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I feed the seagulls like a tourist...

 I had to run away from home for a while. A few years, actually. I thought the mountains were calling me. I thought I yearned for seasons. I was wrong. I'm home now.

You know you're home when the smells almost make you weep. For some, it might be mom's cookies, a lover's aftershave. For me it is dead fish. Low tide on the salt flats, the fiddlers foraging, the mangroves airing their tangled roots. Iodine and ozone and imminent rain... the stranded unfortunates on whom seagulls feast... pelican guano, seaweed, red tide, baking in a just-shy-of-tropical sun.

I've passed through my Appalachian tribulations, and emerge a born-again Floridian.
 
XO
Laura

And the winner is...

HANNAH!
Congratulations! You've won a copy of my favorite historical Forever Amber, and a signed copy of my own Ladies in Waiting. I'll email you soon to get your information.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered. The response was great and I plan to have another giveaway in August.

XO
Laura

July Giveaway -- FOREVER AMBER and LADIES IN WAITING

So let's make with the freebies, shall we? I don't know much about food and wine pairing, but I do know heaps about book pairing. For the next few months (and perhaps indefinitely if it proves popular) I'll be giving away a pair of books each month. One by me, and one personal favorite that partners it in some way.

Do you have a favorite book? Maybe not the BEST book you've ever read, but the ice cream of books, a comfort book that you'll re-read when you have the flu or think you've read everything else in the world already. Something fun... stimulating and soothing at the same time... maybe not great literature but still your darling favorite. For me, that book is Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor. Trashy romance, but really, really good trashy romance. And well-researched, which for me is a must.

Since Forever Amber is the book that started my obsession with Restoration England (and my little crush on King Charles II) I'm giving away TWO books this month -- a SIGNED copy of LADIES IN WAITING, and a copy of FOREVER AMBER. Just fill in the form below by, oh, let's say July 17, for a chance to win.
XO
Laura

Aphra Behn -- Playwright, Spy (and probably not a whore)

If Margaret Cavendish was one of the first widely recognizes female writers, Aphra Behn was one of the first professional female writers – she actually made a living from her writing. (Which as the writers among you know is hard enough even today.) She is the inspiration for the character Eliza in Ladies in Waiting.

Though it certainly wasn't common for a 17th Century woman to want to be a professional playwright – and even less common for her to succeed – it was certainly possible. The sexes were by no means equal, but women were somewhat better off than they had been for a while, and more professions were open to them. Dentists were officially licensed for the first time in this period, and a woman was one of the first licensees. Since King Charles II's restoration to the throne, women could now be actresses. Of course, the main occupations were still marriage and prostitution, so it was no great shakes, but still, better than it had been.

Not too much is known about Aphra Behn's personal life. Of course, she was briefly a spy for King Charles II in Antwerp, so secrecy might have become a habit for her. I'm sure she learned cynicism after the king – always broke – didn't pay her for her loyal service, and she almost wound up in debtor's prison. Her writing saved her, and apparently she didn't hold a grudge, because she remained a staunch royalist all her life. Of course, it could just be that she liked the alternative even less.

Her first play, The Forc'd Marriage in 1670, was a resounding success. Hit followed hit (though engagements in those days were generally very short) and today she is best remembered for the 1677 play The Rover. It was so well regarded that Nell Gwyn, the king's actress mistress, came out of retirement to play one of the female leads – a prostitute named Angelica Bianca.

Aphra Behn might have been married for a very short time, but it seems more likely Mr. Behn was a fiction to give her the slight protection a married woman or widow enjoyed. Miss, past a certain age, was a euphemism for prostitute. She, and other female writers, were still accused of being whores. Playwright Robert Gould said of female writers, Punk (whore) and Poetess agree so Pat,/ You cannot well be This, and not be That.

At least no one has called me a punk yet. At least, not to my face.

A shout-out to Prof. Neil Saccamano at Cornell, who introduced me to Aphra Behn in his 18th Century Literature class (which dipped its toe into the late 17th century too.) It is to him – and to Kathleen Winsor, of course – that Ladies in Waiting owes its genesis.

XO,
Laura

Margaret Cavendish (or why I don't write about characters who have babies, bake bread and die in obscurity, although that's what most of us have done since the dawn of humanity, including me, though I haven't died in obscurity yet, but give me time)

Sometimes, writing about a perfectly average historical figure works. You know, those girls who have no prospects and no powerful ambition to create them. Young women who, when attacked, cringe and hope for the best instead of picking up a sword. People who are accurate representations of 99 percent of their era. But it's pretty rare that those people make compelling characters. (One of the best, a truly outstanding novel, is The Book of the Maidservant by Rebecca Barnhouse. You absolutely must read it. Johanna is probably the truest to her time of any character I've ever read.) Most of the time, though, we want to read about the exceptions.


Two of the three Elizabeths of Ladies in Waiting are definitely exceptions, and they are inspired by (though not actually based on) two real 17th century women.


Zabby (does anyone like her name?!?) is the daughter of a Barbados plantation owner of middling aristocratic rank and great wealth. Raised more or less in isolation – at least, isolated from Europeans – she has studied alongside her scientific-minded father all of her life. As a teenager, she returns to England to study with her godmother, the real-life scientist, writer and philosopher Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-Upon Tyne – and the inspiration for Zabby's character.

Though their personalities are dissimilar (Cavendish, though bold in her opinions, probably had what today we'd call social anxiety disorder; she could talk to one person at a time, but became bashful and speechless in larger groups) both share a love of exploring the natural world. And because they have both wealth and leisure, they can indulge themselves. It was not unusual for an aristocrat to dabble, and a rich titled woman might well tend her home and babies and write poetry or plays or conduct scientific experiments, though generally for her own amusement rather than publication or profit.

Margaret Cavendish studied what was known as natural philosophy – a 17th century catch-all for physical, chemical and biological sciences. She argued with members of the Royal Society of London. She was an outspoken anti-vivisectionist. She was a prolific writer, producing volumes of autobiography, poetry, plays, science and philosophy. Today she is best remembered as the author of what is usually considered the first science fiction novel, The Blazing World.

Samuel Pepys called her “mad, conceited and ridiculous.” Which was just the sort of comment learned, opinionated, iconoclastic women could expect, through much of history.


Next: playwright Aphra Behn, the inspiration for Eliza.


XO
Laura

Historical accuracy (and loving the haters)

I don't like it when people don't like my books – but I love it when they hate them. A writer wants to inspire passion, any sort of passion, to have the reader tell everyone they know about their book, and I'd much rather have a reviewer tell a thousand people how much they despise a book than have no one talking about it at all. I'm never going to be bothered by people's opinion of my work (though personally, I'm fragile, so please always tell me I look pretty, even if I don't.) The dear knows I don't like at least half the books I read (or start reading.) Bad reviews also tend to be the most entertaining, and the best thing about me (if I do say so myself) is that I think just about everything is hilarious.

But some people are saying Ladies in Waiting isn't historically accurate. Oh my, have you reviewers gotten my dander up!

A few reviewers have claimed that the female leads, with their unusual career choices and fairly strong wills, aren't realistic for the time. I feel compelled to point out that this isn't so. Yes, it was rare for women to be scientists or playwrights in the 17th Century, but Zabby and Eliza are based on real women of the time: novelist, philosopher and scientist Margaret Cavendish (who appears in the novel as Zabby's godmother) and playwright (and spy) Aphra Behn. So having two privileged girls who believe they can have what appear to be modern pastimes (or jobs) isn't particularly outlandish.

I've also been asked to provide some historical notes, about which parts of Ladies in Waiting are true, which fictitious. Those tidbits too will be forthcoming, and maybe I can update the paperback edition.

I'll tell you more about Aphra Behn and Margaret Cavendish soon, but in the meantime, here is a picture of Cavendish, the leading female intellectual of her day – bare-breasted! Because 17th century women knew how to be sexy and powerful (even if they mostly used sex to get what they wanted.) Plus, breasts aren't the big deal modern people seem to think they are.


XO
Laura

“Pure filth, constant coarse sex talk, bestiality jokes, heroine attempts to seduce a married man, etc.”

This review of Ladies in Waiting just tickles me. Take a look. I'll meet you right back here in a minute.


Will that sell books or what! Not so thrilled about the average-killing effect of a one-star rating, but hey, such is life. Can you imagine any better endorsement for curious teens than that headline? I wrote the dang thing and I want to re-read it.

Setting aside for the nonce that some of us don't think sex is filthy... (A friend of mine says if it's not filthy you're not doing it right, but she might have been talking about cooking, or gardening, or even child-rearing, I forget.)

Here's the thing – in Ladies in Waiting, no one has sex! Three young women who are relatively innocent, fairly smart, and have a pretty good idea what they want out of life (though they sometimes despair of achieving it) are thrust into a competitive, highly sexualized world where they make choices about whether to cling to their ideals.

The English court in 1662 sounds an awful lot like high school, right?

They are tempted, constantly, by sex and status, but stick to their guns. There is plenty of bawdry in Ladies in Waiting, but the heroines need something to resist, after all. Filth, pure or otherwise (and I do prefer mine pure) was a la mode in the Restoration, as evidenced by the poetry of Johns Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, by the plays of Wycherley and Etheredge, and by the example of King Charles II himself.

So apparently Ladies in Waiting is “...an excuse to have lots of sexual talk and to get to roll around in the muck.”

Hmm... well, I don't need much of an excuse, do you? I think people should talk about sex. I think people should talk about everything. Talk about sex all you want, teen readers, just think hard before you do. (I'm a mother now, I have to say that.) Think, argue, joke, explore. Talking about things is safe. Reading about things is safe. Ladies in Waiting might titillate, but it won't corrupt. No book corrupts a thinking mind.

Life is mucky at the best of times. Ladies in Waiting has plenty of muck. Sex, sure, but death and greed and ambition and disease and obsession and maternal devotion and betrayal and true love. All very mucky.

Of course you're dying to know about the bestiality jokes, right? I couldn't remember a single one, then I did a few searches for various farm animals and came up with this blasphemous bit:

“You know what these peasant louts mean when they say a dance, don’t you? They dance in the haystacks, they dance behind the hedgerows, they dance with their sheep if there’s no skivvy about.”

Laws, I clutch my pearls!

XO my lovelies,


Laura