Ginger Simpson's Blog, page 32

Vacationing Vicariously

One week away from starting our vacation and I have moved from counting days to counting hours. Well, maybe not that anxious to get going, but darn close. Hubster, myself, and two of our closest friends will be heading out to Montana and Glacier National Park and then we will spend several days in Wyoming after Glacier. (Hopefully, we'll still all be friends after this trip, too.)
Because there are going to be three people in this group who have to take a blue-billion photos everywhere we go, I’ve set up a Facebook page to share these photos. Right now, there isn’t much on the page, other than a profile picture and one photo of me and friend’s hubby scrubbing the camper down. (Yeah, dragging a dirty camper all over the country isn’t something I want to do.)
Anyway, here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/Vicarious-Wyoming-Vacation-1655321401454175/

Check there often because I know we’ll have lots to share. That’s the joys of having a semi-retired hubby and fully retired friends. We don’t have to have a schedule, so we can take all the time we want and all the pictures imaginable. 

Sheep Crossing????

During our vacation in South Dakota, I saw a sign I'd never seen before  



In Tennessee, I've seen plenty of deer crossing signs, and in Arizona, I watched for Elk, but this was a first for me.
It's not uncommon to see these surefooted animals on the rocks near Deadwood, South Dakota  Their agility is amazing, but not so great as that of the Mountain Goat. How do you tell the difference?

Mountain Goats are  a stark white color with smaller horns while the Bighorn sheep, especially the rams, are named because of their large, curling gray horns.  The ewes also have horns, but much smaller ones.
Although these animals are part of the 'cloven hoof' group, the Bighorns and Mountain goats have fatter or wider hooves with softer pads on the bottom that help grip the rocks.  Other cloven-hoofed animals would ultimately slip because of the rigidity of their hooves.

Even though the goats and sheep are superb climbers, falls have been documented, and other have been killed by vehicles.
The herd was released into a "burn area in February 2015, and except for a few strays, have remained in the area.  Twenty-Six animals were released, and at least thirteen lambs have joined the family.  The newest crop is likely to be born in mid-May.
Note:  All the photos were borrowed from Google Images.

A Woman's Signature Fragrance--a Lasting Impression by Connie Vines

In my current anthology, Gumbo Ya Ya for women who like romance Cajun, one of my main characters is a perfumer.  Since I have past experience as a fragrance in an exclusive perfumery, I thought I’d share some helpful times when selecting a signature fragrance.

Perfume Terminology (or ABCs)

Absolutes

Pure, natural extracts and oils from flowers and other vegetable materials. Very expensive for a small amount. Example: pure rose oil.
tuberose from Morocco
Note

An odoriferous element in the perfume or cologne. When we smell a composed fragrance, we smell different notes within it. When the first scent — or top note — dissipates, we smell the middle note, also known as the bouquet. As that fades, we are left with the basic note, which is the third element of a composed fragrance. It’s like a symphony.

*test by spraying a small amount of fragrance on your forearm.  It takes 20 minutes before the alcohol evaporates and you smell the ‘true’ scent.

Secret Number One: Don’t commit to a scent until you smell the final note.

my fragrance testing kit
What exactly is Eau de Cologne?

Eau de Cologne is three to five percent oil in a mixture of alcohol and water. It tends to be lighter and refreshing, typically with a citrus oil component.

Eau de Toilette
Containing about the same amount of perfume oil or a little more — somewhere between four and eight percent — than Eau de Cologne, Eau de Toilette is mixed with alcohol instead of water.

Eau de Parfum
A higher percentage of perfume oil — roughly 15 to 18 — mixed with alcohol makes up Eau de Parfum. It is more expensive than Eau de Cologne and Eau de Toilette.

Perfume
Perfume is 15 to 30 percent perfume oil mixed with alcohol. Because it contains such a high percentage of perfume oil, it is far more expensive than Eau de Cologne, Eau de Toilette, or Eau de Parfum.

I Wear Eau de Parfum and Perfume.

Fragrance Families for Women
fragrance family chart
Fragrances are classified according to predominant scent characteristics. Four basic families make up most feminine fragrances. Floral/Sweet, Citrus/Fruity/Fresh, Oriental/Spicy, and Woody/Chypre. Within those families, there are sub-groups. Aromatic Fougère, a masculine scent family, used to be its own category, but was recategorized as a sub-category in the 2010 change. It has notes of lavender, fresh herbs, and moss.

At the perfumery I tested each client’s pH level and selected fragrances from each family for the pH level.  Without knowing your pH level you will need try several scents from each family to see what scent appeals to you.

Secret Number Two: Floral and Sweet for daytime, and perhaps an Oriental/Spicy scent for date night. In cooler weather, stronger scents can be worn without overwhelming everyone around you. Conversely, lighter scents are better in warmer weather. Think of how summer smells like fresh cut grass and scoops of vanilla ice cream. December smells like evergreens and gingerbread. You can evoke those same wonderful emotions and memories with your own aroma.

Citrus/Fruity/Fresh
Orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, and other citrus fruits. Apricot, apple, peach, etc. Clean, light, and invigorating.

Oriental/Spicy
Warm vanilla, spices and incense resins. Reminiscent of the Far East. Also ambery and musky. Kind of mysterious!

Woody/Chypre
Scents like bergamot, oakmoss, labdanum, and patchouli. Mossy and very earthy smelling.

Choosing The Perfect Perfume
Perfumes and colognes are made up of many different accords to produce a harmonious scent. Because our body chemistry is unique to us, the same perfume will smell slightly different (or completely different) depending on who is wearing it.

Further, it will smell different in the bottle or sprayed on a card than it will on your skin.

Secret Number Three: Spray it on a card first. After five or ten minutes, smell it again. See if it still speaks to you. Then and only then, spray it on your skin. Remember with will take 20 minutes before the fragrance will be true to you pH level.

Secret Number Four: Never spray more than 4 fragrances at a time for testing.

Have you ever noticed how perfumeries have tiny jars of coffee beans scattered here and there? Take a sniff. It serves the same purpose as sorbet between dinner courses and cleanses your palate — or olfactory perception — in between scents.

How To Wear Your Perfume

Never spray on your wrists and then rub your wrists together, never tip the perfume bottle onto your skin because your body oil spoils the properties of the fragrance oils.

Apply the fragrance to the base of you skull because the warmth of your body and the movement of your hair creates release of the scent.  Or one spray of scent to your abdomen.  Do not spray on the front of you neck as even high priced Paris perfumes have properties that, over time, can create a slight discoloration on your skin. Remember, your fragrance will last all day.  There is no reason to spray the perfume into the air and walk beneath it.  If my room needs to be scented, I light a candle!

Enjoy your perfumes.  Purchase a small collector bottle or s sample before committing to a fragrance.

Signature fragrances chance as a woman matures.  I wear Chanel no 5.

What fragrance do you adore?


My signature fragrance




Coming Soon!




See you next week,Connie

Tomorrow

I forgot to put up a blog post last week. I don’t know where my head was, but apparently it was not firmly attached to my neck and shoulders.
This week, I’m in Tennessee at our little homestead. I’m amazed at the amount of writing I get done here because there aren’t the distractions which seem to be joined at the hip with my “real” life. Unfortunately, real life interferes here, too. my writing space at the TN homestead

Yesterday, I visited with a friend who is undergoing chemo for two types of cancer. My friend is a strong woman, she’s not going to give in, and I have seen too often that prayers and faith smaller than a mustard seed can and do move mountains. I would ask for your prayers for this friend.
However, all of this got me to thinking about how often I hear of friends who have been diagnosed with cancer. Are we just getting better at catching it before it becomes a death sentence, or is there something in our modern lifestyle that is contributing to all these shattering announcements of cancer? I don’t know. I just know I have more people on my prayer list undergoing chemo than I have ever had before.

Hug your friends. Tell your loved ones how much they mean to you. Cherish those people in your life you call friends and family. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. 

Wild Bill Hickok as told in "Destination Deadwood"

I was so lucky to get literature during my vacation about some of 
the most legendary folks in South Dakota so today I'm going to talk about Wild Bill Hickok.  He was noted as one of the most popular inhabitants of Deadwood, perhaps because it was the place he died.

He came to Deadwood from Abilene when he was hired to uphold the law.  His undoing came when he accidentally shot and killed his deputy.  Remorse drove him to poker, and he was eventually asked by concerned citizens to move on.

Wild Bill joined Buffalo Bill Cody's wild west show because of his excellent horsemanship and being a superb marksman, but failed miserably as an actor because of stage fright.

Discovery of Gold in the Black Hills brought him to Deadwood after Cody let him go.  He traveled with his good friend, Colorado Charlie Utter with the aim of striking it rich.  Hickok's goal was not to be, and he's buried in Mt. Moriah cemetery overlooking the city.

As I said, Hickok came to Deadwood in June of 1876 in order to strike it rich.  Newly married, his beloved Agnes awaited his return to Cheyenne, however on Augst 2, 1876, he walked into Saloon #10 in Deadwood, sat with his back to the door and never saw a loser named, Jack McCall, come within three feet and whip out his 45 and pull the trigger supposedly because the gambler killed his brother but was not held accountable.  McCall was hanged in 1877.  Wild Bill wa not used to sitting with his back to the door, but on this particular day, no one was willing to switch seats with him.

Ever since Wild Bill was shot while playing poker, the hand he held,  black aces and eights is known as "the deadman's hand."  I think if I drew those two pair plus the nine of diamonds as he did, I'd be a little more than nervous.

The original headstone carved by his friend Charlie Utter read,
"Pard, we will meet again in the happy hunting ground to part no more."

Interesting facts:
Wild Bill owed a $50.00 drink tab to Saloon No.10 at the time of his murder.

The Writing Process by Connie Vines

The Writing Process

I was tagged in a recent Blog Hop by a fellow board member of the
GothRom Chapter of Romance Writers, and I'd though I'd share the the topic: The Writing Process with everyone visiting "Dishin' It Out' today.

1. What am I working on right now?

I work on multiple projects at once.  Is this a good thing?  Probably not—but I do it anyway.  I’ve almost completed my novella, Bell, Book & Gargoyle (the 2nd in my Sassy & Fun  Fantasy Series)  while revising anthology: Gumbo Ya Ya (for who like romance Cajun). And I’m outlining Rand, Book 3 and Cochise, Book 4 in my Rodeo Romance Series.

2. How does my work differ from others in the genre?

I write in multiple genres and each of genres have a different “tone and focus”—in other words, a different ‘voice’.  My YA novel, Whisper upon the Water (Dream Award Winner, Nat’l Book Award nominee), is told in the 1st person.  The novel is complex; not only a coming-of-age but a transformation of society as a whole (Tay is Apache, Nde). My heroine begins as a girl on the verge of womanhood, a member of her band, speaking her native tongue. She is kidnapped, held hostage, and escapes. Taken to a Native American boarding school, she learns a new language, skills, and encounters prejudice but also kindness.  Later, she must make a very difficult choice.  Her decision will impact her life, as well as the lives of others.  The novel is written for YA level and is reading selection for the G.A.T.E. program in numerous SoCal schools, but the subject matter is not light, however, it is historical accurate.

In my Rodeo Romance Series: Lynx, Book 1, is a contemporary western romance and set in Montana and Texas. This book is lively.  Rachel is spirited and Lynx is hot and sexy—but both have had hardships in life.  My secondary characters add elements of comedy and unexpected plot twists. (Winner of the Award of Excellence, Finalist: H.O.L.T. Medallion, Orange Rose and Rocky Mt. Gold).  Brede, Book 2, is a western romantic suspense, set in New Mexico (99 cents this month on Amazon).  Since the novel is romantic suspense, I do not wish create a spoiler in this blog.  I will say everyone one loves old Caldwell, the ornery old cook, and his cohorts.  Brede is strong-willed and caring; Amberlynn is beautiful and in mortal danger.  Rand, Book 3, is told in the 1st person: ChickLit meets the Wild West and goes Hollywood. Lights, Camera, and a boot-full of Action! I am having, fun, fun with this novel! While, once again, in Cochise, Book 4, I draw upon my personal background and experiences--every wonder what goes on in planning a Pow-wow?  This novel will also address social issues.

My stories are different, because I am different.  My stories take place in places I have lived, or where I have vacationed. I know my subject matter--my father rodeoed while in high school; I have been involved in Native America culture and education programs; my husband is a Louisiana country boy; and, finally, I live in SoCal—of course I have met several Hollywood television stars (and facilitated workshops), actors are often spotted at local SoCal tourist spots, and preform in local theater.

3. Why do I write what I do?

The story calls to me, it is really that simple.  I have a feeling of time and place.  Then I begin hearing snatches of dialogue (like when you are sitting in a coffee shop and you over hear snippets of conversation).  The story invades my life (well it does, just ask my husband).  At the moment, I’m listening to Zydeco music and I have gumbo in my crockpot.  He’s complaining (only half kiddingly) that I brought bayou weather to our house (92 degrees, 50% humidity with full cloud cover and rain at 3 PM).  I am compelled to complete the story.  Native American culture says, “The story comes to the Story Teller to bring it to life.”  And this is what I, as are all writers, tellers of stories.

The French Quarter, New Orleans4. How does my writing process work?

For short stories, novellas and anthologies, I utilize the basic W-plot with extra twists and pivotal points.  When I am writing a novel, or a novel series, I plot in acts and work with three chapters at a time (1-3, 4-6, etc.).  With the exception of short stories, I compile detailed backgrounds, motivation, and personality traits. I also conduct interviews, research, and immerse myself in the ‘culture/environment I am creating.  It is then I begin the first draft of my novel.  This will change as my characters begin to take over the book.  Any writer will agree with me, under no circumstances can you force you characters to act against his/her will.  You can, however, place huge obstacles in the way and see what happens.

Hollywood, CA

Is my first draft perfect? No.  Is my third draft publishable? It’s probably close.  At this point in the writing process, I have writer friend (usually Geeta Kakade) read my novel. She will give her opinion and suggestions—which I may, or may not follow.  Writing, after all, is subjective—as is a reader’s preference for one novel over another.









Coming Soon




To read the first chapter teasers or to purchase one (or all ) of my novels please follow this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Connie-Vines/e/...


Remember to watch my book trailers!

Thank you for stopping by.

Connie Vines

Surprise!

I'll be back mid-august, but since I have sporadic Internet, I'll be scarce.  In the meantime, don't abandon me.  I'll be sharing my cross country adventures when I return.

Hootsuite and Social Media for Authors by Connie Vines

And the debate rages on in the Social Media world!
Hootsuite vs. Buffer—What is the Best Social Media Management App for 2016?
As we (or at least I) have discovered that managing a (my) “mini-social media empire” can be a bit of a mess.

So what makes up Connie’s mini-social media empire? you ask.
• Website (www.novelsbyconnievines.com)
• A Weblog (http://connievines.blogspot.com/)
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/connie_vines)
• Author Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/AuthorConnie...)
• Good Reads Page (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...)
• Cold Coffee Press (http://www.coldcoffeepress.com/connie...)
• Google + (https://plus.google.com/1104885733942...)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/gothicnovel...)
• Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/novelsbycon...)

Is there more?  Of course.  I guest blog at additional sites for book promo and name recognition (for myself and BWL).  I also have my book trailers, podcasts (under construction), promos via CTR, RST, Manic Readers, etc.

Obviously, I was happy to discover that specialized tools have been developed to aid in management.  Of course, Twitter, is still one of the most powerful media tools. Hootsuite and Buffer are two applications that are designed to present a neat interface with social media.

While Hootsuite and Buffer both have similar primary functions; they allow you to manage posts to social media websites by cross-posting at a specific time, thus allowing you to hit the key ‘read time’ of followers/trenders.  Both offer tools to interpret data such as views, click-through links (other customizable tasks are available at additional cost).

My Hootsuite Feed - There is also a scheduling window that will pop-up.

Buffer’s main focus is on Twitter.  While Twitter is a great social media there is a 160-character limit.  Buffer’s claim is for smaller business with less of a focus on profits.

I use the FREE Hootsuite account which allows me to manage up to 3 Social networks.  Since I am able to advance schedule both my social media announcements via Hootsuite and blog posts via Blogger, it’s frees up my 8:00 PM – 11:30 PM time for my writing.

Positive reviews for Hootsuite 2016 can be found at:  www.webmasterwarriors.com/hootsuite-r...

Hootsuite Alternatives:
Buffer
SproutSocial
Viralheat
TweetDeck
Sprinklr
SocialPilot
SocialOomph
SendSocial Media

I have zero personal knowledge of these programs.  However, Tweetdeck looks promising and is FREE.  However, since I already use Twitter, I don’t really see the point of this program.
Writers, are there other social media programs that work for you?

The Standard Twitter Feed

Readers, what is your personal favorite way of connecting with authors?  Is there a social network you really, really like?  Snapchat?  Vine?  Wanelo? Slack? Blab?

Please post comments. I’ll try out the new social media app that readers like and use on a daily (or nearly daily) basis.

Happy Reading and Writing,
Connie Vines

Horse from Hell

I love horses. Big ones, little ones, solid colors, bright, loud, flashy ones, even the polka-dotted ones that I tease a few of my friends when I say I never met one I liked. I love most art work featuring equines. However, I HATE this horse.


I’ve seen him up close and personal a few times when I’ve flown into Denver, and there is nothing about this sculpture that I like. He seriously gives me the creeps. He’s called “Blucifer” or DIAblo (using the FAA three letter call sign for Denver International Airport) by the locals, though his official name is “Blue Mustang.” He’s supposed to symbolize the wild, untamed spirit of the west. Yeah…he looks more like something that escaped from Hell. Spirit of the Old West? More like death and destruction, like one of the horses that the Horsemen of the Apocalypse would ride. He did kill his sculptor, Luis Jiménez, when a large section of the sculpture fell on Jiménez and severed an artery in the man’s leg. The demonic thing even has his own Twitter account (https://twitter.com/denverdoomhorse), though it doesn’t seem to be very active. My bet is the thing is too busy planning more death and destruction to keep up with his Twitter feed.

Yeah, did I mention I really don’t like this horse?

Charlene Raddon asks about Button

The button—with its self-contained roundness and infinite variability—has a quiet perfection to it. Running a cascade of buttons through your fingers feels satisfyingly heavy, like coins or candy; their clicking whoosh and blur of colors lull you. A button packs an extraordinary amount of information about a given time and place—its provenance—onto a crowded little canvas. Children learn to button and unbutton early in life, and they keep doing it until they’re dead.

The earliest known button, according Ian McNeil in An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology,"was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley [now Pakistan]. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old." Early buttons like these usually consisted of a decorative flat face that fit into a loop. (Reinforced buttonholes weren’t invented until the mid-13th century). Percent% Buttons in this period almost never appeared in straight rows, but were used singly as sartorial flourishes.

Along with brooches, buckles, and straight pins, buttons were used in ancient Rome as decorative closures for flowing garments. However, none of these options worked perfectly. Pins poked unsightly holes into precious fabrics. Supporting yards of cloth at a single point required buttons of architectural heft, made of bone, horn, bronze or wood. Some designs took the functional pressure off buttons by knotting the fabric securely into position, then topping off the look with a purely ornamental button.
(Incidentally, as a button alternative, Mycenaeans of the Roman era invented the fibula, a surprisingly modern forerunner to our safety pin. This design was lost with them until it re-emerged in mid-19th century America.)The button became more prominent among the wealthy in the Middle Ages.  “About the middle of the eleventh century,” writes Carl Köhler in  A History of Costume , “clothes began to be made so close-fitting that they followed the lines of the body from shoulders to hips like a glove.” Buttons helped that snug fit along. This didn’t mean clothes were cut more sparingly; wealthy people still liked the costly display of excess fabric. But, on both men’s clothes and women’s, buttons helped accentuate lovely lines, of the arm, say, or the bosom. Spanish metal button dating from about 1650 to 1675.
Courtesy Button Country.









The first button-makers guild formed in France in 1250. Still regarded as less-than-functional jewelry, buttons were so prized that sumptuary laws restricted their use.  Books, Banks, Buttons and Other Inventions from the Middle Ages  by Chiara Frugoni relates how, in a period tale, a magistrate quizzed a woman overly bedecked in buttons.Buttons came in all shapes and sizes, but most often they were mounted on a shank; you ran thread through the shank’s hole to attach the button to fabric. Unlike modern buttons with their iconic four-square holes, the shank style left the button’s face totally free: a tiny blank canvas one could cover, carve, polish, or paint with luxurious abandon.

The medieval period was the era when wearing lots of buttons meant big money. Franco Jacassi, reputedly the world’s biggest button-collector, describes this as a time when you could pay off a debt by plucking a precious button from your suit. Italians still describe the rooms where powerful leaders meet as stanze dei bottoni, “rooms of the buttons.”

On women’s clothes particularly, buttons traced the body’s lines in suggestive ways, making clothes tight in all the right places or offering up intriguing points of entry. Along with ribbons, laces or bows, buttons were often used on detachable sleeves, a fad that ran from the 13th to 15th centuries. These sleeves could be easily swapped between outfits and laundered whenever they got dirty. Courtiers might accept an unbuttoned sleeve from a lady as a love token, or wave sleeves in jubilation at a jousting tourney. 18th century buttons, courtesy Button CountryAfter the Renaissance in Europe, buttons—along with many other things—became increasingly baroque, then rococo. Among the more extreme examples were “habitat” buttons, built to contain keepsakes like dried flowers, hair cuttings or tiny insects under glass. Hollowed-out smuggler buttons allowed thieves to transport jewels and other booty secretly. (This tradition of buttons-for-crime resurfaced in a heroin-smuggling attempt in 2009.)     
Ornate buttoning among the wealthy required some help. Around this era is when buttons migrated to different sides of a shirt for men and women. Men usually donned their own shirts, so their buttons faced right for their convenience. Women with ladies’ maids wore their buttons on the left, to make it easier for the maids to maneuver while facing them.

George Washington’s 1789 inauguration gave the world its first political button. Made of copper, brass or Sheffield plate, these buttons could close a pair of breeches or a jacket while simultaneously announcing the wearer’s politics. Political buttons took on a more recognizably modern (and less functional) shape during Lincoln’s 1864 re-election campaign. (View 150 years of political buttons here.) A Campaign button for Abraham Lincoln
Poorer folks wore buttons, too, but they had to craft them laboriously by hand. In Colonial America until the early 20thcentury, working-class families counted themselves lucky if they owned a hand-held button-mold. You heated up the mold in a bed of hot coals, then filled it with molten lead or pewter, which set into a button shape. The sturdy metal buttons could then be covered with fabric or other embellishments.
Extra buttons made at home could also be sold, which meant button-making could be hellish piecework. Playwright Henrik Ibsen channeled his own awful memories of home button-molding in a pivotal scene in Peer Gynt. Sent to fetch Gynt’s soul, the Button-Moulder explains how the very good and very bad go to heaven and hell, but the middling-good are “merged in the mass” and poured into purgatory, an undifferentiated molten stream from the Button-Moulder’s ladle.

Button-making was mercifully accelerated with the Industrial Revolution. An 1852 article from Household Words, a journal edited by Charles Dickens, marvels at the latter-day miracle that was automated button-manufacturing. The writer describes how engravers cut steel dies into the latest fashionable shape, while women and children stamped out pasteboard and cloth to cover the buttons by machine. Another machine stamped out the four holes that had become prevalent for men’s dress-shirt buttons, while another was used to “counter-sink” the button, pressing its center to form a raised outer ridge. (It’s this four-hole flat button that we regard as its iconic shape today.)

A rash of button patents during this period protected nearly every aspect of button-making, from manufacturing methods for glass or mother-of-pearl buttons, cheaper wire buttons, even improvements to button display cards for sale. Black glass buttons courtesy Button CountryWith the growing number of actual buttons came a parallel growth in button metaphors in everyday speech. The OED lists several, dating from the late 1800s to the early 20th century: “to take by the buttons” is to detain someone in conversation; “dash my buttons!” is an epithet of surprised vexation; “to have a soul above buttons” indicated someone employed in a profession unworthy of them; those who “have all their buttons” enjoy sound intellect, while those who are “a button short” do not.



This grand democratization didn’t stem the tide of expensive ornamental buttons. Victorian “Tussie-Mussie” buttons pictured tiny bouquets whose flowers held symbolic messages. Queen Victoria donned mourning buttons of carved black jet upon her husband Albert’s death, kicking off a fashion among bereaved button-wearers throughout the Empire.
Once they became cheap enough to produce en masse, buttons by the hundreds lined most kinds of tight-fitting clothing, including shoes. (More buttons, closely spaced, gave the wearer the tightest fit.) In his book  The Evolution of Useful Things , Henry Petroski explains how this profusion of buttons gave rise to a parallel problem: “Fingers were not a very effective tool for coaxing the crowded buttons through small buttonholes.”
Early 20th century button hook
The solution? Buttonhooks, long crochethook-like devices used to draw buttons through holes rapidly. These evolved into various styles to accommodate different button sizes.
Tracing the body’s curves with increasing exactness, buttons have long equaled body consciousness. In the 20th century, button’s sexier  side came more overtly to the fore. Buttons, in other words, designate sites of vitality, embarrassment, and thrill. When told that a certain lady wouldn’t hurt a fly, Dorothy Parker retorted, “Not if it was buttoned up.” Gertrude Stein’s slim volume  Tender Buttons  (1914) is winkingly named after the clitoris. Electrical devices, newly introduced, often used flat-faced “buttons” to complete a circuit, giving rise to double entrendre phrases like “press all my buttons."Fabric-printed garter button used by flappers


Later in the century, buttons migrated as a metaphor from the mechanical world to the virtual one. Buttons now adorn screens big and small, promising to connect us to marvels with a single click. Steve Jobs said of the buttons on Apple’s touchscreens, “We made [them] look so good you'll want to lick them.” Even though zippers entered the clothing-closure scene around the turn of the century, we still wear buttons today. Why? Reasons abound: Zippers can jam and warp or catch little children’s fingers. Velcro, another new-fangled closure, is too futuristic to be taken seriously. Hook-and-eyes and laces have their adherents, but their ubiquity is nowhere near that of the button.

Buttons, in short, offer everyday pleasures. Their little faces turn up agreeably, asking for personality to be impressed upon them. Buttoning oneself up is a slower, contemplative act; unbuttoning someone else, deliciously more so. Pressing buttons still delivers everything we love in the world to us. Why would we ever phase that out?




Charlene Raddon is a multi-published author of historical romance novels set in the American West. She is also a graphics designer.

http://charleneraddon.com
http://charleneraddon.blogspot.com
http://silversagebookcovers.com