Whistlecreig, Shakespeare, and Bludgeoning

I love you so much, I wish this for you.

Yesterday was Sunday, and thus a terribly busy day for me. As you know, I've gone down to North Carolina to stay with my brother's fiance till the wedding on Saturday. Since getting down here yesterday afternoon, I have had all sorts of excitement:
I stopped in Wake Forest and got coffee and explored artists' lofts. Then my phone died so I had to run on a wing and a prayer and hope I remembered the way I'd wended so I could get back to the house at which I had dropped off Mama for an event. Nothing like exercising one's brain. When I finally got to my STBSIL's house (Soon-to-be-sister-in-law), we found out her brother had caught a bobcat in a trap--the gorgeous creature had eaten twenty chickens over the past six months. This meant I tramped out several times to the back pasture (in the dark with a rake over my shoulder, or in the daylight to avoid cow pies) to see it. The brother decided not to shoot it because it was so pitifully not in the act of catching a hen, so he called an old wildlife rehabilitation fella to come get it. The man came and took the yowling, hissing, clawing bobcat in the cage without using so much as a pair of gloves and hefted the cage into the back of his pick-up beside two road-killed deer he meant to feed his wolves and his bald eagle, and took it to a distant river to have a new purchase on life. That cat was so angry. And she was not a bit like a house-cat...far more like a pint-sized lion. That roar!

Isn't she a beauty?

Anyway. Between church and bobcats and scouting for greenery for wedding decor and doing exercises to insure the bridesmaid's dress fits and all that sort of business, there was no time to sit down and write a blog post. Thus, I'm giving you yesterday's links with today's and hope you will enjoy all of them. :)

I sit down for an Interview at Whistlecreig with Esther Smith at The Pen of a Ready Writer.

Then I go bludgeon some inspiration at The Destiny of One.

Next, I get to talk Shakespeare with Elizabeth Rose on Literary Lane, about which I am super excited.

Fourth, trot over to Fullness of Joy for the first half of an interview which will continue here on the Inkpen Authoress tomorrow.

And fifth of all, the author of My Lady Bibliophile weighs in on some of her favorite aspects of Anon, Sir, Anon. She got to be an advance-reader so you ought to hear some...interesting things. ;)

Thanks so much for reading! I know your lives are busy and I treasure your time. (Psssst. Only a couple more days till we discover who wins the awesome Cozy Quagmire Party Pack.) If you don't win, don't worry! You can always purchase your own copy here. As usual, keep your heads high, your hats clean, and an umbrella under you arm so you can rescue someone in a distress during a rain-shower. Hey, it worked for Psmith--why not the rest of us?

Day Four: Geckos and Mysteries and a Hoar-Frost

Dear Folk:
    Saturday in my corner of Southern Virginia has dawned brighter than bright with a deal of sunlight and a hard hard frost. So festive it seems with the silver filigree of a hoar-frost that I have almost forgotten the dubious fact that I am to wear a sleeveless chiffon dress in an outdoor wedding a week from today. Frost, on such occasions, is a dreadful event. I should very much like to not be freezing up there in the bridesmaid line. We shall see. For today, I am wonderfully glad for the cheery morning and the prospect of a week spent down North Carolina-way as I stay with my almost new-sister-in-law. Nothing--absolutely nothing--like weddings to get one "brisked round and brisked about." I will be able to continue this lovely blog party, which you have been so good as to join me in, from there.

I finally got my copy of Plenilune yesterday. It's massive.

Today, Ness Kingsley--my British contact, who critiqued Anon, Sir, Anon from the British-y standpoint--interviews me about plotting, geckos, and writers block. Not necessarily in that order. If you'd like to read this conversation with my favorite Brit besides Tom Hiddleston, you ought to head thisaway.
Later, I shall be dropping by Charity Klicka's blog to discuss the alchemy of words. Things like this:

Words give birth to communities. I can take your heart and make it mine with a clever rearrangement of a few meager words. You never know what I’ll say, but I’ll mean every syllable, for I’ll have arranged every syllable. It is craftsmanship that must be learned. Everyone uses words; everyday; everywhere. Words aren’t special in the way most people mean special. Words are…common. But their very normalcy makes them the perfect in-road to the element of surprise. If you know how.

 If you want to read up on such things, head thataway.

And, as usual, please don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a lot of prizes and Anon, Sir, Anon! The prize is totally worth the little while it takes to enter, and if I wasn't the author and organizer of said book and giveaway, I would most definitely be entering. But I am, and I have to fit into this bridesmaid's dress so sourdough toast is a little out of the question at present. Better luck for you lot. I hope you have a bright and beautiful day, and that if you find yourself in need of a cozy read for a nippy November day, you might choose to spend it with Vivi & Farnham.

Writing Process Blog Tour (bon voyage!)

I was tagged by Elisabeth G. Foley at The Second Sentence to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour and I figured I would do this last post before leaving the country for 17 days. Ciao ciao, darlings. The idea of this thing is that participants share a little about their writing process via the tour questions, then nominate other writers to carry the tour on. Simply, effective, community-driven. Voila! So here we go:

1.) What am I working on at the moment? Oh this question had to be on there. If I'm entirely flippantly honest, I'd say nothing. Since beginning my job, I've been figuring out the balance of work and family responsibilities as well as reading quite a bit (PLENILUNE) and preparing for Romania. That being said, my next project is quite probably going to be Mob Ink, though no solid promises. I also have some ideas for a second Vivi & Farnham mystery. :3 In defense of this story-less stage, I am taking it rather as a writing holiday because Anon, Sir, Anon is away at the beta-readers and when it comes home, there'll be a toll to pay, I know. Stocking up on brilliance to pour out later, right? Also, I've been scribbling real-life notes for future Social Caterpillar posts and character inspiration.

2.) How does my work differ from others of its genre? Well that'd be the question for many, wouldn't it? I genre-hop because I prefer to be a good novelist period rather than a good historical novelist or a good romance novelist or a good sci-fi novelist. So this question really must be ammended to: "How does my work differ from other authors'?"
Each of my books is laced with that particular Rachel Heffington flavor that, once tasted, never quite leaves the mind. Or so I'm told. I'm sassier than some but I balance it with a load of sweet. My prose is also ... well, Jenny calls it "cat's-paw". It's light-footed, clever, and water-coloured. I can turn a good character or two (or three or four) and I have been informed that I am good at creating three-dimensional, interesting, unusual characters without making them weird. I tend to dabble in telling familiar things in a way that makes people sit up and take notice.

3.) Why do I write what I do? Because I write what strikes my fancy and like to think that somewhere, it'll strike an answering fancy in a reader. I've experienced the thrill of reading something that seems written specifically with me in mind, and I crave to bestow that gift on another reader or thousand.

4.) How does my writing process work? Oh la. Well, I feel that most of you will have heard this many times over, so I'll be concise: I get a phrase, character, or snippet of something stuck in my mind and it festers and out pops a story. First drafts are the bane of my ever-loving existence because (not being a plotter), I panic midway and feel that I'll never complete the story with any semblance of coherency. I do, though, and then I go through two edits of the entirety. I send this edited version to my beta-readers, take their feedback, and sort it all out. (I apply some criticism, discard others, and generally whip the thing into shape.) This process usually contains at least two more edits, one of which is printed off and marked by hand. Then, when I feel the book is thoroughly whipped and decent, it's time to format, final-edit, and publish.

Well, that was not too terrifying, was it? I nominate Mirriam Neal as the next participant, so do keep an eye out for her post next Monday!

The Saint Valentine Post Presents.....

Hey everyone! As a favor and treat for all of us, Jenny [The Penslayer] consented to put together a nonsensical interview for me. I wrote up the questions, assigned her a personality, and she answered the questions. Enjoy it! It's rather a masterpiece. ;)

********

Breaking News: The St. Valentine Post interviews the Hon. Ms. Lavinia Lacklove, chairwoman of The Society of Aged Maidens, on the topic of matrimony:

1. What is your Society's anthem-song?

To God my earnest voice I raise,

To God my voice imploring prays;

Before his face my grief I show

And tell my trouble and my woe.

When gloom and sorrow compass me,

The path I take is known to Thee,

And all the toils that foes do lay

To snare Thy servant in his way.

                                                          O Lord, my Saviour, now to Thee,

                                                    Without a hope besides, I flee,

                                                       To Thee my shelter from the strife,

                                                         My portion in the land of life.

                                                         Be Thou my help when troubles throng,

                                                         For I am weak and foes are strong;

                                                         My captive soul from prison bring,

                                                        And thankful praises I will sing.

This is taken from Psalm 142 and is to be sung to the pretty if melancholy tune of Rockingham Old.  After some long debate among the Society [TM], we decided that the foes were not blackguards and n’er-do-well young men seeking to marry for money, but they could very well be and that the passage is open to such meaning; we also decided that the “prison” is not matrimony itself but, in this instance, could be construed as discontentment, idleness, gossip, frivolity and wanton husband-seeking.  We have approached the local canon with this exegesis and he maintains that David was not thinking of matrimony at all while he made this lyrical petition. 

2. If a woman were to remain single all her days, what would your sage wisdom and experience advise her to do?

Absolutely do not remain idle, and have as few friends as possible.  Idleness and many friends lead directly to gossiping, I dare swear, and I would as soon stick both my knitting needles in my ears as hear a woman go on about His Honour So-and-So of Blankishire who had an affair with the maid and Lady This-and-Such had had enough and—knitting needles! 

In general I dislike the term “single.”  It sounds like an order at the grocer’s.  And even if the other Society [TM] ladies don’t quite agree, when you order a man and his wife at the grocer’s, according to the Scriptures, you seem to get a single package—with the two becoming one, and all that.  And if you’ve got to say that it’s neither here nor there, well, I don’t know about there but it’s here now and I might as well mention it.  So there it is. 

There’s also beginning to be an alarming lack of familial core these days, what with flappers and dancers and women going off and the War and Unemployment.  I don’t know what’s come of things.  It used to be the sort of thing that was here all the time but now it seems to have moved there so I might as well mention it too.  When I was a girl, when my mama was a girl, girls understood their place in society—right below their fathers.  And when their father handed them off, they were right below their husbands, not before, not between.  And now I’ve got to mention it because it doesn’t go without saying anymore and there are too many flappers and rationing and slang and goodness if I don’t know what.

3. Do you fear, or crave matrimony?

I have never feared matrimony.  I see so many women getting into it that I imagine all fear of it has quite worn off. Indeed, women get into it so readily that I wonder if it really ought to be feared a little, like the old witch’s oven that Hansel and Gretel so willingly climbed into.  I don’t draw any allusions, but there it is.  As for craving such a situation, I ceased caring at the age of eighty-three.  

4. What is love?

I dare say it depends on what sort you are referring to.  In this case I would call it “sticking to it” without “sticking to it” for the sticking’s sake, but the it’s sake.  I think the truest romance is shown, not in flowers, but in smaller, pettier, less agreeable things, like a husband willing to do the dishes.  It takes nothing to buy roses.  It takes true love to wash the plates.  Not that the Society [TM] wholly agrees with me on this.

5. Is love, by your definition, aptly represented in the romance novels your Society indulges in at each meeting?

If it were up to the world to determine what love is based on the sentiments of novelists, then the world is a sad place.  And I dare say it is.  Novels are all right for a bit of light fun but you would be hard-pressed to find an accurate definition of love in them.

6. Have you ever been in love and had your heart broken?

Wouldn’t it be splendid if I had?  There was a shop-boy once when I was young who broke his heart over me, but I never found it out until three years ago when I met his widow over tea and she rattled on about it.  What an alarmingly awkward conversation that was.

7. What is a perfect man?

When I find one, I’ll let you know.

8. What is a perfect woman?

Miss Prunella Burgundy thinks she is, but I’ve never seen one. 

9. "Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds..." have you, as a single woman and therefore an impartial observer, found Shakespeare to be correct in this?

If that poor man had known his sonnet would be so flouted I wonder if he would have ever written it.  I was just telling the Society [TM] the other day, where there is “true love” (as they have it in the books), it does alter, but it alters for the better.  Love is not inflexible.  Affection and temper may alter, but love does not.

10. As a "maiden" further advanced in age than some, if you were to be wed tomorrow, would you require hair of your husband? 

I would certainly prefer it, and a man should have hair if he can possibly help it.  But if it cannot be helped, it is no fault of the man’s.

11. How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

I usually don’t.  I’ve never had luck keeping a calendar.  I always lose it, lose my place, lose my day, and in a month or two it turns up out of date.  Now, if I remembered Valentine’s Day, I would go round to a tea-shop and have myself a nice treat and pretend it was my birthday instead.

12. Have you memorized The Language of Flowers? If so, do you analyze every flower you see to divine a meaning from it?

Well, we had several long sessions on them in the Society [TM], but I was never very good at it.  I could recall on demand the meanings of asphodel, hydrangea, and mint, and everyone said that boded ill.

13. Your parting exhortation for fellow Society members?

Don’t lose heart, but don’t let your heart be run away with.  Be content but not contemptuous.  Be industrious but not ignorant.  Moreover, I wouldn’t eat the cucumber sandwiches, if I were you.

**********