Saturday, April 7, 2018
Friday, April 6, 2018
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes...By Gail Roughton
Take a Trip Down Home! |
Whatever the reason--and a lot of our trees are water oaks and therefore technically entitled to hang onto their branches till at least mid-winter anyway--a three acre yard accumulates a lot of leaves. Our house is actually built in the middle of a fifty acre tract of land we long-ago christened "Fern Gully" in honor of the banks and banks of wild fern gracing our woods, but the yard proper's about three acres, even though hubby likes to wave his hand toward our gorgeous untamed woods and tease our grandson we've still got a lot of ground to cover. We've devised a system, and generally can manage to rake and burn about half of one-quarter of the total yard per day. Consequently, it takes about eight days to completely finish with our yard. The finished product's worth it, though.
Fall's a beautiful season here at Fern Gully, and in fact the cover of Country Justice is eerily akin to the paths criss-crossing our acreage.
See? Told you so. But so is Spring, full of the smell of newly turned earth and the promise of burgeoning green. It's time to say good-by to the thick carpet of golden brown, time to run around the bottom catching a softball and kicking a soccer ball without fear of disturbing unwelcome guests very similar in coloring to those leaves. I don't mean to sound inhospitable, mind you, but those slithery unwelcome guests are hard enough to see without the camouflage of a leaf carpet, let alone with one. It's time for the ground to ditch its heavy blanket and bask in the sun wearing nothing but short grass, wild flowers and new earth.
Now if I can just survive the smell of a few more fires...we've still got the last quarter of the yard to go. But if any reader wants a trip to the country without the work of keeping a country yard, stop in and visit a while at the Scales of Justice Cafe, located right across from the Courthouse and right next door to the Piggly Wiggly, all three of which are located squarely in the middle of the pages of Country Justice.
Visit BWL Publishing, Inc. for Links to All Gail Roughton's Books at all Market Sites |
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Writing Romantic Historical Fact Fiction by Rosemary Morris
About Rosemary Morris
My large collection of fiction
and non-fiction is kept in bookcases throughout my house.
To bring order to my books, files and
magazines I decided to use the smallest bedroom as a combined office and
library. The walls are painted a honey-tinted cream, there is easy-clean
laminate flooring and an oriental rug in which reds and cream predominate. When
the cream Venetian blinds are raised, I look out of the window at my organic
garden, beyond which is a green and a fringe of trees which border woodland.
Now, I am looking forward to the
arrival of a custom made 6ft high 8ft wide oak bookcase and a desk.
I spend a lot of time reading
non-fiction and making notes for my novels.
It will be about eighteen months
or more until I begin writing Grace, Lady of Cassio, the sequel to Yvonne, Lady
of Cassio, which is set in Edward II's reign. Before I write the first
sentences of a new story I immerse myself in the era.
Today I read that in 1369, during
the reign of Edward III, the Black Death broke out in England for the third
time. Among those who died was the young Duchess of Lancaster - the lady
Blanche wife of John of Gaunt, daughter of the great warrior Henry of
Lancaster, the heroine of Chaucer's earliest major
poem.
Froissart's description of her
touches my heart. "Who died young and fair, at about the age of twenty-two
years. Gay and glad she was, fresh and sportive, sweet, simple and humble semblance,
the fair lady men called Blanche."
Writing Romantic Historical Fact Fiction
There is a
hypothesis that there are only seven basic plots. This should not deter new
novelists, who need to devise their own special twists in the tale and write
from the heart.
I write
romantic historical faction fiction, which I shall focus on it in this blog.
You might ask,
what is the classification of all genres of historical fiction? The Historical
Novel Society’s definition is: ‘The novel must have been written at least fifty
years after the event, described, or written by someone who was not alive at
the time of those events, and who therefore only approached them by research.’
Historical
novelists are under an obligation to readers to transfer them into another
believable time and space, that need to be based on fact, even in, for example,
time slips in which the social and economic history should be correct.
My characters,
other than historical figures, are imaginary. Their backgrounds are researched
to the best of my ability.
To ground my
novels in times past, I weave real events into my plots and themes. To recreate
days gone by I study non-fiction and visit places of historical interest,
including museums, which are gold mines of information.
There are many
excellent novelists who write, historical fiction, romantic historical fact fiction,
and genre historical romance, etc. Unfortunately, there are other novelists who
cause me, and, presumably, other readers, to suspend belief.
Once, I was
torn between shock and hysterical laughter when I read a mediaeval romance in
which, the hero, a knight in full armor, galloped to a castle with sheer walls
to rescue the proverbial maiden in distress. Without putting aside his shield
and weapons, he flung himself off his horse. The knight scaled stone walls that
had neither handholds nor footholds. The author described him climbing through
a window - impossible as a castle in that era only had narrow apertures through
which arrows could be fired. When he gained access through the mythical window,
the fair heroine, seemingly unaffected by her ordeal, asked: ‘Would you like
some eggs and bacon and a nice cup of tea,’ as though she were offering him a
modern day English breakfast. At that point, the sense of the ridiculous
overcame me. I lost faith in the author and did not read on.
Of course, the
above is an extreme example from a novel accepted by a mainstream publisher.
However, I am frequently disappointed by 21st century characters
dressed in costume who have little in common with those who lived in previous
eras. Over the centuries, emotions, anger, hate, jealousy, love etc., have not
changed, but attitudes, clothes, the way of life and speech has.
To ground novels
in historical periods, a novelist should study them and verify their research. Inaccuracy
in any novel, whether it is set in the past or present, annoys the reader, and,
there will always be someone who points out a mistake, or even tosses the book
aside and never reads another one by that author.
Recently, I
was enjoying a historical romance when an American author described the heroine
admiring bluebells in bloom and simultaneously picking ripe blackberries in a
wood in England. In the United Kingdom, bluebells bloom in spring, and
blackberries ripen in the autumn. This is not the only novelist, who has jerked
me out of a story with horticultural errors.
Misnamed
characters also make me pause when reading. The first pages of a mediaeval
novel held my attention until I reached the part when the heroine’s sister,
Wendy, joined her. I sighed and went to make a cup of Rooibos tea. J. M. Barry
first used the name in his novel Peter Pan.
When searching
for a name, for example, suitable for a Tudor novel, the author might be
tempted to call the heroine, Lorna, although R. D. Blackmore invented it in
1869 when he wrote Lorna Doone.
I’m sure that
I’m not the only historical novelist, who agonises over character’s names. I recommend The Oxford
Dictionary of English Christian Names, an invaluable resource.
Since R. D.
Blackmore wrote, a significant change in some published fiction has been the
introduction of explicit sex, which is often gratuitous. In my opinion less is
more. The impact of the scene in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, in the
book and in the film, when Rhett Butler sweeps Scarlet off her feet and carries
her to their bedroom, would have less impact with explicit details of how they
made love.
In conclusion,
a skillful historical novelist should hold the readers’ attention and take them
into the realm of fiction on a factually accurate, enjoyable journey.
Yvonne Lady of Cassio
When Yvonne and Elizabeth, daughters of ruthless Simon Lovage, Earl of
Cassio, are born under the same star to different mothers, no one could have
foretold their lives would be irrevocably entangled.
Against the background of Edward II’s turbulent reign in the fourteenth
century, Yvonne, Lady of Cassio, contains imaginary and historical characters.
It is said the past is a foreign country in which things were done
differently. Nevertheless, although that is true of attitudes, such as those
towards women and children, our ancestors were also prompted by ambition,
anger, greed, jealousy, humanity, duty, loyalty, unselfishness and love.
From early childhood, despite those who love her and want to protect
her, Yvonne is forced to face difficult economic, personal and political
circumstances, during a long, often bitter struggle.
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.
Thursday’s Child will
be published in July 2018
Mediaeval Novel. Yvonne
Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
The Great London Fire by Katherine Pym
Buy Here |
~*~*~*~
London Fire reached Ludgate, September 4, 1666 |
I
understand this is a subject that may have been slightly overdone, especially
since 2016 marked the 350 year anniversary of the vast destruction that
occurred within a short 4 day timespan. To celebrate, London had a lovely old
city effigy burned on a barge in the Thames. BBC had a television show on how
it happened, where it started. It looks like Pudding Lane wasn’t quite where we
thought it was all these years. The bakery was a block or so farther away. A
marker that shows where it was is in a nice, clean street where cars now
parallel park.
My current
work in progress (WIP) takes place in London 1666. Since the fire was a big
event in that year, I cannot not mention it, now can I? The reader would wonder
why I’ve listed every other important moment but not that one, which to this
day marks many souls as a living catastrophe.
In
1666, England was at war with the Dutch (fought entirely at sea). It was really
a merchant’s war, caused by skirmishes over ports of call in the East and West
Indies. The English felt the Dutch should share in the profits of spices, new
fabrics (cotton), exotic fruits, differently manufactured furniture and fine pottery.
After all, the Indies included vast areas of land and people. It wasn’t fair that
one country take everything.
Fighting fire with a 'squirt'. It held 4 pints of fluid, and took 2 men to operate.
Almost
18 months into the war, as the English fleet prepared to meet the enemy in a pitched
battle, on September 1, 1666, a gale entered the Channel. A wind so strong, it
felled the fleet. Sails ripped from masts. Bowsprits shattered. Ships collided
and listed. Gun ports were closed to keep the seas from flowing onto the gun
decks, swamping everything in its wake. The winds tore the fleet to shreds,
then moved onto England. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, September 2,
London winds whipped a spark and London began to burn.
The
fire was so fierce, it created its own weather. Lightning slashed, thunder
boomed. Warehouses along the Thames contained oils, pitch and tar, which burned
fiercely.
People weren't this calm as they ran |
Most
homes were squeezed along narrow, dark lanes, cantilevered so that top stories
were only inches apart. Made of half-timbers, wattle and daub, a material that
if maintained did not burn easily, many houses were not maintained. Leased
houses and shops were the responsibility of the renters. They had to fix
anything that broke, burnt or toppled over. They were responsible for the
walkway and road outside their doors. Not many followed these regulations. And
with the winds so fierce, it was fodder for fire.
People
took their goods to neighbors’, thinking the fire wouldn’t reach them. They
took furniture and clothing to churches, thinking the walls were too thick for
fire to burn them. As the fire moved west along the river and northwest through
town, people removed what they had stored and moved them farther away, into a
neighborhood they were sure would not burn.
Black
smoke could be seen over 56 miles away. The city looked like daylight when it
was nighttime. A contemporary wrote the firestorm sounded like “a thousand iron
chariots beating on stones”. It was deafening. Stone facades exploded like
bombs. Church steeples engulfed in flame toppled over onto streets and houses.
Booksellers
lived in the vicinity of St. Paul’s Cathedral. They sold their wares in Paul’s
Yard. Their parish church was St. Faith’s located under St. Paul’s church in
the undercroft. They called it St. Faith’s under St. Paul’s. They took their
presses, paper and books to St. Faith’s knowing with the massive pillars of
Paul’s it would never burn. By the time the flames licked Paul’s outer walls,
St. Faith’s was stuffed. St. Paul’s was filled with goods up to the choir loft.
St.
Paul’s was in disrepair. Over time, the heavy, lead roof had spread its walls
outward. Pillars were crumbling. Scaffolding supported some of the pillars and
the outside of the church. Just a few days prior, a meeting had been held to
discuss renovation of the building.
The Burning of St. Paul's Cathedral |
By 8
o’clock Tuesday evening (September 4), fiery debris had fallen on Paul’s roof. Shoddy
repairs of timber caught and burned so hot, a gentleman who stood over a mile
away saw the inferno.
“Large
parts of the roof, both stone and burning timber fell in, and the Cathedral
became a roaring cauldron of fire…”
“Molten
lead dripped in silvery beads from the roof, raining down upon the broken
stones and tombs that strewed the Cathedral floor, and there collecting, ran
out into the streets in a stream.”
Paul’s
choir and lower floor crashed into St. Faith’s. When St. Paul’s collapsed, the
whole building exploded with an earsplitting roar. Burning papers and books
sailed in the air, some of the pages landing miles away in the English
countryside.
St.
Paul’s was a mass of smoking ruins within an hour.
London after the fire. It poured beyond the old Roman walls into west London.
~*~*~*~
Many
thanks to Wikicommons, public domain,
By
Permission of Heaven, the True Story of the Great Fire of London, by Adrian
Tinniswood, Riverhead Books, NY 2004
The
Story of London’s Great Fire by Walter G. Bell, Butler & Tanner, Ltd.,
Frome and London, 1923
Labels:
1666,
17th century London,
2nd Anglo/Dutch war,
Great London Fire,
Ludgate,
St. Faith's under St. Paul's,
St. Paul's Cathedral
Author of historical novels set in 1660's London with one novel of the French Revolution.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Outside my comfort zone by J. S. Marlo
What I’ll
say next might surprise some people, but by nature, I am in introvert person. I
don’t like crowds and I’m not comfortable speaking in public. When my publisher
suggested I do a book signing for Voted Out at the local bookstore, I said, “Sure.
Sounds like fun.” But deep down, I was scared. So I met with the
manager, a wonderful lady named Jackie, a few months ago, and the first thing
we did was to select a date. We picked last weekend Saturday March 24th—as
you can see I survived.
She ordered
my books, which arrived in time for the signing, and told me she might be able to
arrange for an interview with the local newspaper and radio station. Again, I
said, “Sure. Sounds like fun.” But deep down, I wasn’t just scared, I was now
scared out of my wits. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...they
can go south in a heartbeat. An emergence arose for which I had to fly south on
March 12th and I wasn’t scheduled to fly back home until March 23rd
around suppertime. Then my returning flight was cancelled and I was re-booked on
a later flight arriving at 11pm on the 23rd amid the forecast of a
snowstorm. The interviews never happened, but now I was terrified of missing my
own book signing. Talk about irony!
Before I left,
I had dropped posters at the bookstore so they could advertise the signing, and
while I was gone I took care of some details. I had my nails done in
romantic-murder-mystery theme, I got a sticky nametag with my name &
logo, and I bought chocolate eggs for treats. I took all of these to the store
along with business cards and novelty pens (pink, purple, and blue).
During the signing I was told
it might help if I mingle with the customers, so lots of...Hello. How are you? What are you looking for? What do you like to read?
Well, unless I was standing near my table, my nice nametag with my author name
on it was mistaken for an employee tag. I received lots of requests
for books and authors I had never heard of, but it also allowed me to suggest
my book on a few occasions, and when I added I would also gladly sign it for
them, they stared at me with a 'deer in headlights' look before asking, “You’re the
author?” Then we would chat about everything, including my hair. Actually, many
encounters started with a comment about my purple and blue hair. One lady even
asked me to sign her book with the three pens so it would look like my hair. I
wrote a lovely thank you for coming and
nice chatting with you note inside her book, and each word was written in a
different color. I regret not taking a picture...
90% of the people
I met that day were strangers and I had an amazing time interacting with them.
I was uncomfortable at first, but it got easier as the day when by. Some people came to chat
without buying anything, some came to buy without chatting, and some came to chat and
buy something. I was delighted to talk to all of them and I want to thank them all for
coming and taking a few minutes to brighten my day. It was so interesting and I had so much fun that I
now wonder why on earth I was so scared.
See you
next time!
JS
Note: I
would also like to thank Jackie, Sarah, and all the staff at Coles in Fort
McMurray for hosting my book signing. I couldn’t have done it without you!
Labels:
book signing,
books we love,
Coles bookstore,
comfort zone,
fans,
Fears,
Fort McMurray,
hooking readers,
JS Marlo,
Voted Out
Location:
Fort McMurray, AB, Canada
I grew up in Shawinigan, a small French Canadian town, attended military college, married a young officer, and raised three spirited children. Over the years, I enjoyed many wonderful postings in many different regions of Canada.
After my children left the nest, I began writing. Three years later, I captured my dream of becoming a published author with my underwater novel “Salvaged”.
Many of my romantic suspense novels are set in Canada or feature Canadian characters. One of my latest series also involves time travel.
I'm not sure where time flew, but decades later, I ended up writing under the Northern Lights in Alberta while spoiling a gorgeous little granddaughter.
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Choosing the Right Name for a Character by Joanie MacNeil
From Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, 1600: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
The meaning of this phrase: What matters is what
something is, not what it is called.
There are authors who write a novel and
then choose the names of their characters. There is nothing wrong with this.
However, some of us can’t bring ourselves to do that.
Before I begin to write the first draft
of a new story, I’m compelled to name my characters. It’s not a case of any name will do for now, I’ll change it
later. The name must match the perception of how I envision the essence of my
character. I like strong names and these must suit my hero and heroine.
Early in my writing career I’d flick
through baby names books to look for the right name for my hero and heroine,
especially if I wanted something a little bit different, like my Scottish
heroes, Galen and Regan. These days I am more likely to run a few names through
my mind, then choose the one that I believe best matches my character.
When choosing a surname for the hero,
and a Christian name for the heroine, I make sure that if they are to marry,
her first name goes well with the hero’s surname. Of course, in reality, she
might want to keep her own surname.
In
Sapphire Kisses, I wanted something a
little different for my hero, and chose Kent for his Christian name. But the
name just didn’t fit how I perceived my hero to be. For me, Kent wasn’t strong
enough. He wasn’t the hero I’d envisioned. I changed his name to David, which
fitted so much better…bringing life to my perception of him. Only then could I
move on with his story…a photographer and author, a recluse, struggling with
the reality of losing his sight. I felt it was important for his character to
have a strong name to carry him through his difficult journey to his happily
ever after with the heroine.
Luke,
Jack and Nick are favourites of mine.
Luke
DeMarco – back in Natalie’s life in The
Trouble with Natalie
Jack Shannon –
the talents of Paige Delaney will help save his company in No Boundaries
Nick Sheridan –
the bad boy from Claire’s past in Loving
Nick…Again
And I’ve always liked Liam. That name suited my
up-and-coming executive hero. Not an outdoors man, but responsible for the
well-being of his teenage brother, Daniel, in Desperate and Dateless
In December
Heat Wave, my heroine is Nicolette.
The hero calls her Nic. I remember watching an interview with Tom Cruise when
he was married to Nicole, and when he referred to her as Nic, there was
something intimate about the way he spoke the shortened form of her name that struck
a chord with me.
I also like my heroines
to have strong names, names that will suit from newborn to mature woman.
In my upcoming release, Sweet Temptations, my heroine is called
Elizabeth. She hates being called Lizzie. Only her favourite uncle is allowed
to call her that. I worked with a Liz who hated being referred to as Lizzie.
The hero is Zac. I have always liked that name too.
When choosing a name, the advice is not
to give your characters similar names as it confuses the reader. In my current
work-in-progress I chose Matty and Mardi as names for my twin characters, but
have now changed Matty to Matt, which does make a smoother read.
So,
for me, naming my characters with the right name, makes them who they are.
’Bye
for now
Joanie
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