K.B. Inglee's Blog: The Shepherd's Notes, page 3
June 15, 2016
How Many Shirts Do You Have?
Welcome to Newlin Grist Mill. This week I am taking 300 school kids to the 18th century. That’s 100 kids a day for three days. Fortunately, I am not alone in this endeavor.
The kids and their teachers will have a hands on experience of sand casting metal gears, cooking on an open hearth, making bricks, blacksmithing, milling corn meal, and making cloth. In addition they will be signed up as apprentices at the mill. Apprenticeship was a good way to get an education in a time and place where only 3% of the population (generally a hand full of rich white males) had access to college.
I'm the cloth lady. First we discuss the differences between synthetic fabrics and natural fabrics. Then we talk about silk, wool, cotton and linen, the fibers I am wearing (no wool in the 90 degree heat, no silk either, too expensive and showy for a Quaker miller's wife).
I do third person interpretation. That is, though I am dressed in period clothing, I present myself as a modern historian, so I can talk about KB's daily life, where I can go to the store and buy clothes, as well as the life of the Miller's Wife who had to make her own or arranged for someone else to make them.
I do have a tendency to slip into first person interpretation in which I present the point of view of the Millers Wife. "I am busy feeding two meals a day to about 20 people so I don't have time to make my own clothing."
We talk about what fabric is used for what purpose (wool for warmth, linen for coolness, cotton for versatility, silk for elegance), the cost of each to produce. Cost means not only cost in money but time, difficulty in processing, access to the raw materials and skill in the many processes in making cloth.
One thing we don't talk about is mending. Patching and darning were important skills when you get only one set of cloths a year.
OK, so cloth making is nowhere near as exciting a casting a gear with molten metal, or working over a forge to produce a horse shoe, or taking off you shoes and stomping on wet clay to make a brick, or eating a cookie you baked in a Dutch oven. But I bet not one of those kids has ever thought about where his or her clothing comes from or how lucky they are to have a drawer full of t-shirts.
My real concern is that after 300 kids in three days, am I going to be able to get out of bed the next day?
The kids and their teachers will have a hands on experience of sand casting metal gears, cooking on an open hearth, making bricks, blacksmithing, milling corn meal, and making cloth. In addition they will be signed up as apprentices at the mill. Apprenticeship was a good way to get an education in a time and place where only 3% of the population (generally a hand full of rich white males) had access to college.
I'm the cloth lady. First we discuss the differences between synthetic fabrics and natural fabrics. Then we talk about silk, wool, cotton and linen, the fibers I am wearing (no wool in the 90 degree heat, no silk either, too expensive and showy for a Quaker miller's wife).I do third person interpretation. That is, though I am dressed in period clothing, I present myself as a modern historian, so I can talk about KB's daily life, where I can go to the store and buy clothes, as well as the life of the Miller's Wife who had to make her own or arranged for someone else to make them.
I do have a tendency to slip into first person interpretation in which I present the point of view of the Millers Wife. "I am busy feeding two meals a day to about 20 people so I don't have time to make my own clothing."
We talk about what fabric is used for what purpose (wool for warmth, linen for coolness, cotton for versatility, silk for elegance), the cost of each to produce. Cost means not only cost in money but time, difficulty in processing, access to the raw materials and skill in the many processes in making cloth.
One thing we don't talk about is mending. Patching and darning were important skills when you get only one set of cloths a year.
OK, so cloth making is nowhere near as exciting a casting a gear with molten metal, or working over a forge to produce a horse shoe, or taking off you shoes and stomping on wet clay to make a brick, or eating a cookie you baked in a Dutch oven. But I bet not one of those kids has ever thought about where his or her clothing comes from or how lucky they are to have a drawer full of t-shirts.
My real concern is that after 300 kids in three days, am I going to be able to get out of bed the next day?
June 15th, 2016
Welcome to Newlin Grist Mill. This week I am taking 300 school kids to the 18th century. That’s 100 kids a day for three days. Fortunately, I am not alone in this endeavor.
The kids and their teachers will have a hands on experience of sand casting metal gears, cooking on an open hearth, making bricks, blacksmithing, milling corn meal, and making cloth. In addition they will be signed up as apprentices at the mill. Apprenticeship was a good way to get an education in a time and place where only 3% of the population (generally a hand full of rich white males) had access to college.
I'm the cloth lady. First we discuss the differences between synthetic fabrics and natural fabrics. Then we talk about silk, wool, cotton and linen, the fibers I am wearing (no wool in the 90 degree heat, no silk either, too expensive and showy for a Quaker miller's wife).
I do third person interpretation. That is, though I am dressed in period clothing, I present myself as a modern historian, so I can talk about KB's daily life, where I can go to the store and buy clothes, as well as the life of the Miller's Wife who had to make her own or arranged for someone else to make them.
I do have a tendency to slip into first person interpretation in which I present the point of view of the Millers Wife. "I am busy feeding two meals a day to about 20 people so I don't have time to make my own clothing."
We talk about what fabric is used for what purpose (wool for warmth, linen for coolness, cotton for versatility, silk for elegance), the cost of each to produce. Cost means not only cost in money but time, difficulty in processing, access to the raw materials and skill in the many processes in making cloth.
One thing we don't talk about is mending. Patching and darning were important skills when you get only one set of cloths a year.
OK, so cloth making is nowhere near as exciting a casting a gear with molten metal, or working over a forge to produce a horse shoe, or taking off you shoes and stomping on wet clay to make a brick, or eating a cookie you baked in a Dutch oven. But I bet not one of those kids has ever thought about where his or her clothing comes from or how lucky they are to have a drawer full of t-shirts.
My real concern is that after 300 kids in three days, am I going to be able to get out of bed the next day?
The kids and their teachers will have a hands on experience of sand casting metal gears, cooking on an open hearth, making bricks, blacksmithing, milling corn meal, and making cloth. In addition they will be signed up as apprentices at the mill. Apprenticeship was a good way to get an education in a time and place where only 3% of the population (generally a hand full of rich white males) had access to college.
I'm the cloth lady. First we discuss the differences between synthetic fabrics and natural fabrics. Then we talk about silk, wool, cotton and linen, the fibers I am wearing (no wool in the 90 degree heat, no silk either, too expensive and showy for a Quaker miller's wife).I do third person interpretation. That is, though I am dressed in period clothing, I present myself as a modern historian, so I can talk about KB's daily life, where I can go to the store and buy clothes, as well as the life of the Miller's Wife who had to make her own or arranged for someone else to make them.
I do have a tendency to slip into first person interpretation in which I present the point of view of the Millers Wife. "I am busy feeding two meals a day to about 20 people so I don't have time to make my own clothing."
We talk about what fabric is used for what purpose (wool for warmth, linen for coolness, cotton for versatility, silk for elegance), the cost of each to produce. Cost means not only cost in money but time, difficulty in processing, access to the raw materials and skill in the many processes in making cloth.
One thing we don't talk about is mending. Patching and darning were important skills when you get only one set of cloths a year.
OK, so cloth making is nowhere near as exciting a casting a gear with molten metal, or working over a forge to produce a horse shoe, or taking off you shoes and stomping on wet clay to make a brick, or eating a cookie you baked in a Dutch oven. But I bet not one of those kids has ever thought about where his or her clothing comes from or how lucky they are to have a drawer full of t-shirts.
My real concern is that after 300 kids in three days, am I going to be able to get out of bed the next day?
June 1, 2016
Can a Fictional Character Support a Cause?
Can my fictional character, Emily Lawrence, support a cause?
Yesterday, while reading one of the historical lists I am on, I found and appeal to readers to support the restoration of the grave of Theodore Parker in Florence, Italy. Parker, an avid abolitionist, and minister in West Roxbury, went abroad just before the Civil War because of ill health. He died in Italy in 1860 and was buried in the "English Cemetery" in Florence.
I have known for years that his grave was in disrepair, and while I thought about it a lot, I never offered anything to those trying to improve the situation. My fictional Emily Lothorp was a child when she met Parker. He died when she was ten. He and her father are the models which inspired her bravery.
Emily worries a lot about graves. Her parents are buried in Cambridge Cemetery, her husband in Rutland, Vermont. She torn as to where she herself should be buried. This is not unusual for the time. One's final resting place was very important.
Some of the research I did for The Case Book of Emily Lawrence consisted of walking Mt. Auburn and Cambridge Cemeteries. I've never been to the place where Charles is buried in Rutland, Vermont, but I have seen picture of it.
Do you think she would worry about the grave of one of her heroes? Do you think she would support it financially? Do you think I should send money to them in her name?
While walking the cemeteries I did find some weird coincidences. One of my characters mother had died recently (in 1890 or so). Emily meets him at the family monument in Cambridge. There is in fact an obelisk for the Cox family at the foot of the hill, right where I needed it to be. Emma Lothrop (Emily's mother) has a small head stone just up the hill, not far from the James family.
The oddest thing I came across was in Mt. Auburn, where I found my own grave stone. Name spelled correctly and with the date of birth is exactly 100 years earlier than my own.
Yesterday, while reading one of the historical lists I am on, I found and appeal to readers to support the restoration of the grave of Theodore Parker in Florence, Italy. Parker, an avid abolitionist, and minister in West Roxbury, went abroad just before the Civil War because of ill health. He died in Italy in 1860 and was buried in the "English Cemetery" in Florence.
I have known for years that his grave was in disrepair, and while I thought about it a lot, I never offered anything to those trying to improve the situation. My fictional Emily Lothorp was a child when she met Parker. He died when she was ten. He and her father are the models which inspired her bravery.
Emily worries a lot about graves. Her parents are buried in Cambridge Cemetery, her husband in Rutland, Vermont. She torn as to where she herself should be buried. This is not unusual for the time. One's final resting place was very important.
Some of the research I did for The Case Book of Emily Lawrence consisted of walking Mt. Auburn and Cambridge Cemeteries. I've never been to the place where Charles is buried in Rutland, Vermont, but I have seen picture of it.
Do you think she would worry about the grave of one of her heroes? Do you think she would support it financially? Do you think I should send money to them in her name?
While walking the cemeteries I did find some weird coincidences. One of my characters mother had died recently (in 1890 or so). Emily meets him at the family monument in Cambridge. There is in fact an obelisk for the Cox family at the foot of the hill, right where I needed it to be. Emma Lothrop (Emily's mother) has a small head stone just up the hill, not far from the James family.
The oddest thing I came across was in Mt. Auburn, where I found my own grave stone. Name spelled correctly and with the date of birth is exactly 100 years earlier than my own.
May 6, 2016
Transitions
This weekend I became the author of a published full length book, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence put out by Wildside Press. It is a series of short stories, a sort of biography of my main character Emily. The first story is set in 1859, the last in 1895. My friend Edith Maxwell (author of the wonderful Delivering the Truth, about a Quaker Midwife in Massachusetts in the 1880s) calls it an episodic novel. While I have had plenty of short stories published I feel like I am no longer an aspiring author.
My characters lived at a time when science was having an impact on detection, but not so much that I have to deal with modern crime scene investigation. I can use finger prints and rifeling on bullets in a rudimentary way. I have to get the crime scene right for modern readers, who will know where all the blood has to be, but detecting has not yet moved from the street to the lab.
On Friday I headed for Washington (well, Bethesda MD) for Malice Domestic, a conference featuring traditional mysteries. I have attended it off and on since the 1990s. I know lots of the regulars, and this year my book was on the sales table. I saw a stack of copies of The Case Book at the Wildside booth, and several in the hands of readers. I am surprised how civil and calm I was. I didn't grab a single prospective customer and dance her around the room. I also have a short story in the conference anthology. Both are available from Amazon.
On Tuesday I had to put on my 18th century clothing and lead a gaggle of first graders thought the Miller's House. How is this house like yours? How is it different? How do you think the people here lived?
There isn't all that much difference between the writing and the interpreting. The story I tell of the miller and his family is pure fiction since no one knows who he was or who was in his family. This fiction is grounded in good solid historical research.
So this morning I am the writer again. I have to do up a couple of reviews, make a few changes to a short story I am getting ready to submit. Then I get to wash my period clothing, but lucky for me I have a washing machine with running water.
My characters lived at a time when science was having an impact on detection, but not so much that I have to deal with modern crime scene investigation. I can use finger prints and rifeling on bullets in a rudimentary way. I have to get the crime scene right for modern readers, who will know where all the blood has to be, but detecting has not yet moved from the street to the lab.
On Friday I headed for Washington (well, Bethesda MD) for Malice Domestic, a conference featuring traditional mysteries. I have attended it off and on since the 1990s. I know lots of the regulars, and this year my book was on the sales table. I saw a stack of copies of The Case Book at the Wildside booth, and several in the hands of readers. I am surprised how civil and calm I was. I didn't grab a single prospective customer and dance her around the room. I also have a short story in the conference anthology. Both are available from Amazon.
On Tuesday I had to put on my 18th century clothing and lead a gaggle of first graders thought the Miller's House. How is this house like yours? How is it different? How do you think the people here lived?
There isn't all that much difference between the writing and the interpreting. The story I tell of the miller and his family is pure fiction since no one knows who he was or who was in his family. This fiction is grounded in good solid historical research.
So this morning I am the writer again. I have to do up a couple of reviews, make a few changes to a short story I am getting ready to submit. Then I get to wash my period clothing, but lucky for me I have a washing machine with running water.
April 26, 2016
Where Do They All Live?
I try to keep my locations as real as possible. They are very important to the feel of the story.
The houses that Emily grew up in and lived in after she came back from Washington are real houses, though not at the location in the stories.
My mother worked for MIT Press at a time when the press was publishing a series of book on the architecture of Cambridge.
I spent a week one summer looking for the buildings I wanted to use. I found the locations I wanted and then went to visit them. I walked from one to the other as my character did. I was surprised to find that Dana Street had a slope when I remember it as being flat.
I spent so much time trying to figure out what was inside "The Villa" I thought I might be arrested for loitering. The "Cottage" was a bit easier to scope out. It really is on a busy street corner, but I moved it to a more sedate location further up Dana Street.
The church she and her family attended still stands. My mother was a member.
On the other hand the area she lived and worked in Washington have been cleared and rebuilt. I have a photo of the back of what would have been the office building. The church she attended in Washington move its location twice. The newest building postdates her return to Cambridge. Never the less, I knew where everything had been and I walked all those distances as well. I went to see the Dunkin' Donuts where the church had stood, the new office building that was where Lawrence Research had been.
The house I chose for them to purchase when they had enough money to move out of Mrs. Johnson's place is (I think) the house Mathew Brady lived in on Maryland Avenue. I have seen it only in photographs, since the whole area has been redeveloped.
I have to do and see all the things my characters do and see. I always have a real location in mind even if the fictional location is vague. Maybe I should have a guess the location game in the back of the book.
The houses that Emily grew up in and lived in after she came back from Washington are real houses, though not at the location in the stories.
My mother worked for MIT Press at a time when the press was publishing a series of book on the architecture of Cambridge.
I spent a week one summer looking for the buildings I wanted to use. I found the locations I wanted and then went to visit them. I walked from one to the other as my character did. I was surprised to find that Dana Street had a slope when I remember it as being flat.
I spent so much time trying to figure out what was inside "The Villa" I thought I might be arrested for loitering. The "Cottage" was a bit easier to scope out. It really is on a busy street corner, but I moved it to a more sedate location further up Dana Street.
The church she and her family attended still stands. My mother was a member.
On the other hand the area she lived and worked in Washington have been cleared and rebuilt. I have a photo of the back of what would have been the office building. The church she attended in Washington move its location twice. The newest building postdates her return to Cambridge. Never the less, I knew where everything had been and I walked all those distances as well. I went to see the Dunkin' Donuts where the church had stood, the new office building that was where Lawrence Research had been.
The house I chose for them to purchase when they had enough money to move out of Mrs. Johnson's place is (I think) the house Mathew Brady lived in on Maryland Avenue. I have seen it only in photographs, since the whole area has been redeveloped.
I have to do and see all the things my characters do and see. I always have a real location in mind even if the fictional location is vague. Maybe I should have a guess the location game in the back of the book.
April 22, 2016
Lesson in a Chamber Pot
At the beginning of my short story collection The Case Book of Emily Lawrence, Emily and Charles live in the attic of an old house. The 'necessary' is two flights down and in the back yard. By the end of the book she lives in a house with hot running water and flush toilets.
How did I come to understand what it was like living without these comforts? And how do I teach who come to visit the Miller's House?
On Friday I have to get myself into period clothing and talk to school kids about what it was like to live in the Miller's House in the 1740s. Perhaps it is a give back for all the things I've learned working at these sites. More likely I love telling people what I know about the past.
How do you get a kid to appreciate what they see in a room full of antiques, where they can't touch anything because of its fragility and its value? I do it by asking questions. I am a regular Socrates.
My favorite "what do you think this is?" is the chamber pot. The most frequent answer? "It is for holding snacks in case you get hungry in the night." Good idea, it is rodent proof and convenient. But no.
When I was a kid we spent two weeks every summer at our grandparent's cabin on a New Hampshire lake. Electricity had been installed before I was born when some great aunt fell down the stairs with a kerosene lantern and nearly burned the place down. My father installed running water in an out building one summer when I was in high school. My jobs were to do the slops (clean out the chamber pots) and walk a quarter mile to the spring for drinking water. I had to do this daily rain or shine. The up side was that I seldom had to do dishes or sweep or make beds.
Few people today have much appreciation for how dark it can get at night. I can go out for walks at any time without carrying a flashlight. Colors fade to gray, but most everything else is quite clear in the light of street lamps, car headlights, porch lights and sky glow from the city. It is not difficult to get down the stairs and out the back door to the necessary at midnight.
For the miller and his family, unless the moon was full, they would have to use artificial light to get down the stairs in total darkness. Yes, they could light a candle, but not with matches. No matches yet. There might be coals in the fireplace if they had had a fire there in the evening. Have you ever tried to start a fire with a flint and steal? I think the record is 31 seconds. It takes me half an hour. You strike sparks off a piece of metal with a piece of flint. If you are lucky the flint doesn’t cut your hand. The spark has to land just so in a prepared bit of lint set in wood shavings.
And have you considered the cost of candles? Not in dollars but in effort and the use of scarce resources? Where do candles come from? The questions can go on and on.
How did I come to understand what it was like living without these comforts? And how do I teach who come to visit the Miller's House?
On Friday I have to get myself into period clothing and talk to school kids about what it was like to live in the Miller's House in the 1740s. Perhaps it is a give back for all the things I've learned working at these sites. More likely I love telling people what I know about the past.
How do you get a kid to appreciate what they see in a room full of antiques, where they can't touch anything because of its fragility and its value? I do it by asking questions. I am a regular Socrates.
My favorite "what do you think this is?" is the chamber pot. The most frequent answer? "It is for holding snacks in case you get hungry in the night." Good idea, it is rodent proof and convenient. But no.
When I was a kid we spent two weeks every summer at our grandparent's cabin on a New Hampshire lake. Electricity had been installed before I was born when some great aunt fell down the stairs with a kerosene lantern and nearly burned the place down. My father installed running water in an out building one summer when I was in high school. My jobs were to do the slops (clean out the chamber pots) and walk a quarter mile to the spring for drinking water. I had to do this daily rain or shine. The up side was that I seldom had to do dishes or sweep or make beds.
Few people today have much appreciation for how dark it can get at night. I can go out for walks at any time without carrying a flashlight. Colors fade to gray, but most everything else is quite clear in the light of street lamps, car headlights, porch lights and sky glow from the city. It is not difficult to get down the stairs and out the back door to the necessary at midnight.
For the miller and his family, unless the moon was full, they would have to use artificial light to get down the stairs in total darkness. Yes, they could light a candle, but not with matches. No matches yet. There might be coals in the fireplace if they had had a fire there in the evening. Have you ever tried to start a fire with a flint and steal? I think the record is 31 seconds. It takes me half an hour. You strike sparks off a piece of metal with a piece of flint. If you are lucky the flint doesn’t cut your hand. The spark has to land just so in a prepared bit of lint set in wood shavings.
And have you considered the cost of candles? Not in dollars but in effort and the use of scarce resources? Where do candles come from? The questions can go on and on.
April 14, 2016
It's Been a Good Week
I am truly happy at this moment.Two events have lit up my life. I finally learned the 150th move in the Tai Chi form. I've been working on it for five years. Most people do it in 18 months or so.
Then, while still in the glow of that, I opened my email this morning and there was the cover to The Case Book of Emily Lawrence. I've been writing Emily stories for over 20 years, and while she has made her way into print several times, this is the first time she and I have had a whole book of our own.
You see the theme here? Persistence. These were two things I wanted to have happen and I stuck it out until they did. Oh, and did I mention hard work? The phrase "everything comes to he who waits" popped into my mind. But if I had waited for either of these things to happen they never would have. I worked hard for both of them.
My first week in Tai Chi I knew I would never be great at it. I couldn't remember the moves from class well enough to practice them at home. I was afraid of learning them the wrong way. My teacher, Bryan Davis, kept me interested, and continued to encourage me even when I couldn't seem to get the knack of it. He teaches Tai Chi as a martial art in which the aim is to unbalance your opponent and then run away. That's my kind of martial art. There were plenty of benefits to going to class every week. My blood pressure lowered, my balance improved, my sciatica hardly ever bothered me and when it did a simple Tai Chi move made it go away. In Tai Chi, finishing the form is just the beginning.
This morning I opened an email to find the cover for The Case Book of Emily Lawrence. Emily first made it onto paper over 20 years ago. She was the first fictional character I came up with. Part me, part Sherlock Holmes, part Alice in Wonderland, totally her own woman, she solved a case of blackmail and murder. Since the original novel (which will remain unpublished) she has gone on to solve about 50 cases in a series of short stories. The best of them are in The Case Book. But there is a long road between pulling a bunch of short stories together into a manuscript and ending with a book you can hold in your hands.
So this week my persistence and hard work has paid off big time.
April 7, 2016
Reading the Unpublished
It's been an interesting few weeks, but little of it had to do with writing. Every few of days I have dragged out a short story I started a couple of years ago and did a bit of reworking. Now it needs to have other eyes on it. I am blind to certain possible errors. I'm looking for volunteers.
I have a penchant for reading other people's work before it is published. (The last one was Kaye George's Requiem in Red.)
I will read the first part of anybody's story but I have learned to set a limit. If I don't like the piece for any reason, I will stop reading after 3500 words, the length of one of my short stories. It may be a fine work that simply doesn’t appeal to me. It may be a flawed piece that needs lots of work, but the author thinks it is wonderful the way it is.
I am going to be honest about what I think. So if you believe your work is perfect the way it is and only want me to tell you that, don't give it to me to read.
I like particularly historicals that have yet to be published. If I like something enough I will review it on Amazon. In fact I was finally able to post a review of a book I loved but wasn't to be published for some time. (Delivering Truth by Edith Maxwell. I loved it. Take a look)
There is something to be said for reading pre-published works where I have particular insight into the world. I have a pretty good idea of how 19th century machinery worked, and how farm and housework with done. I can pick up words that seem out of place. In fact, words that are perfectly appropriate to the 19th century like Kid and OK, can feel out of place to someone reading an historical. Too modern. I also have some understanding of what it felt like to live in other time periods.
Would I want to go there myself? Well, maybe for a weekend (which I have) but I wouldn't want to live there. Besides giving me a feel for what it was like to live in past times, it also gives me a great appreciation for what I have now. Among my favorites are a washing machine and my local classical music station.
I hope I give good advice to the authors whose work I comment on.
March 16, 2016
Mr. Holmes and the Problems of Being Emily
I only wrote it, you don't expect me to know what's in it, do you?
Since I put the first word of Emily's adventures on paper, I have been surprised at what I find when I reread. I never thought Emily was me, but I found that she was often dealing with the same problems I was and that writing seemed to be a way for me to work through those problems. I started Emily when my mother had the fists stages of her terminal illness. Emily had just lost her husband. Emily dealt with it by moving to Europe for two years, I took long monthly train rides to Boston.
When I compiled 17 of the 50 or so Emily stories into a collection I discovered two other things. There is a lot of Sherlock Holmes in there and many real historical figures.
I'm not going to list the famous people. I have plans for them later. Emily grew up in Cambridge among many famous men and a few famous women. To her they were friends and neighbors. When she moved to Washington she wouldn't have though twice about the famous people she met there. She was quite used to moving in those circles.
I'm not keen on real historical people being the stars of their own book. The problem for me shows up in The Dante Club, a wonderful mystery about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his friends translating Dante into English. The author Matthew Pearl gets all the factual things right and probably all of those little nagging things that tell you who the character is. But his picture of Oliver Wendell Holmes and my picture of OWH are very different. Every time he brought his Holmes on the stage I cringed. Both interpretations are perfectly valid and in accordance with the historical record. In this case Holmes was a secondary character, but if he had been the star of the book, I would never have finished it.
Now the other Holmes: besides the title, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence, there are many references to the Conan Doyle's works. The first Emily story is set in 1859 and the first Holmes story wasn't published until 1887 so Emily herself would have known nothing of him until she was 35. Nevertheless, I had read every one of the stores except The Valley of Fear which I can't read for political reasons. How could references not creep into my work? It is possible that Emily met either Conan Doyle or Holmes himself when she was in London in 1891.
I have not found all of the references myself.
Since I put the first word of Emily's adventures on paper, I have been surprised at what I find when I reread. I never thought Emily was me, but I found that she was often dealing with the same problems I was and that writing seemed to be a way for me to work through those problems. I started Emily when my mother had the fists stages of her terminal illness. Emily had just lost her husband. Emily dealt with it by moving to Europe for two years, I took long monthly train rides to Boston.
When I compiled 17 of the 50 or so Emily stories into a collection I discovered two other things. There is a lot of Sherlock Holmes in there and many real historical figures.
I'm not going to list the famous people. I have plans for them later. Emily grew up in Cambridge among many famous men and a few famous women. To her they were friends and neighbors. When she moved to Washington she wouldn't have though twice about the famous people she met there. She was quite used to moving in those circles.
I'm not keen on real historical people being the stars of their own book. The problem for me shows up in The Dante Club, a wonderful mystery about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his friends translating Dante into English. The author Matthew Pearl gets all the factual things right and probably all of those little nagging things that tell you who the character is. But his picture of Oliver Wendell Holmes and my picture of OWH are very different. Every time he brought his Holmes on the stage I cringed. Both interpretations are perfectly valid and in accordance with the historical record. In this case Holmes was a secondary character, but if he had been the star of the book, I would never have finished it.
Now the other Holmes: besides the title, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence, there are many references to the Conan Doyle's works. The first Emily story is set in 1859 and the first Holmes story wasn't published until 1887 so Emily herself would have known nothing of him until she was 35. Nevertheless, I had read every one of the stores except The Valley of Fear which I can't read for political reasons. How could references not creep into my work? It is possible that Emily met either Conan Doyle or Holmes himself when she was in London in 1891.
I have not found all of the references myself.
March 2, 2016
Writers Write, Right?
I have spent about twice as much time this week being a writer than I usually do. One expects a writer to write and maybe to read a little.
Writing? Very little of my time was spent actually putting new words into a document. I wrote two paragraphs on a new Iccarus story. Maybe 200 words. I didn't write a blog or even work on an unfinished one.
Reading? Well, I read 71 pages of A Vile Justice by Lauren Haney.
So what did I work so hard at?
I read and scored the first ten pages of ten novels for a contest. Some were really good. Some needed work. Every one showed promise. I hope I have been able to convey that to the authors.
I read two submissions to my critique group, several book chapters each, just under 10,000 words.
Read a novel by a friend and author in order to write a comment for the back cover of the book. Watch for Requiem in Red by Kaye George.
Read a short story for another writer friend, Edith Maxwell. She writes several series, but this one is about a New England Quaker midwife, set in the 1880s. I love these stories. She is about to submit this one to an anthology. 4290 words.
I reread my critique group's comments on my submission to see which of their changes should be incorporated and how. Need to do more work on this.
Malice Domestic requested a list of this year's publications. So I emailed my editor to see when The Case Book of Emily Lawrence will be out. Sometime in April, so it will count for this year's conference. I also have a short story in this year's Malice anthology.
My daughter's book was due out on Friday so I spent some time tracking it down. Look for From the Deep (Weird Romance) by Elizabeth Inglee-Richards. I don't have a Kindle so I can't read the published version. OK, I read the draft before she submitted it.
I feel like I read about a gazillion emails. But I do that every week.
Best week ever!
Writing? Very little of my time was spent actually putting new words into a document. I wrote two paragraphs on a new Iccarus story. Maybe 200 words. I didn't write a blog or even work on an unfinished one.
Reading? Well, I read 71 pages of A Vile Justice by Lauren Haney.
So what did I work so hard at?
I read and scored the first ten pages of ten novels for a contest. Some were really good. Some needed work. Every one showed promise. I hope I have been able to convey that to the authors.
I read two submissions to my critique group, several book chapters each, just under 10,000 words.
Read a novel by a friend and author in order to write a comment for the back cover of the book. Watch for Requiem in Red by Kaye George.
Read a short story for another writer friend, Edith Maxwell. She writes several series, but this one is about a New England Quaker midwife, set in the 1880s. I love these stories. She is about to submit this one to an anthology. 4290 words.
I reread my critique group's comments on my submission to see which of their changes should be incorporated and how. Need to do more work on this.
Malice Domestic requested a list of this year's publications. So I emailed my editor to see when The Case Book of Emily Lawrence will be out. Sometime in April, so it will count for this year's conference. I also have a short story in this year's Malice anthology.
My daughter's book was due out on Friday so I spent some time tracking it down. Look for From the Deep (Weird Romance) by Elizabeth Inglee-Richards. I don't have a Kindle so I can't read the published version. OK, I read the draft before she submitted it.
I feel like I read about a gazillion emails. But I do that every week.
Best week ever!
The Shepherd's Notes
Combining Living History and writing historical mysteries.
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