Books & Writing

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Millions 1857?

1909. Reading in Bed at night should be avoided, as beside the danger of an accident, it never fails to injure the eyes,

Books, Writing and Contests

I’m on a tight timeline these days. I got an entry loaded up in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I hope to make it beyond the pitch (which I did last year) to maybe one or two more levels. It’s a good experience anyway and I’ve made good friends while dealing with technology. And I’m entering the PNWA Literary Contest for 2012 as well with a different novel, Timber Rose, the prequel to Tree Soldier. I hope to have it published by summer.

I’m happy to say that Tree Soldier got a great review in the Jan 2012 PW  Select.  It was a thrill to have it selected. It’s really been an amazing journey this past year or so. At a talk last night author William Dietrich said that one of ten thinghas to say, I’m going to curl up with a book in bed and celebrate.

But first an ad from November 1858. What a selection of books.

Great Plagarism of Books

Predictions

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Million 1857?

4046. Mind what you run after! Never be content with a bubble that will burst, firewood that will end in smoke and darkness.

A New Year

I think like many of us, I want 2011 to be gone. It’s certainly been a wild year for me, mostly great, but with bumps and dips that made me just want to go to bed and put the covers over my head. But I had a goal for this cranky year and it is coming true. My novelTree Soldier, , is doing well and that is not only satisfying to me as a writer but also the attention it is bringing to the role of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the development and creation of national and state parks throughout our country during the most difficult economic time in our nation’s history, including the then territories of Hawaii and Alaska. I continue to learn about the CCCs and that is a good thing.

Bring on 2012

I have a few goals/tasks for 2012:

Become a better writer,

Prepare two talks for public speaking

Complete editing of prequel to Tree Soldier by spring

Clean out my office – for real

And welcome a new grandchild into the world.

Life will be good, though I’m never one to make predictions about the future. (only set goals) That never has kept others from looking to future. Enjoy these gems from 1858.

A Chronology of Remarkable Events (Daily Alta California 1854)

1858. Restoration of the bonnet to the crown of the head.

1857. Prohibition of barrel organs, cats, blunt knives and door chains.

1859. Teetotolaism introduced among aldermen. No less than three take the pledge at once.

1881. Great excitement prevails in literary circles. A London author gets a cheque from a New York Publisher (Dickens, I wonder?)

1900. A clean street seen in the city.

190. Publication of Mr. James 2,000 novel.

1920. A racing prophecy fulfilled.

1945. A London lady for a wager, walks down Regent street with her husband without stopping at a shawl shop.

1980. Maine law introduced into England –for an hour or two.

2000. Restoration of a borrowed umbrella to its rightful owner.

2001. Apparition of a policeman at the moment he was wanted.

You just never know about the future. With our cell phones, we probably could have a policeman arrive as soon as wanted. If anyone knows about Maine law, let me know.

For me, I’ll just work on 2012.

Time Traveling Through Family Memories

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipts for the Million 1857?

686. To make Red Sealing Wax.– To every ounce of shall-lac take half an ounce each of resin and vermillion, all reduced to a fine powered. Melt them over a moderate fire; and when thoroughly incorporated and sufficiently cool, form the composition into what are called sticks. On account of the dearness of shellac, seed-lac is usually substituted. A more ordinary sort, but sufficiently good for most occasions, may be made by mixing equal parts of resin and shell-lac with two parts of red lead and one of vermillion. In a still commoner sort, the vermillion is often entirely omitted.

Time Traveling

I’ve been on a time travel trip of sort, traveling back to the place where my grown-up life and the life of my family all began: Honolulu. I came out here in 1969 on a one-way ticket. Hawaii was going through a building boom, but it was still a small town bustling with soldiers and sailors on R & R from the Vietnam War and co-eds trying out the beaches for the summer. It was all exotic and even after school in France two years before, a totally different experience for me. Back then my letters went home regularly with the occasional long distance phone call. Sometimes my letters were sealed with sealing wax. (I always thought it so romantic.)

It’s funny how a place can grow on you. I met true love here and learned a thing or two, like a BFA in weaving and textiles that put me under the wing of Ruthadell Anderson, who had just finished monumental weavings for the Hawaii State Capital Building. As her apprentice, I wove and constructed pieces  for a hotel in Saipan. I also became a guide at Mission Houses Museum, falling in love with museum work and kids, something I continue to do. I hiked Haleakula Crater twice, got married in Hilo and had my first boy there. Then we moved away to the Mainland.

Family Stories Lead and Guide

Forward to over 40 years later. I’m here for the graduation of one of my sons from the University of Hawaii, my old alma mater. This is my fourth trip in seven years and each time I come I look for the places I loved and never left my heart. I was surprised when my son said he wanted to come out here and go to school, but then I remembered how my mother’s own stories of growing up in Idaho guided me west to Washington State where I have lived for many years now.

Coming back out has been both a healing adventure after losing my husband ten years ago and a discovery adventure. Coming back out for this important family event has also brought everything full circle. I’ve reacquainted myself with Mission Houses Museum and made new friends at Iolani Palace. I spoke to Ruthadell Anderson two years ago and told her how my experience as one of her apprentices was a highlight of my life. I’ve discovered nooks to write in here in Honolulu and revisited old haunts. Yesterday, two of my boys hiked up to Manoa Falls, the first hike I ever did with their father. Last Monday, I returned to Haleakula Crater and looked into the maw I crossed so long ago.  And found some new stories about the place I KNOW I’m going to research and write about.

I’m so grateful that my mother kept my letters that I wrote home to them when I first came here. They are my journal entries  and will be the foundation of the memoir pieces that I will write for my sons, as a way to remember and tell the story of our family history.

How do you time travel when you write your family’s stories?

Words

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Million 1857?

1387. — Knowledge will  aid you even in hand work ; and a good book is a safe refuge in idle hours.

Inspiring Words from the Blog de Troops

First off, inspiring words came from all the people who commented during the Blog de Troops for Veteran’s Day Weekend. For every comment, they not only got an ebook of TREE SOLDIER , but a soldier received one too as well as a chance to win a Kindle. I just got things all sorted out.  So many comments! Wonderful.

Intriguing Words

Did you ever have a word or expression make you sit up and notice? Make you say what the heck is that? A new member of a writing group I’m in gave me such word when we were discussing ships.  I’ve been researching maritime history in my area and when I got an opportunity to learn more from a First Mate on a large schooner, I listened.  What I got was baggy wrinkles.

What?

Never have I been so struck with a word. I had to learn how to make them.

So on the following Saturday, on a really cold, blustery day, I showed up at a warehouse down on the bay and was introduced to the fine of making baggy wrinkles. So what the heck are they? Apparently, made of sisal and other fibrous rope material, they have been on aboard ships for centuries. Their main purpose is prevent the lines on  a ships from banging the sails and tearing them into shreds.

Making baggy wrinkles

Making them was fairly easy, though wearing garden   gloves was a good defense against blistering. Using a tarred nylon line (historically something fine and strong) a line is stretched between two posts or saw horses. Nine inches of thick sisal rope is cut and them separated into strands. The ends are tied onto the line and pulled tight. It was a familiar knot for me. I’ve used it in weaving for years. I worked for about an hour and got about ten inches done. When the whole project is complete, the baggy wrinkles will be about ten feet long or more. They twist into the shape seen on ships.

I plan to go back, but really baggy wrinkles? Has a word ever caused you to learn and take action? This one certainly did. As a writer, it’s important to explore and even try your hand at something so weird sounding. You just have to.

Best Foot Forward: Welcome Blog de Troops

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Million 1857?

309. Water-proof Boots.–I have had three pairs of boots for the last six years (no shoes) and I think I shall not require any more for the next six ears to come. The reason is, that I treat them in the  following manner: I put a pound of tallow and half a pound of rosin in a pot on the fire; when melted and mixed, I warm the boots and apply the hot stuff with a painter’s brush, until neither the the sole or the upper-leather ill suck in any more. It is desired that the boots should immediately take a polish, melt an ounce of wax with a tea-spoonful of lamp-black. A day after the boots have been treated with tallow and rosin, rub over them this wax in turpentine, but not before the fire. The exterior will them have a coat of wax along, and will shine like mirror. Tallow or any other grease becomes rancid, and rots the stitching as well as the leather.

Remembering the Troops

Welcome to Historyweaver’s Blog where Mrs. Hale, a 1850s women’s advocate comments on household matters and family and I write about history.  Somehow her “receipt” on waxing shoes seems appropriate for a blog tour celebrating our troops.  If you’re just arriving you should be checking in from George Sirois, Kindle best selling author. You’ll be moving onto M. Todd Gallowglas. It promises to be a great ending to such a great event.

Don’t forget to comment and put your email in it for my free ebook, TREE SOLDIER.

Boots in the Family

I have military men in my family, but they  tend to be of the ancient kind. My ancestor, Col. Clement March, commanded the Horse Guards in New Hampshire doing the colonial period. Both of my great-grandfathers served in the Civil War. One was a regular soldier from Ohio who later went to Kenyon College and homesteaded out west in New Mexico and Idaho Territories. The other was a civilian doctor who became a surgeon in the Union Army in 1863 and just a couple of weeks after getting his assignment in the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers he was at the Battle of Gettysburg. For several days he was in the Lutheran Church tending to the wounded on both sides. He also went west to Kansas.  My own father, his grandson, was a scientist and during WWII did secret work for Naval Ordinance. The dearest to me, is my husband, who died  10 years ago. He served in 1st Cav, just a 19 year-old in 1967. He was a radio operator assigned to Special Forces. One of  the places was LZ Sharon. Maybe I’ll find out where that was one of these days. Here’s what he wrote in one letter:

“Last few day’s I’ve been doing “Nothing’, Nothing but pick and shovel work for 12 hours a day/ We’re still out here miles from no-where.  Building bunkers that will supposedly withstand anything Charlie can heave at us. I’ve yet to see one hold up.”

Some vets said he died of Vietnam for he was way too young. (He had been exposed to Agent Orange) Perhaps that is true, but I some day  hope to meet others from his unit so they may know that he had a good life, raised three fine sons and found a career in geology. It is all one hopes for all our troops today. And my hopes for you. What’s next?

Free ebook

My novel Tree Soldier is historical fiction, a story set in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp during the Great Depression. A story of love and forgiveness,  Park Hardesty is trying to make amends for a tragic mistake while planting trees, building bridges and fighting forest fires. The CCCs was one of FDR’s most popular New Deal programs. Many of these 18-25 year-old young men later went on to serve in WW II.  Many historians say that the skills the boys learned working together in the CCCs helped the US win the war.

Leave a comment about this post or any story of someone who served/serves. Be sure to put in your email so a pdf of my novel can be sent to you. A copy will sent to member in the armed forces.

If you’d like to donate money toward those Kindles for our soldiers, simply use Paypal and ibcprograms@gmail.com as the address to send money to. Please note on your payment that it’s a Troops donation.

Thanks for coming by. And as the CCC’s motto says, WE CAN TAKE IT.

Remembering…

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipts for the Million 1857?

00 Nothing on this subject. She tends to stick to household hints, rules for young wives, and home surgery. So I venture out on my own.

A Place Apart

My mom and brother live in Thoreau country. I look forward to my visits every time I go. The rolling wooded hills, apple orchards and farms. Along with family, it is a place to contemplate and enjoy. There’s a lot of history too.

There is also a place I looked forward to as well. Behind the church on the town square is a two centuries old cemetery. Many of the early families are buried here, some going back to the 1750s. When I first came to the village 15 years ago, my sister-in-law took me on walk around some fabulous gardens in century old homes on the square and then took me back behind the church to a singular grave.   It sits outside the main line of headstones, a simple monument to someone long ago: Othello the African.

I don’t know why this marker moves me so. Perhaps, because it sits away on its own on the side of the church near the stone wall. Yet, there are words of friendship, devotion and faithfulness inscribed on it.  Someone  the family cared for, though it is a half hidden truth that some New Englanders kept slaves up to the latter half of the 18th century.

But I don’t want him to be alone. So every time I go, I always slip away to this humble place and leave something for him. Sometimes it’s flowers. Sometimes, a meager offering. But I do remember.

All Hallows Day

Halloween is coming again. And this time I look on it with trepidation as it will be 10 years since my husband died suddenly on a sunny October day promising trick-or-treaters and spooky fun. We said goodbye. I went to work. The rest is memory.

So like Othello, I will remember him, trying to hold onto the very good things we had together, putting aside the hard things since he passed. I’ll put a lei on his picture. Eat an apple from his tree. Read from one of his favorite books.

Mrs. Hale most likely knew sorrow. I could probably look it up. But on this day I want to remember.

When I think of Rolf I think of rivers:

Long rivers, skinny rivers,

Rivers with boulders and pebbly beaches,

Rivers flowing swift at high water,

Rivers slow but clear as glass showing where the Dolly Varden hide.

Rivers of salmon and steelhead going to the sea.

Before I met Rolf the only rivers I knew were the Allegheny and

Monongahela, the Ohio and Shenandoah,

Sluggish rivers, brown and old.

Rolf showed me wild rivers

With eagles and ancient spruce bottoms, king fishers and heron

And elk dipping their heads into the water.

Stillaguamish, Nooksack, Lyre and Hoh,

Skagit, Samish, Queets and Sauk

Rivers of legend, rivers of dreams.

May he always be there along them casting, casting until I come to him.

A Special Guest Today

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Million, 1857?

782. Management of a Horse.

Fourteen pounds of hay in one day, or one hundred pounds a week, with three feeds of corn a day, are sufficient for a horse that is not over-worked. In traveling, after the principal feed, let a horse have not less than two hours’ rest, that his food may have time to digest.

Welcome Award Winning Author Heidi Thomas

Today my guest is Heidi Thomas, author of Follow The Dream and my critique writing buddy and friend. Welcome.

1) First of all, congratulations on winning a WILLA award for this novel. I can’t tell you how excited I am for you. I have loved your female protagonist, Nettie Brady Moser, ever since I heard you read her adventures, dreaming of riding bulls in rodeos in 1920, and finding the guy of her dreams instead.  Tell us, what was it like to hear that you won this award?

At first, I couldn’t believe it. I had to re-read the message several times to see if I was a finalist or a winner. Then it was a rocket ship ride to Cloud Ten and higher, where I floated for about a week. It’s a wonderful “high” and it is so nice to receive validation that what you’ve written is considered “good.”

2) That’s both funny and exciting. Well, the fuss is about Follow The Dream, a novel which won in the YA category but really is a great read for all ages. Could you give us a summary of the story?

This book starts out with Nettie’s cowgirl dream come true—married to her rodeo cowboy, plans to ride the rodeo circuit, and a coveted invitation to join the Tex Austin Wild West Troupe in London. But she soon discovers that she will now have family responsibilities, and then drought and the Depression forces them into years of continuous moves to find grass to feed their horse herd. Nettie experiences severe challenges to her dream, including tragedy, loss and fear. Nettie must learn that sometimes dreams need to be changed, but to never give up.

3) What is especially strong about the novel is the backdrop of the story: Prohibition, the Great Depression and the terrible environmental conditions of the times that challenged ranchers in Montana. Against it all is Jake and Nettie making things meet. What stories or research did you draw on to show life during this time and place?

Well, as a kid, I read Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, of course, but Montana had its own set of problems and ways of dealing with that era. My dad told me many anecdotes about growing up in 1930s Montana, which I drew on for my book.

4) At one point, Jake gets involved in bringing boot leg booze into Montana from Canada. Tell us something about that and the cowboys who might have gotten into it when times were rough economically.

Montana law enforcement did, for the most part, “look the other way” when it came to serving alcohol in the back room of saloons, but it was still illegal. Because Cut Bank (where my grandparents lived) was so close to the Canadian border, cowboys crossed to compete in rodeos and many sought to improve their financial status by bringing some extra bottles back home.

5) For me one of the most memorable sections of Follow The Dream is when Nettie, Jake and their young son drive fifty horses from their home in eastern Montana to greener grass in Salmon, Idaho.  Part of the trip goes through Glacier National Park, which was pretty new back then and the wild country with hard luck towns and dried up homesteads. I understand this based on a true story of your grandparents. What’s the story behind this dramatic part of the book?

My grandparents did raise cross-bred Percheron horses for draft work and for rodeo stock. During the early ’30s, Montana experienced an extreme drought and a grasshopper infestation that my dad said ate everything in their path, including fenceposts. My grandparents were desperate to save their horses and heard there was grass in the mountains of Idaho. So they set off on this three-month, 400-mile trip over steep mountain passes with only three other cowboys and Shorty, the cook. My dad told me of this adventure, which he remembered vividly, although he was only six years old. It must have taken great courage to undertake this journey, not really knowing what lay ahead.

6) Another thing I’ve loved about both novels in this series is your descriptions of horses and livestock and how they move and react. (Wonderful scenes of riding bulls, riding horses and herding cattle.) For writers who might be writing about times when horses and wagons were the main type of transportation, what suggestions do you have for bringing to life these animals and their gear. You just can’t write “and she got on her horse and took off.”  Wouldn’t you have to know the era? How would a lady ride in 1900? 1820? How does a horse react to someone who might not know how to ride?

I would advise someone writing about horses to go visit a working ranch, to observe the animals and the riders, and even try riding one yourself, if you are brave enough! Being there, you get the full effect of the smell of horse sweat, the sounds of cattle, the taste of dust, and how the cowboys act and react to situations. For writing about a by-gone era, I recommend doing lots of reading—books that describe how life was then.

How women rode in the 1800s and early 1900s is an interesting question. Women started out riding side saddle, because it was most unseemly (even considered detrimental to their health) that they would ride astraddle. But ranch girls and wives learned that wearing split skirts and riding regular saddles was so much more comfortable and practical. Split skirts and pants were still scandalous attire in public in the early 1900s, as Evelyn Cameron, British-born Montana photographer discovered when she was nearly arrested for dressing that way in town.

Wow. And then there was the issue of girls wearing pants in high school in the 1960s.

Thanks again for the interview, Heidi. Can’t wait for the banquet when you get your honor. I’ll be there in the front row of tables rooting for you.

Thank you, Janet. My books, Cowgirl Dreams and Follow the Dream are available from my website, my publisher Trebleheart Books , and Follow the Dream is available on Kindle. Heidi is a member of Women Writing the West. You can find the WILLA  at the WWW website.

Researching Clothing

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt for the Million 1857?

157. To make Starch—Dissolve as much starch as will be required in a very small quantity of cold water; then pour boiling water on it till it is of the right consistency, and let it boil once or twice.

In mixing starch, put alum of sugar in it to prevent it from sticking to the iron. Stirring the starch for a minute with a sperm candle improves it when it is wanted for shirt bosoms or collars.

Getting the Right Look

I’ve been querying a novel (Mist-shi-mus) that takes place on the eve of the Civil War here in the Pacific NW. My main character is a young Englishwoman who has come to stay at English Camp, a Royal Marine camp that was active between 1860- 1872. While she endures the loss of her little boy to smallpox and falls in love with a American frontiersman with an interesting background, she also engages in teas, races and balls. American and British military forces jointly occupied the island while the water boundary was arbitrated.  And the officers got along just fine. For a woman out here in this forested, island wilderness, surprisingly, fashion and custom ruled. Jeannie Naughton will just have to buck up and wear what society demanded– including mourning clothes.

I did some early research on clothing by reading books on historic fashion of which there are some fine ones.  I attended some Civil War reenactments and looked at on-line sites for clothing  such as Timeless Stitches, Blockade Runners, and Fall Creek Suttlery. But thanks to my association with San Juan Island National Historical Park I got first hand experience in what to wear and how my Jeannie would dress.

But what about the starch?

A Bit of Starch

Oh, that. Mrs. Hale is always so well versed in these things, but while trying to understand underpinnings, my own experience with petticoats is growing. I have two now for my 1860 schoolmarm outfit, but have been debating the hoop skirt. Recently,  I was reminded that for work and regular life, women often wore petticoats that were corded. In order to achieve the bell shape so desired in fashion, the petticoat was starched, providing a stiff underpinning to push the skirt out.

For modern application of starch, re-enactors with Fort Nisqually in Tacoma, WA do the following:

1) Dip the corded petticoat into a plastic tub with liquid starch. Soak well.

2) Remove petticoat from tub and place over a clean garbage can (covered with plastic).

3) Let dry. The can will keep the petticoat’s sides from sticking.

4) When dry, spritz it with water and iron to smooth out any wrinkles.

The petticoat will help to create the desired shape.

An interesting thing about the use of starch is that it repelled dirt in a time when you didn’t wash your clothes very often.

Happy writing and research. I will, in the mention, search out a corded petticoat or make it myself.  Considerable yardage is apparently needed for that.

Revising a Draft

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt in the Million 1857?

 690. To take out Writing.–When recently written, ink may be completely removed by the oxymuriatic acid (concentrated and in solution). The paper is to be washed over repeatedly with the acid;but it will be necessary afterward to wash it also with lime-water, for the purpose of neutralizing any acid that may be left on the paper, and which would considerably weaken it. But if the ink have been long written, it will have undergone such a change s to prevent the preceding process from taking effect. It ought therefore to be washed with liver of sulphur (sulphuret of ammonia) before the oxymriatic acid is applied. It maybe been washing with a hair pencil.

Revising and Editing: Looking at an old friend

For the past several months I have been revising  a novel, Timber Rose, which is the prequel to my novel Tree Soldier. Set in the Pacific Northwest just after the turn of the 20th century, it tells the story of a young couple making their way in a mountain community undergoing change with the arrival of  the newly formed Forest Service and the bustling logging companies determined to take all the trees down.  The parents of Kate Alford, the romantic interest in Tree Soldier, their backgrounds sometimes collide or collude against them, but their love stays strong.  Complete at about 117,000 words, it was a novel I hadn’t looked at in years. With Tree Soldier out, it seemed like a responsible project for another stab at self-publishing.

Where to Start?

Mrs Hale certainly knew her chemistry, but she was trying to save paper which was expensive back then. Taking on a revision will definitely require paper. How to proceed?

1) Find all the files. They got a bit scattered over the years.

2) Print off and do a read. (So far,  it looks really good. Some POV shifts and other minor writerly things). Story flows, research holds up.

3) Revise using hard copy. (I like pencil) Add paper where necessary for new scenes.

4) Input changes into the chapter files on computer.

5) Create a table or excel sheet showing the chapters noting the starting text of each chapter, word count, action in story, file name and chapter #.

6) Break up chapter length to insure good story arch in each chapter

Flap Copy for Timber Rose

Caroline Symington is young woman from a prominent family in Portland, Oregon, but she is more interested in outdoor climbing groups and the freedoms a “New Woman” in 1906 enjoys than fancy parties and the politics of money. If she marries, it will be on her on terms. If she has children, it will be because she believes in “voluntary motherhood.” When she meets and falls in love with Bob Alford, an enterprising, working class man from the east side of Lake Washington, little does she know how sorely her theories will be tested.

Off to San Juan Island and English Camp this coming weekend. I’ll be making my own ink for the Pioneer Folkways I’ll be bringing to the visitors in the national park.

A Little Sharpening

What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipt in the Million 1857?

622. The hone and razor-strop should be kept in good condition. The German hone is best: it should be frequently moistened with oil, and laid up in a place where it will not readily become dry: if it be rubbed with soap, instead of oil, previously to using, it will give additional keenness and fineneess to the edge of the razor.

Sharping Up Your Writing

I attended a wonderful inaugural writer’s conference this past weekend– the Chuckanut Writer’s Conference. Held in Bellingham WA, it was a partnership between Whatcom Community College and the best indie bookstore, Village Books. A stellar group of speakers were there: Tom Robbins, Jim Lynch, Gloria Burgess, Nancy Lou Canyon, Samuel Green, Dawn Groves, Alex Kuo , Nancy Rawles. and Priscilla Long.

Some of the great benefits of going to a writer’s conference is to hear great speakers, network with other writers and the takeaways you can get from sessions. It was especially fun to be at the beginning of something that had great promise and delivered. I enjoyed the powerful speakers and some of the sessions were good practice. I attended several led by poets just to add a little pizzazz to my work in progress and a great session by Priscilla Long on sentences.

Historical fiction writer Nancy Rawles got me excited as she talked about the historical research she did for My Jim. I connected with her on her joy of the hunt and the figuring out of how to put what you’ve found out into the story you are writing. One great tip was on dialogue. How much of voice of the character do you use in telling the story? In My Jim, she takes elements of Southern speech, dropping English conventions and tenses. Picking out phrases that are from the time period and using it with a certain character’s speech is one way to make a person sound like they are from the period, but not hard to read for modern readers. I just recently found the word, “jollification” in a 1858 newspaper I’ve been reading. I know which character’s going to use that.

She also talked about taking an “emotional risk to know about a period of time. Put yourself in the position of being uncomfortable.

Sparkling Up Your Sentences

Priscilla Long‘s session was packed. She talked about her survey of virtuosos writers she’s been reading for years and their writing habits. Some of her ideas about sentences:

1. Study sentences. Find and collect models of sentences; how are they used and how do they work?
2. Work with sound just as poets do
3. Virtuoso writers use fragment sentences frequently
4. They also use sentence that act or perform their meaning

Find out more at her website. And get out and sharpen up those sentences and writing.