by Roseanna White | Feb 6, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
You know what I love most about the Culper Ring? That I set about to learn about them a year and a half ago expecting high adventure, cloak and dagger, James Bond meets Jason Bourne kind of action. But what I found weren’t specially trained super-spies. They were people. Shopkeepers and farmers, fishermen and soldiers.
They were you. They were me.
They didn’t have special training. Heck, the code they developed was amateur at best and could have been cracked in about an hour had it ever been intercepted. But they had the safety of invisible ink…which one of the brothers Jay developed solely for fun before the Revolution began. While in England, no less. He wasn’t some chemist working at a top-secret facility, he was a basement scientist.
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| Haymaking by Winslow Homer, 1864 |
That’s what I love. That these were just people who didn’t believe in embracing limits. Who lived in a time when discovery meant going out and doing instead of sitting and typing in a command in Google. (Not to knock Google–I love me my search engines! LOL). That these folks got up each day, not with a mission from headquarters, but with a down-to-their-bones need to help their country. To serve their brothers. To obey their God.
Sometimes, I look around this world with its this-crisis and that-crisis…with its millions of people who say, “I deserve this”…with its millions more who shrug and say, “Nothing I can do.” I see the dangers, the crime, the hatred, the total lack of understanding between opposing views. And I think, We need the Culpers. We need someone willing to take a few risks to do what needs done.
And then I realize…they’re out there. The people who don’t just go out of their way to do the right thing, but who make it their way. Maybe they don’t know they’re a Culper. Maybe they don’t encode their work and send it to anyone in charge. But they’re there. People who get up every day and say, “Show me what to do today, God. Show me how to help.”
And to whom He replies, “Keep your eyes open. Someone’s going to cross your path soon…”
These are the people–like you, like me–who change lives. And who can, I truly believe, change the world.
Let’s change it with them. Let’s honor them for their quiet labor and start something together. Let’s form a not-so-secret society of do-gooders. Let’s make it our way.
Do you know someone worthy of being a Culper? Tell me their story, and I’ll send them one of these custom-made challenge coins. No, actually, I’ll send them two. One to keep as a token and reminder, and one to pass along to someone they know who fits the bill.
The story of the coin: The path is straight, and it’s narrow. But sometimes, looking at it as it leads toward the city on the hill, we see the undulation of the landscape and think it’s pretty twisty. Pretty difficult. But oh, how beautiful shines that place of rest! There’s only one way to get there, though.
“Nostra via est facere bona” … “Our Way is To Do Good.”
How? Well, that’s where the reverse of the coin comes in. Let’s embrace the spirit of the ash tree–a symbol of sacrifice, sensitivity, and higher awareness.
Let’s be Culpers.
by Roseanna White | Jan 30, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
This past week, I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about the Knights of the Golden Circle and Baltimore during the Civil War. It is, you see, time to dive into the third book in the Culper Ring Series. Yay! I’d read some overviews before, so I knew some of the far-flung basics about this group and their agenda.
The KGC is one of several groups called collectively “The Copperheads”–all Southern-sympathizing societies that, at the time of the Civil War, were bent on expanding slavery, putting a halt to what they termed the tyrannies of the North, and preserving the agriculture-based way of life that they felt was crucial to America. Most of them didn’t seem to want war or succession per se–but they saw the election of Abraham Lincoln as a final straw, a slap in the face, an injury that couldn’t go unanswered.
One of the best books I’ve found on the subject is the diary of John Surratt, called a co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth. He tells a tale of plot upon plot, most of them foiled by incompetence (much to his frustration), but also because of spies everywhere they turn.
Roseanna is rubbing her hands together in delight. =)
As history goes, this is the stuff I just love to discover for the type of book I’m writing! No matter which side you’re looking at, North or South, they’re both telling the same story–one of spies among them, hindering plans and stealing goods, plotting destruction and betrayal.
And yet, it’s such a sad story in reality, and that’s something I also have to try to capture. My story will be set in Baltimore, which was a true house divided at the time. Maryland had always been considered a Southern state, but because of its proximity to Washington D.C., the Union held much of it in a state of Martial Law for most of the war, determined not to relinquish it. But so many of the politicians, police chiefs, judges, newspaper men were Confederate at heart. Surratt tells a tale of most of them belonging to the K.G.C. And every history book expounds on how violence regularly erupted in the city. So regularly, it was called “Mobtown.”
I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be a part of all that turmoil at the time . . . but it’s the perfect backdrop for my story of espionage and betrayal, of broken bonds of blood and the sacrifice of love. Because this is me, you can be sure there’ll be a happy ending. But before they get there, my poor characters sure are going to have to run the gauntlet! (Mwa ha ha ha!)
by Roseanna White | Jan 2, 2013 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
Okay, is it seriously Wednesday? We’re having some holiday-induced confusion around here, don’t know about you. Totally feels like Monday…
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Emma Stone is my pick for
casting Marietta Gaines |
But since it’s not, it’s time to get back to my Remember Whens. =) And since I just turned in
Whispers from the Shadows before Christmas break began, that means it’s time to start prep for book number 3! (Still unnamed…)
I’ve only just begun research, so I don’t have a ton of fun tidbits to share yet. But I thought I’d give you a sneak peak of what I’ll be working with, which will in turn give you a hint of some of the fun to come. =)
The book (whatever she shall be called, LOL) opens with my heroine, Marietta Gaines, transitioning from second-mourning to half-mourning. Now, those of you who aren’t up on Victorian mourning traditions (which is probably all of us, LOL), don’t know what in the world that means. So a brief (very brief) description.
Full Mourning
First year after death of spouse
Widow must wear unrelieved black and will not participate in social events
Second Mourning
Six months to one year after full mourning ends
Widow will add a white lace collar to her black mourning gowns and will begin doing some social activities
Half Mourning
Three to six months after second mourning ends
Widow will transition to gray and lavender, but will not wear any brighter colors, and will resume normal activities.
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An evening gown that would be
appropriate for half-mourning |
So as you can see, mourning really lasted no less than a year and a half and sometimes as much as two and a half years. We have this idea that it was exactly a year, which is true of full, first mourning. But moderns tend to forget about that second year.
My book starts with Marietta coming down the stairs in color (lavender) for the first time since her husband’s death, and feeling guilty about transitioning after only a year and three months. Not because it’s premature, but because she knows her late husband would be none too pleased with the secret courtship his brother has been paying her.
Marietta’s going to be a fun heroine to get to know. At the beginning of the book, she’s a bad girl (and I haven’t written one of those in years!). Perhaps not so much by today’s standards, but by Victorian ones for sure. She’s got the femme fatale thing going on, has been using her womanly wiles for years to get her way, and feels like the black sheep–worldly and concerned with her social status–in a family that has always been altruistic and not materialistic. She’d rather be exchanging repartee with actors and poets than worrying with politics or the war. And she’s eager for her mourning to end so she can get on with life–with Devereaux Gaines, her brother-in-law.
At least until her grandfather informs her in the first chapter that Dev is in fact the villain of our story. 😉 And calls her to account for squandering her gift–perfect memory. She’s been using it all these years as nothing but a parlor trick, but now he needs her to utilize it for the greater good of their country. A task which will require her, for the first time, putting something else above her own needs.
Yep, me and Marietta (and Dev and hero Slade) are going to be having some good times around here over the next few months. =)
Happy 2013!
by Roseanna White | Oct 24, 2012 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
Today a good friend of mine, Dina Sleiman, is celebrating the release of her latest novel, the debut title for Zondervan’s new Zondervan First digital line. She wrote this fabulous guest post for us over at the Colonial Quill, and I thought it would be a treat for you guys too. =) As one may be able to tell from the title, Love in Three-Quarter Time, a certain dance is featured in Dina’s novel. And she’s here to tell us a little bit about it. I’ll tease you here (mwa ha ha ha) and then direct you to the CQ for the rest of it. Take it away, Dina!
~*~
The Forbidden Dance
No, I’m not talking
about the tango. In the late 1700s and early 1800s the waltz was
considered quite a scandalous dance. It gained popularity on the
European continent by around 1780, but was still scorned in
respectable circles in England and the United States. It wasn’t
until the Prince Regent introduced the waltz at a ball in 1816 that
it was accepted in England. As for the newly formed US, all we can
say for certain is that it was a standard dance by 1830.
For my new novel, Love
in Three-Quarter Time, I assumed that as in
all things fashionable, Americans would have followed close on the
heels of their British cousins. I showed the waltz being introduced
to Charlottesville, Virginia, by a trend-setting plantation matron in
1817. But the waltz of the Regency (or in this case late Federalist)
era was quite different than the waltz we know today. It was closely
related to the cotillion, and it incorporated a variety of handholds
that could, in fact, turn a bit risqué in the wrong company.
Here are just a few lines
from a very lengthy poem called “The Waltz,” written by Lord
Byron in 1813.
Endearing
Waltz! — to thy more melting tune
Bow
Irish jig and ancient rigadoon.
Scotch
reels, avaunt! and country-dance, forego
Your
future claims to each fantastic toe!
Waltz
— Waltz alone — both legs and arms demands,
Liberal
of feet, and lavish of her hands;
Hands
which may freely range in public sight
Where
ne’er before — but — pray “put out the light.”
Methinks
the glare of yonder chandelier
Shines
much too far — or I am much too near;
And
true, though strange — Waltz whispers this remark,
“My
slippery steps are safest in the dark!”
To read the rest,
go to Colonial Quills!
~*~
In the style of Deeanne Gist, Dina
Sleiman explores the world of 1817 Virginia in her novel Love in
Three-Quarter Time. When the belle of the ball falls into genteel
poverty, the fiery Constance Cavendish must teach the dances she once
loved in order to help her family survive. The opportunity of a
lifetime might await her in the frontier town of Charlottesville, but
the position will require her to instruct the sisters of the
plantation owner who jilted her when she needed him most. As Robert
Montgomery and Constance make discoveries about one another, will
their renewed faith in God help them to face their past and the guilt
that threatens to destroy them in time to waltz to a fresh start?
http://dinasleiman.com
by Roseanna White | Oct 10, 2012 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
As the weather gets cool and wet and oh-so-autumnal around here, it’s always fun to escape to the tropics–even if only for a few minutes, and even if only for research. 😉
Last week I realized with some surprise that my hero had to sail to Bermuda to get a count of the British fleet amassing there, so I had to scrabble to get some handy-dandy research. (Shucks.) See, Bermuda became a very strategic port for the British during the War of 1812. Its position off the coast of the U.S. made it a perfect rallying spot for the fleet coming from Europe, and it’s where Vice Admiral Cochrane kept his flagship and headquarters through much of the war.
I imagine it was a terrible thing, commanding all your troops from Bermuda, especially in the winter months. Eh? 😉
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| Bermuda from space |
Now, my primary research book talked a lot about who arrived in Bermuda when, with how many ships that had how many guns, who was on what transport, who argued with whom…but it left out a little detail like, oh, the name of the port. So some quick internet research came to the rescue, and I discovered that the British fleet had anchored in Bailey’s Bay.
On the hill above the bay was Mount Wyndham, a picturesque home that became the Admiralty House during the war.
And in the turquoise waters, if you squint just right, you can imagine my hero’s ship, Masquerade, at anchor in the bay, a goodly distance from Cochrane’s flagship, Tonnant (which means “thundering).
And now my little boy-o, who isn’t feeling very well today, needs some attention, so I’ll just leave you here in the warm, sultry sunshine of Bermuda…
by Roseanna White | Oct 3, 2012 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
|
| Self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh |
My heroine in Whispers from the Shadows (The Culper Ring Series, book 2) is an artist. In 1814. Now, I’ve written about artists before in other, unpublished manuscripts–but they were always modern ones. So all I had to do for research was look up art supplies and current techniques. Piece of cake.
For Gwyneth’s art, it wasn’t quite so simple. I knew that some parts of art have changed drastically over the years as synthetic this-and-that was introduced. But finding how it was then . . . I was prepared for a headache.
And so, very pleasantly surprised when I found the perfect old book and could download it for free. The Handmaid to the Arts is exactly what I needed–a comprehensive book written in the 1700s that was meant to be a reference guide for artists. In it I found a ton of information on how to make paints, what they’re made from, which ones are tricky at best to get to set right, which shades come from which materials.
Eureka!
I now have my heroine wavering between which shade of brown to use, my chemistry-minded host (and hero from book 1) assisting her in achieving that perfect red through various heating and mixing techniques, and a few oh-so-delectable details on how they got these colors.
Ground beetles, anyone? Soaked in urine, perhaps? Or minerals packed round with dung? No??? Come on! Let’s be authentic! 😉
Thus far, these painting scenes have been my favorites of the book. Not because of the technical details I got to sneak in (though y’all know I’m a sucker for getting those historical tidbits in), but because Gwyneth is as absorbed by her painting as I tend to be by my writing. The rest of the world fades away and, when she’s really in a groove, becomes nothing but background noise. Inspiration pulses and flows, and life emerges. For me, onto my screen. For her, onto her canvas.
I won’t inundate you with too many of the lists I made, but just to give you a sampling of how complex it was for them to mix that perfect shade back in the day, here are just the reds available. (Gwyneth is on a quest for the perfect, true shade…)
Red, tending to orange
Vermilion
Native cinnabar
Red lead
Scarlet oker
Common Indian red
Spanish brown
Terra de sienna burnt
Red, tending to purple
Carmine
Lake
Rose pink
Red oker
Venetian red
And just for reference, it’s one of those reds that we still get from ground-up beetles. Mm hm. Nice. This is why Roseanna is happy to buy her paints in handy-dandy little tubes and not to have to make them herself…
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Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.