Word Wenches

From Paris with Love!

Nicola here, fresh back from Paris and the amazing Festival du Roman Feminin, Festival of Women’s Fiction. The festival is an annual event for readers and authors, and when I was invited I was thrilled; the combination of books and Paris was, of course, irresistible! I’m so glad I went. It was an opportunity to meet new-to-me authors as well as old friends, and also to have time to chat properly with readers in a relaxed way (chatting in Franglais and with the help of some awesome interpreters!)

Thursday morning found me at St Pancras Station in London all ready to board the Eurostar to Paris. It was a fast, smooth and
comfortable trip, delivering me to the Gard Du Nord whilst I was still wondering at how quick and easy it all was! The taxi ride through Paris to the hotel reminded me of how mad French traffic can be but also gave the opportunity for a whistle-stop sight-seeing tour of the city from Sacré Coeur to the Louvre, with the river Seine shining in the sun. (The photo is from the same bridge of the river at night and it's from Wikipedia.)

It's our Wenchiversary!

By Mary Jo and the rest of the Wenchly Crew

Has it really been thirteen years since we cautiously launched the Word Wenches blog? Indeed yes, and so much has changed in the world, in publishing, and in us. We've lost beloved Wench sisters Edith Layton and Jo Beverley, entered into new genres and new forms of publishing, and we've expanded to having Wenches from Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US so we can truly say that the sun never sets on the Wench Empire!

Here is the very first Word Wench blog post, also written by me. (I thought I was better at not volunteering!) Here is also a link for the first month of blogs, as we felt our way into this new enterprise and learned how to use the blog site's tools.

And we're still here, musing three times a week on books, history, travel, and other intriguing topics. Blogging is work even if we each only write one about every two weeks. When on deadline, there can be a mad scramble to swap dates, whip off something very quickly, or republish an older post. But we've kept blogging all these years because, basically, we like doing this.

We like connecting with our readers. We like being able to do quick, low stakes riffs on things that catch our attention. We LOVE telling readers about our new books, or new authors we've discovered.

For our first anniversary, we did a three part series on Getting Naked With the Wenches, and very popular it was! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

 

Memory & Flowers

Anne here, taking a wander through the garden and considering the way so many flowers and fragrances evoke other times, other people. Many of the plants in my garden have come from cuttings or plant divisions or gifts from other people's gardens, and as well as bringing their own beauty and scent to my garden, they evoke memories of those people, some of whom are long gone.

My daphne is a little bit sick at the moment, and I'm very anxious about it. It grew from a cutting descended from a cutting taken from the daphne that grew in my grandmother's garden many years ago. My mum saved the plant and took cuttings and gave them to friends and family. I adore the scent of daphne, and now every time I smell that divine smell, I think of Nan and Mum. Let's hope I can cure my plant of whatever ails it.

My gardenia came from a cutting from the mother of one of my oldest school friends. She had a wonderful gardenia bush that flowered prolifically every year.

I must have mentioned at some stage how much I loved the scent of gardenias because she never forgot it. Her husband was a very important man, but each year when the gardenia came into flower, she'd make up a beautiful little packet of them, sealed in cellophane, and make him detour on his way to work to drop it off at my place — even when I was living in a shabby student share-house. My gardenia is from a cutting from her plant, and each year when it flowers, I think of Winnie.

Musings on Mindfulness, Machines and the Art of Letterwriting

Andrea here, taking a break from research (though I’ve been diving into some really interesting things of which you’ll be hearing soon) to muse on mindfulness and connecting the brain to something other than a machine.

I have been thinking about this lately as I take my daily “plotting walk,” which helps me unwind as I just let my thoughts wander. It’s amazing how often good ideas or the unraveling of plot knots happen when you turn off all the noise in your head and take the time to look and listen to Nature. There’s an elemental delight in spotting a leaf shaped like a heart, or a sea-washed feather on the beach—that sense of discovery and wonder is a special reminder to stay connected to real world, not just the devices that have become such a dominant force in our everyday lives.

Two Truths and a Lie

Susanna here. This week I'm in New Orleans, at the first ever Booklovers Con, enjoying the time spent with old friends and new ones.

Today I'm one of a group of authors taking part in a reader game of Two Truths and a Lie, wherein people try to guess which of the statements we make are the false ones. In preparation for the game, I had to come up with twenty truths and ten lies (I found the truths a lot harder, for some reason...), and without using any of those same ones here, I thought it might be fun to play a small game of our own here on the blog.

I'll share three of my writing habits. Tell me, which one is the lie?

Ask A Wench - Men in Boots, and other favorite historical clothing!

Nicola here, introducing this month’s Ask A Wench feature. Recently on my Facebook page I’ve started to post an item called Saturday Swagger, sharing some of the gorgeous historical portraits I’ve seen and love. One of them was this 17th century miniature of Sir Edward Herbert reclining in a come-hither pose. When she saw it, fellow author and Word Wench friend Sophie Weston of the Liberta Blog  commented: “The Boots! The Boots!” Happily, this set us all thinking about those aspects of historical costume that we particularly enjoy, and the result is this blog piece in which we ask: “What is your favourite item of historical clothing, to wear, to make or simply to appreciate?” So here are the Wenches' thoughts on this topic of sartorial splendour and we would love to hear yours!

The Little Matter of Chocolate Pots

 

The Chocolate Maiden carrying water and hot choc

Joanna here, talking about chocolate pots in the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century, which is a small and very specific topic, but it possesses a certain naïve charm.

The whole sweeping history of chocolate is a huge ocean upon which I do not feel ready to embark when I am still (endlessly) in the midst of moving household. So we’re just going to look in at one of the tiny islands in that sea. If Georgian chocolate drinking were Homer’s Odyssey, looking at chocolate pots would be like visiting Calypso’s Isle. A manageable bite, as it were, and we don’t meet the Cyclops or get turned into pigs, which makes it a good day by anyone’s calculation.

London Calling! Part 2

by Mary Jo

On Wednesday I talked a bit about museums I visited on my recent week long getaway in London, and they were great. Today I'm going to riff about the people and non-museum spaces, which was even more fun!  (The very British shop window to the left was in the St. James area, about which more below.)

A catalyst for the trip was the opportunity to take an interesting workshop, which I did and very interesting it was, but what made London special was the people. Firstly, I stayed with a writer friend at her home in Chelsea, a gorgeous little townhouse just off the King's Road. In the 17th century it was literally the King's Road, a private route that King Charles II used to travel to Kew, and it was private until 1830. (Though a privileged few could also use it.)

 

London Calling! Part 1

By Mary Jo

I've always been an Anglophile. I'm not sure if it's my DNA or all the books I read with British settings and British authors. I remember being surprised in school when a world map showed me the actual location of the British Isles. So far north and so SMALL! But mighty in world history, and in my imagination.

My interest in Britain and British history had a lot to do with living there for over two years in my 20s, when I was the art editor of a start up magazine about third World Development. I lived in Oxford and made brass rubbings in churches and drove a Morris Minor Traveler, a little station wagon with a wooden framed back structure that creaked like a ship at ship at sea when rounding corners. (Once a wheel fell off on a turn. I was told that the king pin broke, which happened regularly on older Morrises. O-kayyyy….)

Spring Cleaning

Anne here, musing about "spring cleaning," it being that time of year in the northern hemisphere.
And even though it's autumn here in Australia, I've just had a mini-spring clean as well. It's a little bit part of my ongoing decluttering process, but it was also a very definite spring clean, where I went through everything in my old-fashioned walk-in pantry and tossed a lot of stuff out, washed all my storage jars and relabelled those that needed it, and scrubbed down the shelves. And didn't it make me feel good when it was done?

I also went through my wardrobe and put a stack of my summer clothes, and a good few of last year's winter clothes that I no longer want, to be put out to the chartity collection that's coming. And while I was at it, I completely emptied the wardrobe, and wiped it out with a damp cloth, and then again with a cloth sprinkled with lemon myrtle oil. Lemon myrtle (backhousia citriodora) is an Australian native plant which has a fresh lemony scent with a slight eucalyptus tang. My wardrobe smells gorgeous. 

But I don't dare decide to attack the whole house at once. I tend to get a bit perfectionist, and so have trained myself to only do a small chunk at a time. Not for me the whole week of dusting, scrubbing and polishing that my female ancestors used to do. I have vague childhood memories of it. Such a drama — and yes, the house was beautiful and clean afterwards, but . . . a whole week? To clean? Not for me.

Sunday announcement — a winner

 

 

A winner has been chosen to receive a copy of Lucy Parker's THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK following this interview. 

It's Beverly Abney, and she has been notified by email.

Thank you to Beverly, and to everyone else who joined in the conversation — and, of course, to Lucy Parker, for being such a lovely guest.

Anne

Going to the Dogs!

Andrea here, musing today about secondary characters. I find that one of the ways to keep a series fresh and engaging for readers is the addition of new secondary characters in each book. Not only do they add to plot twist possibilities, but they also add color and texture in their interactions with the main protagonists, allowing me to bring out facets of the “stars” in interesting ways. (Though often they aren’t really content to hover in the shadows, but get a bit pushy and keep demanding more time on center stage! Honestly, don't they know who's the boss here?)

It’s great fun to sit and think about what sort of friend will add to the mix of a story. It’s hard for me to explain how they come to mind . . . sometimes—like the fog in Carl Sandburg’s famous poem— they come in on little cat feet . . .

Fantastic History

Susanna here.

I don’t read much fiction while I’m writing, so I don’t always have anything to offer for our monthly “What We’re Reading” posts, but I’ve been trying to tidy my files and I came across a not-so-old piece in which I was asked to choose five of my favorite historical fantasy novels.

This is one of my favorite genres to read in, so choosing a handful of titles was hard. Since I know a lot of other writers working in this category, I tried to keep my recommendations unbiased by only choosing books by writers from outside my own group of friends (although I’ve met Meljean Brook at conferences over the years, and might have waxed rhapsodic over her stories more than a few times…).

Here are five of the books I love best, in that sub-genre.

What We're Reading: April Edition

by Mary Jo

We Word Wenches love doing these posts because we always find new authors to try! 

Starting off with Pat Rice:

One Plus One by  JoJo Moyes  I love the way romance has expanded into women’s fiction, and One Plus One by JoJo Moyes is a masterful example of how it’s done. It’s clear from the very first that we have a conflicted hero and heroine. Ed is owner of a software company about to go mega-huge. Jess is his housekeeper—and he doesn’t even know she exists because she cleans his vacation home, and he never takes vacations.

But this is not the usual meet cute or billionaire-sweeps-heroine-off-her-feet. They both come with so much baggage that it takes most of the book to unload it, with bits exploding along the way—in suitably dramatic fashion. She comes with a math genius daughter and a goth teenager who isn’t even hers, plus a giant slobbery dog. He has a dying father, a screaming sister, a girlfriend he tried to get rid of by handing off insider stock info, and an ex-wife who helps herself to his bank account whenever she likes.

 

In Praise of Special Libraries

When I’m travelling within the UK I tend to look for somewhere historical en-route to break my journey, whether it’s a castle or stately home or ruin or some other interesting place. If there is a tea room and gift shop that’s a bonus. So when I was driving from the east coast of Scotland back to Glasgow a couple of weeks ago I got out the map to help me decide where to stop. The whole area is absolutely packed with castles so it was more a case of trying to whittle it down than find somewhere. Then I spotted an intriguing dot on the map at Innerpeffray, near Crieff in Perthshire. “Historic Library” it said. Well, that was enough to lure me in.

It was a bit of a bleak day when we reached Innerpeffray. The wind was whistling across the fields and the little collection of buildings we approached felt
as though they were all alone in the middle of nowhere. It seemed a curious location for a historic library but that just added to the interest. We scurried inside out of the wind and were met with the warmest welcome in Scotland. What can I say – a personal tour of the oldest free public lending library in Scotland is like my idea of heaven and Innerpeffray is a very special place indeed.

Lucy Parker — The Austen Playbook

Anne here, welcoming back Lucy Parker, author of the delightful and very successful "London Celebrities" series, fun contemporary romances set in London's theatre world.

The series begins with "Act Like It" which launched Lucy's career, garnered rave reviews from all over (and made the word wenches her fans.) I first interviewed Lucy here, if you'd like to read it, but I've invited her back because her new book, the fourth in her "London Celebrities" series is called The Austen Playbook — and yes, it's that Austen, the one we all love, and I knew you'd all be interested. I was lucky enough to read The Austen Playbook early, and I loved it.

Anne: Lucy, welcome back. Tell us about The Austen Playbook.

Lucy: Hi Anne, and everyone! Thank you so much for having me back. I’ve been a huge fan of all the Word Wenches for a long time.

The Austen Playbook is the fourth book in my London Celebrities series, but it works absolutely fine as a stand-alone, too. It’s an opposites-attract contemporary romance with a very effervescent, optimistic heroine and a complete icy grouch of a hero. Like the previous books in the series, the setting is London theatre, but for the first time, this one takes the action to the countryside, where a play based on a Jane Austen video game (a murder mystery with characters from Austen books) is going to be performed and televised live from a country estate. The heroine has been cast as Lydia Bennet, and when she arrives at the estate, she discovers that its current owner is the most fearsome (and sexiest) theatre critic in London, who’s frequently bashed her performances of late. He’s in the process of trying to get a film about her famous playwright grandmother greenlit, so there are complications all round as they find themselves surprisingly fascinated with each other.

 

Anne:The heroine is up-and-coming West End actress Freddy Carlton, building a career as a "serious" actress, but longing to play lighter parts and musical comedy. Our unexpected hero is Griff, a London theatre critic known for his scathing—if also perceptive and entertaining—reviews. He gives Freddy no quarter. And the sparks fly. 

A writer friend of mine likes to ask in what areas a hero and heroine bond (meaning personality) and where they clash. Apart from the romance, what do Griff and Freddy bond over, and over what do they clash?

 

Lucy: Oh, I love that question. Freddy and Griff clash hard over family issues in this book. Basically, Freddy is a happy dreamer in a family of practical-minded cynics, and Griff is a practical-minded cynic in a family of dreamers; so there’s this element of “The last thing I need in my life is someone else like that.” Griff’s younger brother, Charlie, is very similar in temperament to Freddy — the two of them immediately form a fast friendship, to the occasional jealousy of Griff — and Griff tends to write Charlie off as a bit feckless and useless, which infuriates Freddy. Conversely, Griff finds it frustrating that Freddy has let her father, in particular, walk all over her, career-wise. They’re each instrumental in helping the other become both more tolerant and more assertive.

However, for all their differences, they’re both good, loyal people — even if they express that in disparate ways — and they have a strong mutual love and respect for theatre. Each of them absolutely supports and understands the other’s career, to the point where Freddy can take professional criticism from Griff on the chin because he knows his stuff, and she often agrees with him, and she’s fairly fundamental in the eventual turning point for his own project.

Anne: I must say, the idea of The Austen Playbook — the actual TV show in the novel — was both brilliant and also mind-boggling. I would love to see it happen in reality. Could you explain it, please?  (Image on the right is from this site)

Lucy: Ha, The Austen Playbook within The Austen Playbook — the televised play that Griff predicts early on in the novel will be an absolute disaster (I won’t spoil whether he’s right or not J). In the story, there has been a very popular, viral game in which characters from all Jane Austen’s books assemble at a house party in the country and things get a little homicidal. Think bodies in the library. A playwright has adapted that video game into a play, which will be shown on television as a live event. Like in the game, people at home will be able to direct the course of the storyline, by casting votes at intervals as to which A to D choice they’d like see play out. Which means that the actors have to learn a dozen more scenes than normal, and won’t know until the production has started which scenes they’ll be running. It’s a daunting prospect for both the cast and the crew. And the people who are depending financially on a successful performance!

Anne: It sounds amazing. I loved the thread about Freddy's famous grandmother, the playwright and actress Henrietta Carlton, the pressure on Freddy to live up to her grandmother's reputation, and the slow unravelling of that backstory. Then there was the pressure on Griff (and his brother) to maintain the family pile against all the odds. There were so many intriguing threads in this book and the way you brought them all together at the end was nothing short of brilliant. Was there any point in the writing where you wondered whether you'd bitten off more than you could chew?

Lucy: I have to admit this question made me laugh (and also, thank you so much!), because emphatically yes. I would say of the series, this book has the most going on plot-wise, and when I hit the middle to probably the beginning of the final third, I was starting to pull my hair in frustration. There was a lot of scribbling on a whiteboard at that point, trying to make sure I wasn’t leaving any loose threads, so that everything would hopefully come together at the end. There is one chapter towards the end, without spoiling anything, where things happen in a back-and-forth sequence — where you might see one character talking to another, through a third character’s eyes, for example — and then later you see what was going on there. But definitely, I had a lot of “Why did I do this to myself” moments.  

Anne: Well, you pulled it off wonderfully. I was all admiration! (Image on the left is from this site)

Okay, here's a pick and mix selection of questions. Pick one you'd like to respond to.
* You're noted for your sparkling dialogue. Does dialogue come easily for you, or is it something you work hard at?
* What is the most enjoyable part of writing for you? The least?
* Could you tell us a little about your writing process, please?

Lucy: I can probably combine all three a bit, actually! J The most enjoyable part of the writing process is when a mental switch flips for me and I’m fully invested in the story, to the point where it’s pretty much all I’m thinking about. Dialogue will start to come into my head while I’m not writing and I’ll have to immediately jot it down a notebook. I often use dialogue as the measure of whether the book is working for me or not — if things are going well, I do find the dialogue tends to flow quite easily (although I still have to edit it a lot); if I’m stuck and none of the characters are saying anything, there’s a problem with the story as a whole for me. Generally, the switch-flip will happen when I’m between 10,000 and 20,000 words into the story. And that first 10,000 words is my least favourite part of the writing experience. I have Blank Page Phobia, and I find it very daunting starting a whole new project. Once I’m properly into it, I can have fun with it.

Anne: I completely identify with that. The beginning of a book is the hardest for me, too. Could you share a little piece of The Austen Playbook, please?

Lucy: Yes, absolutely! This is a snippet from a scene soon after Freddy arrives at Griff’s estate.

Still cuddling the mammoth script, she walked around the perimeter of the small room, taking in the details—the peeling wallpaper and dusty shelves. Somehow, she expected there to be something spectacular—magical—about the places where great works of art were created.

This was just a room.

She looked closer at the images on the tiled feature wall and hid a smile. Albeit a room that had been decorated according to Sir George’s very particular tastes.

She didn’t need to absorb the ghosts of her grandmother’s ambition and conviction, anyway. She wasn’t Henrietta. She was Freddy, she did know what she wantedto do, and the only person who could turn wistfulness into action was her.

She put down the script and sat gingerly on the edge of a rickety stool, mindful of her oath to stay out of the way. “You know Fiona Gallagher is involved with The Austen Playbook?”

Griff paged through a file. “She’s a major financial backer.”

Freddy tucked her feet into the rungs of the stool and rested her forearms on her knees. “Fiona’s just picked up the rights for the Allegra Hawthorne stage adaptation, and she’s scouting me for it. I haven’t done a stage spectacular or any comedy for a while, though, so she wants to see how I do with The Austen Playbook.”

Griff set his file down. His hands were large and strong-looking. “And it’s a job you want?”

Freddy tapped the back of one heel against the wooden stool leg. “Yes. It is. I’m a huge fan of Allegra Hawthorne, and it’s the sort of role I love.”

“It’s the sort of role that made you so popular with audiences in the first place,” Griff said levelly. “When you obviously feel passionate about what you’re doing, your performance has a very visceral joy that affects every person in the theatre.”

For a few seconds, the only sound in the room was the tap tap tap of Freddy’s shoe against the wood. And probably the creaking sound as she tried to close her jaw after it had performed the anatomically difficult feat of dropping to the floor. “Calls me a contagious joy fairy when we’re alone in a dusty backroom. Compares me to a stagnant pond in a London newspaper. Timing, my friend. It’s a beautiful thing.”

“My judgment in London is based on what you give in London. And for the past few years, that’s been a stream of—for the most part—competent, steady, totally uninspired performances in dramas that seem to suck the life out of you.”

Well. She’d always known he had the ability to cut to the chase with a few well-chosen words.

Anne: Love it! Thanks so much for doing this interview, Lucy. I loved The Austen Playbook, and am sure readers will too.

Lucy: Thank you, Anne, it was my pleasure.

If you haven't read any of Lucy's books yet, be assured they can all be read as a stand-alone. I highly recommend them. We're giving away a copy of The Austen Playbook to someone who leaves a comment on this blog, or answers this question:  Which is your favorite Austen adaptation or your favorite Austen character? The photo collages above might help jog your memory. 

 

Bang on the Mark—The Art of London Firearms

Andrea here, going down another research rabbit hole today . . . Cover your ears, for there could be a number of loud bangs! I recently took you through a few thrusts and parries with London’s most famous Regency swordsmen. Well, today we’re looking at London’s best gunmakers of the era.

I swear, it’s not that I’m bloodthirsty—I just find that in the hands of a master craftsman, pistols and swords are lethally beautiful works of art. For me, they are a perfect example of artisans becoming artists, and I love how the famous design adage “form follows function” comes to life in the hands of men like Manton, Wogdon and Egg. (At left are pistols by John Manton.)

I recently saw a small but scintillating exhibit at Met in NYC entitled The Art of London Firearms, which showcases some of the treasures from its permanent collection, which are rarely displayed. So, let me prime my pen and take a quick shot at giving you some of the highlights of the golden age of flintlock pistols . . .

The Rose Windows of Notre Dame. Where Do We Go From Here?

 

Rose window, Notre Dame

Many ingenious lovely things are gone
That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude,
protected from the circle of the moon
That pitches common things about. There stood
Amid the ornamental bronze and stone
An ancient image made of olive wood –
And gone are Phidias' famous ivories
And all the golden grasshoppers and bees.
     Yeats

 

Joanna here, talking about something that shocked and horrified me last week. I watched fire burning next to the rose windows of Notre Dame.

Those rose windows are perhaps the most famous stained glass in the world. Very old. Very lovely. Anyone who’s been privileged to see them has been moved by the experience.

We still don’t know what shape they’re in.

Notre Dame has three of them over the doors on the south, west, and north of the Cathedral. 

They’re called “rose windows” not because of the color or because they have roses in the stained glass itself, but from the shape. The circle with spoke-like mullions and the delicate  tracery of stone is thought to resemble an open rose. They’re madly characteristic of Gothic architecture and are found in great churches all over northern France.

An Interview with Eileen Charbonneau

Susan here, delighted to welcome our guest today, Eileen Charbonneau, author of SEVEN APRILS, released just this month. Eileen has written several other historical novels, and she is more than a very talented historical novelist--she's also a friend of some of the Wenches, so we are especially pleased that she is visiting with us!

Eileen Charbonneau is the author of the multiple award-winning Code Talker Chronicles series as well as Rita winning and finalist historical novels for adults and young people. Her stories explore America through the eyes of immigrants, native peoples, and women. Her books have earned praise from Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others, so she's on to something. Eileen runs a small bed and breakfast inn with her husband in the brave little state of Vermont, and she is addicted to maple creemies, period dramas, and American roots music.

I just finished reading SEVEN APRILS and loved it. It's the captivating, heartfelt story of a young woman's journey during the years surrounding the Civil War. In the guise of a soldier, Tess becomes a surgeon's assistant, experiencing war and friendship, loyalty and love, life and death as she works beside a dedicated doctor in field hospitals and on the field. Along the way she discovers her own strength and abilities, and finds a future she had never dared dream about. Richly detailed, impeccably researched and beautifully written, with characters who have warmth, strength, and dimension, the story pulls along at a steady and compelling pace. SEVEN APRILS is simply a fascinating read, an exceptional Civil War novel with an earthy naturalism that adds even more depth to a wonderful read.  

Q: SEVEN APRILS is a remarkable novel and an incredible achievement. It represents years of work and dedication, a true book of the heart. I remember our conversations years ago when you first thought about writing it. What drew you to this powerful story? 

EC: Thank you for the wonderful compliment. I love transgressive gender bending women and men in story and song, from "When I Was A Fair Maid" to David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and Dar Williams' "When I Was a Boy." I have enjoyed reading novels about women dressing as men to serve in the Civil War, but I never found a story about a women who made it through the whole war undiscovered.  So I wrote one. 

(photo: Sarah Edmonds, who hid her gender to work as a soldier and a spy during the Civil War)

Q: Tess is a fascinating character, strong by nature, toughened by life and the demands of her situation. At her core, she is compassionate and sensitive. Where did you find inspiration for the character?

 

Ask A Wench: First Sentences

Susanna here, with our Ask A Wench post for this month.

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Andrew Pyper, author of The Homecoming, for a session at my local library, and while doing my preparation for that interview I came across an article he’d written for the Globe & Mail in 2012, called Crafting the Novel’s Crucial First Line.

Here’s an excerpt:

“no writerly preoccupation is more universally shared – or has been the cause of more agonized hours staring at the blank page – than the First Line…
How we begin a book is widely considered to be a matter so crucial, so decisive in determining whether a book soars or stalls, so elusive and mysterious, it's often spoken of in terms closer to spell-casting than sentence making…
There are no rules as to how to do it, other than one. A first line cannot, under any circumstances, be dull.”

*******

I’m a sucker for a good first sentence.

Edinburgh Now and Then

Pat here:

As a lover of Georgian and Regency history, I’ve always been fascinated by Edinburgh. The image of an ancient city crushed together between a fort castle on a hill and a palace a mile away, with the New City slowly forming beneath it, has made me crazy until I could actually see it for myself. And now that I have, I’m dying to write about it. The wynds and the university across the bridge and a towering fortress and a palace are like something out of Pratchett.

The area around modern Edinburgh has been occupied since the early Middle Ages, thanks to the promontories that make for excellent lookouts and secure settlements. By the middle of the 14^th century, the old town was already being called the capital of Scotland. New Town was established about mid 18^th century, just about the time my first Malcolms showed up in my authorial universe.

Of Beaches and Castles

Nicola here and today I’m talking about beaches – and history. You may already have noticed that the Wenches love a good trip to the sea, whether it’s a Caribbean island or the Antarctic or the Northern shores of Scotland. There’s something about the water and a stretch of golden sand that is refreshing and inspiring, even if you’re wearing several layers of thermals to appreciate it, as I was last week!

My beach odyssey started in Bamburgh in Northumberland, on the North East coast of England. It’s a favourite spot of mine and the setting for a story I’ll be writing a little way down the line. The whole area is chock full of history from pre-Roman times through the centuries, plus it has castles by the score and at Bamburgh there is the big mama of them all.

A Question of Numbers!

Andrea here, and I'm excited to announce that today is Release Day for A Question of Numbers, the latest book in my Lady Arianna Regency mystery series. I've had such fun writing these characters and their adventures, so I thought I'd share a bit of backstory about why I love writing the mystery genre, as well as a bit about the inspiration behind this latest story.

I began my career as a published author (don't ask about the old manuscripts squirreled away in a desk drawer) writing traditional Regency romances for NAL. I loved the era—and that's stayed with me to this day—and after glomming a number of books in the genre (including Wenches Mary Jo, Pat and Jo Beverley) I buckled up my courage and took a try at it, and to my surprise and delight . . . I got a contract. When the publishing world changed, I moved to sexy Regencies, which were fun, but I came to realize that my heart really lay in writing mysteries.

A Writers' Retreat

Anne here, and I'm just back from my annual writing retreat. That's the view from my room, and the balcony where I did a lot of writing.
It's the thirteenth year we've done this, always with the same small group of around eight or nine, so we must be doing something right. (I say eight or nine because one of us now lives in France and can't come every year.) And for the last eight years we've come to the same place. With  views like this, who could resist? As well as the gloriously ever-changing vista of sky and sea — and beach activity — I particularly love the sight of the high-rise buildings of the Gold Coast seeming to float in the distance, like the remnants of some lost dystopian city.

Quilts 2019!

By Mary Jo

Long term readers of the Word Wenches know that I look forward to the biennial show of the Baltimore Heritage Quilters Guild. I'm told they don't have annual shows because it takes time to create so many new quilts, which I totally believe because I could never do what they do!

The long, narrow hanging at the left is the phases of the lunar eclipse of 2017.

There are wonderful traditional quilts like traditional grannies used to make, but there are also many that are brilliant works of art intended for walls rather than beds.

Clearly the quilters have a lot of fun, and groups of them will do different challenges to their skills.

For example, there was a "Page 13 Challenge" which involved going to page 13 of a magazine and creating a quilting project based on the images one finds there. (One would been to be careful about the magazine chosen!  One also must NOT touch the quilts with bare fingers--the oils can damage the fabric.  Hence the warnings like the one below. In these days of drones, there may well be aircraft monitoring the show!)

One such challenge project resulted in the fascinating stilt house architectural images quilted by my friend Natalie, above.

Another is the cat hanging I bought two years ago, in small mosaic like pieces of fabric were used to create the project. There was heat activated glue on the back of the fabric squares, and then the quilter sewed through all the pieces to ensure they stay attached. The kitty hangs in my dining room, and she makes me think of a shy adoptee.(Below)

Here are some others quilts that really caught my eye.

The Octopi in the one on the right have three dimensional heads. I love the colors!

 

The hanging to the left was  a group effort. It's taken from a picture of Baltimore rowhouses, and each house was done by a different quilter:

 

 

I like bright colors, so these two spoke to me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love these ducks against the rising sun, and the beautiful golden Tree of Life, below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these sunflowers!

 

 

 

 

There were any number of fabulous works, but I was very taken by several of the ones made by the show's featured contemporary quilter, Amy Krasnansky. All of her work is terrific.

 

 

But the large quilt below was a real knock out: three dimensional with two completely different views possible.  Here is the view from the right:

An elephant, right?  But here is the view from the left.

The elephant in the room has become a sofa with cats! You can see how the quilt is zigzagged to show the two images, an effect Ms. Krasnansky was able to create because she's an engineering graduate of Johns Hopkins University.  An amazing result!  Note how the backgrounds and the ground change between the two images.  (I have the cat covered sofa in my living room, but no elephant. <G >

If you really, really like looking like quilts (as I do!) here are links to my 2015 blog and my 2017 blog.

Lastly, the show took place as a private school with a pond by the parking lot. I think these geese would make quite a nice quilt. What do you think? <G>

Mary Jo

What We're Reading in March

 ... and what a medley it is.

Joanna here, with some lovely book suggestions from all of us.

I’m rereading one of Lois MlcMaster Bujold’s books. The Curse of Chalion. I picked it up at the library because the librarian had it out on the Recommended Shelf and I was reminded of it. 

When we reread books we sometimes come at them a little differently or, at least, I do. This time, when I approached Bujold’s broken, exhausted, emotionally and psychically destroyed protagonist I was better able to see the honorable man beneath. It’s a new way for me to look at heroism and I’m hoping to learn from it.

This is not a Romance, but it’s a satisfying portrayal of a complex protagonist and — yes — a bit of a love story.

 

Andrea writes:

I’m a big fan of Charles Finch’s historical mysteries—I find his Charles Lenox series, set in early Victorian England, an absolute delight. So it’s always a treat when a new one comes out.

Now, Finch has done something really interesting with the series. In the first book, A Beautiful Blue Death, which came out 12 years ago, we meet Lenox as an established amateur detective. He’s a cultured, erudite, clever younger son, so his slightly “black sheep” profession is tolerated by family and friends (it helps that he’s such a lovely, sensitive fellow) And throughout the next nine books, we see him develop, take on new challenges, dabble in politics, get married, have a child . . . all while unraveling some very intriguing mysteries.

Then lo and behold, like the clever mystery writer he is, Finch suddenly surprised his readers with a unexpected plot twist. In his previous book, The Woman in the Water, the 11th in the series, he started writing a “prequel to the series—we meed Charles as a green cub, just down from Oxford, trying to decide what he wants to do in life. He loves solving conundrums, but everyone thinks he’s a fool to consider it as a possible career. Nonetheless, he keeps reading the papers about crime, and finds he has an idea he thinks may help solve one. The police, of course, dismiss him as fop and

The Enduring Appeal of Romantic Comedy

Nicola here, talking about the popularity of romantic comedy, both in contemporary and historical stories. A couple of weeks ago I was at the London Book and Screen Week, interviewing Sarah Morgan about romantic comedies and why they are so appealing and so enduring. Not only did we have the chance for a great chat, we also had a private screening of Sarah’s favourite rom com movie, In Her Shoes, just for us and the audience in a very cool little cinema!

I love a good romantic comedy. The best and most enduring ones are funny, witty, charming and moving, whether they are books or on the screen.  I think
they are also thoughtful and complex and tell us about ourselves as humans – about emotions such as desire and love, about relationships and our longings and wishes. They often reflect the attitudes, assumptions and prejudices that prevailed when the films were made and from the very start in the 1930s they had intelligent roles with great dialogue for women. They often show heroines and heroes as well struggling to push back the boundaries that confine their lives. There’s a lot of good things in a package that has so often been underrated.

By Carriage on the Continent

Carriage In A Landscape, by Gerard ter Borch

Susanna here, back at the bottom of another research rabbit-hole.

This one’s entirely unintentional. I started off by looking up the land routes into Genoa, which led me quite by accident to Mariana Starke—or, more specifically, the Fifth revised edition of her comprehensive guidebook, Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent.

Being published in 1829, it’s about a century too late for my needs, but it’s still a fascinating read, and when I’m trolling the Internet, coffee in hand, for good primary sources, I’m easily lured down rabbit holes by fascinating reads.

Literary Pilgrimages

Anne here, pondering the idea of literary pilgrimages.  I've just flown a thousand miles north, to Brisbane, to attend a multi-author book signing, but though it's a book event, it's not a literary pilgrimage.
The kind of pilgrimage I mean is one to a place where either a beloved author wrote, or wrote about. I'm more in favor of the place written about, than the place where someone wrote. This post was what got me thinking about it.

One day I'd love to do a series of trips based on some of Mary Stewart's books. I've been to Corfu, where Mary Stewart and also Gerald Durrell were very much in my mind, but I'd love to recreate the journey her character Charity made in Madam Will You Talk, which starts in Avignon in Provence. I've been to Avignon (but did not dance on the bridge) but what I'd like to do is take a car, as her heroine did, or better still hire a driver to take me to all the places she visited. While rereading the book. Or possibly listening to an audio version while I gazed at the scenery. 

Naturally I would need to go to a wonderful restaurant to recreate the meal she had when Richard Byron finally caught up with her and ordered dinner.

Beyond Buenos Aires

by Mary Jo

I've already blogged about our cruise to Antarctica , but as I mentioned there, we visited other interesting places as well. (The picture above is from sailing into Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego.)

A few highlights:

Buenos Aires

It was pleasant sunny summer in Argentina and Buenos Aires was beautiful--a city of trees and sweeping boulevards. One of the largest cities in Latin America and a major port, it's cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic and has been called the Paris of Latin America.

Here is the view from the window of the hotel where we stayed for two nights. We tried the tasting menu in the hotel's excellent restaurant and one course was octopus. I approached it warily, and for the first time I experienced octopus as something that wasn't like chewing on a piece of rubber tire. <G>