Time Slips

Mark Twain started all this, I think, with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.When I first wrote my book, twenty odd years ago (before Diana Gabaldon came on the scene) I came up with a heroine coming to Scotland, staying in a castle B&B, and ending up in the 18th Century, dying at the Battle of Culloden. Over the years and many incarnations, the novel turned into a straight up historical novel, partly because I got more interested in the history, partly because I found Gabaldon's first novel unsatisfactory. I haven't read any more of hers, though heaven knows they're popular. Anyway, I haven't stopped enjoying time slip novels, such as the Jane Austin ones.

Recently I stumbled on the books by Rodrigo Garcia y Robertson. Is that a great name? At any rate, he has written a trilogy beginning with Knight Errant about The Wars of the Roses. The fact that Garcia y Robertson actually taught medieval history at UCLA and Villanova has a lot to do  witih the excellence of the books. The heroine, Robyn Stafford, is smart and likeable. The hero is Edward Plantagenet. Robyn works in the movie industry, was a barrel racer, and is learning withchcraft. She gets into and out of some horrific situations, and in the second book, she manages to bring along essentials back to the middle ages: coffee, tampons, her notebook, etc. Sounds silly, but for me  it works. The author's knowledge of details of the 15th Century  gives the books authority.  I have his two latest waiting for me at the library. Can't wait.

A Couple of Winners

Once again our book club is reading a winner-this time a memoir: Heart in the Right Place by Carolyn Jourdan. I'll admit one point in the book's favor for me is the locale, the East Tennessee mountains. My ancestors came from there, and I'm pretty sure there are some distant relatives still there.  The story sounds a little trite: city gal, making big bucks as aide for a state congressman, has to come home after her mother has a heart attack. Her father is a small town doctor and her mother was his receptionist. Of course the story  arc is predictable. The longer she stays, the more she becomes involved in the people her father cares for. But it's the people, many so poor her father doesn't charge them, who make this story so funny and so poignant.

Tana French's mystery novels, set in Ireland, mostly Dublin, are books about a tough, gritty Ireland, with lots of bad guys and an undercover cop who's not exactly a total hero. In order (and it helps if you read them in order) they're In The Woods, The Likeness, and Faithful Place.  Now that I've read all three, I want to go back to the beginning. In the early books we find out that detective Frank Mackey has nothing to do with his very dysfunctional family. In this one we find out why. It begins as a flashback. He's nineteen, waiting for the girl he's going to run away with, away from the slums where he was raised. You're grabbed right there, and French doesn't let you go for 400 pages. I finished reading the book at 1am, and  just reread the last 20 pages again. Now that's a good read.

The prologue of my second book, Gang Warily. I have about 41 thousand words-halfway through



MAY 1746



After the Battle of Culloden the armies of King George, led by his son The Duke of Cumberland, swept through the Highlands, stamping out any perceived sign of rebellion. Captured Jacobites, the supporters of Prince Charles Stuart, were imprisoned in Inverness and on ships in Moray Firth and the Thames in London. They were held in inhumane conditions, without medical help, and died in hundreds, their bodies tossed in the Firth and the Thames. The Royalists recaptured Fort William and Fort Augustus, and used them to spread terror. Women and children watched as their homes and crops burned, and starved in the following months. The clan system that had existed for hundreds of years died.

The composer Handel wrote Hail the Conquering Hero and Judas Maccabeus to honor the Duke of Cumberland. A flower, Sweet William, was named after him. In Scotland, it’s called Stinking Willie. Men under Cumberland showed an unparalleled viciousness. One such man was Captain Caroline Frederic Scott, who had been in charge of the prison in Inverness before he became one of the men leading retribution along the Great Glen. He was determined to wipe out all remnants of rebellion.
                     ------------------------------------------------
 Captain Caroline Frederic Scott stared at the man held between two redcoats, a sword and a musket at his feet. Rannoch Moor, barren and windswept, dotted with lochans, stretched around them under gray skies. Patches of snow still clung to the Grampian Mountains surrounding the moor.

The young man spoke in Gaelic, then in English. “My name is Davey MacGregor. I am bringing in my arms as you hae ordered.”


Scott, tall and blond, his face round and cherubic as a child’s, his blue eyes cold as the bitter wind, said, “I think you were planning to ambush my men. You are a MacGregor, not to be trusted, known to have fought for the usurper Stuart. You fought against His Majesty’s army at Culloden.”

Davey MacGregor shook his head. “I am obeying your orders to bring in my weapons.”

“You filthy Papist. Do you dare to question an officer of the rightful King?” Scott turned away and mounted his horse, then told his men, “He is a traitor. There are no trees to hang in from. Treat him as he deserves. Do not waste ammunition on him. And bring his horse. It looks a good mount.”

Davey MacGregor, 19 years old, younger brother of Calum MacGregor, cousin of Niall MacGregor, was bludgeoned to death by the musket stocks of His Royal Majesty’s loyal soldiers.

Zora Neale Hurston and the book club.

My book club just talked about Their Eyes Were Watching God.  I had not read Hurston's books before and wasn't really excited about reading it. But you know, in a book club you read things because it's your duty. I'm glad I did my duty.
This book is about black people in a black society, not about the downtrodden, but about everyday small town lives. And about finding love.The writing is so exquisite, so poetic, that I kept going back, rereading, then reading phrases out loud. After I read it I went back to the first pages and read them again. I had to, because the beginning was also the ending of Janie's story.
Here are the last sentences in the book.
Here was peace. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and pulled it over her shoulder. So much of life in  its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.

Dear Old Miscellaneous

There's more to life than just reading...right? Right?Well, there was the PNWA Conference. I had fingers crossed, didn't place, but another writer of Scottish history came in second, and I look forward to reading hers, set in the 19th Century. In the meantime, I have a list of agents and editors to send my ms to, and have taken a vacation from the 18th Century to help out on a nonfiction history of Coupeville (1850-1950). I'm excited about doing this. So far, most of my copy is stored in my brain, and I'm sorting it out.

About books:

During a trip to the used book store in Anacortes, I was looking for a Kate Atkinson book and found another British author I'd not heard of: Isla Dewar. I bought Keeping Up With Magda and was hooked. I've read five more of her books and am addicted. Her books are full of strange events, strong characters who make massive mistakes, and unexpected endings.

I also came back with a copy of The Western Writings of Stephen Crane, Drinking Dry Clouds by Gretel Erlich, The Writing Life by Annie Dillard, and Border Songs by Jim Lynch. I've read that before & loved it, so I must giove this copy to someone I really like.

long time no post

Actually, in addition to writing my own things, I have been reading a lot. At the WIWA conference, I was in a chat house with Jamie Ford, author of The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I had read it a few weeks before and really liked it. It's set in Seattle , in both present day and WWII, and is a wonderfully descriptive look at the 1940's & the internment camps.
I just read Sharyn McCrumb's latest ballad novel, The Devil Amongst the Lawyers, which, thought it wasn't her best, was certainly worth reading. I like the feeling in these books, the sense of place and the otherworldly aspects.
The Empire of the Summer Moon is an excellent nonfiction book, about the Commanche war chief, Quanah Parker. I've decided I have to have a copy of it, so I can reread it. Not only is it as exciting as a novel, and very well written, part of it contains information about my own family. My father was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and Quanah Parker was his godfather. A great uncle married a Caddo woman, and is featured in the part about Quanah's coming into the reservation. Quanah's mother was a kidnapped white girl, who was taken away from the Commanches by whites after she gave birth to two boys and a girl. She went unwillingly and died not long after that.
Right now I'm reading one of Kate Atkinson's early books, Emotionally Weird. I found her first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum when I had left the book I was reading in my hotel room and faced a long flight from London to Seattle without anything to read. Any bibliomaniac knows that's one of the circles of Hell. I went into a bookstore at Heathrow, went to the sale books and found Behind the Scenes, bought it and was gifted with one of the shortest flights of my life, thanks to Kate Atkinson.
My own writing is going well-at least I'll be sending chapters to an agent and an editor I met at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference. I was a finalist in the Historical Novel Division but didn't place. Meeting competitors in the same genre was fun-from very nice to downright sharky!