Paula R.C. Readman's Blog, page 27

The Smell of Witchcraft

Today, I’ve lost my writing mojo and have found myself plodding around in Martha Wenlock’s era. I don’t know where I’m going at the moment with my storyline. While searching on the internet for an idea of what the interior of a 15th century house might have looked like, I came across an interesting article.

So maybe I haven’t just been wasting time. The article has given me a new angle to use in my plot. In our modern world, we are reliant on our sense of smell and taste. All over the media we are bombarded with advertisement for detergents, perfumes, body sprays, shampoo, air fresheners etc. We are told that these products will bring the outdoors into our homes. Full of natural fragrances, they will keep our clothes, sheets and towels smelling fresher longer in our cupboards. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the wonderful smells of food, freshly baked bread, burgers, fish and chips all to entice us in to buying them.

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Stepping back in history, we find that smell wasn’t the first of the five senses on anyone’s list. According to the article, Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, put the sense of smell behind sight, hearing but before taste and touch. In today’s world since Coronavirus disease, rolled across the world, smell has finally found itself at the top of the symptoms list. We were told to test ourselves, if we suddenly loss our sense of smell and taste.

Can you imagine being accused of witchcraft by the way you smelt?

Well, this is what happened to many an innocent person during the witch hunts. It was believed that the devil smelt bad, so it was likely anyone who associated with him smelt of evil too. In the smoky atmosphere of the early 14th century, along with the lack of personal hygiene, open drains and sewers one can imagine towns and cities across Britain and Europe stunk to high heaven. Disease was associated with smells thus marginalising certain members of society.

If you remember from your history lessons, the wealthy carried sweet smelling nosegay and posies to ward off disease. It seems strange that Christian societies didn’t adopt the Romans or ancient Greeks habit of daily bathing both as a social custom and for religious purposes. Then after bathing, they anointed their bodies with scented oils. These salves were carried in small bottles tied at the wrist.

People at a Turkish Bath in Istanbul, Turkey. Vintage halftone etching circa late 19th century.

The earliest known perfumeries date to the Roman Empire. By the 5th century A.D. scented oils and incense were used in religious rituals in Judaism and Christianity, even though some branches of the Christian churches believed such indulgences were linked to pagan religions. While some clergy exalted religious incense, they derided perfume as sinful, decadent indulgence and for several centuries many Christians rejected bathing, seeing it as a sin, because its link to vanity and pride. This might explain why they were seen as dirty and malodorous by the rest of the developing world. In the Islamic communities they kept to the tradition of bathing alive by the ritual cleansing of the hands and feet.

By the 11th century, the returning Crusaders brought back the tradition of Turkish baths to Europe. Chemists in the 13th century mastered the art of distilling essential oils and made a quick-drying perfume, but unfortunately, this coincided with the first wave of bubonic plague across Europe which led to the closure of the public bathhouses. The death of a third of the population led to the belief in Miasma or Malaria (bad air) that the plague like diseases were contagious through the air simply because they had no understanding of germs.

So, when you have Christian-base religion like the puritans, who didn’t believe in bathing and associated pleasant smells as being heavenly and godly, while foul smells were linked to death and diseases, it’s then easy to understand why witches were called, foul-smelling creatures of the devil. During the witch trials there were direct references to smell. The smell of sulphur being linked to the devil. Therefore, if someone smelt strongly of body odour, smoke from open fires, and unwashed clothes they had no hope of being spared from being labelled a witch. This was all that was needed for incriminating evidence that they were practising witchcraft. If something smells bad, it was evil.

Check out the article: The Suspicious Smell of Witches.

I hope you enjoy reading this. I better get back to Martha and take another look. I feel like I’m information dumping at the moment.

“Just get it down, Paula and edit it out later!” I hear you shouting!

Twitter and Me.

I’m sure everyone knows the Twitter has been bought up by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. He is in the process of making huge changes to the company, and of course, this meant the media is busy speculating whether this will lead to the death of Twitter. All over the net, there has been a mad rush for Twitter members to hunt out a new online place to play and chat. Sites like Discord and Mastodon have found themselves with a huge number of new members.

Yes, I must admit I did panic, and went to check out a couple of other online social sites but didn’t find them as appealing as Twitter. Two of them looked to be quite dated, reminding me of the earlier form of forums we used in the early days of the internet. Then there’s the problem of rebuilding my following and working out how to use the site. It seemed a lot of hassle.

I joined Twitter in 2011 and never really did anything with my account. Mainly because I couldn’t work out how to use it. For me, Facebook was the place to hang out. When I was working full-time, I heard colleagues talking about their Facebook friends, and how many followers they had on their page. At the time, I found this to be a strange world. How could you have internet friends?

Of course, now I’m published I understand the need for having a following as you try to grow your readership as well as being a form of marketing. It has only been in these last four years I finally worked out how to use Twitter and build a following. The secret is Hashtags. Once you master them, they open up the world of Twitter to you. The thing I love so much about Twitter is the Writing and Reading Community as they are so supportive of one another. We share each other’s posts and many do #Writerslifts where you retweet each other’s Pinned Tweet and then you can share details about your books. Readers will ask for book recommendations which gives us authors direct contact to our customers unlike Facebook promotional groups which I found next to useless.

In Facebook promotional groups your post gets swamped by other author’s posts, and it soon disappears from view. I’ve tried using Facebook marketing, but it just ate my money, and made no difference to my sales. I’ve tried using Free to Download Weekends, but this hasn’t generated pages-turn-sales and has left me feeling like I’ve just thrown my hard work away. I’m not on TikTok, but I am on Instagram. I’ve tried marketing there to, but it hasn’t generated any real sales unlike Twitter.

So what’s the panic?

I keep seeing Elon Musk has done this and has done that, but I can’t imagine someone suddenly pulling the plug on Twitter. I avoid the political and religious threads on all social media sites and just stick to the areas which interest me the most. This way I avoid the nasty side of the internet. Even on my personal Facebook page I’m very careful about what I say or post because I don’t want anything to come back and haunt me. Remember once it’s on the net, it remains there.

As for Me and Twitter well our relationship is stronger than ever. I’m staying put, busy building new friendships and sharing my books with the many readers I’ve found there. I’ve noticed quite a few of the members on the writing and reading Twitter threads are saying they are staying put too. It’s a very supportive part of Twitter which I don’t think I would find anywhere else. Marketing on Twitter is a joy because everyone plays a part in sharing, and I haven’t come across any nastiness within this community.

So please do check me out https://twitter.com/Darkfantasy13 if you’re staying put on Twitter. I’m very happy to share your tweets, books and anything else you post about as long as it isn’t political or religious.

Chat again soon.

Painting and Writing.

I’ve been busy creating a few birthday and Christmas gifts for family. Yes, it’s has been a bit of a break from writing but in a strange way, I have found many similarities between the two creative mediums. Today, after writing out my Christmas cards, I started drawing out my next painting.

I’m back to working on a large canvas 30in by 20in (76.2 by 50.8 cm). Painting is like writing in as much as you have to carefully draw out your idea and plot the beginning, middle and the end. A bit like creating characters for your novel, when painting you have to create in your mind’s eye your subject, visualise how the painting will hook your viewer just the same as it is when your reader sees the open paragraph of a novel. With this painting of a hare, I want the viewer to witness the speed of the animal .

First draft of my new painting.

Hare can travel at 35 miles (56km)an hour if disturbed. I’m hoping by using paint I can illustrate its speed in a single frame. As you can see I like to sketch out my idea in detail. Once I’m happy with it, I will start adding in the background.

Love Birds: I painted this in acrylic for my son’s in laws for their Christmas present. Please click to enlarge.

Don’t worry I haven’t given up writing, I’m just enjoying a short break.

Chat with you again soon.

Author’s interview.

I’m spreading the word. Okay, so it more about me, but it has to be, right?

How much do you share about yourself?

Do you tell other what they need to know to understand you better as a person, or what makes you tick that explains why you write in the style you do?

Anyway, to check out more about me, and my writing follow this link

Enjoy, and I shall chat again with you soon.

Wow!

Just found out that The Phoenix Hour is available on Branes and Noble. Wish I had known sooner as I could have been marketing the book as being available there.

Just wish my other books were available there, too. One step at a time, Paula. Just remember that Paula. One step at a time.

What’s the real reason behind what witches wear and why?

It’s hard to believe we are in November already, with Halloween behind us. At the weekend, I was in Whitby, North Yorkshire at the Goth Festival, and there were plenty of witches to be seen dressed in the familiar pointy black hat and black clothing. So why are witches portrayed as wearing black pointy hats. Well, that’s down to religious intolerance.

Yes, that’s right. It boils down to religion, and what was happening at the time of the witch-hunts in Europe after Pope Paul VIII took the first step to eradicate the canker within the Catholic Church as small breakaway churches were being formed. In 1534, Henry VIII had stepped away from the Catholic Church and set himself up as the Head of the English Church in place of the pope, even though the church still remained essentially Catholic in its theology. After Henry VIII death in 1547 Queen Elizabeth the First had to deal with a struggle between the supporters of the old Catholic faith and various schools of German and Genevan Protestantism. This led to persecution and martyrdom of Catholics and Protestants alike. In the end, Queen Elizabeth made a compromise which gave birth to the Anglican Church (The Church of England)

In 1584, Pope Paul VIII issued a Bill which made witchcraft a heresy and gave power to the Inquisitors to search out and punish all witches. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Britain was going through some huge changes both religiously and politically. In England, when Charles the first came to the throne in 1625 he was unable to reconcile the new Puritan ideas of the rights of the people against his belief in his own “divine right”. He dismissed Parliament in 1629 because it disapproved of the things he wanted to do. For eleven years he tried to rule without a parliament until he ran out of money because he was unable to collect taxes without their approval. The Long parliament was called in 1640-59 to show the King that he needed them, and they then drew up a number of Bills to restrict his powers. By 1642 the gulf between the King’s supporters and the Puritans widened causing a civil war to break out. The King’s Supporters joined the King in Nottingham while the Puritans (aka Roundheads) soldiers in East Anglia organised by Oliver Cromwell.

These are the clothes worn by the ladies of the 1600s Puritan women wore high hats with wide brims. So, it’s easy to see how these became witches or old hags’ hats along with black dresses and skirts.

Within the Elizabethan church, many Protestants came under the foreign influences while in exile during the Catholic reaction of Queen Mary’s reign. Two main Puritan groups which emerged first under Thomas Cartwright of Royston, One-time Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. It was from this branch that the Presbyterian church developed under Robert Browne

Who were the Puritans: They sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. Like most Christians, Puritans believed in the active existence of the devil and demons. These evil forces could possess and cause harm to people, and persons could be in league with the devil. Unexplained phenomena such as the death of livestock, human disease, and hideous fits suffered by young and old might all be blamed on the agency of the devil or a witch.

Puritan pastors undertook exorcisms of demonic possession in some high-profile cases. Exorcist John Darrell supported by Arthur Hildersham in the case of Thomas Darling. Samuel Harsnett, a skeptic on witchcraft and possession, attacked Darrell. However, Harsnett was in the minority, and many clergy, not only Puritans, believed in witchcraft and possession.

In the 1640s, Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed “Witchfinder General”, whose career flourished during Puritan rule, was responsible for accusing over two hundred people of witchcraft, mainly in East Anglia. Between 1644 and 1647, Hopkins and his colleague John Stearne sent more accused people to the gallows than all the other witch-hunters in England of the previous 160 years.

Now you have a better understanding of what was going on at the time of the witch-hunts and how this reflected badly on the Puritans. It’s clear to see why pointy hats and black dresses and skirt are worn by witches and old hags in the caricature of this time and have been passed down through the centuries, warts and all to us.

When I went back to the Goth shop on Sunday, the owner said they will be sorting out their shelves and will be putting the books in a better position. So hopefully, my books will sell well in the shop.

Now the end of the year is in sight, it’s a good time to think about what I hope to achieve next year. Of course, I want to keep pushing my writing up to the next level. There are enough unfinished novels sitting on my computer, but do I want to continue writing in the same genre or try something different. My dear friend and mentor, Ivy (aka Maggie Ford) always wanted to write a crime novel, but her publisher rather wanted her to continue writing the same type of books because she had established herself as a writer of East End family sagas. Ivy said, “Once you are established, your reader will expect the same type of book from you.”

I enjoy writing crime/mystery type books. There are so many crossovers type books on the market these days that it would be easy to add a new element into my novel, if I wanted, too. Seeking the Dark did have a tiny element of a love interest between two of the characters, but not enough to call it a romance. The same with The Phoenix Hour as my main character Dr Louise Brimstone falls in love with Sir Charles Aldringham resulting in dire consequences.

The Phoenix Hour is now available as a paperback on Amazon

Martha Wenlock (As the Crow Flies) is more of a Time-slip historical crime novel. Martha Wenlock will be an aid to the past as Dave and Joan uncover local crimes, set in the surrounding villages and towns where I live. It will be interesting to find out what local historical facts and myths I can weave into my plot lines. As I have said on here before, in 1566 the first major witchcraft trials in England took place in Chelmsford, Essex. Chelmsford was a market town when I was growing up, but recently became a city. The accused were Agnes Waterhouse, her daughter Joan Waterhouse and another woman who was known to them called, Elizabeth Francis. They all came from the village of Hatfield Peverall which isn’t far from where I live now. The women were accused of colluding together in witchcraft.

Elizabeth Francis was a wife of a yeoman, Christopher Francis, but her story begins before she was married to him. Elizabeth had been in love with a man called Andrew Byles and hoped he would marry her, but he refused. It was said, that with the aid of a cat, Elizabeth had inherited from her grandmother when she was twelve years old, she first wasted Byles’ goods and then caused his death. Next, she concocted a recipe of wild herbs to abort his unwanted baby she was expecting. Elizabeth then set her sights on Christopher Francis and won his heart. Once they were married, within six months she was aborting his baby, so it is difficult to understand why Elizabeth wanted to marry him in the first place.

Once again, Elizabeth was said to ask the help of her cat called ‘Sathan’ to cause harm to her husband by turning into a toad and jumping into his shoe. Her husband went to kill the toad and as his foot came in contact with it, he became lame. Then in the court record it said that Elizabeth traded her cat for a cake with Agnes Waterhouse. This is how the three women became friends.

Agnes felt she had a real bargain, once Elizabeth explained to her how powerful Sathan was and all he needed was a drop of her blood to grant her wishes. Agnes wasted no time in setting her new acquisition to work and commanded it to kill one of her pigs. Once the job was done, she rewarded him with a drop of her blood and a chicken. Agnes grew tired of her husband, so he was next on her hit list, along with a few of her neighbours. Agnes’ daughter Joan who was eighteen at the time decided to set the cat to work for herself and asked Sathan to punish a twelve-year-old girl called, Agnes Brown.

It was Agnes Brown’s testament which had the three women hung for witchcraft. Her evidence was accepted without question. Many of the witch trials throughout the country were brought about on the testament of children of any age, even against their parents. Quite frightening to think if you had told your children off or refused to buy them the latest toy, they could turn on you, and accuse you of witchcraft with no real evidence.

Anyway, so I shall be investigating past wrongdoings, along with Martha Wenlock in and around my local area. I shall enjoy creating new characters and interesting plot line in a hope of developing a series of unusual crime books. I hope you will join me on my new adventure into the past.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Chat again soon.

Well I never!

I’ve some wonderful news. The Goth Shop in Whitby has taken four copies of Seeking the Dark, and a single of Stone Angels, The Funeral Birds and Day Pass like a Shadow.
The shop owner said if they sell well she will be happy to stock more copies. She said the books she had stocked from other Gothic writers have sold well. So fingers crossed that I have the same luck

Please send me positive vibes and hopefully they will sell over the Goth weekend. Thank you for your support.

I’m standing outside the shop

Russell and I took my Sunflower cottage painting to Shelia a friend of my cousin Don. She was really pleased with it and was amazed that I painted it.

The New Owner of My Latest Creation

Shattered Dreams of the Past.

Okay, so I’m not one for getting excited about things, but…
Firstly, let me explain my reason for a lack of enthusiasm which doesn’t allow me to get overly excited about anything whether that be winning competitions, having my books published etc. Over the years, I have grown a thick skin, and a coldness where I have mastered a wait and see attitude about life. I’m not one for daydreaming, but instead become frustrated as I feel I’m denying myself an enjoyment.

I think it all started on my seventh birthday when I requested a horse. Growing up at the mill, our neighbours the Streets who lived in the big house had three daughters, jill, Elizabeth and Diana. The girls had their own horses. Elizabeth would take me riding with her. l didn’t see it as being beyond my father’s possibility, and my horse could live with Elizabeth’s. Not only that there was a big brick shed, and a chicken run in our huge garden.

My latest finished painting of Sunflower Cottage in the village of Goathland, North Yorkshire, England.

When my father asked me what I wanted, and I said a horse, he didn’t sit me down and explain about them being expensive, their upkeep etc. He just said, yes, he would buy me a horse.
I got really excited and told all my classmates about getting a horse for my seventh birthday, and they could come and see it, and, of course, ride it.

What would my horse look like? They asked as my excitement spread. What would I call it?

I didn’t know and I couldn’t think of a name for it until I saw what it looked like.

Of course, I had a book on animals so I knew all about the different breeds of horses and colours, but I was just happy to know my father was going to buy me one, and I would love it.

Two things happened on the day of my seventh birthday that crushed my excitement. Firstly, there was a big argument between my grandmother and my father over a shop-bought birthday cake with yellow and white royal icing he placed on the table. Gran said it was a waste of money and why had he bought it for me when her home-made cake was good enough for me.

My father then handed me a parcel. No way it held anything to do with horses. As I tore the paper off, I discovered it held a plastic mother and foal on a black stand. To my seven-year-old self it was okay, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I said, “Thank you,” while wondering how I was going to face my classmates.

I take the greatest of pleasure in seeing other people’s excitement and anticipation while wishing I could feel the same about things in my life, but alas, I can’t allow myself the pain of utter disappointment. It does so take the edge off things.

Over the Goth weekend I shall be taking my books into the Pandemonium Goth Shop in Whitby.

Hopefully over the busy Whitby Goth Weekend the books will sell, and the owner will want to replace the order, so all I can do is wait and see.

Selling Impossible Dreams Between the Covers.

Yesterday, my husband and I went into town to do our weekly shopping and while we were there, we popped into a local charity shop. I was hoping to find a pair of dungarees as my hippie side has returned. I’m guessing it’s my age, you know, we all revisit our past as we grow older at some point. Ageing men buy motorbikes or grow their hair long to recapture their past while we women hunt for clothes, we wore in our younger days

Anyway, while hunting around among the preloved, I picked up a couple of new books to add to my growing collection of Granny Wenlock’s research books.

Collins nature guides: Herbs and Healing Plants of Britain and Europe by Dieter Podlech ISBN 0-26-167405-6The Cottage Garden by Anne Scott- James ISBN 0-14-046397-6

Both these books give an insight into how plants are used in healing and their traditional uses. Though, The Cottage Garden tells the history of cottage gardens from Chaucer’s time until today. This book will give me an insight into what I would find in Martha’s garden as the book is neatly laid out with attractive paintings, drawings and engravings. It was first published in 1981.

My charity shop book finds.

Another book I found intrigued me enough to buy it. Well, at one pound for four books who wouldn’t buy them. (Yes, I know there’s only three books in the picture. The other book was just a novel.) The Freelance Writer’s Handbook by Andrew Crofts was one of those books that promises to reveal all the secrets of becoming a bestselling writer but doesn’t really deliver. With tagline like How to turn your writing skills into a successful business, and endorsement tag that says: ‘A very useful, totally practical guide,’ Daily Mail as a new writer it would make you reach deep into your pocket in the hope to learn something useful. I have read many books like this one and I’ve been left wanting.

Such books might give their authors a much-needed cash injection to pay their daily expenses while desperate writers buy the books in hope to find undiscovered secrets to successful writing careers. Now I’m not sure whether I’m onboard with this book for two reasons. Having the Daily Mail’s endorsement didn’t really sell the book to me, because in my opinion the newspaper is a bit of a comic unlike The Times or Guardian newspapers. Secondly, whoever the previous owner was they hadn’t read the book as the spine was unbroken. Another thing that bothered me was blurb on the back of the book. It said it was an inspiring guide for everyone who would like to earn money from writing, whether full time or part time.

An unread book

I bet the book doesn’t tell you how much you can expect to earn from your writing.

The author is listed as being one of the world’s most successful freelancers and he has worked as a freelance journalist, travel writer, ghost writer, business writer, novelist and non-fiction author and has published over fifty books, including six number one bestsellers. This made me wonder whether he had to have many strings to his bow to make a living.

So, it made me question the book’s blurb where it said, ‘All you need to know to make a sustainable living doing what you enjoy most.’

Wow! to make £10K in sales would be a dream come true, A page from Andrew Crofts’ The Freelance Writer’s Handbook
published in 2009 UK £11.99 ISBN: 978-0-7499-2763-9

I find it hard to believe that a new writer could make a sustainable living from a single occupation by using Andrew Crofts’ book. I know, myself that it’s hard to make any money from writing, but to make a regular amount to be able to pay bills seems like an impossible dream. Of course, if you are working in the publishing industry, doing a second job that pays you a regular amount, it then becomes a case of finding the time to work on your own writing projects.
So, what choice do you have?
Firstly, you need to decide what sort of writer you want to be. Non-fiction or fiction writer whether that’s for magazine etc. Then secondly, whether to have a paying career within the publishing industry as an editor, proof-reader, publisher, marketing, publicist, sales, an agent, cover designer, or give how to talks which will pay the bills while you’re trying to find the time to write.

Writing novels or any books takes up much of your time, plus you need to allow sometime for day to day living like sleeping, eating, and looking after non-writing family members. I’m lucky enough to have the support of my hard-working husband who is allowing me to become a novelist.
So, stay true to yourself and your dreams and hopes, at some point in your writing career you write a bestseller that may or may not pay the bills.

I will continue writing novels, and hope by doing so, I get lucky and write a book readers enjoy enough to tell their friends about and leave review. Word of mouth is the best kind of publicity.

Have a great week.

Paula R C

Witch’s Broom and Sprouts

This morning’s walk took us to the small hamlet of Perry Green. It was an interesting walk as we met the local farmer who stopped to chat with Ana and I because we weren’t on the public footpath, but a farm track. After we explained we were heading towards Perry Green, we began chatting about the new Solar Panel Farm which is being built on what we thought was his land. We were surprised to learn that he didn’t actually own the land but rented it from the Gravel Pit company. The Gravel Pit company owns a huge chunk of land that had been bought up during 1942 to build the airfield which the Americans used during the Second World War to help Britian in the battle for Europe.

The 250-acres farm once belonged to the Felix Hall Estate of Kelvedon as listed in 1913 along with twenty-three other properties many were huge farms around my village. I did wonder whether the solar panel farm will be used to power the incinerator which is being built on the old airfield. We are surrounded by building work along with solar panel farm, incinerator there’s more housing in the pipeline, too.

White House Farm and its cottage (stands just out of sight) is all that’s left of the old farm. photo take in spring of 2021

On the way out of the village I took this photo of a discarded broom, I wondered if it was a witch’s crash site, but I never saw or heard anything about it on our village FB page

They say Writing doesn’t pay and all writers should have a second job, but I never imagined that the great crime writer, Ian Rankin had taken up growing vegetables as I found on a packet of Brussels Sprouts

Just some light fun and laughter from me today, as I’m still busy in my garden. I’m hoping to have all the jobs finished soon, so I’m ready to get my head down and work on the Granny Wenlock over the winter months.

Chat again soon.