Word Wenches

Unlikable Characters

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Simple Joys of a Daily Walk

Andrea here, inspired by Anne’s recent post on “Simple Pleasures” I, too, have been thinking more about the small things in my everyday life that make me stop and smile, and appreciate my blessings.

I have a daily ritual of taking a long walk, usually in the late afternoon. I call it my plotting walk, as I use it to think about the pages I’ve written that day . . . and how to untangle any kinks that crept into the story or character development. It’s something I really look forward to, not only for story aspects, but because it’s also—quite literally—a breath of fresh air. After sitting in my writing room for hours, it resets my perspective. I’m a very visual person, and there is so much outdoors that catches my eye and reminds me of all the little unexpected beauties in the “ordinary.”

All Things Yellow

Christina here and today I’m going to talk about all things yellow because I seem to be surrounded by this colour at the moment! To me, it signifies spring, sunshine and Easter, among other things. And it’s a colour I’ve always associated with happiness – just looking at it makes you want to smile because it’s bright and beautiful!

Now that the clocks have changed, and with spring finally having arrived here in the northern hemisphere, we can enjoy a lot more sunshine and the world feels like a brighter place. Although I’ve never been affected by SAD, and actually love the darker months of the year, it’s still great when you can go outside and feel the sunlight on your face. It’s not surprising that the sun was so important to our ancestors, and that some of them saw it as a deity. We may not literally worship it these days, but we certainly appreciate its appearance for longer each day.

Woof?!

Random thoughts about dogs

By Mary Jo

Anyone who knows me or has read my books probably knows I'm a cat person, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the wonderfulness of dogs.  Many of my friends have great dogs and I always love hearing their canine stories. We had lots of cats on the farm when I was a kid, but only one dog: a friendly family basset hound called Bootsy.  (The picture on the left isn't Bootsy, but the look is very similar.)

The name basset is French and derives from the word bas, meaning low, so they are "low hounds."  Bassets are large dogs with very short legs, so they are low but not small.  Bootsy had a baritone bark that would do credit to the Hound of the Baskervilles. <G>  (My book Shattered Rainbows had a basset known as Louis the Lazy.)

 

What We're Reading

Christina here with a roundup of what the Wenches have been reading this month. As usual, it’s a wonderful mixture and I hope you will find something to your taste.

We start with Patricia who recommends Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank:-

I love women’s fiction that veers off the standard path, and Frank always accomplishes that. Holly Jensen is a 30-year-old substitute teacher and beekeeper still living with her mama in coastal SC. She’s seriously in love with the little boys next door and thinks their widowed father is mighty fine as well, even if he is ten years older and a fancy college professor with a Harvard degree. But Holly really only talks to her bees. She does everything for everyone and thinks that ought to be enough, until it isn’t. Her married sister comes home to announce her wealthy husband is a transvestite who wants to star in Las Vegas reviews. The boys’ father develops a serious case of lust for someone else. Little by little, Holly’s passive little life falls apart and has to be put back together in a completely new picture with a fascinating set of family and friends who give her the confidence to finally speak her mind. And what a mind it is!

I’m not fond of Frank’s simple voice but the story is worth wading through the plain speaking and simple sentences.

Lady Arianna is back in a Swirl of Shadows

Andrea here, welcoming a guest interviewer to the Word Wenches today! C. P. Lesley, a historian, is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel and two series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible. She also hosts New Books in Historical Fiction, a podcast channel on the New Books Network and interviews historical fiction authors on her website. (You can hear her podcast with me on my latest Wrexford & Sloane mystery, Murder at the Royal Botanic gardens, here. And she has also interviewed Nicola.)

C.P. was kind enough to interview me recently on my new Lady Arianna Regency mystery, A Swirl of Shadows, which released last week, and graciously offered to let me share it here. (As luck would have it, the setting aligns very well with her historical expertise, as you shall soon discover!) So without further ado, here’s some tidbits on Lady Arianna and Saybrook—and their latest adventure!

Simple pleasures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March Winds Blow

   March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers . . .

Susan here. So goes the nursery rhyme, promising that the crazy weather of March and the rain of April will once again lead to balmy spring days filled with flowers and sunshine. Here in the northern hemisphere with just one week left in March, this month we’ve seen everything from clouds, winds, and rain to sunny warmth and even several inches of snow not long ago. Sun or snow, the hyacinths and daffodils are blooming and the tulips are making their way out of the ground. Today, we have rain and winds again, alas – but we've made it through the equinox, so we know winter is done and spring is on its way. 

To celebrate the coming of spring, here are some images in honor of the new season – and in honor of March, some images of wind too -- not easy to portray in painting or sculpture! 

Monet, Spring, 1872, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. I recently saw this beautiful little Monet again at the Walters Gallery, and up close, it's every bit as gorgeous and evocative of springtime as you can imagine. Monet is perhaps the undisputed master of capturing spring in paint on canvas, in color and texture and light. In this and other paintings it is easy to almost feel the warmth of the sun, the scent of flowers and new grass, and a hint of soft, fresh breezes and scudding clouds.

Monet's gorgeous depiction of Mme. Monet and her son on a windy hill in springtime - in the National Gallery, Washington DC. This painting is just stunning and seems larger than life and filled with springtime breezes.

 

Avian Friends

Christina here. I’ve been mulling over ideas for a new story, and one of the things I’d like to add is an unusual pet. In the past, I’ve always given my heroes and heroines faithful canine companions, but this time I want something a little bit different. I’m considering a pet raven.

As I write about Viking times, this seems appropriate, since the god Odin was said to have two ravens – Huginn (Old Norse for ‘thought’) and Muninn (Old Norse for ‘memory’). According to the sagas, this pair would fly across the world each day and then return to Odin to give him information about anything that might concern him. His personal spies, as it were. It is interesting that this particular type of bird was chosen by the god to be his informants – Vikings must have known how clever they are.

The Age of the Euphemism

Nicola here. I'm in my writing cave dealing with revisions to my latest manuscript, so today I have dusted down a Wench classic post from 7 years ago which provoked an interesting and fun discussion at the time and I hope will do the same now its been updated and expanded. The topic is "euphemisms" and the first line of this blog piece is of course a euphemism in itself. What I really mean is that I planned a new blog topic but ran out of time to write it. Euphemisms are "a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing." And we use them all the time: "Downsizing" for job cuts, "certified pre-owned" for a used item (or "pre-loved" for clothes), "friends with benefits," "creative with the truth," ladies' powder room" to quote just a few. There are endless ways of softening something that sounds too direct and the word euphemism itself originates from the Ancient Greek meaning "good speaking."

There are many euphemisms for things that are considered too personal to express directly. This is where this blog post receives it's X rating as we plunge into topics that have been and may still be culturally taboo for some people. In both my mother's and grandmother's generation there were certain words that were simply not appropriate to use. My dearly-loved godmother, for example, completely confused me when she referred to her "sit upon." I thought she meant a piece of furniture rather than her bottom! But euphemisms enable people to speak about things they find uncomfortable. They are comfort words that help us broach difficult topics. It's worth bearing in mind though, that you can stumble into cultural quicksands with euphemisms very easily. The "fanny pack" is one example, and did you know that in Scotland a "peenie" is an apron so "get your peenie out" could be misconstrued? And whilst on that subject, the question "which way do you dress?" from a tailor to a client during a trouser fitting is a euphemism designed to save both from embarrassment but which could easily cause confusion.

History of US Income Taxes

I’ve been working on my income taxes, and my brain is too fried to come up with any better topic. As a former CPA, I’m always fascinated by how we finance roads, bridges, military, and the countless other expenses of government. (The federal government—our taxes— represents 30% of the gross national product, making it the biggest industry keeping the economy rolling) Fun fact: the earliest known tax was in Mesopotamia 4500 years ago and was paid in livestock.

Comfort Food!

by Mary Jo

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

Nicola is first:

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

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

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

 

On Madness

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

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

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

Hats off to an American Fashion Icon

Andrea here, musing today about hats. Not just any hats, but one particular style that has transcended passing fads or whims to become a cultural icon in and of itself. I happened to stumble across a vintage photo of a group of cowboys from the 1880s the other day while researching a completely different topic, and and it made me pause to study the faces—and the hats!

Rats in the Attic

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” Suzy Kassem

“We learn from failure, not from success.” Bram Stoker

Christina here. In an article last year in the UK’s Society of Authors’ magazine, Mick Conefrey mentioned ‘impostor syndrome’ (feeling like a fraud, despite having achieved success), which he called ‘the rat in his skull’. I absolutely loved this imagery/metaphor and could really relate!

Mr Conefrey was talking about the fact that he’d written books about mountain climbing, even though he’s not a climber himself. For me, however, impostor syndrome is the fact that I can never quite believe I’m good enough to be a published author – even after ten years it feels unreal and as though I’m going to wake up any minute and find that it was all a dream.

I’m battling with this inner rodent as I’m halfway through my next work in progress and doubting the story every step of the way. Starting a new book is always scary and although I usually begin with enthusiasm, all fired up about the plot ideas I’ve had, this can quickly change. The mid-point is especially precarious (the dreaded “sagging middle”), when everything starts to feel flat and the characters are not behaving as you’d like them to. I know from past experience that I’ll overcome this, but the rat in my skull certainly doesn’t help matters!

Ask the Wenches

Anne here.

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

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

Evolution of a Cover

Evolution of a Cover

by Mary Jo

Publishing is all kinds of complicated, so I decided to look at one small piece, which is the story behind my new cover for The China Bride.

The second of my Bride trilogy, the book features Troth Montgomery, daughter of a Chinese woman and a Scottish trader.  She's a great character, strong and brave and vulnerable from having been raised between two worlds.  I knew that writing her story would be a challenge because I'm a farm girl from Western New York but my mother had lived in China as a girl, and she told us stories about her life there, so that part of the world has always intrigued me. 

So I did a lot of research about China and the tea trade in the early 1830s. (Very interesting!) Also, during the months when I was planning this book, if I received a fan email from a reader with a Chinese name, I pounced and asked if she'd be willing to read my manuscript when it was done. Five lovely, intelligent women of Chinese heritage agreed to help, for which I'm forever grateful. 

The story logic of the trilogy led me there because the hero, Kyle Renbourne, had appeared in The Wild Child, book 1 of the trilogy.  He was portrayed as a restless young man who yearned to travel, but who had been tied to England because he was heir to an earldom.  At the end of that book, he was breaking free and setting off to fulfill his travel dreams. 

The China Bride began when Kyle reached China and the city of Macao.  He knows that this is the end of his journeying for it's time to return home to assume his responsibilities.  Then Kyle meets Troth Montgomery.  Orphaned young, she'd been taken into the household of a powerful Chinese trader who requires her to dress as a man and act as a translator when dealing with Western merchants.  She feels like a a hopeless misfit.  Kyle realizes that she's female and asks her to take him into forbidden China to fulfill a life long goal.  In return he will make it possible for her to travel to Britain, the land of her father and his family. 

Victorian Opulence at Osborne House!

Nicola here. A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days on the Isle of Wight in a cottage that is situated on the Osborne House estate. Although I knew that Queen Victoria had built Osborne as a summer holiday home (more on that later!) I knew very little about it or its history so it was a fascinating trip. When I say that we stayed in a cottage, it was actually the gatehouse to the estate, known as Sovereign’s Gate, which was the entrance through which Queen Victoria and her family would have approached the house back in the day. Now transformed into a holiday home over three levels, it’s a fabulous place to stay. These days the Sovereign’s Gate is locked but Angus was happy to pose for a photo to show it off! Inside the gatehouse has many of its original 19th century features, including these fabulous windows with movable sashes on a pulley system.

As the house and grounds were closed, we had the place largely to ourselves. This was an enormous privilege enabling us to explore
the acres of gardens, park and beach (as long as we told the security detail that we were going out - it was rather like having bodyguards!). It also meant that I got a personalised tour of Osborne House itself, which was brilliant. I was allowed to use the  “ministers’ door”; there were five different entrances at Osborne, one reserved for the monarch only, the second for the royal family, the third for ministers, the fourth for titled visitors and members of the court and the one round the back for the servants and tradesmen!

What We're Reading

Pat here with the Word Wenches monthly reads!

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

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

Editors, Part 2

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

The Copyeditor 

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

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

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

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

Between the Sheets

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

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

Hokusai and Japanese Woodblock Prints

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

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

Writing Short!

By Mary Jo

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Heart-Shaped Book

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

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

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

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

 

On the move

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

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

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

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

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

The Art of the Book

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

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

From Page to Screen

Photo by Gage Skidmore

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

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

Presidential Pets!

by Mary Jo

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

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

A Book at Bedtime

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

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