Thursday, April 18, 2024
Growing Older, Maybe not so Gracefully by Nancy M Bell
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
October - New Book - What I'm doing now by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Mystery - new #Fantasy - old #Regencies - new
Here is the cover for October's release - The Horror Writer's Demise. Having fun researching the mny things I need to know. Probably not a cozy like The Mrs. Miller's books but more of a mystery and developing romance. The heroine is about 30 and has a five year old son and a mother who watches the child. The hero is a widower with a five year old son and who owns a house that was divided into two living areas. Even though four years has passed since his wife's death, he has clung to memories. As for her, the father of her son left without marriage and has successfully vanished. She has passed the regret stage and has entered the thank heavens he's gone. At this poing there are two more ideas floating for stories here. The Historical author's Snuff Boxes and The erotic writer's Nightgowns. I;m sure more will come.
I'm also looking at some Regencies I was working on when Gemstones was written. They were shoved away since other things came into being and were found with the great cleaning of writer's file cabinet. One has six chapters written. The second has a long working synopsis done and the third just an idea. Looks like I'll be busy.
I am finishing up the last of a fantasy series story though I have no idea what I'll do with it but being the writer I am since there are fifteen chapters rough drafted, I must finish this. Then I'll decide if and when Keltoi will appear.
My Places
https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f
http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com
https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/
Buy
Mark My Places
https://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/
So there's a bit of work ahead and I'm slowly gathering the words to put all together.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Guesting at the Museum, by J.C. Kavanagh
Click here for purchase options for this award-winning series. https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/ |
The exhibit showcased 16 authors, one from each township/town within Simcoe County. The setting for my Twisted Climb series is in New Tecumseth, while the dream world and un-world is fictionalized in areas around Tiny, Midland, Penetanguishene, and further north, Manitoulin Island. The legends and traditions of the Anishinaabe tribes, particularly the Ojibwe people, play a major role in the final book of the series, A Bright Darkness.
Visitors were encouraged to leave a sticky-note with the name of their favourite book. The Twisted Climb was on the wall! |
One of the showcase authors was the Canadian legend, Margaret Atwood. I wasn't aware she lived in Alliston for a period of time and that her daughter, Eleanor, was born there.
A bit of Simcoe County trivia:
Established: First in 1798 as the Home District and in1843, re-named Simcoe District in honour of the Lieutenant-Governor's father, Captain John Simcoe
Population of Simcoe County: 352,000 (2021)
Area: 4,819 square kilometres (1,861 sq. miles)
Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada |
If you haven't read the Twisted Climb trilogy, I hope this blog arouses your curiosity.
J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3) Best Young Adult Book FINALIST at Critters Readers Poll 2022
and
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST YA Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST YA Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh
Friday, April 12, 2024
My Stroll Through the 1918 Sears Catalogue
Please click this link for book and author information
While researching 1918 fashion for my historical-novel-in-progress, I stumbled upon a 1918 Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogue, which someone had uploaded on the internet. The catalogue's 1,676 pages provided a treasure trove of details about that year in time and brought back memories of catalogue browsing in my younger days.
In Canada, where I grew up, the Eaton's mail-order catalogue was a mainstay in middle class homes from the early twentieth century until the catalogue expired in 1976. My cousin, who lived in the countryside, ordered all her back-to-school clothes from the thick fall/winter catalogue. My aunt in the city made ordering and returning catalogue items into a hobby. Her husband joked that the Eaton's delivery truck made a daily beeline to their street. Catalogues were the forerunner of today's online shopping although they couldn't offer one-day service.
I don't recall purchasing many catalogue goods, but I enjoyed flipping through the pages to see what was available. A common joke of the time was that little boys--and not so little ones--spent hours studying the ads for women's underwear. I expect boys living 100 years ago were equally intrigued by the 1918 catalogue's not-so-demure ladies modelling corsets. Prices for these complex articles of clothing ranged from $1.85 to $3.98 for Sear's finest corsets. Corsets for children and teenage girls started at 98 cents.
I always find it interesting when old or historical books cite prices that are stunningly lower than today's costs. On the next revision of my historical novel, I'll look for ways to insert a few 1918 prices into the story. While the earlier drafts mentioned corsets and petticoats, my catalogue stroll reminded me that people wore more underwear a century ago because houses were colder than they are today. The 1918 Sears catalogue featured twenty-eight pages of long underwear ads for women, men, and children. A note explained that wool underwear had become scarce because the Government required woolen mills to prioritize supply to soldiers and sailors fighting the Great War. Most civilians would have to make do with cotton underwear.
The one-piece long-sleeved undershirt and underpants garment was called a union suit in 1918. Long underwear was originally designed to liberate women from corsets, petticoats, and stockings. Perhaps I'll have my protagonist wear a pair of long johns under her housedress to stay warm in her chilly home. Catalogue ads for coal kitchen stoves, called ranges, promoted their side benefit of warming the room in winter. Customers could purchase ranges fueled by hard coal, soft coal, wood, coke, corn cob, and/or gas. No kindling required. They'd start the stove with a lit piece of paper that might be a page from last season's catalogue. Old catalogue pages also served as toilet paper and little girls cut out pictures of the models for paper dolls--the original Barbies.
All of these details would add period interest to a historical story and the 1918 catalogue offered many more. Women's muffs and collarettes made from the fur of China goat, raccoon, opossum, muskrat, marmot, and weasel. Ostrich plumes for hats. Seventeen pages of pocket watches, watch chains, and watch fobs. Collar boxes with round forms inside to keep the shape of men's shirt collars. Wool robes for riding in open-top buggies and cars.
The catalogue also sold War Savings stamps to "support our boys at the front," official war pictures taken by the US government of trenches, gas attacks, and war ruins for ten cents each, and rubber face masks, presumably to improve complexion. The catalogue states, with surprising candor, "The usefulness of rubber masks has been exaggerated. We make no specific claims for these articles, but we offer them for women desiring them." They also offered a washable rubber night strap to reduce double chins for the bargain price of forty-nine cents.
If you're interested in your own stroll through 1918 daily life check out Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago: Originators of the Guarantee that stands the test in the Scales of Justice.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
To Freeze or Not to Freeze, That is the Question by Karla Stover
https://bookswelove.net/stover-karla/
BY THE SAME AUTHOR: Available through BWL Publishing
Parlor Girls
Wynter's Way
Murder, When One Isn't Enough
A Line to Murder.
Golly Mosses, as if I don’t have enough
to worry about, now it’s my jeans! No longer can they be tossed in the washing
machine with other like-minded (so to speak and dare I say ) rough-and-tumble, manly
items. No, now they have moved into the realm of one’s unmentionables and
require TLC. Yes, those faded, distressed, ladder-ripped (professionally done,
of course,) jeans, which are worn by those who want to show that they are an angry, societal non-conformist, and who
knew so many were so irked, are actually quite fragile. So delicate, in fact,
that people have been avoiding the washing machine altogether and are, instead,
making use of the freezer.
Blame
this peculiar attempt to eliminate odor-causing bacteria on Levi Strauss & Co., “which has long warned customers that washing machines can fade denim’s indigo hue and cause shrinkage. For
some time, the brand advised consumers to place jeans in a freezer
whenever they began to smell.”
For a zoophilist (otherwise
known as a person who loves animals) this practice is actually cruel and
unusual punishment. Though the practice does stun and temporarily immobilize
bacteria, once the denim comes out of the freezer, the little germs warm up and
go on with their lives. And think about
this: “most of the bacteria found on worn jeans comes from our bodies, particularly skin cells and sweat.” Not what I want keeping company with my frozen
foods.
However, should you want
to try consider some fun options for your jeans, here’s what others do:
1.
1. They try
and “create a unique pattern in the natural faded and creased areas " by wearing them in salt water at the beach.
2. They wear them while bathing, hoping for a good shrink-to-fit.
3.
3. They only wash their jeans twice a year and
spot clean as necessary.
So, let’s look at what the experts have to say. 1. The "denim laundry" has already done what is necessary to create “an authentic or worn look.” 2. They are already prewashed and preshrunk. 3. The jury is out on the semi-annual wash. As to freezing, it just doesn’t work.
However, if you think a good washing is an anathema, try leaving your jeans outside in direct sunlight for a day or two, spraying them with a mixture of one part vodka to nine parts water, turning them every few hours and letting them dry naturally. To which I say, “oh, for gosh sakes!”
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