Mrs. Hurst Dancing, a Review
June 28, 2021 by Alina K. Field in category Quarter Days by Alina K. Field, Writing tagged as #ReadaRegency, Diana Sperling, Quarter Days, Regency Fashions, Regency romancePictures worth much more than a thousand words.
If you’re a fan of Jane Austen and other Regency-set fiction, Mrs. Hurst Dancing, a collection of 70 watercolors by Diana Sperling, is a treasure. The book is especially valuable for the often-confused author trying to envision the clothing, the transportation, and how everyone passed the time, especially in the country. Unfortunately, no one was posting helpful YouTube videos two hundred years ago.
The above painting is a good example of what you’ll find in the book. The tongue-in-cheek description is Sperling’s own. The “Lord of the Manor”, probably her brother Henry, leads three ladies (probably Diana and her sisters) to a neighbor’s house for a dinner party.
Staples of Country Life
All three ladies are wearing red cloaks, which I often forget were staples of country life, and also good indicators of class. The Sperling family were gentry, not super-rich nobility. The bonnets look like leghorn bonnets with flatter crowns. If you know what they are, please mention it in the comments.
Dinner in the country was earlier than in “town”. They’re not driving down the road to the neighbor’s in a coach and four–they’re walking cross-country! There’s no date on this picture, so we don’t know what season this is; probably not the dead of winter though, despite the cloaks. The three ladies are carrying their shoes for indoors, and it looks like Henry has his stuffed into the pocket of his coat. (Men’s pockets were in the tails of their coats.)
Hiking to Dinner
He’s also carrying a lantern for the walk home. No street lights in the country. Without our modern light pollution, imagine how dark it must have been?
And what about that “tremendous stile”? According to Merriam-Webster, a stile is “a step or set of steps for passing over a fence or wall”. Like this:
A stile allows people to pass, but not livestock. I don’t see stairs in Sperling’s drawing, but there does seem to be a space to the left. I hope the ladies don’t have to climb over those rails in their white gowns.
As I mentioned, there are seventy watercolors in the book depicting the country life of the gentry in this era. In one, Diana’s mother and the housekeeper stand on the window ledge “murdering flies”. In another, the ladies of the family are wallpapering a room. There’s a drawing of the family holding hands and experimenting with an “electrifying machine”. Horses, donkeys, dogs, chickens are all part of the country life depicted.
Mrs. Hurst Dancing is only available in hardcover, and is, I believe, out of print. Weirdly, Amazon has two entries for the book, one with used copies starting at $99, the other with used copies starting at $21.92. How wonderful if the copyright holder would release another edition of this book in softcover.
You can see a few more of Diana Sperling’s amazing watercolors on Pinterest.
For the authors and readers out there, do you make use of images to help you better “see” a story? What’s your go-to site?
Image credits:
The watercolor is from janeaustensworld.com via Pinterest; stile is from Wikimedia commons; book cover is from Amazon.com
A Mother Learns – 4 Haiku by Neetu
June 26, 2021 by Neetu Malik in category Poet's Day by Neetu Malik tagged as baby, growing, Haiku, life, mother, Neetu
A Mother Learns
4 Haiku
- gossamer touch,
mother strokes her newborn–
feathered beginnings
- young buds awaken
sleepy petals shake off dew
silver mist of dawn
- roots grow deep
where we plant seeds of love
becoming evergreens
- each arm a strong branch
holds up against mighty storms–
a mother’s instinct
© Neetu Malik
Some of Neetu’s Books
Story Ideas by Kat Martin
June 24, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Apples & Oranges by Marianne H. Donley, Guest Posts tagged as Best Selling author, Kat Martin, new release, romance, romantic suspense, The Perfect Murder
Story Ideas
People often ask how I come up with ideas for my novels. Sometimes it just seems to pop into my head. In my latest release, THE PERFECT MURDER, once I had told Chase and Brandon Garrett’s story, there was no doubt I would be writing Reese’s story.
Much of the story was determined by the previous novels, THE CONSPIRACY, and THE ULIMATE BETRAYAL. Reese, the middle brother, is CEO of Garrett Resources, a billion-dollar oil and gas corporation owned by the Garrett family. I knew him well by the time I started his story, the last book in the Maximum Security Series.
In THE PERFECT MURDER, Reese is a man with a past who is determined to retain his hard-earned reputation by avoiding an affair with the beautiful woman who works for him, a valued and trusted employee.
When McKenzie Haines is accused of murder, Reese is forced to make a choice—one that could destroy his career or get him killed. It’s a fast-paced, high-stakes action adventure as well as a love story between two smart, determined people who refuse to give up no matter the odds.
I hope you’ll watch for THE PERFECT MURDER and that you enjoy.
Till next time, happy reading and all best wishes,
Kat
New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin, a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, currently resides in Missoula, Montana with Western-author husband, L. J. Martin. More than seventeen million copies of Kat’s books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Fifteen of her recent novels have taken top-ten spots on the New York Times Bestseller List, and her novel, BEYOND REASON, was recently optioned for a feature film. Kat’s latest novel, THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL, a Romantic Thriller, was released in paperback December 29th. The final 2 books in her Maximum Security series will be release in June, COME MIDNIGHT, a short story on June 1st, and THE PERFECT MURDER, a novel in hardcover on June 22nd.
Excerpt
The Perfect Murder
Chapter One
Galveston, Texas
Last Day of July
Seconds after the chopper lifted off the pad, Reese felt the odd vibration. Along with the pilot and co-pilot and five members of the crew, the Eurocopter EC135 was headed for the Poseidon offshore drilling platform.
For a moment, the ride leveled out and Reese relaxed against his seat. As CEO of Garrett Resources, the billion-dollar oil and gas company he owned with his brothers, he was always searching for the right investment to expand company holdings, the reason he was flying out to the platform.
For months he’d been working with Sea Titan Drilling, the owner of the offshore rig, to complete the five-hundred-million-dollar purchase, an extremely good value when the average price of a similar rig was around six-fifty.
The vibration returned and with it came a grinding noise that put Reese on alert. The men in the cabin began to glance back and forth and shift nervously in their seats. A sharp jolt, then the chopper seemed to fall out of the sky. It climbed again, began to dip and sway, dropped then climbed as the pilot fought for control.
The pilot’s deep voice rumbled through the headset. “We’ve got a problem. I don’t want you to panic, but we need to find a place to set down.”
There was definitely a problem, Reese thought, as the vibration continued to worsen. The chopper was out of control and the whole cabin was shaking as if it would break apart any minute. His pulse was hammering, his adrenalin pumping.
Along with the men in the crew who rode back and forth from the rig every few weeks, he stared out the window toward the ground. They were no longer above the heliport. Clearly the pilot was looking for an open space big enough to handle the thirty-six-foot blade span. All Reese could see were the rooftops of warehouses and metal commercial buildings.
The chopper kept shaking. The crew was grim-faced but resigned. The pilot did something to take the pitch out of the rotors and the chopper started falling.
“No need to worry,” the pilot said. “We’ll auto-rotate down. I’ve done it a dozen times.”
Auto rotate down. Reese knew the concept, the technique helicopter pilots used to land when the engine failed. The trick was to find a safe place to hit the ground.
Both engines went silent. The blades were flat now, the wind whistling through them, tying his stomach into a knot.
“Brace for impact,” the pilot said. Below them, Reese spotted an open flat slab of asphalt in the yard of a small trucking firm–the only possible landing site anywhere around. Trouble was it didn’t look wide enough to handle the blades.
At the last second, the pilot flared the helicopter in an effort to slow the descent, then the ground rushed up and the chopper hit with a jolt that wracked Reese’s whole body.
For an instant, he thought they were going to make it. Then one of the spinning rotor blades hit the corner of a building and tore free. The Plexiglas bubble shattered as the long metal blades exploded into a hundred deadly pieces, careening like knives through the air, slicing into buildings and the cabin of the helicopter.
Reese didn’t feel the impact. One moment he was conscious, then the world suddenly went black.
The Perfect Murder
Book 4 in the Maximum Security Series
Other Books in the Maximum Security Series
(Click on the cover for more information. Hover on the cover for buy links.)
Mystery in the Midlands
June 23, 2021 by marianne h donley in category Events, Writing Conferences tagged as Debra H Goldstein, Dr. Kath Reichs, Laurie R. King, Lori Rader-Day, Mystery in the Midlands, Paula Gail Benson
Mystery in the Midlands, co-sponsored by the Palmetto Chapter of SinC and the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America
Saturday, June 26, from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm ET with Dr. Kathy Reichs as featured guest.
$5 Registration Required.
SCHEDULE
10:00 am to 10:15 am EST Preparing for the Heat with a Warm Welcome
Dana Kaye (moderator), Paula Gail Benson (Eastern Representative of SEMWA) and Carla Damron (President of Palmetto Chapter SinC)
10:30 am to 11:15 am EST Scorching Short Stories
Dana Kaye (moderator), and Frankie Bailey, Michael Bracken, and Barb Goffman (panelists)
11:30 am to 12:15 pm EST Temperature’s Rising Keynote
Dr. Kathy Reichs interviewed by Debra H. Goldstein, President SEMWA
12:30 pm to 1:15pm EST Hot for Historicals (British mysteries by American authors)
Dana Kaye (moderator), and Laurie R. King, Lori Rader-Day, and Caroline Todd (panelists)
1:30 pm to 2:15 pm EST Searing Suspense
Dana Kaye (moderator), and Yasmin Angoe, Robert Dugoni, and Alex Segura (panelists)
2:30 pm to 2:45 pm EST Final Comments Before Cooling Off in the Pool
Dana Kaye (moderator), Debra Goldstein (President of SEMWA), and Carla Damron (President of Palmetto Chapter SinC)
Here’s the link to register that provides access to the live and recorded program:
Humble Pie by Veronica Jorge
June 22, 2021 by Veronica Jorge in category Write From the Heart by Veronica Jorge tagged as critique groups, Eiditing, Veronica Jorge
I’ve always hated revisions and editing. It seemed sacrilegious to tamper with someone’s magnum opus. After all, they’ve poured out their whole heart. How dare I touch it? And what would be the fate of my own work in the hands of others? (I tremble, heart pounding). I realized it’s time I eat a slice, a very LARGE slice, of humble pie and drink a cup of trust.
That is how I discovered that in the midst of a faithful critique group, and a skilled editor, magic happens. My eyes open to see the pitfalls I’ve missed. My ears lean into the heart-beat of my thoughts. And with the group’s enthusiastic guidance and encouragement, (that includes you, Marianne H. Donley), I find myself digging deeper into myself and finding treasures I never expected. The result? A work far better than the one I thought was the best.
If I may borrow a line from our own Slice Of Orange, ‘the extra squeeze’ they put me through brought out the best flavor.
Humble pie never tasted so good.
Veronica Jorge
See you next time on July 22nd!
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