Puns of Life

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

4082. Wanted to know,—how the six persons can transport themselves over the river in pairs, so that no woman shall be left in company with any of the men unless her husband is present.

Party Mood

Today is my birthday, so I’m in a party mood.  Humor abounds, even after I got that parking ticket (well, maybe I did say an unladylike word).  The sun is shining and I’m not worrying about a major snowstorm slamming into my celebration.   Humor abounds, which reminds of my stint as a research volunteer for the Smithsonian as an undergraduate.

During my sophomore year (somewhere back in the archives of my life) I did a project for the head of Ethnology at the Natural Museum, John C. Ewers.  My assignment was to browse 19th century American Magazines and find pictures of American Indians.  Of course, the media was lithographs and wood cuts, but the purpose was to get the pulse of how Americans perceived our first nations people.  The result was not only publication of Artists of the Old West by Ewers, but for me a first look at popular culture of the time. I’ll have to write more later, but only I wanted to say that while reading such works as Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and The Casket, I began reading the riddles and jokes sections.  What wonderful stuff. I collected them along with notations on the graphics, the oldest of which was from 1826.  Dr. Ewers got very excited because it depicted a wigwam, done historically accurate, not like another litho from the same decade with Captain John Smith and Pocahontas dancing around Grecian Pillars somewhere in Virginia.

Here is a sampling of some of the jokes. Enjoy! (P.S. If you can figure out the riddle above let me know. I’ll post the real answer next time)

Joking Around in the 1850s

1857 Did the horsemen who “scoured the Plains” use soap?

The eye of the law – It has become so weak from want of proper practice in the different courts that is going to advertise for a pupil.

Why is the world like a piano?

~Because it is full of sharps and flats?

What is the difference between an accepted and rejected lover?

~One kisses his missus, the other misses his kisses.

1858 ~ Hint on dress – Don’t carry your handkerchief in your breast pocket. If you do – you take a wiper to your bosom.

A moral instrument – an upright piano.

How should a miller address his lady love?

~In the language of flowers, to be sure.

Pruning for Better Shape

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

2353. Haggling off limbs and branches and leaving stumps on the trees, which rot off and let the water into the trunk, soon destroys the tree; therefore, always cut or saw off smooth, when the wound will heal and the bark grow over.

I have apple trees in my backyard and they’ve been on their own for the past four years, wiggling their branches to the sky and every which way.  They give a lot of fruit, but it was time to get them under control before this year’s crop weighs them down and breaks them apart. So I hired an arborist who knew a thing or three about fruit trees.

For three hours, he worked on a special three-legged ladder, clipping carefully and sawing the limbs. Sometimes, he climbed into the trees, sometimes, he stood back on the ground and just studied the way the branches crossed and grew, trying to figure its structure. In the end, quite a number of branches were gone and the height reduced. It looks stronger now.

Editing a novel is like that. Sometimes you snip here and cut there, but it is probably best to step back and look at the story structure overall. Some possible things to watch out for:

1) What is the purpose of the scene?  Is it an info dump, often found in historical novels?  Historical novels  need a bit of  ’splaining in them. It could be an event or a technology that affects the MC or the world. So how will you put that in or take out?

Let’s look at D-Day. After June 6th, a lot of people in Norway where my novel, THE JOSSING AFFAIR, takes place thought the war would be over for them by August, but Norway was the last place the Germans surrendered in May 1945, a full day later –  May 7th. It would do to let the reader know this important fact. It affects my characters as they deal with occupation and resistance.  As the war drags on for them despite liberation of cities on the continent, people get pretty depressed and the Gestapo more vicious (both true facts). I drop some of these victories and disasters as the story goes along. Here’s the first scene announcing the event.

Haugland recognized the oily voice of Foss immediately, but there were others in the room. Eventually, he discerned the voice of the sheriff Fasting and Victor Pedersen, the hotel’s owner. A fourth man he couldn’t identify. It was an odd time for an NS meeting.

“…but according to reports, it began this morning,” Foss was saying. “Very heavy fighting. The Wehrmacht, of course, has responded forcefully. Many American and British lives have been lost on the beaches. They’ll see how strong we are when they try to move inland.”

He strained to listen. So the Allies had landed on the beaches at. Exciting news, but it also increased the danger for him. He hoped the villagers would not substitute euphoria for caution.

Haugland is an British-trained intelligence officer posing as a deaf-mute fisherman in a little Norwegian village.  He has been waiting on orders and August when it starts to get dark again to resume boat deliveries of arms and agents from England.  D-Day will affect him.

2) Is it needed to show something about a character? If this idea has been repeated several times before, take it out.  We get it. Here’s another scene from JOSSING AFFAIR.

Anna took a deep breath and stepped up into the konditori, causing the little bell over the door to jangle. It sounded too loud, like a town crier announcing who she was.

Everyone take appropriate action.

She closed the door behind her and walked over to the display case where a cold buffet was displayed as well as pastries. The room was clean and correct with its little tables and lace curtains.  Ignoring the elderly couple and fisherman who stared at her, she asked for Ella Bjornson.

“I’m Fru Bjornson.” A woman came through the curtains behind the case. There was no softness in her eyes the color of a midsummer’s sky. Her voice was cold.

“I wish some spekmat,” Anna said then waited with dread for the expected response.

The chairs in the room behind Anna scraped and there was the sound of shoes and boots scuffing en masse as everyone got up and left, grabbing their lunch from the plates.

Anna stood rigid in her place. It was so humiliating. When the room cleared, she pointed out what she wanted, paid for it and then went into her little speech.

It might be one of the loveliest things you ever written, but it may have to go. Snip and save in your snippet file (I have plenty).

This scene was needed, by the way, as I needed to show Anna, the love interest of the MC, in a hostile environment.  Ella and Anna will encounter each other over the months, their relationship changing. A widow, Anna is accused of betraying her Norwegian husband. Everyone thinks she’s German, but she is really an American with a German father, hiding from the Gestapo. Norwegians formed an Ice Front to let collaborators and Germans know how they felt.

3) Are the characters serving the story?  Sadly, sometimes this can happen. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’ve been thinking about taking out a character.

4) When all is done, check your grammar. I usually do this as I go along. Found an interesting blog that might help. Blue Pencil Editing

I’ll be at this novel for a bit more, but like my trees that are all in shape for spring blossoms (It’s like April in February in the NW) the novel will be for the better.

Washing in the New Year

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

212. To take  Spots off Cloths, Stuffs, Silk, Cotton, and Linen –Take two quarts of spring water, put in it a little fine white potash, about the quantity of a walnut, and a lemon cut in slices; mix these well together, and let it stand for twenty-fours hours in the sun; then strain it off, and put the clear liquid up for use. This water takes out all spots whether pitch, grease, or oil, as well in hats, as cloths and stuffs, silks or cotton and linen. As soon as the spot is taken out, wash the places with fair water; for cloths of a deep color, add to a spoonful of the mixture as much fair water as to weaken it.

As Mrs. Hale surely would have said, I’ve been remissed. For some time now. But what writer couldn’t resist the chance to revise and shape a novel, chat with fellow writers in new-fangled ways (And not by telegraph. Little bird tweets and something like Sunday afternoon lyceum forums is more like) and spend time with dear ones, including one precious grandchild.   It puts my cap all in a flutter.

So here I am, ready to wash in the New Year. Frankly, the way Mrs. Hale describes taking out spots sounds very much like self-editing.  I have been doing a lot of that.

I have several writing projects on hand:

1) Revise a novel, THE JOSSING AFFAIR,  that I care deeply about, so I can submit it to a lit contest.  It’s way too long for it, though still acceptable for query. Along the way, I’m chatting with other writers in a couple of forums.  Not sure if I can get it down to size in time –if ever. It is what it is. Someday, it will find a home. As a pitch is required, I’ve been working on that and put together a backup plan.  I’ll submit a different one if I can’t get this together in the next 15 days.

2)  Rewrite another. I’ve been changing the structure of this one, giving a chronological time line. I’m also on-going in my research for this historical. More showing than telling, of course, which means some study.

3) Research my bark, the Ann Parry. Made some discoveries over the holidays through my research of shipping intelligence in a 1857 newspaper.  Eventually, there will be a non-fiction work.  I’ve published an article in the Journal of the  Whatcom County Historical Society about her last December.

So the pencil is out.  Coffee card up to date and I’m ready to slash. Just a reminder to myself, but check this out for some good tips: TEN TIPS FOR SELF EDITING.

Enjoy.

Drawing Tea and Research Plans III

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

2078. Why will a black teapot make a better tea than a bright metal one, if it is set on the hob to “draw”?  2079 Because the black teapot will absorb heat plentifully from the fire and keep the water hot; whereas a bright metal teapot (set upon the hob) would throw off the heat by reflection.

Last week we had one of the wildest wind and rainstorms that I can recall in years. The temperature outside was in the 50s, but the wind was powerful, shaking the 100 foot plus Douglas fir next to my house into a frenzy. From a distance it looked like the willow in Harry Potter, its many arms whipping around like an octopus. I finally vacated my upstairs.  Not safe for writing or drinking tea.

Organizing your research

The past couple of times I wrote about creating a research plan. I also wrote about primary and secondary sources. Once you get your secondary sources search underway with that first book or article, you’ll need to create a bibliography.  It sounds like writing a high school or college report, but organization will be your friend when you go on that book tour.

There are several ways to do this. Do it like old school research.  Create a card for each book with all pertinent information. Give it a number. All notes taken related to this source will have that number 1a, 1b, 1c.  Also give it  subject title. I wrote my first novel this way. Just like I was trained in college and followed as an intern at the Smithsonian. Lately, I’ve gotten sloppy. I write on notebook paper.

If you go this way, first repeat the process above and create a biblio card for your source ( or if you prefer a data base on your computer, do that. See on-line source below) Remember to give the source a number.  Then when note taking on paper, record the title of the book on the page or first part, and the page number next to each bit of info for any quote.   Write down a subject title.

Frankly, this is sloppy.

For cyberpedias, get title of article, URL, time accessed and of course, look for those org, edu and gov at the end.

Some notetaking sites are at http://mashable.com/2008/08/19/online-note-taking-applications/ Personally, I don’t like storing my info this way. Hardcopy just seems safer for a variety of reasons, one of which is losing everythin if the computer crashes. But each his own.

You can create bibliographies at http://www.librarything.

Drawing Tea and Research Plans II

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

2076. Do not pensioners, and aged cottagers, generally prefer the black earthen teapot to the bright metal one? 2077. Yes, because they set it on the hob to “draw;” in which , the little black teapot will make the best tea.

You learn new things every day. The top surface of a cook stove is call the hob. Didn’t know that, but a little research uncovered its meaning.

Well, I’ve been distracted again, in part due to a writing assignment that sent me down twice along the South branch of the Stillaquamish River in Snohomish County, WA  looking for clues about a long lost rural place named Jordan. It’s hard when the place is just a spot on a road I never heard of, but well known to locals. Trying to figure out the history of a place, let alone find it is just one of the challenges of writing both fiction and non-fiction. Just try it with 1910 map in your lap.

Gathering Sources For Writing A Historical Novel

Historians work all the time with various forms of information when they research a period.  This falls into two types: primary and secondary.

According to a local archivist, primary sources are “information generated during an event.”  Letters, journals, memos, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers and periodicals. Secondary sources are “information created after an event to explain it to someone else.”

Therefore, a letter from Surgeon WF in 1863 sent to his friend at home is a primary resource.  His article about his experiences at the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg is another. The Hospital on Seminary Ridge at the Battle Of Gettysburg is a secondary resource.  So are the excellent pamphlets the national park at the battlefield produces.

Start with secondary sources first. They are important because they identify context. The event or period that you are writing about is more than a local affair.  It is connected to the outside world. Secondary sources can also be browsed. That is, you can work through a shelf in a library because they are classified.

When I started on my first novel about Norway in WW II, I hit the university library in the European section and an even tighter category, Scandanavia. I found a wonderful title Blood on the Midnight Sun which gave me valuable information about the country during those times and a great bibliography that lead me to important sources. I also read  wartime copies of  Time Magazine and National Geographic.

For how to read a secondary source read this article. For bibliograhies, try Librarything. You can apparently store your books there.

Primaries sources are letters, diaries, newspapers, ephemera (tickets, things created for an event and not expected to be saved). Clothing, buildings, tombstones are also primary sources.  Washington State has the nation’s first digitalized archives. A repository of Primary Sources is at University of Idaho.

Happy hunting. Gotta go check my tea pot.

Drawing Tea and Creating a Research Plan

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

2074. Why will not a dull black teapot make good tea? 2075.  Because the heat of the water flies off so quickly, through the dull black surface of the tea pot, that the water is very rapidly cooled, and cannot “draw” the tea.

It’s raining outside, the first in weeks. The Northwest is not normally dry for so long, but fall has finally come. A good time to make and work on queries. And maybe clean my tea pot.

I’ve been distracted  for quite a while. Write On The Sound at the beginning of the month was a fun conference. My class on historical research for novels held 75 writers! Since then I worked revising my current novel and prepared for a talk on the bark Ann Parry at a local maritime society. ( I’m looking into her West Coast owner and waiting on a new set of 1857 newspapers on microfilm).  I also did some fact checking on a type of car in a Depression novel that I’m currently querying.  Which reminds me of research planning for historical fiction or any writing that takes place in some historic past. You have to know the lay of the land.

All Stories Are Set in Place and Time

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that first, you are writing a story that just happens to take place in historic times. Sometimes that translates different ways.

For some writers, such as Bernard Cornwell — one of my favorites for his Sharpe series — says that history comes first.  He gets interested in a bit of history, such as the Battle of Waterloo and goes to it.  Jack Whyte, wonderful writer of Knights Templar, Romans in Britain, says it’s a curiosity that gets him to write about a period.

Diana Gabaldon has Claire and Jamie, but boy did she learn a lot about hangmen, such as being bone setters and torturers.  They even dallied in the amulet business.  Somewhere along the line, however, all these writers had a research plan. And that’s what you need to do when writing historical pieces.

Creating a Research Plan: Ask Some Questions

What period are you writing in? What do you know about it so far? What is the technology? Transportation? Manners and social rules? Can you write down three things you know already?

Questions can lead to a basic book search. The internet is fun, but really a good place to start is the old school way.  Read  general books from the library on the period.  Check out the bibliographies.  Build a list of books. As you read, create a chart in which to develop answers to questions you might have about the world that your characters move through. Such as, what kind of lighting did they have in this time?   Did they have lamps run on whale oil or kerosene?  How did they light such a thing?

As answers to these basic building blocks that form your world grow, use the internet, but looked for sites that end with .edu or .org. They will be more reliable.

More on research plans next time. Now for a cup of tea.

Back to Reality

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

4118. Young ladies should never engage in correspondence with young gentlemen who are not near relations, unless with the knowledge and consent of parents and guardians.

I’m not sure what Mrs. Hale’s import is this time.  She has so much say about family and households, but I have only sons and times have changed.  I’m not aware of any correspondence.

I’ve been back from Hawaii for several weeks, but sometimes I feel like I’m still over there.  But reality bites and there is work to do.  Like revise an entire novel and get ready for a talk on the Ann Parry, my obsession these days.  And put gravel on the driveway. Winter’s coming.

I  just got back from a great conference in Edmonds, Washington WRITE ON THE SOUND where I did a presentation on how to research for historical fiction.  Afterwards, I attended several other sessions including one by Ray Rhamey of Flogging the Quill (he put us in the editor’s chair on why first pages don’t get to the second page) and Bharti Kirchner on writing for magazines.  Made new contacts and got the word out about my projects. When I get settled back in I’ll talk about researching for historical novels. The things you need.

Water of Life

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

Receipt 1941- To Purify Stagnant Water –One part of chalk and two of alum will speedily purify stagnant water, and four parts of animal carbon and one of alum are sufficient to purify a thousands parts of muddy river water.

Visiting Mission Houses Museum again, I was reminded that at one time, Honolulu was very dry.  It lacked the beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers  that grace the parks and downtown containers today.  Good water had to be hauled in from several miles away.  Brackish water found close by, was filtered. The missionaries, in fact, used a circular filter cut out of coral rock for such a purpose. They poured the water through it and into a pitcher or bowl below.  It can be seen on a table in the back room in the  photo to the right

Mrs. Mary Dominis, the wife of Boston sea captain John Dominis and mistress of Washington Place, is said to have been horticulturalist. She introduced many of the plants seen around the grounds of the governor’s mansion, creating a vibrant, growing environment from arid, dusty land.

The Hawaii Writer’s Conference has been like that, providing water for writers to grow in. It was a wonderful weekend with many authors, screenwriters, editors and agents. While I was out gathering facts I took to heart what author William Martin of Back Bay said to do — I walked the ground, pacing the steps my characters might have made.  It wasn’t hard to fall in love with place again and hope to convey it when I get back to revisions in my novel.  Mahalo nui loa for a great time.

ABC’s and Writing

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

If you have children who are learning to write, buy coarse white paper by the quantity, and keep it locked up, ready to be made into writing-books.  It does not cost half so much as it does to buy them at the stationer’s.

Mrs. Hale understood the importance of reading and writing.  Her philosophy was that economy shouldn’t interfere in the search of learning, so save what you can and make do.  In place of a notebook, I’ve made a copy book or two in my time.  It brings out the writer in me.  I sew the pages, then sew words together.

I’ve always been fascinated with schooling and how in our country’s history, getting a education was so important. It made a scholar a coming man or woman. In Sudbury, MA, Mary had her little lamb. In the 1870s and 1880s scholars in the Pacific Northwest forests packed salmon sandwiches in lard pails and went to school three months in the winter and three in the summer. Eighth grade tests for passing were so hard, that I challenge a high school student to pass what they were asking in math back then. Or in reading.  Reading circles anyone?

In Hawaii, an oral tradition of story telling received its first alphabet in 1825 with the publication of a little ABC book created by missionaries. Soon books, Bibles, case law, newspapers, were in Hawaiian. By the end of the decade more Hawaiians could read in their own language than in New England, the bedrock of literacy in our little nation.  Remember, Hawaii was a kingdom then.  Not American.

Of course, what does this have to do with being in Hawaii and attending a writer’s conference? I think somewhere back, we all started out as writers, learning to write, like I did, in Mrs. Page’s first grade classroom in Washington D.C. . Once we learned the beauty of letters and how they were shaped and carried sound, we learned to put them together in words.  Somewhere along the way, they became story.  A poem. Or a novel.

Tomorrow, I will be helping  writers have a successful experience at a very good conference and in volunteering, meet other writers.  It will start in the lovely Hawaiian way with dancing and chanting from a hula hulau. After that, I’ll take my ABCs and put down words in my copy book from what I’ve learned and create, revise and rewrite. Then I’ll find an agent.

Paradise Found

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

To extract grease from clothes scrape off all the grease that you can with a knife; then lay over the spot a thick brown paper and press it with a warm iron.

The only grease I’ve had to contend with the last twenty four hours was from my plate lunch. Fortunately, it dripped on my Honolulu Weekly, not my writing.  Part of the reason I’m here is to relax with family, research and write. I walked all over Waikiki today, getting my bearings for the Hawaii Writer’s Conference that’s coming and wandered through the historic Royal Hawaiian Hotel. You can sometimes get jaded about Waikiki and what it is, but it is also a place worth honoring for its past and what it means historically to the people of Hawaii.  I get it.

It’s also incredibly beautiful with its white sands, brilliant turquoise water and Diamond Head.  Just ignore the masses out on the streets and the big hotels.  You’re a writer. You can edit them out.

Eventually, I found the cafe I discovered four years ago on my last visit and plunked my writing folder down at the window.  An iced coffee and biscotti and I was ready to sharpen my pencil and revise.  What a life!  I hope to come back to this place often in the next week.

Tomorrow I get the grand tour of Washington Place, the governor’s residence today, but once that of Queen Liliuokulani.  After that, a tour of Iolani Palace, the home of Hawaiian kings and queens and the Mission Houses. All this is history not often encountered by the average tourist and its a shame.  It’s Hawaii’s story and its 200 plus years of contact with the European world. I’m writing about it in my novel Mist-shi-mus that I’m currently revising and fact checking. Hawaii meets the Pacific NW.

So I’m researching, meeting new friends in the museum world and revising. I hope to get back to the window view soon.  Aloha nui loa.