TWRP Historical Roses

Links to the Past

2012-01-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

Do you ever feel disconnected from your ancestors? I mean, I know I have a 20-times great grandmother somewhere in my past, and obviously, she had a 20-times great grandmother, etc., but it's hard to think about the richness of our pasts when we're so caught up in the present.

My family and I recently discovered my husband's 5 times great grandfather, Samuel Palmes, fought in the Revolutionary War. He and his twin brother joined after the Battle of Lexington, and served four long years in the Continental Army. Last summer, we visited the town where Samuel was born and stood at his grave. The church where his family worshiped is still in use today. A surreal feeling overcame us. To think that we were walking the same ground where my husband's long-ago ancestor once walked seemed like something out of a book.

Exploring my husband's ancestry led me to search my own family tree. I found a census page from 1920, listing my Filipino grandfather at the age of 19 in a boarding house in California. I found my father's grandpa's draft registration for WWI. He was disqualified because he was already over 50 years old then. On the Ellis Island website, we found many relatives' crossing papers - the passenger lists for my husband's German grandfather and an English uncle, and my own German great-grandfather. I've been to Ellis Island before, and to be in the same building where our family long ago entered America for the first time is incredible.

So, dig up your family trees! Explore where you came from. It might even help you know where you're going.

Release date for A Marshal of Her Own

2011-08-04T13:24:00.000-04:00

I'm pleased to announce my short time travel, A Marshal of Her Own, will be released in ebook format on November 23, 2011. This is a sequel to A Law of Her Own. The third short story in this series is A Love of His Own. It is now finished and will be sent to my editor soon. I hope it is accepted. All three stories are set in 1890s Prairie, a small town in the Texas Panhandle.

Despite rumors of “strange doings” at a cabin in Fredericksburg, investigative reporter Dessa Wade books the cottage from which lawyer, Charity Dawson, disappeared in 2008. Dessa is intent on solving the mystery. Instead, she is caught in the mystery that surrounds the cabin and finds herself in 1890 in a shootout between the Faraday Gang and a US Marshal.

Marshal Cole Jeffers doesn’t believe Miss Wade is a time traveler. He admits she’s innocent of being an outlaw, but thinks she knows more about the gang than she’s telling. When she’s kidnapped by Zeke Faraday, Cole is determined to rescue her. He’s longed for a woman of his own, and Dessa Wade just might be the one—if she’ll commit to the past.

Thank you for Reading and Writing!

Linda
http://www.lindalaroque.com/
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

GIFTS GONE ASTRAY, Regency comedy

2011-07-02T03:01:00.001-04:00

At long last, my latest Regency comedy novella, Gifts Gone Astray is available!

BLURB:
A gift is a wonderful surprise. Or maybe not.

At the Earl of Langley's family gathering, everyone receives a gift, including the servants. Tutor Stephen Fairfax expects a small token, but the present from family member Mrs. Anne Copely, the widow who's caught his eye, is a dream come true.

Until he opens it. What a gift! How did that demure lady acquire such a book? And she wants to "study" it with him? If he accepts her offer, tempting as it is, he could lose his job.

Anne has no idea why Mr. Fairfax is in such a flutter. Her present is a simple book of illustrations. The subject interests them both, and she would like nothing better than to examine the book--and Mr. Fairfax--more closely.

EXCERPT:
She glanced at the mantel clock. "Oh, look at the time! I must return to the drawing room. So much to do before the family party tonight. But, before I leave..." She swallowed. "We had some trouble with the gifts today. Yours went missing. I apologize—"

"But I received a gift. Someone left it outside my door."

"Thank the stars." She pressed her hand to her bosom.

Stephen's gaze followed her hand down and his throat dried.

"I worried your present was lost."

She worried about me. Capital! He tore his eager gaze from her breasts and lifted his head. "I have not yet unwrapped it. A book, I take it?"

"Yes. The volume belonged to my husband. He was a scholar, and that book was one of his favorites. Mine, too. We spent many happy hours enjoying it." Another dazzling smile curved her lips. "I selected it with you in mind."

His pulse thumped. I have a chance. "You flatter me with your consideration."

"My pleasure." She flashed another of her heart-stopping smiles. "As much as I long to, I will not ruin the surprise by telling you what the book is." She smoothed her face into a blank stare, but her glorious chocolate eyes twinkled.

So, she wanted to play games. He gave an inward smirk. He would love to play games of a different sort. But he would settle for a guessing game. For now.

Available at:

The Wild Rose Press

Thank you all,
Linda
Linda Banche
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!
http://www.lindabanche.com/

HISTORY IS SO MUCH FUN

2011-06-21T02:01:00.007-04:00

Ever get stuck doing research? That’s what’s been happening to me – for the last few months. It began with curiosity of wondering what happened on May 23, 1989 – “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” movie and comedian, Paula Poundstone wins Comedy Award. Then, I wondered how old my parents were on December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. They were 15 years old. This weekend I watched the movie, “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck. I didn’t used to like movies or books set in this era. However, now, with all the stories my dad has told me, I love it! The women were so fashionable, with their narrow skirts, hats and bright red lipstick. My mom used to dress like this as well. My dad wore a uniform as a lot of men did during that time.

Of course, being of an inquiring mind, I don’t stop at wondering about one date in history, I keep going. My dad was born on June 6. My youngest sister was born on June 13. What happened on these dates in history?

In my quest for information which always makes goose bumps form on my arms, I found the following websites:

Dates in history by one day or by country/ city

(Be careful, however. You might have to double check with other sources?)

www.historyorb.com

Can find disasters that occurred in U.S.

http://www.gendisasters.com/data1/pa/mines/plymouth-avondale-disaster-apr1869.htm

Dates in History

http://www.datesinhistory.com/oct16.php

I hope these sites can help you get started in your quest.

Historical Money

2011-06-02T16:58:00.004-04:00

In my previous two posts on Regency money, Regency Money and The Worth of Regency Money, several people said they liked and needed the information. So, this post is a compendium of some historical money links I've discovered in my research. They include, but are not limited to, Regency money.

The best site I've found is Current Value of Old Money, a GREAT collection of links about historic money in various countries, including historic exchange rates.

From the above site, here's the link for historic France: http://www.maisonstclaire.org/resources/pricelist/pricelist.html

Here's a link for data from medieval Europe: http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/memdb/

Another good link is the Marteau site, which contains information for the eighteenth century for various countries. Here's the Marteau site's A Platform of Research on Economics History, which is included on the Current Value of Old Money site.

From the above page, here's the Marteau Prices and Wages page, which gives historical money information on France, Germany and Austria, Great Britain, Italy, the Dutch Republic, the Ottoman Empire, Spain, and the Spanish Netherlands.

From the above page, here's the link for Great Britain, Wages and Prices in 18^th Century England. For example, a 1710 English clergyman made about 99 British pounds per year.

Here's a site that converts old German money to modern money (do a google search on "historical german money"): http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/currency.htm#intro

The Measuring Worth site contains many calculators, as well as historical information, mainly for the USA and Great Britain.

All this data can be pretty dry, but here's an article, Vulgar Economy, from the Jane Austen Centre that gives some idea of the cost of common items in Regency England.

And to end the post on a lighter note, here are some slang expressions for British money. Not all the terms are historical, but the definitions are enlightening.

Thank you all,

Linda

P.S. The above picture is old Croatian money.

STORY IDEAS FROM HISTORY

2011-05-21T10:05:00.008-04:00

I just watched Book TV where Carla Peterson talks about her book “Black Gotham”, where she strives to reconstruct the lives of her 19^th century ancestors. She is also the author of "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North, 1830-1880.

http://nyuarchiveworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/check-out-carla-peterson-on-what-the-women-were-doing/

It is amazing how connected your life starts to become when you want to start out on a new project. Recently, I’ve been revisiting my research on my ancestors. One Thanksgiving a few years back, my dad talked non-stop to me about growing up in a small West Texas town. He was born in the mid 1920’s, so he grew up in the 1930’s where the U.S. experienced the Great Depression, the 1940’s with World War II and the 1950’s where he married my mother and they started to raise their family. His life is full of experiences in various jobs he had, historical moments and cherished family memories. As always looking at this inspires me to either write our family history or write a romance story.

A LOVE FOR ETERNITY was inspired by a story my dad told me about his sister’s marriage. I know for other authors inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes, people ask me where my ideas come from. They say they couldn’t do it. My thinking is that they’re not really looking. Inspiration can come from watching a bird fly up into an apple tree. However, history is full of inspiration.

For example, the typewriter – yes, the machine we all used to use before computers – is an inspiration to me. It has also been a way for me to get a job where I don’t have to ask, “Would you like fries with that?” I took typing class in the 1970’s. However, I began to wonder. Did a Hispanic woman ever have a job as a secretary, or even a typist, in the 1940’s or 1950’s? What if she did? And what if she met the man of her dreams at her new job? Another romance story is born.

One of the questions Carla Peterson was asked after she finished her talk this morning on Book TV was how she had found information about her ancestors before 1880. Her answer was that you have to dig deep, and then deeper.

My family history goes back to 1869 when my paternal great grandfather was born. I remember how excited I was when I found U.S. Census records which listed my great grandfathers and their families. My dad corroborated the information for me. However, before the 1890’s my ancestors were in Mexico (though, of course, Texas used to part of Spain, France and Mexico). My paternal great grandfather married a lady from Spain.

This book, LAS TEJANAS: 300 YEARS OF HISTORY, is full of information about women from the 1700’s to the present. Not only has it helped me with my family history, but the stories of these women lead me to ideas for love stories.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/acolas.html

So, keep looking for those ideas. They can come from anywhere, but our history and the world’s history can lead to more.

The Worth of Regency Money

2011-05-02T05:01:00.001-04:00

When I read in a Regency about the hero giving a waif a pound, I wonder how much money that Regency pound is today. The worth of money has two parts: its value in today's money, and what you could buy with it then.

Here's an Old Money to New Calculator from the British National Archives that translates yesterday's money into today's.

According to this calculator: In 1820, £1 0s 0d would have the same spending worth of today's £41.92

For all of us Yanks out there, we now need to translate to US dollars. Yahoo Finance has a Currency Converter. Here, I select US dollar (USD) and British pound (GBP), setting British pound to 41.92.

For May 1, the day I did the calculation, 41.92 GBP equals 70.042 USD. Since the exchange rate varies from day to day, you will get a different value on another day.

The second part of the National Archives' currency converter, Buying Power, tells you what you could purchase with that Regency pound: Plug in 41.92 pounds in today's money (1 Regency pound) and select the year 1820.

For 1 pound, you could purchase 6 days (craftsman wages in building trade) or the wool from 1 sheep.

What does this mean? One Regency pound was a lot of money. Coins smaller than the sovereign or guinea, which I listed in my last post, Regency Money, could easily handle most day-to-day transactions.

The other important fact is that labor was cheap and commodities, including food, were expensive. A Regency construction worker had to work six days of more than eight hours each to earn enough money for the wool for a suit of clothes.

That Regency lord was very generous, and that waif was very lucky.

Thank you all,

Linda

Linda Banche

Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

http://www.lindabanche.com

The Invention of the Typewriter

2011-04-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

The idea of a typewriter first began not only as a way to communicate more quickly but also to aid the blind in communication. Yet, in the three articles I selected for this post, no mention of a typewriter adding the blind was mentioned. For my post I'm focusing on the machine as a method of communication for journalists, writers, and work in the office.

The invention of the typewriter didn't receive international acclaim or attention like other inventions of the time such as the automobile or the telephone. One possible reason is that it was designed for work, not socializing.

The first patent for a typewriter like machine was issued in 1714 to Henry Mill of England. Unfortunately, no example of his work survives.

William Burt, of Detroit, Michigan patented his machine, called a typographer in 1829. It was designed with characters on a rotating frame. Burt's machine and others that followed were not successful as they were hard to use, cumbersome, and often took longer to produce a letter than if writing by hand.

Christopher Latham Sholes of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, together with Carlos Gidden and Samuel Soule, patented the first useful typewriter. His patent was licensed to a well-known American gun maker and in 1874 the first commercial typewriter, the Remington Model 1, was placed on the market.

Thomas Alva Edison, using the Sholes model, built the first electric typewriter in 1872 but the machine didn't become widely used until the 1950s.

Many different types of typewriters were developed in the 1880s, but the one designed to resemble what we are familiar with today was the Underwood No. 1, invented by F. X. Wagner. It was the first typewriter to strike the front of the planten and users could see what they were typing.

My focus today is on the Remington Model 2 shown in the picture to the right. This is the model my heroine, Dessa Wade, receives as a gift in my newest short time travel, A Marshal of Her Own. It's set in 1890s Prairie, Texas and is a sequel to A Law of Her Own available from The Wild Rose Press and other online book stores.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see there is no shift key and you can only type in capitals. Shole is also famous for the QWERTY layout used today.

Like the Remington Model 1, the Model 2 continues the up-strike tradition. The keys hit the planten at the bottom so you cannot see what you're typing. Still, the Remington Model 2 is the first commercially successful typewriter. It wasn't until 1908 that Remington changed to the front strike planten with the Remington Model 10.

I learned to type on an old Underwood typewriter. Using one required strong fingers and I could pound out about 70 words per minute. Vintage typewriters are in style again, at least for writers who'd like to have one in their office for decoration.

References:
http://www.typewriter.be/remingtonstandard2.htm
http://typewriter.blogofstuff.com/typewriter108.html
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/typrwiter.htm

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda
http://www.lindalaroque.com/
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

Regency Money

2011-04-02T05:01:00.002-04:00

As I read a Regency romance, I inevitably reach a scene that involves money. All those pounds and pence and shillings are indecipherable to my American mind. So, I translate, or try to. I see "pound" and read "dollar". 200 years ago, as today, a British pound never was equivalent to an American dollar. So, what was British money in the Regency?

Money came in the forms of notes and coins. In general, notes were for larger denominations, up to 1000 pounds, and coins were for the smaller denominations. In Regency times, the lowest denomination of notes was 1 and 2 pounds. For smaller amounts, coins were used.

The Royal Mint issued coins, and a bank issued notes. The Bank of England had issued notes from its inception in 1694, and until 1844, regional banks could also issue notes.

From What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool, some of the most common money terms in Regency novels:

Value--Coin

21 shillings--guinea

20 shillings--sovereign (1817 and later) -- pound

10 shillings--half sovereign (1817 and later)

5 shillings--crown (slang term--"dollar")

2 1/2 shillings--half crown

2 shillings--florin

12 pence--shilling

6 pence--sixpence

3 pence--threepence

2 pence--twopence (pronounced "tuppence")

1 pence--penny

1/2 pence--halfpenny (slang "ha'penny")

1/4 pence--farthing

Note that a guinea is more than a pound.

Here's a good link with most of the above information.

http://www.regencylady.net/extras/money.html

Guineas, sovereigns and half-sovereigns were gold. Crowns, half crowns, florins, shillings, sixpence and threepence were silver. The pennies and farthings were copper.

This link shows some coins minted during the reign of George III, which includes the Regency:

http://www.coinsgb.com/George_III/0-George-III.html

Most Regency financial transactions involved coins, even though one and two pound notes were available. Why? Because a Regency pound was a lot of money. The Worth of Regency Money is my next post.

Note: the picture above shows the newest designs of British money.

Thank you all,

Linda

Linda Banche

Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

http://www.lindabanche.com

NAMED FOR A SAINT

2011-03-22T01:00:00.003-04:00

I started thinking about saint names because of St Patrick’s Day on March 17. In our family, we never really celebrated this day. In school, we learned to wear green because otherwise we’d be pinched. I never knew why. Apparently, the Leprechauns would pinch us because we would be visible to them if we didn’t wear green.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_people_get_pinched_on_St._Patrick%27s_Day_if_they_do_not_wear_green

I also remembered my Uncle Joe on March 19. He would always call us all the way from Nebraska to remind us it was his Saint Day. There are many St. Josephs listed, but the one celebrated on March 19 is Joseph, the carpenter and foster father to Jesus. In my story, A LOVE FOR ETERNITY, Joe Morado’s birthday would probably be on March 19. The Catholic Church used to encouraged parents of the faith to name children according to the patron saint of the day.

I have a friend who was born on March 17 and her mother, who believed in using saint names, would have named her Patricia, but since she’d also made a promise to the Virgen de San Juan, my friend was named Juana. My own mother made a promise to the Virgen de Guadalupe. She so wished to have a healthy baby. I was born on October 5, so I might have been named Flora or Faustina. Maybe I’ll say thanks for my mom’s promise.

The saint day for Christina is on July 24, so I’ll say her birthday was on that day. Christina and Joe don’t have birthdays that would occur so close together, but I know they would make each other’s birthday very special.

What I discovered, which was rather interesting and so true to the secondary characters of Louisa and Anthony, is that their saint day is in October. St. Louisa is on October 9; St. Anthony is on October 19. Of course, sometimes there are several saints of the same name, but I picked these. I believe Louisa and Anthony would have been charmed when they first met to discover their birthdays were on the same month. Later, as their love grew, they would celebrate together.

I know writers sometimes agonize over what to name their characters. As we know, the name has to be just right. It’s as important as the plot.

Hope the following websites may be useful to you in picking out names:

http://www.catholic.org/saints/stindex.php?lst=A

http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/byname.aspx

http://www.babynames.org.uk/catholic-baby-names.htm

P.S. I apologize for not posting in awhile, new job, new stresses. Hope you enjoy. I also apologize to Shannon Robinson if she posts tomorrow for my late post.

Regency Happenings for March

2011-03-18T02:53:00.001-04:00

I love looking at Regency magazines and newspapers for interesting tidbits and here are two for March, 1812, that caught my eye in one of the copies of La Belle Assemblée I’ve managed to obtain over the years. The first is an account of a wedding and the second is a charge of murder! I couldn’t resist either, especially since I write historical mysteries as well as Regency romances.

A Regency Wedding

Mr. W. Pole and Miss Long.—The long talked of matrimonial alliance, between Mr. Pole (now Wellesley) and Miss Tylney Long, took place on the 14th of March. The parties met at Lord Montgomerie’s house in Hamilton-place, Piccadilly, at five o’clock; and, about six, accompanied by some of their nearest relatives, they went, in Lady Catherine Long’s coach, to St. James’s church in Piccadilly. The Marquis of Wellesley handed Miss Long out of the carriage, and conducted her through the rector’s house to the altar of Hymen. There were present at the ceremony (which was performed by Dr Glasse, rector of Wanstead) Mr. Secretary Pole, Lady Catherine Long, Miss Diana Long, and Miss Emma Long; the two latter were the brides maids.

The usual forms being gone through, the happy couple retired by the southern gate, which leads through the church-yard into Jermyn-street. Here a new and magnificent equipage was in waiting to receive them; it was a singularly elegant chariot painted a bright yellow, and highly emblazoned, drawn by four beautiful Arabian grey horses, attended by two postillions in brown jackets, with superbly embroidered badges in gold, emblematic of the united arms of the Wellesley and Tylney families.

The new married pair drove off with great speed for Blackheath, intending to pass the night at that tasteful chateau, belonging to the bridegroom’s father, and thence proceed to Wanstead House in Essex, on the following day, to pass the honey-moon.

The bride’s dress excelled in costliness and beauty, … [and] consisted of a robe of real Brussel’s point lace; the device a simple sprig; it was placed over white satin. The head was ornamented with a cottage bonnet, of the same materials, viz. Brussels lace, with two ostrich feathers. She likewise wore a deep lace veil, and a white satin pelisse, trimmed with swansdown. The dress cost 700 guineas; the bonnet 150; and the veil 200.

Mr. Pole wore a plain blue coat, with yellow buttons, a white waistcoat, and buff breeches, and white silk stockings. The lady looked very pretty and interesting.

On the following day the wedding favours were distributed among their numerous friends, the number exceeded eight hundred, composed wholly of silver, and unique in form; those for ladies having an acorn in the centre, and the gentlemen’s a star; each cost a guinea and a half. The lady’s jewels consist principally of a brilliant necklace and earrings; the former cost twenty five thousand guineas. Every domestic in the family of Lady Catherine Long has been liberally provided for; they all have had annuities settled upon them for life; and Mrs. Tylney Long Pole Wellesley’s own waiting woman, who was nurse to her in her infancy, has been liberally considered. The fortune remining to Mrs. Tylney Long Pole Wellesley (after allowing for the considerable sums given as an additional portion to each of the Misses Long, and an annuity to Lady Catherine Long) is eighty thousand pounds per annum.

It’s interesting to me that they were so willing to detail exactly what everything cost…

A Regency Murder

This article was particularly interesting to me because it highlights the difficulties women faced when unwed and pregnant. We are much more fortunate in today’s Society.

Charge of Administering Poison.—The Rev. Samuel Hornbuckle of Watton, was capitally indicted under Lord Ellenborough’s Act, on a charge of administering calomel to Sarah Weeks, his maid servant, in October 1808, with intent to procure an abortion, she being then quick with child. The Rev. Gentleman against whom the charge was made holds the living at Watton, which is of considerable value.

The first witness called was a Mr. Taylor, a medical Gentleman at Watton. He stated, that in October, 1808, the 16th or 17th, he was sent for to see Sarah Weeks, Mr. Hornbuckle’s maid-servant. He saw Mr. H. who told him that S. Weeks had had a fit; that she was in a dropsy, and he apprehended the water had flown to her head. He replied, “Poh! It was no such thing.” He went upstairs to examine her, and found her lying in bed.

She was pregnant and had labour pains upon her. Her mouth and tongue were also very much swelled, and he detailed the symptoms which ensued for several days; the result of which was, that the girl was in a deep salivation. He told Mr. H. that the report of the neighbourhood was, that he was the father of the child, and if the girl died, he would be in an awkward situation.

Mr H burst into tears. A Mr. Tyree was called in, and the girl recovered. Mr. H. told him that he thought the girl had been dropsical, and he had given her some oxymel of squills, and shewed him the phial with some remaining; but he was of opinion that a large dose of mercury had been administered in some shape or other.

On the cross-examination of this Gentleman by the Common Serjeant, it appeared that Mr. H. and himself had formerly been intimate; but since that time they had been at open variance; and subsequent to this transaction in 1808, Mr. H. had prosecuted this witness on a Special Statute, and made him pay a fine of 20 pounds.

The next witness was a Mrs. Vigia, whose husband lived servant at Mr. H’s farm-yard. She stated that one day, about the latter end of October 1808, Mr H. came from the parsonage, which was near to their house, and begged her to come up, for Sarah Weeks was in a fit. Sarah Weeks, as she understood, had lived with Mr. H. for about seven or eight years. When she got to the house, she found the girl insensible on the floor of a closet. They got her up, and carried her to bed; her tongue was very much swelled, hanging out of her mouth, and her teeth clenched upon it. Mr. H. shed tears.

Mr. Taylor was sent for, and he attended several days, and she was delivered of a child which was dead. Mr. H. sent her to the clerk with half a crown to desire him to bury the child directly. The child was buried at dusk.

…

The Learned Judge here addressed himself to the Counsel for the prosecution and observed, that if the prisoner were convicted of the crime, he certainly must leave him for execution. It was therefore most important that the fact should be proved by clear and unsuspected testimony. The charge was a very stale one, it was about three years old, and no reason assigned why it was not before inquired into.

The witnesses already produced, it was clear, acted from other impressions than the desire of justice, and he had carefully read the deposition of Sarah Weeks herself, who was most conversant with the transaction; and if she detailed in evidence what she there stated, it clearly acquitted the prisoner, for she denied that the prisoner had ever administered any medicine to her, or that he was the father of the child.

The Counsel for the prosecution admitted that they could not make the case stronger. The Jury therefore found the prisoner—Not Guilty.

Thanks,
Amy Corwin, author of The Bricklayer's Helper
http://www.amycorwin.com/

Where to Elope in Regency England

2011-03-02T05:01:00.003-05:00

In the Regency, common law marriages, which the Hardwicke Act outlawed in England and Wales, were still possible in Scotland. As such, the border towns of Scotland became famous for providing these marriages. No ceremony was required, and anyone could officiate, if so desired.

The most famous of the marriage border towns was Gretna Green. Weddings are still a thriving business in Gretna Green. The two pictures above are Gretna Green then (left) and now. Gretna Green also has its own website. http://www.gretnagreen.com/cms/

Gretna Green was not the only place for irregular marriages. Other towns, especially in the Eastern Borders of Scotland, also performed quick marriages. While Gretna Green was the destination of choice in the west, these next towns are in east Scotland.

Lamberton, Berwickshire was the most popular of the eastern destinations, since it’s the first Scottish town reached via the Great North Road, the main thoroughfare from London to Edinburgh. The toll-keepers provided the marriages at the Old Toll House. Here’s a picture of the Old Toll House in 1890.

The toll-keepers at Paxton and Mordington, other border towns near Lamberton, and also close to the Great North Road, also performed marriages.

Another town is Coldstream, Scottish Borders. The couple would cross the river Tweed using the Coldstream Bridge, which links Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland to Coldstream. As in the other towns, the Toll

House, here called the Marriage House, on the Scottish side of the bridge provided common law marriages. Coldstream figures in my Regency Christmas story, Mistletoe Everywhere.

Like Gretna Green, Coldstream still does a thriving business in marriages. Here’s their marriage website: http://www.cold streamweddings.co.uk/

Who performed these marriages? Anyone who wanted to. Two people need only declare themselves married before two witnesses to be married. Thriving businesses provided a marriage ceremony of sorts, with witnesses and a clergyman, if desired, officiating. These ceremonies would also provide a certificate as proof of the marriage, for when the couple returned home.

Various laws in the early 1800’s changed and restricted these marriages, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_Act), but many of these towns continued their clandestine wedding business almost up to the twentieth century. Nowadays, the most famous, like Gretna Green and Coldstream, still trade on their history as they provide legal marriages.

Thank you all,

Linda

Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

http://www.lindabanche.com

19th Century Life Was Stranger Than Fiction

2011-02-18T01:54:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you a story…

I’m often asked how I came up with the idea for Sam/Sarah in my latest Regency, The Bricklayer’s Helper. Really, it was very easy after discovering and becoming absolutely fascinated by the life of Catherine Wilson. In fact, I “stole” from many of the facts of Catherine’s life and here’s her real story.

Catherine Wilson was born into a well-respected middle-class family in Perth. When she was fourteen, her parents passed away, leaving her without family or any means of support. Despite her grief, Catherine kept her wits about her and embarked on a new life…as a boy! She donned her deceased brother’s clothing, adopted the name of John Thomson and went forth to seek employment.

Initially, she found work as a herder/grazier to some local cattle farmers. After several years, she accompanied the cattle to Hallow Fair in Edinburg and left the life of grazier to seek more profitable work as a stable boy to a Mr. Lawson. She did so well that she was offered a job as a groom and foot boy to J. Williams, Esq. This new job suited her very well and she stayed there for two years until she pissed off J. Williams and he fired her.

She then got a job in Leith and found rooms for herself in a boarding house run by Mrs. Gray. It wasn’t long before Mrs. Gray discovered that John Thomson was in fact a woman. Now Mrs. Gray had a daughter who was messing around with the butcher and soon found herself pregnant. Furious, Mrs. Gray decided to blackmail “John Thomson” by threatening to expose him as a her unless “he” married her daughter so that the child would not be born out of wedlock.

At that time, a woman masquerading as a man risked deportation if the masquerade was discovered, so the threat did have teeth. However, John/Catherine did not want to marry her landlord’s pregnant daughter so she fled to Edinburgh where she took a job as a bricklayer’s helper. But Mrs. Gray wasn’t about to let a good thing slip out of her hands, so she hounded John/Catherine and even wrote a letter to the bricklayer who fired John/Catherine for “his” depraved behavior in refusing to “do the right thing” and marry the pregnant girl.

Finally caving in, John/Catherine married the girl but soon found it beyond her capabilities to support her mother-in-law, wife, and a young baby. After two years, she gave up and confessed to the parish officers that she was, in fact, a woman.

Catherine finally escaped to Glasgow and took a job—as a woman—at one of the factories in that city.

The real story sounds even more bizarre, if anything, than mine, but it certainly highlights that absolutely anything is possible!

The Bricklayer's Helper

What would you do if you were a young girl, orphaned during the early years of the 19th century?

When Sarah finds herself orphaned after a suspicious fire burns down her home with her family trapped inside, all she can remember is the warning to “run and hide.” And hide she does. She cuts her hair and dons the garb of a young boy, hoping to survive on her own. In this disguise, she’s obtains a job as a bricklayer’s helper and remains safe for thirteen years.

When work takes her to London, a man from her past recognizes her and arranges a meeting, only to be murdered before they can speak. Desperate that she may be vulnerable, Sarah hires an inquiry agent from the Second Sons Inquiry Agency.

However, the inquiry agent, William Trenchard, is far too attractive for Sarah’s taste. In her experience, handsome men can rarely do more than fumble their way beneath a lady’s skirt, but she fears he may be her last chance. But William is determined to solve the mystery and ensure Sarah does not become the final victim.

Unfortunately, their decisions may prove to be downright fatal.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

2011-02-12T00:01:00.002-05:00

Writing is the greatest invention in the world.

--Abraham Lincoln

Coming from a man who spent barely a year in a one-room schoolhouse, these are profound words for authors to read. Born poor on this date in 1809 in Hardin County, Kentucky, Abe Lincoln was no slouch at writing despite his minimal education. As a young politician, he wrote speeches in the long, ornate manner popular in the day, but he eventually simplified his style in deference to ordinary people.

The glorious, unforgettable Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863 at the dedication of Gettysburg National Cemetery, is less than 300 words in length. But some of his phrases changed America. "...a new nation dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." "This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom...." "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Throughout his life, he read every single speech to his wife Mary before a public presentation of it. Mary's wealthy parents had strongly opposed the marriage, and it's claimed the union was tumultuous, but she is often considered one of Lincoln's trusted advisers and confidants. Of the four sons born to them, only one survived into adulthood.

Although detractors considered Lincoln coarse and vulgar, referring to him as "the ape baboon of the prairie," his rustic manner, wit and wisdom were highly regarded by the literary greats of his day, including Walt Whitman and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (If you haven't yet read Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain!" or "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," you're in for something wonderful.) Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the ground-breaking novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, claimed Lincoln's writing deserved to be "inscribed in letters of gold"

For those of us readers and writers of Cactus Rose, Abe Lincoln has an important hand in enhancing the climate and culture of the 19th century, in addition to his role as the Great Emancipator. The Homestead Act he signed in 1862 "opened the West" and helped establish America's heartland, even as it tragically displaced native tribes. Settlers could claim 65 hectares, 160 acres or a quarter-mile section, as their own as long as they farmed and improved the land for five years.

And if you've got your characters carving turkey on the last Thursday in November, you owe it to President Lincoln. He ordered government offices closed on November 28, 1861, for a local day of thanks. On that date, prominent magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale wrote him a letter, urging him to make an official "national and fixed union festival" of Thanksgiving.

His proclamation setting the last Thursday of November as a "day of Thanksgiving and praise" was dated October 3, 1863, perhaps an attempt to ease hearts and lift spirits after the horrific battle of Gettysburg a few months before. One year later, the proclamation letter written by Secretary of State William Seward was sold to benefit Union troops.

I found out some fun facts about our 16th president in doing my homework for this blog.

1. He was the tallest president at 6'4"

2. He carried letters, bills, and notes in his signature stove pipe hat.

3. He was the first president to have a beard.

4. He patented a system to alter buoyancy of steamboats in 1849.

5. He created a national banking system in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency.

6.He loved animals and had horses, cats, dogs, and a turkey as pets. His beloved horse, Old Bob, was part of his funeral procession.

7. He was the first president assassinated.

Although President Lincoln suffered from deep depression, usually called melancholia at that time, he often invented jokes and funny sayings for family and friends. I'll leave off with several of my favorites.

1. If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?

2. Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

3. Whatever you are, be a good one.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President. And thanks for everything.

~Tanya Hanson

http://www.tanyahanson.com/

Sioux Courtship and Wedding Ceramony

2011-02-10T13:54:00.002-05:00

In the old days, marriages were usually arranged by the parents in the Sioux society. The formal request for a bride was made by presenting gifts (the bride price - usually food, blankets, and fine clothing, and later horses) to the bride's parents, who made the decision to accept or reject the marriage proposal for the girl.

Most marriages were arranged this way, although there may have been a few romantic marriages instigated by the young people.
In Sioux culture it was usually the fathers who negotiated the marriage, looking for like minded political alliances, or a social tie that would strengthen the stature of the bride's family in the community, or an accomplished hunter or warrior who would be an asset in providing for and protecting the whole extended family.

While Sioux fathers took the lead and had the final say in such matters, mothers did the steering, and heavily influenced the stance taken by the fathers. Often the father would consider the wishes of a favored daughter, but this wasn't always the case.

If gifts were accepted and the father approved, the girl would have no say in the matter, even if she was opposed to the marriage.

Sioux girls were taught that chastity before marriage was such a virtue, that even an implied loss of it would prevent them from being worthy of praying to the Great Spirit. This was so ingrained into their culture and belief system that they would not even look directly at a member of the opposite sex that was not a family member, and they were given few opportunities to be alone with potential suitors. A good Sioux daughter would never let herself get into such a predicament.

Sioux girls usually married shortly after having their puberty rites, which were held when they reached menses, but males were expected to participate in at least one or more successful war parties or horse raids to prove their valor and courage before they were considered worthy of a wife, so the average Sioux groom was usually quite a bit older, sometimes by as much as 20 years or more.

Older women might also be acquired as wives when a spouse was killed. The brother of the deceased was expected to marry his brother's widow. Occasionally, a divorced person would remarry, but this was rare because it wasn't socially acceptable. Divorce was accepted, but divorced people were expected to remain single for the rest of their lives. Those who did remarry were often ostracized from their band.

Because there were more women than men due to casualties of war and hunting accidents, most Sioux men had two or more wives. Often a man married sisters. This family tie helped to keep bickering and jealousy among the wives to a minimum. A man could have as many wives as he could afford to care for, and more wives meant less work for the women.

www.lorettacrogersbooks.com
BANNON'S BRIDES~now available

The History of Writing Utensils

2011-02-04T05:00:00.002-05:00

I'm in the process of writing a time travel set in the old West in 1891. My heroine writes an article for the newspaper and goes in search of writing materials. So, it became necessary for me to conduct a little research on the topic.

When I started school in the early 1950s, our desk still had ink wells and the pens we used were refillable by using a plunger type device. It could sometimes be a messy process and we often had ink smudged fingers and papers. In high school we graduated to the ink cartridges you dropped into the pen and then ball point pens.

For my research, I knew my heroine would be using either a quill pen, which had it's own hollow channel, or possibly an early fountain pen. Steel nips for pens became common in the 1830s and soon replaced the quill pen. The oldest known fountain pen that has survived was developed by a Frenchman in 1702. The first self-filling fountain pen was developed by John Jacob Parker in 1831 but early pens were plagued with problems--ink spills and problems that made them impractical for use.

Louis Waterman is credited with developing the first practical fountain pen. He added an air hole in the steel hip and three groves inside the feed mechanism. This allowed the ink to flow more smoothly.

The most competitive part of the fountain pen industry was the method the pen used to fill the ink reservoir. Earlier pens used an eyedropper. Next came the flexible rubber sac that you squeezed the air out of allowing it to draw in the ink. A variety of other methods were designed with the lever filler by Walter Sheaffer being the design used most into the 1940s.

The lever type pen is the one I first remember using. Then in 1950 the cartridges were developed though I don't believe they were readable available for a few years.

Though ballpoint pens actually date back to the late 19th Century, they weren't exploited commercially. The first commercial ball point pens were made by Josef Lazio in 1943 in Britain and sales skyrocketed during WWII. They were more durable and could survive battlefield environments. They weren't introduced to the US market until 1945.

References:
http://www.ringpen.com/history.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwaterman.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100897.htm

I decided in my story the heroine wouldn't have access to a fountain pen so, she starts out with a quill pen. After a messy start she gives up and picks up a lead pencil. This story is a follow up story to A Law of Her Own.

Thanks for Reading and Writing!

Linda
http://www.lindalaroque.com/
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

Eloping in Regency England

2011-02-02T05:01:00.002-05:00

The scene is a common one in Regency romance: the young lovers, denied permission to marry, flee to Scotland to take their vows. Most of the action derives from the pursuit by the outraged parents to prevent the marriage.

I don't know how many of these stories I read before I asked why did they go all the way to Scotland? Scotland is about 320 miles from London. Even on the Great North Road, the main thoroughfare from London to Edinburgh, the trip, at the average carriage pace of about 5-7 miles an hour (we’ll assume 7), twelve hours a day, would take about four days. And we’re not including stops to change the horses, eat, or other personal necessities. Why not run to the next town, find the nearest clergyman, and tie the knot there?

The answer lies in the Marriage Act of 1753, also called the Hardwicke Act. This law invalidated marriages if either or both of the parties involved were under twenty-one and did not have the consent of the parents or guardians.

The law’s purpose was to prevent scoundrels from eloping with heiresses for their money. Did it work? To some extent. But it also created a flourishing trade in quick Scottish marriages because the Hardwicke Act was law only in England and Wales.

People over twenty-one also eloped. The Hardwicke Act required the calling of the banns for three successive weeks before a marriage could take place, as well as a formal ceremony in a church. Alternatively, one could purchase a special license from the Archbishop of Canterbury in London, which allowed a marriage to take place at any time, in any place.

But a trip to Scotland was quicker than waiting three weeks, and cheaper than the special license, which cost five pounds sterling in 1811. Since a laborer at the time earned about 15-20 pounds a year, five pounds was an enormous sum for many. And the prospective couple would have to wait an unspecified time to receive their special license, if they went that route.

The destination of choice for many eloping couples was Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway, the most famous of the Scottish towns for irregular marriages.

But Gretna Green was not the only Scottish town that trafficked in quick marriages. Other Scottish border villages that had a flourishing trade in quick marriages were Coldstream Bridge, Lamberton, Mordington and Paxton Toll.

The Regency Season

2011-01-18T01:29:00.001-05:00

The Season

If you were a young lady during England’s Regency period (1811-1820) you looked forward to your release from the schoolroom and presentation to Society and the Season the way young women today look forward to their High School prom. But the Season was more, so much more, that a single fabulous night. It was a series of parties, soirees and dinners.

For a young lady of seventeen or eighteen, the first excitement came when her wardrobe was refurbished and expanded to include all of the ball gowns, riding habits, walking dresses, day dresses and most importantly, a court dress. If all went well during the Season, the elaborate court dress as shown in this illustration from 1810 may eventually be remade into her wedding dress.

The ladies also were finally allowed to wear their hair up and could accompany their parents to dinner parties and balls. Girls were tutored to amuse their neighbors at the table and were always accompanied by their family or chaperones. At dances, they were not permitted to drift away from their chaperone and men had to go to the chaperone to obtain a dance partner and return the young lady to her chaperone when the dance concluded. No walking out to the gardens alone with a man!

The Season started after Christmas when men returned to London to attend Parliament. While this meant some families went early in January or February, most did not travel to London until after the Easter holidays. That’s when the Season really started, and it generally lasted for the next three months.

If you were a young lady, your first order of business would be presentation at Court. You would be fitted for a gown with hoops and a long train, and then drilled on performing a deep curtsey and walking backwards in your gown without tripping and falling over your skirts and train. Presentation was actually a very brief ceremony. Dressed in her white court gown, the young lady would have her name announced by the Lord Chamberlain. She’d walk forward toward the seated monarch and curtsey. Then she would curtsey to any other royals present and back out, hopefully without tripping. Under no circumstances could she turn her back on the monarch.

Once presented at court, the young lady could begin the exciting whirl of events including galas, concerts, private balls and dances. Dinner parties were often held on Wednesday or Saturday since there were no evening sessions of Parliament on those days. As you may guess, one of the main purposes of the Season was to introduce eligible girls to men, who were concentrated in London due to Parliament. So many of the entertainments were scheduled very late in the day. They had to wait until the men “got off work”.

The Season was definitely a highlight in a woman's life--the doorway to love. While the ladies in my Regencies, I Bid One American and The Bricklayer's Helper, may not be the belles of the ball, they take part in the festivities and it forever changes their lives.

Amy Corwin
http://www.amycorwin.com/

Good Bye, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

2011-01-09T22:23:00.008-05:00

Born Leonard Slye, November 5, 1911, he became an icon to boys and girls, men and women known as Roy Rogers.

Dusty Rogers, son of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans announced that the Roy Rogers Museum has closed its doors forever. Here is a partial listing of some of the items that were sold at auction.

Roy 's 1964 Bonneville sold for $254,500, it was estimated to sell between 100 and 150 thousand dollars.

His script book from the January 14,1953 episode of This Is Your Life sold for $10,000 (est. $800-$1,000)
A collection of signed baseballs (Pete Rose, Duke Snyder and other greats) sold for $3,750
A collection of signed bats (Yogi Berra, Enos Slaughter, Bob Feller, and others) sold for $2,750.
Trigger's saddle and bridle sold for $386,500 (est. 100-150 K)
One of many of Roy 's shirts sold for $16,250 and one of his many cowboy hats sold for $17,500.

One set of boot spurs sold for $10,625. (He never used a set of spurs on Trigger.)
A life size shooting gallery sold for $27,500.
Various chandeliers sold from $6,875 to $20,000. They are unique and artistic in their western style.
A signed photograph by Don Larsen taken during his perfect game in the world series against the Dodgers on Oct. 8, 1953, along with a signed baseball to Roy from Don, sold for $2,500
Two fabulous limited edition BB guns in their original boxes with numerous photos of Roy, Dale, Gabby, and Pat sold for $3,750.
A collection of memorabilia from his shows entertaining the troops in Vietnam sold for $938. I never knew he was there. His flight jacket sold for $7,500.

His set of dinner ware plates and silverware sold for $11,875.

The Bible they used at the dinner table every night sold for $8,750.
One of several of his guitars sold for $27,500.
Nellybelle sold for $116,500.
A fabulous painting of Roy , Dale, Pat, Buttermilk, Trigger, and Bullet sold for $10,625.
One of several sets of movie posters sold for $18,750.
A black and white photograph of Gene Autry with a touching inscription from Gene to Roy sold for $17,500.
A Republic Productions Poster bearing many autographs of the people that played in Roy 's movies sold for $11,875.
Dale's horse, Buttermilk (whose history is very interesting) sold below the presale estimate for $25,000. (est. 30-40 K)

Bullet sold for $35,000 (est. 10-15 K). He was their real pet.
Dale's parade saddle, estimated to sell between 20-30 K, sold for $104,500.
One of many pairs of Roy 's boots sold for $21,250.
Trigger sold for $266,500.

Do you remember the 1938 movie The Adventures of Robinhood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland? Well Olivia rode Trigger in that movie.

Trigger was bred on a farm co-owned by Bing Crosby. Roy bought Trigger on a time payment plan for $2,500. Roy and Trigger made 188 movies together. Trigger even out did Bob Hope by winning an Oscar in the movie Son of Paleface in 1953.

It is extremely sad to see this era lost forever. Despite the fact that Gene and Roy 's movies, as well as those of other great characters, can be bought or rented for viewing, today's kids would rather spend their time playing video games. Today it takes a very special pair of parents to raise their kids with the right values and morals. These were the great heroes of our childhood, and they did teach us right from wrong, and how to have and show respect for each other and the animals that share this earth. You and I were born at the right time. We were able to grow up with these great people even if we never met them. In their own way they taught us patriotism and honor, we learned that lying and cheating were bad, and sex wasn't as important as love. We learned how to suffer through disappointment and failure and work through it. Our lives were drug free.

So it's good-bye to Roy and Dale, Gene and Hoppy, The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Farewell to Sky King and Superman and Sgt. Friday. Thanks to Capt. Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers and Capt. Noah and all those people whose lives touched ours, and made them better.

It was a great ride through childhood.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS, MY FRIENDS!
A time in history, never to be seen again

www.lorettacrogersbooks.com

Regency Astronomer Caroline Herschel

2011-01-02T05:01:00.001-05:00

Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) was a German/British astronomer and the sister of Sir William Herschel, telescope maker and discoverer of Uranus.

She was born in Hanover, Germany, the principality George I ruled before Parliament declared him king of England. One of six children, she contracted typhus when she was ten. The disease stunted her growth and she never grew taller than four foot three. Her father, although he encouraged all his children to improve themselves, advised her she would never marry. She became her parents' unpaid house servant until her father died and her older brother, William, invited her to live with him in England.

George II had united the crowns of England and Hanover, so Caroline and William were also English citizens. William had emigrated to Britain to pursue a musical career, but his astronomy hobby soon overshadowed his interest in music. He built many large and powerful telescopes and his fame grew. In 1782 he became King's Astronomer. George III awarded him a pension and William quit his job as chorus director to spend all his time on astronomy.

At first, William employed Caroline as an unpaid housekeeper, but soon he trained her in mathematics and used her as an assistant in his telescope-making. Eventually, Caroline became his apprentice in astronomy. In 1787 George III granted her an annual salary of 50 pounds per year for her work as William's assistant.

Comet hunting was a popular pastime in the late eighteenth century and Caroline spent her evenings observing the sky through her brother’s telescopes. Between 1786 and 1797, she discovered eight comets. One was a co-discovery, and one, comet Encke, a rediscovery. Six of them bear her name. A list of her comets are here. She also made an independent discovery of M110 (NGC 205), the second companion of the Andromeda galaxy.

Besides discovering comets, she reorganized the data and corrected the discrepancies in the difficult-to-use, two-volume star catalog of John Flamsteed (1646-1719), the first Astronomer Royal, and also added new observations. The Royal Society published this Catalogue of Stars in 1798.

She and William continued their astronomical observations until his death in 1822. She then returned to Hanover to live with her brother, Dietrich, and cataloged all her and William's work.

This publication earned her honorary membership in the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1828, the Royal Astronomical Society awarded her their Gold Medal, which no other woman would receive until 1996. Prussia also honored her achievements with the Gold Medal for Science in 1846. She died at the age of 98, one of the world's eminent astronomers.

I named Caroline, the astronomer-heroine of Lady of the Stars, my Regency time travel, for Caroline Herschel.

Thank you all,
Linda
Linda Banche
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!
http://www.lindabanche.com

A Regency Holiday Season

2010-12-18T01:33:00.001-05:00

As we near the heart of the holiday season, I thought it might be fun to look ever so briefly at what the holidays might have been like in Regency England.

A Regency Christmas
During the fortnight before Christmas, the Waits—sweet, low music is performed in the streets during the middle of the night—are played by itinerant musicians. The music is played so softly that if you should awaken, it soothes you back to sleep. After Christmas, they receive a small payment for their efforts from the houses included in their rounds. The Bell-man, one of the officers of the parish police, also walk the streets at night, ringing a bell and chanting verses. He too receives a small payment for his efforts and will leave a copy of his verses at houses along his path.

All the houses, both inside and out, are decorated with branches of evergreens, including laurel, bay, ilex and holly. The greenery is stuck in windows, over the mantles, and wreaths are hung on the walls. In the servants’ hall, a large bunch of mistletoe is suspended from the ceiling and of course any maiden underneath is kissed if caught by a male member of the household.

Many junior and collateral branches of families will visit the houses of the head of the family, as well as close friends, and dinner on Christmas day commences at an earlier hour to allow more time for celebrating. For Christmas dinner, an enormous piece of roasted beef is often served for the first course and an enormous plum-pudding for the last, as well as mince pies. The ladies are allowed to remain longer at the table and the gentlemen join them sooner in the drawing room.

In the drawing room, everyone, including children, gather to celebrate. They play cards, sing, dance, and the children play games including forfeits, blind-man’s bluff and others.

Christmas in Whitby

During the fortnight before New Year, women stroll from door to door carrying circular baskets containing a wax doll image of Christ, sprigs of boxwood, and apples or oranges. The baskets are called vessel cups. The women stand by the doors and sing hymns and if they are sent away empty-handed, those living in the home will forfeit all luck for the coming year.

Christmas Eve is celebrated with a family supper featuring frumenty, apple pie, cheese and gingerbread. The frumenty is made of steeped wheat, boiled with milk and seasoned with sugar and spice. When supper begins a Yule clog, a short block of wood, is laid on the fire. Sometimes a piece of the Yule clog is saved and placed beneath the bed until the next Christmas, when it is burned with the new clog. This was supposed to protect the house from fire during the coming year. A tall Yule candle is also lit and set on the table. It is considered unlucky to light these before Christmas Eve, snuff them out during supper, or leave the table during supper.

After supper, a game of card is played and it’s unlucky to have an odd number at the table.

Many feast on roast beef, plum pudding and goose pie between Christmas and New Year’s day. Visitors are usually treated with cheese and gingerbread along with a glass of wine or spirits. Yule cake, a spiced cake, is often served instead of gingerbread.

The frumenty supper is repeated on New Year’s Eve.

While boys in the morning are out and about, it is considered unlucky for a woman to enter the house first on either Christmas or New Year’s day, so women usually stay inside until later in the day. On both days, it is also unlucky to give a light out of the house, throw out ashes, or sweep out dust.

St. Stephen’s Day, Dec 26, is considered a great hunting day, and the game laws are relaxed on that day. Many gentlemen and ladies who indulged in the sport hunted that day.

Childermas Day, Dec 28, is thought to be an unlucky day and any day of the week on which it falls is considered a “black day” for the rest of the year to come!

Hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse in the past!

Best luck for the holiday season and the year ahead!
Amy Corwin
http://www.amycorwin.com

2010-12-05T00:01:00.003-05:00

Spirit of the Mountain my August release and the first book of a trilogy about siblings who were made spirits by the Creator. While I made up the spirit world and their shape shifting and powers, the day to day living of the Nez Perce I tried to keep as factual as the information I could find.

At the time of my story the Nez Perce were nomadic, living off the land and its bounties. They had horses, but had yet to be introduced to cattle. Salmon, eel, and steelhead, were commodities of their region starting in May and early June and ran through the summer. They traveled first to the lower streams and worked their way to the high tributaries. The fish were caught, some eaten fresh others smoked and either stored for later use or used for trade. There was much rejoicing and ceremonies when the harvest was successful.

Kouse and other early roots were gathered during the spring while they were still along the lower streams fishing. They would meet at meadows in the high country once the snow had melted and gather roots. The women used sticks to dig the roots form the ground. They gave thanks to the Creator for growing the food that help sustain them through the winter months.

During the warm months they harvested wild plants, berries, pine nuts, and sunflower seeds. In the meadows they also gathered wild onion, carrots, and other plants. On the Forested mountainsides, they picked hawthorn, serviceberries, chokecherries, blackberries, and huckleberries.

Their diet also consisted of game animals and birds. They preserved what could not be eaten at once and had caches where they stored the preserved food until it was needed. So while they led a different life than the White man was used to, in reality they were not that much different in their methods of staying well fed.

Blurb for Spirit of the Mountain
Wren, the daughter of a Nimiipuu chief, has been fated to save her people ever since her vision quest. When a warrior from the enemy Blackleg tribe asks for her hand in marriage to bring peace between the tribes, her world is torn apart.

Himiin is the spirit of the mountain, custodian to all creatures including the Nimiipuu. As a white wolf he listens to Wren’s secret fears and loses his heart to the mortal maiden. Respecting her people’s beliefs, he cannot prevent her leaving the mountain with the Blackleg warrior.

When an evil spirit threatens Wren’s life, Himiin must leave the mountain to save her. But to leave the mountain means he’ll turn to smoke…

Excerpt
Wren’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “My gift is to save The People. The weyekin who came to me in my vision quest said this.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if staving off a cold breeze.
Himiin hated that they argued when they should relish their time together. He moved to her, drawing her against his chest, embracing her. The shape of her body molded to his. Her curves pressed against him. Holding her this way flamed the need he’d tried to suppress.
He placed a hand under her chin, raising her face to his. The sorrow in her eyes tugged at his conscience. To make her leaving any harder was wrong. But having experienced her in his arms, he was grieved to let her go. Even for the sake of their people.
Her eyelids fluttered closed. Her pulse quickened under his fingers. Shrugging off the consequences, he lowered his lips to hers. They were softer than he imagined. Her breath hitched as he touched her intimately. Parting his lips, he touched her with his tongue, wanting to see if she tasted as sweet as she smelled.
Honey.

This month if you go to my blog and leave the title of one of my books in the comments, I'll donate a toy to foster children for every ten people who leave a title and will draw a winner from every ten to receive a holiday goodie packet.

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Writing a sequel

2010-12-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

My short time travel set in 1888 Prairie, Texas, A Law of Her Own, received good reviews and I had such fun writing the story I’ve decided to write a sequel. The title is Seeker of Truth. I’m not crazy about the title so if you have any ideas, please send them to me.

Here is a working blurb.

An investigative reporter, Dessa Wade is on assignment in Fredericksburg, Texas. In her effort to discover what happened to a young lawyer gone missing in 2008, Dessa is thrown back to 1889 into the arms of a Texas lawman determined she’s an outlaw.

In 1889 Prairie, Texas, Marshall Cole Jeffers is tracking the Colter Gang and plans to bring the bank robbers to justice. Just as he has them in his clutches, a young woman lands in his lap and makes him rethink what he’s always know to be possible.

Truth and trust will collide before Dessa can convince Cole of her innocence and both can achieve their goal.

If you have any advice for writing sequels, please leave me a comment.

Thanks and Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda

Mistletoe

2010-12-02T05:01:00.006-05:00

A Regency Christmas story wouldn't be complete without the hero and heroine celebrating their love with a kiss under the mistletoe. Long a symbol of fertility, mistletoe, with its glossy green leaves and white berries, has become a Christmas symbol of love and marriage.

Mistletoe is an evergreen, a spot of life in the brown, dormant landscape of a northern winter. At this low point of the year, Regency people decorated their houses with mistletoe, along with other seasonal greens such as Christmas rose (Hellebore), evergreen boughs, holly, ivy, hawthorn, laurel, rosemary, and bay, as a reminder that spring would return.

In England, mistletoe, which is a parasite, grows most often on apple trees, but also on blackthorn, hawthorn, lime, poplar, rowan and willow. Although its range extends from Devon to Yorkshire, the plant grows mainly to the south and west, and is particularly abundant around London.

Some of the myths surrounding mistletoe originated with the Druids, who deemed the plant a sexual symbol--the juice from the white berries resembles semen--and, by extension, an aphrodisiac. As part of their winter solstice ceremonies, they cut mistletoe from oak trees, providing a link to the later holiday of Christmas.

The origin of kissing under the mistletoe may derive from the Norse legend of the death of the sun god, Balder, killed by a sprig of mistletoe hurled by his enemy Loki. When Balder's mother, Frigga, the goddess of love, cried over her son, her tears resurrected him. In gratitude, she kissed everyone who came under the mistletoe.

A lesser known legend declares mistletoe the plant of peace. Enemies meeting under the mistletoe had to embrace and declare a truce until the next day. This goodwill and embrace may also be the source of the kiss under the mistletoe.

Regency people used mistletoe in the form of a kissing bough--a simple arrangement of mistletoe decorated with ribbons and hung over a doorway or entrance. The gentleman would kiss his lady and then pluck a white berry and present it to her, perhaps as a symbol of the child he could give her. When all the berries were gone, that sprig of mistletoe could no longer be used to steal kisses, although many people disregarded the berries' absence.

My Regency Christmas novella, Mistletoe Everywhere, incorporates the myth of enemies, in this case, the estranged hero and heroine, declaring a truce under the mistletoe. Short blurb: A man who sees mistletoe everywhere is mad--or in love. Buy link here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Thank you all,
Linda
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!
http://www.lindabanche.com

Announcement of the Roses Christmas Blog Tour!

2010-11-29T11:16:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to pop in quickly to let you know about the Roses Christmas Blog Tour that I am a part of along with another nine Wild Rose authors. The tour started on Wednesday 24th November and runs through to December 22nd.

The Roses involved write everything from historical through to contemporary, Suspense through to Paranormal so there is something for everyone. Each week we are hosting each other on a set theme.

Click here to find out when and where we are appearing as well as what is on offer as prizes before Christmas. We would love to hear from you!

Happy Reading! See you there!

Rachel x

www.rachelbrimble.com

Harvest Time

2010-11-18T05:28:00.002-05:00

Regency Harvest Traditions

While the Americans were celebrating the harvest during November in a tradition that would later evolve into Thanksgiving, our British cousins had even older harvest celebrations.

Harvest celebrations have been held since the dawn of man and in England have traditional been held during the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox—the harvest moon.

Traditions dating back to the 16th century indicated the harvest celebration was often started by reapers accompanying a cart laden with the final harvest. The extravagantly dressed leader shouted “Hooky, Hooky” and acted as the lord of the harvest while asking for money from the crowd. In addition, a special, seed cake was often distributed to celebrating farmworkers.

Most farmworkers celebrated the end of the harvest with a big meal called the harvest supper. Cutting the last patch of corn or wheat in a field indicated the beginning of the feast. It was considered bad luck to be the person to cut the last stand of corn (“corn” was considered any grain, including wheat) so there was often a race against other harvesters on other farms to be the first to complete the harvest.

This idea of bad luck in cutting down the last stand of corn may have originated in the belief that a corn (grain) spirit hid in the last stand of grain to be harvested. To remain safe, harvesters wove some blades of the grain into a “corn dolly” to keep safe for luck until seeds were sown in the following ear. (A picture of a traditional corn dolly is shown on the right.) Then they plowed the ears of grain back into the soil to bless the new crop.

In Cornwall, the festival was further developed by “crying the neck” when the last sheaf of grain was cut. The reaper would cut the last handful, lift the bunch above his head and cry three times, “We have it!”

In response, the rest would shout three times, “What ‘ave ‘ee?” to which the reaper would reply three times, “A neck!” Finally, they would yell “Hurrah! Hurrah for the neck!” while calling the farmer by name.

This is obviously just a brief taste of some of the lovely traditions of our cousins “across the pond.” I find these small peeks into history and tradition irresistible. And while the lords and ladies so common in our historical novels were not directly involved in the harvest, they certainly would have had their own suppers and parties to celebrate the bounty of the season. These glimpses into the history behind our current traditions are very much part of why I love to research and write historical like “The Bricklayer’s Helper.” Our traditions and history illuminate not only how we are different, but how we are also the same.

Enjoy the autumn season and your very own harvest celebration!
Amy Corwin
http://www.amycorwin.com/

Breaking the Rules

2010-11-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I encountered a dilemma that I'm sure many writers have faced at one time or another; having written he "book of my heart" how much are you willing to change it for a sale. As the 'Queen of Adverbial Excess" I am used to removing said adverbs and revising tenses and certainly I have become adept at spiffing up point of view. Yet therein lies my dilemma-- How many points of view are acceptable in a romance novel?

Like many of us who began writing romance in the eighties, I scrutinized the tip sheets handed out at conferences to see what each publisher required in their books. That is where I learned about the type of heroes and heroines that were acceptable, that sex was okay but not rape or anything kinky (Boy, has that changed), and of course, there has to be a happy ending. The last hint was to write something new, different and that catches the imagination of the reader with sparkling prose.

So I wrote. I wrote the book of my heart, set in my favorite part of Arizona, which my husband and I toured from beginning to end, gathering background. locations and esoteric information, all of which I worked into the fabric of Kate and Jake's story. I even convinced my husband, who had never been on a horse, to take a trailride through the Kaibab Forest! Anything for authenticity, right?

However, along with writing my lovely story, I proceeded to break several industry imposed rules. First of all, I used more than two points of view. I knew it was wrong, but...well, the dog had a lot of good observations, so why shouldn't he have a POV? So did Kate's younger brother, Toby. Most important, so did the three Bad Guys chasing our heroine for some nefarious purpose.

I sent my baby out multiple times but heard only that "this would be perfect for our **** line, but we just closed it", or "Well-written but not right for our line," and more of the usual rejection letter verbiage. Not until my most recent submission did I find out that I can't have more than two POVs. Ouch! What about my BAD GUYS?

Converting the dog's and Toby's point of view to either Kate or Jake was easy. Even making sure that Kate and Jake's viewpoint was accurate was not too bad. But, there was absolutely no way to fix the chapters that are in the point of view of the villians, unless I had Kate or Jake sneak up to spy on them. Hum, maybe that would work... but I think I'd rather break the rules.

PS- Sorry I missed last month but it was the eighth anniversary of my daughter's death and I just wasn't up to it. Sometimes life intrudes, doesn't it?

Bad Guy with a Good Heart....Christmas for Ransom by Tanya Hanson

2010-11-12T00:19:00.000-05:00

I didn’t date any bad guys in high school. Matter of fact, I didn’t date much at all, being a dork. (Although in a major coup, after college I married The Football Team Captain/Boyfriend of the Homecoming Queen and it’s lasted for 36 years.)

And I wasn’t attracted to hippies or bikers or Point Break surf dudes or anything like that. But I found myself more than interested in the outlaws of the Old West. I don’t know why. Maybe because many of them had been scarred by the horrors of the Civil War, parental abuse and deaths, or abandonment. Mental illnesses, which were scandalous and largely untreated at the time, likely played a part. And the dichotomy of the brutal James’ brothers dedication to their mom Zerelda and love for their wives let me think somewhere in the evil there maybe had been a spark of untapped good.

So when I was asked to contribute to the Lawmen and Outlaws Christmas Anthology from The Wild Rose Press (out this week), I decided to invent a hero who was an outlaw. My first time writing about a baddie. But I knew I personally couldn’t fall in love with a totally wicked guy, so I gave him some sparks of untapped good. Jack Ransom was raised by his beloved gram-maw and upon her death when he was 13, he promised her he’d live a righteous life and learn to read.

Abandoned and alone, though, he found “family” in a gang of other young hopeless, homeless lads, the notorious Ahab Perkins Gang that rides roughshod through the West in many of my stories and wips, stealing horseflesh. The story takes place in the 1880’s in a nebulous portion of Panhandle Texas with pretend places of such names as Cahoots, Frying Pan, Sweetcream and Pleasure Ridge.

Thieving the rich Stony Brook Ranch of its prize Morgans on a Thanksgiving night way back when stalls Jack in his tracks. The old lady owning them reminds him too much of his own gram-maw and his semi-evil heart starts to thaw.

Things really heat up when, unbeknownst, he hires her schoolmarm granddaughter to teach him to read…and she agrees. Only if he tracks the whereabouts of her granny’a missing horseflesh. And by now, Ahab Perkins is in hot pursuit of his runaway buddy.

Sigh. There is a shoot out, a blizzard, and a really bad guy on the way to the HEA.

I hope you’ll give Christmas for Ransom a whirl. It will releas tomorrow from The Wild Rose Press and will be available soon be on Amazon for those Kindles out there.

(Excerpt from Chapter Two)

Pinching herself, Eliza lost interest in everything except seeing what the stranger looked like in the lantern light. Brawny stalwart men were nothing new in a railroad town or on the ranch, but she never minded a good view.

Her breath caught so hard her sore rib tweaked. He was magnificent. The big-brimmed hat and flowing duster reckoned him a wrangler of some sort coming in from the range. Although he needed a bath and truly looked the worse for wear, she didn’t mind one single bit. The scruffy cheeks, the long rag-taggle coat, even the scent of masculine sweat were far more her style than the slick-haired dandies and overdressed fops she’d met at Boston cotillions.

“This here’s Ransom,” Ben said helpfully.

As the stranger moved closer, he removed his hat and tucked it under his arm with a polite half-nod. For a long luscious moment, eyes the color of manly liquor covered her with a mouth-watering gaze. Golden-brown hair touched the mountains of his shoulders like sunlight at dawn across the Guadalupe Mountains.

Air left her lungs. A slow burn started at the top of her spine, her flesh desperate for the days’ worth of roughness adorning cheekbones carved like crags and valleys. She had to hold her hand still to keep her fingers from caressing the deep etches of his face.

Eliza couldn’t move as she stared up at him, aching and eager. Oh, she was no stranger to fine-looking cowpokes and no simpering virgin to boot. Twice, to spite Granny, she’d lain with a hearty, handsome ‘hand from Desolation, but found the first time dreadful. So dreadful truth to tell, she’d been persuaded to try again a month later after she hadn’t turned up with child. Again, not so good. So what had brought on this urgent longing for a man she didn’t know?

Not knowing what else to do, she held out her hand, organizing her trembling lips. “How do you do, Mr. Ransom.”

“No mister, ma’am. Ransom’ll do.”

“Here’s Miz Eliza,” Ben said. “Our schoolmarm.”

Eliza silently thanked Ben for letting Ransom know she was unattached. Married women didn’t teach school.

Slowly he removed his gloves and pocketed them, his gaze never leaving her face. In spite of the cold, heat rushed down from her head to weaken her knees. When their fingers met, her toes exploded. “Where are you from, Ransom?” she managed.

“Sweetcream,” he said without hesitation, his voice low, mysterious, barely hearable. She liked it.

“Why, I’ve got kin there. Luetta Lodge.”

He stiffened at her words, from the cold most likely, and put his hat back on. “Good night now, Miz Eliza.”

The way he said her name, slow, low…why, she’d not be able to sleep well tonight.

If at all.

Some of it might be jitters due to the school’s Christmas pageant, but more was the skittering up and down her spine brought on by his gaze wafting over her like a velvet hand. Her breasts tingled as she imagined his fingers caressing them.

He tipped his hat. From the outdoors look of him, he was likely a wrangler or a drover. Maybe a bounty hunter. No. The strong chin bespoke the law. She reckoned him a Marshal or a Ranger. Someday soon she’d know for sure.

“’Night, Ransom.”

Spies in Corsets

2010-11-09T18:04:00.000-05:00

My new release, Angel in My Arms, takes place in Richmond, Virginia during the last months of the Civil War. The central characters are female spies who funnel information, weapons, and Union prisoners through the city. They even visit the prison with baked goods as gifts. Steve Dunham, the Union officer enlisted to help them on their latest rescue mission is a Cavalry soldier who risks his neck even as he falls deeply in love with one of the spies, Amanda Emerson, while Rebel captain Will Reed is drawn despite his suspicions to another of the beautiful female spies, Kate Sinclair. Caught up in a web of treachery and deceit, Steve and Amanda find a love worth fighting for, while Will and Kate set the stage for their own romance.

Heading the spy ring is Betsy Kincaid, known throughout Richmond as Crazy Betsy. Crazy as a Fox Betsy is a shrew operator who knows how to use her nieces' talents to their best advantage. Crazy Betsy is loosely based on a historical character, Elizabeth Van Lew. Elizabeth socialized with Jefferson Davis' wife, Varina, all the while using her connections to funnel information to the Union. An eccentric matron, she used her unusual behavior as a cover for her spying.

Who can know how many female spies operated during the Civil War - a female spy could certainly romance secrets out of lonely soldiers, even in the top ranks.

I hope you'll check out Angel in My Arms. Please check out my website at www.victoriagrayromance.com to learn more about the book and other Civil War romance, Destiny. Both books are available in print and e-book from The Wild Rose Press.

Why do you Read Native American stories?

2010-11-05T13:23:00.006-04:00

My blogging day always sneaks up on me.

My current release Spirit of the Mountain is set among the Nez Perce tribe in NE Oregon. All the characters are Native American. When I first came up with this idea and plotted out the trilogy, I was actually trying to do what the editors were asking for- a historical paranormal. But when I shopped it around to agents, I was told no one buys Native American stories.(Except my publisher Wild Rose Press) Yet, when I'd tell people about this series they became excited.

So my blog is about a discussion- Why do you think the agents feel Native American books don't sell and why do you pick up a book about Native Americans and or not pick up one?

Blurb for Spirit of the Mountain
Wren, the daughter of a Nimiipuu chief, has been fated to save her people ever since her vision quest. When a warrior from the enemy Blackleg tribe asks for her hand in marriage to bring peace between the tribes, her world is torn apart.

Himiin is the spirit of the mountain, custodian to all creatures including the Nimiipuu. As a white wolf he listens to Wren’s secret fears and loses his heart to the mortal maiden. Respecting her people’s beliefs, he cannot prevent her leaving the mountain with the Blackleg warrior.

When an evil spirit threatens Wren’s life, Himiin must leave the mountain to save her. But to leave the mountain means he’ll turn to smoke…

Excerpt
Wren’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “My gift is to save The People. The weyekin who came to me in my vision quest said this.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if staving off a cold breeze.
Himiin hated that they argued when they should relish their time together. He moved to her, drawing her against his chest, embracing her. The shape of her body molded to his. Her curves pressed against him. Holding her this way flamed the need he’d tried to suppress.
He placed a hand under her chin, raising her face to his. The sorrow in her eyes tugged at his conscience. To make her leaving any harder was wrong. But having experienced her in his arms, he was grieved to let her go. Even for the sake of their people.
Her eyelids fluttered closed. Her pulse quickened under his fingers. Shrugging off the consequences, he lowered his lips to hers. They were softer than he imagined. Her breath hitched as he touched her intimately. Parting his lips, he touched her with his tongue, wanting to see if she tasted as sweet as she smelled.
Honey.
She tasted of sweet honey straight from the bosom of a bee tree.
One taste was not enough. He pulled her closer, moving his lips across hers, tasting and savoring the feel of them.
Her mouth opened and she sighed.
His body came to life. The sensations transcended anything he’d experienced before. How could one woman make him feel powerful and vulnerable at the same time? Why did he wish to crush her to him and never let go and yet feel compelled to treat her with the tenderness
one would give the tiniest of creatures? He couldn’t continue this way.
To hold her, to touch her soft skin. He would never be able to let her go.
He must.
He released Wren and stepped back, avoiding her eyes. How could he show her the sensations she brought to him then turn around and tell her they couldn’t see one another any more?
“Himiin? Did I do something wrong?” The pain in her voice drew his gaze to her face.
The anguish and fear in her eyes cut through him like a knife.
“You did nothing wrong. It is I. I should not touch you so. It is wrong.” He took one step forward, before remembering he could not touch her and remain sane. “You are spoken for. We should not be together.”

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Deadwood, South Dakota in the Black Hills

2010-11-04T01:02:00.001-04:00

The settlement of Deadwood, named for the dead trees found in the gulch, began in 1870. When General Custer's expedition discovered gold near today's town of Custer, people flocked into the Black Hills searching for gold and Deadwood quickly grew into a lawless town with a population of 5,000.

In this picture taken on our trip in October, you can still see dead trees on the hill. Curious about the reason they remained, I discovered that since 1970, woodland managers have enouraged leaving dead trees and woody debris to encourage organic forest regeneration.

In 1876 gamblers and prostitues folked into town contributing to its seedy reputation. In the pictures below are shots of Saloon Number 10 where Wild Bill was shot August 2, 1876 which led to the notoriety of Deadwood. He and Calamity Jane are buried in Mount Moriah Cemetary in Deadwood.

There are many old historic buildings, like the ones below, still in use today.

As a writer, I've always wanted a visual image of what hotels and saloons looked like in the back. Here is a photo of the rear entrances/exits of some old buildings. Can you see patrons sneaking down those stairs in hopes their activities will go unreported?

Deadwood lost its rough and rowdy character when the economy changed from gold rush to steady mining. A fire in 1879 destroyed 300 buildings and many citizens moved on to start over somewhere else. Another fire in 1959 came close to destroying Deadwood. In 1961, the town was declared a National Historic Landmark. The economy continued to decline due to the Interstate 90 bypass and in 1964 its brothels were closed down after a raid. In 1989, gambling was legalized in Deadwood and now aids in maintaining the historic area.

I love to play the slots. Below is a picture of the Celebrity Hotel where I spent an hour playing the slots while Larry toured the Car Museum. The hotel lobby doesn't look like what we're used to seeing in hotels--a fancy check-in counter and large seating area. In the hotel I entered, the check-in desk was there, but the lobby was filled with slot machines.

Deadwood is a quaint little town filled with historic places to explore and stories to unearth. If I'd been writing a story about the area, I'd have returned with a folder full of notes and pictures. But, I wasn't so we only spent half a day. I couldn't see driving all the way to South Dakota from Texas and not seeing the town that has made some books and movies so popular.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda

http://www.lindalaroque.com/

http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

MISTLETOE EVERYWHERE--Regency Christmas comedy, coming Nov. 3

2010-11-02T05:01:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know I'm a day early, but today is my day to blog, so here's the blurb, excerpt, and my contest for Mistletoe Everywhere, which The Wild Rose Press will release on November 3.

CONTEST: Leave your name and email in the Guest Book on my website, http://www.lindabanche.com, for a chance to win a PDF copy of Mistletoe Everywhere. Contest runs through December 15. Note, all of you who entered my Pumpkinnapper contest are already entered to win a second copy of Mistletoe Everywhere.

BLURB:
A man who sees mistletoe everywhere is mad--or in love.

Charles sees mistletoe. Not surprising, since he's spending Christmas at Mistletoe Manor. But why does no one else see it? And why does it always appear above Penelope, the despised lady who jilted him after their last meeting?

Penelope wants nothing to do with the faithless Charles, the man who cried off after she accepted his marriage proposal. But he still stirs her heart--and he stares at her all the time. Or rather, he stares at the empty ceiling over her head…What does he see?

According to folklore, mistletoe is the plant of peace. Can Penelope and Charles, so full of hurt and anger, heed the mistletoe's message and make peace?

EXCERPT:

After Charles had heaped his plate with more food than he wanted, he took one of the empty chairs at the table bottom, as far from Penelope as possible.

His tensed muscles eased as he joked with his friends. Smythe made a comment and Charles turned to answer. He caught sight of Penelope…and a monstrous bunch of mistletoe above her.

"Gordon? What is it?" Smythe swiveled in the direction Charles was staring. He looked up and down, and from one side to the other. "I say, with your mouth hanging open like that, you must see something spectacular, but damned if I know what it is."

With an audible click, Charles clamped his jaw shut. "I thought I saw…" He forced his gaze back to his companion. "Nothing. I imagined I saw mistletoe."

Smythe's eyebrows rose. "Mistletoe?"

"Yes. The house is named 'Mistletoe Manor', so the place is filled with mistletoe decorations. Pictures, wall hangings, ceiling trim, whatnot."

"Indeed." Smythe's eyebrows rose higher. "That 'mistletoe' you saw is over that Miss Lawrence. Lovely little filly." His lips curved into a knowing grin. "My jaw dropped the first time I saw her, too."

Charles stiffened. "I was not looking at Miss Lawrence. I believed I saw mistletoe over her."

"'Mistletoe'." Symthe's grin widened. "Of course."

Buy Link: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/mistletoe-everywhere-p-4295.html (Buy Button not active until November 3)

And I hope you will get what you want for Christmas, too!

Thank you all,
Linda
Linda Banche
Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!
http://www.lindabanche.com

The Knight in Shining Armor – An Archetype Hero for the Ages

2010-10-30T07:53:00.001-04:00

by Lisbeth Eng

There is something about “a man in uniform” that turns most women’s heads. Police officers, soldiers, sailors – we find them virile and appealing, at least that’s been my impression from a rather unscientific survey of female friends and relatives. As romance writers, we want our hero to be as attractive as possible, and we often costume him in a military uniform, the archetypal “Knight in Shining Armor.” I believe this is especially true in historical romance, since contemporary fiction is much more likely to reflect the mixed-gender armed forces and police units that exist in present day society.

I am an author of World War II fiction. Not only is it historical fiction, but the chances of finding a hero in uniform during that era are greater than in a peaceful period (if there have ever actually been any in the history of our planet). If you read the back cover blurb of In the Arms of the Enemy, you will find that I mention one woman and two men. No, this is not a ménage à trois. The woman, Isabella Ricci, is the heroine; either of the men, Italian Resistance commander Massimo Baricelli or German army officer Günter Schumann could be the hero. (You’ll have to read the book to find out which of the two it is.)

Men and women who served in World War II have been referred to as members of “The Greatest Generation” and we rightly honor those who served their country and fought against tyranny. My own father, for the most part a peaceful man, was proud of his service in World War II as part of the American Army’s presence in Asia. We continue to honor, even glorify, men and women in uniform as defenders of our freedom.

My World War II novel takes place in Europe, and the characters are almost exclusively Italians and Germans. The book opens in 1943 Italy, after Mussolini has been deposed, imprisoned and then rescued by German commandos. At that point, Hitler had Il Duce brought to Germany, and Mussolini agreed to set up a puppet Fascist state in northern Italy under German control. The Italian Resistance, originally composed of independent troops and eventually banded into larger brigades, fought against the Germans and their Fascist allies. As partisans or “irregular forces” (francs-tireurs) they were not protected by the rules of war in effect at that time, and were subject to immediate execution if captured.

Both potential heroes in my novel, the Italian partisan and the German officer, could be categorized as soldiers, though only one wears a uniform recognized under international treaties. Isabella Ricci, the heroine, can be viewed as a soldier, too. In fact, her commander refers to her as his “brave little warrior.” She is committed to the Resistance, but unlike other female partisans who took up arms against the enemy, some even commanding brigades, she uses her wiles to elicit military information from the Germans. The only uniform she wears is that of a domestic servant at German headquarters, where she secretly uncovers intelligence to use against the enemy.

At least three other 20^th century romances published by The Wild Rose Press (Vintage Rose line) feature heroes in uniform, and all take place either during, or just prior to World War II. American soldier Miles Coulson finds himself fighting for his life in Anzio, Italy in Christine Clemetson’s A Daughter’s Promise. The hero of Janet Fogg’s Soliloquy, set in World War II France, is wounded British pilot Arick Ambrose. Rickard Sankt wears a German SS uniform in Jennifer Childers’ Kindertransport, set in Germany on the eve of World War II. (If you’re wondering how a hero can wear an SS uniform, I suggest you read Ms. Childers’ wonderful book. You’ll be more than satisfied with the explanation!)

Throughout history, woman have worn uniforms and taken up arms in defense of their countries; it is not purely a modern phenomenon. Joan of Arc immediately comes to mind. But I have found in historical romance, it is most often the hero who wears the Shining Armor, as least figuratively.

BIO: An English major in college, Lisbeth Eng has also studied Italian, German and French. Lisbeth is a native New Yorker and has worked as a registered representative in the finance industry for the past 25 years. Her first novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, is available in e-book and paperback at The Wild Rose Press. Lisbeth invites you to visit her at www.lisbetheng.com.

TABOO TO SHOW A BIT OF LEG

2010-10-21T02:07:00.012-04:00

One of my favorite Regency novels is COTILLION by Georgette Heyer. The story features Kitty Charing who must choose her husband among her guardian’s great-nephews. She has her heart set on Jack, a reckless rake with a reputation. The rector, Hugh Rattray, offers for Kitty. So does poor Dolphinton, a simple-minded man brow-beaten by his mother. George Biddenden, who was not really invited, presents himself to push his brother, Claud’s, suit who is in the armed services. Kitty isn’t about to choose him. He chopped the head off one of her dolls when she was a child. Freddy Standen is on his way with no idea of what awaits him at his uncle’s house. I admit when I first read this book, my heart was set on Jack.

I’m not sure why I like this book so much. I’ve had to tape the pages together because they’re so tattered. For awhile, I thought I’d lost the last page, which is where the most satisfying ending may be found. Maybe, I like COTILLION because it’s humorous. The hero and heroine are not so much concerned with angst. Nor does it ponder the question: Does he love me? Will he notice my beautiful dress this evening? They’re more concerned with others. At least, Kitty is and she drags her reluctant fiancé along.

Tonight, I attended a meeting of my romance writers group where I learned a few facts I’d been totally unaware of for this time period.

For instance, did you know the erogenous zone for the Regency period was the feet and/ or ankles? To show even an inch of skin down below was totally risqué. Avant-garde women in France could have necklines below their breasts and totally expose such, but for a woman, rebel though she might be, to show a bit of ankle was…well...making a figure of herself.

Why was this? Margaret Mitchell, (and no, no one thought to quiz her about her name) Professor of Theater, University of Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX, the speaker for the evening, answered this by saying, “The ankle, the feet were the pathway to…There!” And women wore crotch less underwear, or no underwear at all. For all the hype about Sharon Stone’s line in that movie…don’t remember the name…”she” wasn’t the first woman to go without underwear.

In contrast, men tended to showcase their legs. They wore tight pantaloons. If their calves weren’t as shapely as the current fashion, they padded their calves and wore fake ones.

Another thing which stood out for me was something Beau Brummel advocated. You know him – he was the trendsetter during this time period, invited to every ton party, but always arrived late and left early? He liked dark colors – black, gray, dark brown – the classic business suit men wear today evolved from this. Beau also liked his face to be pale – this meant he didn’t do manual labor. So, to be in fashion, both men and women bleached their faces and hands. Ouch!

Some resources:

“Cutting for All!” – Kevin A. Seligman – bibliography of period clothing

“Patterns of Fashion – 1660-1860” – Janet Arnold – book used in the filming of Jane Austen’s “Emma” and “Pride and Prejudice”

“Corsets and Crinoline” – Norah Waugh – changing shape of women’s dress

“The Cut of Men’s Clothes” – Norah Waugh – traces the evolution of men’s dress

[The picture is of a cutaway coat with the diamond shape in back. The background shows a jewelry set, which included everything from matching buttons to bracelets, all handmade.]

What Did Sarah Eat?

2010-10-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

What’s For Dinner, Sarah?

A look at Regency Dining...

Although the heroine of my novel, The Bricklayer’s Helper, doesn’t get much of an opportunity for a real, sit-down supper, I thought it might be fun to take a look at what Sarah might eat when her adventures are over and she gets to have an evening meal.

One of the odd things I noted when I was researching the Regency period (first dozen years or so of the 19th Century) was the idea—often touted by physicians—that vegetables were difficult to digest. They frequently recommended against allowing folks to eat vegetables if they were ill or in demanding situations, such as soldiers. Really, meat and potatoes (or bread) were considered to be the best things for everyone, although it’s clear that the poor could not afford the amount of meat described in most middle and upper class menus from the period.

No wonder poaching was so popular! But there was also a great deal of fish, poultry and other game, which was a good thing or everyone would have had gout like King Henry VIII.

So let’s go through a supper designed for a cold evening in February.

First Course
• Soup Santé removed with Stewed Beef and Roots

• Veal Olives and sause restauret

• Lamb Chops and spinach

• Neck of Veal

• Scorch Collops

• Broiled Fowl and mushrooms

• Fish removed with a Chine of Mutton

Second Course

• Four Pigeons

• Salsifie, fried in batter

• Sea Kail

• Apple Pie with custard

• Eggs á la trip

• Macaroni

• Two Rabbits

A Few, Select Recipes off the Menu

You’ll note the often odd spelling—I wanted to give an authentic feel to the menu, so I left the spelling and terms “as is” from an 1810 cookbook. Despite that, I hope these give you a feel for cooking during the Regency period. Some of these recipes sound absolutely delicious despite the fact that I would probably have to double my cholesterol medicine if I ate like this.

But we tend to forget that everyone walked—a lot—and the average man working aboard a ship or in the fields needed a caloric intake of about 4,000 calories a day. Life was much more strenuous and folks didn’t eat three huge meals. In fact, if you were fortunate enough to partake of a supper like the one listed here, you generally ate only lightly during the day. So this was your big meal, followed generally by another walk or dancing.

There was no such thing as a couch potato in the 19th century!

So here are some of the recipes that made up the menu above.

Soup Santé

Shred turnips, carrots, small green onions, celery, and one Spanish onion when to be had. Cut in two or three cabbage lettuces, pick a handful of chervil, and a pint of asparagus peas. Put all into a soup-pot with half a pint of good stock. Put the soup-pot over the stove to boil slow until the stock is quite reduced. Then fill up the pot with good stock: give it a boil, and put a lump of sugar, and a little salt if wanted.

Scorch Collops

Cut the collops from the fillet of veal, flat them, and put them on a dish. Cut a few slices of fat bacon and put them into the frying pan to draw the fat from them, then pour the fat and bacon into a basin, put the collops into the pan and then on a quick stove. Fry them of a light brown; when brown on both sides, put them into a stew-pan that has sufficient quantity of coulis in it, make a few force meat balls and fry them in the fat that came from the bacon.

When done, put them on the back of a sieve to drain the fat from them, then put them to the collops, put a glass of sherry wine to them, and a little cayenne pepper.

Broiled Fowl and Mushrooms

Cut a large fowl into quarters, take out the leg bones, and tie it to a roasting spit. Baste well with butter and when half done, remove and finish it on the gridiron. Season with white pepper and salt. Put the mushrooms in a stew pan with a slice of ham, an ounce of butter, and salt & pepper. Simmer for ¼ of an hour, then put in a little flour, stir with a wooden spoon and put in a little stock and coulis. Put it on to boil for a few minutes, then squeeze half a lemon & add a little dust of sugar. Put the sauce on the dish and top with the fowl.

Roasted Pigeons

Scald parsley, squeeze, and chop fine. Mix with 2 ounces of butter, and a little salt & pepper. When mixed, put some in each pigeon, skewer them and tie onto a roasting spit. Baste with butter, flower and salt just before they are removed from the fire. Put parsley and butter on the dish and the pigeons afterwards.

Eggs á la trip

Boil a dozen eggs hard, and put them in cold water, peel them and take the yolks out quite whole. Shred the whites, put a little chopped parsley into some beshemell: put the whites of the eggs round the dish, and the yolks in the middle, pour the sauce over them, and garnish either with paste or croutons.

Croutons are bread cut out with a paste cutter or knife, and fried either in lard or clarified butter.

Sea Kail

Tie it up in bundles like asparagus, put toast on the dish, and then the sea kail; put a little melted butter over it.

Apple Pie, with Custard

Put a few cloves and a little cinnamon into a small stew-pan, put about a gill of water to the spice, and put it on the stove to simmer for a few minutes. Then strain it into a basin and put it to cool. Peel the apples, cut them into quarters, and cut the cores out. Place them in the dish, grate a lemon and put it with the apples, put sugar on them and put the water the spice was boiled in, put paste round the rim of the disk, cover it over, bake it, and put it to cool.

When cold, take the top off and put in the custard on the apples; but the top crust into neat pieces and put it round the apples.

I’m including a recipe for trifle, since what could be more English? And I do so love trifle…

Trifle

Lay the bottom of a trifle dish either with sponge biscuit or slices of savoy cake, lay a layer of macaroons and ratafias on the cake, pour a pint of Lisbon wine over the cakes, put on the early part of the day, so as it may have time to soak into the cakes. When the wine is all soaked up put a thin layer of raspberry jam, and on that put a thick custard.

The custard is made in the following manner:

Put a pint of milk and half a pint of cream in a stew-pan, a few bits of cinnamon, the peel of a lemon, and sugar enough to make it sweet. Put on to boil, let boil a few minutes, take it off and put it to cool. Put the yolks of six eggs in a basin, half a spoonful of flour and beat them well up, and put the milk boiled for the purpose to them, a little at a time. Strain it through a hair sieve into a clean stew-pan, put on the fire and keep stirring until it comes to a boil. Then take it off and put it to cool. When half cold, put a glass of brandy, with a few spoonful’s of ratafia, then cover the cakes with it, and upon the custard lay apricot jam; then put a pint of good cream into a basin, the white of one egg, about two ounces of sugar, first rubbed to a lemon, about two glasses of white wine, beat it up with a whisk and skim the froth off with a spoon that has holes in it. Lay the froth on the back of a sieve, which should be laid on a dish to save the drainings to return to the pan again for whipping. Lay the whipped cream on over the trifle, put a few harlequin seeds over it: garnish with preserved orange or lemon peel.

Macaroons

Blanch one pound of Jordan almonds, and pound them quite fine: instead of water to moisten while pounding, use the white of four eggs beat up, and put half a pound of sifted sugar to them. When done, take it out of the mortar and put them on a plate; spread a baking sheet with wafer-paper, and put about a teaspoonful in each drop; then put them in regular rows, and sift sugar over them before they are put in the oven. They do not require a quick oven. When done, take them out, and let them remain on the sheets until quite cold, then put them either in a covered glass or pan.

Ratafies

Make the same in all respects as macaroons, only use bitter almonds instead of sweet, and put the same weight of sugar as of almonds. They should be dropped on wafer-paper; put in two whites of eggs while pounding; put a teaspoonful in each drop; do not sift any sugar over them.

That's it! Hope you enjoyed a "taste" of the Regency!

Amy Corwin

http://www.amycorwin.com/

The Bricklayer's Helper, a Regency romantic mystery

He Tried to Paint It All

2010-10-13T12:40:00.000-04:00

Today in the Pacific Northwest is one of those inexplicable days when the weather seems totally out of sync with the rest of the world. After a long, cool and wet "Green Tomato Summer" when the rest of the nation was broiling, today we have brilliant sunshine and bright skies, with an expected temperature of 70 degrees.

Indirectly, weather like this always makes me think if an extraordinary man of the 19th Century, a small man of great stature in my mind, J.M.W.Turner. I think of the strange,baffling weather experienced by Northern Europe and North America in the year 1816 which we now know was caused by the giant volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora in the Indonesian area. Although the average temperature lowered only 3 degrees, this was enough to create massive problems. Crops failed, snow fell in July, and even Niagara Falls froze over. And the skies around the world exhibited glorious sunsets. Nobody knew then what had caused the sudden changes, and they didn't seem to make any connection between the unusual skies and the weather changes.

While other people worried about more mundane and immediate problems. one man in particular saw the magnificent glory in the skies and set about to capture it all. Turner was already a promising artist in 1816, but he had not yet reached the peak of his fame. Like most artists of his day, he was concerned with recording the visual details of life and nature, for there really was no other way to pass them on but through art. And like most painters, he strove for exacting detail. He learned the techniques of the great masters. He hung his paintings in galleries, eagerly hoping for the adoration of the masses.

But the sunsets over Europe that year began a change in him that would send his career into new directions. He became enamored with the magnificent colors and patterns in the skies, and perhaps afraid they would not continue forever, he rushed to paint the sunsets all over Europe. He probably had ADHD, for he was an excitable, fast-paced, forever busy man, always sketching when he could not be painting, always wanting to capture everything he saw on canvas. And now he wanted most of all to capture the sunsets.

But how do you capture an ever-changing sunset? Clouds shift and colors change from blue to yellow, to gold, orange, red, purple and every shade in between, minute by minute. Even a rapid painter like Turner could not succeed. I think when I look at sunsets how I can simply pull out my point-and-shoot camera and record the memory with a click. No one in his era could do that. But for the next few years, while sunsets remained glorious. Turner streamlined his techniques and caught wonderful skies over castles, over oceans, over mountains and fields. And today we have an impressive array of his wonderful paintings.

If you follow the link above, you'll see a gallery of his many paintings on several pages, each one with a link. You might notice, too, that his style changes from the early carefully detailed Classical style, leaning toward the color splashes of the later Impressionists. And even though the brilliant sunsets faded., Turner did not forget them. The brilliant splash of light infected him for the rest of his painting life. He became more fascinated by the play of light than the detail of objects. His style became more diffuse, sometimes making the viewer wonder if his sight was fading. It was infectious. Other painters, suffering from the same malady of needing to make a moment in time stand still long enough to capture it on canvas, took up his techniques, painting faster and faster. Impressionism, with its study of light play and form,was being born. And you can see its beginnings in the paintings of Turner's lifetime.

Turner was extraordinary in many ways. And I'll tell you someday how he was one of the first to use his own form of mass media to promote his work and sell it when other artists stuck to the old tried and true ways and starved. But most of all when I think of him, I think of the sunsets he saved for us, and how he tried to paint them all.

Hawaiian Cowboys --the paniolo

2010-10-12T14:05:00.001-04:00

If you’re like most folks, you likely think the Old West stopped at America’s Pacific Coastline. Which it does if you travel three thousand miles farther. Yes indeed, Hawaii has a cowboy history all its own. It even involves vaqueros!

Those first cowboys, Mexican vaqueros, taught Texan buckaroos how to lasso, make lariats and herd cattle. But much earlier in the 1800’s, those guys traveled across the Pacific and roped longhorns in Hawaii.

What? Longhorns in Hawaii?
Captain George Vancouver brought Hawaii’s first longhorn cattle as a gift to King Kamehameha I in 1793. Vancouver believed he’d delivered a new resource to the islands, but His Majesty imposed a ten-year kapu (restriction), making them a protected species. The animals were allowed to roam wild and breed freely.

Consequently, the herds became a nuisance, harming native vegetation and forests. Upon descending the uplands, the cows knocked down fences, trampled village gardens, and destroyed taro fields.

So vaqueros from Mexico and Portugal were imported to control the cows and teach native ranchers how to oversee the herds. The islanders called these guys paniolo. Ranchers constructed stone walls and cactus barriers to stop the foraging beasts. Tourists today sometimes view old rock walls in Hawaii and assume they’re ancient heiau (temples) or home sites. But more often than not, these rock piles are just leftover cattle walls!

Like cowboys everywhere, a paniolo relied on his horse to round up the wild pipi (cattle) from the places they shouldn’t be in a particular method called Po'o Waiu, which is now a rodeo event.

In 1908, a paniolo and rodeo champ named Ikua Purdy set the rodeo world on fire with his roping and riding skills at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. Not long ago, Purdy was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.

2008 was designated The Year of the Hawaiian Cowboy by Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle and Harry Kim, mayor of Hawaii (the Big Island) County.

Today about 75 percent of the state’s cattle roam the Big Island of Hawaii. Fifth and sixth generation Hawaiian cowboys continue to raise, herd, brand, and market cattle. Parker Ranch is among the largest ranches in the United States, spanning some 150,000 acres across the Big Island. Established nearly 160 years ago, it is also one of the country’s oldest ranches.

The ranch’s story begins in 1809 when nineteen-year-old John Parker jumped the ship that brought him to Hawaii. He quickly came to the attention of King Kamehameha I for his new, state-of-the-art American musket. The gun got John the “privilege” of being the first man allowed to shoot some of the thousands of maverick cattle wandering the island’s remote plains and valleys. Due mostly to John’s efforts, salted beef replaced sandalwood as the island’s chief export.

A recent trip to the Islands took me to Koloatown on the sleepy island of Kauai. Established in 1835, it's often still called Homestead and looks like someplace you'd find in Wyoming, full of charm and history.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of aloha yee-haw! But I hope you'll ride on back to 1880 Nebraska where in my latest, Marrying Mattie, Mattie Carter falls for a handsome horse doctor, Call Hackett, only to have their wedding vows broken up by her evil ex.

Mahalo!

~Tanya Hanson
www.tanyahanson.com
www.petticoatsandpistols.com

One Woman's Fight for Suffrage

2010-10-10T10:20:00.004-04:00

There was a time when women were little more than chattel. Women couldn't own property, they were not entitled to their own money, had no voice in politics and were not allowed to vote. We've heard of Carrie Nations and other women who led the fight for women's rights. Alice Paul also took up the cause. She and the ladies who followed her suffered, brutally, for the rights women enjoy today.

Alice Paul was raised as a Quaker, attended Swarthmore College, and worked at the New York College Settlement while attending the New York School of Social Work. She left for England in 1906 to work in the settlement house movement there for three years. She studied at university in England, and returned to get her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (1912).

Alice Paul led the more radical wing of those who were working for women's suffrage in 1917. She had taken part in more militant suffrage activity in England, including hunger strikes that were met with imprisonment and brutal force-feeding methods. She believed that by bringing such militant tactics to America, the public's sympathy would be turned towards those who protested for woman suffrage, and the vote for women would be won, finally, after seven decades of activism.

And so, Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and others separated in America from the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), headed by Carrie Chapman Catt, and formed the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) which in 1917 transformed itself into the National Woman's Party (NWP).

During WWI, these suffragettes planned and carried out a campaign to picket the White House in Washington, DC. The reaction was, as in Britain, strong and swift: arrest of the picketers and their imprisonment. Some were transferred to an abandoned workhouse located at Occoquan, Virginia. There, the women staged hunger strikes, and, as in Britain, were force-fed brutally and otherwise treated violently.

Feminist Sonia Pressman Fuentes documents this history in her article on Alice Paul. She includes this re-telling of the story of Occoquan Workhouse's "Night of Terror," November 15, 1917:

Under orders from W. H. Whittaker, superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse, as many as forty guards with clubs went on a rampage, brutalizing thirty-three jailed suffragists. They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head, and left her there for the night. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed, and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate Alice Cosu, who believed Mrs. Lewis to be dead, suffered a heart attack. According to affidavits, other women were grabbed, dragged, beaten, choked, slammed, pinched, twisted, and kicked. (source: Barbara Leaming, Katherine Hepburn (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), 182.)

I don't know about you, but I find such brutality, against women, an outrage. Long life the memories of the courageous suffragists who fought for the freedomes women enjoy today.

Bannon's Brides now available at The Wild Rose Press and other on-line stores.
www.lorettacrogersbooks.com

Searching for the Alpha Hero

2010-10-06T11:27:00.000-04:00

We romance authors hear it all the time: "Readers want strong alpha heroes! Make your hero braver, stronger, larger than life!" I used to think that the AM only existed in literature until I started researching the early Britons and Vikings and realized that the Alpha is alive and well throughout our past.

Some famous Alphas come to mind: Alexander the Great. Attila the Hun. King Arthur (ok, I threw that one in as a nod to hunky Clive Owen's turn in the movie!). Napoleon, and his nemesis, the Duke of Wellington. Edward, the Black Prince and any one of the Knights Templar. Many Alphas rose up during turbulent times to become great leaders or warriors. Some, like William Wallace, fought for freedom. Others, like Eric the Red and his son, Leif Ericsson, discovered continents and established a Norse presence over much of Europe and Russia. Royal Alphas abound. England's Henry V rode into battle with a bare head so his enemies would know who he was. Genghis Khan conquered many lands to unite what is now Mongolia.

The Vikings wrote the book on Alpha Male lore. Like many ancient groups, they believed their death was foretold, so it made no difference if one stayed home to watch the farm or decided to go "a-Vikinging." If it was your day to die, it hardly mattered if you were plowing or plundering. That explained their fearsome, ferocious reputation among their enemies. Courage in the face of death was treated as something natural. To fear death was against the norm.

Not to be outdone by its Norse neighbors, America has its own share of colorful Alphas. Wyatt Earp and his legendary brothers. Davy Crockett and Colonel Travis of Alamo notoriety. Great presidents, like Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt (who says you have to look like Hugh Jackman to be an Alpha?). Geronimo and Sitting Bull and other Native American leaders made their mark on the American West. Many other men qualify, but these are just a few to set you on your own path of discovery.

Sometimes, you don't have to crack open a history book or google a name. We have Alphas in our own lives. My own dh, Walter, epitomizes (to me, at least) a "man's man" - a true Alpha. He left high school in the 70s to enlist with the Marine Corps and went to Vietnam. He has always owned his own business and gets out of bed at 5am, even on weekends. He's often worked more than 70 hrs a week running his own construction business, urging on his younger, healthier employees who are worn out. He is a natural leader, overcoming a troubled childhood and reckless youth to become the man he is today. All of us have a father, husband, brother, uncle, grandpa, etc. who can fit the profile of an Alpha. A hero doesn't have to create an empire of millions or lead soldiers into battle to be an Alpha.

When I write my own heroes, I usually imagine certain traits to round out the character so he's not a cookie cutter image of someone else's idea of what a strong hero is. But if we just look at real men in real times, we can put together a profile of what an AM looked like. Strong, whether physically, mentally, or both; independent; braver than most men of his time; a natural leader; often a warrior, whether in the boardroom or battlefield; and just that special something - a touch of power and charisma. Put them all together and you have a hero to be reckoned with.

Clothing and the Western Woman

2010-10-05T00:01:00.001-04:00

Women living in the west in the 1800’s dressed in the silks, satins, and fashionable dresses just like their sisters in the east for special occasions. However, they also dressed decidedly different when facing the rigors of western living.

In the rural areas women’s clothing could be dated to when they first arrived from the east up to ten years earlier. Silk and satin could be scarce in the rural areas. In these instances they would make ball gowns out of gingham and calico adding all the extra flounces, bustles, and trains. Adding handmade lace collars and wool braid around the hems to enhance the garments.
They would have one special dress they wore only to dances, church, and socials. They would wear a corset with their finest dresses to special occasions.

Common material for women’s clothing was linsey-woolsey, calico, silk, plaid, muslin, printed cotton, wool challis, dimity, and grosgrain-striped silk taffeta. Most garments had a pocket sewn in the right side seam. Generally each dress was the same style, the fabric and decorations made them different. In the early part of the 1800’s most wore one piece dresses. A dress with a full skirt required 10 yards of calico or 14 yards of silk because silk wasn’t as wide on the bolt as calico. From 1850 on women started wearing two-piece outfits(skirt and blouse). It wasn’t until the 1890’s when the “shirtwaist” or blouse became popular. By 1886 the chemise was replaced with the camisole a shorter version of the chemise with square or round neckline, lace and embroidery.

In 1882 stores began selling ready-made clothing.

Traveling on stage coaches and trains they wore linen dusters to keep the dirt and coal dust off their clothing.

Three essentials of any western woman were their apron, bonnet, and shawl. An apron was a full length garment worn while cleaning the house and cooking. It helped to keep their clothing clean, making less laundry. They called any type of hat a bonnet. Most had a sunbonnet with ties under the chin and a wide cloth brim reinforced with cardboard or thin slats of wood to make the brim stiff and keep the sun off their faces. They would also have a winter bonnet or hat. Some would even have a fancy bonnet to wear to weddings, funerals, and socials. The shawl was a quick wrap to throw on to greet company or make a trip to the outhouse. They usually had a special one to wear to social events if their family had the means.

Working and dealing with the heat they would shed undergarment layers, specifically petticoats and a corset. Rather than the 5-6 petticoats that was customary they would work in one or two. This also helped on wash day when they only had to laundry a couple petticoats and not half a dozen. To keep their skirts down without all the layers hide their limbs, they would sew metal bars or lead shot in their hems, thwarting any strong winds. They would also wear bloomers under their skirts rather than all the layers of petticoats. In winter they would wear flannel or quilted petticoats.

Western women worked by their husband’s sides. To make their chores easier they shortened their skirts, wore split skirts and some even wore men’s clothing. It made walking and riding horses easier. They also were less likely to wear the tight corseted styles. They could do their work easier in loose-fitting garments.
This information was found in: The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild West by Candy Moulton.

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyajger.blogspot.com

Photos were copied from: http://recollections.biz/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

Bread and Butter Cucumbers

2010-10-04T01:00:00.001-04:00

Since I don't have historical facts to share today, I thought I'd share my mother-in-law's bread and butter pickle recipe. They've been a favorite in our family for the 43 years my husband and I have been married and longer. If you like to can, I hope you'll give this recipe a try.

Bread and Butter Pickles

1 gallon cucumbers, sliced.
2 sweet green peppers, chopped
8 small onions, chopped.

Put 1/2 C. of sack salt over cucumbers and cover with cracked ice. Allow to sit for 3 hours. Drain well and make syrup as follows:

5 cups sugar
3 C. apple cider vinegar
2 T. mustard seed
1 1/2 t. powdered tumeric
1/2 t. powdered cloves
1/2 t. powdered cinnamon

Bring to a boil. Drop in onions, peppers, and drained cucumbers. Heat to scalding hot, but do not boil. Seal in jars. (Cook in enamel ware or stainless steel pot. Do not use aluminum.) Chill pickles before eating for crispness.

Enjoy the pickles.

Linda
http://www.lindalaroque.com/
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com/

Regency Halloween

2010-10-02T05:01:00.002-04:00

Halloween as we know it today was not really a holiday during the Regency. On October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain, a harvest festival which contained some elements of a festival of the dead. The Christian religion attempted to neutralize the pagan Samhain by combining it with Christian holy days. November 1 was All Saints' Day, or All Hallows Day, so October 31 became All Hallows' Eve.

By the Regency, All Hallows' Eve was mainly a rural festival, rarely noticed in the cities. Elements of Samhain remained in the customs of guising, lighting bonfires, and carving jack o' lanterns.

On Samhain, the barriers between the real world and the supernatural world thinned, allowing the dead, as well as evil spirits, to walk the earth. People left their doors open to welcome the ghosts of their ancestors inside, while at the same time keeping the evil ones out. An associate custom was guising, in which people dressed as ghouls. By blending in with the demons, they avoided them.

Bonfires were also popular on all Hallows' Eve. The fires lit the way to the afterworld of relatives who had died during the past year. They also scared the specters and goblins away.

Carving jack o' lanterns was another custom. Believing the "head" of a vegetable its most potent part, the Celts carved vegetables into heads with faces to scare away supernatural beings. By Regency times, these lighted vegetables were called jack o' lanterns from the seventeenth century Irish legend of Shifty, or Stingy, Jack. Shifty Jack, so evil neither Heaven or Hell would take him, was doomed forever to wander the earth while carrying a lantern.

The lantern was usually carved from a turnip or mangelwurzel, as pumpkins were largely unknown in Britain at the time.

Since turnips and mangelwurzels are dense, not hollow like pumpkins, carving such a jack o' lantern was a great deal of effort.

The beginnings of many of today's Halloween practices existed in the Regency. If you enjoy Regency and Halloween, you might like Pumpkinnapper, my Regency Halloween comedy.

Pumpkin thieves, a youthful love rekindled, and a jealous goose. Oh my!

Buy link here.

And I'm running a contest from now through October 20. The prize: a PDF copy of Pumpkinnapper. Leave your name and email in the Guest Book on my website, http://www.lindabanche.com, for a chance to win.

Happy Halloween!

Thank you all,

Linda

Welcome to My World of Historical Hilarity!

http://www.lindabanche.com

P.S. The top picture is Snap-Apple Night, painted by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833, of a Halloween party he attended in Blarney, Ireland. From Wikipedia.

Message To Love and National Hispanic Heritage Month

2010-09-30T19:14:00.002-04:00

In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage month Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, I want to talk about character creation for my debut novel MESSAGE TO LOVE (June 2010.)

http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/

MESSAGE is set during the Spanish-American War of 1898 during the imperialism days of American politics. When Cuban nationals began fighting for independence against Spain, America offered assistance. A secret message was delivered by an American soldier to the head of the Cuban insurgency General Calixto Garcia. President McKinley told Garcia the U.S. would send troops and supplies to help Cuba oust Spain.

The characters for MESSAGE expanded from research I did after having a dream about a man on horseback riding furiously through the night to deliver a message he had in a leather pouch tied around his chest. There was a jail, a hanging noose, and of course, a woman in the dream as well. When the images wouldn’t let go, I started asking questions which led me to find a pamphlet written after the Spanish-American War called “The Message To Garcia” (1899.) It was written by a popular speaker and writer of the time, Elbert Hubbard, and meant to portray the heroic actions of the soldier who delivered the message in the dead of night in the jungles of Cuba.

AUDRA WAKELY and LT. ROLLINS MCBRIDE are the respectively hot-blooded and hot-headed main characters in MESSAGE and they are drafted specifically to drive home the story’s theme of learning to respect differing opinions.

Audra sees her mother’s homeland of Cuba as a wild, young spirit ready for freedom from rules and oppression. Audra’s habit of making impulsive choices that sometimes lead to trouble is reflective of Cuba’s decision to fight for its freedom in spite of the fact that it has no self-governing history or organized source of income on the scale it would need to survive as a country. But Audra and Cuba both want their freedom.

Lt. Rollins McBride is the son of a merchant marine who died without mercy at the hands of the ruthless Spanish government in Cuba. Rollins wants revenge and has worked his way up through the U.S. Navy so he can someday satisfy his lust for retribution by working undercover in Cuba. His training and history make him the personification of the late nineteenth-century attitudes of imperialism. He believes that Cuba is too immature to govern itself.

Audra is Cuba. Rollins is America. They are written to be representational of the attitudes and mores of each country and this builds automatic tension. In spite of their differences they fall in love when they are thrown into the Cuban fight as they search for Audra’s father who has been jailed for sympathizing with rebels.

What Audra and Rollins hear is a message above the roar of differing opinions. What’s really important is respecting the other person’s viewpoint whether you agree or not. They learn to love what’s valuable in each other.

I agree with Lupe Gonzalez’s post on 9/21 that celebrating National Hispanic Heritage month http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/ is important. It’s good to recognize we live in a great country where diversity is the seed of much controversy but the differences give us opportunities to understand if we so choose.

Liz Arnold
http://www.lizarnoldbooks.wordpress.com/

MESSAGE TO LOVE
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/message-to-love-paperback-p-4088.html

National Hispanic Heritage Month
http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/

Get a free MESSAGE TO LOVE bookmark! Send SASE to P.O. Box 1322, Parkersburg, WV 26102

New Life in a Montana Ghost Town

2010-09-29T02:34:00.002-04:00

New Life in a Montana Ghost Town

Since I missed my usual day to post because of crazy work stress, I thought I'd put this link up in the place of blogging.

Bannack is the town I photographed to use in my book trailer. My husband and I visited there after going to Yellowstone National Park and Jackson Hole last September. Walking into the town was like stepping right into the pages of my story.

Deborah Schneider
"Promise Me" -- Now Available from The Wild Rose Press
www.debschneider.com

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

2010-09-21T14:43:00.008-04:00

9/15 to 10/15

This year’s theme: Heritage, Diversity, Integrity and Honor: The Renewed Hope of America

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hispanic-heritage-month-2010--sept-15---oct-15-98622924.html

Today, I’d like to talk about Hispanic Heritage Month and how it relates to the stories I write.

The question arises as to why Hispanic Heritage Month overlaps two months. February is dedicated to Black History Month. Women’s History Month is observed during the month of March. National Poetry Month is in April. The reasoning behind beginning Hispanic Heritage Month on September 15 is when President Lyndon B. Johnson made the proclamation on September, 1968, the observance was just for one week. The week included the dates September 15 and 16 since five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrated the anniversary of their independence on September 15. Mexico celebrated its independence from Spain on September 16 (El Diez y Seis) and Chile celebrated its independence on September 18. Twenty years later in 1988, Congress expanded the observance to a month-long celebration. The purpose of this was to honor Americans who could trace their roots to Mexico, Spain, other Central and South American countries and the Caribbean.

This year, 2010, Mexico celebrates the 200^th anniversary (Bicentennial or Bicentenario) of its independence from Spain. A Catholic priest, Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla, in the village of Dolores, called the people to Mass by ringing the church bell as always. On the morning of September 16, 1810, he passionately gave what is now called “El Grito”, the yell of “Viva Mexico!” (Long live Mexico!) and spurred the oppressed Mexicans to fight against the Spaniards.

http://www.mexonline.com/mexican-independence.htm

I’m an American of Mexican descent so in my stories, I try to portray my characters as people who are proud of their heritage and culture, but who also epitomize the values of the United States of America. Christina and Joe, my characters in A LOVE FOR ETERNITY, grow up in the small town of Stockton. Their neighborhood is primarily made up of Hispanics. In the 1950’s, neighborhoods as well as schools were segregated. Parents, especially those with daughters, were very strict and in Christina’s case, her mother arranged a marriage for her. Girls grew up to be wives and mothers and the education, which was stressed, was to learn how to cook, how to take care of a house and how to take care of children. Young men usually went into the armed services. When they returned, they immediately obtained a job – and a wife if they didn’t have one already. Joe returned from serving in the U.S. Army to confront racial discrimination in his own home town.

Of course, there were always rebels. People, who like the priest in 1810 Mexico, urged change. Christina goes against her mother, her upbringing and her fear to fight to stay with the man she loves. Her efforts might not change the world, for the moment, anyway, but it she strove to change the course of her life.

Observing Hispanic Heritage Month, and other celebrations of our history and culture, is crucial. They allow every American to realize what a truly wonderful country we are fortunate to live in even with our diversity.

The Empress Josephine's Legacy

2010-09-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

Old Garden Roses

I love gardening and I love writing, so I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised that the two come together time and time again in amazing ways.

For years I struggled to grow the modern Hybrid Teas—you know, those “florist-style” roses—and failed miserably. They always got blackspot and died within a year or two. Desperate, I started researching roses and somewhere along the way, fell in love with Old Garden Roses, that is, roses hybridized prior to 1900. To have survived over the years (and in some cases centuries) these stalwart survivors of the garden wars had to be tough. And although many varieties only bloom once a year, when they bloom, they really bloom!

Interestingly enough, it was the Empress Josephine who really spurred on rose gardening and hybridization, and reading about her gardens at Malmaison made me love the older varieties of roses even more. Not to mention their inspiration to write romances set in that period—the early years of the 19th century, frequently referred to as the Regency. Unlike contemporary roses, Old Garden Roses are lush and full of soft petals when they fully open, and most have extraordinary fragrance that can fill an entire room.

Is it any wonder that I frequently set scenes in my Regency romances, like I Bid One American, in rose gardens?

The Empress Josephine collected roses for her gardens at the Chateau de la Malmaison from 1805 to 1810. This collection spurred on an interest in the culture of roses that lead to some of the most important work in rose hybridization during the 19th century.

The French writer, De Pronville, stated that in 1814, there were only about 182 varieties of roses. However, by mid-century, there were over 6,000 varieties! And the competition to grow new varieties was so intense that clients of hybridizers often got into fist fights when limited numbers of new specimens were available. (My free read, Rose Wars, is about one such fight!)

The Empress Josephine had over 150 different Gallica cultivars in her collection, and the rich burgundy-colored Gallica roses were the 'darlings' of the Regency period.

The Empress Josephine's goal with Malmaison was to obtain every species of rose then known. Napoleon instructed the French Navy to seize any plants or rose seeds they found when they searched ships at sea. In just one year, Josephine spent close to 2,600 pounds with the English nursery of Kennedy and Lee, despite the war with Britain. And despite the naval blockade, the British Admiralty granted a safe-conduct pass to the Kennedy and Lee firm to deliver the new China Roses to Malmaison. The Englishman Kennedy was employed by the Empress to assist them in laying out her rose garden and interestingly enough, there was one plan (never used) that laid out a rose garden in a design close to the Union Jack.

So Josephine set the standard for rose gardening for a very long time. All the wealthy French followed her lead and many joined in the competition to see who could amass the largest collection. Her biggest rival was the Countess of Bougainville, who tried to amass as many new roses as possible. It is no surprise that economically, the rose became the most important flower in France.

Sadly, after Josephine’s death in 1814, Malmaison quickie fell into neglect, but roses still passed from Britain to France. But many of the men who trained at Malmaison went on to become famous rose hybridizers. They established France as the premiere country in rose-breeding.

It was a fascinating period in history, and after finally finding roses that will flourish and bloom in my garden, I’m grateful to the Empress Josephine and all the men and women who worked so hard to make the rose truly the Queen of the Garden.

Amy Corwin
http://www.amycorwin.com

Marriage: For Love or Money

2010-09-17T23:39:00.001-04:00

Arranged marriage is a wonderful premise for a romance novel whether it is placed in the medieval period or up through the 19th century. Even today there are arranged marriages in many cultures like India and several Asian countries. Then, as now, such marriages are based on issues other than love. Money, the acquisition of land, political power and a desire to position a family in society are common reasons for arranged marriages. This is a subject with ramification in many times and places, but for the purposes of this blog, I will deal with arranged marriages in the 19th century in Great Britain and America.

The monetary aspects of marriage among the upper classes and the peerage in Great Britain were in the forefront of any union, whether based on love or for any other reason. The suitor would, as a matter of course, approach the young woman's father, ask for her hand and would explain his intentions as far as pin money and the worth of his estates. In return, the father would detail the dowry his daughter would bring to the marriage, as well as the total worth of her expectations. Once the woman was married, all of her worldly goods became the property of her husband, and unless her father put her money into a Trust that was managed by an independant Trustee, she would be completely at her husband's mercy monetarily. The purpose of the trust was to prevent him from ":Kissing or kicking" her money out of her.

Since a woman had little to no legal recourse if her spouse spent all his money, and hers as well, on gambling, wine and women, she had to hope that her parents arranged her marriage very carefully for her protection. In my opinion, a family would do well to consider the stability of the man in question, and an equality of family backgrounds, status and interests. Although differing interests can be well accomodated if the man and wife find that time spent apart makes the marriage happier.

Just to cover the ways that English traditions translate to American History, we must always remember that Americans up to the 1900s were mostly all from the British Isles. Therefore, the discussion of women's rights and reasons for marrying are very similar except for the concept of royalty and the peerage. However, class distinctions were as powerful a motivator in America as titles were in England. In the west, people sought marriages that joined lands or gained wealth, or strengthened alliances.

The ability to provide an heir is yet another reason for a marriage based on reasons other than love. In old Blue-blood families in England years and years of cousins marrying cousins, or other families of attenuated genetic materisal, could lead to a very real need for "a little fresh blood." In some cases the fresh blood needed was money to rehabilitate exhausted fortune and aged estates. In both cases the man's family might look to a young woman of the upwardly mobile merchant class, especially if her parent had received a knighthood or was exceedingly wealthy. In addition, it would prove advantageous if the merchant's daughter had been well-educated in the ways of a lady and had made an entry into society under the auspices of a respectable woman. Of course, marrying downward would only do if the man's estates were on their last legs, or if his rank was not of the highest. Even good schooling and acceptance of part of the ton could never make a tradesman's daughter a suitable wife for a Duke. But... if might make a great love story!

Speaking of Love stories, Heart of Gold will be out March 11, 2011. I hope you will enjoy Matt and Dee's story.

What Happened to Byrd Freels?

2010-09-13T17:45:00.001-04:00

A number of years ago, I lived in East Tennessee and worked for my geologist father in his small oil exploration company. One of our tasks was to research property deeds before committing to a drilling project, and that meant going all the way back to the first deed registered. We were going through records in the basement of the Morgan County Courthouse, and Dad had showed me how to research old hand-written deeds. We had to not only check the names and signatures but the property descriptions.

It wasn't uncommon to see descriptions that said "120 paces to the White Oak tree, now fallen..." and that sort of thing. Just as common were signatures marked "X (John Jones, His Mark)", since many people couldn't read or write, and someone else had to witness the signature.

That's where my story begins. I had just followed the chain of deeds back to just after the Civil War. On this one, the signatures, signing over the property to John S. (I don't want to tell you his real name, knowing he still has descendants in the area), were "X (Byrd Freels, His Mark)" and "Matilda Freels".

Okay, on to the deed to the Freels family. I found it easily. It was signed, "Byrd Freels" and "Matilda Freels".

"Dad, come and look at this," I said. He looked at one, then the other. His eyes got really big. Just how could it be that both Byrd Freels and his wife could read and write and sign the deed to acquire the property, but when it came time to sell, only she could read and write?

So Dad took us out into the country to meet an old man he knew who was well versed in the oral history of the county. Here is what he told us:

After the Civil War a Free black man named Byrd Freels arrived in that rural Tennessee county with money to buy a farmstead, which he did. There was a man down the road named John S., who was very hostile to the Freels family, who harassed them regularly. One day John S saw the Freels' dog and shot it. Freels picked up his shotgun and went after John S, killing him. Then Freels vanished, and the said he had high-tailed it out to the West, but not before signing over his property to John S's son by the same name. But, said the historian, the whispers said the white men had chased Freels down and tarred and feathered him before lynching him. He had no explanation for the signatures, and had no idea what had happened to Mathilda.

I always figured Byrd had been lynched and Matilda forced to sign. But a number of years later I was working in a store in Olympia, Washington, when a black man came in to do business. When he signed his name, I stared. Byrd Freels. I asked him if his ancestors had come from Tennessee, and his faced turned to steely hatred. "We don't talk about that," he said.

Code of the West

2010-09-12T20:28:00.000-04:00

Since I've got a new Western historical release from the Cactus Rose, Marrying Mattie, I reckoned it apt to include a bit today on the ethics of those cowboys. Some pretty fitting advice for all of us in all walks of life, don't you think?

Code of the West

(from "Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West" by James P. Owen)

1. Live each day with courage.

2. Take pride in your work.

3. Always finish what you start.

4. Do what has to be done.

5. Be tough, but fair.

6. When you make a promise, keep it.

7. Ride for the brand.

8. Talk less and say more.

9. Remember that some things aren't for sale.

10. Know where to draw the line.

~Tanya Hanson
http://www.tanyahanson.com/
http://www.petticoatsandpistols.com/

Cowboy Heroes and Real-life Heroes

2010-09-09T17:11:00.006-04:00

When writing Westerns, Western Romance, or Historical Romance, we authors try to make our cowboy heroes larger than life. Handsome, rugged, polite, but with a backbone of steel, and riding tall in the saddle, he's the man of every woman's dream. I thought it interesting that many of our on-screen cowboy heroes were/are real life heroes who served our country valiantly in the United States Military.

Gene Autry - Flight Officer, Air Transport Command, 1942-1946

James Arness - US Army, Wounded at Anzio. Purple Heart and Bronze Star

Ernest Borgnine - served in the U.S. Navy for twelve years, joining before WWII.

Kirk Douglas - US Navy

Henry Fonda - US Navy. Bronze Star for Valor.

Glenn Ford - US Navy. In addition to his WWII service, he served in the reserves during the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. He retired as a Captain in the US Naval Reserve.

Clark Gable - Captain, US Army Air Corps. Although beyond draft age, Clark Gable enlisted as a private in the Air Corps on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles. He attended Officers' Candidate School at Miami Beach and graduated as a second lieutenant. He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb. 1943, on personal orders from Gen. Arnold, went to England to make a motion picture of aerial gunners in action. He was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook and although neither ordered nor expected to do so, flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s to obtain the combat film footage he believed was required for producing the movie entitled "Combat America." Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a Major on June 12, 1944 at his own request, since he was over age for combat.

Brian Keith - USMC, Aerial gunner

Burt Lancaster - US Army

Steve McQueen -USMC

Audie Murphy - US Army, most decorated soldier of WWII

Jack Palance -US Army Air Corps. 455th bomb group. Required facial reconstruction from terrible injuries received in 1943 when his B17 crash landed in Britain.

Ronald Reagan - Captain, US Army Air Corps. Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties. However, he appeared in training films. Prior to the war, he was a cavalry officer in the Nebraska National Guard.

Jimmy Stewart - US Army Air Corps even after his an active role in the military, Stewart continued to be active in the United States Air Force Reserve, achieving the rank of Brigadier General on July 23, 1959.

Clint Eastwood - served in the United States Army in 1951

James Garner - he joined the National Guard serving seven months in the USA. He then went to Korea for 14 months in the United States Army, serving in the 24th Infantry Division in the Korean War. He was wounded twice, first in the face and hand from shrapnel fire from a mortar round and second in the buttocks from friendly fire from U.S. fighter jets as he dove headfirst into a foxhole on April 23, 1951. Garner was awarded the Purple Heart in Korea for the first injury. For the second wound, he received a second Purple Heart.

Many of these super-hero stars have gone on to meet their maker. Yet, no matter how large or small, each has left an impression on those who watched them on the big screen and in television reruns.

http://www.lorettacrogersbooks.com/

BANNON'S BRIDES ~ now available at http://www.thewildrosepress.com/ and other on-line stores.

Regency Names

2010-09-02T05:01:00.001-04:00

Many unique factors define a historical period--technology, politics, wars or the lack thereof. Social manners and mores also define an era, including the names parents give their children. The English Regency (1811-1820) was no exception.

In England, the name of the reigning monarch was always popular with the parents of newborns. In the Regency, and for the previous 100 years since George I ascended the throne in 1714, that name was "George" (George III pictured). George Washington, born in 1732, took his name from George II (reigned 1727-1760). George Gordon Byron, the famous Regency poet, Lord Byron (born 1788), was named for George III (reigned 1760-1820). Girls were not exempt from the trend--Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, born in 1757, was named, like George Washington, for George II.

The name "George" was so important and so popular that the entire era preceding the Regency, from the reign of George I (1714) to 1811, was named the Georgian era.

After "George", the names of kings and queens from the Norman Conquest onward were popular, especially among the upper echelons of society. For boys, popular names were John, William, Richard, Henry, Charles, James, Edward, and the Saxon kings' names Harold and Edmund. Girls' names included Elizabeth, Mary and Anne, monarchs in their own right, as well as the kings' consorts, Charlotte (George III), Catherine and Jane (Henry VIII), Emma (Canute the Great), Eleanor (Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II).

Caroline, the name of the Prince Regent's wife, was also popular, as well as the names of the Regent’s sisters, the princesses Sophia, Augusta, and Amelia, and his brothers, the princes Frederick, Alfred, and Adolphus.

Biblical names, with a few exceptions, such as Susanna and Sarah, were not popular with the Beau Monde. A footman might be named Joseph, but his master, the earl, would not share the name.

Here are a few links for finding Regency names:

Jo Beverley's site: http://www.jobev.com/regname.html

And here's a Regency name generator: http://ugoi.net/nonsense/name.html

Thank you all,
Linda
Enter My World of Historical Hilarity
http://www.lindabanche.com

Fashion, circa 1819

2010-08-18T04:00:00.001-04:00

It’s 1819 and in my newest Regency, The Bricklayer’s Helper, Sarah must give up her masquerade as a man after thirteen years. Which leaves her in the unenviable position of trying to become a lady. What would she wear? How would she adapt to her role as a woman facing the cream of nineteenth century society?

It wouldn’t be easy, that’s for sure.

When you’re writing a historical novel, the question of clothing is a complex one. You want to be as accurate as possible, and yet not confuse readers. Heck, I’ve been confused, myself, at terms like “girdle” which didn’t always mean that tight, elastic thing you wear under your dresses to try to look a little thinner. It used to be an article of clothing worn around the waist, over your dress. Sort of like a belt. And pockets were little bags of fabric hanging from a ribbon you tied around your waist, under your dress. There were slits in the skirts that allowed ladies to slip their hands through so they could extract something from their pocket or put something inside. Some pockets were elaborately embroidered and quite lovely.

And linens weren’t sheets, they were those items of clothing like a man’s shirt that were made out of linen. So it can be quite confusing when using words that over time have changed meaning. Most authors, however, resolve this simply by describing the item of clothing as a character puts it on.

So what would my heroine, Sarah, wear?
First, she'd probably browse through an issue of La Belle Assemblée which was the Vogue of the day.

In the 1819 edition, Sarah would come across the illustration and description for a carriage dress, lusciously described as follows:

Round dress of fine cambric, with six flounces of India muslin: spencer of cherry-coloured or Tyrian purple velvet; with bonnet to correspond; the spencer elegantly finished on the bust with rich silk Brandenburgs; the bonnet lined with white, and surmounted by a plume of white ostrich feathers. Black satin slippers, and Florence gloves.

Then, for evening, when Sarah prepares for her first ball and perhaps a confrontation with the person responsible for the deaths in her family, she might wear modish dress like the lovely one shown here, also from an 1819 edition of La Belle Assemblée...

A frock of scarlet gauze, brocaded with white silken flowers, worn over a white satin slip; the dress richly ornamented with fine lace. The head-dress consisting of either a beautiful tiara of pearls, or a fancy ornament of downy plumage, or of frosted Italian frivolité; this ornament is, however, almost concealed by a bonnet de Ture, composed entirely of white ostrich feathers, playing in different directions. The stamina of the Turk’s cap, with the pistil, are represented by a small plume of short white heron’s feathers.

And since Sarah might wish for additional guidance, she might also take heed of the magazine's advice listed below, to ensure she truly has the latest and most fashionable clothing.

The crowds of beauty, rank, and fashion which daily resort to the elegant repository of taste and fancy under the guidance of Mrs. Bell in St. James’ street, prove sufficiently her indubitable superiority in the fabrication of the different articles belonging to the modish toilet, and the versatility of her taste in the classical arrangement of every different part of a lady’s costume.

As a writer, I’m always fascinated to find how little we have really changed over the last few hundred years. We are still fascinated by fashion and follow our favorite designers. Fashion magazines are best sellers, and like La Belle Assemblée they contain illustrations of the latest fashion, gossip, poetry, and fiction. There are even ads...just as you would find in an issue of Vogue or Glamour, today. And many of those ads are for products to improve the condition of the skin and hair.

And while many women, including Sarah, may deny any interest in the current styles, we can’t help but be seduced by the desire to appear beautiful. Sarah may be the first to deny any interest in what William thinks, but she prefers to be pretty while he's thinking...whatever it is.

So what do you think? Do you follow fashion or are you a rebel who prefers to follow her own tastes, regardless of the current trends?

The Briclayer's Helper

from The Wild Rose Press, Aug 6, 2010