Personal Cleanliness and Cosmetics in the 14th Century by Rosemary Morris

 

To see more of Rosemary's work please click on the cover above.

I have written two #classic#fact fiction# novels, Yvonne, Lady of Cassio, Volume One of The Lovages of Cassio set in Edward II’s reign, and Grace, Lady of Cassio, Volume Two, set in Edward III’s reign, (to be published on the 1^{st of} September 2021). At heart I am a historian, so in this and my recent blogs, I am sharing some of my intensive research into times past.

 

Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

Medieval people believed in the saying ‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’ They thought a spiritually clean person without sin was spared from illness, and the necessity of seeking redemption through God’s mercy.

Bathing

  In an era when there were no anti-perspirants or deodorants people who stank because they neglected personal hygiene would be avoided (to use a cliché) ‘like the plague’.  Men with unsavoury occupations washed in rivers or other natural sources of clean water. Immersing the body in water indoors or outdoors had the benefit of ridding the body from fleas and lice. Mothers or nurses bathed babies frequently and sweetened their linen swaddling with powdered herbs or flower petals mixed with salt. Those in holy orders at abbeys at monasteries bathed between two and four times a year. 

Like royalty, the families of noble men and women, and wealthy merchants bathed in wooden tubs lined with cloths. King John bathed every three weeks. Henry IV bathed on the evening before his coronation. He instituted The Order of The Bath to stress the importance of physical and spiritual purification before a knight made his vows. Some of Edward III’s palaces contained bathrooms with hot and cold running water.

 

Washing

 It took too long to heat water for daily baths. Every morning basins of water were filled for men and women in respectable households to wash their hands and faces. Women attended to children too young to wash themselves. Before and after meals, everyone washed and dried their hands. Every week those in holy orders washed their feet in foot basins. Travellers who went on long journeys, also cleaned their feet in foot basins

 

Hair

Hair was washed in copper basins in water mixed with cinnamon, liquorice, and cumin instead of soap which irritated the skin.

Teeth

 People believed bad breath caused disease. To freshen it they chose one of these spices to chew, cardamon, liquorice, aniseed, cumin, or fennel.

 

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

 

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk     

 

Research takes me to different eras and locales by Katherine Pym

  Buy Here

 ~*~*~*~

 

Capt Kidd in NY harbor. It was traditional to have loved ones aboard before sailing

Research takes me to different eras and locales. One of those places is on a wooden ship slicing through the ocean's heavy swells. I have several books that describe the building of them, their terminologies, but few mention what it was like living on board. Until now...

Oh, I knew ships were crowded. Cages of ducks, geese and chickens lined the main deck rails. Cows and goats were harnessed to masts. Below decks, the magazine and filling rooms sat close together but the powder room was farther astern. Safety, you know, even as ships sometimes spontaneously exploded.

Capt Kidd's NY Home

Seamen would often re-use old gun cartridges that, after a while, would deteriorate to a fine dust, and combined with particles of sulphuric and nitric acids found in gunpowder, a highly combustible substance called ‘guncotton’ would form. This friction of dust and gunpowder would cause terrific explosions, sinking the ship and everyone on board. 

Upward to several hundred men crowded onto a vessel. Captain Kidd, the privateer who turned pirate in the last years of the 17^th century, had one hundred fifty-two men and boys cheek to jowl aboard his ship Adventure Galley. Men had to sleep in shifts. 

The decks were so short, maybe 5 feet ceilings, everyone had to walk in a permanent crouch. Unless a seaman was given express permission from the captain, no fire could be taken below decks, and unless the decks had gunports, it was damn dark down there. 

Inaccurate rending of Kidd

“’No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail,’ observed Samuel Johnson. ‘For being in a ship is being in jail with the chance of being drowned... a man in jail has more room, better food and commonly better company.’

“Every available inch below deck was taken up with water-casks, barrels of salt beef, peas, beer; coils of ropes, bundles of extra canvas;” a private cabin or two, depending on the ship’s rate. These cabins were 4x4 feet. No one could stretch or pace. One had to sleep in the fetal position. 

“For landsmen, novices at this naval dormitory, the smell of that sleep chamber was gagging. Their overworked fellow sailors rarely changed their clothes or bathed; to top off the aroma of vintage sweat, toilet hygiene was rudimentary at best. 

“The ship’s head (i.e., toilet) consisted of a plank with a hole in it, which extended forward from the bow; a sailor perched on it, rode it like a seesaw, and, while doing his business, resembled some gargoyle or perverse bowsprit; the ship’s rail might provide the merest amount of privacy. A man attempting to tidy his ass risked a plunge into the sea.” 

Man being flogged

Even as existence such as this seemed pretty unpalatable, it got into the blood of men. Once they found their sea legs and learned the ways of the sea, many wouldn’t leave it for all their stolen treasure. If they didn’t like what their captain did, they could always mutiny, throw the offending captain overboard (as the Henry Hudson’s crew did) and sail away into the stormy sunset. 

~*~*~*~*~

Many thanks to: 

Wikicommons, public domain 

The Pirate Hunter, The True Story of Captain Kidd by Richard Zacks. Hyperio, NY, NY. 2002

Tuesday 4 August, 2015: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-london-after-350-years-the-riddle-of-britains-exploding-fleet-is-finally-solved-10438854.html

 

Why write a mystery featuring martial arts? by Diane Bator

 

I’m excited to share my new release Dead Without Remorse, which is the 5^th book in my Gilda Wright Mystery series! It originally took place before book 3 but I had to wait to get the rights back from a previous publisher.

Here's the blurb:  An explosion leaves a gaping hole in the streetscape where the Nine Lives Consignment Shop and the former martial arts school once stood. When police find remains of a bomb inside, Gilda Wright needs to track a killer before her suspects scatter like debris.

 Why did I choose to write a mystery series about martial arts? The Gilda Wright Mystery series was inspired by the karate school I used to work and train at. Our school was in the basement below a hair salon and by the end of the training day, humidity from the sweat of all those people training literally hung a foot thick near the ceiling! The atmosphere and camaraderie of the students was very inspiring and I wondered what would happen if this was a tournament, not a seminar, and the referee never showed up.

 We had a similar sign in our karate school to remind students to remain humble and leave their egos at the door. None of us are perfect! In order to focus, we had that reminder to leave that part of us and our problems outside the training hall.

 My fictional town of Sandstone Cove is based very loosely on a larger town along the shores of Lake Erie called Dunkirk, New York. The shoreline and layout of the town was exactly what I needed for my little town (although I certainly modified the basic map to become Sandstone Cove!)

Dunkirk, New York

 

I’ve had a lot of fun over the years watching my main characters grow and adapt to changes in their lives. My four main characters are:

 

Gilda Wright is the receptionist at Phoenix Martial Arts. She’s an avid karate student, runner and not so sure about yoga. After a disastrous relationship with Jason Thayer, she took a job at the karate school to build up some confidence.

 

Marion Yearly is Gilda’s best friend and a 911 operator. She is has an eye for the men at the karate school and, after a little coaxing, started taking classes with Gilda. She’s enamored by Razi Mauli, one of the instructors.

 

Mick Williams ran the original Yoshida Martial Arts, then built Phoenix Martial Arts with Razi. He is a 3rd degree black belt goju-ryu karate; black belt in jiu jitsu; 1st degree black belt tae kwon do; kickboxing; MMA trainer and coach.

 

Kane Garrick is former MMA fighter and an expert swordsman. He is a 3rd degree black belt goju-ryu karate; black belt jiu jitsu, trained for over 10 years in Japanese sword fighting and Japanese Jiu Jitsu; has a fake Australian accent. Gilda first meets him while he practiced with a sword on the beach near her house. 

 

I was also inspired by a photo I cut from a magazine years ago of a log on the beach that has become Gilda’s “thinking place” and her usual meeting place with Fabio, her police officer friend. 

 

Is there a real Café Beanz? Yes, there is, but with a different spelling. I found it purely by accident in Barrie, Ontario. I haven't been inside yet, but it's on my bucket list! My version of Café Beanz is a little deli-style cafe that serves sandwiches and soups for lunch and several kinds of coffees and teas. It's based on the old 50's style diners but modernized in colors and textures. Along with Happy Harvey's, Beanz is one of the hubs of Sandstone Cove.

Gilda's favorite all time drink is a latte with cinnamon and chocolate curls (and wine in the evenings when the mystery solving gets her down!)

Mick loves a "double-double" as we call them in Canada, coffee with two milk and two sugar.

Marion takes her coffee hot, strong and with a little milk.

Razi and Kane are both tea drinkers. Green preferably.

Thayer and Fabio, the police officers Gilda has often had to deal with, love their coffee. Thayer takes his black. Fabio prefers to mix it up a little bouncing between coffee to lattes.

 

Happy Harvey's Hangover Hut wasn't the place to go if you had a hangover, more like if you were in desperate search of the means of one. A glorified, tiki-infested liquor and convenience store, Happy Harvey's was owned by Happy—no one had ever called him Harvey—a seventy-year-old man who'd become disillusioned with retirement. He was also one of Gilda's good friends.

Happy Harvey’s is my favorite setting in the series. Sometimes ideas will just pop into my head and I have no idea where they came from. Happy Harvey's was one of them. I combined my love of the tropics with a local convenience store run by an older man who wasn't afraid to be a little different. Happy is one of Gilda's main supporters and cheerleaders who lets her know what's on his mind and will happily give her both advice and a bottle of wine from time to time.

 

Writing a martial arts-based series was in the making, ever since my family started karate and Brazilian jiu jitsu classes. I was actually a Karate Mom for about 6 years before I started working at the martial arts school and began my own training. Due to my health and life getting in the way, I stopped training at blue belt in Goju-Ryu karate, but the Gilda series lives on. 

One part of training I enjoy, was helping our instructors at self-defence courses we did at local schools. At one high school, we were in lock down after a teenager from another school came in and stabbed a student. It was very sad to see the kids so calm because this happens at least once per semester. Most students were very grateful for us coming in to give them an option to deal with the bullies. One day, that incident may become a whole new Gilda mystery.

Aside from training and self-defence courses, I helped to run the school and rewrote the school's karate manual and Black Belt grading information packages.

 

One question that comes up from fans is “Who will Gilda choose:  Kane or Mick?”

Gilda started to work for Mick after breaking up with her former boyfriend Jason Thayer in spectacular fashion - she threw him into a large bag of coffee beans after catching him with his latest fling and split his head open! Karate and learning how to defend herself in a more empowered way seemed like a logical next step.

Just when she and Mick take the next step and start to develop a romantic relationship, along comes Mick's long time friend and colleague, Kane Garrick. Kane has eyes for Gilda, but is it because she's Mick's new girlfriend or do his flirtations run much deeper?

Okay, readers, who would you choose and why?

You can find ALL of my books at BWL Publishing Inc!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

 

A Brainstorm

 

We have a problem in our back yard whenever we get a lot of rain, which we've had this month. We end up with a small pond. A couple of times, we actually had ducks. We bought a load of dirt several years ago to help alleviate the problem and it did help somewhat. The pond isn't as big. 

So I had this brainstorm. Since it would take at least another load of topsoil, which neither my husband nor I could haul by wheelbarrow back there and the kids weren't overly thrilled with doing it last time, I decided it would be easier to put in a bog. It wouldn't take much. I bought a six by six-foot pond liner and started digging. I knew I wouldn't have to dig much since the ground was already lower than the rest of the yard. 

I mentioned to a friend what I was going to do. She said she had a pond. The funny thing was my son mentioned he had a pond if I wanted it. He said it was big enough for my husband and me to fit in it. Well, knowing that I was going to be the one digging this, I said I didn't want a pond. We had two ponds in our previous house and I loved them. We had a couple water lilies and other pond plants, goldfish, some of which actually looked like koi, and frogs. A small waterfall trickled water and I loved to sit out there, especially in the early morning with my coffee before the world started moving. The sound of the water calmed me and started the day on a peaceful note.

I told my friend I didn't want the pond either, but she sent me a picture of it, It wasn't very big, so I caved. The planning began. I talked my oldest son into picking it up for me on the Fourth of July, which he did. Since I knew the approximate size from my friend, I had already started digging the hole. I wasn't too far off when my son dropped it off. 

I finished digging and installed the pond. Of course, I made the hole much larger than needed to allow for the bog area around it. I had to buy up a couple of bags of soil to replace some of the grass I removed,. and I picked up some beach stones for the front, I ordered a couple of bog plants and my friend is going to bring me some more. 

As if that wasn't enough, I decided to dig up more grass behind it and transplant some of my irises and daisies. Partly because I thought it would look nice and partly because it would make it easier for my husband to mow. 

I also decided to add fish. I wasn't going to but changed my mind and my daughter is going to bring me some tadpoles.  Our yard is becoming quite a nature preserve. I love feeding the birds, especially the Baltimore Orioles. We have two pairs that visit regularly and of course the hummingbirds. It's fun to sit and watch them.  

Now if I could just figure a way to keep the deer from eating my plants. I don't mind they're in my yard, in fact, I enjoy watching them also. They're way too tame and they'd probably eat out of my hand if I chose to do it, but I don't. It's not good for them and it's bad enough they're not afraid of anyone. You can get real close to them. They don't even stomp their foot at you like they used to do. 

The pond isn't as close to the house as I'd like, but I can see it from my windows and my patio. It's still a work in progress and maybe by the time summer is over, I'll be done with it.  

You can find Designed for Love and all my books  through BWL

Fate, kismet, or whatever you want to call it is, it turned Interior Designer, Wendy Seidel’s world upside down. From a chance meeting at the airport to Florida and back to Ohio, she can’t believe the strange circumstances that throw her and Bill Johnson together, after he literally knocks her off her feet at the airport.

BWL PUBLISHING NEW RELEASES AND FREE READ FOR AUGUST 2021

 

NEW RELEASES AUGUST 2021

 

 

 FREE NOVEL DOWNLOAD FOR AUGUST

HOLD ONTO THE PAST

BY BARBARA BALDWIN

CLICK BOOK COVER FOR BWL WEBSITE TO DOWNLOAD BOOK

 

To whoever finds this journal:

I started out this rainy November morning in 1988 as an archeology intern uncovering sunken treasure from the Steamboat Arabia, but due to circumstances I don’t understand, at the end of the day I found myself on board the Arabia, back in 1856, the year she sank.

Thus Brianna begins her journal, finding herself rescued by Jake Worth, a passenger on the Arabia; a man with secrets of his own and no desire to be responsible for another human being. But fate has thrown them together, and while Bri can’t explain how she got there, she is fascinated by the fact that she is living the history she has only read about.

Bri pulls Jake into the problems of the people on board almost on a daily basis and he reluctantly helps if only to keep her out of trouble. She is attracted to him, but since she wasn’t on the original manifest, she fears getting involved will alter history in some way. Yet when Jake comes to her in passion she can’t resist her feelings. As the steamboat paddlewheel takes them closer and closer to the fateful day when the Arabia sank, will they have a choice in their destiny?

---

 

Also by Barbara Baldwin

Click HERE to visit her BWL Author page for details and purchase information

https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/

 

Writing Villains by Priscilla Brown

 

 

 

Scottish laird, Australian  journalist - and villain at work 

https://books2read.com/Dancing-the-Reel 

 

'There's no hero without a villain' 

 (https://www.brainyquotes.com/mark_pellegrino_959913

 

 

How would fairy stories be without their villains?  Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and many more involve malevolent characters intent on harming the 'hero' or 'heroine' by eating them, denying them something they need or want, or making them stay at home to do the housework.

 I would like the characters in my contemporary romances to be 'nice' people with 'normal' every day  lives.  However, such paragons would not make an interesting strong story, and I need to deal with the challenge (to me) of giving my individuals problems, conflicts, tensions, ups and downs.

Enter villains.

In such a romance, the main characters are heading to a 'happy ever after'. or at least, a 'happy for the time being', and the role of the villain is to set them apart. This troublemaker has a single-minded personal agenda, a motivation for interfering with their developing relationship. On an early draft of Dancing the Reel a critique suggested  that the character I'd built as the villain needed redemption. I was surprised, and had no idea how to redeem her without compromising most of the plot. However, having considered this, I decided that as she was such an unsympathetic personality totally focused own her own ambition and attempting to walk over everyone in her way, redemption would be misplaced. In fact, the very suggestion of it led me to strengthen her personality, actions and dialogue, so that, while still credible within the story, this villain is unlikeable. Ultimately, she fulfilled her necessity to the plot, so I wrote her out in a tactic pertinent to her behaviour and preferred lifestyle. And the hero and heroine eventually arrived at their 'happy ever after'.

Wishing you lots of enjoyable reading, Priscilla

https://bwlpublishing.ca

https://priscillabrownauthor.com

Home on the River by Eden Monroe

 

For details and purchase information visit Eden Monroe BWL Author page HERE

 
WHAT did a few United Empire Loyalists say to the captain of the evacuation ship, Union, when they landed in what would become Saint John, New Brunswick?  Hey, this looks like a great place for a city, but we’ll settle a little further upriver if you don’t mind.

Well it might not have gone exactly like that, because most Loyalist families went to land grants provided to them (or were given cash) by the British government in reward for their loyalty to the Crown during the American Revolution. The purpose of that first voyage in 1783, and the many that followed, was to deliver these fleeing  New Englanders to various locations in British North America as Canada was then called. A number of those first Loyalists settled on the Kingston Peninsula, and it is this picturesque New Brunswick location, in present day, that my fictional Aiden and Suzanne Briggs of Just Before Sunset were born and raised and eventually married in the Trinity Anglican Church, built there in 1789.

I thought this Peninsula, with its stunning natural beauty and colourful past, was the ideal setting for Just Before Sunset, and that’s where most of the story takes place. My mother was also born on the Kingston Peninsula, since we’re on the subject, so it also has a rich personal history for me and my family.

 Lovely to visit and a popular alternative to crowded urban sprawl for its many rural residents, historic structures abound on the Peninsula, including the Union House built in 1788, and Carter House, circa 1810. In fact this historic district located at the hub of the Peninsula is a rare example of a rural Loyalist village whose key buildings, superb examples of Loyalist architecture and settlement in New Brunswick, have been serving Loyalists and now their succeeding generations since the 1780’s. Some buildings are still being used for their original function to this day!

 Many of those first Loyalists were from Connecticut, including Jonathan Ketchum, a tavern keeper; Israel Hoit, shoemaker and Silas Raymond, carpenter, among others. Theirs are real-life stories of hurried escapes from their New England homes, refugees, such as the Ketchums who fled when their village, Norwalk, Connecticut, was burned to the ground.

These Loyalists sailed off into the unknown and found a peaceful new life and rich abundance on the Kingston Peninsula.

 

The Kennebecasis River (pronounced ken-e-be-KAY-sis) also figures prominently in the Kingston Peninsula way of life …  and in Just Before Sunset.  A tributary of the great St. John River, the name Kennebecasis is believed to be derived from the indigenous Mi’kmaq word Kenepekachiachk meaning little long bay place.  The Kennebecasis is a river of many moods, transforming itself several times from its humble beginnings in the foothills of the Caledonia Highlands in Albert County, New Brunswick. At one point in its ninety-five kilometer journey to join up with the St  John River, it relaxes and broadens as it passes the communities of Norton and Hampton, creating one of the largest fresh water marshes in Eastern Canada. Then hurrying onward it becomes bolder, deepening as it plunges to an amazing depth of nearly 350 feet off Minister’s Face.

Finally, its adventure nearly complete, it is a handsome dash of sapphire on a sunny day as it rolls past the southern side of the Peninsula, where one of two cable ferry systems cross the Kennebecasis at separate points to the mainland. Pictured above are the dual ferries at Reeds Point that Aiden and Suzanne use to reach the Gondola Point side, a delightful five-minute jaunt across the enchanting Kennebecasis.

 Suzanne spent many a lonely evening sitting on the pebbled beach beside their home on the river, thinking about her husband so far away in Africa, all too often long moments of quiet reflection and despair.

 I see the ferry is just about ready to depart for Reeds Point, so come, cross the river with me and let Aiden and Suzanne tell you their story.