pages more. If you enjoy  a good police procedural and reading about China, you might want to check this out.

Andrea says: this month I seemed to be a WWII state mind, as I read two books set in the era. They were very different in style but I loved both them.

I’m a huge fan of Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network and The Huntress, and her latest novel, The Rose Code, is equally mesmerizing. It’s a heart-thumping dual timeline story set at Bletchley Park, the famous top secret British codebreaking enclave during the war, and several years after as the three heroines are forced to crack one last code . . .

It features three young women from completely different backgrounds and temperaments who find themselves thrown together as roommates after their skills at solving puzzles bring them to be part of the British efforts to crack the enemy codes—an effort that is keeping the country from defeat. Quinn gives readers a fascinating look inside Bletchley Park as she weaves a compelling tale of friendship, heartache, secrets and betrayals as each of the women struggle to define her dreams and deal with her own weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

A shocking betrayal breaks their friendships apart at the end of the war, only to have a coded message several years later force them to reluctantly come together again to catch a traitor. I couldn’t put it down!

Annoying Heroines

Free Clip Art, Wikimedia Commons

Christina here and today I’m going to have a little rant. A while back, I read a trilogy with a hero I absolutely adored, but at the same time I couldn’t stand the heroine. I found her intensely annoying, not in any way worthy of the hero’s love and devotion, and so immature I wanted to slap her! I carried on reading the entire series because I wanted to know how things ended for the hero, and whether the heroine would redeem herself in the end, but I almost had to force myself. That’s not how it should be, is it?

A heroine ought to be someone we like and empathise with. Sure, she can be naïve or immature at the beginning of a story (or a series in this case), because we’ve all been there and lessons need to be learned before we grow up and understand certain things. She doesn’t have to be perfect – none of us are, after all – but she does need to be likeable. At the very least, she should have some very good reasons for NOT being likeable, if that’s the way the author wants to play it.

What we absolutely don’t want is a heroine we dislike intensely.

2021 Anniversary Blog, Part 1

You're invited to the Word Wenches' Anniversary Garden Party! (Part 1)

Collected by Mary Jo

The Word Wenches blog is 15 years old!  This is ancient beyond words in internet terms, yet we're still here because we love talking about our books and our travels and delicious odd bits of history. Most of all, we like the chance to interact with our readers. 

Our characters have so much to say that this blog will be divided in two with Part 2 posted on Monday the 24th.

The invitations are going out now.  Will you join us?

 

What We Are Reading

Christina here with this month’s round-up of Wenchly book recommendations! The recent beautiful spring weather, and the fact that lockdown has been easing in many places, has meant that the Wenches have been able to go out and about a bit more, but we have still been doing quite a lot of reading. Below we have another eclectic selection for you – from fantasy to romcom to Shakespeare (well, sort of) and more – and we hope that you will join in as always with your own recommendations!

Anne:  Two very different books have hit the spot for me this month. The first is An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris, the first in her "Gunny Rose" series. Set in an alternative "America" where a combination of the 'flu plague of the early 20th century, the assassination of the US president, the escape from Imperial Russia by the Tsar and all his court, fleeing The Red Army, and general "wild west" style lawlessness in some parts of the country have resulted in the break up of the former USA and the formation of "new" countries or territories.

Lizbeth Rose is a 19 year old "gunny" – a brilliant sharp-shooter whose job it is to guard people and shipments from outlaws, would-be-slavers and thieves, and there are plenty of them. Add in a paranormal thread, where some of the Russian refugees (now running a territory called the Holy Russian Empire – California to the Canadian border) can perform magic, and you have a cracking good yarn.

There's quite a lot of shooting and killing, but isn't the kind of graphic violence I shrink from. Only baddies are killed. And Gunny Rose is a very appealing character – loyal, principled, and she's never failed a client – yet. And of course there's a handsome Russian wizard on a secret mission who keeps getting in her way. The first book in the series is called An Easy Death, which is what people traditionally wish gunnies when they head off on a mission. I've since read the other two in the series and can't wait for #4.

Why Pseudonyms?

By Mary Jo

Today's Ask A Wench was inspired by a question from regular reader Pamela DG, who wanted to know why authors use pseudonyms.  I said the answer was complicated and worthy of a blog. For asking the question, Pamela will get a book from me. 

Writing with a pseudonym, a name not one's own, can occur for any number or reasons.  The Wenches explain why:

From Nicola

I’ve never written under a pseudonym. This was not a conscious decision. I was literally so naïve when I was first published that it did not cross my mind to consider it. This seems remarkable to me now but I had had no experience of the publishing world other than a godmother who wrote religious books under her own name. I quickly came to regret my naivety. For a number of years I wrote historical romance for Mills & Boon alongside working as an academic registrar in a university. One day a mischievous colleague read out a passage from one of my books in a meeting, which was quite embarrassing. I wasn’t ashamed of the books or that I had written them but I didn’t want my writing and my other work life to cross over.

Once I started to write full time it didn’t matter at all and it’s never really given me any problems since. There has only been one odd occasion when a publisher kept referring to Nicola Cornick as my pseudonym and refused to accept that it wasn’t!  That said, if I was starting over again knowing what I do now, I’d probably use a pseudonym. I don’t dislike my name but it does give you the opportunity to call yourself something you’ve always wanted to be! One of the reasons I like my Czech editions is that I love being called Cornickova!  

Mythical Beasts and Imagination

(Paul Hermans Wikimedia Commons)

Christina here. Do you believe in cryptids? According to the dictionary they are “an animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti”. There seem to be rather a lot of them, and although the degree of likelihood of them really existing varies hugely, they all have one thing in common – many people want to believe in them and enormous efforts go into finding them every year. I have to admit I follow these expeditions with great interest.

By definition, being an author means having a rather vivid imagination, and for me part of that is believing in unexplained phenomena and things like mythical beasts. My daughter makes fun of me for being convinced that the Nessie monster is real. She scoffs when I avidly watch every single programme on TV about people trying to find this creature by any means possible – divers, sonar scans, underwater cameras and endlessly chugging up and down Loch Ness hoping for a sighting. So many people claim to have seen it. Surely the law of averages means that at least a fraction of them must be true? I really, really want that to be the case.

The Burning Stone

Christina here. The hero of my latest book The Runes of Destiny is a Viking merchant who trades in all kinds of goods - whatever will make him the most profit. However, when I researched the type of things he would be likely to bring on a trip to Miklagarðr (Byzantium), I became fascinated by one in particular – amber. The more I read about it, the more I came to appreciate it, and I could well imagine how pleased a Viking woman would have been to receive such a gift – who wouldn’t be? It also seemed like the ideal trade goods – it was easy to transport, didn’t take up much space, and was highly sought after everywhere, plus in some places you could actually pick it up for free! (If you knew where to look).

Farewell Jo Bourne

Anne here with the other Word Wenches, farewelling Joanna Bourne, who has been such a beloved member of our community for more than ten years.

I first "met" Jo through her writing. It was 2008. I was in New York for a conference, and meeting with my editor. I was in her office, about to leave, when I said, "Is there anyone you think I should be reading? She pulled The Spymaster's Lady from her shelf and handed it to me. It hadn't yet been published — Jo and I shared the same editor.  I read The Spymaster's Lady on the plane on the way home and wow! It blew me away. 

I met her in person in 2009, the night she won her first RITA for the Spymaster's Lady. It was a thrilling night all around. Wench Jo Beverley presented her with it — seems Joanna was almost fated to become a Word Wench.

I interviewed her here, and the following month Joanna joined us as a word wench. This was her first post. And since then she's become a valued member of the word wench family. You can catch up with her previous posts here — there's a wealth of Jo-reading. And now, over to the other wenches . . .

From Pat:  Jo, I totally wish you well in your retirement but secretly hope the imps of creativity crawl out of their holes and start chewing on your fingers. Your brilliant, funny, creative mind needs a good outlet, and I need my Job fix of humor on a regular basis. I’ll miss you so much!

For those of you who have only read Jo’s books, dig around on the Wench blog and look for her epistles. Humor lurks under every word and insight. Behind the scenes, when the wenches are talking, she’s even funnier and pithier. And if you haven’t read Jo’s books, do so now! As you can see by her pictures, she looks like a mischievous imp, not an evil mind who grips you by the throat and won’t let go!

The Passage of Time

Christina here. Before the pandemic, I think it’s fair to say that most of us were very aware of time and it was very important to us – even ruled our lives. We were setting alarms to get up in the morning, checking train or bus schedules to get to work by a certain time, having our lunch at a precise time, plus there were appointments to keep and tv programmes to watch. Being late was something we tried to avoid and we probably glanced at our watch (or the time display on our mobile) regularly, sometimes obsessively, during the day. My days weren’t quite so strictly scheduled as I’m self-employed and work from home, but when I still had my dogs (now sadly deceased), their stomachs had time-keeping down to a fine art. They structured my time and they would never have let me get away with not taking them for a walk at the same hour every day. In other words, I lived by the clock.

However, after nearly a year in lockdown, I’m finding that the concept of time is becoming very fluid. It’s almost as though we’re living in a dream, where everything is unreal or even surreal. There are no appointments, no specific times to keep, no rush or urgency about anything. The days simply float into one another seamlessly, with nothing to distinguish them from one another. Mostly I have no idea what day or date it is, and I find I don’t care because it doesn’t matter. The only day that registers even vaguely is Sunday, and that is only because I have a weekly chat scheduled then with two friends. And Sunday seems to come around approximately every second day!

The Luxury of Tea

Kanji meaning tea

Christina here. Despite being half British, I’ve never been much of a tea drinker. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my favourite beverage. It doesn’t work on me as a panacea or cure-all either, the way most British people seem to see it. If I have a cold or the weather is chilly and damp as now, however, I do occasionally enjoy a cup of Twinings English Breakfast with lots of milk and sugar. It’s cosy and yes, quite comforting. And we all take for granted how cheap and easy it is to buy it – but that wasn’t always the case!

Wooden_tea_caddy,_Museum_of_Liverpool

Although nowadays we can buy tea bags of every variety in the supermarket, or loose weight tea in specialist shops without any problems, in the 18^th century it was a luxury commodity. Housewives kept the tea in lockable tea caddies so that only they could dispense it. And there was a reason for that – importing it was quite an undertaking. While doing the research for my first historical novel, Trade Winds, I read about the journey an East India merchant ship had to make in 1731/32 order to go to Canton in China to buy tea and other goods to bring back to Europe. I couldn’t believe how complicated and hazardous it all was!

What We're Reading in January

by Mary Jo

Here is the monthly round up of books Word Wenches have enjoyed recently.  I hope you find some new reads you'd enjoy!

Pat Rice here:

Rainy Day Sisters by Kate Hewitt is women’s fiction of the philosophical, emotional sort, except a lot more original than most. There’s a couple of up-and-down romances to keep the stakes high, but the real focus is on the development of a relationship between half-sisters who barely know each other. The younger grew up in the US, the older in the UK, and their only common ground really is their fury at their narcissistic mother. I enjoyed watching their lives grow as their relationship grows. There were a lot of loose threads at the end, obviously leaving room for more stories in the series. This is a well-written, quieter novel you can sink into, enjoy getting to know the people of the small Cumbrian town, and watch the sisters open up and become stronger.

Why Shoot a Butler?

Christina here.  Why Shoot a Butler? is the title of one of Georgette Heyer’s country house mysteries/crime stories. It kind of makes it sound as though a butler isn’t even worth shooting, which is a bit odd! Or maybe that’s just the slant my mind put on it and it wasn’t what the author meant? It did make me think though …

I have just reread all Heyer’s mystery/crime books, and although most of them are ostensibly set during the 1930s (only the last one is after the war), the settings seemed to me almost identical to those of her Regency novels. They all take place either in stately homes or among people of the upper class. The characters are similar to her Regency ones as well – strong alpha males, sensible girls who triumph over the pretty but vapid ones, matrons with decided views on things, etc. And then there are the servants, particularly the butlers, whom I couldn’t help but notice even if the other characters don’t pay them much attention.

Ask A Wench - The Influence of the Seasons

Nicola here, introducing this month’s Ask A Wench topic, which was sent in by Valerie Moore, who wins a book from me as a thank you. Valerie asks:

“How do the seasons affect your style of writing, if at all?” 

It’s an excellent question and gave us all much to ponder on. Do the seasons affect our actual writing style or is it more that the seasons affect our moods and this affects our writing? Certainly in my case, I find it extremely difficult to write about a season that is very different from the one that I’m in. At the moment I’m writing a book set in July whilst I’m in an English winter. I’m trying my best to remember the heat of the sun and the scent of roses whilst stepping out into the stinging rain and the cold wind. Winter can sometimes bring my mood down as well; that definitely affects my writing if not my style, and makes it more difficult. So here are the Wenches’ thoughts on this ever-fascinating topic, some lovely “hygge” ideas and some wonderful photography of the seasons from around the world.

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.)

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!

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?

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.

True Friends

Many people will walk in and out of your life but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt

Me and my BFF

We all need friends and there has seldom been a time when we’ve needed them more than we do right now. The pandemic has really shown us the value of true friends – mine have definitely kept me sane throughout the lockdown and without them it would have been easy to sink into lethargy and depression. With the days blurring into one another (my husband has taken to calling every day “Blursday”!), having a weekly FaceTime chat or Zoom meeting to focus on has helped me to stay motivated. After all, when your friends ask you what you’ve been doing, you don’t want to just say ‘vegging out’! And emails from lovely friends lift the spirits no end, not least when you hear that they are safe and well and you can breathe a sigh of relief.

I’m thinking about this today especially because it happens to be the birthday of my very oldest friend – happy birthday G! – not in the sense of her age but the length of time we have known each other. And it’s made me reflect on the huge importance of the kind of friends you can really be yourself with and who probably know you better than you know yourself. Those are truly special.

Ask a Wench: Moments of Joy

Moments of Joy

By Mary Jo

This has been a difficult year just about everywhere.  A highly contagious virus, a lockdown, massive economic disruptions--I'm told that time travelers are being told to skip 2020 as they travel through time!

Yet people are adaptable, and even in dark times, we can find moments of happiness, some of which are actually a result of the lockdown.  Perhaps something that was once routine is now noteworthy, or we're finding that spending so much time at home is providing unexpected benefits.  The Wenches share some such moments. 

 

 

For me, one such event was something that was once relatively routine: going out to dinner with the Mayhem Consultant.  What made going out this particular time special was because we hadn't been out for dinner in months!  Maryland had been under strict lock down for months, and the governor had just loosened the requirements to allow restaurants to serve food as long as it was outside and staff and guests were masked (at least until the food and drink appeared.)