It's Not Easy Writing True Stories, by June Gadsby

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it’s not easy writing true stories – even bits of the truth inserted into the novel you’re working on – as I have found. But sometimes you can’t help it. It can be helpful, sad, happy, cathartic.

When I first started out being published [I had been writing for many years before then] I was persuaded to write romantic ‘shorts’. After a lot of digging in my heels, insisting that I was not a romance writer and preferred suspense, I gave in. Getting inspiration, for me, was the hardest thing to do – no problem with the suspense. Now, of course, I marry the two and am finally succeeding [hopefully] towards writing the out and out suspense. When my late agent told me that I had turned the saga he wanted into a wartime thriller you can guess how thrilled I was. That book, of course, was The Glory Girls [1] which had one of my three great-aunts ‘sort of’ in it.

Long before The Glory Girls, I ploughed on gainfully with my novellas, but, to the surprise of my writer friends who, at that time, only wrote romance, these shorts were accepted and well received. One of my favourites – well, even writers have their own favourites which they have written – was Valley of Brave Hearts [2]. 

This was inspired by my first dog, Bertie [3] a most beautiful cross beagle and collie who came from an animal shelter at the age of 3-4 months.

Bertie was five when we came out to France to live and the local farmers used to stop me on our promenade around the field and admire him. I was always relieved that they went away happy with all fingers intact. Bertie was only friendly once people were inside our house, as long as our guests was ‘doggy’ people.  He was my protector. Despite his ‘issues’ I loved him to bits.

Three weeks after our arrival in France my stepdaughter got married. I was supposed to go and put him into a shelter recommended by the only person we knew here in France at that time. I knew the minute I saw the place and the people running it that there was a chance I would never see Bertie again. I cried all the way home and my husband decided that the best answer was for me not to go to the wedding and stay here with Bertie, which I did – and thank heavens.

He came out of the shelter less than 24 hours later, soaked in stale urine and with a huge haematoma on one of his back feet. I told the vet that it was a tumour, but he refused to believe it and treated it as a cyst. There were numerable operations – I had to spend a whole month dressing the wound on my own with Bertie’s head clamped between my bare feet – I thank goodness that I still have all my fingers. The vet was amazed at how well I had done. Unfortunately, the ‘cycst’ soon turned into cancer and he had to have a total amputation. But he could still chase next door’s cat over a high wall and lived until he was 15. I still cry when I see him on that last day, having suffered a stroke overnight, dragging himself across the kitchen floor, big smile on his face and making sounds like: ‘Oh, Mum’, look what’s happened now!’

So, he was a perfect secondary character for Valley of Brave Hearts. I cried all the time I was writing it.

JUNE [Gadsby]

Author.

www.june-gadsby.fr

Historic & contemporary romantic suspense, set in exotic lands; families at war and wartime thrillers. 

Delightfully Peculiar by Eileen O'Finlan

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I love to read all the blog posts by BWL authors, but I get a special jolt of “yippee!” when I open my email to find a post by Stuart R. West.  Stuart’s sense of humor is just so appealing to me. When I discovered he writes paranormal novels, one of my favorite genres, I had to give Peculiar County a try. I am so glad I did because I have not had such pure fun reading a novel in quite some time.

In Peculiar County, fifteen year old Dibby Caldwell, the daughter of the town’s mortician, is haunted by the ghost of a boy who won’t leave her alone until she discovers and reveals the true cause of his death. Dibby gets some help from James, the outcast, new boy in town. From everyone else, her father included, she finds nothing but hindrance, including some of the supernatural variety.

Every character in this book is unique – peculiar in their own way. Not necessarily in a bad way, though whether or not some are malicious is intentionally questionable. Yet no character is so over-the-top as to be unbelievable. That is, at least as long as the character lives in Peculiar County.

A lot of strange things go on in Peculiar County, but Dibby, a native to the county, takes them in stride. Her new friend, James, has a little trouble adapting so Dibby helps him understand that his new home isn’t quite the same as anywhere else.

What I found so delightful about this book was the author’s voice. West mixes eerie paranormal with a smattering of off-beat humor to perfection.  I don’t remember the last time a silly grin was plastered across my face for the endurance of an entire novel, but I’m pretty sure it was with this one. It’s not the reaction one usually has to a creepy, paranormal story. I must be a bit peculiar.

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One War Bride Memory

Left-Behind Bride

What about the War Brides?

Maggie Bension in the book shown was a (fictional) war bride/widow from Canada. Many other war brides came from overseas with their soldier husbands.





 

After WW1 54,000 civilians came to Canada with their soldier husbands and fathers. Although some War Brides and their children came from France and the Netherlands, most came from the UK. 

Not all War Brides were welcomed by their husband's families or communities. Many Canadian young women were anticipating finding husbands among the returning men and weren't pleased the men been "snapped up" by British women. Husbands were is short supply as 3 to 4 milliion ben were killed during the war years. (All countries.) @ 61,000 of those men were Canadians.

The young women shipped from overseas had no idea what Canada was like. They were unprepared for the open, vacant, unpopulated spaces of the Western Prairies and the crudities of life on a homestead. Many ended up in small villages so unlike home and with no other “bride” in town. Strangers alone in a strange land.

One such British bride ended up in my mother's home village of Sherbrook, Nova Scotia. My grandmother (Lena Harriet (Marshal) Ross) befriended her and they were the BFF's of the time. Unfortunately, I don't know the woman's name. But at some point, the English gal gave my mother one of the prize possessions she'd brought from England--a china tea cup and saucer made in the 1800's.

The delicate teacup came down through the family with the story and now is displayed my home. It is a reminder of the importance of friendships and reaching out to those around us. A memento of a difficult time in our history.

What family mementos do you have? And what is the story behind them?

Parsley by Rosemary Morris

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Parsley
I spend hours in solitary confinement writing romantic historical fiction and reading historical nonfiction to research my novels. After long periods of physical inactivity work in my organic garden. where I grow delicious produce, provides fresh air and exercise.
Parsley is one of my favourite beneficial and tasty herbs. It provides essential minerals including iron and calcium and the vitamins A and C. This herb acts as a valuable carminative, tonic, aperient and diuretic and has many uses in the kitchen. It is difficult to grow from seed, but plants bought from a garden centre or supermarket thrive planted as an attractive border along a garden bed, in a herb bed or in containers. If it is not allowed to self-seed parsley produces abundantly and survives the winter
In times past herbs were depended on for culinary flavour and for their medicinal properties far more than they are today. I am as passionate about their use in an age when fast food is popular as I am about writing historical fiction.
Parsley is one of my favourite low maintenance herbs. It acts as a valuable carminative, tonic, aperient and diuretic.
During the First World War, after dysentery soldiers frequently suffered from kidney problems for which parsley tea proved useful. This herb has many medical uses and is particularly helpful for women. According to my research and practical it stimulates the appetite, helps digestion and elimination, soothes the nerves and helps with premenstrual tension and bloating. Taken every day it is useful during the menopause.

Some Vegetarian Egg Free Recipes
Souper A La Bonne Femme
To promote women’s good health.
3 tablespoons butter.
6 tablespoons flour
1pint/600 ml full fat cow’s milk.
1 vegetable soup stock cube
Half cup single cream
100 grams/four ounces finely chopped parsley leaves.

Melt the butter stir in the flour. Slowly add and stir in the milk and water. Add the soup stock cube. Bring to the boil. Remove from heat. Add the cream and simmer the soup gently without it coming to the boil until it thickens. Before serving add the parsley, and salt and pepper if needed. Serve at once.

Parsley Sandwiches
Sliced wholemeal bread
Butter
Cream cheese
Finely chopped parsley leaves
Sea salt or table salt
Black pepper

Spread half the slices with butter and the other half with cream cheese. Sprinkle the cream cheese with parsley, salt and black pepper on the other half of the slices. Cover them with the buttered slices, Cut the sandwiches into quarters and serve



Parsley Butter
3 ounces/75 grams of butter.
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sea salt or table salt and black pepper

Use cool, firm butter not taken straight out of the refrigerator. Mix the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Chill the parsley butter until it is firm.

* * *
Author’s Note. There are many recipes for parsley e.g. parsley dumplings, parsley tonic, fried parsley etc., to enjoy.



Novels by Rosemary Morris

Early 18th Century novels: Tangled Love, Far Beyond Rubies, The Captain and The Countess

Regency Novels False Pretences, Sunday’s Child, Monday’s Child, Tuesday’s Child, Wednesday’s Child and Thursday’s Child. Friday’s Child to be published this month.

Mediaeval Novel Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One



www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary

Strange 17th Century Thoughts by Katherine Pym

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 During the 17^th century in England an explosion of thought dominated. King Charles II blessed the establishment of the Royal Society after his Restoration and men enthusiastically dove into scientific experiments.

Plague Doctor's Headgear

 For medicine, plague doctors almost had it when they said all dogs and cats must be killed to stop the spread of plague. They just did not realize rats that penetrated wattle and daub walls, women’s kitchens and family bedchambers might also carry the disease. Physicians bold enough to enter a plague house wore protective coverings made of soft leather or canvas when visiting the sick, their bird mask beaks filled with disease preventative spices, the types generally unspecified. One master of his house contrived a system of pulleys and tubes that would bring food and stuffs up to a family, with a blast of gunpowder at the onset of sending or receiving goods. The wise patriarch quarantined his family in their upper rooms and barred their doors in June of 1665. They did not leave for months, even as the plague died down with colder weather. My sources say the family lived to write of their experiences.

Women’s reproductive process provided enthusiastic discourse. If virgins were pale and listless, they had the green sickness, and the only cure, according to a 16^th century German physician, was to have sex. Once they conceived, their ailment would go away.  

Robert Hooke's Microscope

If a woman was sexually active and did not conceive, physicians considered her womb had lost purchase and wandered about her body. One learned fellow declared a female patient came to him complaining of severe headaches. He determined her womb had wandered and lodged in her brain. He performed surgery on the luckless lady, cutting into her skull. There is no evidence she survived.

When one fell into an epileptic fit, the best way to revive him was to bend back their fingernails.

For Science, the Royal Society provided a plethora of opportunities to study nature and how things worked. There were lectures and experiments.

One such experiment dealt a transfusion of blood between two dogs. Samuel Pepys wrote of it in his diary: Nov 14, 16666: “A pretty experiment of the blood of one dogg let out, till he died, into the body of another on one side, while all his own run out on the other side.¹ The first died upon the place, and the other very well, and likely to do well.”  

Boyle's Air Pump

Robert Boyle was a brilliant man, and the intellect behind Boyle’s Law: a law stating that the pressure of a given mass of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its volume at a constant temperature. He created an air pump, which Robert Hooke enhanced and performed experiments at the Royal Society.

From my novel, The Barbers:

A tubular, metal vat sat on a tripod of sorts, and atop it was a round glass chamber. Inside the chamber a little chick sat on the bottom, looking bewildered. Its beak opened and closed but Celia did not hear it chirp. To see if it was strangely dead, she tapped the glass. Its head moved.

Robert Hooke said, “Air is very important for all creatures to live. See this here handle?”

Celia felt Deeping nod, and she did too.

“The base of it is attached to the metal cylinder. If you turn this forward, it sucks air out of the glass chamber. Watch.”

He turned the handle, and the chick fluttered its wings a little. As Hooke turned the crank, the chick’s beak opened and closed. The poor, little bird sagged to the bottom of the glass, then it fell over, its little chest pumping up and down. Soon, the chick stilled.

Hooke pointed at the glass globe. “The air has been pumped out of the chamber. Now, I’ll reverse the action.”

He turned the handle backward, and the chick stirred. Its chest went in and out, its breathing less labored. Hooke cranked the handle backward until the chick gathered its wits, gained its feet, and perched once again on the bottom of the glass chamber. It looked around, and chirped.”

NOTE: The animals used in most of these experiments died, their carcasses thrown into the muck pile in the street.

~*~*~*~

Many thanks to: The Barbers, Erasmus T. Muddiman by Katherine Pym, Samuel Pepys’ diary, and Wikicommons Public Domain.