Peeking into the Past
September 28, 2024 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field tagged as Alina K. Field, Historical Research, Quarter Days
One of the most enjoyable things about writing historical fiction is falling down the research rabbit hole.
Yes, I know authors of contemporary fiction have to do research also. Not disrespecting other writers. Just saying that historical research is, in my view, lots more interesting.
I especially like to read memoirs, and collections of letters. I have a couple of print books in my memoir collection, and more that I picked up from Google Books and Project Gutenberg. Though social norms and societal expectations might have changed, people’s wants and desires haven’t changed that much.
Another print book recently came into my collection, from my sister who was shuffling her collection of books for a cross-country move. It’s our grandmother’s geography text from her school days:
Old like Us
I’m up there in years, and as I was the second youngest of all the many grandchildren, this book is also old. In fact, it’s from the century before last. It was copyrighted in 1897, and that’s the year Grandma received it, inscribing it with her name and “her Book, Dec. 26, 1897.”
What I love is that, like a kid from my generation, the grandma who I knew as a very old, very proper octogenarian doodled and scribbled on the interior and exterior covers. In one place there are her initials in a pin-point design; in another, a penciled flower drawing; and a math problem when she maybe ran out of scrap paper.
And then there are these schoolgirl ditties from others:
Remember me early
Remember me late,
Remember me at
The Golden Gate
And this one:
Dear friend,
Love me little
Love me long
Love me when
I’m dead and gone
And:
These few lines are tendered
By a friend sincere and true
Hoping but to be remembered
By an honest friend like you
And this last:
Dear Sister
When on this page
you chance to look
remember it was
your sister that
wrote this in your book.
That one is rather poignant, because grandma’s sister died the following year.
A Budding School Teacher
Grandma was seventeen when she acquired this book, and she went on to become a country schoolteacher before marrying, having six children, and carrying out her share of the responsibilities of running the family farm–gardening, canning, cooking, cleaning, clothing everyone, etc. Her only water was pumped from a cistern, and she cooked on a wood stove. It makes me tired thinking about it!
Do you have any old treasures like this in your personal collection? Share in the comments, please!
Have a wonderful autumn, and I’ll see you at my next Quarter Days post.
1 2 Read moreAlina K. Field July Featured Author
July 14, 2024 by Alina K. Field in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Alina K. Field, Featured Author of the Month, Regency Romances
Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwest, after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with two furry four-legged girls and keeps a dependable stash of lollipops for the munchkins in her life.
She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!
Books by Alina K. Field
Alina K. Field July Featured Author
July 1, 2024 by Alina K. Field in category Featured Author, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Alina K. Field, Featured Author of the Month, Regency Romances
Award winning author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature, but her true passion is the much happier world of romance fiction. Though her roots are in the Midwest, after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with two furry four-legged girls and keeps a dependable stash of lollipops for the munchkins in her life.
She is the author of several Regency romances, including the 2014 Book Buyer’s Best winner, Rosalyn’s Ring. She is hard at work on her next series of Regency romances, but loves to hear from readers!
Books by Alina K. Field
The High Road/The Low Road
June 28, 2024 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field tagged as A Wallflower's Midsummer Night's Caper, Loch Lomond, Outlander, Revenge of the Wallflowers, Scotland, The Jacobite RebellionThe Bonny Shores of Loch Lomond
Welcome to another Quarter Days’ Post
I celebrated the summer solstice a few days early with the release of my latest novel, A Wallflower’s Midsummer Night’s Caper, Book 15 in the multi-author Revenge of the Wallflowers series. More on that below, but first…
Midsummer in the far north
A visit to Scotland has been on my bucket list, and I was finally able to get there a few weeks ago. It’s a country of dramatic landscapes and many, many, many castles. Here’s one of the abandoned ones:
The rainy weather made for dramatic vistas and cloud formations.
Outlander
Everywhere we went, folks asked if we’d watched the series, Outlander, based on the books by Diana Gabaldon.
While Outlander has been a definite boon to their tourist industry, it seemed to me that many of the people we talked to really do treasure their proud, defiant past. They’ve moved on from tragedies but they haven’t entirely forgotten them.
The Culloden battlefield museum commemorates the Highlanders’ defeat by the British in 1746. What followed that battle was an attempt by the victors to destroy the Highland way of life.
Concerned about another rebellion by Highlanders, the British banned Highland dress and bagpipes. It would be years before author Walter Scott popularized Highland life again in his novel Waverley.
The High Road/The Low Road
By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.Chorus:
O ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road,
And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
After Culloden, not all captured rebels faced execution. Some were allowed to return to Scotland to share descriptions of the terrible punishment meted out by the British. Those spared death took the “high road” up and down mountains, through the glens, across rivers, on the long and difficult journey from England. The others–those drawn and quartered–sped along home to Scotland over the “low road”, their spirits escorted by the fairies, sadly, unable to reunite in this world with their true loves.
On a Happier Note
I prefer my romantic stories to have happy endings, don’t you?
My latest release is a happily-ever-after story about a young lady spurned at her first ball by her brother’s friend.
As Midsummer Night’s magic unfolds and passions rise, will a repentant duke be well and truly punished, or will a vengeful wallflower be caught in her own game?
A Midsummer Night’s masquerade at her family’s country home presents the Honorable Nancy Lovelace with the perfect opportunity for revenge against the man who ruined her first London season—a man she’s known since childhood, a man she’d once thought she loved. With the help of her crew of younger relatives, she’ll give him his comeuppance.
Thanks to his bad behavior, Simon Crayding is now known to society as the Swilling Duke. When an old school chum invites him for a Midsummer Night’s party, he jumps at the chance to lick his wounds among friends and apologize to his friend’s sister, Nancy, because apparently, he’s done something to hurt her, he just doesn’t remember what.
It soon becomes clear that Nancy will not easily forgive. Never one to resist a challenge—or a beautiful lady—Simon vows to persevere. As the night unfolds and passions rise, will Simon be well and truly punished, or will Nancy be caught in her own game?
Available wide in eBook and in print at Amazon. Find your favorite bookstore here: https://books2read.com/aWallflowersMidsummerNightCaper
I hope you enjoyed the Loch Lomond story. I had no idea before what the high road/low road of the song signified. Happy summer, and I’ll be back in September with another Quarter Days’ post.
0 1 Read moreAstronomical Events and Romance?
March 28, 2024 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field tagged as astronomical events, romance fictionMr. Moon meets Mrs. Sun—or is it the other way around?
There’s a big solar eclipse coming on April 8th! It’s predicted to be a spectacular one, witnessed by over 32 million people.
We know that the paths of the moon and the sun will line up. The moon will block the sun and cast the earth into darkness, while “deep pink geysers of nuclear fire shoot from the Sun’s edge” as described in the link I just mentioned.
That amazing ring of fire!
A total solar eclipse is such a startling event that before the science of astronomy developed, humans came up with different ways to explain the sudden darkness.
Some cultures evoked gods, demons, dragons, and other mythological creatures to cope, while others explained the eclipse in terms of a romantic union between the moon with the sun. Check out some of the mythology in this post from Almanac.com.
The right place at the right time
Eclipses aren’t often visible where I live, due to either wrong geography or a lack of a clear sky. (Fog? Smog? Who knows?) The sky darkened noticeably during last October’s eclipse, but there was so much cloud cover, I couldn’t view what was only a partial eclipse in our area.
However, on April 8th this year, I’ll be on an airplane flying home above the cloud cover from a most romantic event, a family member’s wedding in New York City.
Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to witness something through the airplane window, or while I wait for my connecting flight. I’d better shop for some eclipse shades!
Year of the Comet
Comets are another astronomical novelty.
I don’t know of any romance relationships ascribed to comets, but there seems to have been a spectacular relationship between the comet of 1811 and the grapes–and wine–produced that year.
Vin de Comète (comet wine) is the name given to the 1811 vintage of wine. (There’s a 1992 movie about a chase across Europe for a bottle of Vin de Comète with Napoleon’s seal.)
One sparkling wine made during this era was made famous by a courageous and innovative French woman vintner, the Veuve (French for widow) Clicquot.
Astronomical, or perhaps Gastronomical Inspiration
The Veuve Clicquot, and the fabulous champagne she made helped inspire a story I wrote last year. The Veuve herself doesn’t appear until the epilogue, but it’s her demand that spurs the hero’s quest, and she also sends him home to England with a precious and very valuable case of Vin de Comète.
Under the Champagne Moon first appeared in the October 2023 Bluestocking Belles collection, Under the Harvest Moon, and tells the story of a young Frenchwoman and the ex-soldier who’s looking for her.
I’m happy to announce that it will be available in its own edition on April 16th! Here’s the beautiful new cover and a bit about the book. Buy link to follow, but you can find out more at my website, https://alinakfield.com/book/under-the-champagne-moon/.
Orphaned by the French Revolution and rescued by a British family, Fleur Hardouin didn’t—or wouldn’t—speak, until the jolly young Gareth Ardleigh crossed her path one summer and saved her from bullies.
Fifteen years later, Fleur and the beloved lady she serves return to Cheshire. Determined to rescue them both through an advantageous marriage, Fleur tries to brush off the attention she receives from Captain Gareth Ardleigh, who’s home from the wars and as handsome as ever. Her heart longs for him, but her head knows he can’t provide the security she needs.
Gareth’s excuse for visiting Cheshire is to deliver the personal effects of his best friend who perished at Quatre Bras. But his real purpose is finding the little French girl he met years ago, for marriage—not to him, but to the Frenchman who helped save his life.
Astonished to find that Fleur has grown into a beautiful—and still intriguing—young woman, it soon becomes clear, he must choose between honoring a promise or trying to win the hand of the woman he loves.
Except for the cover, all images are courtesy of Depositphotos.com.
Happy spring, everyone! I’ll be back in June with another Quarter Days post!
0 1 Read moreFeatured Books
HAGAR’S LAST DANCE
By day, Jeanne Pelletier is a small-town girl toiling in obscurity at a stuffy Washington, D.C., law firm; by night, she’s Zahira, the city’s newest belly dancing sensation.
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