At last, something besides Doom & Gloom among the Facebooks pics. Enjoy!
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| A gem from Facebook |
Then again . . .
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Harkness Tower, Yale University
Just as I was planning my POV blog, a member of my choir recommended a book to our Choir Director, bringing back a rush of old memories, which I simply had to share. [The book—The Nine Tailors*, one of Dorothy Sayer's many mysteries featuring Lord Peter Wimsey] My poor old brain perked up, and I remembered, "I have a copy of that book!" When I got home, I searched my book shelves, and there it was. Published in 1934, the well-worn copy was gifted to my husband in 1966, and signed by Paul Taylor when we hosted him in June 1969 when he came across the pond for the dedication of new Taylor bells for Harkness Tower at Yale.
[*not to be mistaken for nine men diligently sewing menswear!]
The meaning of the title is confusing. I, familiar with England's Taylor Bell Foundry, always thought it was Ms. Sayers' altered spelling of the fictional church's nine bells (all by Taylor, I assumed). I am told, however, that the title refers to the name of "death" bell in the church steeple that was rung nine times when someone died. BUT if you consider that Ms Sayers likely named her fictional bell after the Taylor Bell Foundry [owned and operated by the Taylor family—in which John and Paul are favored names—and which has been making bells - and only bells - since the mid-18th century . . .
To get back to why I have a copy of The Nine Tailors autographed by Paul Taylor of the Taylor Bell Foundry . . . My husband learned Change Ringing while stationed in Bath, England, during WWII. And later, while an undergraduate at Yale, he talked his way into becoming the first undergraduate bell-ringer, going on to found the Yale Guild of Carilloneurs, which still functions to this day. Playing the ten bells in Harkness Tower, however, differed from English bell-ringing since the Harkness bells were played on a "keyboard" consisting of ten giant wooden handles, making it possible for one person to play all ten bells, instead of having to have one person on each rope to play the same number of bells in England.
After graduation, my husband founded Yale's Audiovisual Center and was still at Yale when an elderly lady in Hartford declared she wished to dedicate her considerable fortune to buying more bells for Harkness Tower. So, naturally, my husband was made the liaison between the donor and the university. To make a long story short, after everyone involved at Yale picked their jaws up from the floor, Miss Crofut's gift added up to buying FORTY-FOUR* more bells, making Harkness Tower one of the largest carillons in the world. About ten years ago, Susie and I took the grandgirls to Branford College (home of Harkness Tower). The then head of the Guild took Susie and the girls up the long flight of stone steps to the "keyboard," showed the girls their grandfather's picture hanging on the wall, and even allowed each one to play a note. A fabulous experience.
[*I suspect this may have been the largest order in Taylor history.]
WARNING: The Nine Tailors is chockfull of bell-ringers' gobbledygook. How Dorothy Sayers managed it, I can't even imagine. But it's a truly unique murder mystery and highly recommended to all those with inquiring minds. It is also an excellent example of a book told almost exclusively in dialogue, much of it in the vernacular of the "Fens." [FYI, the Fens is a marshy area in eastern England, made habitable only by a complex series of canals (much like a good deal of Florida).]
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Now, at long last . . .
WRITING - POINT OF VIEW, Part 1
When I began writing in the mid-90s, I knew nothing about the so-called "Rules of Writing." I was very familiar with the "art" of writing, as I started typing my mother's romance magazine manuscripts my freshman year in high school. And yes, I was a voracious reader, but rules? What rules?
Decades later, when I got my third child off to college and finally sat down and to give writing a try, I simply plunged in and got it done. To the tune of a 140,000-word book spanning the final seven years of the Napoleonic Wars. Although the book centered around a young woman who was only fourteen when the book began, I used a number of other Points of View—which turned out to be a no-no.
I joined Romance Writers of America and discovered beginning Romance authors of that time were supposed to submit to Harlequin Mills & Boone—manuscripts with simplicity of language and very strict rules for Point of View. Oops! Incredibly, I did get an offer from one of New York's most prestigious publishing houses—if only I would make my heroine older. And, stupid, stubborn, idiot me, I refused. (Still shaking my head over that one.)The book in question is The Sometime Bride, currently available on Kindle and other e-publishing sites. (See below for cover and blurb.)
I attended RWA conferences and gradually picked up the "rules." (Not that I always agreed with them.) I also submitted manuscripts to RWA contests, and one day, out of blue, came an offer for my Tarleton's Wife to be one of the first books published by an e-publisher. Yes, that's right—an electronic, not paper book. (Evidently, the editor had been one of my RWA contest judges.) You should have heard the shocked sounds when I received an award at the next RWA convention and announced Tarleton's Wife would be e-published! And yes, one of the reviewers mentioned my "slippery" points of view, even though she gave the book high praise.
So . . . has anything changed in the last thirty years? From what I can find out, not much. Harlequin Mills & Boone have eased up a hair—details in Part 2. The major publishers are still more flexible about POV, and a few new wrinkles have been added here and there. (Anne Cleeland's Doyle and Acton series is a good example.) At the moment I believe I've stretched the limits of how lengthy a blog should be, so tune in next week for the various ways you can present Point of View in your books. (And yes, Virginia, even First Person has variants.)
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Featured Book:
A very young bride finds herself married to an enigmatic British
spy "for her safety." And is plunged into a seven-year, highly personal
view of the Peninsular War—ending, after years of blind devotion, in
discovering a betrayal of her trust so immense she can only wonder: Is
she the sometime bride of a man who never existed? A discarded mistress?
Or a beloved wife whose only rival is her husband's expediency in a
time of war?
Author's Note: In addition to being a saga of young lovers caught up
in a war, The Sometime Bride is the history of the Peninsular War,
Britain's fight against Napoleon in Portugal and Spain. The story moves
from France's invasion of Portugal and British troops being driven into
the sea at La Coruña to the return of British troops under General Sir
Arthur Wellesley, the fortified lines at Torres Vedras, and the gradual
push of French troops across Spain and back to France. Plus the chaotic
times in Paris after Napoleon's surrender and the Emperor's triumph as
he gathers up his old troops, only to be stopped in one of the most
famous and bloody battles in history—Waterloo.
Reviews:
Reviewers Choice Award. "Sometimes a reviewer gets a book so
powerful, it's hard to know where to begin to tell about it. The
Sometime Bride is such a book. . . . Bride passes every criterion for a
successful book that I was given as a reviewer. Ms Bancroft weaves a
most unusual love story in among the threads of history that cover eight
years. . . . I highly recommend both Tarleton's Wife and The Sometime
Bride as companion books. They are totally independent, but together
give a vastly enlightening and entertaining view of the period through
use of wonderful characters and page-turner plots—definite keepers,
both." Jane Bowers, Romance Communications
"The writing talent displayed by the author is wonderful . . . Ms. Bancroft's detail for historical events is phenomenal. . . ."
April Redmon, Romantic Times
Five Stars. "Set against the bloody Napoleonic wars, The Sometime Bride is ambitious, engrossing and absolutely wonderful."
Rickey R. Mallory, Affaire de Coeur
Five Stars. "The Sometime Bride by Blair Bancroft is a riveting and
well-written story. . . . The tension between the hero and heroine
sizzles. . . ." Janet Lane Walters, Scribes World
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For a link to Blair's website, click here.
For recent blogs, scroll down. For Archives, see the menu on the right.
Thanks for stopping by,
Grace (Blair Bancroft)
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