Literary Links
May/June 2002
Good News and Announcements
Workshop Announcement--The Hearts Through History Romance Writers online chapter of RWA announces the upcoming class of the HHRW Campus. Beginning May 13, 2002, Laurie Alice Eakes will present Ships Throughout the Ages. It will run approximately one week. The cost is $10 for HHRW members and $15 for nonmembers. For more information and an application, go to: http://www.dm.net/~hhrw/
May/June 2002--This issue marks the five-year Anniversary of Literary Links, our on-line newsletter. This past year saw the addition of our Video Library. And the coming year sees even more expansion to help you as a writer.
RWA National Conference--July 17-20, 2002--Denver--Romance Writers of America will hold its annual conference at the Adam's Mark Denver. See the RWA website for more information.
New On Literary Liaisons
There are many new additions to Literary Liaisons. After reading about them below, check them out on the web site.
Bookstore
Non-fiction:
The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790-1914 by Gordon N. Ray
The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas
Featured Title
Career Opportunities for Writers by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
The Video Library
The Duchess of Duke Street, Vol. 1
The Duchess of Duke Street, Vol. 2
Researching the Romance
Money in the English Tradition 1640-1936 by M. Butchart
A London Girl of the 1880s by Mary V. Hughes
Parlor Games: Traditional Indoor Games to Amuse and Delight edited by Madame Joanna Lorenz
The Illustrator and the Book in England from 1790-1914 by Gordon N. Ray
Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper by Wallace Reyburn
The Victorian Underworld by Donald Thomas
Writers' Resources Online
City of Shadows: A Gothic Tour of Victorian London
The Romantic Novelists' Association
Feature Article
|
BON MOTS FOR VICTORIAN (AND ALL) ROMANCE WRITERS By
Julie Beard Two
years ago I had the great privilege of writing one of the Idiot’s Guides for
Macmillan’s Alpha Books imprint. I
wrote “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Your Romance
Published.” It is full of
tips on everything from how to come up with ideas to how to plot and how to find
an agent and editor. In honor of
the release of my newest romance—my only Victorian—I’ve put together some bon
mots from the Idiot’s Guide. I
used many of the techniques from my “how to” book when writing my Victorian
romance, The Duchess’ Lover.
It’s about a duchess who falls in love with her gardener.
Imagine the scandal! So
whether you want to write a Victorian tale of love or a contemporary Silhouette,
I hope you’ll find these tips helpful: Talk
About Pacing... Dialogue
is easy to read and moves a story along quickly. That’s why writers today increasingly use dialogue to
communicate plot points or exposition. Some
writers even start the first scene of their books in the middle of dialogue.
For the reader, it’s like jumping on a carousel that’s in motion.
It’s a little jarring, but it also leaves no doubt that the plot is
moving along at a fast pace. Emotions... Big
emotion has to be justified or it will seem melodramatic or just plain silly.
If you want your characters to react strongly, you have to create
conflicts that warrant strong reaction. And
you have to make sure your characterization is strong as well.
If you put cardboard characters in a dramatic situation, the reader will
simply yawn. A good romance is a
triangle of strong plot, emotion and characterization. Circumstantial
Evidence... Many
beginning writers mistakenly use overblown misunderstandings to keep their
lovers from declaring their love too early in the book.
This technique never works! Here’s
an example: Your
heroine overhears a conversation and mistakenly assumes your hero cheated on
her. Her injured pride and anger
prevent her from asking him about the alleged infidelity.
The misunderstanding (which is their only conflict) drags on and on, when
the problem could be resolved with a direct confrontation. Readers
don’t like circumstantial evidence anymore than juries do.
Misunderstandings can add fuel to the fire of other bigger conflicts, but
circumstantial problems should be resolved in a reasonable amount of time and
through direct dialogue. Your hero
and heroine must, after all, be reasonable people or your readers won’t like
them. Brainstorm
Coming... Best-selling
historical romance author Jill Marie Lands believes in brainstorming so much
that she belongs to a plotting group. Five
published writers meet regularly to discuss their storylines.
All the writers work in different subgenera and each offers a different
perspective. Jill says: “You get
five different points of view on how your book could go, and you can take them
or leave them. It fills in a lot of
holes. Somebody will ask a key
question like “What’s his motivation?” or “What’s the key conflict?”
Somebody else might notice you don’t have any.
It helps you validate whether your story is working or not.
Somebody will say ‘That’s a great idea’ or ‘Gee, I just read a
book like that.’ You always think
your own baby is pretty. But you get it out there and it might not be.” Got
Talent...? Personally,
I think talent is highly overrated. After
all, where does talent end and skill begin?
Clearly, some writers are more talented than others.
But raw talent is just one aspect of writing.
Some authors have a natural ability to tell a good yarn, some have a
talent for tapping into trendy ideas, some have a quirky, interesting writing
style, some have an ability to create a cozy world, or vibrant characters.
There is room in the marketplace for a variety of skills.
Does that mean you have to be the most talented writer who ever lived in
order to achieve your dreams of being published?
Nah! But you DO have to be
determined. So hang in there! Julie Beard is the USA Today Best-selling author 10 novels and novellas. Check out Julie’s website at www.juliebeard.com For more of Julie's titles, check out our Fiction Bookstore. Similar writer's reference books are available for purchase in our on-line bookstore in the non-fiction section. Also see the Researching the Romance page of Literary Liaisons for more suggestions.
|
Editor's Note
Wow! Can you believe this issue marks our five-year anniversary! It seems like just yesterday that I bought my first computer, much less learned HTML to do my own web site. This past year saw a new addition to the site--the Video Library. I hope you find these suggestions useful. And as always, I'm forever on the lookout for new material for the web site. If you have any articles, reference books, or videos you would like to recommend, please e-mail us at LiteraryLiaisons@aol.com
Oh, the changes we've seen. Oh, as Dr. Seuss says, the places we'll go. I'm on a journey myself these days. My oldest daughter is looking at colleges, my younger daughter will be entering High School, and I'm entering a new life after marriage. Oh, the journeys we've had! Oh, the places we'll go! Come join us for the ride. It promises to be an exciting one in the next few months!
---Michelle Hoppe
Q&A Column
Q: Regarding the publication listed on your web site - I located the book on your
web site at $18.95, I clicked on it to purchase it and was taken to amazon.com to a listing for the same book at $96.25.
Can you please help me purchase the $18.95 book?
Thanks and regards,
Lesley
A: The difficult thing about the internet is keeping everything current. As books go out of print, they are no longer available at the publisher's price. Unfortunately, this is one of those books. However, you can still find a good used copy at a site called:
www.abebooks.com
Do a search for "Davies" and "Victorian Kitchen". I came up with 35 results at
stores in the UK and USA. Quality of copy varies, as does price according to quality of the book. I've used this site several times, and have always had good results. Your request will go directly to the bookseller, who will mail it out to you after receiving payment on line. Or
some give you the option of phoning them.
Finally, if things go as planned, we will be opening a Used Book Store at
Literary Liaisons within the next year. Selections will be limited.
Some books will be new, others will be rarities I find at sales. But just
another way to help you on your quest to becoming published.
Michelle Hoppe
President, Literary Liaisons
Historical Calendar of Events
1867
Births
Princess Mary of Teck--Queen
Consort of George V of Great Britain
Stanley Baldwin--British statesman
G.W. Russell--Irish poet
Arnold Bennett--English author
John Galsworthy--English author
Arturo Toscanini--Italian conductor
Marie Curie--Polish-French scientist and Nobel Prize winner
Deaths
Peter von Cornelius--German painter
Jean Dominique Ingres--French painter
Theodore Rousseau--French painter
Michael Faraday--English chemist and physicist
Politics
The British North America Act establishes the Dominion of Canada.
The British Parliamentary Reform Act, which extends suffrage, is passed August 15.
Nebraska becomes the 37th state of the U.S.
Russia sells Alaska to the United States for $7,200,000.
Napoleon III withdraws his support from Maximilian in Mexico. Maximilian is eventually executed.
Francis Joseph I is crowned King of Hungary in the new Austro-Hungary dual monarchy agreement.
The North German Confederation is founded.
Prussia buys the mail service from the Thurn und Taxis family, who have held a monopoly since 1505.
The
New York State Legislature votes to establish a free public school system.
The
Knights of the White Camelia, organized in Louisiana, is similar to the
2-year-old Ku Klux Klan.
Congress
appoints a commission to conclude peace treaties with the Indians.
Irish
Fenians try to seize Chester with an attack on police barracks. They kill 12
while trying to blow up Clerkenwell jail.
Paraguay’s
President López conscripts slaves aged 12 to 60 after smallpox and cholera kill
more on both sides than do bullets in the year’s single battle.
Midway
Islands in the Pacific are taken in the name of the United States by Capt.
William Reynolds of the U.S.S. Lackawanna.
Japan’s
figurehead emperor Komei dies February 3, resulting in a battle that will
eventually end the feudal military government that has ruled since 1185.
The Arts
Paintings:
"Rape" by Paul Cezanne
"Boyhood of Raleigh" by John Everett Millais
"The Execution of Maximilian" by Edouard Manet
Non-fiction:
The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot
History of the Norman Conquest by E.A. Freeman
Das Kapital by Karl Marx
The Queesnbury Rules (for boxing) by John Graham Chambers
Fiction:
The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
Peer Gynt by Ibsen
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger
Under Two Flags by Ouida
Poetry:
"The Guardian Angel" by Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold
"The Life and Death of Jason" by William Morris
The Stage:
The Death of Ivan the Terrible by Count Leo Tolstoy
Caste by Thomas William Robertson
Dora by Charles Reade
Operas:
"La Jolie Fille de Perth" by Bizet debuts in paris
"Romeo and Juliet" by Gounod debuts in Paris
"La Grande-duchesse de Gerolstein" by Offenbach debuts in Paris
"Cox and Box" by A.S. Sullivan (comic opera)
"Don Carlos" by Verdi debuts in Paris
Music:
'The Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss II
Popular songs:
"The Little Brown Jug" by R.E. Eastburn
Daily Life
Reclams Universal Bibliothek, first paperback series, is founded at Leipzig.
The Paris World's Fair introduces Japanese ukiyoe art to the West.
Livingstone explores the Congo.
More than half of all U.S. working people are employed on farms.
The Grange, or the Patrons of Husbandry, is founded in the upper Mississippi Valley by former U.S. Department of Agriculture field investigator Oliver H. Kelley.
Chicago’s Carson, Pirie Scott opens at 136 West Lake Street.
Chicago’s
Field, Palmer & Leiter becomes Field, Leiter & Co. as Potter Palmer
sells his share in the store to Marshall Field and his brothers.
New York’s R. H. Macy Company stays open Christmas Eve until midnight and has record 1-day receipts of $6,000.
The University of Illinois is founded at Urbana.
West
Virginia University is founded at Morgantown.
Howard University for Negroes is founded by white Congregationalists outside Washington, D.C.
Atlanta University is founded in Georgia.
Scots-American naturalist John Muir, 29, starts out late in the year on a walk that will take him 1,000 miles through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.
The
Austrian Red Cross is founded at Vienna.
The
New England Conservatory of Music is founded at Boston.
The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music is founded.
Baseball’s
curve ball pitch is invented by Brooklyn, N.Y., pitcher William Arthur Cummings.
Washington’s
National baseball team tours the country, defeating the Cincinnati Red Stockings
53 to 10, the Cincinnati Buckeyes 90 to 10, the Louisville Kentuckians 82 to 21,
the Indianapolis Western Club 106 to 21, and the St. Louis Union Club 113 to 26.
The
Belmont Stakes has its first running and the 1.5-mile is won by a horse named
Ruthless.
Cornelius
Vanderbilt gains control of the New York Central Railroad.
The
Pacific Mail Steamship Company begins regular service between San Francisco and
Hong Kong.
Technology
Pierre Michaux begins to manufacture bicycles.
Joseph F. Monier patents a reinforced concrete process.
A railroad is completed through the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy..
A diamond is discovered in South Africa, but the field will not be made public for several years.
Gold is discovered in Wyoming.
British scientist William Thomson invents the syphon recorder.
U.S. inventor Lucien Smith files a patent application for barbed wire.
The John Swirling Company clears prehistoric canals in Arizona Territory to bring water from the Salt River to the valley.
Iowa farmer William Louden modernizes dairy farming with a rope sling and wooden monorail hay carrier.
Milwaukee
printer Christopher Latham Sholes invents the first practical “writing
machine” while seeking a way to inscribe braille-like characters for use by
the blind. Sholes will call his machine a “typewriter”.
French
engineer Georges Leclanche invents the first practical dry cell battery.
French
chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouries begins development of a synthetic butter at the
urging of emperor Napoleon III.
Justus von Liebig introduces the first patent baby food.
Sugar
beets are introduced into Utah Territory by Brigham Young.
Arm & Hammer Baking Soda has its beginnings in Brooklyn, N.Y., by spice dealer James A. Church.
The
first successful gallstone operation is performed June 15 by Indianapolis
physician John Stough Bobbs on patient Mary E. Wiggins.
Scottish
physician Thomas Lauder Brunton finds amyl nitrate useful in treating angina
pectoris.
Formaldehyde
is discovered by Wilhelm von Hoffmann.
George
M. Pullman founds the Pullman Palace Car Co. with Andrew Carnegie.
The
Wagner Drawing Room Car designed by New York wagon maker Webster Wagner, goes
into service on Commodore Vanderbilt’s New York Central.
Milan’s Galleria Vittoria Emanuele is completed by architect Giuseppe Mengoni to connect the Piazza del Duomo with the neighboring Piazza della Scala.
Construction
begins at St. Louis on the Eads Bridge that will span the Mississippi.
A
suspension bridge opens to span the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Covington,
Kentucky.
The first U.S. elevated railway begins operation at New York on a single track from Battery Place to 30th Street above Greenwich Street.
Steel
rail production begins in the United States, which has been using rails of iron
or imported steel.
Babcock & Wilcox is founded at Providence, R.I., by local engineers George Herman Babcock and Stephen Wilcox.
U.S. inventor Benjamin Chew Tilghman devises the sulfite process for producing wood pulp for paper making.
To The Top | Newsletter Home Page | Request Newsletter via e-mail
About Literary Liaisons | Author Links | Bookstore Index | Fiction | Non-Fiction | Feature Title | Video Library | Research Articles | Reference Books | On-line Resources | RWAChapters | Contact | Home
Copyright 2002, Literary Liaisons. Ltd.