Meredith Allard's Blog, page 23
December 27, 2017
What I’ve Been Reading: Historical Biographies
I tend to go through these phases where I’ll read 10 historical novels in a row, then some literary fiction, then a classic or two, and then I’ll read nonfiction for weeks on end. I’ve been in quite a nonfiction mood these days, and I’ve found myself reading a number of historical biographies. Some of the biographies were for research, and some were just because I found the subject matter interesting. Each of these books satisfied my curiosity for all things history.
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I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln a few years ago (probably around the time the Lincoln film came out), but lately I’ve been feeling like I need to remind myself that there have been American presidents who did their best for the United States, namely my favorite, number 16 himself, Abraham Lincoln. Yes, he was a complex person, as we are all complex people, which makes him all the more inspiring. First I reread Team of Rivals, and then I read David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln biography, and I found that the two biographies complement each other well. Where Goodwin focuses more in depth on the men who surrounded Lincoln, Donald gives more insight into the man himself. Of course, there’s crossover since both historians were writing about the same man, but if you’re curious about what an intelligent, thoughtful, caring, talented American president might look like—here you go.
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Being the Dickensian I am means that some kind of Dickens—novel or biography—is never far from my To Be Read list. For my current nonfiction project I’m writing about how Dickens and Queen Victoria influenced the age named for the Queen herself. Interestingly, Dickens and the Queen met only once toward the end of Dickens’ life, and yet in their own ways they shaped one of the most fascinating historical eras—one of the most fascinating at least if you judge by people’s continuing enthrallment with the 1800s. Yes, I’ve read pretty much every Dickens biography known to man or beast, but I did come across two that I had somehow missed. The great actor Simon Callow is also a great writer, and his Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World is a refreshing look at Dickens’ love of theater and how it influenced his writing and his life. Michael Slater’s biography Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing is another gem, and Slater is one of the preeminent Dickensians around. While I dare say there’s little left to discover about Dickens’ life, it’s always interesting to see how each biographer shares the details in his or her own way–at times sharing more about the biographer than about Dickens, I suspect.
[image error][image error]I admit that, though I’m quite familiar with the era named for her, I didn’t know a lot about Queen Victoria. I remembered a bit from my graduate studies in Victorian literature—she was a young queen, she loved her husband, and after he died she mourned him the rest of her days. She was the first to wear what we might recognize as a modern day wedding dress, and she should get some credit for inventing Christmas (along with Jesus and Dickens) since Prince Albert’s Christmas traditions became the fashion during the 19th century and carry through today. I love the Victoria series starring Jenna Coleman, but I had a lot to learn about Queen Victoria in order to bring her to life on the page. To help me fill in the blanks I read Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird and Victoria: A Life by A.N. Wilson.
It’s always time well spent reading historical biographies. Often, when we think of famous people from the past, their legends overshadow the human being and the reality of the person gets distorted in tall tales. Talented historians can help us separate facts from fiction, and we need all the facts we can get these days. If you’re looking to learn more about these extraordinary 19th century lives, any of these historical biographies are gold mines.
Now I am indeed back to reading historical fiction, Outlander #4 in fact–called Drums of Autumn. American colonies, here I come.
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December 18, 2017
Christmas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
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As I’ve been working on Down Salem Way, a diary-style narrative written from James’ point of view when he and Elizabeth lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, I started wondering what Christmas would have been like for the Wentworths in Salem in the late 17th century. I hadn’t researched Christmas during that time since it wasn’t necessary for Her Dear & Loving Husband and the diary for Down Salem Way begins in January and ends in October. My curiosity got the best of me, as it often does, and I was surprised by what I found.
There are those who like to say there’s a war on Christmas, but everywhere I look these days there are rainbow-bright Christmas lights and Christmas trees, and there’s Christmas music on the radio and Christmas movies on TV, which makes it a pretty feeble war on Christmas indeed. As it turns out, there was once was a war on Christmas, and it came from the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans didn’t take much to Christmas; in fact, they disliked it so much they banned it.
The Puritans had many good qualities…no, they did. They were hard workers, and they put a premium on education, though they may have been a bit harsh with those who didn’t conform to their austere ways. Nonconformists could be banished from the colony in freezing winter weather when there was little chance of survival without stored food or shelter. The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century lived their lives according to a strict interpretation of the Bible—their own strict interpretation of the Bible, but still, it was an interpretation of the Bible. If it didn’t say so in the Bible, then it wasn’t so to the Puritans. The Bible has nothing to say about the celebration of Jesus’ birth, so to the Puritans, Christmas wasn’t a true celebration of Jesus. It was a fake holiday invented by those seeking an excuse to party. After all, Christmas celebrations are about making merry—eating, drinking, caroling, and carousing in more or less (often less) polite ways. And the Puritans didn’t see the point of making merry, especially in impolite ways.
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It was the pagan beginnings of Christmas that the Puritans disliked so much. Puritan minister Increase Mather noted that Christmas was celebrated on December 25 not because “Christ was born in that month, but because the heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those pagan holidays metamorphosed into Christian [ones].” For the Puritans, Christmas was a pagan practice adapted by the Catholics without any Biblical basis for it. To the Puritans, anything pagan was the work of the devil, and the devil had no place in pious Massachusetts (a belief which they would go to great lengths to prove in 1692).
In 1647, the Puritan government in England cancelled Christmas, and making merry was forbidden, shops stayed open, churches were closed, and ministers were arrested for preaching on Christmas day. Puritans who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought their strict values with them, and between the years 1659 to 1681 anyone caught celebrating Christmas was fined five shillings, which in today’s money would be around 1000 US dollars according to measuringworth.com.
For my fictional characters James and Elizabeth Wentworth there still would not likely be much of a Christmas celebration since hostility toward Christmas remained in Massachusetts after 1681. When Sir Edmund Andros attended Christmas services in Boston in 1686, he prayed and sang hymns surrounded by soldiers meant to protect him from violent protesters. It wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that Christmas was formally recognized in Massachusetts.
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You only have to look outside your window to see that there isn’t much of a war on Christmas these days, but in the Massachusetts Bay Colony the war against Christmas was so complete that the holiday was forbidden. The next time someone tells you there’s a war on Christmas, you can point to any sparkly display, and then you can tell them that there once was a real war on Christmas, and then you would have had to put your carols, your ornaments, and your ugly sweaters away unless you were willing to pay a fine for them.
Merry Christmas!
References
Forbes, B. D. (2008). Christmas: A candid history. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.
Klein, C. (2015) When Massachusetts banned Christmas. History. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/when-mass...
Kohler, R. (2007). Ruling the lords of misrule: Puritan reactions to the Christmas festivities of early modern England.
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December 2, 2017
Jobs in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
The North American continent was largely a question mark to those who left their European homelands behind to seek their fortunes, or, in the case of those immigrating to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, religious freedom. The immigrants may have heard great success stories about others who had crossed the vast Atlantic to find fertile land, endless opportunities, and perhaps even gold. These stories prompted many to leave behind everyone and everything they knew to take their chances in the unknown.
Often when we think of life in Colonial America we think of farmers going about their business planting and cultivating crops. While that was true in the Southern Colonies, settlers in the New England Colonies were not blessed with such fertile land. As a result, they needed other means to earn a livelihood.
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The original 13 American Colonies.
The American Colonies were divided into three regional areas—the New England Colonies (Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut), the Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), and the Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caroline, and Georgia). The climate and natural resources available in each of the three regions determined the type of work available to those who lived there. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with its lack of fertile farming land, the fishing, timber, livestock, and shipping industries became the focus. There was still some subsistence farming to be had in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even though the land was rocky and not as rich as it was in the southern region, colonists in New England were still able to grow crops such as squash, corn, and beans.
The Fishing Industry
With its location along the shore of the Atlantic ocean, Massachusetts was (and is) in a prime location to take advantage of the sea life there, and fishermen often found mackerel, herring, halibut, bass, and cod for their troubles. Whaling was also a popular job in the Massachusetts Bay Colony since whale oil was used in lamps and soaps. As Captain Ahab would tell you, whaling could be a dangerous endeavor; however, it was a money maker, so sailors took their chances.
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The Timber Industry
The rich forests in the New England region provided great opportunities for settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Homes were built from the hard woods. Timbermen could find oak, maple, beech, birch, hickory, and ash trees. Saw mills were used to produce wooden planks for export to England, which were then manufactured into finished goods such as furniture. Wood was also a necessity for the shipbuilding industry, another money maker in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Wood was used to make barrels, and other products gathered from the plentiful trees included resin for varnishing, tar for coating and preserving timber, pitch for water proofing, turpentine for cleaning, and potash for soap, bleach, and fertilizers.
The Livestock Industry
Horse breeding was one way to make use of the hilly, rocky, often infertile land. Many breeds of horses were brought to North America by the colonists, and horse breeding used various breeds of horses including the jennet, the Andalusian, the Friesian, and Arabians.
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The Ship Building Industry
Ship building was particularly important in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with its emphasis on fishing and whaling. The easy availability of timber made ship building cheap in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In fact, many found work related to the ship building industry—including carpenters, joiners, sail makers, barrel makers, painters, caulkers, and blacksmiths. Ship building was also important for the merchants who sold or traded their wares overseas since the ships and the barrels gave them the means through which they could reach across the Atlantic as part of the Triangle Trade. Items included in the Triangle Trade from the three regions of the American Colonies were timber, sugar, fur, cotton, flour, tobacco, rice, indigo, fish, guns, ammunition. wool, and rum. Sadly, slaves were imported into the colonies as a result of the Triangle Trade.
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The Massachusetts Bay Colony, as in any of the American Colonies, could provide opportunities for those with the gumption and the heartiness to learn new skills and grab opportunites when they arose. Some settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were subsistence farmers, eeking out a living from the less than fertile land. Others became successful fishermen, ship builders, or merchants. Adolescents played an important role in the growth of the Massachusetts Bay Colony since a 15 year old was an adult in the eyes of the law (Enright, Lapsley, & Olson, 1985). Subsistence farming, mercantilism, and the wars with Native Americans provided the backdrop for all work in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Despite the hardships settlers faced, the Massachusetts Bay Colony provided possibilities, which is why so many immigrants left their homelands behind.
References
Dow, G. F. (2012). Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Courier Corporation.
Enright, R. D., Lapsley, D. K., & Olson, L. M. (1985). Early adolescent labor in colonial Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 5(4), 393-410.
Jernegan, M. W. (1929). The American colonies, 1492-1750: A study of their political, economic and social development (Vol. 1). Longmans Green.
The Land of the Brave. The thirteen colonies. Retrieved from https://www.landofthebrave.info/13-co...
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October 31, 2017
Her Dear and Loving Husband is on Tour
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To start getting ready for the 2018 release of Down Salem Way, I thought I’d do a new book tour for Her Dear and Loving Husband. Thanks to Roxanne Rhoads from Bewitching Book Tours for setting up the book tour. Here are the places to visit to follow HDLH from October 30 through November 13:
October 30 Saph’s Books
https://saphsbooks.blogspot.com/
October 30 Books,Dreams,Life
http://booksdreamslife0829.blogspot.com
October 31 A Night’s Dream of Books (Review)
http://anightsdreamofbooks.blogspot.com/
October 31 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, and Sissy, Too!
http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.com
October 31 Reads 2 Love
http://reads2love.com
November 1 Vicky at Deal Sharing Aunt
www.dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com
November 1 Ramblings of a Book Nerd
http://www.booknerdramblings.com/
November 2 Mello and June, It’s a Book Thang!
http://mellojune.com/
November 2 SImply Kelina
http://simplykelina.blogspot.com/
November 3 Lisa’s World of Books
http://www.lisasworldofbooks.net/
November 3 The Book Junkie Reads (Interview)
https://thebookjunkiereadspromos.blogspot.com/
November 6 Roxanne’s Realm (Guest Blog)
http://www.roxannerhoads.com/
November 6 Silver Dagger Scriptorium
http://silver-dagger-scriptorium.weebly.com/
November 7 For Love of Books4
https://forloveofbooks4.wordpress.com/
November 7 Paranormalists
https://paranormalists.blogspot.com/
November 8 T’s Stuff (Interview)
http://teresanoel.blogspot.com/
November 8 Character Madness and Musings
https://jenabaxterbooks.blogspot.com/
November 9 Fang-tastic Books (Guest Blog)
http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com
November 9 Don’t Judge, Read
http://dontjudgeread.blogspot.ca
November 10 Marsha A. Moore
http://marshaamoore.blogspot.com
November 10 CBY Book Club
https://cbybookclub.blogspot.com/
November 13 Supernatural Central (Interview)
http://supernaturalcentral.blogspot.com
November 13 Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer (Interview)
http://www.coffeeaddictedwriter.com
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October 23, 2017
Hembry Castle Has a New Look!
[image error]Thanks to our awesome cover designer, Robin Ludwig, we have a new cover for When It Rained at Hembry Castle. Here’s the lovely Daphne sitting in the window at Hembry (reading a letter from Edward, presumably). And it does look rainy outside.
I had always heard that covers should reflect the genre of the book, and while I never disagreed with that I also liked what I liked. I thought the previous cover for Hembry was great because the house looked so much like the house from Downton Abbey, and that show was a huge influence on Hembry. But it has been about two years since Hembry was released, so to shake things up a bit we went ahead with featuring a woman on the cover since that’s the thing to do when you write historical fiction. Luckily, my cover designer came across this lovely lady in Victorian dress who very well could be a stand-in for Daphne Meriwether. I love the new cover, and I hope you do too!
October 14, 2017
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop
[image error]It’s been a few years since I participated in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop, but now that I’m writing Down Salem Way, the prequel to the Loving Husband Trilogy, it seemed like a good time to give away a few autographed paperback copies of Her Dear and Loving Husband, Book One in the Loving Husband Trilogy. If you love Outlander or A Discovery of Witches, then Her Dear and Loving Husband will be a great read for you. To find out more about the book, check here. Her Dear and Loving Husband is also a great book for Halloween with its vampires, witches, ghosts, and werewolves. Thanks to BookHounds for hosting the blog hop.
This giveaway is open to readers all over the world. Wherever you are, you’re welcome to participate.
Simply do one of the following and you’re entered into the drawing for one of five autographed paperback copies of Her Dear and Loving Husband. The sign up links are located on the right sidebar.
Follow this blog
Follow me on Facebook
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To enter the giveaway, add your name and email address into the form below. In the message section, state which of the above options you chose.
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That’s it! Good luck to everyone who entered!
Hop on over to the one of the other participating blogs and see what other great prizes you can win.
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~ BookHounds (INT)
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~ Stuck In Books (US)
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I Am A Reader (INT) ~
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Storey Book Reviews
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Up ‘Til Dawn Book Blog
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J. D. Wright’s Blog
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Hot Listens (INT)
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Savings in Seconds
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Glistering: Bs Blog (US)
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~ Literary Rambles (INT)
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Reading Reality (INT) ~
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~ Lisa Loves Literature (IJNT)
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Rockin’ Book Reiews
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Angel’s Guilty Pleasures (INT) ~
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Author ML Hamilton
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a GREAT read (US)
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Aleen @ Lampshade Reader (INT) ~
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Shandy Jo @ Geeky Mom’s R&R
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Mysteries and My Musings – US.
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Author Zoe Forward
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The Bookish Daydreamer (INT)
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Brenda’s Book Blog
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Writes with Fire
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Sassy Sirens MC – Samantha McCoy, Prez
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Angela Christina Archer ~ Author (US)
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Cindy’s Notebook
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ToTheMoonAndBackReviews
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Mug of Moxie (US)
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~ Craves the Angst Book Blog [INT]
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Carrie Pulkinen – Author
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Nancy Gideon (INT)
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Literary Meanderings (INT)
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Kristin @ Book Sniffers Anonymous (INT)
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A Night’s Dream of Books (INT)
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Talk Supe
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Paranormal Murder & Mystery (INT) ~
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Author Terri Bruce
63.
Bleu Bailey @ Gotham City Glossy
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October 9, 2017
Creative Inspiration: The Victorian Era
There’s a joke I’ve seen on Pinterest, a cartoon of a writer watching TV. The character says, “I’m researching!” to the cynical-looking people standing nearby. For those of us who write fiction, we know that watching TV or movies, listening to music, or going for walks really is research because all of it becomes part of the writing process. Writers, especially fiction writers, need their imagination fueled regularly, and it’s the little things we do, such as stealing an hour here or there to watch a favorite TV show or listen to our favorite music, that help to fill the creative well so that we have a brain full of ideas when we sit down to write.
When it comes time to write, especially if I’m writing an historical story, I try to immerse myself in the time period as much as possible. If I feel as if I’ve traveled back in time, then it’s easier for me to carry my readers along with me on the journey. Here are some of the places I found inspiration while writing my Victorian era story When It Rained at Hembry Castle. My hope is that by reading over my list, others will discover places to find inspiration of their own.
Books
Nonfiction:
[image error]Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant by Jeremy Musson
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
How To Be a Victorian: A Dusk-to-Dawn Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman (one of my new favorite historians—she lives what she studies)
The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London and Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England From 1811-1901 by Kristine Hughes
To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace
Below Stairs: The Classic Kitchen Maid’s Memoir That Inspired “Upstairs, Downstairs” and “Downton Abbey” by Margaret Powell
The Essential Handbook of Victorian Etiquette by Thomas E. Hill
Fiction:
When reading novels, I look for books written during the era I’m writing about as well as novels written about the era. Other times I’ll find inspiration in a novel that isn’t necessarily set in that time period but there’s something about the story that provides some ideas.
[image error]The Buccaneers and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Snobs by Julian Fellowes
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
I read A LOT of P.G. Wodehouse (but really, can you read too much Wodehouse?)
I read A LOT of Dickens (but really, can you read too much Dickens?)
Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (set in the Tudor era—I know—but she’s such a master of historical fiction I needed to read the books again)
Television and Film
For me, TV and film are the same as fiction—some of what I watch is set in the era, some is not, but all stir my imagination in one way or another.
Downton Abbey (Surprised, right?)
Upstairs, Downstairs
The miniseries of The Buccaneers
North and South
Lark Rise to Candleford
Cranford
Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth’s version)
[image error]Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson’s—and Alan Rickman’s—version)
I tried to watch the TV versions of Bleak House and Great Expectations, but to be honest screen adaptations of Dickens’ work rarely thrill me. They get the drama down all right, but you’d never guess Dickens was one of the funniest authors in the English language from the dreariness of the adaptations. I’m doing a little better with Dickensian, if for nothing else but Stephen Rea’s performance as Inspector Bucket.
Keeping Up Appearances—Another Bucket (It’s BooKAY).
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries—this outstanding Australian show is set in the 1920s, but I love Essie Davis’ Phryne Fisher so much I’ll use any excuse to watch it. Phryne Fisher’s clothes are even more fabulous than the costumes on Downton Abbey.
Music
Since my Victorian story is set in the 1870s, people were dancing to waltzes and polkas. Strauss and Chopin were favorite composers, which works well for me since I love to listen to classical music.
[image error]I was also able to find a few mp3s of Victorian-era music. I wasn’t concerned with whether or not these were songs specifically from the 1870s, and the music didn’t necessarily make it into the novel, but I really enjoy listening to music from the general time period while I’m writing. It helps me get into the right frame of mind. Here are a few examples of what I found:
Victorian Dining by Peter Breiner and Don Gillis
Victorian Edwardian by Alexander Faris
Victorian Love Songs by Craig Duncan
If you’re writing historical fiction, I highly recommend listening to music from the era while you write. I find a lot of great songs on Amazon, and if you have Amazon Prime then you can listen to some of the music for free.
I adore Pinterest. For me, Pinterest isn’t social media as much as something I do for fun because I love it so much. When It Rained at Hembry Castle is the first novel I’ve written since I started on Pinterest, so it’s the first time I was able to use pictures from the site to inspire my writing. When I needed to describe the sitting room at Hembry Castle, for example, I simply needed to go onto my research board, find the pin for the photograph I wanted to use as inspiration, and describe what I saw. If you’re writing your novel on Scrivener, you can import those photos directly into your novel file so they’re readily available when you need them.
When I was researching the novel, I created a private board for Hembry Castle because I didn’t want to bombard my followers with my many research pins. Then, when I had everything I needed, I created a public board so people could see the inspiration behind the story. Want to check out the board? It’s here.
Travel
I had a few things to say about traveling for research purposes in this post. Of course, it’s not always possible to travel, but if you can then do.
London, England: I’ll have more to say about my journeys to London for research purposes in a later post. For now, I’ll say that London is always a good idea.
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Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon: An odd place to travel when researching a novel set in Victorian England, I know. I didn’t actually travel there for that purpose, but when I arrived I found Pittock Mansion, an American, smaller-scale version of an English country house, and Pittock Mansion provided a lot of inspiration for Hembry Castle. In fact, the music room and the library in Hembry Castle were modeled after rooms in Pittock Mansion.
This is just the short list of places where I found inspiration for my Victorian historical novel. I hope you’ve discovered a few ideas for places you might seek inspiration for your own historical stories, whichever era they’re set in.
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October 4, 2017
Charles Dickens Meets Downton Abbey
Here’s the interview I did for Many Books about my experience writing When It Rained at Hembry Castle. Enjoy!
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Meredith Allard fell in love with Charles Dickens’ work when she was in college and after watching every Downton Abbey episode multiple times, she decided to create a work inspired by her favorite author and TV show. When it Rained at Hembry Castle is the perfect marriage between the humor and mystery of Dickens’ work and the upstairs/downstairs world of the English aristocrats. Allard tells us more about what made her want to write a book set in the Victorian era, how she makes her characters come to life and how Hembry Castle has been brewing in her mind for 20 years.
Please give us a short introduction to When it Rained at Hembry Castle
When It Rained at Hembry Castle is set in Victorian England in 1870. It’s the story of American Daphne Meriwether, the granddaughter of the Earl of Staton. When the Earl dies, Daphne and her father Frederick return to England. It’s a challenge for Daphne, learning to live in the upstairs/downstairs world of her father’s family. And she may fall in love with the aspiring writer Edward Ellis while she’s there. Of course, obstacles get in their way. Hembry Castle is a love story at heart, though it has an interesting cast of characters who make life interesting for Edward and Daphne.
Why Victorian England? What fascinates you about this time period?
I fell in love with the novels of Charles Dickens and the Victorian era when I was in college and I always wanted to write a book set during this time. The Victorian era is interesting because it’s a time that is both historical and yet in some ways it feels modern. I love learning about history, and writing historical fiction is a great way for me to do that.
Did it require a lot of research to keep your novel historically correct? Which part of the research did you find the most interesting?
This was one historical novel that I didn’t have to do a ton of research for because I already had a lot of knowledge about the Victorian period from reading Dickens and other books about the era. I did double check everything I wrote, but since I knew where to look for the information that made it a shorter process than usual for me. I was able to travel to London twice as part of my research, and I absolutely loved that. London is a great city. In fact, I’ve walked many of Edward’s walks through the city. I think being able to visit and see the places for myself make the story much more realistic.
What, would you say, makes the English aristocrats so interesting to read about?
When It Rained at Hembry Castle was partially inspired by Downton Abbey, and the popularity of Downton Abbey is largely based on the curiosity people have about the upstairs/downstairs world of English aristocrats. In America, the upstairs/downstairs world is not part of our culture the way it is in Britain, and I think that accounts for the fascination about that lifestyle. It’s an introduction to a world we knew nothing about.
Privilege and class division are recurring themes in When it Rained at Hembry Castle. Why?
Since Downton Abbey was such a big influence on Hembry Castle, it seemed appropriate that privilege and class division should play a part in the story. My love for all things Dickens also inspired the novel, and privilege and class division are often themes in his stories. While I love watching Downton Abbey and am fascinated by the lifestyle of the upper classes, I can’t imagine ever having to live according to such arbitrary rules and regulations. Daphne represents the way I would look at that lifestyle if I were thrust into that world—with a sense of detachment and maybe some humor about it all. The fact that Daphne falls in love with the butler’s grandson when her grandmother means for her to marry a duke allowed me to probe a bit deeper into class division.
How did you manage to describe England’s countryside and other locations in your book so vividly?
Partially it was through reading, partially it was through photographs on Pinterest, but mainly it was my imagination. I was able to picture the scenery in my mind’s eye and I did my best to describe what I saw. And watching every episode of Downton Abbey many times helped!
Which classic author do you admire the most?
Charles Dickens, if you haven’t already figured that out. I read Dickens for the first time in college and knew that that’s what I wanted to do—write stories that were entire worlds unto themselves. I love his sense of humor, his spot-on observations, his way of pointing out things that were wrong in his world, many of which are still wrong in our world today. He’s the smartest, funniest writer I’ve ever read. Dickens has been the biggest influence in my own writing.
When it Rained at Hembry Castle contains many hilarious scenes. Why do you find it important to use humor in your writing?
This goes back to my love for Dickens. Dickens was a hilarious writer, and from him I learned that if you’re going to write truthfully about people then you have to include the light as well as the dark. People are funny. We do and say funny things all the time (sometimes without meaning to do so—which makes it even funnier). And besides, a sense of humor goes a long way in making a story fun to read.
Your book has a very Downton Abbey feel to it. Was that intentional? Are you a Downton Abbey fan yourself?
I love Downton Abbey and it was absolutely intentional to include the upstairs/downstairs feel of the show. In fact, Downton Abbey gave me an angle from which to tell the story. I came up with the original idea for Hembry Castle about 20 years ago (no joke) when I decided I wanted to write a story set in Victorian England about a writer who would be loosely based on a young Charles Dickens. I went on to write other novels and kept the Victorian story on the back burner for years. After I fell in love with Downton Abbey I realized that I could take elements from that TV show and use it to bring my Victorian story to life.
What are some tricks you use to create such believable characters?
Mainly, I use my imagination. It took me longer to write Hembry Castle than I thought it would because it took me some time to get to know all the characters. I can’t write about a character until I get a sense of his or her personality. Hembry Castle has a larger cast of characters than I usually write about, and it took me some time to get them all straight in my head. Really, it’s about not thinking too much during the first draft, allowing the characters to materialize in front of me, and then writing down what I see. Sometimes I’ll put a favorite actor in the “part” of that character and imagine that actor acting out the scenes. That helps me get a sense of cadence when the character speaks, the types of movements the character might do, and so on. But really, it all boils down to allowing my imagination freedom.
Besides writing, what other secret skills do you have?
Writing is my most obvious superpower, but when I’m not writing I love to read. I also love to cook, and I just started art journaling, which I really enjoy.
Where can our readers discover more of your work or interact with you?
The best place to find me online is my website, www.meredithallard.com. I’m also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authormeredithallard/. My favorite social media is Pinterest, and you can find me at https://www.pinterest.com/meredithallard/. I could stay on that all day!
When It Rained at Hembry Castle:
Missing Downton Abbey? Read When It Rained at Hembry Castle. A lush historical novel set in Victorian England, When It Rained at Hembry Castle is the story of an aristocratic family, secrets that dare not be told, and the wonder of falling in love.
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October 2, 2017
Viva Las Vegas; Or, God Bless Us Every One
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I’m not a ranter. This blog is about my books, my writing, and my researching, as are my Facebook and Twitter feeds. I post photos of books and Halloween decorations on Pinterest. I have my political opinions, certainly, but I vent those opinions in my fiction. From my main man Dickens I’ve learned that you can tell a great story and still make a political point or two (or three). My fiction is quite political (see The Loving Husband Trilogy or That You Are Here if you don’t believe me), but I’ve always kept that aspect under wraps. The deeper themes are there if readers care to dig; otherwise, readers are getting entertaining stories with characters they want to know better and plot twists and turns with maybe some romance (and a vampire) along the way. But today I have something else to say.
I have been a proud Las Vegas resident for 14 years. I taught in the Clark County School District for 11 years. I have spent the past three years getting my PhD from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a goal I will complete this coming May. UNLV is just miles from the Las Vegas Strip and Mandalay Bay where the worst mass shooting in U.S. history took place. I was at home while the shooting was taking place, probably in bed reading, which is where I spent most Sunday nights, or most of my nights in general (party animal that I am). I admit I’m not a big news-watching person. Since the current resident of the White House took office, I watch the news enough to make sure that the world was where I left it when I went to bed the night before, and I have a general sense of what’s happening, but otherwise I’ve been so busy reading and writing and PhD-ing that I haven’t had time to be a news junkie. When I woke up Monday morning I checked my phone, saw an odd message from the emergency services at UNLV saying that the campus was open and to expect heavier traffic than normal. I’m not sure why the alarm in my head didn’t go off when I read that. I’m so used to seeing odd messages from here, there, and everywhere. Just two months ago I was on campus speaking to one of my professors when the university was locked down due to a shooting near the library. That time, no one had been hurt, so I just shrugged it off. This morning it wasn’t until my mother, also a Las Vegas resident, told me about the events at Mandalay Bay that I understood how serious it was. And then I realized that the world was not where I left it when I went to bed the night before. I did become a news junkie and watched CNN all day. It was like a nightmare, seeing this hotel, just miles from my home, a place I’ve visited many times, become a war zone, and for no reason at all. Let me rephrase that. I’m sure the shooter had his reasons. As I’m writing this no motive has been found, but there’s always a reason, even if he didn’t share that reason with anyone, although I’m sure more will be discovered as the days pass.
I wonder if as a society we ever pass the point of no return. I wonder if things ever get so bad that there’s nothing left to be done and we just have to accept that this is the way we have to live now, looking over our shoulders, wondering who is there, why they’re there, and what they’re planning on doing while they’re there. I wonder how one man can be so disturbed that he could premeditate this attack on peaceable Americans out for a fun night listening to country music on the Las Vegas Strip, and then I wonder at the selfless heroics at the scene of the tragedy with the courageous first responders, the off duty police, and the medical personnel. Family members and friends shielded each other, and strangers pulled strangers to safety and did their best to tend to the wounded.
But how can this be? How can we scream at each other on Facebook and Twitter for having different political opinions and then pull someone we’ve never met out of the path of a bone shattering bullet? How can we bark at someone at the coffee shop (where some angry man poked me in the shoulder and yelled at me for jumping ahead of him in line when it was the coffee shop manager who told me to join her so she could refund my money) and then use our bodies to shield others from danger? Why does it take a tragedy for us to recognize the humanity in each other? Why does it take madness, murder, and mayhem for us to realize that everyone is a story, and every story is valuable?
Not that long ago strangers held the door of the restaurant or grocery store open for whoever was behind them. It still happens sometimes, but not as much. Not that long ago strangers smiled at each other, said good morning, hello, how are you? What happened? I have had this discussion often with some teacher friends of mine. We like to blame technology, how we’re all spending so much time behind blue-toned screens that we don’t recognize the importance of flesh and bone human beings (I write this with with due irony noting that I am, of course, writing this behind a blue-toned computer screen; but writers get a pass, or at least a small one, I think). We can blame the weaknesses in our society on a lack of education, a lack of jobs, a lack of medical care, and, most importantly, a lack of concern about us ordinary folks from those who are supposed to be representing us in the Congress, the Senate, and the Oval Office. Hey, remember us? We’re the ones struggling to make ends meet, sitting for five hours in the doctor’s office waiting for decent medical care, seeking to educate our children and ourselves in order to find our own little slice of that pie that used to be called the American Dream. Does the American Dream even exist anymore? As a former K-12 teacher and a current university instructor, I wonder if the younger people coming up see themselves doing better than their parents, which is what I believed I would do, and which is what I did.
Then I wonder how racism is connected to this dis-ease. Racism has always existed, but never in my lifetime have I seen people so proudly displaying their bigotry. When I was a kid my Jewish mother told me that she was glad that our last name was Allard because no one could tell we were Jewish. That’s silly, I said. No one cares about that stuff anymore. My mother explained that we had lost relatives during the Holocaust, but at 10 I didn’t understand. Who cares if we’re Jewish? Today, sadly, I understand her point. And yet again, from the ashes (or the shit in this case) rises the phoenix, and there are more people protesting the haters than there are haters. But where does such hate stem from in the land of the free and the home of the brave? I know enough about American history to understand that this country has never been the land of the free, but I had some hopes that it was the home of the brave. It’s a hope I hold onto. We see flashes of bravery in the men and women who protest for human rights, and we saw it right here in Vegas in the angels who protected and cared for others. Has this anger always been there, hidden deep and dark in our collective psyche, only to lately be released, like an outraged genie in a bottle suddenly loosed to wield fury and frustration? And why, dear friends, why is it that the angry ones with orange faces and pointing fingers, or the friends of the angry ones with orange faces and pointing fingers, get all the attention while those of us who struggle through, day by day, the ones who believe in live and let live, the ones making the best lives we can for ourselves in the rubble of what used to be the American dream, are left nameless and voiceless in the shadows?
Sometimes people struggle so much they go off the deep end. I don’t know if the shooter had any of this in mind (whatever he had of a mind), but I do think it’s all connected somehow. People lose hope, and they don’t see change coming, or they perceive that too much change is happening, and they think things are getting worse. For the first time in my 48 years, I don’t see my country improving. I see it in decline. For whatever sins America has, I used to feel like at least we were moving in the right direction. The slaves, though it took a bloody war to do it, were freed. The Civil Rights Movement happened. The Women’s Rights Movement happened. The Gay Rights Movement happened. Can our problems now really stem from what they’re saying on the news? Is it a backlash because all people are gaining their independence?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Here’s the thing: there is not a limited amount of life, liberty, and happiness. The Creator is limitless, and because our Creator is limitless our unalienable rights are limitless. Because I as an American woman have my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that doesn’t mean that any other American citizen has less of a right. But nothing is handed to us, dear friends. If we want our pursuit of happiness, we must work for it. Pointing fingers at others gets us nowhere. Believe me. I’ve tried. Whatever I have, I’ve worked hard for, and no one could have gotten it for me but me. Perhaps it’s because some people feel so hopeless at the state of things that they no longer feel the drive to try, and pointing at others and saying it’s their fault is the only thing we can do to make ourselves feel better.
So where do we go from here? We could hope our government figures out a way to keep Americans safer, but they’re too busy politickin’ to care that Americans are dying. This has always been a country of the people and their idealism. For all of our faults, we still have the greatest ideals of any country in the world. You can still be anyone born anywhere and rise as far as your hard work allows you. It might be harder now, but it can be done. So rather than relying on a broken government that cares for nothing but playing games and pointing fingers, we must rely on each other. We keep pressing forward. We peaceably protest. We write our Congressmen and Congresswomen and our Senators and our local government entities. We remember that the worst thing we can do to someone begging for attention is to ignore them. That’s harder in the Internet age where it’s so easy to respond, but the old fashioned method of ignoring is still best.
I wonder what the world would be like if we lived in that place of helping instead of hurting. Sometimes people ask how the Creator could allow such things to happen. My argument has always been that it’s not the Creator who does such things—it’s disturbed people. The outpouring of love, help, support, caring, and donations you see after a tragedy—that’s where you find the Creator. What would our world look like if we lived in that place—that place of love we continue to see after the tragedy in my hometown of Las Vegas or that place of help and concern we saw in Texas and Florida? And while we’re in a charitable mood, let’s not forget our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico who still desperately need our help.
We must remain idealistic. It is possible for us to look at each other, smile, and help each other every day. It shouldn’t take a tragedy to get us to acknowledge the humanity in each other. But we have to make a conscious effort to make things better. A change is gonna come, dear friends. Whether that change is good, bad, or indifferent is up to us.
Which is all I have to say. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, “God bless us, every one!”
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Researching the Victorian Era
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I have an odd habit of writing historical fiction set in eras I know little or nothing about. I came up with story ideas about the Salem Witch Trials, the Trail of Tears, Biblical Jerusalem, New York City and Washington, D.C. during the woman’s suffrage movement, and the American Civil War, and for each of those stories I had to learn about the history to write the novel. I don’t mind when it happens that way, though. I’ve always been fascinated with history, and I enjoy learning about the past. I often get ideas for the plot from my research, so the research helps to make my novel even richer than it might have been without the historical background.
When It Rained at Hembry Castle was a different experience. Due to my love for Dickens and my own research on the Victorian era, I was writing about a time I was familiar with. When I began writing Hembry Castle I realized that I could include aspects of my favorite TV show, Downton Abbey, to bring the story to life. The hero of Hembry Castle, the aspiring young writer Edward Ellis, became the focal point of the story, along with his love, Daphne Meriwether, but then I decided to include upstairs and downstairs elements of life during the Victorian era as well.
In order to write this novel, I started with the author I know best—Dickens. Of course, I’ve read all his novels, many more than once, some more than twice, so I started with the one I knew had the most in common with the story I had in mind for Hembry—Our Mutual Friend. From there, I went back to a few favorite books about the Victorian era—What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool and The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London and Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England by Judith Flanders. I had read those books previously but reread them for a refresher course. While reading about the Victorian era, I discovered a new favorite historian, Ruth Goodman, who impressed me with the fact that she doesn’t just talk about Victorian clothing, she makes it and wears it. She’s tried out many elements of living in the Victorian era, which gives her work that much more authority. Her book, How To Be a Victorian: A Dusk-to-Dawn Guide to Victorian Life, is a must read for anyone interested in life during the Victorian period. I also read The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England From 1811-1901 by Kristine Hughes. Edward Ellis is loosely based on a young Charles Dickens, but I didn’t need to read anything specifically for that since I’ve read pretty much every biography about Dickens. It was nice to be able to use information I had in my head for a change.
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I realized that I needed to learn more about what the upstairs/downstairs world looked like in the 1870s. To my surprise, it wasn’t so different from the way it’s portrayed in Downton Abbey, which begins in 1912. While I picked up a lot about manor house living from watching Downton, as many fans of the show have, I felt I needed more specifics so I read Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant by Jeremy Musson. I gleaned some great information from that book, and it provided good background for me so I could see how the country house servant evolved over the years. The upstairs/downstairs world isn’t part of our culture in America the way it is in England, and I wonder if that accounts for Americans’ fascination with Downton Abbey—it’s a glimpse into a lifestyle we weren’t familiar with.
The way I research historical fiction has changed a lot over the years. I used to do months of research before I ever started writing. Now I do a few weeks worth of preliminary research to get a feel for the era, and then I start writing. As I write, I get a sense of what information I need so I know exactly what to look for. As I was writing, I realized that if Edward was a political journalist then he would know politics. I needed to figure out the political climate of the time, but it wasn’t too hard since I knew what I was looking for—events in British politics in 1870. I remember learning about Gladstone and Disraeli in a history class about Victorian Britain, and it was nice being able to put that knowledge to use as well.
Through the writing process I realized that I needed information about Victorian etiquette. There were such specific rules for every aspect of life, and since part of Daphne’s struggle is to learn to live in this upstairs/downstairs world, she had to learn those rules. I found The Essential Handbook of Victorian Etiquette by Thomas E. Hill, which was written for Americans during the Victorian era, but after a little digging I discovered that the rules were the same in Britain so I used that book as my primary reference. The etiquette seems so antiquated now. I had a lot of fun writing those scenes because Daphne is rather amused by her grandmother’s nitpicking about how her manners aren’t refined enough for English society.
I was lucky enough to be able to visit England twice for research as I was writing When It Rained at Hembry Castle. Most of the London locations in the story were chosen because they were places I’ve visited myself so I had seen what I was describing. I stood on the Victoria Embankment near the Houses of Parliament watching the Thames roll as Edward is wont to do. I’ve taken some of Edward’s walks through the city. Many of the buildings are different (I’m pretty sure the The Gherkin wasn’t around in 1870), yet some of the buildings are the same, which is amazing to me. Here in Las Vegas buildings are imploded if they’re more than 20 years old.
In many ways, researching When It Rained at Hembry Castle was the easiest work I’ve done so far as an historical novelist because it was set in a time I was already familiar with. It’s always magical to me when I start to see how I can take this knowledge of history and weave it into the story I have in mind. What is even more amazing is when the history leads the story in directions I had never considered before. That, for me, is the joy of writing historical fiction.
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