Word Wenches

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.

Time for Cake!

Christina here. A friend of mine has her birthday today – happy birthday! – so naturally my thoughts turned to cake! Well, the two usually go together, don’t they? Birthdays are a great excuse for baking (and eating) cake and it wouldn’t be a special day without such a culinary treat, at least not to me. Cake can also cheer us up in these uncertain times, so why not indulge ourselves a litte? It made me wonder though – who first hit on the idea of making cake? Time to dive down a research rabbit hole …

Attribution https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128566

I don’t think anyone really knows where cake baking originated, but the first ones were probably more like bread sweetened with honey. Rather than putting the honey on top of the bread, someone decided to put it inside before baking and liked the result. I’m all for that as I confess I don’t like the taste of honey on its own. Nuts and fruit could have been added to make it sweeter (sugar came much later) as that was all they had. We know the Egyptians made special cakes for various feasts, religious ceremonies or for people to take with them to the afterlife. And then the Romans started adding eggs and butter to their bread dough, as well as honey, which gave them a cake like result. They must have brought these recipes to England when they were in control here, but then they left and the Dark Ages came … well, without cake they must have been dark indeed!

The Nurture of Nature

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” —John Muir

Andrea here, The Summer Solstice took place this past Saturday where I live (those of you in the Southern hemisphere had, of course, the Winter Solstice.) I always love the longest day of the year, and the golden glow of sunset stretching into the evening. It got me to thinking about Nature, and how aside from the four dates marking the change in season, we rarely stop and think about our connection to the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.

My musings were also sparked by the PBS series by Ken Burns on the history of the American National Parks, which I have been streaming over the last week. (you can see it here) In this troubling time of ills, both natural and man-made, I found it to be incredibly uplifting and inspiring.

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”
—John Muir

Americans are polarized about so many things these days, so it’s heartening to watch a show about what writer Wallace Stegner has called “the best idea we (Americans) ever had.” The idea of setting aside grand swaths natural beauty for posterity first took shape within another time of great conflict for America. In 1864, during the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Yosemite Land Grant bill, giving the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoia trees to the state of California “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation.”

The Diabolical Baron!

The Return of The Diabolical Baron!

by Mary Jo

I've been slowly reissuing my older books digitally, and now the time has arrived to send my very first Signet Regency, The Diabolical Baron, back into the world.  It's the first in my Putney Classics Series, which will include Carousel of Hearts and Lady of Fortune. 

Back when I was writing my Fallen Angels Series, my publisher asked me to revise several of my early Signet Regencies into historical romances.  I was happy to do that with some of the stories that became Petals in the Storm, Angel Rogue, The Bargain, and The Rake, but I didn't feel that was appropriate for the three books I'm calling Putney Classics.  These stories are just too traditional Regency to become rewritten as longer, sexier historical romances. 

So, say hello to the newest edition of The Diabolical Baron! To this day, it's an object of wonder to me.  I started writing the book three months after buying my first computer for my design business.  I'd always had stories in my head (I thought everyone did!) so I decided to see if I write a story myself. 

Quotes to Preserve Your Muchness

Note the mask and gloves; Pietro Longhi (btw, a family ancestor)

Susan here, bringing to the blog today an assortment of quotes and thoughts as we all make our way through this peculiar time on Planet Earth.

In our house, we’ve mostly been staying home, not seeing much of family and friends (except virtually! lots of that!). When we go out, it’s to places practicing careful protocols and where the takeout is steaming hot—Chinese and pizza, for example. We’re donning masks and gloves, and keeping physical distance. We’re being good (one of our sons treats covid patients in a major hospital, and boy does that keep us aware and cautious). My husband I are both working at home now—me upstairs with my zillions of books, while IT Guy has taken over the dining room (three or four computers on the oak table that has withstood, over the years, thousands of Legos, crayons, countless holiday dinners—that table can take it).

Being both dedicated introverts, we’re not climbing the walls. Yet.

But now and then, the stress and the strangeness of it creeps in, and I’m turning more and more to things that help me relax, stretch, clear the mind, fill the reserves.

“You used to be much more … muchier. You’ve lost your muchness,” said the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. And I don’t want to go there, nor do you. Let’s all keep our muchness as we navigate our way through this Fire Swamp (while blithely mixing metaphors).

I hope you are faring well, and finding your own way through the swamp.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes – and some favorite images – that I hope will brighten your day.

Ramon Casas, Jove

 

“Ah! There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.”
--Jane Austen, Emma

Abbot Handerson Thayer, Angel Waiting

 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all –

       --Emily Dickinson

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." –A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

 

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” —Hermann Hesse

 

"Peace is always beautiful." -- Walt Whitman

 

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 Big Stink

Pat here—dragging you down into the sewers with me. Silly me, I started poking around Roman sewers for a plot point in next spring’s School of Magic series, and then, of course, I had to look up Victorian sewers to see how my various heroes would repair the plumbing in their respective renovations. (Ask me about our 21^st century plumbing problems, and you’ll know where I get my ideas!)

My poking dropped me down a research bunny hole I thought you might find entertaining. I don’t suppose any of you have ever seen the fabulous Victorian pumping stations in London? (That's the Abbey Mills station in the photo) Absolutely enormous, decorated better than any early 20^th century movie palace—for sewage. The mind boggles. So does the story.

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!

A Journey Back in Time

Christina here. I should have been in Norway right now on a research holiday, but for obvious reasons I’ve had to postpone. It’s a shame, as I was really looking forward to exploring that country, but hopefully I will get there next year. I had planned to tell you all about my journey too – hopefully with lots of wonderful photos – but I will have to take you along on last year’s trip to Denmark instead. As we’re all stuck at home, I hope you’ll enjoy a little bit of armchair travel!

For an author, seeing or experiencing things first hand is always the best way of doing research, and it’s a great excuse for going places. Of course it’s not always possible to find exactly what you need, especially when like me you’re writing about Viking times, but there are ways and means. With the whole of Scandinavia steeped in Viking history, one can definitely get a feel for the setting as a whole. And fortunately there are also quite a few museums where the curators have tried to recreate the past to really give visitors a taste of what it was like a thousand years ago. Two of the best ones are in Denmark and I came up with the idea of taking my mother (who lives in Sweden) on a little road trip, thereby killing two birds with one stone – she would get a mini holiday and I’d get to do some vital research while spending quality time with her!

Rare Indulgences!

Andrea here, I’ve been thinking about the last few months, and how stressful it’s been for all of us in so many ways. The need to shelter at home has cut us off from so many daily pleasures—meeting up with friends for drinks or dinner . . . visiting a museum . . . treating oneself to a little shopping. So I am deeming myself deserving of a splurge. And it should come as no surprise that books are involved!

Viking Cruise Line, a sponsor of PBS’s Masterpiece Theater, has been offering a video channel on culture and the arts for us to enjoy some virtual travels and lectures . . .and among the recent fun offerings was an interview with the Duke of Devonshire by his son-in-law, who owns Heywood Hill, one of Britain’s most famous rare book emporiums. (You can see it here)

Now, of course, I couldn’t resist taking a virtual visit to Heywood Hill. (Oh, how I miss real-life London!) And what do I find—a carefully curated list of 80 fun bibliographic treasures, specially chosen to lift the spirits during the pandemic! (You can see the full selection here.) So, I’ve opened my virtual checkbook—because money is no object when one is drooling (of course not literally) over such a fabulous array of goodies! However, I’ve exercised great restraint and haven’t gobbled up all them, but have chosen just a few that really tickle my fancy:

Three Good Things

Three Good Things

by Mary Jo  

This is a revised version of a blog I did way back in 2006, the first year of the Word Wenches.  It's been a lot of years, but the same ideas are still worthwhile.

I think the transitions seasons of spring and autumn are the loveliest of the year.  In the northern hemisphere we have spring and lush richness of new life.  In the southern hemisphere it's autumn, with the last nostalgic flare of beauty before sliding into winter.

But now we're dealing with the challenges of a pandemic, and a lot of stress goes with that.  Financial problems, cabin fever, way too much uncertainty, perhaps worst of all, not being able to hug people we love unless they're living with us. 

 

Humor in Books

Anne here, apologetically running in late. Sorry, I forgot what date it was. Today I'm pulling a question from the list of reader questions we've received over the years. And while I'm talking about that, I'll remind you all — if you submit a question for the wenches and one of us chooses it as a blog topic a blog, that person will win a book.

Today's topic is from Constance, who said... "It would also be very interesting to know how important humor is to each of you when creating characters. I’ve always found heroes with a self-deprecating sense of humor almost irresistible, and heroines who can match them in witty retort make it even better. But it can’t be easy to create that — or is it for the extremely talented writers you all are?"

Constance, I also love a hero who can make me laugh. But writing humor is never easy, especially if I set out trying to be funny. Forced humor can be horribly un-funny and usually gets deleted. Even when I think the story I'm writing is going to be a funny one, it doesn't always happen. 

People have very different senses of humor, so what is funny to one person completely passes another. I remember so often when I was a kid, my brother and I would be cracking up laughing at some TV show, and one of my older sisters would say crossly, "I don't know why you're laughing. That isn't funny at all." Which made my brother and me laugh even harder. And of course, if you have to explain why something is funny, it immediately kills the humor stone dead.

So all I can go on is what's funny to me. My funniest scenes usually come spontaneously in the writing. I'm 'in the zone' busily writing, a character says something unexpected and another one responds, and then . . . we're off. And when it happens, it's a joy. 

Most of my books have some funny moments, but some books are funnier than others. It's something to do with character chemistry. Some character combinations bring out humor better than others — a light-hearted, flippant hero and an earnest worrier of a heroine, for instance, sparked some funny scenes in my book, The Perfect Rake.

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.

Marry in Scarlet! An Interview with Anne Gracie

Interviewed by Mary Jo

Marry in Scarlet, the long awaited final book in Anne Gracie's Marriage of Convenience Series, has arrived, and it's great.  As Publishers Weekly says in its review, "George is an admirable heroine and the chemistry between her and Hart is magnetic."

Lady Georgiana, the wild child niece of the Rutherford clan, has come to value the family she didn't know she had, but she still prefers to be called George and likes her giant wolfhound, Finn, and her magnificent stallion Sultan more than most humans.  She also has no desire to lose her independence by marrying, but the social pressure is building

Anne, you've included clever and appropriate quotes from Jane Austen as chapter headers (how do you find such perfect snippets?), and as I read Marry in Scarlet for the second time, I realized that it could easily be named Pride and Prejudice. What do you think?

AG: It hadn't occurred to me, but you're right; like Jane Austen's classic, both pride and prejudice play their role in the hero and heroine's attitudes. He doesn't trust women, she doesn't trust men. And they both have their fair share of stubborn pride. 

Not that the plot is in any way similar. Unlike Austen's heroines, Lady George has no need to marry — she will come into a handsome fortune when she turns twenty-five, so the only pressure on her to marry comes from society — and her elderly, interfering great-aunt.

As for the Austen snippets at the start of each chapter, over the years I've made a collection — pages and pages of possible quotes sorted under headings. I also have all of Austen's novels and a collection of her letters on .pdf, and so I can search them easily using keywords. It's quite a lot of fun, finding a snippet to go with the events of each chapter.

 

Summer Meditations

Andrea here . . . meditating on summer and what it means to me. In the United States, today marks the unofficial start of the summer season. With COVID -19, we don’t really know what the next few months will bring—though it’s pretty certain that Summer 2020 will very different from those in recent memory. We’re all feeling our way through the challenges, trying to inch here and there toward 'normal', as we wonder what 'normal' will be like going forward.

As someone who writes romance, I believe in resilience of the human spirit, and the power of love and friendship to help us triumph over adversity. So I do think we’ll find a way overcome all the terrible things so many of us are facing right now. But I think it’s also part of human nature to be a little nostalgic, and as summer is traditionally a time of long, lazy days in which to slow down and reflect, I got to thinking about some of the things I’ll miss this coming summer.

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!

 

 

Archaeology and the Writing Process

Anne here. I've often said that for me, writing a book is a little bit like archaeology, though generally less muddy. When I start, I have a rough idea of what I think a book will be about, who my main characters are and so on, but really, at this point in the writing process, they're my best guesses.

Years ago, when I was in Greece, I was fascinated by some of the ancient murals that had been dug up — some were just fragments really, but people had made "best guesses" as to what the overall murals had looked like.

My characters often begin as a very sketchy collection of notes. Things like: he thinks he's a hard man; he believes to show vulnerability is fatal; He's a survivor; he's clever with machinery and calculations; he tries to control everything in his life; he's racked with guilt over what happened to his sisters; he has no idea how to handle them; deep down he's afraid to trust to love. (Sebastian from The Perfect Waltz)

But it's not until they hit the page and start interacting with other characters that they start to come to life, and often, they're not who I imagined they were going to be. And sometimes because of that, I have to rethink my plot.

Opening Lines

"That's torn it!" said Lord Peter Wimsey. 

Susan here, and that's a great start for a great book—a Dorothy Sayers mystery, but which one? The Nine Tailors.

The proverbial hook—the first sentence or two that pulls the reader in, catches attention, taps emotion, hints at something fascinating ahead, inviting the reader to find out more. If the first line doesn’t hit the mark, the reader may bow out quickly. Years ago, once I opened a book I would finish it, even if I had to slog through it, but I haven’t done that in a long while. If a book doesn’t catch me in the first few pages, even a chapter, I’m out and on to the next book. Often I’ll go back later and give it another try, for if you just push on, there's often a great read there. Sometimes the hook isn't a sentence--sometimes it's a subtle thing, more than a sentence, a slow build that grows on you. But sometimes the first line is intriguing, enticing, mysterious, magical--a portal to a story that you may never forget.

It was a dark and stormy night.
-- A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle 

A great book might have a deceptively simple opening line that hints at something about character, situation, setting, mood that draws you in. Sometimes it’s the power or beauty of the author’s voice. Sometimes it’s humor, or an emotion that catches you, or a situation that makes you curious. Simple or complex, hang on—there may be an amazing world within those pages.

In no particular order, well-known and less known, here are some of my favorite opening lines from some of my favorite books . . .

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

--The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein   

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. -- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Peter Blood, bachelor of medicine and several other things besides, smoked a pipe and tended the geraniums boxed on the sill of his window above Water Lane in the town of Bridgewater.

-- Captain Blood, Rafael Sabatini

When the east wind blows up Helford River the shining waters become troubled and disturbed and the little waves beat angrily upon the sandy shores.

-- Frenchman’s Creek, Daphne du Maurier

When the girl came rushing up the steps, I decided she was wearing far too many clothes. 

-- The Silver Pigs, Lindsey Davis

It was the egret, flying out of the lemon grove, that started it. 

-- The Moonspinners, Mary Stewart

The lad had the deep, burning eyes of a zealot.

-- The Prince of Midnight, Laura Kinsale

It’s still my favorite book in all the world.

--The Princess Bride, William Goldman

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

--Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

Charles Howard had the feel of a gigantic onrushing machine: You had to either climb on or leap out of the way.

--Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand 

We had been wandering so long I had forgotten what it was like to live within walls or sleep through the night.

--The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman

 

So there you go, a few of my favorite story portals -- what's your favorite opening line in a novel? 

Susan 

Cut Like a Dog

 

This cutie is no bigger than a quill pen. From 1799

Joanna here, talking about dogs again, for which I hope everybody will pardon me.

 

I am not actually more partial to dogs than to cats, but I have decided to talk about the history of Extreme Grooming. About fur topiary — a subject doubtless of burning interest to the generality — and there doesn’t seem to be much history of humanity trying to do this to cats.

Cats, if asked, would explain to you why this is so. Or you could experiment.

Thus I am not speaking of mere dog washing or dog brushing or the ever-

Groomers clipping dogs on the bridges of Paris c 1900

popular “Take that thing out and don’t come back till he doesn’t stink to high heavens” which is doubtless the origin of dog grooming back in the days when a nice dry cave was the most des res available.
And I’m not looking at yer King Charles Spaniel or Papillon getting the most delicate and minimal of snip, snip, snips to become even more perfectly beautiful, worthy though that subject is.

 

I’m looking at Dog as the canvas of the fur butchers art.

Dog grooming as a profession has to date back to the earliest hierarchical societies. The same Sumerian or Babylonian noblemen who tossed the reins of their horse to Hobbins the groom with a “Rub her down good and give her extra mash.” doubtless had a dogsbody washing mud off the hunting dogs and checking their footpads for thorns.

Our earliest specific references to dog grooms date to the Middle Ages. We know kennel boys lived with the dogs, cared for them, brushed their teeth, washed and groomed and curried their fur.

Somewhere along the line,
things gets kookie.

Poodle 1795

AAW—In Which We Muse on Silver Linings

With the weeks turning into months as we navigate the uncertain road of coping with Covid 19, we thought we all use a little brightness, so in this month's Ask A Wench feature, the Wenches are are answering this question about silver linings within the dark clouds: “With the stresses of shelter-in-place, is there any silver lining you've found—time to do a craft you’ve always loved but hadn't had time for; rediscovered music or a genre of a book, found pleasure in cooking or baking, etc, or in taking walks in nature? Share the unexpected pleasures you have discovered.”

Anne: Lockdown hasn't made a huge difference in my daily life -- I work from home anyway, and I can still walk my dog. I have hermitish tendencies and I'm not really a social gadabout. Catching up with friends for dinner or a movie has been replaced by phone calls, and zoom get-togethers -- in fact I probably have more contact with friends than normal, as it's logistically easier to organize. We even had our first-ever wenchly zoom get together, though the time differences made it tricky.

My neighborhood has changed though. Apart from there being less traffic, something has happened that I hadn't realized was missing -- the kids are out, playing in the street. When I was a kid, all the kids in the street knew each other and played together. In all the years I've lived in this house, I never saw it happen here. Kids played in their own house, or watched TV or whatever — I don't know. I rarely saw them. But now, they're out every day, playing and laughing. They whizz past on roller skates or scooters, they boing around on pogo sticks, they race up and down. Kids who never played together -- they attend different schools -- now meet up every morning and play outside all day. Over the road two little girls set up their play area every day on the strip of grass in front of the house. There are "picnics" and dress ups, and all sorts, and we have a growing tent city that a patient dad packs up every night. 
These friendships are a lovely development that I hope continues long after lockdown is lifted.

All Things Japanese

Christina here and for today’s post I’m going Japanese! As you may have seen from Anne’s introduction of me (here), I was lucky enough to live in Japan for several years and I fell in love with everything about that country, including its beautiful traditional garments. So when the Victoria & Albert Museum in London put on an exhibition of kimono earlier this year, I just had to go and see it! It was glorious and as we’re now all stuck at home, I thought I’d give you a little taste of what was on display and tell you about these very special robes which featured in one of my very first novels, The Scarlet Kimono.

Covering Up!

Andrea here, musing about something that’s on all of our minds . . . well, actually, on all our faces! I don’t know about you, but I’m not someone who ever found a great allure in the idea of wearing masks. Unlike many of my friends, Halloween was . . meh—not a big deal. The idea of anonymity—which conjures a certain sense of dangerous freedom to misbehave and get away with it—wasn’t something that tickled my fancy.

And yet, when you look at the history of masks and masked celebrations, it’s clear that face coverings appeal to the naughty side of human nature. (There is a certain irony in today’s masks, which are quite the opposite in intent—we wear them not only to be personally safe, but also to be good citizens and help protect others.) Most every culture has a tradition of masks being used for ceremonial and religious practices—and also just for mischievous fun!

Masks used to ward off illness have of course existed throughout history—the most famous examples are the plague marks of medieval Europe. (That long beak was to hold a small sachet of burning herbs, whose smoke was thought to help protect one from whatever evil was causing sickness) But for the most part, masks have been used for more frivolous things.

Audio News: Dearly Beloved and More

by Mary Jo

Audiobooks, like so many elements of publishing (and the world in general) have changed greatly in recent years.  Once upon a time, only huge bestselling mainstream books had audio editions.  They were really expensive and libraries were the primary market. (In those days a lot of audiobooks were on cassettes!  Remember them? <G>)

But there was interest in audio, so gradually more genre books like romance began to be recorded.  My first audiobook was The Wild Child, which came out in 1999.  I was so excited--I felt that I had arrived! 

I don't know if at that time any authors were producing independent audio version of their books--probably not.  The norm was for the print publisher to subcontract audio rights to a specialist audio producer.  The production company chose the narrator and did the engineering and distribution.  (I never had any input on any of that, but I was happy that the audiobooks were available for those who wanted them.)

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!

Of hair dyes and turbans

Anne here, with a slightly frivolous post.

I pinched this image off the web because not only did it make me laugh, there was a central truth to it — and a truth very much of our times. 

Because of lockdown, and because a number of my dark-haired friends have been getting tired of having to pay to keep restoring their natural hair color, several of them have decided that while they're not going out and not socializing, they're going to just let it happen and see what they think about their new shade of pale. And thus, CoronaLisa.

Of course, people have always dyed their hair and tried to stave off the aging process.  It's generally the dark haired ones who battle with the grey most. We fairer types are lucky in that the grey hairs are fairly easily absorbed and don't stand out as much.

 The Egyptians made lavish use of henna and other products — such as the blood of black animals — to try to stave off the grey. The richer ladies simply wore wigs made from the hair of slaves. The Romans, too, experimented with dyes made from various plants, though they were often toxic and damaged not only the hair, but the person growing it. Eventually they came up with a formula made of fermented leeches — yes, delightful I know.

And unless you were a prostitute, up to this time the color choices were mostly reddish (henna) or black. Prostitutes? you ask. Yes, in Ancient Rome they were required to dye their hair yellow as a sign of their profession and while the more prosperous wore wigs made from hair taken from conquered and enslaved fair-haired Germanic people, some tried various concoctions of herbs and ash and nuts to create the effect. (And no, the image on the right is neither Roman nor Egyptian. You'll discover the connection at the end of this post.)

What the Wenches are Reading in April!

Christina here to tell you what the Wenches have been reading this month – an eclectic mix as always! With all of us being in isolation, we’ve had plenty of time to dive into our TBR piles and we hope you have too. Have a look and see if anything appeals to you!

I’ll start off with my own April favourites: First and foremost I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Wench Nicola’s upcoming release, The Forgotten Sister – published tomorrow! – a Tudor mystery and time slip (dual time) novel. I can safely say that this is one of the best books I have read in a long time! It has everything you want from a time slip story and it was utterly, utterly brilliant!!! Nicola has managed to intertwine the story of Amy Robsart (wife of Robert Dudley in Tudor times) so cleverly with the characters in the present. Robert is part of Queen Elizabeth I’s court and Amy doesn’t seem to figure much in his plans. She needs a way out of their loveless marriage and thinks she’s hit on the perfect solution – but has she? The present day heroine Lizzie has her own problems to contend with and when her life begins to echo the happenings of the past, she has to uncover a centuries old secret in order to move forward. I couldn’t put this down and the characters will stay in my mind for a long time.

An Inside Peek at the Pantry!

Andrea here, musing on an essential staple of the current sheltering-in-place life that most of us are living . . . or so all the food bloggers are telling us! A number of recent online articles have been waxing poetic on that humble kitchen element—the pantry!

I have a very spiffy one built into my kitchen. It is quite tall and features lovely roll-out shelves . . . which I confess are crammed to overflowing with . . .um, stuff. I actually do use the ‘stuff” in those shelves, as I like to cook. But inspired by a guide to stocking a pantry in the New York Times, I decided to take a closer look at mine.

It wasn’t pretty . . .

We have a winner!

Anne here.

Our most recent guest, Bronwyn Parry, appeared on the blog recently, discussing Regency-era fabrics, costume, and her new book,THE CLOTHIER'S DAUGHTER.

She also offered a giveaway to someone who left a comment. The winner of the book is Janice, who has been contacted privately.

Congratulations, Janice. 

Thank you to all those who visited the blog and read the interview, and thank you to all those who took the trouble to leave a comment. We do appreciate it.

And a special thank you to Bronwyn for visiting the wenches, sharing her knowledge and offering this giveaway.

Praising Peppercorns!

by Mary Jo

I've always been intrigued by spices, so much so that I wrote a blog about them years ago, and liked it so much that years later I posted it again while under deadline. <G>

So naturally I read an article on black pepper when browsing an issue of Cook's Illustrated, a publication of America's Test Kitchen.  Even though I learned a lot about cooking by working my way through recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I lived in England, I don't do a lot of cooking these days, but I do like reading about food and food related items. 

Cook's Illustrated does articles on things like how to make the New England cod and potato cakes, or Indian Butter Chicken, or chewy peanut butter cookies, all of which are in the May/June 2019 magazine, but the magazine isn't just recipes.  It's also exploring what works in different dishes, and why.