Grace's Mosaic Moments


Saturday, January 25, 2025

WRITING - Getting Started

 With all the negatives in the world lately, "fun" photos have been few and far between—so a few diverse choices from the "My Pictures" file . . .

From a birthday party in 2016, for which I made all the burlap bags of classic "bag races."


The reason my daughter hired an exterminator each time before they used their cottage along the Suwanee River. (I wonder what the new owners think of the resident wildlife—this was just one of many!) That web stretches between tree trunks; not branches, TRUNKS. Please note the trunks this web spans are not in the photo.

 

 

The remarkable things one can find when researching . . .

Map of the maze in Sydney Gardens, Bath (early 19th c.)

 ~ * ~


Below, one of the very first bits of advice on Writing, written "way back when" and available with a quantity of others on Writing & Editing in the Archives or organized and indexed in Making Magic With Words.

 

WRITING WORKSHOP 1 - Getting Started

 

"Where do you get your ideas?"

 How many times have you been asked that question? The answer is: "Everywhere." Ideas are all around you. Personal experiences, television, newspapers, movies, people on the street, a chance remark, a character or situation in a book that sets you to asking, "What if . . .?" Or perhaps you're building a whole new world from scratch. Let's face it, if you didn't have ideas, you wouldn't be attempting to write a book. BUT developing these ideas into a 400-page book is something else again.

 

Fresh Twist.

So what do you do with that germ of an idea? To sell in today's tough market, give it a fresh twist, something that will keep the reader turning pages instead of groaning over yet another version of same old-same old. Be innovative, not cookie-cutter. Grab that idea, find a way to make it fresh. For example, in Grave Intentions, Lori Sjoberg makes a hero of the Grim Reaper, going on to develop other male and female reapers in a series for Kensington.

 

Research.

At least three-quarters of you are groaning, thinking: "But I write Contemporary . . ." Nonetheless, you have research to do. You need to find out how to make your hero and heroine, the setting, and general ambiance of your book sound authentic. Whether it's Renaissance, Regency, police procedure, arson investigation, high finance, medical, or whatever—make sure you know what you're talking about.

 For example, what did I know about "the British Electoral System prior to the reforms of 1832" when I began the book now titled, A Gamble on Love? Absolutely nothing, of course. It took some heavy reading of books acquired for me by the Sarasota Library system via Interlibrary loan, but in the end I picked up some gems, tidbits that greatly enhanced the tale of a "cit" (a  man who works for a living) who horrifies his aristocratic bride when he runs for Parliament.

 But don't panic. Research doesn't have to be all "up front." You can dredge it up as you go along. (I certainly didn't read all those heavy tomes on the British Electoral system before I began to write.) But you absolutely must have enough knowledge by the time you do your final edit so that people who are experts on your book's subject don't throw your book against the wall by the end of the first chapter.

As an example of how easy it is to slip up, no matter how careful you think you're being:  when I was writing, The Harem Bride for Signet, I had the hero and heroine meet in Constantinople, at the home of the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. I paused long enough to think about the problem of reality but considered it so unlikely I could discover the name of the actual ambassador at that time that I simply made up a name for this character and continued on.

 But in final editing before submitting the manuscript, I scowled at the name I'd invented and decided, well maybe, after all, I should check Google. To my shock, when I entered "British Ambassador, Ottoman Empire, 1803," page after page after page came scrolling up. Oops! It seems the ambassador was Lord Elgin, famed for boxing up many of the statues on the Acropolis, even to the extent of chipping off the friezes from the Parthenon, and shipping them back to England, where, some years later, they ended up in the British Museum. (I've seen them—they have a whole hall of their own.) To this day, Greece is trying to get them back.

After I finished gulping at how close I'd come to a major faux pas, I revised not only that scene but added references to Lord Elgin's struggles in getting the British Museum to buy his marbles. Moral of this story: check your facts. Don't end up with egg on your face.


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For a link to Blair's websiteclick here. 

For Blair's Facebook Author Page, click here.*
 

For recent blogs, scroll down. For Archives, see the menu on the right.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)  

 

 


Saturday, January 18, 2025

Writing - "Prosy" is a No-no.

 The article below, found on Facebook, is so close to the description of the world I knew growing up that I had to copy it and share with the many to whom it will sound like fiction.

MY GENERATION


If you were born between 1930 and 1946, you belong to an incredibly rare group: only 1% of your generation is still alive today. At ages ranging from 77 to 93, your era is a unique time capsule in human history.
Here’s why:
You were born into hardship. Your generation climbed out of the Great Depression and bore witness to a world at war. You lived through ration books, saved tin foil, and reused everything—nothing was wasted.
You remember the milkman. Fresh milk was delivered to your door. Life was simpler and centered around the basics. Discipline came from both parents and teachers, with no room for excuses.
Your imagination was your playground. Without TVs, you played outside and created entire worlds in your mind from what you heard on the radio. The family gathered around the radio for news or entertainment.
Technology was in its infancy. Phones were communal, calculators were hand-cranked, and newspapers were the primary source of information. Typewriters, not computers, recorded thoughts.
Your childhood was secure. Post-WWII brought a bright future—no terrorism, no internet, no global warming debates. It was a golden era of optimism, innovation, and growth.
You are the last generation to live through a time when:
Black-and-white TVs were cutting-edge.
Highways weren’t motorways.
Shopping meant visiting downtown stores.
Polio was a feared disease.
While your parents worked hard to rebuild their lives, you grew up in a world of endless possibilities. You thrived in a time of peace, progress, and security that the world may never see again.
If you’re over 77 years old, take pride in having lived through these extraordinary times. You are one of the lucky 1% who can say, "I lived through the best of times."
Credit goes to the original author ✍  Respect   

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Grace note:  How I wish I knew the author of the above, so I could say "Thank you" for putting it so well.

 

The Problem with Being Prosy

Grace note:   Avoiding being Prosy is a totally new topic, one not covered in the Archives or in Making Magic With Words.  It came up totally out of the blue as I read an "older" Regency series I seem to have missed in the past.  In "Regency speak" prosy refers to characters who drone on and on, ad infinitum, evidently oblivious to the fact that their words are not precious gems, fascinating to all. Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice is an excellent example. 

So, how does this apply to writing Fiction?

Though I am, perhaps, skewing the definition of "prosy" a bit, that was the best word I could come up to define the exquisitely crafted but totally unbelievable prose in the series mentioned above. Not only did the dialogue read like two academicians attempting to outdo each other in a debate, but the characters' introspection read like the thesis of a candidate for PhD!

The words were beautifully put together, no question about that, but the classic phrase "suspended disbelief" refused to kick in. There was no way I could accept that people—even well-educated nobles of the Regency era—would ever speak to each other in such exquisitely crafted phrases. Or think in language it would take even an English professor weeks, if not months, to craft . . . ? No way, no how. 

I kept reading, admiring the word structure, even as I wrinkled my nose at the believability of anyone actually talking or thinking with such perfection.

So . . . am I actually saying beautifully crafted prose is BAD?

If it is so perfect as to be unbelievable, yes. Ah . . . I hear the arguments sputtering on your tongues, so here is my rebuttal:

Yes, it is vitally important that authors of books set in the Regency get the flavor of the language of the Regency correct, as well as the "cant" of the period. Yes, most nobles of the period were well-educated, and even though the females had far less "book learning," they were brought up to speak the flawless English common to their class. They were not, however—male or female—taught to speak or think like a university textbook! More likely, they would have been shunned for such abnormally academic behavior. 

Therefore, authors beware! Particularly those not long out of college. DO NOT MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS ERUDITE! Or, even worse, "prosy" (droning on about nothing) unless, as with Mr. Collins, "prosy" is an important part of their characterization.

DO NOT put  academically elite prose into your characters' mouths (again, unless it is a necessary part of a single character's portrayal).

And, worst of all, DO NOT have your characters thinking in sentences that only a university professor might write for an academic paper.

In short, tell your story in words and phrases that might actually have been spoken or thought by people of the time; NOT in words crafted with all the complexity of a gifted poet.

Grace note: If all else fails, re-read Jane Austen for the speech of the gentry and Georgette Heyer for the likely speech of the nobles of the time.  

~ * ~

 FEATURED BOOK                                           

 I can only hope I have avoided being "prosy" during my quarter century of writing, but when looking for a book to compliment this week's article, I decided to choose my very first—all 140,000 words of it. That waterfall of words was intended to tell the story of the Peninsular War through the eyes of a young lady who was only fourteen when it began. I like to think those many words stuck to high adventure, romance, betrayal, and a Happily Ever After reached only by the skin of the teeth. But 140,000 words? Maybe I slipped into "prosy" here and there. You can decide for yourself. The Sometime Bride is available from most digital vendors.


 
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

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's websiteclick here. 

For Blair's Facebook Author Page, click here.*
 

For recent blogs, scroll down. For Archives, see the menu on the right.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)  

 

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Sausage/onion Muffins/Gulf Coast Series

 While visiting Kansas City this past week, the Reale family was marooned by a blizzard—supposed to return on Sunday, finally making it shortly before dawn on Thursday. While killing time in KC, Susie built a snowgirl.

While on the side of my house in Longwood, Florida . . .

Blackeyed Susan vines 1/6/25


 

And for your amusement . . .

Found on Facebook
 

~ * ~


Sausage & Onion Muffins


Note: This is an excellent recipe for "singles." After the initial effort, I get eight instant meals. (This recipe can be halved for less "construction" work.)

2 pkg. Pillsbury “Grand” refrigerated biscuits (8 each, your choice of variety)
1 lb. Jimmy Dean sausage (Original or flavor of choice)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 pkg. cheese slices (meunster, swiss, or cheddar)
1 cooking apple, quartered & cut in horizontal slices (approx. 3/8" thick)
Fennel seeds, to taste*
Rosemary (fresh or dry), to taste*
Fresh ground pepper, black or mixed
 
*Be generous with both fennel & rosemary.


Preheat oven to 350°. Spray skillet. Spray two muffin pans. (You will need 16 muffins holes.)

SautĂ© sausage on medium-high, breaking into small pieces with wooden or other large firm spoon. When almost brown, reduce heat to medium and add chopped onion. Continue to sautĂ© until onion is translucent. Drain.** Stir in fennel, rosemary & pepper, to taste. Continue to sautĂ© for a minute or two to develop the flavors. (The fennel is important to the taste, so don’t be stingy.) Remove from heat.

**I use tongs & paper towels to soak up the extra moisture.

Remove ONE pkg of biscuits from refrigerator. (Biscuits slice better when cold.) Slice horizontally into two equal halves. Place one half biscuit in bottom of 8 muffin cups. Top with sausage mix, ¼-½ of a cheese slice & a slice of apple. Place second half of biscuit on top of each muffin, pressing sides down to meet the bottom half.

Repeat with second package of biscuits.***

Bake 13-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Makes 16 fat muffins.
[Although I serve my ham & cheese muffins with a sauce made of honey mustard and Saucy Susan, these sausage biscuits are best served plain. (A sauce tends to overwhelm the fennel & rosemary.)]

The muffins freeze very well. To unfreeze two: 45-50 seconds on Thaw, 45-50 seconds High. Check. Add a few more seconds as necessary.

***Leftover sausage mix can be frozen for later use in a sandwich or scrambled eggs. 

~ * ~

Featured Books 

I lived in Venice, FL, for all of a quarter century. For a long time I kept the setting of my "Golden Beach" books to myself, because the influx of snowbirds and tourists each year TRIPLED the small city's population. (Even after it was no longer the winter headquarters for Ringling Bros.) And we really didn't need any more people taking a peek!

But Venice was hit hard by hurricanes in the last few years—some beachfront houses even swallowed by sand!—so I'm letting the cat out of the bag. Venice, on Florida's Gulf Coast (c. 20 miles south of Sarasota) is one of Florida's most precious gems, with seven beaches within a 10-minute drive, a Main Street out of storybook, boutiques and restaurants galore, etc., etc.  To top that, the center of town was made an "island" when the Intracoastal Waterway was built. The only way to access that beautiful Main Street and all the shops is to cross one of three bridges over the waterway—north, south, and east. On the west, the Gulf of Mexico.

Below, a listing of all my books set in Venice.

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE/MYSTERY

Shadowed Paradise
Paradise Burning
Death by Marriage
Orange Blossoms & Mayhem
Florida Knight
The Art of Evil (Sarasota)
 
(Covers are slightly out of order as my computer was being difficult, informing me the pics were not available for download. Aargh!)

 


                   

               

All too reminiscent of the CA wildfires

          


                                                

 



No, I'm not claiming Machu Picchu is in Venice, FL, but, although Orange Blossoms begins and ends on Florida's Gulf Coast, a good portion is set in Peru.

~ * ~

For a link to Blair's websiteclick here. 

For Blair's Facebook Author Page, click here.*
 

For recent blogs, scroll down. For Archives, see the menu on the right.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace (Blair Bancroft)