The LadyKillers

Nitty Gritty History

Jane here, late with my blog because yesterday we had family staying, more relatives visiting, and a barbecue which took up most of the day. It was great. But then came the clearing-up, mountains of it.

While I battled with the debris I thought – not for the first time – that before the advent of detergents and constant hot water, not to mention dishwashers, cleaning up dishes and cooking utensils after meals must have been a horrible job, to be suffered several times a day. Of course wealthy people had servants or, in ancient times, slaves to see to all the domestic chores, so the mistresses and masters of a house didn’t actually have to soil their lily-white hands. But for most people…well, if I ever fulfill my ambition of travelling back in time, I’m going to make sure I end up among the rich!

There have been some interesting reflections lately, from Lady Killers and others, about why people say they “don’t like history.” I can’t believe that anyone really DOES NOT like history; that’s like saying “I don’t like animals” because you were once bitten by a dog, or chased by a cow. But people associate “history” with what they were taught at school, and sadly it often wasn’t taught well. Even when there were good and enthusiastic teachers, the focus was on the great public events of the past, the deeds of kings, the battles and religious upheavals and such. I myself found these interesting because I had good teachers, so I didn’t just have to memorise lists and dates; but the crucial thing is that I was taught other aspects of history too – something of how ordinary people lived from day to day. That’s what most people find fascinating, and when people say they didn't enjoy their school history lessons, it's a million to one bet that people's everyday lives were not on the syllabus. 

Nowadays, thank goodness, the focus has changed, and anyhow there are more ways to learn about the past than at school. Through history channels on tv, you can find out a lot about daily life in bygone centuries. Some museums are good at this too – the Museum of London has reconstructions of streets and houses from Roman Londinium, with people in Roman dress explaining (in English!) what their lives would be like The Jorvik Centre in York famously lets us see inside replica Viking houses, and makes sure we also catch the unpleasant whiff of drains as we pass by.

Let’s have more of this, I say. Capture the interest of youngsters in how their ancestors lived, the sights and sounds and smells of life without electricity, without printed books; even without – heaven help us – mobile phones and computers! Then with luck we may also get them to think about the public affairs, from how their country’s government evolved, to how and why their nation gets along with other nations on the planet. These are important too, because you can’t fully understand the present state of things without some knowledge of the past.

But let's start small and everyday. To quote an old song:  “Get right down to the real nitty gritty.”

really being medieval

I'm back again.  Last weekend was the annual medieval congress in Kalamazoo, MI (really!)  Three thousand medievalists from all over the world arrive at Western Michigan University to give papers, buy books, see old friends and drink cheap wine. 
This year I did all of the above.  I started coming to the congress in 1972 and, while I've missed some years, I've probably been to close to twenty of them.  A lot of my generation stays in one of the hotels or motels in the area.  But those on a budget and people like me who don't want to be too far from the book display, stay in the dormitories.  The rooms are cinder block with the bare minimum of furniture.  Between each two there is a shared bathroom.  Apart from the  running water it has the feel of a caravansary, especially with the clanks and bangs of the other inhabitants and the wide array of languages one hears.   My back doesn't take as well to the dorm beds as it used to but otherwise it always feels like coming back to my youth.

There were sessions on everything from Old High German verbs to the use of medieval themes in computer games.  There was ale and mead tasting.  One could go to workshops on medieval armor or how to prepare a lambskin to become a manuscript page.  What the congress didn't have was an Internet connection. 

There were several conversations about historical mysteries.  On the topic of speech in historical novels, the general consensus among my colleagues was that good dialogue is not archaic but understandable to the reader.  One can throw in a word or phase from the time to set the mood.  What does drive medievalists crazy is when characters have a very modern mindset.  This could work in humor say, if I wrote a book called Valley Girls on Crusade, but not if the author is trying to give the feel of the times.  Another thing that can be forgiven once in a while is using anachronistic idioms - so no ballpark figures, telescoping of time or railroading allowed.  Of course some readers don't realize how long terms have been used.  Leonard Tourney gave up using the word "suburb" for the area around London because people wrote to say he goofed.  "Suburb" of course is a Latin word and I've seen it in charters as early as the ninth century.

After the congress, I signed The Shanghai Tunnel and anything else I'd written at Aunt Agatha's bookstore in Ann Arbor and then at The Mystery Company in Carmel, IN.  I'm home now.  My vegetable plants didn't die while I was gone but I'm glad that I'll be here for a while to keep an eye on them.

And, in case anyone is curious, the title of the paper I gave was "When the Lord is a Lady: female inheritance in the Crusader States."  You might want to wait for the movie.

Sharan   www.sharannewman.com

Cannes Film Festival and a writing question

Cara here on Friday

Whether you like Quentin Tarantino's films or think he's passé the
French love him. Right now the Cannes Film Festival is going on ...envision the palm lined la Croisette fronting the Mediteranean, the red carpet, the movie distribution deals and stars vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or like our Oscar.
Anyway Quentin is teaching a master class on film and I like what he said and think it applies to writers

QUENTIN TARANTINO'S CINEMA MASTERCLASS
"I want to make movies, I have to make movies. The reason I don't make more movies is that I want to live life in between. I give it all to the movies...

For all the writers out there...does that ring true to your writing?
Have a good weekend,
Cara

Sex and the single sleuth

I met with my editor when I was in Washington a couple of weeks ago. We discussed my ideas for the next Lady Georgie book. "And can we see more of Darcy?" she asked with a hopeful expression on her face. "Could he perhaps take his shirt off?"
    Since Darcy looks like Colin Firth with muscles, I could see her point. I've no objection to his ripping his shirt off at every available moment, but then we're into the dreaded crossing genres thing. I have the same problem with Molly Murphy and her beau Captain Daniel Sullivan. To me it seems only natural if a little sex comes into the lives of my characters. I want them to be human, after all, and with all the dangers they go through, they deserve a little fun. But to mystery purists, this takes the book into the romance genre.
    So I have some fans who love the romance element in my books. They followed Evan and Bronwen's courtship with keen interest and rejoiced when they got married. I enjoy writing it. But there are other mystery readers who dismiss my books as lightweight because they have this touch of romance. To them mysteries should show the sleuth solving a crime. Period. Oh, and the sleuth can get kicked and punched in a neighborhood alleyway, shot at a few times and of course get drunk while remembering the woman who got away when he was young. But be happy? Never. Not part of the genre.
    Sorry, but I'm an optimist by nature. I like people to be happy occasionally. I want them to find love and fulfillment  Let's face it, you can never please all the people all the time, so I have to write what I want. Essentially a writer has to write to give herself pleasure first and to please the fans second, or it wouldn't be a good book. And the good news about books like mine is that they do have crossover potential--meaning that the number of readers will increase if the romance community takes an interest.
    Conventional wisdom is that any book that crosses genres is doomed to failure but we now have before us the shining example of Charlene Harris's Sookie Stackhouse. Sexy vampire suspense with humor? Most publishers didn't want to touch that book with a ten foot pole. Now it's on the NYT list and about to appear as a TV series. So I think I'll let Darcy take his shirt off more frequently after all. And maybe he could turn out to be a vampire???

Rhys

History and me

I don't remember learning any history in primary school. When I went away to school at 11, we started with the Roman invasions of Britain. I still can't remember whether they were 55 BC and 43 AD or vice versa. Three weeks after school started came the '57 influenza pandemic. So many people were ill, one of the residence houses had to be converted into an extension of the San, and there I spent 10 days along with other sufferers. The day I returned to class, I left again--with mumps. Three weeks in isolation. By the time I was allowed out, the Romans were over and done with. I caught up in other subjects, but Roman Britain remains elusive.

1066, William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings were succeeded by endless dates and kings and battles. Dates, kings and battles leave me cold. By the end of the fourth form, we'd reached 1815, George III, and Waterloo.

That summer term, the history master had a sabbatical and we had a substitute. My school was quite small, the teachers knew us all and never had a roll call, but the substitute did. As it was not normally used, the list had on it the names of a boy and a girl who were no longer at the school. Class after class, the substitute read out their names. At first, we'd explain. She went on reading them so in the end someone would answer "here", or whatever we said. Come exam time, one of the boys and I decided to do the exams for those two--in the style of 1066 and All That. (If you don't know 1066 and All That, get hold of a copy.) All I remember about what I wrote is that Wellington fought a battle with a Salamander, and won. I wish I'd insisted on keeping a copy.

Jon and I were hauled before the senior master--our misdeed never was reported to the headmaster or headmistress. Mr Wright was trying so hard not to laugh that we didn't exactly get into much trouble. I'd written my own paper in the same style and dropped history. Jon wrote his seriously and went on to O level history. I never took another history class.

So how come I ended up writing historical fiction? Blame Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, CS Forester, Baroness Orczy--are you seeing a period pattern? No wonder I started with Regencies!

Enough, my friends, of my misadventures in history. These days I don't even mind an occasional date, king or battle.

Carola
www.geocities.com/CarolaDunn/

Words and more words: On historical slang

Ann Parker here, Monday's child for the Lady Killers, picking up the thread on "historically speaking." Thank goodness I don't have to deal with Latin chit-chat since my historical period of choice for the Silver Rush mysteries is 1880s in the U.S. of A.

To help with the language of the times, I sometimes turn to the newspapers of the day and look at the quotes to try and parse out the cadence and some of the slang. And sometimes I get buffaloed and, despite idiom reference guides, etc., have no idea what a particular bit of language means ... or meant (get those tenses right).

Here's a little example I came across a few years ago that continues to bug me to this day. The phrase in question appears in an article talking about the Rio Grande Railroad's plans for dealing with some Leadville folks who refused to grant right-of-way through their property so that the tracks could be built to the site of the town depot. Colorado Governor Hunt is very straightforward in saying that the railroad will not be stopped. (You can read this little article yourself at the Colorado Historic Newspapers website. It's titled "Railroad Racket" and appears in the July 17, 1880, issue of the Leadville Weekly Herald.)

At the end of the interview, Hunt concludes, "...the Rio Grande road doesn't allow bad luck to interfere with its plans very much. Smile? Don't drink? Sorry. Good morning."

Huh? what's this "Smile? Don't drink? Sorry." stuff all about? I also read a similar concluding statement elsewhere ... don't ask me where, but I know I did read it. I'm thinking it might be the equivalent of the rather meaningless "Have a good day"  that's often thrown in to finish a current-day conversation. But I'm not sure. It remains, for me, a minor linguistic mystery circa 1880.

Making your characters talk proper

Jane here, picking up on what Rhys said earlier this week about the problems of getting the language right in a historical mystery.

Some say that I and other writers with settings in the Roman Empire have it easy. We can’t be expected to reproduce the way our characters would have spoken in reality, because of course they’d be talking Latin, or one of the Celtic languages, or perhaps Greek…so, the theory goes, we can do as we please.

If only! Readers are a funny lot. (Not anyone who’s reading this post, of course…) But some people instinctively expect that characters from the ancient past will speak somehow differently, more formally perhaps, using less slang, than is the case with modern English. Yet those characters spoke “modern” Latin or British or whatever when they were alive, and they joked, argued, swore, grieved, rejoiced, in their own everyday speech. It seems to me that if I’m giving my characters dialogue, it must be interesting and acceptable to modern readers; in other words, it must be in modern English.

I personally avoid anachronisms of slang, or try to; I’d never have my sleuth Aurelia use expressions like “play your cards right” or “back to square one.” Some Roman-era authors I can think of are less strict about this, and if their books in all other ways give a good feel for their period, I can turn a blind eye to the too-modern colloquialisms, but they give me a jolt.

For the Roman Empire (say 100 BC to 500 AD) we have very little idea of how ordinary people spoke among themselves. There’s quite a lot of surviving text in Latin, both prose and poetry, but it’s written text, so it’s more formal and grammatical than spoken words, and often marked with an author’s own style. Plays like Plautus’ comedies bring us closer, but they’re still plays, following a poetic structure, and imitating free-and-easy speech, but it remains an imitation.

So to reproduce Latin speech, writers must use guesswork and imagination; that’s what I do, and I enjoy doing it, as anyone must who finds amusement in playing about with words. I like inventing plausible slang – like “back to the starting-gate” as a substitute for “back to square one” – and one reader actually emailed to congratulate me on “opening a new box of beetles”, which made my day.

And that’s how it’ll stay, at least until someone invents time-travel and takes a recorder back to the past. I’ll be at the front of the queue to visit first-century Britannia – after all my years as a radio journalist, that’s only right, isn’t it – and I promise to post a very detailed blog, if I ever achieve it!

 

Talking historical...what's up at the Louvre

Cara here on Friday
but wish I was in the Louvre today
to see this exhibit of the Prints and Drawings of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin 1724–1780
According to www.louvre.fr

"Gabriel was a unique chronicler of bohemian Paris under the reign of Louis XV, Gabriel de Saint-Aubin was a marginal artist who roamed the streets of the capital his entire life, a sketchbook in his hands.

Ever since this artist was rediscovered by the Goncourt brothers, admiration for his keen eye, liveliness of execution, sensuous use of materials and freedom of expression has never waned. Nevertheless, this exhibition marks the first time in nearly a century that the public will be treated to a monographic exploration of the various aspects of the art of Gabriel de Saint-Aubin.

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the Louvre and The Frick Collection in New York, this exhibition is able to bring together seven of the rare paintings by this artist, a selection of his remarkable etchings and some sixty of his best drawings.

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin belonged to an eclectic family of artists—his father and a brother were embroiderers for the royal court, a sister and another brother were widely noted for their mastery of the draftsman’s art—who proudly recognized his genius.
However, we know very little about how he got his start as an artist, his training, or his private life."

Bohemian life in 18th century Paris...what's not to want to see? Last night I was looking through a book of Marville's photographs taken between 1860-70 before Haussmann cleared much of old Paris and replaced it with the grand boulevards we know today. A century after Gabriel, Marville's black and white photos show the bits of Paris Gabriel knew and were destroyed. Gone the narrow lanes, the old walls of Paris, turreted gatehouses, curious water pumps at every corner the only source of water for each block. The good old days? Probably not if one lived on the sixth floor and had to carry the water up, a fact of life in that era.
Still...here's a wistful nod to the past...
And nostalgia...well, as Simone Signoret once said, nostaliga's not what it used to be...
Bon weekend,
Cara

From Mary Anna--Astronomy and music, all in one package

I'm enjoying my fellow Lady Killers' posts on history and historical fiction, and I really should chime in, since I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.  However, this week, I feel the need to revert to adolescence.  :-)

People who know me know that I'm serious about music.  I have a piano that weighs close to a ton and is worth more than my car.  (That's not saying much, but still.)  I've sung in an acoustic trio and a Dixieland band for years.  Right now, I'm looking to broaden my horizons, so I'm starting a band that will do original blues rock.  I'm the lyricist and "front man."  This should be a hoot.  And I'm talking to a jazz group that occasionally needs a chick singer.

I'm also passionate about science, which has resulted in a degree in physics and an advanced degree in engineering and a telescope in the garage that I'm sad to say is gathering dust.  I'm also making a baby quilt that is covered with planets and nebulae and the space shuttle and satellites.

So imagine my pleasure when I learned last year that Brian May, the lead guitarist for one of my favorite bands in my teen years, Queen, had gone back to school and finished the doctorate in astrophysics that he left to become a world-famous rock star.  I've made sure my twelve-year-old daughter had a intimate understanding of Mommy's music, so I made double-sure she knew about Dr. May's achievement.  I wanted her to know that you can't do everything in this life, but if you set your goals high and work hard, you can do a lot.

Last week, my son called to tell me that his alma mater's website said that Brian May would be speaking at a tribute for his former astronomy professor...and we live maybe five miles from campus.  Now what are the odds I'm not going to take my daughter to see an astronomer/musician?  We were so there.

Since Elton John packed a coliseum here last week, I was afraid there would be such a big crowd of middle-aged rock fans that we wouldn't get in, so we got there very early planning to eat lunch while we waited...only to find an empty auditorium.  I guess middle-aged rock fans don't actually want to hear their heroes talk.  Weird.  So we got the best seats that weren't reserved for astronomers, about five rows back and on the aisle.  As it turned out, there were a lot of astronomers there, but not so many rock fans.  And it's entirely possible that the rock fans who were there were also science groupies, just like me.

My daughter had asked, "Mom, will I understand anything that they say?"  I told her that the event was for the general public, so I expected that the talks would be very accessible, and they were.  The chair of the astronomy department spoke, then Dr. May. (More on that later.)  She followed their talk perfectly, so she was much relieved.  Then the honoree got up...and spoke in Spanish.  :-D  We got a little chuckle out of the fact that neither of us understood anything he had to say.

Dr. May (maybe that sounds funny, but I just think he earned the honorific) talked about his relationship with the honoree, as well as his specialty, the movement of particles in the dust cloud that causes a phenomenon called the zodiacal light.  Being interested in history as well as science, I found his slides showing historical drawings and photos of the zodiacal light to be especially interesting.  And everybody enjoyed the photos taken around 1970 of the the little building clinging to the side of a volcano where he did his research.  Not to mention a couple of photos of him playing an acoustic guitar on the side of that same mountain.

Since the crowd was small, we were able to go up and speak to Dr. May and get our picture made with him.  (Actually, we did that twice, since I forgot to save the photo.  Duh.)  He spoke to my daughter for a moment and asked her if she liked music and whether she sang.  Since he was nice to my daughter, I'm indebted forever.  Then he turned and shook Mommy's hand, too.

So my daugher got to see that even a rock star who has played to crowds of tens of thousands gets nervous.  And she got to see that he did a great job anyway.  And she got to see that it's never too late to learn things, and that you don't have to pick just one thing to do in this life.  On our way home, she said, "Mom, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  Everybody else does."  I told her that everybody else would probably change their minds a few times...like her mother, the engineer-turned-mystery-novelist and Brian May, the astronomer-turned-rock-star-turned astronomer.  She said she was thinking about astronomy.  Or maybe archaeology.  Zoology sounded nice, too.

So Mommy's lifelong desire to promote science and just general intellectual curiosity to her kids, the eldest of whom is a mechanical engineer and the second of whom is well on her way to being a clinical social worker, is paying off.

Mission accomplished.

Here's the photo...the one I saved.

Historical mysteries

There has been a discussion going on for several days now on DorothyL, the online mystery group, about historical mysteries. It started when a member made the claim that he "didn't like historicals."

It was, of course, a sweeping statement but I do see what he meant. I hated history at school. It was taught as great lists of dates, having to memorize kings and queens and almost nothing of the ordinary people and their lives, except for rare events like the great plague of 1667 and the streets echoing to the shouts of "bring out your dead". That was good stuff! So I too might not have thought that I'd enjoy historical novels. But what hooked me was Mary Renault's "The King Must Die." It's about Theseus, Ancient Athens, the Minotaur. It's four hundred pages of pure adrenalin and I loved it.

But then I've read plenty of historical novels I haven't loved. If someone serves me up great chunks of history when characters are supposed to be having a chat, it turns me off. "Do have a flagon of ale." "Why thank you, and I was thinking only this morning about how the Thirty Years war started."
Also if the author attempts to recreate the speech of the time and place. Remember Hemmingway's awful attempt with the thees and thous in For Whom the Bell Tolls?
I simply can't stomach "Forsooth, Sir Jasper I see thou has evil intentions," even though I can read Jane Austen with relish. I don't have such a problem as I write about the 20th century and I actually know how the people spoke. My grandmother was a young woman in the early 1900s and I remember the gentility of her speech (no swear words including damn) and the extremely large vocabulary, and the formality--calling neighbors by their last names etc. So I've attempted to recreate that with Molly Murphy. And as for Lady Georgie--well, I know plenty of people who still live in that world, although the generation below me has adopted a much freer and slangier mode of speech.

For those writing historical novels set centuries ago, I think it's more important to give the feel for the speech--the formality of court manners, for example, the use of appropriate curses and images. Ellis Peters did this so well with Brother Cadfael. As for Roman times, my blogmate Jane Finnis's Aurora comes across as modern in many ways, but that works too as it's told in the first person, with appropriate slang for the time, and frankly we have no way of knowing how Romans chatted to each other
.
The important thing for me is that we're telling a good story and we're creating real people with whom the reader can identify. It's a mystery, so anything that detracts from the flow of the plot should be avoided. I want to give the feel of the period, but I also don't want the choice of words and speech patterns to slow down the action. I want the reader to feel he or she is being transported back to another time. I don't want them to feel they are being shown what it was like in another time.  A delicate balance to be sure, but worth the effort when I get it right.

Rhys Bowen
www.rhysbowen.com