Word Wenches

Punches and Pugilists—Random Fcts on Regency Boxing

Andrea here, offering yet another down-the-rabbit-hole research discovery today. I love research, as part of the fun is discovering things you didn’t know you wanted to know! Now, I am not a bellicose person, so I’m not at all interested in an actual boxing match. But as I needed to know a few specifics about ‘pugilism’ for a WIP scene, I had to research a few basic things.

And voila! Down the rabbit hole! Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I find the history of just about anything fascinating on an intellectual level, and as I happen to like sports (the other Wenches have dubbed me the ‘Wench Jock’) I actually found myself very interested in the resources I found. One of the most intriguing is “Fighting Words," an online exhibit from the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame, from which I have cheerful poached some of the following information.

Life on the River

A cruise on the Hudson River

By Mary Jo

Some cruises are glamorous, like seeing the Mediterranean, others are adventurous like cruising the North Atlantic in the wake of the Vikings. And some are simple and homey, like our last week Hudson River Fall Foliage cruise. 

The Mayhem Consultant has been interested in this American Cruise Line itinerary for years. ACL operates small ships in American waters.  We've cruised with them before and it's always interesting fun, with no passports, intercontinental flights, or money changing.

The Hudson cruise is particularly easy since it starts and ends in New York City, about a three hour drive north of our home in Maryland.  Even easier, we used a great local sedan service to drive to the pier to embark, and then pick us up at the end to bring us home.  I loved using them--going through the Lincoln Tunnel and emerging into the mad traffic of the city is not for the faint of heart. <G>

 

Treasures of Gold and Silver Wire

Christina here. I may have mentioned this before, but back in 2015 something quite amazing was discovered in the little village church of St Faith’s at Bacton in Herefordshire – a piece of cloth from one of Queen Elizabeth I’s dresses. It had been used for centuries as an altar cloth, and the parishioners had no idea what a treasure they possessed. When it was rediscovered, it was rather grubby and worn, and didn’t look particularly impressive. The reason the experts could be sure that it really was one of Elizabeth’s dresses, though, was that it’s made of cloth of silver. Under the so-called Sumptuary Laws of the time, only members of the royal family were allowed to wear it, so it had to be hers. Despite the state of it, it’s priceless, because it is the Tudor queen’s only surviving piece of clothing, even though she reputedly owned about 1,900 dresses in total. Not a single one of them remain, except this small fragment with beautiful embroidered motifs in all the colours of the rainbow. In the so-called Rainbow portrait of the queen, she wears a similarly embroidered gown and this shows how the completed dress would have looked.

Regency Censorship

Pat here, just back from South America and not quite ready to post on travels. So here’s a shorty, the promised blog on newspapers in the Regency. I’ve already told you how it took nearly half a week for news of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo to reach London. What startled me was learning that the newspapers took so long to report the news because they had NO journalists anywhere—editors simply waited for official court documents before printing an edition telling the British populace that Napoleon had been defeated!

In Command

Andrea here, talking about an often-overlooked element of writing a book—the Author’s  Note. When I started my Wrexford & Sloane series, I decided an explanation about some of the elements in the plot would  be helpful to readers. First of all, early science and technology plays a big part in the stories, many of the things mentioned are esoteric enough that readers might not have a handle on what I was talking about. (As an avid reader, I find that frustrating, and don’t want to have to go haring off to find research material on my own!) And so, I added an Author’s Note to the first book.
 
I confess, they have grown longer with each successive book, as I find it fun to share some of the “rabbit hole” research that tickles my fancy. I’ve gotten a number of letters to indicate that some readers enjoy the nerdy stuff as much as I do. (I figure those who aren’t interested can simply close the covers.)
 
I do try to think of all the things that might need some clarification (without going overboard) But in my latest book, MURDER AT THE MERTON LIBRARY, I got several reader queries about a few scenes in the book where I have a twelve-year-old midshipman in the British Navy was commanding a naval vessel with a crew of adult sailors. “Is that really accurate?” was the question.

Remembering Mitteleuropa

Mitteleuropa

by Mary Jo

I'm still locked in mortal combat with the current book, so I'm offering another classic travel blog: a riverboat cruise on the Danube.  Rivers were the interstates of the past, and so much of European civilization developed along the waterways.  How better to explore than in a boat holding maybe 150 friendly, intelligent passengers and serving lots of really good food?

Like a plot element, the idea of a riverboat cruise simmered in my lizard brain for years, and in 2006, I thought it was time to do a cruise in Southern France.  Except that all the French cruises were booked for the time slot we had, and we ended up cruising the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It was great.

This year, I decided it was time to book that French cruise.  Urp. Once again, Southern France along the Rhone was sold out.  Which is how we ended up cruising the Danube.  Again, it was great—the Mayhem Consultant and I are easily amused, and any interesting new place will be fun.  (Update 2023: we'd booked a French riverboat cruise for autumn 2022, but for a variety of reasons we cancelled it. I think I'm doomed never to travel the French rivers!)

Prague

Our Danube cruise started with a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, which isn’t on the Danube, but really, how could we go to Eastern Europe and not see Prague?  The city has been an intellectual and creative center for centuries, and under the blighting hand of five decades of Soviet rule, it was spared rapacious developers tearing down beautiful old buildings.

 

 

 

by Mary Jo

I'm still locked in mortal combat with the current book, so I'm offering another classic travel blog: a riverboat cruise on the Danube.  Rivers were the interstates of the past, and so much of European civilization developed along the waterways.  How better to explore than in a boat holding maybe 150 friendly, intelligent passengers and serving lots of really good food?

Like a plot element, the idea of a riverboat cruise simmered in my lizard brain for years, and in 2006, I thought it was time to do a cruise in Southern France.  Except that all the French cruises were booked for the time slot we had, and we ended up cruising the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It was great.

This year, I decided it was time to book that French cruise.  Urp. Once again, Southern France along the Rhone was sold out.  Which is how we ended up cruising the Danube.  Again, it was great—the Mayhem Consultant and I are easily amused, and any interesting new place will be fun.  (Update 2023: we'd booked a French riverboat cruise for autumn 2022, but for a variety of reasons we cancelled it. I think I'm doomed never to travel the French rivers!)

Prague

Our Danube cruise started with a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, which isn’t on the Danube, but really, how could we go to Eastern Europe and not see Prague?  The city has been an intellectual and creative center for centuries, and under the blighting hand of five decades of Soviet rule, it was spared rapacious developers tearing down beautiful old buildings.

 

 

 

Full Steam Ahead!

Andrea here, musing today on technological innovations and how fast they can change our world. I don’t know about you, but for me it sometimes feels that the ground shifts beneath our feet weekly—or even daily if one peruses the news reports carefully. Much of it is good, of course, making us healthier, safer, more comfortable and productive in our daily lives.  Still, the dizzying rate of change can be disorienting, if not downright frightening.
 
My Wrexford & Sloane historical mystery series uses technological innovations as the "McGuffin” in the plots because one of the things that fascinates me about the Regency era is that it, too, was a time of momentous change because of technological innovations. In fact, I love that I find parallels in the past to so many issues that we grapple with today.
 
Getting back to technology, in doing my research, the innovators I discover are as fascinating as the things they invent. My latest release, MURDER AT THE MERTON LIBRARY revolves around ocean-going steamboats and the next book in the series, which I just turned in, revolves around  . . . heh, heh, no spoilers yet, but they both involve a father-son team of engineering titans—Marc Isambard Brunel (above) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel—who were really major players in the Industrial Revolution, though most people have never heard about them.

Lands of Ice and Fire

by Mary Jo

Islands of Ice and Fire

 Our North Atlantic cruise was so interesting that I'm breaking it into three parts.  (I could go on much longer, but I'll spare you. <G>)  I've already written about Norway, and now I'm writing about some of the other wonderful places we visited.  

 

 Our North Atlantic cruise was so interesting that I'm breaking it into three parts.  (I could go on much longer, but I'll spare you. <G>)  I've already written about Norway, and now I'm writing about some of the other wonderful places we visited.  

 

Tulips

Anne here, and today I’m talking about tulips.

It being spring in my corner of the word, last week I went with friends to a tulip festival up in the Dandenong Mountains, on the outskirts of Melbourne. They’re not very high mountains, but they're beautiful, with many wonderful gardens, as well as lots of gorgeous natural bushland, with tall gum trees and graceful tree ferns. They are also, it seems, the perfect place for growing tulips and other bulbs. 

Many of the tulip growers are of Dutch origin. In fact a good friend of mine came out to Australia when he was a small child, along with his tulip growing parents and many older siblings. And what did they do? They started a tulip farm in the Dandenongs. As did many other Dutch migrants. So what is it with the Dutch and tulips?

Tulips originally grew wild in Central Asia, and were first cultivated in Iran (Persia) as early as the 10th century. They became incredibly popular in Turkey in the 16th century, at the time of the Ottoman Empire, when the Sultan demanded cultivation of particular blooms for his pleasure. The name 'tulip' came from the Turkish word for turban. Tulips were treasured, and became a symbol of Ottoman power. You can see tulip images in paintings, ceramics and tiles of the time.

In the Footsteps of the Polar Explorers

Nicola here, reporting on a recent trip to Greenland and Northern Canada in which we cruised part of the North West Passage in the footsteps (or sails!) of early explorers. We flew to Iceland and from there to Greenland, where we joined our ship, the SH Vega at the port of Kangerlussuaq on the west coast. This was an "expedition cruise" but frankly from the first it was clear that we were in for a very different experience from some earlier sailors, who had run out of food and been obliged to eat their own shoes and wear the same clothes for months on end! Our ship was warm, very comfortable and with wonderful food! In addition we were blessed with fine weather for almost all the trip so there was no threat of sea-sickness, thank goodness. 

Greenland is a beautiful place; it reminded me of a bigger, colder version of Highland Scotland. With 80% of the country covered in ice, the population lives on the coastal fringe. When Eric the Red colonised the island in 985AD, the Vikings found it hard to establish their traditional farming lifestyle because only the edges were fertile land. One legend is that he named it Greenland as propaganda to attract settlers! The ancestors of the Inuit peoples who had lived in the area for thousands of years survived largely by hunting and fishing. Their lifestyle was better suited to the conditions than the western new arrivals and although the Vikings hung on there for several hundred years, eventually they left. The modern Greenland is a place of brightly-painted buildings and fascinating history which we explored at the museum in Sisimiut.

Hundred Days of Story Telling

Pat here, deep in writing mode and frantically trying to finish a draft before taking off for the jungles of South America.

Finishing a book would be much simpler if I could just plan ahead—especially if I could plan six books ahead. But I can’t plot even one book in advance. And so here I am at Book #4 of the Gravesyde Priory Regency mystery series and oddly enough, history is messing with me.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve written enough Regencies to know when events take place, but there’s that planning thing that doesn’t happen. When I started the series, I knew how the first book needed to begin. I wasn’t thinking timelines. I just needed to have my heroine raising her  orphaned nephew six years after a riot in Egypt. So I simply checked when Napoleon’s troops left and dropped the story into 1815.

As my heroine reads the letter about her strange inheritance, Napoleon is escaping Elba. When she sets out for rural Staffordshire in March, she’s unaware that Louis XVIII has fled Paris. I knew it, but it didn’t matter to the story.

Just as we worry about putting gas in our cars, food in our pantries, and buying school clothes while we’re possibly on the brink of World War III, my heroine was worrying about her nephew, not Napoleon. We can’t do anything about it, so we stick to what we can control.

A Deep Dive Down the Research Rabbit Hole!

Andrea here. Those of you who are regular readers of our blog know that I take great delight in jumping down research rabbit holes for my Wrexford & Sloane mystery series. Early scientific technology innovations play a big role in the plots of the books—the early part of the 19th century, including the Regency era, is considered the birth of the modern world, as fundamental changes in so many aspects of life occurred—including the Industrial Revolution. So each book requires some deep dives.

Capturing the Castle

Nicola here. There are a lot of old buildings in the UK and a lot of different names for historic types of buildings, whether it’s a castle, manor, hall, tower, mansion or cottage. A castle, though, conjures up very particular ideas of what a building looks like. The dictionary definition is “a fortified building as in medieval Europe” or “a large, magnificent house especially if the home of a prince or noble.” However, I think fortifications – crenelations, towers, turrets etc are essential for it to be a proper castle. Often a castle, which has been around for hundreds of years, is in ruins, either through age or because it was destroyed in a war or battle and has never been rebuilt. There is definitely a special aura about a castle.

Castles in novels tend to be creepy. Whether it’s the Castle of Otranto by Walpole or The Red Keep in Game of Thrones they are designed to be intimidating and the gothic atmosphere just adds to the sense of menace.

How lovely it was, then, to visit a real castle last week that was both impressive but also had quite a homely atmosphere! Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire has been in the same family for over 800 years. It’s been mentioned in Shakespeare and it fulfils the “Gothic horror” element because King Edward II was murdered there in 1327. It looks like a fortress from the outside but inside it has a warmth and charm. Although the guide book insists it is “savage,” I didn’t get that vibe from it. Even the fact that the stone it is built from looks pink and purple in the sunshine makes it beautiful and the gardens are glorious.

When Tweaking isn't enough!

By Mary Jo

Today I'm happy to have my long-time friend and fellow cat lover Kathy Lynn Emerson here to talk about making an old book new again, and why she's done that in this case.  It's a delicious insight into how authors think, and why we do the things we do.  As for the cats, note the author photo, plus the candid snap below of Kathy and kitty napping together. <G>

First, about Kathy:  Kathy Lynn Emerson (aka Kaitlyn Dunnett and Kate Emerson) has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for "excellence and achievement" as a Maine writer from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She is currently working on creating new omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.

 

Puppets

Anne here.

Today’s topic was inspired by my friend Jenny who is a photographer. She recently donated a collection of her photos to the Victorian Arts Archive. (The photo on the right is not Jenny's — it's by Robert Zunikoff from Unsplash)  Jenny's collection covered twelve years of performances of a children's theatre called “Polyglot Puppet Theatre", which was established to produce plays for children. Designed to have multilingual and experiential approaches to engage children in creative play, it still tours schools today. 

The company also created some enormous puppets for international plays such as  "King Kong”, "Walking with Dinosaurs” and “Narnia”.  As it happens, well-used puppets don’t last all that long, but her photos, having captured them at their newest and best, were welcomed. However when I asked Jenny whether I could use her photos in this blog, she told me she’d also given the copyright away, and so I couldn’t use them. But the inspiration to talk about puppets remained. 

Some people find some sorts of puppets creepy. I think the image above right is an example — maybe it's the hinged jaw. Or is it the expression in those eyes? I don't know.

The British Museum and the History of its Special Library

Andrea here, due to a family health issue, I’m posting an “oldie but goodie” past blog today in which I’m musing on two of my favorite subjects: libraries and museums. And as it so happens, the British Museum in London—an amazingly wonderful institution that always makes my heart go pitty-pat—has a fascinating story in its history that combines the two!
 
It all begins with Sir Hans Sloane, who donated his vast collections of “interesting stuff” (a true cabinet of curiosities of 71,000 items—you can see one of the drawers to the right) to King George II and  the country in return for £20,000, to be given to heirs. The items included books, coins, prints, drawing and ethnographic artifacts. By an act of parliament, the gift was accepted and established as the British Museum in 1753. It was the first national public museum in the world, and admission was free to “all studious and curious persons.”

Spelling it out in Viking Times

Christina here. I’m on holiday at the moment, so I’ve dug up a post that previously appeared on my friend and fellow author Anna Belfrage’s blog. Hope you don’t mind the recycling!

The word ”runes” is very evocative, isn’t it? It immediately conjures up images of fearsome Vikings, picture stones adorned with slithering snakes and dragons, as well as mysterious fortune-tellers or seeresses. Because runes weren’t just used for writing – they were also talismans against evil, part of secret rituals and carved into bits of wood or bark as protection. Magical!

The great thing about runes is that they are not that difficult to learn because they were loosely based on alphabets similar to our present one, and therefore use more or less the same principle. Although actually, that depends which runic alphabet you utilise of course – the older so called futhark (named after the first six letters f, u, þ, a, r, k) is the easiest one for us since it had a corresponding rune for almost all of our present-day letters (24 altogether). It can be roughly adapted to write modern words, which makes it fun. This elder futhark dates from the 2^nd to 8^th centuries AD, so had been phased out by the time my Runes series takes place (in the 870s), but I decided to stick with it anyway as it was easier for me – artistic licence! From the late 8^th century the younger futhark took over, but this was a simplified version with only 16 runes which I believe requires you to speak Old Norse in order to know which one to use.

What We're Reading

by Mary Jo

Our Word Wench WWR posts are always popular, and our July reads start with Nicola Cornick:

Nicola here. My favourite read this month was Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson, which is set in London in the 1920s in the glittering and criminal world of the Soho clubs. I picked it up because the story, about the Croker family and their entertainment empire was inspired by that of the infamous nightclub owner Kate Meyrick, several of whose daughters married into the aristocracy, including the Craven family. The book perfectly captures the complicated and glamorous world of 1920s society. The character of Nellie Coker, the matriarch, is compelling, as is the plot in which the police on one side and Nellie’s enemies in the criminal fraternity on the other, are all aiming to bring her down. Her eldest son, Niven, is a great romantic hero. My major grumble was that the romance strand was left hanging, which was very frustrating for those of us who like happy endings! I’ve enjoyed some Kate Atkinson books more than others but this was one of my favourites.

US link here: UK line here.

I also picked up The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware and thoroughly enjoyed that too. Harriet Westaway, struggling to make ends meet and even to survive in Brighton after her mother’s death, receives a letter that seems to answer all her prayers. The Cornish grandmother she never knew has left her a fortune. But Harriet’s grandparents died 20 years before… didn’t they? Desperate for the money, she decides to chance it and see if she can get away with the fraud, which brings her into the Westaway family circle and a whole host of secrets waiting to be revealed. This is a gothic thriller with all the trappings – a creepy old house, an equally creepy old family retainer and various weird relatives hiding all sorts of secrets. I found it a page-turner and went on to read another of Ruth Ware’s books, The It Girl, straight after.

US link.  UK link

 

 

Down the Rabbit-hole

Anne here. I sent the wenches down a rabbit-hole last week. It was for something quite small, really, but I thought it might give you an idea of the kind of rabbit-holes we wenches regularly dive down in the quest for historical accuracy.

I was writing a scene where the heroine, who’s hot and tired is alone and on foot in the countryside. She is cooling her aching feet in a little stream, when she meets a handsome itinerant, who comes to fill a bucket and a small pot in the stream.

The water in the bucket is for his horse, and he mentions that the small pot is for making a cup of tea. She’s just thinking that she’d kill for a cup of tea, when he offers her one.

That’s it. Barely worth a mention, you think. Only at first I called the small pot a billy-can, or a billy, which is what we use in Australia. Throughout my childhood, every barbecue we had in the bush, Dad would “boil the billy” which means he’d make tea for him and Mum and any other adults. Not coffee, and tea wasn’t for the kids — we drank pure, clear creek water. Pretty much any Australian would know what “boil the billy” meant. It  looked like this (though many billies have a lid and some are even fancy and enamelled.)

There are even old-fashioned tins of tea called Billy Tea. They're now collectors' items. And in the song Waltzing Matilda the swagman was waiting 'till his billy boiled. You rarely see swagmen these days — they were lone itinerants and they carried their "swag" — their possessions— on their back, but the billy always hung free, ready to make a cuppa. 

So I happiy continued with the scene. . . and then started to have second thoughts. Would it be called a billy at that time in that place?  Such things we historical writers have to consider. Hmm... So I looked up the OED (Oxford Englsih Dictionary) which tells when and where a word first appears in print. And sure enough, “billy” in the sense I was using it was an Australian/NZ term first seen in print in 1849. Curses!

So, what to call it? I asked the brains trust — ie the wenches. And they jumped right in. Here are just some of their responses — I'm sparing you the whole discussion.

En Garde—Meet the Chevalier de Saint-Georges!

Andrea here, under frantic deadline, so I am re-posting an older blog that is worth revisiting due to an exciting new movie that released last month. Read on!
 
I’m musing on how our fresh perspectives on history continue to weave such exciting new threads into the tapestry of the past. I love learning about extraordinary people whose stories never got told in the traditional narratives, especially when it’s someone whose life intersects with the Regency era. So I was absolutely enthralled by an article in the New York Times on Joseph Bolougne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. (image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Alaskan Tour

Kenai fjord

Pat here: We’ve just recently returned from a cruise along the southern Alaska coast line, admiring glaciers and national parks, watching for wildlife, and resisting miles of jewelry. Mostly, I was looking for an easy trip involving little more than eating, drinking, and sleeping. We accomplished all that, although air travel is still a real pain, even from Southern California. If you ever have a choice, choose the Vancouver airport over Seattle!

Let's Party!

Andrea here, madly scribbling away on Wrexford & Sloane Book 8, which is due in mid-August. Yes, yes, I know, Book 7 isn’t out until the end of September, but deadlines are set WAY in advance of publication . . . and I need to switch on jet propulsion to get to the finish line on time. (Oh, wait, there was no jet propulsion in the Regency era! Do you think my editor will accept the excuse that steam engines are to blame for not huffing and puffing hard enough? Heh, heh.) (image courtesy of Yale British Art Center)
 
Getting back to the plot-in-progress, as the action was heating up, I needed somewhere a little different for a meeting of several conspirators. Neither a fancy Mayfair mansion nor a gritty slum was quite right. So I began perusing my historic map of London and the solution quickly jumped out at me . . .

Seeing the elephant!

This is an oldie but goody post from 2016 because I was just in the mood for lions and elephants!

by Mary Jo

 September 8th, 2016, late in the evening, I pressed "Send" to email the manuscript of Once a Rebel to my editor. And the next morning we flew to Africa.  I wrote 7K words that last day in order to have a semblance of an ending.  I do not recommend this. <G>

But the safari in Botswana was wonderful.  Nothing like going off the grid when you've just finished a book!  I'd had no particular awareness of Botswana until I read the first No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith.  Born in what is now Zimbabwe, McCall Smith was a law professor at the University of Botswana for many years, and his love and understanding of Southern Africa is profound.

 

by Mary Jo

 September 8th, 2016, late in the evening, I pressed "Send" to email the manuscript of Once a Rebel to my editor. And the next morning we flew to Africa.  I wrote 7K words that last day in order to have a semblance of an ending.  I do not recommend this. <G>

But the safari in Botswana was wonderful.  Nothing like going off the grid when you've just finished a book!  I'd had no particular awareness of Botswana until I read the first No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith.  Born in what is now Zimbabwe, McCall Smith was a law professor at the University of Botswana for many years, and his love and understanding of Southern Africa is profound.

 

Stepping Back in Time Again

Christina here and I’ve been out and about again doing some research for the story I’m working on. As I think we’ve mentioned before on this blog, there really is nothing better for an author than being able to actually see or experience something for real. One of the best places to do that is at an outdoor museum, where they have reconstructed old buildings and environments so that the visitor can really experience what it would have been like to live there. Going to places like that feels like stepping back in time. Last week I found an excellent one – Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire here in the UK – and took a day trip to see it. Well worth a visit!

Butser features experimental archaeology with reconstructions of buildings from various different periods of early history in Britain. It was started on a different site in 1972 with the aim of setting up a working ‘ancient farm’ so that archaeologists could test out their theories as to how people lived and farmed in the Iron Age. There are different varieties of ancient crops grown, and they have rare animal breeds. The focus is on education and research, and loads of people visit every year, especially school children coming to learn about the past.

Tomatoes!

by Mary Jo

When I was a kid in Western New York, tomatoes were just another vegetable.  I didn't grow them in my garden, and while there were plenty of farm stands with great produce, I don't remember tomatoes as being especially prominent. (Picture: Hyzeyfe Turcan))

Now I live in Maryland, where it is warmer and a there's a much longer growing season, and tomatoes are treated as almost a religious experience.  People (justly) rhapsodize about the heavenly taste of perfectly ripe Eastern Shore tomatoes and swap tips on where to buy the very best tomatoes. Which is important because there are a fair number of disappointing red imposters lurking under signs that say "Tomatoes."  (Developing tomatoes that ripen at the same time and are a uniform red might have been good for mass production, but in my experience, the texture is too often like Styrofoam.)

 

Patchwork

Christina here. When I was a teenager, I had an American friend who used to work on patchwork quilts with her mother and two sisters as a group project every so often. It made the work go faster, and was also a lovely way for them to spend time together. I remember thinking I would love to try it sometime, but then I forgot about it. Quilting wasn’t a handicraft that was practised much in Sweden when I grew up, or at least I’d never seen it done, so I didn’t have a chance to learn how. (Plus I don’t have any sisters.) But I had heard of them – over there they are called lapptäcke.

Later, when I moved to the UK, I saw quilts for sale in Laura Ashley shops. I couldn’t afford them myself, but my mother bought one which she later handed on to me when she no longer wanted it. In the meantime, I tried making one myself by sewing squares together on a sewing machine, but it wasn’t as nice and I didn’t like it much. It didn’t feel authentic either, since it hadn’t been hand sewn. To me, the charm of a patchwork quilt is all the work that has gone into it, each piece of material perhaps a memory of the garment it had come from and lovingly stitched.

Imagination and Innovation

Andrea here, musing about imagination, which I do a lot, but today my focus is on how imagination sparks some people to come up with an idea that revolutionizes their world. Now, those of you familiar with my Wrexford & Sloane mystery series know that I’m very intrigued by momentous inventions that change the course of history, and use them as catalysts for my plots.
 
Change is such an interesting concept, fraught with so many facets. Some people embrace change, finding the new possibilities exhilarating. And some people are frightened by by change, preferring the comfort of familiarity and doing things the way they have always been done.
 
In my upcoming book, MURDER AT THE MERTON LIBRARY, which releases on September 26th, the action kicks off with the theft of an arcane old manuscript that may—or may not—hold a startling technical revelation that can be applied to creating an innovation that will change nautical travel.  One of the thigs I find fun about the research involved in coming up with the plot ideas is how it takes me down fascinating research rabbit holes.

Decadent Peacocks

Christina here. As some of you will have seen from our last newsletter, Wench Nicola and I recently visited Newark Park, a lovely Tudor hunting lodge in the wilds of Gloucestershire. It had a beautiful, sprawling garden, and apart from the amazing views, one of the best things about it were the resident peacocks. Those majestic birds always look like they own a place, strutting around and uttering their mournful cries every so often. It occurred to me that when describing a historical setting in a book, adding peacocks to the background immediately conveys a sense of luxury and decadence. They are not really useful birds (although perhaps they can be – more about that in a moment), just decorative and therefore an indulgence. If an author wants to demonstrate the fact that the hero/heroine is very rich, dotting their lawns with peacocks would be a good way to go about it. And who wouldn’t want some? They are truly stunning.

Where in the World are You?

Nicola here. I've been away travelling for the last couple of weeks and (hopefully!) just got home today with piles of washing to do and (again, hopefully!) lots of lovely memories which I can turn into a blog post or two to share in the future. In the meantime, however, I'm calling up a short, updated Wench classic post from nine years ago. How the time flies! It seems appropriate, though as it's all about travel, whether in real life or via our reading. So, step back in time to 2014:

"There’s a meme that was going around on Facebook a while ago that proved very popular. It asks: “You have been transported to the location in the last book you read. Where are you?” The answers flood in, from Scotland to the West Indies, from the New York of the future to London in 1515 and all times and places in between.

Shattered Rainbows

by Mary Jo

The Story:

Shattered Rainbows, book #5 in my Fallen Angels series, is currently free on most ebook platforms and will continue to be free for about another week.  I'm writing this blog partly to talk about the book, but also explain some of the marketing decisions that go into why a book might be free.

Shattered Rainbows is a favorite book of mine. (For the record, Romantic Times gave it a 4 1/2 star GOLD rating and it was a RITA finalist.) I could probably say that  almost anything I've written is a favorites, but that's especially true in this case. Lord Michael Kenyon is one of the most intense and tortured heroes I've ever written, and he has a lot of baggage to work through, complicated by the fact that he's a British Army officer and the battle of Waterloo is a key feature of the story. 

I have no idea why I'm fascinated by British military history in the Napoleonic period, but I keep coming back to it time and time again.  Partly that's because it was a 'good war,' fighting against an authoritarian Continental monster.  Lots of drama for stories!  Characters are tested in the crucible of battle, and in none of my books has that been truer than in Shattered Rainbows. 

 

The Joy of the Letter

Nicola here, talking about letters and cards, letter-writing and research. Last week, a friend who lives a few doors down, put a hand written card through my door to fix up a get-together. She could have texted or used any one of a half dozen other ways of getting in touch but the card really thrilled me because it feels so unusual to receive hand-written cards and letters these days. Despite this, cards and other beautiful stationery are very popular and I’m always tempted to buy some when I visit historic houses or other lovely places that sell smart stationery. As a result, I have an ever-increasing pile of cards in my desk and seldom seem to have the chance to send them to anyone, though I do my best to find those occasions when I can.

At the same time, I’ve been researching the book I’m writing about the history of Ashdown House, and have been reminded of how important letters and letter-writing was to our forbears as a way of sharing news (and gossip!) and consequently how useful letters are to historians. In fact, my new fiction timeslip book also underlines this, as the heroine and her sister are both illiterate, never having been taught to read or write as children because they were poor (and girls). Learning to read is one of my heroine’s ambitions.