Gail Gauthier's Blog: Gail Gauthier Reads, page 5
March 17, 2017
A Chance to Win "Fancy Party Gowns"
"I have another copy of Fancy Party Gowns by Deborah Blumenthal with illustrations by Laura Freeman to give away, and I'm going to offer it in honor of Women's History Month. Fancy Party Gowns is about Ann Cole Lowe, a mid-twentieth century African American dress designer who designed for wealthy white women. She was quite popular with them. Lowe has great significance in the history of her field.
Her field involves sewing, traditional women's work.
During Women's History Month I'm seeing all kinds of terrific material about women in science, the military, and technology. I'm seeing reports on women explorers and inventors.
Ann Cole Lowe made clothes.
And that's very important in terms of women's history, because Lowe wasn't the only woman who sewed over these last few hundred and maybe thousand years. Yes, she sewed particularly well, but in terms of women's history, as I said, in my mind, she represents something. She represents traditional women's work. In a big, spectacular way.
The Significance of Traditional Women's Work
Women kept humanity going with the traditional work they did to keep families functioning, to keep family members alive. They still do.
When I was in college, I heard about a women's history library at what was then Radcliffe College. (The library is now the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.) There were thousands of cookbooks there. Twenty thousand, it turns out, a fifth of the collection's 100,000 books. My first response when I learned about this was to get all holier-than-thou college student. Who did those private college people think they were, pigeonholing women as cooks?
But somewhere along the line, I learned that cookbooks in days of old weren't just lists of ingredients and how to mix them together. The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. Child, originally published in 1832, describes how to corn meat and includes a section on "remedies." "A rind of pork bound upon a wound," for instance, will prevent the lock-jaw, in case you ever need to know that. Even a twentieth century cookbook like Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries, originally published 1922, includes a year's worth of menus, three per day, and a section of household tips.
Cookbooks used to describe how people lived. They described what women did in particular times. When I realized that, I became more interested in cooking, as women's work, and in women's work, in general.
Yes, historically women have been ignored for their work and contributions to NASA, paleontology, medical research, everything. But they've been ignored and even belittled for the work that was considered "their place," as well. How important was traditional women's work in, say, the American West or any frontier? I've read that the loss of a wife in those areas and times was a greater catastrophe than the loss of a husband. At least a woman with some money could hire a man to help with farm work. And, what's more, many women shared their husband's work on farms/ranches. They could at least milk a cow, take care of chickens and a garden and maybe do much more, if their husbands died. But where was a man with children to raise, feed, dress, on top of his traditional work going to get help, if his wife died? What was the likelihood that a man could do much of women's work, the way many women could do theirs? We hear about mail-order wives; we don't hear about mail-order husbands.
Your Chance To Own "Fancy Party Gowns"
You have a chance to win a copy of a book about a woman who excelled at a particular type of women's work, who, it could be said, raised it to an art form. Comment below, and at the end of the month, I'll draw the name of the person who gets my last copy of Fancy Party Gowns.
Keep in mind, I'll need to get in touch with the winner. If the name next to your comment, doesn't link back to a blog or site so I can find an e-mail, I won't be able to reach you. Therefore, check back here at the beginning of April to see if you've won. Then you can contact me.
This post originally appeared at Original Content.
Her field involves sewing, traditional women's work.
During Women's History Month I'm seeing all kinds of terrific material about women in science, the military, and technology. I'm seeing reports on women explorers and inventors.
Ann Cole Lowe made clothes.
And that's very important in terms of women's history, because Lowe wasn't the only woman who sewed over these last few hundred and maybe thousand years. Yes, she sewed particularly well, but in terms of women's history, as I said, in my mind, she represents something. She represents traditional women's work. In a big, spectacular way.
The Significance of Traditional Women's Work
Women kept humanity going with the traditional work they did to keep families functioning, to keep family members alive. They still do.
When I was in college, I heard about a women's history library at what was then Radcliffe College. (The library is now the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.) There were thousands of cookbooks there. Twenty thousand, it turns out, a fifth of the collection's 100,000 books. My first response when I learned about this was to get all holier-than-thou college student. Who did those private college people think they were, pigeonholing women as cooks?
But somewhere along the line, I learned that cookbooks in days of old weren't just lists of ingredients and how to mix them together. The American Frugal Housewife by Mrs. Child, originally published in 1832, describes how to corn meat and includes a section on "remedies." "A rind of pork bound upon a wound," for instance, will prevent the lock-jaw, in case you ever need to know that. Even a twentieth century cookbook like Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries, originally published 1922, includes a year's worth of menus, three per day, and a section of household tips.
Cookbooks used to describe how people lived. They described what women did in particular times. When I realized that, I became more interested in cooking, as women's work, and in women's work, in general.
Yes, historically women have been ignored for their work and contributions to NASA, paleontology, medical research, everything. But they've been ignored and even belittled for the work that was considered "their place," as well. How important was traditional women's work in, say, the American West or any frontier? I've read that the loss of a wife in those areas and times was a greater catastrophe than the loss of a husband. At least a woman with some money could hire a man to help with farm work. And, what's more, many women shared their husband's work on farms/ranches. They could at least milk a cow, take care of chickens and a garden and maybe do much more, if their husbands died. But where was a man with children to raise, feed, dress, on top of his traditional work going to get help, if his wife died? What was the likelihood that a man could do much of women's work, the way many women could do theirs? We hear about mail-order wives; we don't hear about mail-order husbands.
Your Chance To Own "Fancy Party Gowns"
You have a chance to win a copy of a book about a woman who excelled at a particular type of women's work, who, it could be said, raised it to an art form. Comment below, and at the end of the month, I'll draw the name of the person who gets my last copy of Fancy Party Gowns.
Keep in mind, I'll need to get in touch with the winner. If the name next to your comment, doesn't link back to a blog or site so I can find an e-mail, I won't be able to reach you. Therefore, check back here at the beginning of April to see if you've won. Then you can contact me.
This post originally appeared at Original Content.
March 6, 2017
"Little Men" Reread Part II: Content
As I suspected in an earlier post, as an adult I'm nowhere near as fond of the book Little Men as I was when I was a child. Unfortunately, my life is a sort of ode to that book. I could have done worse, I suppose. I read a lot of Marvel comic books as a kid, too. Inappropriate adult spy novels. Historical romances. Nearly everything Agatha Christie wrote. At least in Little Men young boys living in a boarding school are exposed to a lot of improving generic spiritual stuff about sorting out your faults and taking care of your conscience. I don't recall seeing that in The Avengers.
Does Alcott Romanticize Poverty And Women As Wives And Mothers?
I ask that question because she does it in An Old-Fashioned Girl. So, you know, I wondered.
Money. In Little Men it's not so much that Alcott romanticizes poverty, it's that she holds wealth, and particularly how it's achieved, in low regard. Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer, run a boarding school and their student Jack represents the evils of business. He's introduced as "sly." "Many men would have thought him a smart boy, but Mr. Bhaer did not like his way of illustrating that Yankee word, and thought his unboyish keenness and money-loving as...an affliction..." Jack's uncle is described as setting a bad example for him, presumably with the keenness and money-loving. Yes, Jack steals from one of his classmates, lies about it, and lets someone else take the blame for it. But that's his function in the story. He's interested in money, so he's bad. Seriously, Jack has warts. He's even physically marked.
Laurie from Little Women darts in and out of Little Men. He has great wealth, but even though there's a reference to him being in business, he is a beloved character who uses his money for good. Why? He's known Jo and her family for years, is married to her sister, and they have had an improving influence upon him. "I'm the first boy Mrs. Jo ever had to take care of...she has been working on me for years and years."
So a variation of the poverty vs. wealth/business issue appears in Little Men.
Women. The women in Little Men are particularly intriguing. First, we have Daisy, Jo's niece, and Nan, an unrelated student. Poor Daisy appears to be being trained for service to family. She attends real classes, but we never see her in the classroom. Her interests appear to be all domestic, and she loves doing things for others, particularly for her male classmates. Her playing involves domestic tasks like cooking and, I kid you not, doing laundry.
Nan is a wild child, not traditionally domestic. Her interests do involve care giving, though. She's already headed for a career in medicine. (I've read Jo's Boys.) Jo believes she will make a "capital doctor" and wants to convince Nan's father to support her, because Nan "...wants something to live for even now, and will be one of the sharp, strong, discontented women if she does not have it." I'm not sure what that means. Do more domestic women like Daisy not have something to live for? Is being sharp and strong and discontented a big negative?
A reader could argue that in Daisy and Nan Alcott is presenting women's choices, choices that most women probably didn't have in the 1860s when this book was written. Then there is little Bess. What about her?
Bess is Laurie's very young daughter, making her another of Jo's nieces, who only visits the school. She is beloved by all, primarily because she is a beautiful child. She may be beautiful inside and out, but the outside gets a lot of attention. Her big chapter is called "Goldilocks."
And then there's Jo. Not once in Little Men do we see a reference to Jo writing, which pretty much defined her in Little Women. (I think it may come up in Jo's Boys.) Nor does she teach at the school she runs with her husband, not in the traditional sense of the word. She influences all as a loving mother figure, one who teaches through spiritual analogies, and, I guess, mother love. There's a lot of talk of sowing, gardening, and reaping in this book, for instance. There's a lot of intuitive knowing what her boys need. When she was hanging drapes and folding clothes and fitting Nan for a new pinafore, I kept thinking, Jo, Jo, what happened to you? And this exchange between Jo and her husband was a little chilling:
"But needlework is not a fashionable accomplishment, my dear."
"Sorry for it. My girls shall learn all I can teach them about it, even if they give up the Latin, Algebra, and half-a-dozen ologies it is considered necessary for girls to muddle their poor brains over now-a-days."
Yiiiiiikes.
Just as with An Old-Fashioned Girl, there's a lot of romanticizing of women as wives and mothers in Little Men and then one different kind of woman (in this case, Nan) thrown in. It's hard to figure out what is going on here.
And Speaking of "Old-Fashioned"
Alcott uses the expression "old-fashioned" a number of times in Little Men and very favorably.
"These were the boys and they lived together as happy as twelve lads could, studying and playing, working and squabbling, fighting faults and cultivating virtues in the good old-fashioned way."
""Once upon a time," began Mr. Bhaer, in the dear old-fashioned way, "there was a great and wise gardener who had the largest garden ever seen." I told you there was a lot of garden talk in this book.
""You shall ferule me in the good old-fashioned way; I seldom do it myself, but it may make you remember better to give me pain than to feel it yourself."
"""First of all, put on this clean cap and apron. I am rather old-fashioned, and I like my cook to be very tidy.""
""Miss Crane kept a school for boys in a quiet little town, and a very good school it was, of the old-fashioned sort.""
"This yearly festival was always kept at Plumfield in the good old-fashioned way..."
"Old-fashioned" is always used to describe something good (except for that feruling business), just as it is in An Old-Fashioned Girl.
What Are You Driving At, Gail? You Are Driving At Something, Right?
Ah...I don't know. Little Men is sometimes considered part of a Little Women trilogy, but it seems to owe a lot to An Old-Fashioned Girl, which was published just the year before. The whole domestic goddess thing I see in these books seems so much at odds with what I know about Alcott's life. She was a woman who had to do what she condemns Jack for in Little Men, care about business and make money. In fact, Susan Bailey says at Louisa May Alcott is My Passion that Alcott wrote Little Men to provide financial support for her young nephews after the sudden death of her brother-in-law. (The John Brooke chapter in Little Men.)
Now, I need to reread Little Women at some point. Also Eden's Outcasts, a double biography of Louisa and Bronson Alcott. (Her father. Yeah. If anyone had understandable father issues, it would be LMA.)
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content.
Does Alcott Romanticize Poverty And Women As Wives And Mothers?
I ask that question because she does it in An Old-Fashioned Girl. So, you know, I wondered.
Money. In Little Men it's not so much that Alcott romanticizes poverty, it's that she holds wealth, and particularly how it's achieved, in low regard. Jo and her husband, Professor Bhaer, run a boarding school and their student Jack represents the evils of business. He's introduced as "sly." "Many men would have thought him a smart boy, but Mr. Bhaer did not like his way of illustrating that Yankee word, and thought his unboyish keenness and money-loving as...an affliction..." Jack's uncle is described as setting a bad example for him, presumably with the keenness and money-loving. Yes, Jack steals from one of his classmates, lies about it, and lets someone else take the blame for it. But that's his function in the story. He's interested in money, so he's bad. Seriously, Jack has warts. He's even physically marked.
Laurie from Little Women darts in and out of Little Men. He has great wealth, but even though there's a reference to him being in business, he is a beloved character who uses his money for good. Why? He's known Jo and her family for years, is married to her sister, and they have had an improving influence upon him. "I'm the first boy Mrs. Jo ever had to take care of...she has been working on me for years and years."
So a variation of the poverty vs. wealth/business issue appears in Little Men.
Women. The women in Little Men are particularly intriguing. First, we have Daisy, Jo's niece, and Nan, an unrelated student. Poor Daisy appears to be being trained for service to family. She attends real classes, but we never see her in the classroom. Her interests appear to be all domestic, and she loves doing things for others, particularly for her male classmates. Her playing involves domestic tasks like cooking and, I kid you not, doing laundry.
Nan is a wild child, not traditionally domestic. Her interests do involve care giving, though. She's already headed for a career in medicine. (I've read Jo's Boys.) Jo believes she will make a "capital doctor" and wants to convince Nan's father to support her, because Nan "...wants something to live for even now, and will be one of the sharp, strong, discontented women if she does not have it." I'm not sure what that means. Do more domestic women like Daisy not have something to live for? Is being sharp and strong and discontented a big negative?
A reader could argue that in Daisy and Nan Alcott is presenting women's choices, choices that most women probably didn't have in the 1860s when this book was written. Then there is little Bess. What about her?
Bess is Laurie's very young daughter, making her another of Jo's nieces, who only visits the school. She is beloved by all, primarily because she is a beautiful child. She may be beautiful inside and out, but the outside gets a lot of attention. Her big chapter is called "Goldilocks."
And then there's Jo. Not once in Little Men do we see a reference to Jo writing, which pretty much defined her in Little Women. (I think it may come up in Jo's Boys.) Nor does she teach at the school she runs with her husband, not in the traditional sense of the word. She influences all as a loving mother figure, one who teaches through spiritual analogies, and, I guess, mother love. There's a lot of talk of sowing, gardening, and reaping in this book, for instance. There's a lot of intuitive knowing what her boys need. When she was hanging drapes and folding clothes and fitting Nan for a new pinafore, I kept thinking, Jo, Jo, what happened to you? And this exchange between Jo and her husband was a little chilling:
"But needlework is not a fashionable accomplishment, my dear."
"Sorry for it. My girls shall learn all I can teach them about it, even if they give up the Latin, Algebra, and half-a-dozen ologies it is considered necessary for girls to muddle their poor brains over now-a-days."
Yiiiiiikes.
Just as with An Old-Fashioned Girl, there's a lot of romanticizing of women as wives and mothers in Little Men and then one different kind of woman (in this case, Nan) thrown in. It's hard to figure out what is going on here.
And Speaking of "Old-Fashioned"
Alcott uses the expression "old-fashioned" a number of times in Little Men and very favorably.
"These were the boys and they lived together as happy as twelve lads could, studying and playing, working and squabbling, fighting faults and cultivating virtues in the good old-fashioned way."
""Once upon a time," began Mr. Bhaer, in the dear old-fashioned way, "there was a great and wise gardener who had the largest garden ever seen." I told you there was a lot of garden talk in this book.
""You shall ferule me in the good old-fashioned way; I seldom do it myself, but it may make you remember better to give me pain than to feel it yourself."
"""First of all, put on this clean cap and apron. I am rather old-fashioned, and I like my cook to be very tidy.""
""Miss Crane kept a school for boys in a quiet little town, and a very good school it was, of the old-fashioned sort.""
"This yearly festival was always kept at Plumfield in the good old-fashioned way..."
"Old-fashioned" is always used to describe something good (except for that feruling business), just as it is in An Old-Fashioned Girl.
What Are You Driving At, Gail? You Are Driving At Something, Right?
Ah...I don't know. Little Men is sometimes considered part of a Little Women trilogy, but it seems to owe a lot to An Old-Fashioned Girl, which was published just the year before. The whole domestic goddess thing I see in these books seems so much at odds with what I know about Alcott's life. She was a woman who had to do what she condemns Jack for in Little Men, care about business and make money. In fact, Susan Bailey says at Louisa May Alcott is My Passion that Alcott wrote Little Men to provide financial support for her young nephews after the sudden death of her brother-in-law. (The John Brooke chapter in Little Men.)
Now, I need to reread Little Women at some point. Also Eden's Outcasts, a double biography of Louisa and Bronson Alcott. (Her father. Yeah. If anyone had understandable father issues, it would be LMA.)
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content.
March 1, 2017
A Little Men Reread--Part I
I wanted to take part in Read-at-Home-Mom's Old School Kid-lit Reading Challenge sometime this year. This month the Challenge's category is Books You Loved In Childhood. This was a 'fall into Gail's lap' sort of situation because my favorite book from childhood is Louisa May Alcott's Little Men, which is certainly old school, and I've been interested in rereading it for years. Thus I'm beginning what I hope will be a two-part (no more)Little MenOld School arc.
Some Backstory. Lots Of Backstory, To Be Honest
What do I mean when I say that Little Men was my favorite book from childhood? I mean that I read our house copy until the last page fell out. By "house copy" I mean an edition published in 1913, which I think came from my mother's family, though she has no recollection of it. So I may not have to have read it very often to make that page drop out and disappear. As it turns out, I still have this copy, and it's what I read this month. The front cover was already close to coming off, but this last read toasted the back.
You used to hear that all girls wanted to be Jo in Little Women. I wanted to be Jo in Little Men. To a very great, and bizarre, extent, I succeeded. I wrote books like Jo. Like Jo, I married a man who eventually grew a beard. (He isn't a professor, but his father was.) We had two sons.
For years, my yard was full of boys. I mean, full of boys. And while I didn't run a school, I volunteered at our elementary school for probably eight or nine years, taught Sunday school for maybe eleven, and was an assistant taekwondo instructor for three. I will argue that my teaching time is comparable to Jo's because she spends a lot of time in Little Men hanging curtains and darning socks.
At any rate, I felt I was one of the lucky few who had lived the dream.
And Then...
...I read Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl. I found it "hardcore nineteenth century instructive, improving literature for the young. In her Preface, Alcott is very clear that this is no accident. She knows exactly what she's doing:
'The 'Old-Fashioned Girl' is not intended as a perfect model, but as a possible improvement upon the Girl of the Period, who seems sorrowfully ignorant or ashamed of the good old fashions...'"
In OFG, Alcott romanticizes poverty and women as wives and mothers. Lots of stereotypes. Old-Fashioned Girl left me wondering, Was Little Men, which I'd kind of based my life on, like this, too?
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content
Some Backstory. Lots Of Backstory, To Be Honest
What do I mean when I say that Little Men was my favorite book from childhood? I mean that I read our house copy until the last page fell out. By "house copy" I mean an edition published in 1913, which I think came from my mother's family, though she has no recollection of it. So I may not have to have read it very often to make that page drop out and disappear. As it turns out, I still have this copy, and it's what I read this month. The front cover was already close to coming off, but this last read toasted the back.
You used to hear that all girls wanted to be Jo in Little Women. I wanted to be Jo in Little Men. To a very great, and bizarre, extent, I succeeded. I wrote books like Jo. Like Jo, I married a man who eventually grew a beard. (He isn't a professor, but his father was.) We had two sons.
For years, my yard was full of boys. I mean, full of boys. And while I didn't run a school, I volunteered at our elementary school for probably eight or nine years, taught Sunday school for maybe eleven, and was an assistant taekwondo instructor for three. I will argue that my teaching time is comparable to Jo's because she spends a lot of time in Little Men hanging curtains and darning socks.
At any rate, I felt I was one of the lucky few who had lived the dream.
And Then...
...I read Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl. I found it "hardcore nineteenth century instructive, improving literature for the young. In her Preface, Alcott is very clear that this is no accident. She knows exactly what she's doing:
'The 'Old-Fashioned Girl' is not intended as a perfect model, but as a possible improvement upon the Girl of the Period, who seems sorrowfully ignorant or ashamed of the good old fashions...'"
In OFG, Alcott romanticizes poverty and women as wives and mothers. Lots of stereotypes. Old-Fashioned Girl left me wondering, Was Little Men, which I'd kind of based my life on, like this, too?
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content
February 9, 2017
Book Giveaway: Fancy Party Gowns
Little Bee Books, publisher of Fancy Party Gowns, provided me with two copies of the book to give away at my blog, Original Content. I'll give away one copy this month for Black History Month and the other next month for Women's History Month. Leave a comment at Original Content. When we reach ten comments, we'll pick one at random to receive this month's copy.
January 24, 2017
A Copy of Andrea Wang's "The Nian Monster" For You?
This week readers can leave a comment at my Prepping For Chinese New Year blog post at Original Content to get a chance at winning a copy of Andrea Wang's The Nian Monster, a beautiful picture book that brings an old Chinese New Year story up-to-date.
In Chinese culture, the story of the Nian Monster is a sort of creation story, explaining how the color red, music, and fireworks became associated with the New Year celebration. In Wang's book the monster is no longer frightened by the old tricks from a thousand years ago and has returned to devour modern Shanghai. Unfortunately for him, the first human he encounters is a young girl named Xingling. She is not at all intimidated and puts him off three times with treats of food that overwhelm him, meaning Shanghai is safe for another twenty-four hours until he recovers. She vanquishes him finally. Will he be back next year? Xingling has a plan to deal with that.
This is a terrific story with a strong main character that would be good reading all year long.
Visit Original Content for a chance to read this book yourself.
In Chinese culture, the story of the Nian Monster is a sort of creation story, explaining how the color red, music, and fireworks became associated with the New Year celebration. In Wang's book the monster is no longer frightened by the old tricks from a thousand years ago and has returned to devour modern Shanghai. Unfortunately for him, the first human he encounters is a young girl named Xingling. She is not at all intimidated and puts him off three times with treats of food that overwhelm him, meaning Shanghai is safe for another twenty-four hours until he recovers. She vanquishes him finally. Will he be back next year? Xingling has a plan to deal with that.
This is a terrific story with a strong main character that would be good reading all year long.
Visit Original Content for a chance to read this book yourself.
January 4, 2017
2016 Cybils' Finalists Announced
The 2016 Cybils finalists were announced, New Year's Day. I was happy to see that A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro, which I liked, made the short list for YA Fiction.
However, my big interest this year is YA Speculative Fiction, for which I am a second round judge. I'll be reading the following books before Valentine's Day.
YA Speculative Fiction Finalists
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King
The Door at the Crossroads by Zetta Elliott
The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
When the Moon was Ours: A Novel by Anna-Maria McLemore
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared at Original Content
However, my big interest this year is YA Speculative Fiction, for which I am a second round judge. I'll be reading the following books before Valentine's Day.
YA Speculative Fiction Finalists
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova
Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King
The Door at the Crossroads by Zetta Elliott
The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
When the Moon was Ours: A Novel by Anna-Maria McLemore
A slightly different version of this post originally appeared at Original Content
December 16, 2016
Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge For 2017
Katie Fitzgerald at Read-at-Home Mom plans to run an Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge next year. For her purposes, "old school" will be defined as books "published in the decade of your birth or before." The challenge will have a different focus each month.
What's my interest here? Do I have a nostalgic thing for nineteenth century improving juvenile fiction? Ah, noooo. But I do feel everyone should know about the history of their field. Writers are no different.
I don't plan to take part every month, but by following #oldschoolkidlit2017 on Twitter, I'll be able to benefit from the reading and reviewing of other participants. So that's happening next year.
This post originally appeared at Original Content.
What's my interest here? Do I have a nostalgic thing for nineteenth century improving juvenile fiction? Ah, noooo. But I do feel everyone should know about the history of their field. Writers are no different.
I don't plan to take part every month, but by following #oldschoolkidlit2017 on Twitter, I'll be able to benefit from the reading and reviewing of other participants. So that's happening next year.
This post originally appeared at Original Content.
November 16, 2016
Last Weekend's Unnecessary Creativity Was All About Denim
Yeah, I cooked Saturday. For hours. But what else is new, right?
Well, actually, Sunday I got started...barely...on a sewing project I have to do for Christmas. We won't go into what that's about. What's important here is that this project involves denim.
Back in the early years of this century, I made a denim quilt. Why? Because I am part of a denim-loving generation; also a member of that generation that spent its youth making things out of other things so those other things wouldn't fill up landfills.
Denim keeps happening. I've been collecting denim since the day I finished that quilt. I have a family member who gives me his cast off blue jeans. I have denim. So when I had to come up with a homemade Christmas gift, of course I thought of denim.
What I needed for today's project was long strips of denim. So I was working on cutting up some pairs of pants I had not yet done anything with when I thought, Why don't you look at the denim you've already prepared? Maybe you have some denim pant legs that have been cut from pants but haven't yet been cut into squares. That would cut down on the amount of work you have to do.
You know how you used to hear about scrap bags? Oh, come on. Bags of scrap material belonging to women who sew? Well, I have a denim bag. There's rather a lot of denim in it. And, sure enough, I have a lot of pant legs in there that I could use for today's project.
A Denim And Writing Connection
Today's experience was very similar to starting a new writing project and then remembering that you'd tried something similar sometime in the past. So you go looking through your filing cabinet or your hard drive (depending on how far back the original writing goes) and, sure enough, you find something you can use. And you start pulling everything together and something from the past gets started again.
It has happened.
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content.
Well, actually, Sunday I got started...barely...on a sewing project I have to do for Christmas. We won't go into what that's about. What's important here is that this project involves denim.
Back in the early years of this century, I made a denim quilt. Why? Because I am part of a denim-loving generation; also a member of that generation that spent its youth making things out of other things so those other things wouldn't fill up landfills.
Denim keeps happening. I've been collecting denim since the day I finished that quilt. I have a family member who gives me his cast off blue jeans. I have denim. So when I had to come up with a homemade Christmas gift, of course I thought of denim.
What I needed for today's project was long strips of denim. So I was working on cutting up some pairs of pants I had not yet done anything with when I thought, Why don't you look at the denim you've already prepared? Maybe you have some denim pant legs that have been cut from pants but haven't yet been cut into squares. That would cut down on the amount of work you have to do.
You know how you used to hear about scrap bags? Oh, come on. Bags of scrap material belonging to women who sew? Well, I have a denim bag. There's rather a lot of denim in it. And, sure enough, I have a lot of pant legs in there that I could use for today's project.
A Denim And Writing Connection
Today's experience was very similar to starting a new writing project and then remembering that you'd tried something similar sometime in the past. So you go looking through your filing cabinet or your hard drive (depending on how far back the original writing goes) and, sure enough, you find something you can use. And you start pulling everything together and something from the past gets started again.
It has happened.
A slightly different version of this post appeared at Original Content.
October 27, 2016
Cooking Isn't That Different From Writing
No cooking last Sunday. I didn't even make meals, living off leftovers from take-out and Friday night's trip to a restaurant. After serious cooking the two previous weekends and then taking part of Friday off to prep for a family event on Saturday, I was finally able to get my couple of hours of sitting on the couch and reading. I didn't get nearly enough done, but that's life, right?
Unnecessary Creativity
I started blogging about my cooking because I consider it unnecessary creativity. "...creative acts--making something, anything, that didn't exist before--that are unrelated to an individual's work. "...something about engaging in the creative act on our own terms seems to unleash latent passions and insights." In other words, creativity spurs creativity."
Sure enough, last week I had a creative thought over a pot of spinach soup.
Like A Rough Draft
Okay, so I was interested in trying spinach soup. Why? I like soup, like to eat it several times a week, particularly pureed soups. I was getting tired of carrot and squash and heard about spinach soup somewhere. You know, like when you've been writing in the same style for a long time and you want to mess with structure?
So I found this recipe that called for zucchini as well as spinach. Well, I like zucchini. The recipe didn't call for very much stock, but I've been making soup regularly for a few years now, so I thought I could add more. And where was the thickener? I'm an experienced soup maker. I threw in a quarter of a cup of rice.
Pre-puree the soup wasn't anything I wanted to show to anybody. Post-puree, it was...serviceable. It was a serviceable soup, like a serviceable piece of writing. I could think about the soup for a while. In fact, I froze it in batches so I can keep trying it and thinking about it for quite a while, the way you should think about a rough draft for quite a while. I have rough drafts I've been thinking about for years.
Also, I've lost the recipe I used. And even if I had it, I made a lot of changes that I don't fully recall. Talk about a work-in-progress.
Finding Treasures In Your Filing Cabinet
I make a big effort to keep my drafts organized and labeled so I can quickly put my hand on them. Should I want to. But, it never fails. Something always slips through the cracks. Like the container of cookie dough I found in one of the freezers last weekend. (I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that I have two. The one in the garage is like a tank. You can't do anything to stop it.) I thought it was cookie dough, but what kind? It was in the freezer because at the time I started it, I couldn't finish. Now I could do something with it. But what was it?
It was mint chocolate chip! And, yes, I was able to finish the job.
Baking...Writing...Baking...Writing
After a little research, I came up with something fantastic this weekend. Turns out, you can freeze raw scones and then bake them the day you need them so they'll be fresh! This is major. And even more major? I found a recipe for yeast rolls that could be made and shaped the day before and then baked when you need them. I had recipes to do this with sweet rolls, but I wanted savory ones. If you have to bake yeast bread the day before you need it, you are serving day-old bread, my friends.
Okay, okay. I was experimenting for a family event. A birthday brunch. For an eighty-nine-year-old. But I'm used to experimenting. All writing is experimenting. Right? I mean, unless you do the same thing all the time. Experimenting is what I do.
I just write and cook and write and cook.
Unnecessary Creativity
I started blogging about my cooking because I consider it unnecessary creativity. "...creative acts--making something, anything, that didn't exist before--that are unrelated to an individual's work. "...something about engaging in the creative act on our own terms seems to unleash latent passions and insights." In other words, creativity spurs creativity."
Sure enough, last week I had a creative thought over a pot of spinach soup.
Like A Rough Draft
Okay, so I was interested in trying spinach soup. Why? I like soup, like to eat it several times a week, particularly pureed soups. I was getting tired of carrot and squash and heard about spinach soup somewhere. You know, like when you've been writing in the same style for a long time and you want to mess with structure?
So I found this recipe that called for zucchini as well as spinach. Well, I like zucchini. The recipe didn't call for very much stock, but I've been making soup regularly for a few years now, so I thought I could add more. And where was the thickener? I'm an experienced soup maker. I threw in a quarter of a cup of rice.
Pre-puree the soup wasn't anything I wanted to show to anybody. Post-puree, it was...serviceable. It was a serviceable soup, like a serviceable piece of writing. I could think about the soup for a while. In fact, I froze it in batches so I can keep trying it and thinking about it for quite a while, the way you should think about a rough draft for quite a while. I have rough drafts I've been thinking about for years.
Also, I've lost the recipe I used. And even if I had it, I made a lot of changes that I don't fully recall. Talk about a work-in-progress.
Finding Treasures In Your Filing Cabinet
I make a big effort to keep my drafts organized and labeled so I can quickly put my hand on them. Should I want to. But, it never fails. Something always slips through the cracks. Like the container of cookie dough I found in one of the freezers last weekend. (I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that I have two. The one in the garage is like a tank. You can't do anything to stop it.) I thought it was cookie dough, but what kind? It was in the freezer because at the time I started it, I couldn't finish. Now I could do something with it. But what was it?
It was mint chocolate chip! And, yes, I was able to finish the job.
Baking...Writing...Baking...Writing
After a little research, I came up with something fantastic this weekend. Turns out, you can freeze raw scones and then bake them the day you need them so they'll be fresh! This is major. And even more major? I found a recipe for yeast rolls that could be made and shaped the day before and then baked when you need them. I had recipes to do this with sweet rolls, but I wanted savory ones. If you have to bake yeast bread the day before you need it, you are serving day-old bread, my friends.
Okay, okay. I was experimenting for a family event. A birthday brunch. For an eighty-nine-year-old. But I'm used to experimenting. All writing is experimenting. Right? I mean, unless you do the same thing all the time. Experimenting is what I do.
I just write and cook and write and cook.
October 20, 2016
On the Trail of "Misty of Chincoteague"
On vacations I like to visit author homes. This year I couldn't find an actual author home. So, instead, we ended up spending a couple of nights on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Yes, that's Chincoteague of Misty of Chincoteague fame.
I read that book a long time ago. Loooong time. Pretty much all I remember is a pony...some kids...horses swimming... It was enough for me to drag my family there maybe fifteen years ago when we were driving south and saw a sign for Chincoteague. It was enough to take me back on this trip. However, I wasn't enthusiastic about rereading the book. As one of my relatives said, "You no longer want a pony."
So I have nothing to say about the book. But I had a neat time on the island.
I'm not using any footnotes here. My info comes from signs on the walls in a National Park building, a municipal park kiosk, and a cool gift shop owner I was yakking with while waiting for the bearings on my bike to be replaced at Mid Town Bike Store, which I only mention because the place is fantastic.
Backstory
Okay, first off, Misty may be of Chincoteague, but she wasn't actually from Chincoteague. She was from another island, Assateague, which is close enough to Chincoteague that, if you are a healthy horse, you can swim from one island to the other. Interesting bit of trivia--two-thirds of Assateague Island is in Maryland. One-third is in Virginia, like Chincoteague. Who knew?
To be clear, there are no wild horses on Chincoteague. They're all on Assateague. They've been there for around 300 years. Two theories about how they got there:
They are descended from horses that escaped from sinking ships belonging to early explorers.
They are descended from horses that were kept on Assateaue by settlers trying to avoid taxes.
I kind of like that second story. It shows initiative.
There are two herds on the island now. One, on the Virginia end of Assateague, has been maintained by the Chincoteague Fire Department for something like forever. The herd on the Maryland side is maintained by the National Parks Service. Maintenance means controlling the size of the herds so they don't destroy the Assateague Island habitat with overgrazing. Which, of course, would not be good for the horses, either.
The Fire Department controls its herd with an annual auction of ponies that has been going for something like forever. A vet selects horses on Assateague that are healthy enough to make the swim to Chincoteague at the end of July. Supposedly ten thousand people descend on the island for the auction. Or maybe tens of thousands. I heard that, too. Horses that don't sell, swim back to Assateague.
Why the popularity for these horses? They are now a designated breed. Some of these animals can sell for over $10,000, though the average price is significantly lower.
Rumor has it that the National Park Service maintains its herd with neutering. Don't know what goes on with that.
The Fire Department also runs a carnival at the time of the auction. Early in the 20th Century, downtown Chincoteague experienced two serious fires. The fire department started running the carnival at that time, raising money for equipment to deal with crises of that type.
What About Misty The Book?
Author Marguerite Henry went to Chincoteague in the 1940s. She was already a published author, often writing about horses. (As a Vermont child, I was familiar with her Justin Morgan Had a Horse.) And there she heard about a pony named Misty and came up with her book idea. Misty of Chincoteague was published in 1947. It was a Newbery Honor Book in 1948. Yeah, that's all I've got about the book, because, remember, I didn't reread it.
The inn in Chincotague where Henry stayed still exists, and visitors to the island can stay there. Though we didn't. Henry bought Misty, and the horse seems to have bopped around a bit between Henry's home...somewhere else...and the island.
Misty All Over Town
In 1961, a Misty movie came out. There was a premiere in the Chincoteague theater, which is still open. Misty showed up in town for this event. You can see her hoof prints in concrete outside the theater.
Well, ponies don't last forever. Misty sure didn't. She died in 1972. She has descendants on Chincoteague, and I got some pictures of some. For the life of me, I can't remember where we saw these horses. And I've looked all over the Internet. (EDIT: A reader identified this place for me. It's the Chincoteague Pony Center, which describes itself as "the home of the largest herd of Misty family ponies on the Island." Thank you, Anonymous.)
Misty is gone, but...not really. You can see her in a preserved (stuffed) state at the Museum of Chincoteague Island. Happy to say, we weren't there on one of the days the museum is open, so I missed out on this treat. If you hunt carefully on-line, you can find a photo here or there of what you might call Misty's Afterlife.
So there you have it people. Your Misty tour is complete.
You can check out Misty-related Chincoteague photos at my Following "Misty of Chincoteague" Around Town Pinterest board.
An earlier version of this post appeared at Original Content.
I read that book a long time ago. Loooong time. Pretty much all I remember is a pony...some kids...horses swimming... It was enough for me to drag my family there maybe fifteen years ago when we were driving south and saw a sign for Chincoteague. It was enough to take me back on this trip. However, I wasn't enthusiastic about rereading the book. As one of my relatives said, "You no longer want a pony."
So I have nothing to say about the book. But I had a neat time on the island.
I'm not using any footnotes here. My info comes from signs on the walls in a National Park building, a municipal park kiosk, and a cool gift shop owner I was yakking with while waiting for the bearings on my bike to be replaced at Mid Town Bike Store, which I only mention because the place is fantastic.
Backstory
Okay, first off, Misty may be of Chincoteague, but she wasn't actually from Chincoteague. She was from another island, Assateague, which is close enough to Chincoteague that, if you are a healthy horse, you can swim from one island to the other. Interesting bit of trivia--two-thirds of Assateague Island is in Maryland. One-third is in Virginia, like Chincoteague. Who knew?
To be clear, there are no wild horses on Chincoteague. They're all on Assateague. They've been there for around 300 years. Two theories about how they got there:
They are descended from horses that escaped from sinking ships belonging to early explorers.
They are descended from horses that were kept on Assateaue by settlers trying to avoid taxes.
I kind of like that second story. It shows initiative.
There are two herds on the island now. One, on the Virginia end of Assateague, has been maintained by the Chincoteague Fire Department for something like forever. The herd on the Maryland side is maintained by the National Parks Service. Maintenance means controlling the size of the herds so they don't destroy the Assateague Island habitat with overgrazing. Which, of course, would not be good for the horses, either.
The Fire Department controls its herd with an annual auction of ponies that has been going for something like forever. A vet selects horses on Assateague that are healthy enough to make the swim to Chincoteague at the end of July. Supposedly ten thousand people descend on the island for the auction. Or maybe tens of thousands. I heard that, too. Horses that don't sell, swim back to Assateague.
Why the popularity for these horses? They are now a designated breed. Some of these animals can sell for over $10,000, though the average price is significantly lower.
Rumor has it that the National Park Service maintains its herd with neutering. Don't know what goes on with that.
The Fire Department also runs a carnival at the time of the auction. Early in the 20th Century, downtown Chincoteague experienced two serious fires. The fire department started running the carnival at that time, raising money for equipment to deal with crises of that type.
What About Misty The Book?
Author Marguerite Henry went to Chincoteague in the 1940s. She was already a published author, often writing about horses. (As a Vermont child, I was familiar with her Justin Morgan Had a Horse.) And there she heard about a pony named Misty and came up with her book idea. Misty of Chincoteague was published in 1947. It was a Newbery Honor Book in 1948. Yeah, that's all I've got about the book, because, remember, I didn't reread it.
The inn in Chincotague where Henry stayed still exists, and visitors to the island can stay there. Though we didn't. Henry bought Misty, and the horse seems to have bopped around a bit between Henry's home...somewhere else...and the island.
Misty All Over Town
In 1961, a Misty movie came out. There was a premiere in the Chincoteague theater, which is still open. Misty showed up in town for this event. You can see her hoof prints in concrete outside the theater.
Well, ponies don't last forever. Misty sure didn't. She died in 1972. She has descendants on Chincoteague, and I got some pictures of some. For the life of me, I can't remember where we saw these horses. And I've looked all over the Internet. (EDIT: A reader identified this place for me. It's the Chincoteague Pony Center, which describes itself as "the home of the largest herd of Misty family ponies on the Island." Thank you, Anonymous.)
Misty is gone, but...not really. You can see her in a preserved (stuffed) state at the Museum of Chincoteague Island. Happy to say, we weren't there on one of the days the museum is open, so I missed out on this treat. If you hunt carefully on-line, you can find a photo here or there of what you might call Misty's Afterlife.
So there you have it people. Your Misty tour is complete.
You can check out Misty-related Chincoteague photos at my Following "Misty of Chincoteague" Around Town Pinterest board.
An earlier version of this post appeared at Original Content.
Gail Gauthier Reads
I have been maintaining the blog Original Content for twenty years. That one is about any number of things related to writing. I think here I will just post about new publications from me and reading.
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