Boston – My Moveable Feast

This isn’t a commentary on the recent tragedy in Boston. Others have poured out their hearts and said what needed to be said much better than I could. This is just something I needed to write. When Ernest Hemingway wrote about his life in Paris, he described the exact feelings I have for my time in Boston: “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” Boston was my moveable feast. Coming from a small town in Iowa to a fantastic vibrant city full of history, surrounded by people from all over the world, had a profound impact on me.

I wanted to experience everything the city had to offer, even down to the tiniest details. I’d never been on a subway or a city bus when I arrived, and as I knew I needed to be able to navigate them to explore the city I so desperately wanted to see, I recruited another student to come on an expedition with me. I didn’t choose wisely, because she’d never been on a subway or a bus either, but we set off as intrepid adventurers, heady with the knowledge we were on our own, hundreds of miles from our parents, and no one knew where we were or where we were going. It turns out we didn’t know either. We didn’t understand how the subway worked, got on the wrong train and managed to ride to some location with the odd name of Braintree, which turned out to be a city south of Boston. It didn’t matter. The journey was the important thing, not the destination.

Any college experience is a journey, but Boston added another layer to it. Even walking down the city streets was disconcerting yet exhilarating in the array of images and people that surrounded me. If you grow up in a small town and walk down a street there, anyone you meet, you will likely know their name, if not where they live, the names of their relatives, and even what they do in their spare time. I loved that fact that in my new city I could be whoever I wanted to be, without the weight of a family history following me.

The firsts I experienced in Boston numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. I ate hummus for the first time, watched belly dancing, shopped at a store owned and run by Sikhs, listened to live Blues music, devoured cannolis in the North End, tried to understand a Kabuki theater performance, and developed somewhat of a crush on Humphrey Bogart when I saw Casablanca on the big screen at a theater which showed old movies all the time. Small, ordinary aspects of life for those used to living there, but huge to me.

I also saw the gritty side of city life, the homeless, the disturbed, and the desperate. I got attacked once, after I was too impatient to wait for a bus and set off walking back to my apartment one night. Luckily, the would-be attacker turned out to be just a kid, and once I bit him on the arm and hit him with the only weapon I had, a Time magazine, he ran off. And while much of Boston was and is beautiful, there were many ugly parts. Walking in Boston Common late at night with some friends, I remarked how odd it was to see so many squirrels running around after dark, something I’d never seen in Iowa. Turns out they weren’t squirrels at all, they were rats.

Of course, there were major events I remember as well. Listening to the Boston Pops by the Charles River on the Fourth of July is something I hope everyone gets to experience at some point in their life. Dancing on Marlborough Street during the Bastille Day celebration made me wish we Americans could find more excuses for such a way to celebrate. Hearing an aging but still astounding Vladimir Horowitz play at Symphony Hall was the first inkling I had that some human beings dedicate their lives to an attempt at perfection.

I made some lifelong friends in Boston. I fell in love for the first time there, and I also had my heart broken. I know now I wouldn’t trade those years and those experiences for anything. I guess by writing this all down, I wanted to send a love letter to Boston. I’m so glad the city exists, and no matter what happens, it will endure. President Obama spoke yesterday at the memorial service for the Boston Marathon victims, and he said “So whether folks come here to Boston for just a day, or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts. So Boston’s your home town, but we claim it a little bit too. I know this – I know this because there’s a piece of Boston in me.” I claim a bit of Boston too.

Twitter: Writer Bewares and Benefits

Don’t let your Twitter followers imagine you like this.

I resisted Twitter for a long time, mainly because the thought of one more social media must-do seemed overwhelming. Now that I’ve been using it for a couple of years, and went through a short period of Twitter addiction, I can more clearly see the positives and the negatives.

First, the negatives. I’ve heard people in the publishing industry say they shouldn’t be judged on their tweets, because it’s a fun diversion or a way to let off steam.  Yes and no. As long as you are identifying yourself as a professional in the publishing industry, tweeting about publishing, and have people following you who are in the industry or potential readers of your books, you will be judged whether you like it or not.

There are some wonderfully witty publishing types on Twitter, but there are also people who consistently come across as snarky in an unfunny way, or who seem to spend much of their time in a peevish and irritable mode. Others come across as incredibly arrogant or condescending. In a way, that’s a benefit for someone reading their tweets. You can learn a lot about a person by how they behave in public, and Twitter is a public venue, even if people sometimes fall into the trap of thinking they are having a private conversation with someone. I’m peevish and irritable quite a bit of the time in real life, but it’s best if I don’t take to Twitter to let it out.

I try to follow the rule that if I wouldn’t say something to a person’s face or to a large crowd of people, I don’t say it on Twitter. It’s unfortunate when some people use Twitter to let out their passive aggressive tendencies to vent about other individuals or groups of people.

I won’t bother to write much about book spamming on Twitter. It should be obvious that monotonous tweeting about buying a book is not going to work. I’m more lenient than most, and tend not to unfollow book spammers unless it gets ridiculous, but I also have no desire to buy their books.

So while there are many ways to be or find a failwhale on Twitter, there are positives for writers. It’s a good way to keep up with the industry, if you follow people who write about it and click on their links.  My favorites are Porter Anderson, @Porter_Anderson,  Writer Unboxed, @writerunboxed, and Sarah Weinman, @sarahw. Sitting at home at my computer in Ohio, I feel very far away from the rest of the publishing world, so keeping up with what’s happening is good, because I treat my writing as a business, so I need to know how the rest of the business is doing.

It’s the connection part of Twitter that is the greatest benefit, not only to connect with other writers, but readers as well. I follow many teachers and librarians, and love getting a glimpse into their world. I’m made connections that have turned into Skype visits which I would not have been able to do otherwise.

The tweetchats on specific topics are also a major benefit, whether it’s talking about a particular genre or how to market a book. They are an excellent way to find other people to follow. Here’s a link to list of writer-related chats by days of the week: http://inkygirl.com/weekview/ 

If you don’t know how to use hashtags, this is a good post on the subject: http://www.publishingtalk.eu/social-media/twitter/10-twitter-hashtags-for-writers/ Hashtags can direct new people to your blog or website if you use them the right way, and it can also bring new followers.

All in all, if a writer knows the pitfalls to Twitter and manages to avoid them, it is a fun and easy way to engage in social media. I’m there as @deegarretson and tweet about fairly random things, not limited to writing, including links to weird or interesting science facts. I may also sneak in a link to an animal story once in a while. Now I just have to figure out Tumblr and Google +. #sigh

 

Downton Abbey Viewing Party Recipes

As an avid Downton Abbey fan, I’ve been curious about every aspect of the time period, from fashion to the political situation of the day. I am also very interested in the food they served, because as a writer, I’ve found including details about food, tastes and dining habits is a good way to draw a reader into a story.

Agnes Marshall – The Martha Stewart of her day

I have been perusing cookbooks published during the time in which Downton Abbey is set to get an idea of the food, and to consider what I could cook that would be something the Crawleys themselves might have tasted, particularly at a late night supper (Downton Abbey viewing time where I live.) The lack of footmen and a butler at our house caused me to focus on relatively simple dishes, as my husband is not amenable to put on a tailcoat to pretend to be Mr. Carson serving dinner.

Below, I’ve posted recipes for buffet-style dishes and desserts often served in the evening during that time at balls, as well as light supper ideas, which you can pick and choose from to put together your own feast. All the recipes are reproduced as they were written in the cookbooks published between 1900 and 1920. I’ve added some further explanation in italics of terms which were unfamiliar to me. You can also take modern shortcuts to get something close to these dishes if you want to cut preparation time. I don’t have a kitchen helper, so I take all the shortcuts I can.

Battersea Polytechnic

It was a time when cooking schools began to flourish and polytechnic programs were turning out trained chefs for restaurants and wealthy families. Still the most famous school, Le Cordon Bleu, begin in Paris in 1895, and its graduates were the most widely sought after chefs. I can imagine Sir Richard Carlisle wanting a Cordon Bleu chef for his household, but since the Crawleys relied on the traditional British cooking of Mrs. Patmore, I decided to focus on what she would likely have cooked. Mrs. Patmore wouldn’t have had any formal training; she would have started out in a lowly position in a kitchen as a young girl and learned on the job, much like Daisy tries to learn. To figure out what she would have cooked, I found several cookbooks published at the time which were used by the cooking schools in England.

Suppers at a ball, often served at midnight, often contained items no longer appealing to modern tastes, such as aspics, cold dishes in which meat or vegetables is encased in clear gelatin. Oysters, when in season, were very popular as well, sometimes cooked right at the table in a chafing dish. I wondered why oysters were so often mentioned in late night menus and found the answer in a cookbook entitled SALADS, SANDWICHES AND CHAFING DISH DAINTIES (1914) by Janet M. Hill:

In a section called “Are Midnight Suppers Hygienic?” Miss Hill writes,
“In regard to the chafing dish and its most prominent use, some one may fittingly ask, Is it hygienic to eat at midnight? Can one keep one’s health and eat late suppers? As in all things pertaining to food, no set rules can be given to meet every case; much depends upon constitutional traits, individual habits and idiosyncrasies. But if we must eat at midnight, the question may well be asked, What shall we eat? That which can be digested and assimilated with the least effort on the part of the digestive organs. And among such things we may note oysters, eggs and game when these have been properly – that is, delicately – cooked.”

So late night meals would not have included things like beef or lamb. Chicken was quite popular, as was lobster. Suppers at these events were often served buffet style, so that attendees could eat as much or as little as they wanted without waiting for the various courses of a more formal dinner to be served.
Small sandwiches were often served as part of the buffet, but they are not the sandwiches of today. Instead they were more like modern canapé size portions, cut into decorative shapes.

Sandwiches a la Romaine
Take half a pound of cold cooked chicken
two ounces of grated Gruyere cheese
a teaspoonful of French mustard
a saltspoonful of mixed English mustard
three ounces of butter
a pinch of salt and coralline pepper
two large tablespoonfuls of thick cream

Pound till smooth, then rub through a wire sieve and spread on some thinly cut bread that is thinly spread with Anchovy butter (vol i) stamp out with a plain round cutter and then dish up en couronno on a dish paper or napkin. Use for ball supper, evening parties etc.
saltspoonful – 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon
‘En couronne’ means to place the sandwiches around the outside of a plate, literally in a ‘crown’ shape, so that the interior of the plate can be filled with something else.
From MRS. A.B. MARSHALL’S LARGER COOKERY BOOK OF EXTRA RECIPES by Agnes B. Marshall

Since I don’t have Volume 1 of Mrs. Marshall’s cookbook, here’s a recipe for anchovy butter from another contemporaneous cookbook, COOKING, MENUS, AND SERVICE by Ida C. Bailey Allen:

Anchovy, Sardine, Lobster, or Salmon Butter
To a half pound of butter add a third cupful of sardines, lobster meat, anchovies or smoked salmon pounded to a paste, with two teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, a tablespoonful of water, and a little paprika.

Sandwiches with Watercress and Eggs
Cut some thin slices of white bread and butter, the bread being a day old. Sprinkle on the bread some crisp fresh leaves of watercress, a little salt and if liked a little finely chopped eschalot. (shallot) Have some hard boiled yolk of egg, rubbed through a wire sieve, and put a thick layer on the cress, close over it another piece of the bread and butter and press together, then cut up into small squares and dish up en couronne on a paper or folded napkin, and fill up the centre with a bunch of fresh crisp watercress that is seasoned with a little salad oil and salt, and serve for ball supper, etc.
‘En couronne’ means to place the sandwiches around the outside of a plate, literally in a ‘crown’ shape, so that the interior of the plate can be filled with something else.

From MRS. A.B. MARSHALL’S LARGER COOKERY BOOK OF EXTRA RECIPES by Agnes B. Marshall

Tartlettes de Volaille a la Talleyrand
7 or 8 puff paste tartlets
Pepper and salt
Breast of a large raw chicken
1/2 lb of small mushrooms
1 oz of butter
Lemon juice and nutmeg
Pistachio nuts
2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of cream
For the panada (a type of sauce):
1 oz of butter
1 1/2 oz flour
1 gill of milk (1 gill equals 5 British fluid ounces, 4 U.S. fluid ounces)

Make some tartlets from puff paste, cut some round pieces of crust of bread and place in the centres of each, bake them lightly, take out the crusts. Make a panada and let it cool. (Instructions below.) Pound the chicken well, add the panada, pound it again then pass through a wire sieve. Put it into a basin, add cream, pepper, salt and nutmeg; test the mixture. Peel, wash and chop the mushrooms, cook them in a little butter and a teaspoonful of lemon juice, season with pepper and salt. Pound them in the mortar and pass through a sieve. Half fill the tartlets with the chicken; dip your finger into hot water and make a hole in the centre of the chicken. Fill this space with the purée of mushrooms, cover with the remainder of the chicken. Chop the pistachio nuts and sprinkle over the tops. Place them in a moderate oven for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Dish them upon a paper or serviette.

Panada No. 1
1 oz. butter
1 1/2 ozs flour
1 gill of milk, stock of water
Melt the butter and stir in the flour, mix smoothly with the liquid, stir over the fire until it leaves the side of the pan. Turn it out to cool. Use for meat or fish forcemeats.
From THE TREASURE COOKERY BOOK by M.M. Mitchell

Little Brioches a la Vienne
Take, for ten to twelve persons, half a pound of Brioche paste (see vol i page 332) roll it up into balls about the size of a small chicken’s egg, using a little flour for the purpose; then put them on a lightly greased baking-tin, and brush each over with raw beaten-up whole eggs to which has been added a little cold milk, put them into a moderate oven, bake till a nice brown colour which will take from twenty five to thirty minutes, then remove the brioches from the tin and put them on a pastry rack till cold. Take a small pointed knife and carefully cut open each brioche at the side about half way, fill up the bottom side with a puree of meat as below, fill in the top side with a salad of lettuce, close up the brioches again into their original form and serve in a pile on a dish on a paper or napkin. The gilt papers, either gold or silver, are very effective in this service. Serve for ball suppers, race luncheons or shooting parties.

Puree of Meat for Little Brioches A la Vienne
Take half a pound of (cooked) white meat chicken, or pheasant, freed from bone and skin, pound till smooth with two tablespoonfuls of thick cream, a pinch of salt, one ounce of butter, two tablespoonfuls of thick Bechamel sauce (vol i); then rub through a fine sieve and use.
From MRS. A.B. MARSHALL’S LARGER COOKERY BOOK OF EXTRA RECIPES by Agnes B. Marshall
Since I don’t have Volume 1 of Mrs. Marshall’s cookbook, here’s a recipe for a béchamel sauce from another contemporaneous cookbook, COOKING, MENUS, AND SERVICE by Ida C. Bailey Allen

Bechamel Sauce
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cupful chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
3/4 cupful thin cream or top milk
1 teaspoonful lemon juice
Cream the butter and flour together without browning, add the stock, stir until boiling, then add the cream or top milk and the seasonings, and again bring to boiling point. Cook over hot water (double boiler) for five minutes and stir in the lemon juice just before serving.

More casual main course dishes are given after the desserts section.

Descriptions of suppers at balls often include mention of cakes and ices. The cakes were often cooked to individual portions, either in tins similar to our muffin tins of today, or once baked, cut and frosted into small squares, like the petit fours above. Some recipes which were labeled as cakes were more like cookies. An “ice” was a broad term that included not on ices, but also ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, and other frozen or chilled desserts. Many recipes call for using uncooked egg whites. Since that could be chancy these days, I haven’t included any of these

Queen Cakes
7 ozs of flour
1/2 oz of chopped citron peel
4 ozs of castor sugar
1 tablespoonful of rose water
4 ozs of butter
1 teaspoonful of prepared flour
2 ozs of currants
3 large eggs
Cream the butter and sugar together in a basin, add the yolks of the eggs, stirring between each, lightly stir in the powder flour, peel and flavouring. Whip the whites of eggs and stir in gently. Well grease about fifteen small tins, sprinkle a few currants on the bottoms, half fill them with the mixture, sprinkle more currants on top Bake them from fifteen to twenty minutes in a moderately hot oven.

Moderately hot oven – at that time was considered to be 350 to 375 degrees
Rosewater – can sometimes be hard to find in the U.S. It is used in Indian and Middle Eastern cooking, so you can find it at specialty grocery stores or organic grocery stories if it isn’t available in your regular shopping habitats.
Citron peel – also hard to find, at least in the U.S., you can substitute a mix of lemon and orange zest
Cooking note – I assume the 1 teaspoonful of flour is for the bottoms of the tins. No other information was given.
From THE TREASURE COOKERY BOOK by M.M. Mitchell

The following recipes for ices were all taken from DESSERTS by Olive M. Hulse. Miss Hulse was an American cookbook author with several cookbooks to her name. From Victorian times, small moulds were available to make ices more decorative. Today, the easiest way to mould an ice would be to use a dixie cup. That’s what I used for the strawberry sorbet on the left below. Angel’s Snow is on the right

Lemon Drop Cakes
Cream a cupful of sugar and four tablespoonfuls of butter, add three well beaten eggs, three cupfuls of sifted flour, a pound of currants, half a teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder and a cupful of milk. Flavor with lemon extract. Stir slowly until thoroughly mixed. Drop a teaspoonful at a time on a well-greased dripping pan and bake five to ten minutes in a quick oven until brown. Quick oven: 375 degrees

Strawberry Parfait
Whip a quart of cream, add a cupful of sugar, and a cupful of strawberry juice. Put into a mould and freeze three hours.

Angel’s Snow
Pare, and grate the meat of a cocoanut. Peel and cut a dozen oranges in small pieces, taking out the seeds. Put a layer of orange in the bottom of a pretty glass dish, sprinkle with sugar, then a layer of cocoanut, then a layer of orange, sugar, and so on until the dish is full, having the last layer cocoanut. Let it stand for an hour.

Orange Ice
Make a syrup by boiling four cupfuls of water and two cupfuls of sugar for twenty minutes. Add two cupfuls of orange juice, a fourth of a cupful of lemon juice, and the grated rind of two oranges. Cool and strain. Freeze.
Pineapple Delight
Boil two tablespoonfuls of rice until soft, and drain it. Dissolve a tablespoonful of gelatin in the boiling water and add the rice, and three-quarters of a cupful of sugar. Cool, and add a pnch of salt, two cupfuls of pineapple juice, and a cupful of whipped cream. Cool, and servie in dainty glasses with a cherry on the top of each.

Informal Supper Dishes
You may want something more casual for your dining pleasure. Here’s a few more main course dishes that were typically served for smaller parties or in less elaborate situations. All of them are still eaten today.

Baked Eggs and Tomatoes
4 large tomatoes
4 fresh eggs
1 oz of butter
1/2 teaspoonful of chopped parsley
Pepper, salt and nutmeg
Rounds of fried or toasted bread

Choose tomatoes of the same size and not too ripe. Dip them into boiling water and peel them. Cut a round piece out of the top of each one and scoop out the centres without making them too thin. Break an egg into each of the tomatoes, sprinkle the parsley, pepper, salt and nutmeg on the top of each, cut the butter into pieces and place on the eggs. Stand the tomatoes on a tin or dish put into a hot oven and bake for five or six minutes, until the eggs are set. Dish each tomato on a piece of toast and serve. *Note-I had to cook this about twenty minutes to get the egg to set. It may be because I used an egg at refrigerator temperature instead of room temperature. I also did not peel the tomato.
From THE TREASURE COOKERY BOOK by M.M. Mitchell

Welsh Rarebit
1 round of toast
1 oz of butter
1/2 mustardpoonful of mixed mustard (1 mustardspoon is equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon.)
3 ozs of Cheddar cheese
Cayenne
Cut the bread rather thick, toast and butter it, and cut across into four. Shred the cheese, make the butter hot in a saucepan add cheese, mustard, and cayenne, stir it
over the fire until the cheese melts, then pour it over the pieces of toast, brown them quickly by putting them under a gas griller or using a salamander or hot shovel. Serve quickly. (A salamander is like a small electric broiler. Broiling them in a modern oven would work the same.)
From THE TREASURE COOKERY BOOK by M.M. Mitchell

Curried Rice
1/2 lb Patna rice (I assume you can use any type of rice. Patna rice is a long-grain Indian rice.)
1 1/2 ozs butter or bacon fat
Dessertspoonful of curry powder (1 dessertspoonful equals 2 teaspoons)
Water
2 large onions
Salt
Rind and Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Hard-boiled eggs

Well wash and dry the rice. Finely mince the onion. Melt the fat in the saucepan, add the onion. Fry without letting it take much colour. Put in the curry powder and rice and fry it for three minutes. Season with salt and lemon juice. Just cover the rice with cold water and cook it very slowly until the rice is quite soft and dry. Add more water if necessary, and keep the lid on the whole time. Stir with a fork not to mash the rice. More curry can be added if required hotter. Dish up in a pile and garnish with hard-boiled egg cut into sections. or fried croutons of bread.
From THE TREASURE COOKERY BOOK by M.M. Mitchell

Enjoy!

Bane of the Titanic – A Romantic Suspense Novella

If you are a student, parent, teacher or librarian and have found this site because you are looking for information on my middle grade adventure books, please go to my main website: http://deegarretson.com/ This site is for my historical mysteries and romantic suspense written for adults.

ETA: This title is currently unavailable.

Earlier this year, I published a romantic suspense novella under a pen name titled Bane of the Titanic. I was a little nervous about trying to write something in a different style from what I’ve attempted before, but now I’ve decided to go ahead and let people know about it.  Here’s a description :

An alternate history of the Titanic tragedy – Aspiring reporter Julia Llewellyn hopes the voyage back to New York on the Titanic will give her plenty of material for a story that the editor of her hometown paper won’t be able to refuse, even though he normally only lets her report on ladies’ luncheons and charity meetings. When Julia spots a crate being loaded on board marked with the words “Extreme Danger – Do Not Open,” she thinks she has a lead on a great story, one that will get her name on the front page. Right away rumors start to swirl about the artifact in the crate, and of the curse that follows it.

Even though Julia doesn’t believe in curses, she knows it will make a good story, if told the right way. But once she meets the young assistant surgeon on board, Ned Endicott, she has to work at keeping her mind on collecting the facts, not on spending her time hoping she will run into him. As the voyage gets underway, strange incidents give rise to whispers of a mystery animal stalking the unwary, and Julia finds the story growing more dangerous than she ever dreamed, with herself and Ned right in the middle of it. A novella – 25,000 words, Previous title- The Blue Tiger of the Titanic

Of all the mysteries surrounding the Titanic, one major mystery remains. Why did Captain Edward Smith, the most experienced captain of the White Star Line, order the ship full speed ahead knowing they were entering dangerous iceberg-filled waters?

I had a terrific time researching the Titanic, so I hope some of that comes through in the story. Right now it’s only available in ebook form on Amazon, but it will soon be available on Kobo, Barnes and Noble, All Romance and other ebook sites.

J.K. Rowling’s THE CASUAL VACANCY – What to read while waiting for the release day

What is happening behind these closed doors?

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books occupy a prime place on our bookshelves, so I was delighted to hear about her new book for adults, THE CASUAL VACANCY, due out September 27th. Set in the little town of Pagford, it is described as a black comedy revolving around the inhabitants and an election for a town council seat. The description brought to mind some of my favorite books by British writers who have perfected the dissection of village, school and social life with subtle but often hilarious results. I’ve decided to reread some of them and share the list while waiting for the release of THE CASUAL VACANCY. 

 

        

The Mapp and Lucia series, by E.F. Benson: It’s hard to convey just how funny this series is from a description, but I love the books so much, I’ve read them multiple times. Mrs. Emmeline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) is determined to take her place as the queen of whatever village she has deigned to inhabit. The term “Frenemies” should have been coined when these books were written, because it perfectly describes the relationships Lucia has with her fellow residents as they ruthlessly maneuver for social supremacy through fêtes, garden parties, musical soirées, and bridge evenings. There are sixe books in the series beginning with QUEEN LUCIA and continuing with LUCIA IN LONDON, MISS MAPP, MAPP AND LUCIA, LUCIA’S PROGRESS/THE WORSHIPFUL LUCIA, and TROUBLE FOR LUCIA.

Evelyn Waugh, perhaps best known for BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, first became well-known for DECLINE AND FALL, a social satire of British life in the 1920s. Paul Pennyfeather is the hapless hero, who as a student at Oxford, who is expelled for inadvertently running through the college grounds without his trousers. He is forced to take a job teaching at a boarding school in Wales full of a memorable cast of characters including a villainous butler/conman. Pennyfeather becomes engaged to the mother of one of the students, but he doesn’t know her wealth comes from a number of high-class brothels in South America. What follows is a comedy of absurd situations written in a deadpan manner that only makes it more entertaining.

Nancy Mitford was the daughter of the eccentric Baron Redesdale, and used him and her six siblings as fodder for a classic story of upper class British life in THE PURSUIT OF LOVE. The saga follows the lives of Fanny Logan and her cousin, Linda Radlett. Linda’s family lives at Alconleigh, a British manor house dominated by her larger-than-life father, Lord Alconleigh, Lord Alconleigh has his bloodhounds practice their hunting skills with staged “child hunts” where two lucky children are sent off to lay a trail and try to evade the dogs for as long as possible. The story follows the two girls through adolescence and adulthood, as they cope with love and life during the thirties and on into the World War II years. Mitford has the ability to make you believe these two girls actually existed, and their lives move a reader to alternate between laughter and tears.

P.G. Wodehouse, most famous for his Jeeves and Wooster series, wrote a series of nine short stories and eleven novels about the inhabitants and visitors of Blandings Castle and the nearby village of Market Blandings. There is a dizzying cast of characters, from a champion pig named the Empress of Blandings to absent-minded Lord Emsworth and his ten sisters. There are jewel thieves and imposters and young lovers and pig aficionados, all of whom give life to what becomes a complete world around the Tudor castle with its maze of rooms, some unused since Queen Elizabeth’s time, and its grounds of woods and gardens. The first book SOMETHING FRESH (or sometimes titled SOMETHING NEW) involves a romance, a missing scarab and an American millionaire, and of course, servants who aren’t really servants. Who could ask for more?

Hope you enjoy!

Please Help me Choose a New Cover for a Mystery/Thriller

When I first published my historical mystery, I was very pleased with its original cover, but over time I’ve decided I need something different. Since I’m not sure just what I need, I’m asking pleading for opinions.

Here’s a description of the story with two possible new cover choices below and the original as well. If you leave a comment, you’re automatically entered in a drawing for a $25.00 gift card-winner to be chosen at random on September 15th. (If you tweet a link to this, or retweet one of my own from @deegarretson, or post it on Facebook, you’ll get an extra entry. )

THE GARGOYLE IN THE SEINE:

The City of Light is full of dark places. Art student Clary Ashton can’t imagine a more perfect spot to study painting than Paris in the spring of 1878, until she witnesses a body thrown into the Seine, the body of Liam Heaton, another art student with a mysterious background. What Clary thinks is murder becomes much more as Liam’s secrets come to light, and Clary finds herself drawn into a world she didn‘t realize existed, one spanning both the murky underworld and the glittering salons of the city.

Caught between two dangerous men -a political extremist days away from a royal assassination, and the young intrepid British secret agent who is determined to stop him – Clary doesn’t know who to trust. She does know that if she doesn’t find the murderer, she may become a victim herself.

Here’s possibility #1, done by talented cover artist Leigh Jenner. You can see other examples of her work here: http://www.redwoodcoastdigitalart.com/

Here’s possibility #2:

I really like both these covers, but it’s very hard for me to decide which would attract the largest readership. I’d love to hear what you think. And I guess I should add in a choice for my original cover. This is possibility #3:

Thanks!

“Indie” versus “Self-published” – What’s in a word?

The idea for this post came from reading the postings of another writer who was discussing how language changes and who gets to decide what words can be used to describe things. I like reading and listening to intelligent discussions about topics, even those I’ve already made up my mind about. Sometimes I actually change my mind, and that’s what led to this post.

For some time now, people have been expressing strong opinions about how to describe self-publishing. For those of you who haven’t followed this debate, when some self-published authors starting calling themselves “indie” authors, there were people who strongly disapproved of that word usage. In the past, “indie” referred to independent publishers, those not part of a large corporation. It had nothing to do with authors.

The decision early on for some self-published authors to use the term “Indie” arose from a desire to distinguish their efforts from the negative connotations of vanity publishing. It was an understandable choice on the one hand, and yet it is also understandable that co-opting the term did not sit well with those who felt it was inaccurate. I think some felt self-published authors were trying to make themselves seem something they weren’t. The debate about the usage is still raging on. Writers care about word definitions and word usage, so what to those outside the publishing world might have seemed completely unimportant, is now too often a trigger for acrimonious exchanges when people are discussing the changing world of publishing.

But any language in use is a living language, and words and definitions of words are constantly being added. Sometimes it leads to uncomfortable feelings among groups and individuals. For example, take the word “adopt.” My husband and I are very lucky to have a wonderful daughter we adopted. Adoption has a very special and specific meaning to us. Several years ago when I first starting hearing people using the word “adopt” to describe getting a pet at an animal shelter, it made me upset. Anyone who knows me knows I dearly love my pets, and I do feel like they are part of my family, but there is no comparison with my children. I also didn’t like it when a popular store where children make their own stuffed animals, gave out “adoption certificates” with each purchase. It seemed to trivialize what to us was a momentous life-changing occasion.

When friends and colleagues used the word in such a way, though, I didn’t immediately assume they were ignorant or wrong and discount all their subsequent opinions. Could I have debated with them? Told them how I felt? I could have, but I didn’t, because I realized they weren’t trying to undermine real adoption. They weren’t using it to slur our family’s experience or to try to claim adopting a pet was equivalent to bringing a child into a family. It was just a word whose meaning was changing, and one that shouldn’t become a trigger word. I even find myself using it now when referring to pets coming into a family.

Some words are awful and hateful, especially those that are used as a slur for particular group of people, and when people use those words, I do judge them negatively and don’t respect their opinions even on unrelated topics. Thankfully, among the people I interact with, I don’t hear them using hateful words, and we can discuss and debate many, many topics of interest to us in a civil manner, without resorting to profanity-laced rants or insults to each other’s intelligence. So when it comes to the word “Indie,” I think we should all move beyond this debate. It’s now so common a word to describe self-publishing that we are going to have to accept once again our living language has changed. Trying to get rid of a word usage once it is widespread is a fruitless endeavor. I grew up among farmers who weren’t known for their loquacity, but some of their pithy sayings have stuck with me. One in particular applies here: No sense closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Indie has bolted and is out in the wide world now. Let’s concentrate on other things.

P.S. I do have a pet peeve with the word “joke” being used as a verb in a shortened form of “playing a joke,” as in “he’s joking you.” I’ve forbidden my children to use this, but if any of my friends and colleagues uses it this way in my hearing, I promise not to go ballistic on you.