Molasses has been a sweet treat for centuries by Eden Monroe

 

 

https://www.bookswelove.com/monroe-eden/

Used in a variety of applications, from a simple bread and butter topping to any number of delicious recipes, molasses remains a traditional favourite. Molasses cookies and molasses cake were (are) perhaps the most popular, and both were well-loved by young Luke Kavenagh in When Shadows Stir, Book Two of The Kavenaghs (1870-1879):

“When the afternoon class was finished (he was being home schooled), Luke cleaned his slate and waited for his cookies and milk.

 ‘I want to talk to you for a moment, Luke,’ she said sitting down opposite him. ‘Do you know your birthday is tomorrow?’

He thought for a moment. ‘I’m going to be nine, aren’t I.’

‘That’s right, and to help you celebrate the big day I’m going to bake you a cake. Any special kind you’d like?’

Maggie knew what his response would be before she even asked, and of course he shouted: ‘Lally cake!’

Keeping molasses in this house with Luke around was no easy feat.”

 

 Luke’s lally (molasses) cake with whipped cream

 

Molasses has proven to have staying power, and is in as much demand today as it was when it first made its way into North American homes as early as the 17^th century. On the list of natural sweeteners that includes honey and maple syrup, the versatile molasses is possibly the most complex according to howstuffworks.com:

“Depending on its strength, molasses can taste from lightly sweet to smoky-sweet to harshly bittersweet, and its history is almost as complicated as its flavor.

“Making molasses — the process of pressing sugar cane and boiling its juice until it is crystalized — was developed in India was early as 500 B.C.E. In the Middle Ages, the concept made its way to Europe when it’s believed Arab invaders brought it to Spain. From there, molasses-making took another voyage across the Atlantic when Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane to the West Indies….”

Molasses can also be made from beets, which according to www.mwagri.com/beet-molasses, is the “… syrupy by-product of the production process to extract sugar from sugar beets. The residual liquid that is left over is an excellent source of energy for livestock.”

Beet molasses is a valuable feed resource for the beef and dairy cattle industry because of its protein and essential minerals, and is an important ingredient in their growing and finishing diets. It’s also an additive for salt licks.

Additionally, both cane molasses and beet molasses are used in the fermentation industry as a sugary substrate and a key ingredient in yeast production. And surprisingly, again according to mwagri.com/beet-molasses: “… in recent years, molasses has gained popularity as an alternative or a supplement to chloride salt for de-icing roads. Not only does it cost less than rock salt, it is also less corrosive and more environmentally friendly.”

Crosby’s Molasses is a multi-generational company located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, and as set out in Crosbys.com: “Crosby’s Fancy Molasses is the highest-grade molasses available” made from single-origin sugarcane and considered “ideal to use in a variety of foods…. It comes from one place. The Madre Tierra sugar mill in the village of Santa Lucia, Guatemala is our sole provider. It is made from the juice of sugarcane grown in the surrounding volcanic soils.”

Founded in 1879 (in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada), Crosby’s Molasses kept retailers in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and New England, USA well supplied with this popular sweetener. That included delivery to general stores in puncheons (large wooden barrels holding between 90 and 100 gallons), particularly in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, as well as smaller barrels and half-barrels. Customers simply brought their own container to the store for a molasses fill-up.

Walter Akerley of The Narrows, New Brunswick, Canada, who lived to the grand age of 106 ½, had supplies for his general store delivered to him by riverboat. He would then pick them up by horse and wagon at the wharf and take them to his store. Puncheons of molasses were one of his most welcome items.

I remember during my childhood there was always a squeeze bottle of molasses on the table at mealtime, a favourite spread for our homemade bread and butter.

Blackstrap molasses also remains a popular choice for those who enjoy a “stronger, more robust flavour” compliments of this highly-concentrated, very dark molasses. It can also be used in baked beans and gingerbread, as well as in barbeque sauces, stews and marinades.

 

 

 Baked beans were another Kavenagh favourite.

 

Blending Crosby’s Fancy molasses and blackstrap molasses together yields cooking molasses, according to Crosby’s.com.

With all of this sweet talk I thought perhaps a few recipes might be in order, some new to go with more traditional choices, all found in scrumptious detail at Crosbys.com:

 

ONE-BOWL OLIVE OIL GINGERBREAD CAKE

 

·         1/2 cup olive oil

·         1 egg

·         1 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses (or 1 cup of Crosby’s Maple + Molasses

·         1/2 cup brown sugar

·         1.5 tsp baking soda

·         1tsp cinnamon

·         2 tsp ginger

·         1/2 tsp cloves

·         1/2 tsp salt

·         2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

·         1 cup hot water

·         Whipped cream, for serving

Instructions:

1.      Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×9” square cake pan with a spray of olive oil, then dust with flour.

2.      In a large bowl, blend the olive oil and egg until smooth. Add the molasses (or the Maple + Molasses) and brown sugar, whisking vigorously until the mixture is smooth, until there are no remaining sugar lumps.

3.      Add the dry ingredients, then mix until smooth. The batter will be thick.

4.      Pour in the hot water and stir until the batter is homogenous. Be careful not to over-mix.

5.      Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

6.      Bake 25-30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched or when a toothpick comes out clean.

7.      Cool the cake completely in the pan (at least 1.5 hours). Slice into squares and top with whipped cream. Enjoy!

 

 

Extra Fudgy Molasses Brownies

 

·         1 cup dark chocolate chips or coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

·         1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

·         1/4 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses

·         2 large eggs

·         1 cup sugar

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         1/2 tsp. baking powder

·         2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

·         1/4 tsp. salt

·         1 cup flour

·         Sea salt (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.      Heat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8-by-8-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper.

2.      Combine the chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth.

3.      Remove from the heat, add molasses and let cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

4.      Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, cocoa and salt in a large bowl and stir until just incorporated. Add the chocolate mixture and stir until combined. Add the flour and fold in until just incorporated, about 20 strokes (no white streaks should remain).

5.      Pour the batter into the prepared pan (spreading it out and smoothing the top). Bake 30 minutes (until the centre is set). Remove to a wire rack, sprinkle brownies with sea salt (optional) while still warm and let cool at least 20 minutes. Take them out of the oven a littler earlier if you want them to be chewier.

6.      Cut into bite-size pieces (1 or 2-inch squares)

 

 

DOUBLE GINGER CARAMEL SWIRL NO CHURN ICE CREAM

 

·         1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk

·         2 tablespoons Crosby’s Fancy Molasses

·         2 cups heavy cream

·         ½ tsp. powdered ginger

·         ¼ cup chopped candied ginger

·         ½ cup caramel sauce

 

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

 

1.      Line a 9×5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.

2.      In a small bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and the molasses.

3.      In a large bowl whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Drizzle in the condensed milk mixture and powdered ginger and continue to whip until all the condensed milk is incorporated into the cream and the mixture is thick.

4.      Fold in the candied ginger then drizzle over most of the caramel sauce. Stir once or twice (you want thick ribbons of the sauce to remain) then scrape mixture into the prepared pan.  Even out the top then drizzle remaining caramel sauce over top. Draw a butter knife through the mixture in a figure-eight pattern to incorporate the final drizzle of sauce.

5.      Cover and freeze for at least 6 hours.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this molasses journey.

 

 

 

 Brevity

Elmore Leonard sat across the table from me, looking exactly like his dust jacket photo. Owlish glasses.  Scraggly goatee.  Tweedy sports jacket over a plaid shirt.  He was in Vancouver promoting When The Women Come Out To Dance, a collection of short stories and two novellas, and agreed to come on my CBC Radio show Saturday.   

Leonard is a master of the short story.  The TV series Justified is based on his short story Fire In The Hole.  He’s written several dozen crime novels (Get Shorty was made into a movie starring John Travolta and Gene Hackman), a dozen or more westerns (3:10 To Yuma was made into a movie in 1957 and again in 2007) and even an international thriller or two. He writes crackling dialogue like no one else and uses it to move the scene along and keep the reader turning the pages, which is why his work is so adaptable for movies and TV.  So I asked him if he had any advice to writers about how to perk up their prose.  He didn’t, but his own mantra was simplicity itself.

“I just leave out the stuff people don’t read,” he told me.   

I spent more than thirty years editing stories for radio, taking out the aural equivalent of the stuff that people don’t read.  My inner editor is always present when I write, decluttering and removing the unnecessary.  I’ve tried to take Elmore Leonard’s mantra to heart in my novel Astraphobia, part of BWL’s Paranormal Canadiana Collection.  The story follows three generations of the McKenzie family as death by lightning stalks them from Scotland to Ottawa to Moose Jaw.  Astraphobia will be published in June 2025 by BWL.       

EPUB – 978022863396        BWL Print 9780228635215    

BEAR TALES

Metamorphe--under construction.

Every First Nation has bear legends and probably a majority have a Bear Clan too. Little wonder, as Bears were once common in the woodlands of North America. More than that, to the first people who walked onto and then across this continent carrying only spears and slings, the bear would have been a formidable animas. 

Of course, these first people were accustomed to dealing with megafauna, because this was the time of giant sloths, saber-toothed cats and mammoths, but I have a feeling that the bears were pretty darn big too. In Europe, humans probably were a major contributor to the demise of the enormous Cave Bears, in what must have been perceived like gangs of cruel, merciless home invaders to the original ursine owners.

After the time of Pleistocene giants had passed, (probably because of the invasion of humans, with their weapons and organized methods of attack) the last remaining predators of any size were the bears that we have in North America today, the Brown Bear and the Black Bear. Today's Black Bear is the junior American member, weighing in between 200 and 600 pounds and standing upright from 5'-6' feet tall, while the Brown Bear, or Grizzly, can stand as tall as eight feet and weigh between 400 and a 1000 pounds. 

They are temperamentally different too. Black Bears are omnivores, and perhaps because of this, less aggressive. They are likely to be as interested in getting away from you as you are in getting away from them. Grizzly Bears are another matter. They are carnivores, more territorial and more likely to see you as lunch. Any bear, however, will become dangerous if you mess with it's cubs, so if you spot a baby, you make a slow retreat. There is a saying regarding human/bear confrontations: "If it's Black, fight back; if it's Brown, lie down; if it's White, say good-night." 

Ancient people, the world over, had great respect for bears. Observing them and their behavior, they saw bears as kin of a sort, perhaps from the fact that they could stand on their hind legs. A bear will keep fighting even if wounded, dangerous until the end. This was a kind of bravery humans recognized. 

Bears seemed to be able to heal their wounds too, and so it was believed that bears had the power to bestow healing and resilience. If you were in fight, a bear fighting in your corner would demonstrably be a good thing, so they were also invoked as protectors, for their courage was well known. They had admirable qualities such as fiercely protecting their young, and they could be seen to teach and nurture their cubs. Little wonder people would want to emulate them. 

Among the Huron/Wendake, bears were revered. They possessed good medicine. The bear commanded authority; they were self-healers, courageous, and immensely strong, and so, ideally, were members of Bear Clan. Warriors carried bear claws in their medicine pouches for strength, courage and protection. 

I would be remiss not to mention the famous Ponca Chief, Standing Bear, a brave and honorable man who won a civil rights case against the United States in 1879, after his people had their reservation taken from them. Although they at first complied, moving to the unsuitable and inhospitable land they had been allocated, the government didn't bother to follow through on the other promises that had been made, that there would be adequate supplies to help them get through their first winter, or that a mill would be built.

Standing Bear lost a son and a daughter that first starvation winter. In desperation, he and 30 others attempted to return to their ancient home along the Niobrara River. They were imprisoned at a fort, but when a journalist heard their story of how they had been treated, he published it and attracted the attention of lawyers who ended by arguing the case of the Ponca in U.S. District Court in 1879 in Omaha. 

When Chief Ponca spoke, he said that although his hand was a different color from that of the judge, his blood was red, just like that any other American. He insisted that he was "a person and a citizen" with rights. In the end, the Judge, Elmer Dundy, agreed that Native Americans were "persons within the meaning of the law, have the right of habeas corpus," thereby becoming "the first Native Americans judicially granted civil rights under American law."

 

This remains a landmark civil rights case. I noticed that in several popular t.v. series, the most honorable and courageous 1st Nation's character are given the name: "Standing Bear."

John Wisdomkeeper and his Guardian

~~Juliet Waldron

Kobo

Smashwords

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Sensory Details: The Magical Key to a Vivid and Emotional Reading Experience By Connie Vines

Sensory Details: The Magical Key to a Vivid and Emotional Reading Experience 

Come for the fun...Stay for the romance.

A gentle breeze blew my hair across my cheek (TOUCH) as I walked along the uneven trail (TOUCH). Leaves rustled (SOUND) above me, and a lone crow gave several loud caws (SOUND) overhead. I took a deep breath. The smell of decay and leaves (SMELL) made me wary, and the coppery taste of fear coated my throat. I scanned my surroundings to ensure I wasn't being followed (SIGHT).

Connie's personal photo

Canva created collage

Every writer knows that The Five Senses also sets the story's mood/tone/genre.

While my first example lets the reader know this story isn't a straightforward romance. 

The reader will expect a murder mystery/suspense/or even a Gothic novel.

The second photo, a collage, evokes a romantic or light-hearted story with a holiday vibe. 

Therefore, during a first draft, the focus is on the story's setting, time, and tone, which are vital. Dialogue and characterization are also essential.

 I have discovered (in my reading and professional writing) that not including a wide range of sensory details is, in fact, cheating your reader.

Cheating? I would never cheat my readers!

🌹 Sensory details draw your reader into the story, trigger emotional responses, and, most importantly, make them feel a part of your story world. 

Since I'm an introvert and tactile, adding these details/emotional reactions is natural to me. In contrast, a more analytical person's writing might focus on the visual and take a more detective approach to/reaction to the sensory clues. 

Now, one step further: How your character processes his/her sensory details enriches the story. (Obviously, a hard-boiled detective's vocabulary would be different from that of a giddy teenager.)

🎥📺Examples from Television and Movies:

This is for fans of Star Trek (original series: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Forest Kelly) and the Cinema movies that followed (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban). 

Mr. Spock was my favorite character. Though I observe, analyze, and retain facts and can relate details decades later, I am not, and will never be, "Mr. Spock."

Captain Kirk was a physical, in-your-face kind of guy. He yelled, punched, and bled. First, on the scene or to make a scene, the man didn't seem to ever sleep. 

Then there was "Bones," Doctor Leonard McCoy. He grumbles and points out injustice, holds his ground for what is right, and saves his patient's life. He has empathy, compassion, and wit. 

So, the first key to successful sensory details in a story is to know your character. How does your character look at the world? What lens does your character use?

Does this sensory detail become vital to the story, or define your main character? Or the clue to solving a murder/mystery?

Excerpts from Gumbo Ya Ya (an anthology)

4 stories and one book!

A Slice of Scandal

She ignored his question and continued with her narrative. "Instead, the scenes are shot according to where they are set. The cooking, naturally, will be here on the sound stage. But Harvey wants some location work, too."

Sebastian felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Location work?" How would he investigate a murder and a smuggling ring if he wandered over to some tourist site? He flipped through the script. "My contract doesn't say anything about location work."

Julia glanced over her script, making eye contact. "You're joking, right?"

Think fast, Beaux, just stall her. "I'm not ready."

"You're not ready?" she asked, her voice heavy with disbelief. You've lived in a swamp, caught and eaten alligators, frogs, snakes, and fish... and you don't want to appear at a local shopping mall?"

"I'm not ready; you told me that. I still get nervous...in large crowds."

The look she shot in his direction clearly labeled him a liar, but she kept silent... 

Love Potion No. 9

"Don't shake your finger at me, Simone Basso. I know what I'm doing." Persia Richmond said, holding a pipette to fill a crystal half-ounce atomizer with perfume. The top notes of peach blossoms, bergamot, and mid-notes of gardenia, honey, and tuberose tanalized. The tuberose, being the most carnal of the floral notes and high-ticket natural essence for her fragrance compound, merged with peony and orange blossom to temper the intoxication properties. The base notes lingered while a hint of something unnamed and mysterious beguiled and skimmed across the narrow processing room, saturating her senses.

The fragrance was New Orleans, culture at its most upscale moments, and Mardi Gras at its naughtiest.

The imported essence oils of the tuberose had nearly emptied her bank account, leaving Persia only one egret. Her Grandpapa hadn't lived to experience her mastery of perfumery.

Holding up the bottle, she allowed the light to shine through the tempered vial for a moment before she ensured the stopper was tight. 

Simone leaned over Persia's shoulder, "I done warned and warned you about messing with love potions."

The statement sent Persia's heart thundering in her chest. Snagging a steadying breath, she regained her composure. "You worry too much, Simone. This is a perfume. Nothing more, nothing less."

Now, back to me 😉

And the scent of my favorite fragrance?

A creamy, sweet-fruity fragrance starts with dahlia, then fades into pear.

Notes: Velvet, Dahila Petals, Crisp Pear, Praline Musk, and whipped Tonka Bean. 

I hope you've enjoyed this month's post :)

Happy Reading!

Connie

Books are available via online book sellers:

https://bwlpublishing.ca/vines-connie/

https://www.amazon.com/Connie-Vines/e/B004C7W6PE

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brede-connie-vines/1115934010

https://books.apple.com/us/author/connie-vines/id624802082

and more!

Where's Connie?

https://www.facebook.com/ConnieVinesAuthor/

https://www.instagram.com/connievines_author/?hl=en

and now on:

 https://substack.com/@connievines

AI – Where is the intelligence? – by Vijaya Schartz

 

This award-winning novel deals with an AI character.
Find it on my author page on
amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo 

I recently noticed a slew of posts in my Facebook feed that are obviously AI-generated. Although I am not opposed to giving life to old portraits of historical figures, I draw the line at computer generated images of the Sphynx and other famous archeological treasures, that are inaccurate at best, if not completely made up and wrong. Other times, the picture has no connection whatsoever with the title, the text, or the information in the post. Why not use a real photograph relevant to the post?

As for the monotonous AI voice, completely devoid of emotion, I have come to hate it. How can anyone relate to information delivered in such a boring manner? I remember the passion in the voice of my teachers when I was in school. They were the ones who communicated to me their love for literature, history, science. All because they cared, and it showed in their voice, their body language, and on their faces. I could feel the energy coming from them and touching me deeply. They made me want to learn more.

AI-generated royalty-free image

Nowadays, we are witnessing the takeover of the machines. Not only the voice is devoid of emotion, but it also misreads the words because it doesn’t understand the meaning of the sentence, only the structure. It pauses in the wrong places, sometimes expressing the opposite of the intended meaning. In a recent post, the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet became a “segment” in the narrative. Worse, AI is also turning the voice into text for subtitles, and the subtitles also said “segment.”

And I don't need an AI detector to spot AI generated comments. Probably an attempt to start a debate, they are all similar in structure. Coming from different accounts, they start with an introduction, three bullet points, and a conclusion, as if directly copied from an online textbook. Who on Facebook comments like that? Who is AI trying to fool?

Now that AI will become the center of learning for many students, I shudder at the idea that future generations of intellectuals, philosophers, scientists, writers, explorers, and rulers will be groomed by non-emotional entities in the cold, detached style of what we call AI.

Royalty-free AI generated image

Isn’t intelligence supposed to be self-aware, with the ability to comprehend and relate emotionally? To me this new invasion is not AI, but dumb computers relying on search engines and limited logic. As we used to say in my days, “Erring is human, but to really mess things up, it takes a computer.”

So, here we are. We didn’t react when autocorrect changed the meaning of our texts, laughing because it was “cute.” And now we are letting the same computers take over control of our lives, influencing our ideas, thwarting our knowledge, trying to replace free thinking and real intelligence.

As a science-fiction author, I am appalled. There is no AI intervention whatsoever in my novels. They are pure passion, pure imagination and human intelligence, and I hope you’ll enjoy them.

amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo

Vijaya Schartz, award-winning author

Strong Heroines, Brave Heroes, cats

https://www.vijayaschartz.com

amazon - B&N - Smashwords - Kobo - FB

Paying Dues by Bruce McKern

McKern, Kevin and Bruce - BWL Publishing Inc.

Like most things, the term 'paying dues' has certain connotations, dependent on one's life experiences.  To some, it means a chunk of their paycheck goes to an organization that, ideally, would advocate for them in case of a labor dispute.  For others, it's the price of admission to place that offers brotherhood and cheap booze.  But to a lunk-headed, free-lance small market musician, it has very little to do with money.  It's all the experiences, from the goofy to the sublime, that made me the musician I ultimately became.

It could be said that education and dues are separate entities, but not by me. I started guitar lessons at age seven. Every Saturday morning Dad would take me and my brother to the music store. Our teacher was an old-school musician's musician. He had emigrated from Germany, had an amazing accent, and was proficient in just about every instrument imaginable. He gave us a theoretical as well as technical background in music.

We also got some practical experience when he had me and my brother play some real-life gigs with him.  It was so cool to be out past my bedtime, playing music for people, and actually getting some money for it.  I also got the chance to see how a pro handles different situations whilst keeping the music flowing.

For most of my school days, I was in orchestra and band.  And my last three years of high school, Kevin and I played in the pit for the spring musical.  My sophomore year, it was a last minute, emergency situation with very little rehearsal.  It was just me, Kevin, and the music-director/pianist.  We all worked from condensed scores, so it was great fun making up our own parts (and for a string bass player, I got pretty adept at reading ledger lines!).  But the biggest take away was learning the fine art of accompanying.  With singers and actors, but especially with teenagers trying to be both at the same time, it's a balancing act of being firm, supportive, and above all, flexible.  It's a skill-set that served me well not only doing musical theatre, but with just about every kind of gig.  Most of the time, music is conversational in nature, and listening is key to good conversation.

Probably my very first gig was at a tavern with my cousin and my brother.  I think my age was in the single digits, I played the tambourine, and I requested my pay be in the form of a stack of dollar bills.  Starting in my tweens and running right up to present day, I've been in various iterations of rock bands with my brother.  We did the club scene pretty heavy while I was still in high school.  This was in the days of five sets a night.  Usually, the places were deserted for the first and last sets, so it was challenging to keep the energy up and put on a show.  We had a lot of fun, but it was also when the bars were full of cigarette smoke.  Hair, clothes, and gear were absolutely toxic by the end of the night.

During my college years, while playing in the symphony and rock bands, we were also doing the odd society gig.  Usually at the country club, it was an exercise in humility and definitely a character builder.  In my late twenties, I played in a little-big band (swing-era music scored down for an octet).  This was a particularly interesting sociological experience due to the fact that the other members of the group were retirees from all different walks of life.  They were also mostly from the greatest generation, so they had first-hand knowledge of swing when it was new and popular.  Also, that band had a dedicated arranger who would create absolutely stunning, original charts that were equally challenging and accessible.  

On most of the casual dates I played, I was the baby on the bandstand.  It was a very informal type of apprenticeship that I greatly appreciate.  I'm not sure young people now have the same opportunities.  I hope they do, and I hope they have as much fun as I did!

Vikings in North America by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

  

The Vikings in North America

 

It has been long thought that the first European to step on the soil of North America was Christopher Columbus. But excavations done at a site in northwest Newfoundland, called L’Anse aux Meadows, in the 1960’s recovered artifacts like jewellery, a stone oil lamp, a bone knitting needle, and tools that were compared to ones used at Viking settlements in Greenland and Iceland around the year 1000. They have been carbon dated to between the years 990 and 1050, proof that the Vikings were in North America long before Columbus.

       Vikings were people from Scandinavia, present day Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, who were merchants as well as warriors. During the late eighth to eleventh century they raided, pillage, and conquered settlements in Scotland and throughout Europe. They also had settlements in Iceland and Greenland.

       Surnames ending in "-son" or "-sen" are considered to have Viking ancestry. My great-grandparents emigrated from Scotland. Plus, the little finger on my right hand does not lay flat when I set my palm down. My sister has the same condition but worse. Her little finger had a permanent bend to it. She went to her doctor and received a botox shot to relax it. When she went for physio she was told that a bent finger like that was a sign of being a Viking. I also have a friend of Norwegian ancestry with the same little finger.

       But, that bent little finger comes from my mother’s side who also had one. Her maiden name was Relf, which I learned was first found in the 1000s in Nairnit, a town in northern Scotland. So, with this ancestry on both sides I consider myself a Viking. In 2017, I visited L’Anse aux Meadows in northwest Newfloundland.

       From the parking lot I walked to the interpretive centre where I looked at the displays of what the settlement would have looked like during its occupation. There are replicas of the longships that the Vikings sailed in, artifacts unearthed during the excavations, write-ups about the Vikings, tools that were found, and maps showing the route the Vikings used to get to Newfoundland or Vinland, as they are thought to have named it. The Scandinavians of the medieval period were known as Norse and they were farmers and traders. When they began raiding other countries they became known as Vikings, the Norse word for raiders.

       There has been a lot of interest in the Vikings recently with televisions shows and documentaries about them and their raiding which began in the 790s and lasted until around 1050. With their longboats and advanced sailing and navigational skills the Viking men and women travelled from Scandinavia south through Europe to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and west to North America.

       I left the centre and followed a long, wooden boardwalk through grass and small bushes to the actual site. There I found a post fence around a yard with large mounds covered in grass. When the Vikings landed here there were forests from which they were able to get material for their boat and house building. The remains of eight buildings were found in the 1960s and they are believed to have been made of a wooden frame and covered with sod.

       The structures have been identified are a long house, an iron smithy, a carpentry shop, and smaller buildings that may have been for lower-status crewmembers or even slaves or for storage. There are three replicas of those sod buildings with their thick walls on the site. One is a long house which is equipped with clothes, beds and bedding, household utensils, tools, a fire pit and has a couple dressed in period clothing cooking a meal. The Vikings hunted caribou, bear, and smaller animals plus whale, walrus, and birds for food as well as fished.

       I wandered through the rooms divided by hand carved wooden plank walls. Light came from the fire and holes in the ceiling which are partially covered with upside down wooden boxes to keep the rain out.

       One of the other buildings is the smithy complete with anvil, forge, bellows, and various tools. I wandered the rest of the site and saw the outlines of other buildings that have not been reconstructed. It is estimated that between 30 and 160 people lived there over the years.

       The Vikings arrived in Newfoundland from Iceland via Greenland. According to historical records the site was inhabited by the brothers and sister of Leif Ericson plus a series of explorers. It is believed the settlement was there for seven or eight years before being abandoned. This is the only confirmed Viking site in North America and is the farthest west that Europeans sailed before Columbus.

       After viewing the buildings I followed a trail along the rocky shoreline and then turned inland to walk on a boardwalk over a bog back to the parking lot.

       One of the best things is that not only does the interpretive centre have the history of the Vikings, but there is also extensive displays showing the history of the aboriginal people who inhabited the area over thousands of years before any European arrived.

       In 2018, I visited the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. In the museum is a permanent exhibition of parts of five original Viking ships excavated nearby in 1962. A thousand years ago these ships were deliberately scuttled (filled with rocks and sunk) in a river to stop the enemy from invading the city by water. Over the decades since they were found, the pieces have been preserved and put together on a metal frame to show how the ships would have looked. Also at the site are replicas of the Viking ships and I became a Viking for an hour. A group of us sat on the seats and rowed the ship out of the harbour using the long oars. Once on the open water we hoisted the mast and set sail. After sailing for a while we headed back to the harbour. As we neared it I had the honour of pulling on the rope that lowered the mast and sail and we glided back to our dock.

       It would be fun, someday, to write a novel about my ancestors.

       

 

Where to Set Your Story by Victoria Chatham

 

TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2025

All stories have a setting. Some are instantly recognisable, others are not. One of my favourite authors is Rosamund Pilcher, who set many of her stories in Cornwall, the English county that dips its toe into the Atlantic Ocean. The first line of her book, Coming Home, tells you this, but in a charming way:

'The Porthkerris Council School stood halfway up the steep hill which climbed from the heart of the little town to the empty moors which lay beyond.'

Lee Child, another of my favourite authors, leaves you in no doubt of his setting in the opening of Oneshot:

'Friday. Five o'clock in the afternoon. Maybe the hardest time to move unobserved through a city. Or maybe the easiest. Because at five o'clock on a Friday nobody pays attention to anything. Except the road ahead.'

The setting anchors the story in time and space, providing a sense of reality for the reader. The author is responsible for further solidifying that setting by engaging the senses. If it is an indoor setting, such as a house or a building, where is the character located? What furniture might they have to move around? What can they see, hear, and feel? I often close my eyes and visualise it, typically typing as I move from hallway to stairs, from scullery to dining room. The devil is in the details, so all the details I ‘see’ are typed. What time of day is it, and what part of the year? Where does the light fall, and what shadows does it create? How does that affect the colour palette of the décor? Being specific usually holds a reader’s attention, especially if it appeals to the senses.

Shakespeare wrote, ‘Let me count the ways.’ OK, he was writing Sonnet #43, but that phrase could just as easily refer to creating settings as to declaring love. In As You Like It, he also wrote, ‘All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.’

While the Bard waxes poetic, authors are not so different in creating the stage or setting and moving characters around in that landscape. As much as I love creating characters, I also enjoy creating their settings. For my Regency romances, my characters have followed the social round from someone’s country seat to London, then on to the spa towns of Brighton, Bath, Cheltenham, Buxton, and Harrogate. While there were others, these are the most easily recognised, particularly Bath, for those who enjoy Regency romance. Being such popular cities, many of which have changed little since their inception, street plans are readily available online with some digging into each city’s archives.  

Typical town plan

I have been torn between using real-life locations for my contemporary stories and creating a town because I’m writing fiction. This is where I combine fact and fiction. I take a location I know and fictionalise it. That way, I can still write with a measure of conviction that might otherwise be lacking. Readers invariably sense a weakness, and I do my best to make my fictional settings as real as possible. I mix up English village names if my setting is in England, and I’m sure there are many more fictional ranches in Southern Alberta than in reality.

Fall colours in Southern Alberta

Another aspect of setting is designing the houses in which my characters live. I need to understand how they move through these spaces and what keeps the upstairs household members separate from those below stairs. Even with my ranch houses, I approach the same considerations. After designing one ranch house, I knew almost every log and stone in its construction, but I could not picture the roofline. I phoned a local architect’s office, explained my dilemma to the receptionist, and asked if any of the architects there would be willing to assist. The following day, I received a call from a gentleman intrigued by the process of building a house in a novel. We scheduled an appointment, and when he examined my floor plan, it didn't take him long to add a roof to it. Job done, but our conversation about the intricacies of writing a book continued well beyond the one-hour slot he had allocated me.

My current work in progress is set in a place I know well, but I have fictionalized it out of respect for the residents. Whether they recognise it or not remains to be seen when A Murder in the Meadow debuts this coming September.

Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 ON FACEBOOK

 MY WEBSITE

 

Lighting the creative fire and keeping it burning

At a recent writer's workshop, one of my students asked, "How do you stay motivated to work on a book that may take years to complete?" My first thought was to pass on the old adage, "Don't be overwhelmed by the elephant laying before you. Eat it one bite at a time." I sensed the student needed something more immediate. 

I said each book has a series of milestones. While it's immensely satisfying to see your name on the cover of your first book, that's only a single milestone along a long path of writing. I sensed he needed something immediate, so I passed on advice I'd received from Nevada Barr, the author of the Anna Pigeon series. She writes three pages a day. Every day. If she's inspired, she writes very small. If uninspired, she writes large and double spaced. That discipline yields a book every year. 

I could see my student glaze over as he considered the prospect of a year of daily writing. I said, "the milestone was three pages, not the whole book. Write three pages and step back. Say, 'I've succeeded today. I've written three pages!" 

Still not sensing any enthusiasm, I reassured him. "Do you have an opening sentence? If you do, you've passed a milestone. Is there an opening paragraph? Great, another milestone is behind you. A first page. Another success." I could see him starting to feel better about his accomplishments. 

"Next, tell your wife or call you best friend when you've finished the first chapter. They'll be impressed and their enthusiasm will drive you on. You'll have the energy to write the second chapter."

As he mulled that advice, he smiled. "I can write three pages a day. Thank you."

A second student told me she'd stalled. Halfway through a book, she'd hit the wall. She was a "pantser', writing by the seat of her pants, whatever thoughts came to her mind that day. I suggested she step back to create an outline of the plot she's completed. When I do that, I perceive the "trajectory" of the book I'm writing, which helps me envision what comes next.

As the students left, a smiling middle-aged woman approached and shook my hand. I asked if I'd provided the tools she needed to move ahead with her book. Her reply was priceless. "No, Dean, what you've done is convince me I don't want to write a book. You've pointed out the things I enjoy in a book, and I'm motivated to dive into my "to be read" pile. I'll look at the plots and characters more critically. Thank you."

I heard later that she was working her way through my Pine County mystery series. That's a milestone for me; a reader who enjoyed the first Dean Hovey book she read, and is now moving on to the others.

If you're an inspired reader, check out "Skidded and Skunked". It's the latest book in the Pine County series. This is the first book for my co-author, D.L. Dixen, She's just hit that incredibly exciting milestone of touching the first book with her name printed on the cover. 

Better yet, if you search for D.L. Dixen on Amazon or my publisher's website, you'll see "Skidded and Skunked." Not only did she make the book better, she hit that BIG milestone of her name on the book's cover. 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=D.L.+Dixen&crid=2GBIPB966OLU5

Dixen, D.L. - BWL Publishing Inc.

A woman doctor in the 18th century, impossible, or is it? by Diane Scott Lewis

 

A young woman seeks to learn a physician's skills in the late eighteenth century, but discovers strange village secrets, and a possible murder, instead. To purchase this book, click HERE  

For this novel I delved into eighteenth century medical practices, and found some interesting facts concerning women. I hope you find them interesting as well.

In this time period woman weren't allowed to study as doctors in Great Britain. But some women found ways to circumvent the restrictions.

Women were often relegated to treat female issues only, but a few went beyond that practice.

An Irishwoman named Margaret Bulkley dressed as a man, attended Edinburgh University, and graduated a fully fledged doctor. Her charade went largely undetected in her many years of practice.

Margaret as "James Barry"

A Mrs. Roman in 1760s Wiltshire, England, worked as a physician, for the poor, treating both men and women. She was paid the same as the male doctors but her formal education is unclear.

Here is an excerpt from my novel, when Rose confronts the village doctor. (all her examples are pre 1790s) 

“Why are you interested in these things, may I ask?” Dr. Nelson's tone turned a little cold as he scrutinized her.

“That’s what I’ve come to discuss with you.” Rose scanned two other book titles then faced him. “Since I was a little girl I’ve been interested in healing, practicing on cats and dogs, mostly. I set a dog’s leg, and he recovered quite well. I even treated our servants in America with poultices and syrups.

“I discovered a Lucretia Lester of Long Island who practiced midwifery for years, but she was respected as a nurse and doctoress to the women she treated.” Rose sat in a Windsor chair before a large oak desk, the books in her lap.

“Women have long been respected as midwives.” Nelson sat at his desk. The size of the piece dwarfed him, and it displayed no personal items and no portraits hung on the walls.

He stared down at his hand and tapped a finger. “Of course, since the use of forceps started twenty years ago, which brought men into delivery rooms, midwives were relegated to rural communities or serving the poor.” He related this as if delivering a lecture. His stiff words pushed aside any friendliness.

Undaunted, Rose plunged on. “I also read an article in an old edition of the South Carolina Gazette about a Mrs. Grant who attended lectures by professors of Anatomy and Practice of Physick in Edinburgh. She had a certificate and practiced as a doctoress in Scotland.”

“I have heard of her. That was almost thirty years ago.” Nelson looked up again, his frown deep. “What do you hope to accomplish, Miss Gwynn?”

“Women were allowed to be physicians in England until Henry VIII legislated to put a stop to it.” She pressed the history books against her thighs. “It’s time that women were allowed back into the practice.” 

“Do you intend to find a way to attend a medical college? I’m afraid that’s— impossible.” His skin flushed as if he fought against a stronger emotion.

A quack doctor assists a patient in 1792

Rose has no idea she's stirring up trouble for Nelson, but soon she'll be in the thick of it. Along with her meet Catern, a tavern wench out for revenge against the earl who is courting Rose's sister, and the mysterious Charlie who watches them all, hoping to help or hinder.

For more on me and my books, visit my BWL author's page

https://bwlpublishing.ca/lewis-diane-scott/

Diane lives in Western Pennsylvania with one naughty dachshund.