Word Wenches

The joy of animal companions!

Nicola here talking about animal companions. Something I’ve noticed quite a lot during lockdown is the number of people who have been getting a dog to keep them company. The prices of pedigree puppies have soared; lots of people have posted excitedly on social media about the pleasure of getting new pets. It’s wonderful if caring for an animal has brought people the benefit of companionship, exercise and uncritical love (maybe not in the case of cats) but this did also set off some warning bells for me.

We all know that a pet is forever not just for Lockdown.

There is no doubt, though, that the antics of various animals have lifted the spirits of a lot of us. My new favourite online stars are
Olive and Mabel, two Labradors belonging to the sports commentator Andrew Cotter. His deadpan commentaries of their various activities are very funny and the dogs are utterly adorable. Lots of people have dropped into my Facebook page to see various photos and videos of Angus as we go out and about together, and my writing friend Kate Hardy is posting a diary of her progress training her new spaniel puppy, Dexter. I spend a lot longer that I should watching cute cat videos on Twitter and I’m sure there are plenty of other pets out there doing wonderful cheering things – rabbits, ferrets, even fish making their owners happy.

What We're Reading in June

The Word Wenches have been reading the most lovely books.

Mary Jo's recommendations for this month include one of my own old favorites.

Mary Jo:

I've read some new books this last month, but the only stories that really grabbed me were two oldies.  The first was Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree.  We've discussed Mary Stewart here before--the Wenches are major fans and she shaped the writing for several of us, me included.

The Ivy Tree was the first Mary Stewart I ever read, in a condensed version in my mother's Ladies Home Journal.  I was riveted, and the big story twist was like being clubbed. (I'm harder to surprise now, but it's still one heck of a twist. <G>) 

Stewart is marvelous in her descriptions of story settings, and she makes a Northumberland summer come alive with sensual warmth.  Good suspense and romance, too.  (A lot of smoking goes on, as in most of Stewart's books, a sign of the changing times.)  It's still a wonderful story. 

My other favorite book is Sarah-Kate Lynch's The Wedding Bees, which I learned about on an earlier WWR.  I think it was recommended by Anne Gracie and Pat Rice.  I was a little wary, not being over fond of stinging insects, but within a couple of chapters, I was hooked.  It's kind of magical realism with the heroine, Sugar Wallace, exiled from her beloved Southern home and each year moving herself and her bees to a new city chosen by her queen bee, one of a succession of Elizabeths.  (The current queen is Elizabeth the 6th.)

This time she's led to New York City in an apartment with a great views, a terrace for her bees, and a half dozen other units in the building occupied by miserable people.  Sugar is a healer with both her honey and her warmth, and by the end of the book, everyone in the building is happy, and they and her bees have healed her into happiness and love. A delightful story.

 

Susan brings us a most interesting mystery series and a rather famous book about writing itself.

 

Susan:  This round, I read something new to me and something much-read (I won't mention the stack of to-be-reads, half-reads, meant-to-finishes, and forgot-I-hads that I didn't get through!). I'm leisurely making my way through Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway mystery series, picking one up now and then, and Dying Fall was a very good point in the series, about halfway through so far. Archaeologist and forensic bone specialist Dr. Ruth Galloway--single mom to a toddler she shares with Nelson, a local detective chief inspector--is drawn into a major archaeological discovery by an old friend who is soon murdered.

Sister Scribes

Nicola here. Today I’m musing on sisters, real, literary and fictional. I’ve always been fascinated by the relationships between siblings. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have any full siblings that I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a sister. Would we be very close, or different and distant? Would there be sibling rivalry between us or the sort of secrets you come across in books? What would it have been like growing up with brothers and sisters?

Today is the anniversary of the birth in 1817 of Branwell Bronte, the only boy amongst literary siblings Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Originally there were six Bronte children, five of whom were girls, so Branwell’s unique status as the only son of the family promised him more freedom and perhaps led to his being more indulged. Whilst the girls were sent away to school, in some cases most unhappily, Branwell was educated by his father at home (pictured above). The two older Bronte sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in childhood and their deaths made a big impression on all their siblings. Maria in particular showed all the signs of developing the same literary talents as her younger sisters. One wonders what might have happened had she survived and also whether Elizabeth, who was said to most resemble Anne, would also have grown up to be an author. Branwell, meanwhile, was a writer and an artist - one of his pictures is on the right - but he never achieved the literary success his sisters did, nor was he particularly successful with his paintings.

Ask-A-Wench: What was your first job?

Anne here, and today on "ask a wench" we're responding to the question, 'What was your first ever job?'

Pat begins:  Oh dear, I’m not entirely certain where to start. With babysitting? Boring. How about the candy store I set up in the local park?

That was fun but a lot of work. A friend and I had to take a cooler on the bus downtown (we were only fourteen—and our mothers didn’t have cars) to the candy wholesaler. We’d load up on everything we liked, then hauled it back to the neighborhood and sold it out of a little park building no one was using. We made enough that summer to outfit ourselves quite nicely when school started in the fall!

But I suppose my real live out-in-the-world job was a cashier at Value Village, a place I could walk to. I doubt anyone remembers them, a precursor to K-Mart. I was only fifteen (my birthday was a few months away) and not exactly legal, but the store had just opened. They were desperate to fill positions and didn’t ask questions. The entire neighborhood was thrilled to have this exciting new store (oh, those were the days!) and the lines curled to the back of the building for weeks after it opened. I swear I memorized every code in the store because the stock moved too quickly to be marked. Can you remember ever being excited by the opening of a cheap discount store?!

Of course, the best part of that job—besides the paycheck—was that all the guys went there to buy parts and oil for their cars. My IT Guy was one of them. <G>

Christina says:  My first proper job was a summer job working in an office. At the time, I’d been at university in Sweden for a year and I wanted to earn some extra money. Students never have enough, do they! My father worked for a Swedish company with branches all over the world and he managed to secure me a six-week stint in their London office, because he knew the manager. I was very excited to be spending so much time in the UK, staying with my aunt and uncle – that felt like a vacation in itself – although I was a bit apprehensive about the work as I had no idea what it entailed. And when I turned up on the appointed day, I think the manager had forgotten to tell his staff I was coming as everyone was a bit taken aback and no one knew what to do with me!

The Family Tree of Life

Nicola here. Today I’m wondering what happened to all the plans I had at the start of lockdown in March. Back then time spent quietly at home felt like an opportunity to catch up with a load of things I’d wanted to do for a while, whether it was clear out the wardrobe or start a new hobby. With the benefit of hindsight, I can see this was probably optimistic; we’ve all had a lot of shocking, frightening and unexpected stuff to deal with in our different ways, my concentration is non-existent and I haven’t achieved anything close to what I thought I would. On the other hand, and on a more optimistic note, the kindness and strength of friends, family and strangers through difficult times has been truly amazing.

One of my interests before the pandemic kicked in was genealogy. I only came to family tree research a few years ago. A number of relatives had been busy working on different parts of the family history for years and I felt they had it covered and I had lots of other things to research! But then, I don’t know why or how, I started to become interested in genealogy myself and once I’d started it became totally compulsive. I even had an Ancestry DNA test done - which didn’t reveal anything very exciting at all!

What We're Reading in May

Pat here with May’s collection of favorite reads. Some of us are apparently hunkered down in this enforced isolation and have read entire libraries. And then there’s Jo Bourne:

Jo B:

What people think Romance Writers read: Love's Inventive Gymnastics.

What Romance Writers Actually Read: Essays in Social History, Volume I: The Preindustrial Millennia and The ZTE Cell Phone User's Guide.

We read this stuff because we are nerds and cannot safely be turned loose in a library. Preindustrial Millenia is an interesting look at the economics of Greek and Roman slavery versus peasantry. I come away renewed in my determination to avoid being the bottom rung of the social ladder in the Classical period.

Another ladder I would probably avoid any rung of is Revolutionary France, but it's still a joy to pick up Daily Life in the French Revolution by Jean Robiquet, which is full of pithy wisdom and quotes from original material. I am a sucker for "Daily Life in ..." books altogether. Just skip the politics and battlefields and tell me how they got the clothes washed. I'd recommend picking up Robiquet second hand since it hasn't been put in ebook or even paperback.

Word Wench Anniversary Ball

Compiled by Mary Jo

This year, we're holding a ball!  Each Wench will bring one of her favorite heroes. (Not the favorite, because how can one choose just one from among so many fabulous men?  <G>)  

I'm wearing the burgundy velvet gown I was married in, but I'm not the star of this occasion!  That would be Lord Ross Carlisle, hero of one of my earlier books, Silk and Secrets, second in my Silk Trilogy.  Though by nature he's rather reserved and scholarly, he's also deeply interested in all kinds of people and distant places.  Which is why he became one of those amazingly intrepid early Victorian explorers who crossed mountains and deserts and dared all kinds of dangers to explore the mysteries of the unknown. 

Ross was on his last expedition to Central Asia when he discovered his beloved, long estranged wife Juliet Cameron.  Together they risk the lethal journey to Bokhara in hopes of rescuing her brother--and in the process they discover each other again.  Ross and Juliet are generally inseparable, but she's starting the evening by joining a group of other wives in the library where they can sip brandy and claret and catch up on each other's news. 

I've now published Silk and Secrets as an e-book and later this year there will be an audio edition narrated by Siobhan Waring.  I chose this illustration from the NAL first edition because it's one of my all time favorite covers  and Ross and Juliet both look so gorgeous,  They are also dancing, though not anything you'd see in an English ballroom!  Ross, endlessly interested in all kinds of people, is looking forward to meeting the tribe of Wenches and our companions!

 

 

Do You Believe in the Supernatural?

Nicola here. Halloween and the long dark nights of winter may seem a more appropriate time to be talking about ghosts and the paranormal, in this part of the world at least, but in other places such a Japan the summer twilight is the time for sitting around a campfire and telling chilling tales. So today, whilst the sun shines and all seems quiet in my ancient village, I’m talking about the paranormal elements in my latest book, The Forgotten Sister, and asking “do you believe in the supernatural?”

The Forgotten Sister is probably my spookiest book yet. At the centre of this paranormal web is Lizzie Kingdom, a young woman who possesses the gift of psychometry, the ability to read objects and connect to their history or to the people who owned them. Lizzie has always kept this ability secret because she grew up as an outsider and didn’t want anything else to mark her out as different. Her gift for reading objects is a deeply personal thing that she uses to connect to the lost maternal side of her family. As she has never truly explored her gift, Lizzie doesn’t realise that it is greater than she imagines. Then she meets Arthur Robsart and is rather intrigued to discover that she can read him too. Arthur, unsurprisingly, finds this an invasion of privacy!

Costume Dramas: They don’t make them like they used to do. Or do they?

Nicola here. One of our lockdown activities during this period of self-isolation has been to have a weekly film night (or sometimes a double bill!) it’s been great to catch up with some of the new movies that are out, some TV series I hadn’t yet seen, and some old favourites too. My viewing has included Knives Out, a sort of post-modern Agatha Christie style whodunnit with more twists than a roller coaster and Daniel Craig doing a bizarre accent, and Yesterday, a sweet and funny time -travel romance that I loved.

Costume drama has always been my catnip though, so the first film I streamed was the new version of Jane Austen’s Emma. Wench Andrea has already blogged about the film here so I’m not going to give my own take on it, especially as I agree with practically everything she said! New versions of Jane Austen’s books seem to come along more regularly than trains these days and it’s always interesting to see what new angle can possibly be taken. In the case of Emma, it really did feel like a film for the Instagram generation with every shot so beautifully curated. Unlike some viewers I did enjoy the fact that there wasn’t such an age disparity between Emma and Mr Knightley as there was in the book, and the sexual tension between the two of them was hot enough to burn down a Regency stately home!

Historical Icons and Celebrities

Nicola here. A new book about celebrity was published a couple of weeks ago. Called “Dead Famous” it’s written by Greg Jenner, a historical consultant on Horrible Histories and traces a history of celebrity from the Bronze Age to the modern day. The Amazon blurb reads: “Celebrity, with its neon glow and selfie pout, strikes us as hypermodern. But the famous and infamous have been thrilling, titillating, and outraging us for much longer than we might realise.” Quoted examples are Lord Byron, the Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean and Sarah Bernhardt.

Way back in 2007(!) I wrote a book called Lord of Scandal which was about a Regency celebrity. I was writing it at the same time that I was researching my MA dissertation and it was this research into heroes that fed into the book. Now I have a new book, The Forgotten Sister, coming out in a couple of weeks that also features celebrity, this time in a slightly different way, drawing on parallels between the cult of Queen Elizabeth I and modern-day fame.

What the Wenches are Reading in March!

Pat here, joining the other wenches in bringing you new books and old favorites to fill your days as we watch spring pass by from our quarantines. I hope all of you are staying well and not ready to kill your families yet!

My contribution this month is from a wench favorite, Barbara O’Neal (Barbara Samuels in historicals)—a contemporary women’s fiction titled WHEN WE BELIEVED IN MERMAIDS.

I’ve read Barbara in her very many incarnations from historical romance to contemporary category romance to women’s fiction, and I love it all. She’s an emotion-wrenching writer, and it’s impossible to read her without laughing and crying. It’s also impossible not to be swept into the world of her creation. I’ve saved this book for months. The anticipation of knowing it was in my reading pile for a day when I really needed it made me happy. I finally gave myself permission to open it, and it was well worth the wait. I savored every word.

Susanna Kearsley: Hail and Farewell!

by Mary Jo

Authors love hanging out with each other, interacting with readers, and writing about delicious bits of research. (Especially historical writers on the research!)

But sometimes an author becomes too busy to include regular blogging in her life.  Such is the case for Susanna Kearsley, who is bowing out with mutual regrets all around.  To say farewell, we're sharing some memories of her and her books.  The picture above is a record-setting five Wenches together in Real Life at last summer's RWA conference in New York.  From left to right: Anne Gracie, Mary Jo Putney, Andrea Penrose, Susanna Kearsley, and Patricia Rice.  (Joanna Bourne arrived later: SIX of us!)

 

In Conversation with Christina Courtenay

Nicola here. Today it is my very great pleasure to welcome back to the blog one of our favourite Wench guests: Christina Courtenay. Christina is an award-winning author of historical romantic fiction and in particular time slip and time travel romance in the great tradition of Barbara Erskine and Susanna Kearsley so it's no wonder her books are an auto-buy for me and will appeal to a lot of Wench readers too! Her latest novel, Echoes of the Runes, is set in the present day and in the vivid 9th century world of the Vikings, and she is here today to tell us more about the book.

Christina, welcome back to the Wenches! Echoes of the Runes is getting some wonderful reviews and rightly so! Please tell us about the book.

Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say!  Echoes of the Runes is a Viking timeslip/dual time novel set mostly in Sweden, both in the present and the past. It tells the story of Ceri, a Welsh noblewoman who is taken hostage by a Viking, Haukr inn hvíti (“the White Hawk”), in 869AD. Back in the present day, an archaeological dig at her late grandmother’s home leads Mia Maddox to uncover secrets of the past which will influence her life in ways she could not have imagined. As the present begins to echo the past, and enemies threaten, they will all have to fight to protect what has become most precious to each of them.

The Most Precious Jewels

By Mary Jo

The idea for this post came from chatting on our private loop about jewelry with special meaning for us, and it sounded like a fun blog topic.

Personally, I've never been particularly interested in classic jewelry like diamonds and strings of pearls.  I like bright shinys, but the jewelry that interests me most is usually old or ethnic or funky--and the pieces generally come with stories. 

 

Excellent Women

Nicola here. A fairly brief blog from me today as I’m struggling towards the end of the current manuscript and am chained to it until it’s done! A few weeks ago, when I was still allowed out, I went to a talk at a local bookshop about a new book by a local author, Gill Hornby. The book is called Miss Austen and it is a fictional look at the life of the lesser-known Austen sister, Cassandra. In particular it tackles the literary mystery of why Cassandra destroyed so many of Jane Austen’s letters. Gill gave a fascinating interview into the background and research she did for the book and gave us her view on both Jane and Cassandra’s characters. She came across, as the interviewer noted, as quite protective of Cassandra; Gill said that this was because Jane is always – rightly – lauded as a genius, but Cassandra was an unsung heroine. In her words, Cassandra was an “excellent woman.”

An Interview with Tracy Chevalier

Last week I went up to London to interview international bestselling author Tracy Chevalier as part of the Romantic Novelists’ Association 60^th anniversary celebrations. A number of people who weren’t able to get to the talk were interested in hearing about it, so I thought I would report back on it here as Tracy had so many fascinating things to say about books, reading, writing and art.

Tracy Chevalier was born in Washington DC, the daughter of  is best known for the book Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was made into a film in 2003. It’s based on the famous artwork of the same name by Dutch artist Vermeer, which hangs in the Mauritshuis in the Hague in Holland. As so much of Tracy’s writing life has been defined by art, we decided to base the interview around eight pieces of art or crafts that she chose to represent various aspects of her life, rather as Desert Island Discs does with music, and it proved to be a very interesting way to structure an interview.

It's That Day Again. Valentines!

Joanna here, with the Wenches, talking Valentines Day and Romance and the cool things that mean love to us.

It's not always what you'd expect.

Anne, being both down-to-earth and so, so right, says:

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day. It only became popular in Australia after I was an adult, and it felt very commercial. I'm much more in favor of unscheduled expressions of love -- a spontaneous gift of chocolates or flowers or something else, a romantic dinner (where you're not jostling in a restaurant with a hundred other couples trying to look romantic), a romantic night in at any time of year, a love-letter that arrives randomly. Even a job that needs doing that's been put off for a while can be

Flowers. Oh yes

romantic -- in the right context. And words of love need to be spontaneous, not scheduled according to the calendar.

 

And while I love love love roses, I don't love the ones they sell for Valentine's. Beautiful, perfect-looking red roses -- without scent. To me that's a bit like a declaration of love without the emotion. I'd much rather a slightly raggedy bunch of roses from the garden, imperfect, but with a glorious scent. Or even not-roses. I have a friend who often arrives for a visit bearing a bunch of flowers from her garden -- one or two of each kind, nothing matching or "designer" but so vibrant and pretty and with a lovely meld of fragrances.

 

 

Pat gives us a lovely view of a warm holiday:

For a romance writer, I'm not very much into schmaltz or commercial holidays. I adored the sticky messy cards my children drew for me in grade school simply because they so much reflected their individual personalities and made me smile and cry at the same time.

But Valentine's Day is also my wedding anniversary, and that's worth celebrating. Our tradition is pretty simple, though. We pick out cards (usually e-cards we can adapt in our own words). My husband usually brings me lovely flowers, because it was always gray gloomy winter for most of our years, and he knows how much I love a bright bouquet to fight off gloom. And then we go out for an extravagant meal in a quiet restaurant we wouldn't normally go to.

Really, it's all about being together with the ones you love, isn't it? And that can be any time for any reason.

 

Andrea is not necessarily a fan of the commercial:

And isn't this a cool Valentine

As one whose teeth is often set on edge by all the “canned” commercial holly-jolly of the really traditional holidays, it’s no surprise that I’m not a big fan of manufactured holidays. It feels a little silly to feel compelled to buy a fancy gift and make reservations at some, swanky expensive—and likely overcrowded—restaurant, simply because of a date on a calendar.

For me, gestures of love are all about the little things—the smaller and more spontaneous, the better . . . Getting a surprise brownie when I’ve mentioned to a friend that I’m feeling a little down . . . An impromptu invitation to take a walk holding hands on a beautiful sunny day.

Huge bouquets of red rose or big boxes of fancy chocolates don’t make my heart go pitty-pat. (well, okay—maybe I’m fibbing about the chocolate!) It’s the off-beat things that I cherish. One of my favorites is a small heart-shaped rock inscribed with colorful circles that I received for no apparent reason at all! Fluttery sigh.   

 

Nicola has a very Romantic story to tell:

I got engaged on Valentine’s Day 32 years ago. In those days it wasn’t really the commercial

That special Valentines trip

festival it is now but was a lot more low key. One of the things that I remember about the occasion was that that my now-husband was so nervous when it came to proposing that he couldn’t get the words out!

Since that day so long ago, we have gone on a trip each Valentine’s Day to celebrate our engagement. This has not always been easy – bad weather, hospital stays and various other life events have intervened to throw obstacles in the way but we have always managed to do something every year even if it has just been a quiet dinner for two somewhere. In the process we’ve stayed in so many gorgeous places and discovered historical gems to visit across England, Scotland and Wales. It’s a fabulous tradition and I hope we can continue it until we fall off our joint twig!

 

The cat in the earrings

Mary Jo passes along a story from a friend:

One of the sweetest Valentine's story I know is from many years ago when a close college friend was dating a girl who really made him light up with happiness. Valentine's Day was coming so he bought her a large stuffed animal to cuddle. He also bought her a pair of earrings because giving jewelry is always a romantic gesture.

Then he thought why not combine the gifts? So the stuffed cat wore earrings. His sweetheart carried that critter through their whole date. And yes--Reader, he married her!

(The picture is a reenactment since this happened long before the era of easy smart phone cameras. <G>)

 

Susan brings us hearts, harts, hearts:

When my three boys were little guys, they gave me assorted hearts for Valentine's Day--small

The collective noun for hearts is ...

wooden ones painted in a preschool class, Play-Doh hearts rolled and mushed and left to dry, paper cut-out hearts glued to doilies, hearts in crayon on paper ...

I've kept lots of these, stashed away in boxes of things that I keep for each son (should they ever want them, which is looking doubtful!). Sometimes the little guys would troop out with their Dad to buy a card and a big box of chocolates (that they soon scarfed up), and they'd also help him pick out heart-shaped jewelry.

I've got quite a collection of heart-shaped necklaces and earrings by now -- here are just a few of them. Each one holds a memory that I'll keep forever, even if the chocolates lasted about five minutes in this house! Happy Valentine's to all!

 

And for me, Joanna ...

I love seasonal things. The candles of the Solstice. The first snowdrop. Fireworks. Pumpkins. Maiwein. The August Moon Viewing.

My best Valentines Days have included clumsy, schoolmade Valentines of red construction paper and frilly white doilies with LOTS of school glue slathered on. Glitter optional.

I also have a fondness for origami hearts. They delight me beyond measure.

But most of all, I love the dorky heart-shaped candies with little slogans on them. "Kiss Me," "Hug Me Tight, "Be Mine."

 

So, what moves your heart today, Valentines Day?
What custom? What memory? What gift?

 

Brooches - Historical Fashion Statement

Nicola here, talking about brooches. Although I love sparkly jewelry, mainly rings and earrings, I’ve never worn brooches very much.  Maybe I associated brooches with my grandmother in the same way that I thought of scarves and lavender, both of which I’ve come around to appreciating over the years. I’ve a number of brooches in my drawer but they don’t see the light of day very often. Well, that’s about to change.

Last year in the UK, Lady Hale, the president of the supreme court caused a sensation in several ways, with her ruling on the prorogation of parliament but also because of the enormous spider brooch that she was wearing at the time. This caused a fashion phenomenon and the sale of spider brooches soared whilst brooches in general became a hot trend. It turns out that Lady Hale has quite a selection of over-sized brooches, including an emerald green frog, a centipede, a beetle and a fox.

Ask A Wench - The Point of Historical Romance Novels

Nicola here, introducing this month’s Ask A Wench feature. Today we’re tackling a big question which crops up a lot in different forms:

“With the world in such turmoil at the moment, what's the point of romance novels—especially historical romance novels about a past that's dead and gone?”

As readers and writers, we get this a lot: We’re accustomed to hearing: “What you read/write is frivolous/fluffy/some other disparaging word beginning with “f”. As the Wenches explain so eloquently below, this is to both miss the point and underestimate the power of romantic fiction. Read on to see exactly why, with the world in such turmoil, romance has so much to offer.

A Happy New Year!

Nicola here. Farewell to 2019 and to the "twenty tens!" As we enter a new decade, the Word Wenches would like to thank you for your continued support for the blog and wish you a very Happy New Year. Together, the Wenches and our blog readers form a community that loves chatting about history, books, writing and life in general. We look forward to many more discussions in the years ahead!

A hundred years ago in 1920, the new era was greeted with excitement in western society. In the wake of the First World War, the "Roaring Twenties" were known for a period of economic prosperity and cultural development. In London the decade was ushered in with a number of very smart black tie events as well as some less formal partying! A hundred years on we are in a very different place but who knows what this new era will bring? As long as there are new books, old favourites and friends to talk to here, we'll be good! Wishing you and your loved ones all good things for the new year and the new decade!

The Colours of Christmas

Nicola here on the third day of Christmas, talking about colours (or even colors!) For me this year, Christmas has been a very colourful occasion. White, red and gold have traditionally been the colours associated with Christmas in my home ever since I was a child and helped my grandmother decorate the tree each year. Red always reminds me of the vivid berries that you can still find in the hedgerows, feeding the birds, in the winter. Gold feels bright and regal and white is for snow, of course! White decorations arethe closest we've been to a white Christmas here in quite a while! Together they all look lovely with the green of the tree.

Before Christmas I went to a light show at my local arboretum. It was magical to stroll through the trees and watch the play of light on the bare branches, bringing out the shadows and patterns in the wood. They had recreated the Northern Lights and they rippled overhead as you walked along an avenue of huge trees. it was the most beautiful sight and quite enchanting. Meanwhile, the church in my parents' village was lit up with purple, which I discovered is the colour of advent.

Finally, my favourite Christmas present was these rather fabulous gloves with their multi-coloured trim! Overall I do feel as though I have had a beautifully-coloured and illuminated Christmas which, when it's a bit dark and cold outside, is wonderfully bright and warming. I hope your Christmas has been full of light as well.

What are your favourite colours of Christmas?

Rebranding AKA New Covers and Titles for Old Books

Nicola here. Today I’m talking about re-branding in the form of book covers and titles.  The reason: My publisher and I decided to give The Woman in the Lake a new cover and a new title for the UK e-book and I thought it might be interesting to explore why this happened. I hope this will appeal to readers who might wonder why books are sometimes rebranded, and to authors who may face the same dilemmas themselves. It’s a look behind the scenes – and a very honest one – into what happened with The Woman in the Lake.

TWITL as I call it, was published simultaneously in the UK and North America in March 2019. It’s my third “timeslip” novel, a term which in itself can cause problems for an author trying to interest an agent or publisher in a book. Some people haven’t heard of timeslip, others ask what the differences are between timeslip and time travel, some people call the books dual or multiple time stories… There can be some identity issues!

What We're Reading for November

Howdy folks. Joanna here.
Hope all those who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had a good one.

It's been a good month for reading, it being fall weather and brisk enough that the dog doesn't beg for a walk so much.

 

Andrea brings us a YA and a biography:

It was a strange reading month. I started and didn’t finish a couple of books, which is very rare for me. But they just didn’t catch my fancy. However, having enjoyed the Ron Chernow biography of Alexander Hamilton so much, I snatched up Washington: A Life,  his bio on George Washington, when it recently appeared on BookBub. (It won the Pulitzer Prize some years back) I’m only about a quarter of the way through it, but am really enjoying it.

 

Chernow has a wonderful knack of making his subjects come so alive. Washington’s early life is fascinating, and he comes across as a very different character from the solemn, stately president that the history books present. We see a full range of his humanity—he was a man of passions and pragmatism—and really paints a viid portrait of his many nuances. I’m very much looking forward to glomming through the rest of it in next little while.

I love Leigh Bardugo’s YAs, so I was also eagerly waiting the release of her first adult novel, Ninth House. I glommed through it, but have to confess that it wasn’t an easy read. The plotting and character development were ragged in places, and it was VERY dark and gritty—enough so, that I paused in a few places wondering whether I could continue. It didn’t have the strong band of misfit friends that she created so beautifully in the YAs, so the relationship of protagonists seemed a little disjointed.

 

BUT, as as the blurb says, it’s a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite . . . and glimmers of Bardugo’s magical writing flickered enough in places, that I stuck with it. And as the backstory of the main character—a deeply damaged freshman young woman who suddenly finds herself trying to keep evil magic from running amuck when her senior mentor disappears—is slowly revealed, the story really begins to come together, and the bonding begins to work.

 

It’s a challenging read, so be forewarned. But I ended up liking in spite of the problems I found. It’s clearly the start of the series, and I’m hooked enough on the characters and the quest that I’ll definitely get the second book. (In the last chapter of this book, she and her friends have discovered that her mentor isn't dead, but has been swallowed by a demon . . . so the last line of this book is hard to resist. “So, who’s ready to go to Hell?”

 

Nicola offers us a fine mix:

I’ve been mixing romance and crime in my reading this month. I started with My Sister the Serial Killer, which was recommended here last month. The title in itself is enough to rouse the curiosity! It’s about Korede, whose gorgeous sister Ayoola is the serial killer of the title. Korede has been covering up for and tidying up after Ayoola for years but she’s about to reach breaking point when her sister takes a shine to the man Korede is in love with… A lot of the reviews describe this book as hilarious.

I didn’t actually find it very funny because it was pretty dark, but I did find it compulsive and the writing was very, very good. I always feel it’s hard to say I enjoyed a book like this because I found it disturbing but it was a very interesting reading experience.

Next up was The Word is Murder by Antony Horowitz. I really enjoyed the last book of his I read, The Magpie Murders, and this was just as good. It’s a modern take on the old-fashioned murder mystery, full of red herrings, misdirection, a fascinating cast of characters and a maverick detective.

Romance was provided by a timeslip novel by Melinda Hammond, called Casting Samson. Linda is an award-winning author of Regency romance (she also writes under the name Sarah Mallory) but I’ve read and enjoyed her timeslip writing before (Moonshadows) so I was really looking forward to Casting Samson.

The two time periods are contemporary and the era of the Crusades and the Knights Templar, which was a fascinating and unusual period of history to read about. The historical and modern days sections were woven together beautifully and there were two very satisfying love stories in the contemporary story. There was also a hilarious scene at a village fete which had me laughing aloud. Anyone who enjoys romances set in English villages should like this – it has a lovely and vivid cast of characters, three very attractive heroes, history and mystery! Casting Samson was previously published by HQ Digital and Melinda will be republishing it very soon – watch this space! In the meantime, here’s the link to Moonshadows.

 

Pat's here with a New York City story:

Elizabeth Gilbert is a fabulous writer who can draw the reader in with her effortless prose alone. The reviews of City of Girls caught  my interest with promises of New York City theater history in the 1940s. The opening chapter was a bit of a literary conceit, but I tolerated that. It gave the author the opportunity to write a chatty monologue, presumably to some woman she’d only met once, explaining how the narrator's relationship with the unknown woman’s father. That sounded promising.

I knew it wasn’t romance and the narrator wouldn’t end up with the father, but I was happy to go along for the ride—until midbook when the narcissistic shallow protagonist had yet to mention said gentleman but talked only of herself.

There were a lot of entertaining characters along the way, and I kept waiting for the story to coalesce into a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, I got lots of enchanting vignettes of 1940s New York that never went anywhere. So I skipped to the end, and the father showed up maybe forty pages from the end. I’ll leave it to you whether he was worth the effort. So if you don’t mind just going along for the ride with no destination in mind, read this for the history and the prose.

Anne returns to a favorite author and brings us someone new. Anne says:

 

I've recommended Juliet Marillier's novels before in this column, and her latest, The Harp of Kings, was a standout read for me this month. Juliet Marillier writes Celtic history with elements of fantasy and magic. In The Harp of Kings eighteen-year-old Liobhan and her brother Brocc are musicians training to join an elite warrior band. When they are recruited for a secret mission to find and retrieve an ancient harp, vital to the coronation of a king—and the stability of a kingdom—they are challenged by both men and magic. A wonderful novel, highly recommended.

 

My other recommendation is Ann Swinfen — The Bookseller's Tale. Recommended to me by a friend, this is a medieval mystery set in the Oxford of 1353. The small university town is still trying to recover from the aftermath of The Great Plague, several years before. When maker of books, bookseller and scrivener, Nicholas Elyot, finds the body of a student known to him, murdered and tossed into the river, he becomes involved in a search for answers, answers that are closely connected to the book trade.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Apart from the story, plot and characters -- all of which were intelligent and engaging -- I learned a lot about this time period and place that I hadn't known. The minute I finished The Bookseller's Tale, I bought the next in the series, The Novice's Tale and gobbled it down. I've since finished the series. Best read in order.

 

 

Mary Jo brings me cats, which is always a delight.

 

Murder at the Cat Show by Marian Babson

I've been in the mood for light reading, and when I saw a cozy mystery by Marian Babson on BookBub, I snapped it up because I read and enjoyed it years ago.  While I remember the general plot, I'd forgotten most of the details, so I enjoyed it all over again.  The story is narrated by Doug Perkins, who runs a small public relations firm with his friend Gerry Tate.  They’re hired to publicize a London cat show.  

Doug has no opinions about cats one way or the other, but he soon gets sucked into discovering celebrity working cat and their doting owners. There's a murder, Doug gets enslaved by a peremptory young Siamese, and much fun is had all around. <G>  Very enjoyable, especially if you like cats. 

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

This is an enjoyable Victorian Christmas novella, a nice light bite at a busy season. As of this writing, it's 99 cents, though I don't know how long that will last.  Here's the blurb:

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He's grim and silent. A man of little emotion--or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months of courtship, she's ready to put an end to things.

 But severing ties with her taciturn suitor isn't as straightforward as Sophie envisioned. Her parents are outraged. And then there's Charles Darwin, Prince Albert, and that dratted gaslight. What's a girl to do except invite Mr. Sharpe to Appersett House for Christmas and give him one last chance to win her? Only this time there'll be no false formality. This time they'll get to know each other for who they really are!

 

And me, I'll round out the month of November with a paranormal.

I don't read a lot of story collections, but I picked up a couple in November, doing the mind-broadening thing.

One struck me in particular. It's Small Magics by the writing team of Ilona Andrews. This is five or six stories set in the her fictive universe. You got yer magic, yer warrior women,yer  shape shifters, post-Apocalypse world, folks fighting with swords and adventure in general. They give us a couple YA stories and a couple love stories. All of them are lovely.

Can I call the stories warm and funny when they’re full of monsters and bloodshed?

Anyway, I enjoyed this lot and it might be just what you need if you don’t have time to sit down and concentrate for a long stretch.

 

So. what are you reading lately that you think other folks might like hearing about?

 

 

Drawing Writing Inspiration from Family History with Elizabeth St.John

Nicola here. Today I welcome historical author Elizabeth St.John to the Word Wenches. I first met Elizabeth at the Historical Novel Conference in Oxford a few years ago. I confess to stalking her a little (in a completely non-sinister way!) because I knew she had a family connection to Lydiard Park, the glorious 18^th century stately home in Swindon near where I live, and I was desperate to meet her and chat about Lydiard and its history. It’s been a huge pleasure to get to know Elizabeth and discover her writing. Her books are set in the 17^th century, in an intensely turbulent period of English history, and they are intricate, immersive and beautifully-written. I’ve just started reading Written In Their Stars and I am hooked. Elizabeth evokes a rich historical world that draws you in from the very start of the book. Here she is to tell us more about her writing.

Elizabeth, welcome to the Word Wench Blog! Please tell us about your personal connection to the family you are writing about.

The St.John family in The Lydiard Chronicles share a common great-grandmother with me: Margaret Beauchamp, who was also grandmother to Henry VII. The seventeenth century family thought she was a very useful ancestor to increase their standing in society, and didn’t hesitate to use their “royal connection” to further their position. Sir John St.John, the First Baronet, was particularly enthralled, and thus commissioned the Polyptych in 1615, which stands in St. Mary’s Church at Lydiard Park. It’s an extraordinary monument, full of beautiful portraits which inspired my work—plus a gorgeous family tree, complete with Margaret at the top.

What We're Reading - October

Happy almost-Halloween! It’s Nicola here with this month’s Word Wench reading choices. Here in the Northern Hemisphere the nights are drawing in and it’s time to curl up cosily beside the fire with a good book so what could be better than sharing our suggestions here, favourites new and old!

I’ve actually been getting ahead of myself, already reading a Christmas book this month, A Wedding in December by the very talented Sarah Morgan. I love Sarah Morgan’s writing and I enjoyed this book very much indeed. It was deliciously funny as well as sexy and romantic, and Sarah also mixes in some very thought-provoking observations on the subject of family relationships. It’s set in Aspen where Rosie White is having a whirlwind wedding to the gorgeous Dan. Rosie’s elder sister Kate, worried that her impulsive sister is making a huge mistake, is trying to persuade her to cancel the wedding, whilst Rosie’s parents are trying to put on a happy, united front even though they are on the verge of divorce. I loved all the characters but especially Rosie’s parents Maggie and Nick, whose attempts to appear happy and in love were both hilarious and moving. I really love the way that Sarah Morgan goes right to the heart of emotional conflicts we can all identify with, and wraps it all up in a hopeful, heart-warming happy ending that’s just perfect for Christmas.

 

Susan: Most of my October reading time went to little distractions like kids getting married and kids moving, but I did manage to finish some books I had set aside when the madness began. One of them, Christina Lauren's My Favorite Half-Night Stand, puts a fresh spin on a classic yummy romance, exploring online dating, the temptations of an alter ego, and the perils when the guise crumbles and gets in the way of a growing romance. Millie is a young college professor whose closest friends are a group of lovable, nerdy guys who are also college professors. When they have to attend a gala event, they're at a loss for ready dates, so they agree to try online dating to find matches. Millie, emotionally vulnerable, feels safe in this bunch, and very close to her best friend, Reid, who is smart, reserved, and very sexy. They get even closer unexpectedly one night, setting up all sorts of complications. Reid is connecting with online matches, but doesn't realize that Millie is too--with him, under an invented name. As Catherine, Millie can open up emotionally more easily than face-to-face. This is a Roxanne story, a story of reaching past limitations toward emotional maturity and honesty. It's also clever and funny, with endearing, realistic characters, a sexy and heartfelt romance developing, along with the engaging naturalism that Christina Lauren (a writing duo) is so adept at creating. Another thumbs up for CL from me, and I'll go on to read more of their books! This was a print read for me, and I have to say it was a relief on the eyes and for the brain--reading more digitally lately by necessity now, I really feel the difference when I have the chance to sink down into a paperback with all its simple, satisfying presence. 

In audio, I listened to Mary Stewart's The Moonspinners. I've read all of her books a bajillion times by now, but I've never listened to them, and most of them are now available. Listening to one of my most-favorite books ever was a wonderful experience--the lovely nuances of Stewart's language and the subtleties of character and plot are highlighted in new ways. This one is beautifully narrated by Daphne Kouma, who is a superb narrator--and fluent in Greek, adding a fresh new dimension to the story. I loved it! 

Andrea: I‘ve had a really different sort of reading month. I've mentioned on several occasions as
I’m not as into reading fantasy/magic as some of the other Wenches. Nonetheless, I’m very open to dipping my toes in the genre when I hear of something intriguing.I had read really good things about Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, a wildly popular YA fantasy novel. And then, when I read the synopsis of her first adult novel, which sounds really cool, I decided get a taste of her writing with the YA,s as I hadn’t yet gotten my hands on the new book. Wow—am I glad I did! Six of Crows is a classic “caper” trope. A ragtag band of teenage misfits—basically guttersnipes making ends meets as petty criminals in a Game of Thrones type of quasi medieval world (though there are some tanks and powerful armaments created by a type of magical metalworkers) undertakes an impossible mission to break into an impenetrable fortress. If they bring back the requested “item”, they’ll be rich beyond their wildest dreams. 

I found Bardugo’s character building just amazing. The band are a mixed bag of young people, each damaged by a trauma and so vulnerable and wary of friendships. And yet they are alll survivors, with grit resilience and strength. The leader, a brilliant, cagey, and sometimes cruel young punk picks his team for the specific skills he needs to get the job. He couldn’t care less whether they all get along. And so begins a very dangerous journey. The plotting and the twists are fabulous, and the writing is really sharp and compelling. Most of all, the development of the relationships between them is incredibly well done, as are the backstories that Bardugo weaves in about each of the kids. I’m now huge fan. In fact, I immediately went and glommed the second book, Crooked Kingdom, which continues their adventures.

Anne here. October was a very busy month for me, and consequently I haven't read as much as I usually do, but prompted by a discussion on last month's WWR I have been rereading and enjoying some of Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series. The fantasy world where dragons hatch from eggs and bond psychically with a human, and they work together to save people from a destructive menace called "thread" is a very appealing one. If you haven't read it, and think you'd like to try a bit of fantasy, here's book 1 in the series.

Pat: 

AT YOUR SERVICE, Sandra Antonelli

This is classified as a romantic comedy mystery, I believe, which is why I picked it up—that and the opening pages. It’s also a spy thriller, which would have put me off, but I was too far into it by then. Mae is an Irish butler to Kitt, a man who is obviously into international security of some sort. Mae is also his landlord, which makes for an entertaining relationship right there. When Mae mysteriously inherits a fortune from a husband who’s been dead sixteen years, life becomes interesting—and dangerous.

The dialogue is very dry, which I adore. I love that our heroine is over forty and a mean fighter when necessary. The romance isn’t easy given their situations and characters. While the action is swift and decisive, they do an awful lot of maudlin muddling over their relationship. But the characterization was so very entertaining—much like an old Nick and Nora partnership (Dashiell Hammett’s THIN MAN)—that I forgave them the muddling about.

Mary Jo here.  I've been locked in mortal combat with a recalcitrant book, and as always when in such straits, I'm mostly rereading stories I've enjoyed in the past.  Because  I've read them before, it's easier to put them down and get back to work.

As part of my rereading, I dug out my stash of Dick Francis mystery novels, of which I have many.  He was a retired champion jump jockey and his books were all set in and around the world of British racing.  The mysteries are clever, well written, and told in first person by honorable, likable men with a high pain threshold. <G> 

I just reread one of my favorites, Wild Horses. Young director Thomas Lyons is shooting a movie in Newmarket, the racing capital of Britain, and the story of a decades old crime in the town turns out to have dangerous reverberations in Thomas's production and in his life.  Francis really does his research and the details of how movies are made are convincing and fascinating. Plus, there are horses. <G> 

I've had an interesting experience in rereading two series of connected novellas, many of which were mentioned here when they were first released because I'm not the only Wench who likes these excellent authors. 

The first series was the Penric and Desdemona novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold, set in her world of the five gods. Penric is a very likable cleric who is inhabited by a demon that lived in a dozen different females before it jumped to him.  It's like having a dozen bossy aunts in your head.  <G>  The series is up to seven now: Penric's Demon, Penric and the Shaman, Penric's Fox, Penric's Mission, Mira's Last Dance, The Prisoner of Limnos, and The Orphans of Raspay.  There is a nice romance, but a lot of the fun is the relationship between Penric and Desdemona. 

 The other series is the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews.  The premise is that Earth is a way station for transiting aliens, and Innkeepers are humans who host the aliens, and who have magical power within their inns.  The Innkeepers  job is to keep their guests safe and not let regular humans know of the existence of the inns and the broader universe.  The first three books are told by Dina, a new young innkeeper struggling to get her long dormant inn up and running, which means she'll accept any and all guests--including handsome vampire warriors who get drunk on coffee and run naked through her orchard.  <G>  The fourth book is about Dina's sister Maud. 

The stories are Clean Sweep, One Fell Sweep, Sweep in Peace, and Sweep of the Blade.  All that sweeping refers to the innkeepers' magical and frequently morphing brooms.  There are two strong romances in the course of these books, and a lot of humor. 

 I read all of these short novels as they were originally published, usually about a year apart.  I enjoyed them all, which is why I always read the new releases, but reading the stories consecutively was a whole new level of enjoyment.  These are very good authors, and they keep the sweep of the characters and situations flowing beautifully.  The result is like reading one delicious, lengthy, episodic novel.  Or rather, two of them!  Both of these series are worth trying if you like clever, light-hearted fantasy with romance. 

Joanna: I’ve been reading Rosemary Sutcliff. A blast from the past, as it were. When I was eight or nine I glommed onto every book of hers I could get my hands on. I think she's the author who led me to love historical fiction.

Outcast is the story of Beric. Just every durn bad thing that can happen to somebody in this historical setting happens to him. Shipwreck, expulsion from his Roman-era British village one step ahead of a lynch mob, kidnapping, slavery, sentenced to the galley, shipwreck, drowning-near-as-makes-no-difference … He even has to give his dog away. (The dog ends up fine.)

If I were looking for a tourist brochure to lure me to visit the Classical Roman Empire, this is not so much it. But it’s a cracking fine adventure tale. He’s a brave kid and he deserves his happy ending.

The whole time I was reading I kept asking myself, “What else can possibly happen to him?”

So that’s what we’re reading this month! What are your recommendations, spooky or otherwise?

Ask A Wench—October 2019

Anne here, wishing all our Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving, or Joyeux Action de Graces.  (photo Ruth P. Peterkin - Fotolia)

I'm also hosting our monthly "Ask a Wench" feature, and this month the question we're responding to is: "Do you have any particular subjects or themes you often return to in your novels?"

Pat here: I do not set out to write themes, but if a reviewer asks me for the theme of my newest release, after some consideration, I’ll almost always say it’s a search for justice. And yes, I include the fight against prejudice under that heading, because that’s always a huge part of my books. Usually, it’s women seeking fair treatment.

In my Magic series, I give this a fantasy spin by making my women psychic—so rather than being treated badly just for their sex, they’re treated badly because they’re weird, which covers a lot of territory, including being female.

My men are almost always seeking justice for someone or something. I usually have a mystery/action element requiring a villain to be brought to justice, whether that person is a lawyer who defrauds, a contractor who cheats, or a killer to be caught. But in my latest series, there’s an underlying element of economic injustice, because that’s so much on my mind with the news these days. A writer’s mind is a sponge—it’s difficult for us to avoid absorbing the real world!

Nicola here: My timeslip novels tend to be inspired by “lost” figures from history, usually women who were so often a footnote in a male-dominated narrative or whose stories have been told in a particular way. I like shining a different light on them. A good example is Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, whose story I wrote in House of Shadows.

The Joy of Unexpected Books!

Nicola here, musing on the pleasure of discovering unexpected reads. Last week I visited Tredegar House, which is a fabulous 17^th century mansion in Wales, once the home of the Morgan family. Like so many of these places, the house is magnificent and the family history riveting. There’s also a connection to Ashdown House, which made it even more interesting for me so I wandered around looking at the family portraits and admiring the rooms before heading off to the gift shop and the tearoom!

Most National Trust properties these days have a second hand bookshop and browsing through the history section I came across a non-fiction book about the Norman Conquest. It was a “retired” library book called 1066 The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry. I hadn’t studied the Norman Conquest of England since I was at college and hadn’t read much about it in the intervening time, so this looked intriguing and I’m also a total sucker for books that promise to solve a history mystery or tell me some sort of secret I didn’t know. That night I sat down to read it, not really expecting a thriller-style read, and I was totally hooked. Even though it was non-fiction it read like a page-turner, putting forward a story that challenged the traditional interpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry as a piece of Norman propaganda and suggesting it had a secret hidden message showing the Anglo Saxon side of the story. It was pretty convincing and I loved it.

One episode in the book particularly caught my interest. It was talking about how the tapestry had survived from 1066 until the present day, which is pretty astonishing when you think about it. It had some fairly close escapes, most notably during the French Revolution when some of the people of Bayeux wanted to rip it up to use it to cover their carts! Soon after that, though, it became a propaganda tool again, this time for Napoleon.

What We're Reading

Susanna here, considering it more than a little ironic that I should find myself in charge of this month’s What-We’re-Reading post, since having been caught in the whirl of activity that accompanies seeing one child off to university (in Europe, since my children never do things by halves) whilst fighting the lure of the ever-present Research Rabbit Holes that keep opening up for my current novel, and trying to pack for a Very Rapidly Approaching trip to Scotland, I’ve had no time for reading anything you’d want to hear about.

Fortunately, my fellow Wenches have plenty of suggestions for your bedside reading stacks:

Anne here.

I had the very great pleasure of a pre-read of Mary Jo Putney's Once a Spy for an interview on the wenches on September 25th. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it — Mary Jo is so good at weaving love stories and action together. If you missed the interview, it's here. 

Sharon Shinn is a fantasy author I really enjoy, and I subscribe to her newsletter so when her new "Echo" series came out, I grabbed them as soon as they were available. Shinn writes very appealing characters, and her world-building is superb-- and fascinating.

In this world, aristocrats have "echoes" — creatures that are exact copies of themselves, that imitate every movement, but who don't speak or apparently think. The echoes appear soon after a baby is born — first you have one baby, then a blink later there are four, though only one is crying. It's a fair bit to swallow, but fun to imagine, and Shinn makes it work.

Echo in Onyx is the first in the series and the story is told from the point of view of Biranna, a young country girl who comes to the city in search of work, and ends up becoming maid to Lady Marguerite, who is one of the candidates for a royal marriage. I devoured it and went on to do the same for the following books in the series.

Andrea here.

I had been hearing such good things about Bringing Down the Duke, by Evie Dunmore, that I moved it to the top of my TBR pile. And oh, am I glad I did— I just loved it! Dunmore that a very familiar trope—the stiff, reserved gentleman who’s vowed never fall victim to love finding his heart won’t listen to his head—and gives it freshness and depth. At first blush, the characters appear familiar too. There’s the brilliant but destitute heroine, who is forced to work as an unpaid governess for her odious dumb-as-dirt cousin when her country vicar father dies. Desperate to escape, Annabelle finds an ad offering a scholarship to Oxford—the catch is, she has to spend some time working for a group of women agitating for women’s voting rights by approaching important men in government (the year is 1879) and lobbying them to consider the issue. She unwittingly picks the infamous Duke of Montgomery—again, the stereotypical cold, aloof, imperious aristocrat—as her target, and, well, things immediately get VERY interesting! The dialogue is wonderfully witty and clever. But it’s the depth and complexity of the characters that made the book so special for me. Their vulnerabilities, and conflicts are revealed beautifully, and the book becomes much more than a funny romp of manners as they slowly help each other overcome their fears and discover the redemptive power of love. I highly recommend it!

On a totally different note, I've also have been reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (the book on which the musical is based.) I knew Hamilton was a very influential thinker, but I hadn't realized just what an extraordinary person he was, and how many facets of shaping country he was involved in. It’s beautifully written, and the story of his life is quite remarkable. You get a wonderful look at colonial America, and the other fmaous personages of the day. (Hamilton was a protege of George Washington, and despite their butting of heads at times, they remained friends lifelong friends.) It’s history at its best—combining a picture of the era as well as a portrait of an absolutely amazing individual. Again, highly recommended!

Nicola here.

I’ve been waiting with bated breath to get hold of the new Robert Harris thriller, The Second Sleep. He is one of my auto-buy authors and never more so than when he is writing a historical novel. I admire his skill at creating tension and page turning quality allied with some really elegant prose. So as soon as I got the book I plunged in. It’s hard to describe the plot without giving away a massive spoiler from the very start so I’ll just say that in the year 1468 a young priest, Christopher Fairfax, is sent to an isolated village in Devon to oversee the burial of the parish priest. Once there he untangles a series of mysteries that lead him to question everything he has learned about the past, which in turn has a profound effect on his life and his future. Everything is not as it seems in this “medieval” world… 

I liked Christopher very much and there were some interesting other characters and some good twists in the story. The sense of atmosphere is very strong. It’s fair to say this is a book I thought about for a long time afterwards. With its themes of memory and history and religion it was very powerful and I found it quite dark and disturbing. In the end, though, for me it couldn’t quite live up to some of Robert Harris’ other books and I was a bit disappointed. If anyone else has read it I would love to know what they think!

My non-fiction read this month was Lovell Our Dogge: The Life of Viscount Lovell, closest friend of Richard III and failed regicide by Michele Schindler. I’d say this is a must for anyone who is interested in Richard III and the events around his life and the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower. It’s a very well-written book that reads like a novel and I was completely engaged. It’s astonishing that there hasn’t been a biography of Francis Lovell before when he was so closely involved in such a significant period of history. Francis does, of course, have a walk on part in a number of historical novels set in this period, such as the Sunne in Splendour, but it was fascinating to read the real story of this historical figure.

Last but not at all least, after all the recommendations here, I picked up a copy of The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews and enjoyed it very much indeed! It’s a really beautiful love story and I enjoyed the depth and richness of the characters and their relationship. Wonderful and satisfying!

Mary Jo here, and in a fantasy + romance mode.

Firstly, I want to enthusiastically endorse Anne's recommendation of Sharon Shinn's new Echo trilogy. Shinn is an amazing world builder and her stories always have good romances, and these books are no exception. I read all three on my recent vacation, and wish there were more!

My own recommendation this month is for Sorcery and Cecilia, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevemer, friends and fantasy writers in Minnesota. Think Georgette Heyer Regency with magic.

Set in 1817, this is an epistolary novel as cousins and best friends Cecilia and Kate exchange letters after they're separated when Kate is packed off to London for her Season and Cecy is left home and bored in the country. Each author writes one of the main characters. (I think Wrede is Cecilia and Stevemer is Kate, though I won't swear to it.) Magic is part of their world, including a Royal College of Magicians.

The book is light and funny as the young ladies meet young gentleman, worry about their wardrobes, and find themselves involved with magic and annoyingly bossy men who are nonetheless appealing. <G> There are mysteries to be solved, social events to be attended, and budding romance. Great fun.

I first read this book years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly, and recently I found that the authors had written two more books in the series. The second book is called The Grand Tour, and it starts with the double wedding of Cecilia and Kate and their men. Their husbands are best friends and both former officers of Wellington's in the Peninsular Wars. They take off on a joint honeymoon and get drawn into uncovering a perilous plot that threatens the peace of Europe. As one does. <G>

A good part of the fun of this book is that even though both couples are madly in love with their mates, they are learning how to be married. (Since Cecy and Kate are traveling together, they aren't exchanging letters; Cecy's contributions are part of her later deposition with the Royal College of Magicians, and Kate is writing in her day book. The effect is the same as in the first book).

The third book is The Mislaid Magician and is set ten years later. Cecy and her husband are up north looking for a missing German surveyor/magician while Kate and Thomas ride herd on all their magically inclined children. In this book, the husbands also exchange letters.

All three books are bundled together in a box set. My favorite is the first, but they're all good fun, and the authors are pretty darned good at their Regency details!

Pat here.

I am beyond tired of publishers limiting genre fiction to certain parameters that have worn thin. I love romance and cozy mysteries, but right now, I can’t find a single original story. So when PopCo by Scarlett Thomas popped up after I bought a new iPad, and I couldn’t remember reading it, I gave it a go. If you read the opening, you’ll understand my level of desperation that I kept slogging through that morass.

Because it contains a lot of interesting Information (I researched codes and ciphers for Devilish Montague, remember) about logic, math, and code problems, I took my time with it. Probably the first quarter of the book is getting to know the thoughts of the protagonist, who is a very human confusion of hopes, doubts, and fears.

Essentially, the protag works for a major toy company designing new toys. At the last minute, she’s included in a month-long retreat where other people from the company—oddly, not all toy designers—are immersed in how to market toys, particularly to teenage girls. Our heroine has an extremely odd background of family code-breakers and mathematicians and treasure hunters, so creating toys is just one more fun fantasy for which she’s paid very well.

Except as the retreat continues, she comes to realize they are creating brainwashing techniques in the name of profit. And then all the odd things happening in her life, in the company, with all her new-found friends, start snowballing until she finally realizes what she wants out of life. It’s a very odd book with all the puzzles explained by the end and with a happy-in-its-own-way ending. Read it just for the sheer pleasure of reading.

There you have it — our round-up of Wenchly reads and recommendations. Now, what are you reading this month?

Return to Downton Abbey

Nicola here! Today, in honour of the recent release of the Downton Abbey film, I’m reposting a blog from a few years ago when I took Guide Dog Puppy Rochester on a visit to Highclere Castle. I haven’t seen the film yet but I’m looking forward to it. So here, to celebrate, is my updated post from 2012:

"Last week I had the pleasure of a visit to Highclere Castle in Hampshire, which is the location where much of the hit TV series Downton Abbey is filmed. I was pretty excited about this trip as not only do I enjoy the TV programme very much I also love visiting historic houses so this was combining two of my favourite things.

With Downton Abbey the house is far more than just a setting; it feels like a character in itself. As we drove towards it the house was immediately recognisable. It’s enormous (fifty bedrooms!) and grand in a way that only a Victorian mansion can be (it was built in 1838). It’s not the first building on the site. There was a medieval hall at Highclere, a manor house and a classical Georgian mansion before the transformation that created the current castle. It is said that the grand central tower of the house cost a fortune and Lord Caernarvon’s land agent warned his employer that the plans were “pregnant with the most alarming danger to your Lordship’s pocket.” Despite this, the 3^rd Earl was determined on a grand plan and when the house was finished it dominated its surroundings in the most dramatic way.

Before we went on our tour of the house we strolled across the parkland and admired the cedar trees that were part of the landscaped grounds created in the 18^th century. We had Rochester the Guide Dog Puppy with us and as he is a Yellow Labrador we thought we would do our own version of the Downton Abbey opening credits, filmed on my mobile phone with my husband standing in for Lord Grantham. Alas Rochester was not as majestic as Lord Grantham’s Labrador Isis, who had her own storyline in the second series, but he did love wandering through the park. Although NBC was also filming that day at Highclere I think I can claim that Rochester was the star of our particular show. He was made very welcome by staff and visitors alike and the sight of this small guide dog puppy descending Highclere’s fabulously grand central staircase as though he was to the manor born was very funny. On his way out he even met Lord Caernarvon, who commended him for being a very good dog!

The interior of the house was also instantly recognisable from the TV programme. I loved the dining room, where so many of those splendid dinners in Downton Abbey take place, and the magnificent oak staircase that ascends from the Saloon up to the Gallery and the Gallery Bedrooms. It is around this landing that some of the bedrooms are situated that are used in the filming. We saw “Lady Grantham’s room”, “Lady Edith’s room” and “Lady Sybil’s room” and also the room given to the cad and bounder Kamal Pamuk in the first series. This is decorated with bright red flock wallpaper and is known as the Stanhope Room. It was refurbished in 1895 for the visit of the then Prince of Wales. It was also great to meet some of the room stewards who had their own anecdotes to tell of the Downton Abbey cast and the filming. Mrs Patmore the cook, Mr Carson the butler and the Thomas the footman were their favourites!

Highclere wears its Downton Abbey connections lightly with only a few signboards in the rooms to tell visitors of a specific link to the TV series. This leaves plenty of room for the “real” history of the house. I loved the Library, which resembled a gentleman’s club and was furnished with Georgian and Regency desks and tables. My favourite room though was the lovely south facing drawing room, which felt warm and intimate because it was comparatively small. I could quite imagine the ladies withdrawing there for tea and a chat!

The Castle became a centre of political life during the late Victorian era and in the 20^th century it saw different uses during the two World Wars. During the First World War it was a hospital for wounded officers. In this the storyline in the TV series mirrored the real history of the house. 

My favourite part of the visit was discovering about the life of a servant at Highclere during the Edwardian era. Once again, Downton Abbey mirrored reality perfectly. Guests at Highclere ranged from Royalty to politicians, Egyptologists to aviators. Behind the green baize door (there really was one, and a stone flight of steps leading down to the servants’ hall) the butler reigned supreme with Lord Caernarvon’s valet and the housekeeper also at the top of the pecking order. The butler ran the castle, looked after the wine cellar and waited on the family at dinner. He was also expected to announce visitors, take calling cards, escort departing visitors from the premises, organise the post and oversee the secure closing of the house each night. The valet managed the Earl's personal accounts as well as his wardrobe and travelled with him. The Highclere footmen had navy coloured livery and buttons sporting the family crest. They were all required to be clean-shaven and the more handsome and presentable the better it reflected on the family! 

After lunch in a marquee on the lawn – with Rochester being offered a drink of water out of special Highclere china! – we took a tour of the gardens. The Monks’ Garden has surviving Georgian walls and arches and is a beautiful and tranquil place to walk. The grounds are dotted with "follies;" decorative ruins in classical style designed to enhance the view.

We finished the day climbing Beacon Hill to the grave of the 5^th Earl of Caernarvon, the Egyptologist who with Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. Highclere Castle was framed in the distance, the perfect view to end a wonderful day."

An update on Rochester - He qualified as a guide dog and went to work in London. He retired from active service this year!

You may have read that Lord and Lady Caernarvon are offering visitor the chance to stay at the castle via AirB&B and there is a private tour of the house and grounds and special afternoon tea thrown in as well. I imagine they will be inundated with applications!

Did you enjoy the Downton Abbey series and have you seen the film yet or isn’t it your cup of (Earl Grey) tea? How would you like to stay at Highclere?

 

Travel Tips and Pitfalls to Avoid

Pat here: As writers, the wenches travel. We travel for research. We travel for conferences. We travel for fun. So we thought we'd exchange a few of our favorite travel tips and see what happened--and apparently, it's all about the luggage! (Personally, I've always craved Terry Pratchett's suitcase with legs!)

Mary Jo:

 I could write a whole column about this myself!  But I'll stick to saying that it's best to never have more luggage than you can control with your own two hands.  I've seen inexperienced travelers juggling half a dozen different bags of different sizes, which is a recipe for disaster.