Interview With A Cover Model by Victoria Chatham

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https://books2read.com/Hester-Dymock

At the beginning of a writer’s career, three things are made abundantly clear. First, of course, you need a great story. Next, an engaging opening line or lines with an intriguing hook. But perhaps, most of all, a great cover to attract a reader in the first place. The story comes alive in the author’s imagination. The opening hook may be honed to perfection with the help of critique partners and beta readers. And the cover? For historical authors look no further than Period Images.

As they promise on their website: ‘From custom-made attires, to hair, make-up, and set design, each shoot is fully staffed with designers, professional stylists, models and actors, to depict scenes and capture the essence of the era.’ 

The image for my book Hester Dymock comes from them and is beautifully enhanced by Books WeLove’s artistic director, Michelle Lee. What more could an author ask for? Well, a few things actually and one of Period Images models agreed to satisfy my curiosity. Please welcome Mike Foster to my blog this month. 

Michael Wayne Foster

VC. When and why did you start modeling?

MF. I started my actual modeling career in 2014 but had done fitness shoots previously.

VC. How did you become a cover model for romance novels specifically and were you ever a fan of Fabio?

MF. Fabio! I was a fan of his commercials for sure! I became a romance model because I have a sense of humor and don’t take myself too seriously. I take my work very seriously, just not myself. That served me well when I saw an ad for a modeling shoot that asked for a picture. It was for tall guys with long hair. I knew that most (if not all) of the models were going to send in the ‘duck lips’ and pouty face look, so I did the opposite. I sent a recent photo of a commercial I did for Virgin America Airlines where I was dressed up like a pro-wrestler and I was ‘hulking out.’ It kind of made me chuckle, and thankfully it made VJ and the group at PI chuckle as well. They said I had a sense of humor and asked me to come to a day shoot. That got my foot in the door and here we are talking about it seven years later.

VC. How much time do you have to spend in the gym to keep your trim look?

MF. I always do morning cardio for about an hour and then alternate between weights and yoga/Pilates for an hour later in the day.

VC. How much grooming/make-up is required for a shoot and do you use body oil with an open-shirt or shirtless photo?

MC. Because of my long hair, it tends to take a good hour to get the hair and make-up completed before a shoot.  Yes, they apply coconut oil on the exposed body parts, and I try not to break too much of a sweat and ruin my make-up when I am lifting light weights to pump up right before I go on.

VC. When you are getting ready for a shoot, do you do your own hair and make-up, or do you have stylists and make-up professionals?

MF. I have a team of amazing hair and make-up artists work on me before I shoot, courtesy of PI.

VC. What does your working day look like and what would define a perfect working day for you?

MF. Every day on set is a perfect working day for me.  I can’t think of a time I had a bad day at work.  But the perfect day?  Being in top shape for the shoot and then going to a Korean BBQ after the shoot with no care’s given.

VC. Were you ever asked to wear a costume or outfit that you refused to put on?

MF. Never.  Now, there may have been a few that didn’t fit, but that’s another story.

VC. Have you ever really disliked a book cover on which you appear, or are you not involved once the shoot is over?

MF. Once the shoot is over, I am not involved at all.  Hell, sometimes I don’t even realize new covers are released unless an author tags me.  It kind of bums me out because I know there are so many covers out there that I do not know about and I would love to help promote them but can’t because I’m unaware.

VC. When you are not working, what are your favourite sports or hobbies?

MF. Skiing is my favorite thing to do.  I am terrified of heights, so I decided to try skiing and overcome that fear.  I not only overcame, but I got hooked on the sport.  Plus, it’s like getting a workout inside of a Bob Ross painting.  It’s always so beautiful in the happy little mountains.  I am a foodie and love cooking and trying new recipes (especially on the grill).  Traveling is also something I enjoy, and I started a YOUTUBE channel based on exploring our American culture and I call it America’s Pit Stops.  I go by the moniker the AmericanSIZEDTravelGuide.

VC. Is being a model a full-time career for you? If not, what other career interests do you have?

MF. I am a full-time actor that also models.  Acting is the reason I am in LA and modeling is a “happy little accident.”  See what I did there?  (If not, see above.)

Next, I asked Mike some fun questions.

 VC. What have you always wanted? Did you ever get it?

MF. I wanted to be a teacher like my dad as well as actor as long as I can remember.  I wanted to do action and WWII movies.  I taught high school English for nine years and I have achieved so much in my acting career that I can’t help but to be proud of accomplishing what I had always dreamed about as a kid.  With the upcoming WWII movie, Wolf Hound, coming out soon; mission accomplished.

VC. What is the best or most memorable compliment you ever received?

MF. My freshman year of college I just started lifting weights.  I was a fat kid my whole life, so I always got the OPPOSITE of compliments.  I was hanging out with a girl watching TV and as I sat on the floor and had my arms behind me, she felt my triceps and said, “Wow, you have really nice arms!”  Needless to say, I didn’t miss a workout ever again.  I’m not a victim or going to cry about being bullied or teased because of my weight.  It made me the man I am today (sympathetic to the bullied) but I sure liked hearing a compliment much more than “Fat Foster.”

VC. What holidays do you most like to celebrate?

MF. HALLOWEEN.  Everything else is a distant second place.  It might stem back to my childhood because my birthday is November 2^nd, so Halloween was always a good time of the year for me.  Plus, I love scaring the bloody hell out of people.

VC. Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of person? Or is the glass just malformed?

MF. I don’t deal in glass or stemware.  I deal in lemons.  When I have a basket full of lemons; I make lemonade.

VC. Which of the four seasons do you like/dislike the most and why?

MF. I LOVE the fall.  It probably is because my favorite “holiday” is smack dab in the middle of the fall.  The leaves changing colors, the cool temperatures and apple fritters and cider all are part of why I love the fall so much!

VC. If you were marooned on a desert island and could only have four things, what would they be?

MF. I feel like I am on Naked and Afraid with three bonus items.  Probably a knife, a pot to boil water, a gun and a cannabis plant. (for medicine, clothing, oil/fuel, food, rope and many other uses.)

VC. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

MF. Being with my family and close friends, a bonfire and light beer.

VC. What is your greatest extravagance?

MF. I’m not a big spender of stuff.  My motto on my IMDB page is “I’ve never seen a hearse with a luggage rack.”  I drive a Chevy, wear my old clothes and shop at the Grocery Outlet.   I would do all of this even if I was a billionaire.  I suppose I spend the most money on 80’s themed T-shirts.

VC. Which do you prefer and why – the city or the country?

MF. COUNTRY ALL THE WAY!! (but I like the cuisine in cities).

VC. You are offered a free vacation, one a beach destination, the other a sight-seeing tour, which would you choose and why?

MF. A week in the Italian Alps or the Chilean Andes skiing would work just fine as sightseeing.  I have always loved the beaches of Alabama and Florida’s panhandle.

And now for some straight(ish)speed questions. Yes/No answers, qualify with a few words if you wish.

Annoyed a photographer by goofing around?  Gee…I’m not sure.  I’d like to hope not.  I always do what’s asked of me, so I think that’s a NO.

Called in sick to work when you weren’t sick? YEP (yeah students, Mr. Foster played hookie to go to a concert.)

Won a contest? Yes.

Locked yourself out of your house? Frequently.

Gone paragliding? No.

Taken an enormous risk? Yes.

Prefer cats or dogs? Dogs.

Surprised a friend or family member with a gift when it wasn’t their birthday or Christmas? Yes.

Been to Peru? No.

Worn odd socks? Frequently.

So now we all know a little more about Mike, I'd like to thank him again for taking part in my Q & A and also Period Images for the photographs. And here is my latest cover which I love, featuring Period Images model, Rachel. Thanks to Books We Love's artistic director Michelle Lee for once again working her magic.

Luke Trowbridge, a Waterman fights for his life in the Oyster Wars by Diane Scott Lewis

 

In my upcoming novel, Ghost Point, Luke Trowbridge ducks Maryland's ruthless Oyster Police, and strives to keep his marriage together in 1956. He grew up tonging for oysters on the Potomac River. The town of Colonial Beach, Virginia, once a grand resort for the wealthy 80 miles south of Washington D. C., is now a struggling community of watermen who brave the elements to feed their families.

The tradition since colonial times is tonging for oysters during the cold winter season, with long rakes that gently pluck up the oysters without ruining the beds. But illegal dredging brings in far more oysters, the baskets scraping the beds. The habitats destroyed.

Luke is desperate to support his family. But his wife, Yelena, has grown angry and restless with his dangerous activities, his refusal to quit. The Hungarian-born Victor is investigating another vicious event on the river when he attracts her interest. He's suave, sophisticated, everything Luke is not. Will she give up their secrets and be enticed to dishonor her marriage?

Luke must stand up to his bullying father, and the Maryland Oyster police who shoot to kill. He fears losing his wife and little boy. Will he make changes in attitude and occupation, or endanger his own life?

For more adventure, another couple who take their future in their own hands, delve into On a Stormy Primeval Shore. Set in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1784, a fight to form a colony. One of the award-winning Canadian Historical Brides series. A Night Owl Romance Top Pick: "a fabulous tale of life and hardship in historical Canada."

To purchase my novels and other BWL books: BWL

Find out more about me and my writing on my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Scott Lewis lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty puppy.

Mad About the Movies

 

Here's what popped up at the Laramie awards ceremony as ... the Grand Prize Winner!

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It’s movie awards season again, looking different because of the pandemic. Most of the films this year can be seen on television, either pay-per-view or on a streaming service.

I have a great passion for good movie storytelling, so I will don my tiara and let you know my favorites of the year —

1. Hamilton (Disney +) Just in time for the lockdown came the vibrant life of a little-known Founding Father via Lin-Manuel Miranda, inspired by Ron Chernow’s biography. Wow, from it’s dazzling choreography and camerawork, perfect color-blind casting, and  many musical styles, you’ll feel you have the best seat in the house.   Suggestion: turn the closed captions on because you don’t want to miss a word of the fast-paced music.
2. One Night in Miami (Amazon) A wonderful enlargement on the Broadway play about an evening in 1964 when Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cook celebrated the prize fight win of young Cassius Clay (later known as Mohamed Ali). Wonderfully acted. Directed by Regina King with assurance and an evocative color pallet. Leslie Odom Jr. (Aaron Burr in Hamilton) turns in a heart-breaking, nuanced performance as Sam Cooke.
3. Greyhound (Apple +) Has Tom Hanks plowing the Atlantic as a first time captain of his mostly teen-aged crew. It’s 1942 and their task is protecting a convoy of 37 ships carrying thousands of soldiers and supplies around Nazi U-boats. Not a moment of this movie is wasted and the relationship that develops between beleaguered Hanks and his cook is an added bonus.
4. The Prom (Netflix) is a musical as escapist and frothy as Hamilton is serious, with its glitz, hammy acting, and back-to-back-to-back divas. But by the end it had won me over. The young lovers Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose and a charming turn as a high school teacher by Keegan-Michael Key keep us caring about what happens next. See this one in your local movie theater when you can, as I think it would be enhanced by a communal experience, like the Mama Mia movies are.
5. Trial of the Chicago Seven (Netflix) Spellbinding courtroom drama in the capable hands of Aaron Sorkin who wrote and directed. Set in the aftermath of the riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention. You’ll find many unsettling parallels to current events. Strong performances by entire cast, but Sasha Baron Cohen’s Abbie Hoffman is a Sacred Clown for the ages.
6. News of the World (Universal) Yeah, I’m a Tom Hanks fan. I also love a good Western and this is a great one, combining a fateful journey and Indian captivity plot with suspense galore. Tom’s an itinerant news reader entertainer charged with returning captive Helena Zengel to her relatives. Together they travel a Reconstruction Era Texas fraught with dangers and astonishing moments of grace. Pay attention to the musical score of this one—it’s a knock-out.

So there you have it, Eileen’s favorite movies of the year of the plague. I’m so glad 

I had them to keep me company. 

See you at the movies!

Paying off at the Boom, murder in 1800s Virginia by Diane Scott Lewis

 

In my upcoming novel, Ghost Point, my characters are involved in the Potomac Oyster Wars, which took place in the 1950s. Men were fired on and killed in the quant town of Colonial Beach, Virginia.

I bring in an earlier grisly practice called "Paying off at the boom."

My hero Luke, is already 'dredging' oysters, an illegal practice that destroys the beds. The Oyster Police commanded by Maryland are constantly patrolling to arrest the Virginians out on the Potomac River.

Luke is desperate for the extra money to support his family. But soon dead bodies are found at the Point off Monroe Bay, and the Virginian's worry this old practice is again being used.

"Throughout the 1800s and well into the 1900s oyster shucking and packing houses could be found all along the shoreline of Maryland and Virginia. Newly freed slaves, whites, and immigrants labored side-by-side working long hours with little pay to fill the demands for oysters from as far away as Australia. Even the shells themselves became a commodity as farm fertilizer and for use in mortar.

"Watermen, often known as a rough and bawdy lot, made their living from the water often under harsh conditions and amidst several major wars. It was hard work harvesting oysters, and often men were tricked into working on boats only to be left along the shoreline with no pay. Another more sinister method of payment was called “paid by the boom,” meaning that after a stint aboard a boat, the worker would mysteriously fall overboard, never to be heard from again."

 Kathy Warren Southern Maryland-this is living

Though these events never happened in the 1950s during the notorious Oyster Wars, where Maryland Oyster police fired on Virginia watermen dredging oysters, I 'imagined' a revisionist reoccurrence of this terrible practice. 

Storm over Monroe Bay
picture by Alleyne Dickens

The skeletons would wash up at the area called the Point, which formed a hook at the end of Monroe Bay. Thus it became known a Ghost Point.

Don't forget to pick up a copy of  Her Vanquished Land, my latest release; a story of the American Revolution, told by a young British loyalist. A woman caught up on the losing side.

"Rowena is a star. Bless Derec Pritchard who loves Rowena for who she is. Their chemistry is fabulous. Readers will love to read this alternative view of American history." InD'tale Magazine

To purchase my novels and other BWL books: BWL

Find out more about me and my writing on my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Scott Lewis lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty puppy.

Comfrey, Cat Warfare, and Green Tomato Sauce

The Commoner and her King

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(Crawling out from under the bed to write this.) 

I grew Comfrey in my garden this year and the resulting plants are enormous tall spiky things with leaves that are reminiscent of tobacco. Comfrey was once used in teas, but no more. This is because we've learned that it is toxic when taken orally. Herbalists no longer recommend  it either as tea, or to be used as a wash on an open wound. 

                                                                          Feral Garden

However, the leaves and roots do contain allantonin, a protein that encourages cell division and thus healing. Traditionally, it was used as a wrap for broken limbs and injured joints. The leaves contain a storehouse of other good things --calcium, potassium, phosphorus & vitamins A, C and B12. It sends down a long taproot--sometimes as much as ten feet--to fetch nutrients up to the surface from deep in the soil. 

Why did I plant it? Well, I'd heard that it serves as an activating ingredient for compost piles or simply as a beneficial mulch dug into the garden at the end of the season. Starting it from seed on a windowsill was an early COVID project for me. The seeds must be stratified (chilled) for several weeks before planting in order for them to grow.

Comfrey has pretty purple flowers which I'm enjoying here at the end of the season. The late season pollinators are big fans too and for that reason alone I'm glad I planted it. I will chop it and dig it into both compost and garden after the first frost and and then hope for a flourishing garden next year. 

Right now, I’m typing around a gray love-sucker of a cat, our two year old gray neutered tom, Tony. He was named after Anthony Bourdain, so I should not be surprised at his over the top behavior. He's  charismatic and cuddly, but, sometimes, he's a wicked jealous cat bully.

The villain of the piece

After a few minutes of my typing away, Tony jumps down and slinks away, heading to the other side of the living room in order to mess with Kimi who was enjoying a sunbeam and minding her own business. Inspiring a PTSD attack in one of your emotionally vulnerable housemates and initiating a running battle is a sure-fire way to get my attention away from the keyboard and back to him—the place where it clearly ought to be. 

This is negative attention-getting, according to a long ago child psych course. A decade ago after this kind of inter-pussy cat escalation, I would have put Tony outside so he could test himself against the semi-urban jungle for a few hours daily. That can tone down the rambunctions of a boy cat, but I don’t want to risk losing him. 

                                                     Let's stare at Kimi until she freaks 

Moreover, I no longer want to be an accomplice to a cat's (quite normal) serial killer proclivities. If outdoor cats stuck to mice and voles--and, dare I suggest, maybe even a few of those bulb nabbing chipmunks--I wouldn’t mind so much, but my last outdoor cat--the legendary B0B--bagged way over the limit of native songbirds. My toleration of this will (no doubt) negatively affect my Karma.  

So, these days, my cats stay inside.

With three cats, I could write buckets on the hausfrau trials with multiple cat boxes, but I will spare you the gory details. 

What we house-bound humans are learning is that we must continuously work on integrating this three cat family. These particular cat-onalities continue to evolve and change, just as do the behaviors of the COVID-bound humans who reside here with them.   

And, last but not least: Green tomato pasta sauce!  Yes, this is delicious. I'd never seen a recipe before, but decided I'd try when it stopped raining here about five weeks ago. I was sick of lugging water to the large tomato pots at the end of tour lot and decided to quit. (A week after I took the plants down, it rained--naturally.) 

But as I stripped the vines I knew that some of these fine large green tomatoes would ripen but others would never get there. I used the smaller fruits in the following eyeball-it-as-you go sauce recipe. 

Green tomatoes chopped--the recipe I based this upon used 4 lbs. 

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

garlic cloves--I used 5, but we like garlic

one medium finely chopped onion

red pepper flakes or red pepper to give it a bit of heat

basil--I would say 20 leaves because it's another seasoning we like

You may bake it at 400 degrees in the oven until it reduces--about an hour--or d0 as I did, and throw it all in the crock pot and let it cook down together. 

Serve with pasta (linguini is a nice base) topped with 

pecorino romano cheese

More basil leaves 

and, if you are independently wealthy--a handful of pine nuts.  

We ate ours without the pine nuts and it was still delicious. This was one of those "plan-over" concoctions, where there was plenty left over for the next day.

~~Juliet Waldron

All my Historical Novels

New Brunswick—a surprising history

When I was asked to contribute to the Canadian Historical Brides series, with the stellar help of Nancy Bell, I was given the province of New Brunswick. I bought a book on the province’s history. I decided to set my story in the eighteenth century, a period I enjoy writing in, and picked the year 1784. From the book I learned that was the year the huge colony of Nova Scotia was divided in two, the western part to be called New Brunswick. This was my first surprise. 

Why the break? After the Revolutionary War, the numerous people who’d remained loyal to King George III had their property confiscated and risked arrest. Thousands of these Loyalists escaped north, into Canada, and the western portion of Nova Scotia. The colony swelled with a disgruntled population who needed land. They demanded their own colony, another capital.

I wanted to toss my characters into this morass, everything changing.

The Coming of the Loyalists by Henry Sandham

Nancy sent me several websites with old maps, documents on the settling of the Loyalists, so much to work in, or leave out.

Then I came across the history of the Acadian Expulsion, the original French settlers when the area was known as New France. Entire villages were slaughtered when the British took over. I just had to delve deeper into that period, and have an Acadian character, one whose mother lived through the expulsion.

Maliseet man

Of course, I couldn’t ignore the First People who were there when the French arrived, mainly the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet tribes. Every layer of settlement, wars, massacres, needed to be worked in without overloading the story.

The biggest challenge was to fit in my fictional characters with actual historical personages, the history timeline, and the extreme hardships of this as yet untamed wilderness.

I hope my novel, On a Stormy Primeval Shore, a "Night Owl Romance Top Pick", will intrigue readers about New Brunswick and its varied history.

Purchase this book and my other novels at BWL

For more info on me and my books, check out my website: Dianescottlewis

Diane Scott Lewis lives in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and one naughty puppy.

Humour in Writing - or not by Victoria Chatham

AVAILABLE HERE

I would love to say I inject humour into all my writing but that just isn’t so because I find writing humour incredibly difficult. It isn’t that I don’t have a sense of humour. I do but, as I tend to be a visual person, ie: I learn best by seeing and doing, it follows that I find visual humour, such as slapstick comedy, the funniest. That is not easy to write and if humour does find its way into my writing, it’s more by accident than design.

Being funny, and humour as a whole is subjective. I remember a movie from the early 80s called ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy.’ Very briefly, a Kalahari bushman encounters civilization and its stranger aspects. It was a low budget of $2.5 million South African film, which netted about $20 million. I couldn’t stop laughing at it, my kids barely cracked a grin. Another movie which I found funny and fortunately they did, too, was 'Start the Revolution Without Me,' starring Donald Sutherland and Gene Wilder as two pairs of identical twins, one aristocratic (The Corsican Brothers) and the other set poor. As France is about to be torn apart by the revolution, both become victims of royal plots. 

So, what is humour? Like the example above, what one person finds funny another won’t. It’s a bit like beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Humour is defined in Webster’s dictionary as having the quality of being amusing or comic. Wit, on the other hand, is defined as having a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humour. Forms of wit include the zinging one-liners aka Violet, the Dowager Duchess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. Other forms of humour can be satirical, self-deprecating, surreal, or plays on words as this by John Lynn: his legacy will become a pizza history.

But in every instance, I come back to the slapstick comedy routines favoured by Victorian music hall and vaudeville audiences everywhere. These I remember, not from personal experience (I'm old but not that old!) until the advent of BBC TV’s series The Good Old Days, but from hearing my aunts and uncles talk about them and sing songs when I was little. One of my father’s favourite acts, Wilson, Keppel, and Betty, did a sand dance routine and they still make me laugh. You can check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn83cCEpZV0

Before we had a TV in the house, we listened to radio programs such as Hancock’s Half Hour, Round the Horne, and Much Binding in the Marsh. Later there were TV programs with the comedy duo of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python. These were all the English programs but I Love Lucy and the Carol Burnett Show were amongst my favourite classic comedy shows. Who could ever forget Carol Burnett's priceless performance as Scarlett O'Hara?

And then, of course, there is humour of  Donald McGill’s classic but saucy English seaside postcards of the 50s and 60s. They were risqué humour at best but that didn’t prevent one of his postcards, featuring a bookish man and an embarrassed pretty woman sitting under a tree, with the caption: "Do you like Kipling?" / "I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never kippled!", holds the world record for selling the most copies, at over 6 million. (source: Wikipedia.) That was the upside. The downside was a police raid on stores in Ryde, Isle of White, confiscating 5,000 of his postcards for indecency.

I love reading books that make me laugh out loud. Elizabeth Dearl’s Diamondback and Stuart J. West’s Zac and Zora series are recent reads that did exactly that. They are the positive side of humour. The negative side of humour is about deriding, belittling, demeaning and ridiculing which are all aspects of bullying and there is nothing funny in that.

I find it impossible to write about the scenes that make me laugh. What I think I do manage from time to time, is more wit than humour. I can only hope my readers agree.

​Victoria Chatham

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It’s 3 in the morning!

Find my book here -- https://books2read.com/Before-Tomorrow-Comes

                It had been a busy day. I baked bread, did laundry, watched a basketball game and did some research for my work in progress. I was tired.
                But the minute I climbed into bed, my brain started plotting and when I couldn’t sleep, I got up and here I am, back at the computer.
                Any writer will tell you the same story. Regardless of how tired you may be or where you are, you write when inspiration strikes and that’s not always when you sit down at your desk.
                I was once driving along on my way to somewhere and had to pull off on a side road, put on my hazard lights and start jotting a scene on various stick-it notes. I had two people pull over to see if I needed help. “Not unless you know another word for antiquated,” I thought.
                I wrote on the back of a wedding invitation as the ceremony took place. It was a beautiful ceremony and I wanted to remember the feel of the day.

And let’s not forget the shower – always the place for random scene generation.           

At least with today’s technology, I can dictate emails to myself on my phone while I drive, hands free.

                You would think I could remember these flashes of inspiration for a more appropriate time and place, but no. If I don’t write down at least some sketchy notes, the thought disappears like fog when the sun rises. That’s why my work notes are not neatly typed pages in chronological order. They’re register receipts, sticky notes or paper napkins. I do sometimes  manage to write in the small notebook I keep in my purse.
                Where is the oddest place you have had to stop and write? And on what? Have those cryptically written phrases found their way into your story in exactly the same way?

Here’s to happy writing…and reading.
Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/baldwin-barbara/

PS -- As February is romance month, Books We Love authors are offering excerpts from their contemporary romances, romantic suspense and paranormal romances on the BWL free reading club. Check it out and join today at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BooksWeLovebookclub/

Harlots & Nightingales

Nightingale, her Lovers & Mozart

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 Buried in the depths of Hulu is a series based on Harris's Guide to the Ladies of Covent Garden, an erotic guide book to the prostitutes who worked the area. This little magazine was issued every year, at a cost 2 shillings + in London during the period 1757-1795. As the charms and specialities of each woman were described in sometimes graphic detail, it was titillating reading in and of itself. 

Having spent a lot of time imagining exactly that time period in the course of working on various novels, I was instantly drawn in. As befits a British production, the costuming and the opening street scenes on the poor side of town were thrillingly authentic, full of piss, drunks, poverty and danger. I confess, I'm completely addicted to Harlots, which has more engaging characters and more twists, turns and heart-breaks in one episode than some series contain in an entire season. 

Way beyond the soft core flash, Harlots is genuine women's history, served straight up. (!) It's written by women and a stern female gaze informs every scene and every line of dialogue. It made me realize, so much more than the tepid statement: "women had no property rights," that these women were property/chattel, just like their client's carriage horses. 

A woman belonged to her father until she belonged to her husband. If she was married off to a gross rich old man or to a violent young one, she might still be lucky enough to become a widow. Only then would she have a chance to control her own life. In a terrific scene at the end of the first series, an aristocratic woman confides that she doesn't care who killed her husband, but if his whore knows who did, she only wants to say "thank-you."

The best a harlot could hope for was a rich and congenial "keeper," a man who would protect what belonged (often by contract) to him. During Georgian times, in London, one in five women was engaged in the sex trade. There were many sociological factors bringing this heart-breaking statistic about, but whatever was the cause, young women flooded into town from impoverished rural families looking for work as domestics. Even if they were fortunate enough to avoid being recruited or even kidnapped for sex work, they were utterly dependent and could easily be forced into sex with their masters. The practice survives today, in the form of workplace sexual harassment.  

If you think those bad old days are over, take a look at the headlines in the past few years about the trials of women working in the entertainment (and the infotainment) businesses. This also happens in the course of ordinary employment, in offices, in restaurants, where tipped workers are paid (in my state $2.83/hr.) and in factories where women, in ever increasing numbers, have gone to work.  One reason for the vulnerability of working women is because even college educated women are not paid what men are paid for producing exactly the same work. Moreover, the color of your skin decides exactly how much less than a man you will earn. Poor women discover that they can make a great deal more "on the game" than working at a minimum wage job, so, if they are young or need to make their own hours because their children are young and daycare impossible because of cost, sex work might still seem to be the only option. 

My Mozart

The Viennese novels I've written are about the morally sketchy entertainment business, true then as now. Singers, actresses, and dancers enjoy fame and a bit of fortune while their looks and physical abilities last, but in the 18th Century they were never considered "respectable." Glamour and charisma brought wealthy men routinely into a talented woman's orbit. In a time when rich men routinely took mistresses, (and I'm sure it's not any different today) these talented women were collected by gentlemen as objects that proved status and virility--a virility often lodged only in their bank accounts.

My heroines, born poor and talented, Maria Klara and Nanina Gottlieb, live in a world where they always walk a cliff path way, the kind with a crumbling edge and an abyss beneath. Men take them for harlots simply because of their profession. Maria Klara is, quite literally, the property of a dissolute music-loving aristocrat. Her career as well as her comfort depend upon her powerful Count's good will and her ability to please him--both on stage and in his bed. Escape from her gilded cage seems utterly impossible.

Nanina, her family impoverished by the death of her father, barely escapes being turned out by her own mother. Lost virginity was the end of respectability, and, with that went the only other option for a woman in the 18th Century--marriage. Wife or Prostitute were woman's choices, unless she had money of her own sufficient to survive upon.  Artists like Mozart lived on the edge of this fast and loose theatrical world; Papa Leopold Mozart's letters are full of exhortations and warnings to his precious, susceptible son on the subject of whores, who might also be talented prima donnas, the kind of women who have passed through the hands of many men.

Mozart's Wife

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~~Juliet 

Day after Turkey

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Day after Thanksgiving here. We've reached the life stage where family lives far away and there are no youngsters nearby. Down to bare minimum family now. A brother-in-law who visits from Maryland. We cook less every year, but it's still too much. Husband & his brother have gone down to Lancaster County to go knife shopping on Black Friday, so here I am--tardy--but here.


Anyone who writes about Mozart has to have a love for opera, and if you've been reading me for even a small time, you know I truly adore this old, peculiar western art form. I'm beginning to break free of the tried and true repertory. (How many Madame Butterflys can you absorb?) The wonderful innovation of Met performances showing at the Movies allows me to go with a fellow devotee to see a performance from NYC of Philip Glass's opera, Akenaten.

Usually, you "hear" an opera more than "see" it. In the case of this production, however, the visual was a partner to the music.  As a result of the one-two punch, the performance stunned us.  Juggling has been added to the staging, and it provided another way to enter into entrancement. This composer is sometimes accused of creating what  has been called "Philip Glass Time," in which the audience is left spellbound. The popular genre this music is most clearly related to is Trance. 

And that's where I'll leave this, because words fail me. I can't do justice to this performance which combines choreography, music of orchestra and voice, and spectacle filled with color and symbolism.

Karen Almond / Metropolitan Opera) as seen in Opera Wire

Nefertiti & Akenaten

Karen Kamensek was the conductor; good to see a woman take the podium and do exactly what the work needed. No outsize stars here, just an astonishing piece of teamwork, craft, professionalism and ART. 

My friend and I were hypnotized. It took us a few minutes to collect our wits and walk with great care out of the theater with all those multi-plex (disorienting!) carpet patterns. Hours had passed; when we finally saw a clock, we were surprised by how late it was.     

Here's a link--barely a minute of your time, if you are curious.
  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSn_UAquOfw

~~Juliet Waldron

See all my historical novels @

http://julietwaldron.com/books.htm

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