The Titanic sailed today 110 years ago…with a Pig on board by Jina Bacarr
April 11, 2022 by Jina Bacarr in category Jina’s Book Chat, Reading, Titanic, Writing tagged as #Historical, 1912. historical romance, British, Confessions of a Podcast Goddess, countess, Downton Abbey, England, Ireland, Irish, pig, romance', ship of dreams, Southampton, Titanic, Titanic 104
Photos: Dreamstime.com — using RF stock, my interpretation of the ship and female passenger and of course, the little pig.
Downton Abbey is but a memory… but it will be forever in our hearts.
Do you remember that first scene when a messenger on a bicycle brought a telegram to the Crawley family that would forever change their lives?
And ours?
A telegram about two male relatives lost at sea.
On the Titanic.
Hard to believe it’s 110 years ago today the grand ship Titanic left Ireland.
So in honor of the souls who perished that night and those who survived, here is a lesser known story about the Titanic.
And the pig.
According to the New York Herald on April 19, 1912: Five women saved their pet dogs and another woman saved a little pig, which she said was her mascot.
The reporter goes on to say that she didn’t know how the woman cared for her pig aboard the Titanic, but she carried it up the side of the ship [the Carpathia, rescue ship] in a big bag.
How did the pig get into the lifeboat?
Was the little pig traveling first class?
In a word, yes.
More about this intrepid little piggy and the important part it played in the sinking of the Titanic later. First, it seems you can’t get away from pigs and the Titanic.
In the Julian Fellowes’ mini-series Titanic, a passenger in third class isn’t happy about traveling steerage to New York. She tells her husband that her daughter said their Irish Catholic family is like six little pigs packed into that cabin, all trussed and bound for market.
They’re not the only Irish aboard the ship with pigs on their mind.
Ava O’Reilly, the heroine in my historical romance, THE RUNAWAY GIRL nearly doesn’t make it on board the ship because of a pig.
Katie runs away from the grand house where she is in service after she is wrongly accused of stealing a diamond bracelet. The law is after her, but she has one chance to escape.
The Titanic.
Will Ava make it on board the Titanic before she sails? Only by the skin of her teeth.
Does she see the pig during the crossing?
Few passengers did because the cute little pig with the curly tail was the lucky mascot of Miss Edith Russell.
She loved to wind up its tail and it would play a lively musical tune similar to a two-step called Maxixe.
You see, the pig was musical pig.
The reporter on the Carpathia didn’t know the real story behind Miss Russell’s pig. How it was given to her after she survived a horrific motorcar crash. She promised her mother it would never be out of her sight. When she realized the Titanic was sinking and she’d left her mascot in her cabin, she sent the steward to retrieve her lucky pig.
Still, Edith was hesitant to get into a lifeboat. When a seaman tossed her pig into a boat (believing it was a baby wrapped up in a bag), Edith insisted on getting into the boat, too. Its nose was gone and its legs broken, but Edith and her little pig escaped in lifeboat no. 11.
Overcrowded with sixty-eight passengers (nearly one-third were children), Edith realized her little pig could comfort others as it had her. She wound up its tail so it would play music for the children. Most of the little ones stopped crying as the pig’s sparkling musical notes calmed their fears.
Its furry, white-gray body wet with sea spray.
Its cute grin giving them hope they would be saved.
It was the little Titanic pig that could.
Thanks for stopping by!
~Jina
The Runaway Girl
Buy Links:
Amazon:
Audible https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084MM1D4R
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/3A08bcsCeI6LHWRQTmAM30
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-runaway-girl-jina-bacarr/1135653540?ean=9781838893736
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-runaway-girl-1
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-runaway-girl/id1492269132
PS check out TITANIC AND ME, my story behind the story on the BOLDWOOD BOOKS Blog.
Once upon the ship of dreams… me dressed as a first class lady
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Vintage 1960s Movies by E. J. Williams
April 9, 2022 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger, Vintage 1960s Books tagged as movies, Musicals, the 1960s, The Sound of Music, writing research
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise, and starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with and Eleanor Parker. The film is an adaptation of the 1959 stage musical of the same name, composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria von Trapp is the base of the movie. The musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large Australian family while she decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with the children and their widowed father, Captain von Trapp. With the onset of WWII, he is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy in spite of his opposition to the Nazis. He, Maria and decide to flee from Austria with the children.
The Sound of Music received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film also received two Golden Globe Awards, for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Musical. In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) listed The Sound of Music as the fifty-fifth greatest American movie of all time, and the fourth greatest movie musical. In 2001, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
An added note:
When setting up for filming of the wedding scene, there was nobody at the altar to wed them when they reached the top of the stairs to the sanctuary. Someone had forgotten to summon the actor playing the bishop. According to Dame Julie Andrews, the real Archbishop of Salzburg is seen in the movie.
Some of Janet Lynn’s and Will Zeilinger’s books
Published authors Will Zeilinger and Janet Lynn had been writing individually until they got together and wrote the Skylar Drake Mystery Series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1955. Janet has published seven mystery novels, and Will has three plus a couple of short stories. Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder and crime stories. This creative couple is married and lives in Southern California.
Tracy Reed: Our April Featured Author
April 7, 2022 by Tracy Reed in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Featured Author of the Month tagged as Beautiful Men, fashion, Sophisticated Romance, the Big Apple, Tracy Reed
Tracy Reed: Our November Featured Author
A California native, novelist Tracy Reed pushes the boundaries of her Christian foundation with her sometimes racy and often fiery tales.
After years of living in the Big Apple, this self proclaimed New Yorker draws from the city’s imagination, intrigue, and inspiration to cultivate characters and plot lines who breathe life to the words on every page.
Tracy’s passion for beautiful fashion and beautiful men direct her vivid creative power towards not only novels, but short stories, poetry, and podcasts. With something for every attention span.
Tracy Reed’s ability to capture an audience is unmatched. Her body of work has been described as a host of stimulating adventures and invigorating expression.
Books by Tracy Reed
Writers on Vacation
April 6, 2022 by Linda O. Johnston in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston
Do writers ever go on vacation? Physically, sure. Mentally? Probably not.
I certainly don’t. I recently was on a family trip to Cancun. I brought my small computer along but didn’t take the time to get on it much.
But I certainly took mental note of the warm Mexican environment—both weather-wise and the warmth of the staff at the resort where we stayed.
I also observed the environment—the large buildings comprising the hotel, the blue sky, the even bluer part of the water beyond the beach where tourists could swim, as well as the multiple swimming pools for guests.
I enjoyed the entertainment the resort provided, some outside every evening, with different kinds of shows that suggested follow-up ideas. I even saw some animals, some in good environments where they were being rescued, and others in situations that made me concerned.
Was I inspired to write something about that vacation, the location, my experiences? Oh, yes, but I’m busy enough that I’m not sure when or if I’ll actually be able to use it.
And you writers who are reading this. Have you taken trips, gone on vacations, visited other environments that do inspire you to write? Have some of those trips been specifically for research for whatever you are writing?
Have they been to locations not far from you, or to other countries—nearby ones, or on the other side of the world? Everywhere can be fun to visit.
Anywhere can be inspirational.
By the way, this subject is so vital to me that I’m incorporating it into the three blogs I’m posting on the same day this month. I’m addressing it somewhat differently, but it’s definitely on my mind. Along with my writing.
~Linda
Some of Linda’s Books
April Check-In
April 5, 2022 by Tracy Reed in category WritingHappy April. One of the reasons I chose this day of the month to post is because my birthday is the 5th of the month. I knew I’d remember the fifth day of the month. However, this month I actually forgot today was my day to post. What’s more shocking, I forgot it was my birthday. I’m not saying I’m old and forgetful. I’m saying I’m on a major deadline focused on one thing, completing my book.
I thought setting up preorders with Amazon would help me stick to my writing goal for the year of three books. I’m on track to meet that goal. However, setting up preorders has been a little stressful. I made a mistake after my last release…I took a break. During that break, I got blocked. I love the story I’m writing. The characters are fun and it’s been exciting watching them grow. What I didn’t expect was I would hit a wall with the story.
I’ve been careful to have one major surprise revealed in each of the books. In part four, the heroine discovered her lover’s secret. In part five, she has to figure out her next move. For all those author who outline this wouldn’t be a problem, because I’m a panster I don’t know where the story is going or if it’s going anywhere until the inspiration or muse hits.
When I decided to write a fifth book in this series, I knew the main plot revolved around the heroine deciding if she wanted to remain married to a man she really didn’t know. If she did, it would open the door to a sea of problems and new characters. So now I’m faced with a few decisions: a) push the release date back a month and risk punishment from KDP; b) make part five VERY long or add a sixth book; c) spin off the other characters into stand alone books; d) new covers again…I never expected the series to go beyond four books so I didn’t really have covers for more than five books…well that’s not exactly true. I have a cover I can’t use because Amazon will probably banish me to the EZone (erotica) and there’s no way Facebook will allow me to run ads.
Four pressing questions all because I set up preorders in order to stick to my publishing goal. So what would you do? Would you push for a fat book five or add a sixth book? Here’s an advantage to a sixth book in the series, additional revenue.
As for the rest of my goals list, here’s the update. Goals achieved are striked out
Get my letters
Triple my income
Triple my mailing list – Signed up for a Book Sweep newsletter promotion later this month…hoping for maximum resultsMaster Facebook ads – This is ongoing, but achieved so far
Update covers – 13 covers in total to update. 8 completed.
Learn how to write a sellable blurb
Use Ingram Spark
Direct distribution – One down
Increase BookBub US Followers to 1000 – 1000 US are needed to qualify for a new release promotion alertIncrease my prices – All of my ebooks are $4.99 except for the preorders I set up before making this change.
Release 3 Books – One down, two to go. I added a short story as part of an anthology. So that gives me a publishing bonus.
How are you doing with your goals so far?
Happy Birthday to me and see you next month.
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