A Devil’s Cold Dish will be out in just about a month.
And my giveaway of Death is Salem will end in about a week. I have almost 700 entries for the 20 copies.
Category Archives: murder mysteries
Goodreads Giveaway
I have over 500 signups for Death in Salem. Very excited.
There are still over two weeks to go before the end. Will I make a 1000 requests? Only time will tell.
Goodreads Giveaway – Death in Salem
Today, April 15, I have begun a month long giveaway for Death in Salem.
In this fourth offering, Will Rees stops in Salem to pick up some imported cloth for Lydia. Of course he is immediately drawn into a murder investigation.
20 copies up for grabs.
This is to celebrate the upcoming publication of book number five in the Will Rees Canon: The Devil’s Cold Dish. So far reviews have been great.
Upon their return from Salem, Lydia and Will Rees find themselves the targets of a malicious intelligence determined to destroy them.
Lets talk about pencils
First of all, pencils are not lead pencils. They never have been. I can remember as a child being told not to lick the pencil because lead was poisonous. The center of the wood casing, the drawing medium, is graphite.It always has been.
When discovered, graphite was thought to be a form of lead because of its color. So the word for pencil is several languages means lead pen.
According to Wikipedia, Cumbria England is the only naturally occuring site of pure hard graphite. Until a method of reconstituting graphite powder into a solid form was discovered, England enjoyed a monopoly. Because graphite could be used for lining the molds for cannonballs, the graphite mines were flooded between mining operations, Graphite for pencils had to be smuggled out.
Because the graphite had to be encased in something to use it, sheepskin was used first. Then some time in the late 1500s an Italian couple invented a wooden holder involving a hollowed out stick of juniper wood. A later invention involved two wooden halves that were glued together after the graphite core was inserted.
Even the humble pencil has an amazing history. Who knew?
WritingTools – 1700s
My first book, A Simple Murder, was written entirely in longhand on lined paper. I can tell you, writing in this way takes a long long time. And the finished product still has to be put onto a computer (unless one wants to type on a typewriter and that’s assuming one can even find such a tool now.)
So, for my second boo, Death of a Dyer, I wrote the entire thing on my laptop. (There are advantages and disadvantages to both but I digress.)
How far we’ve come since Rees’s time.
The quill pen and ink were the approved methods of writing at this time. But paper was valuable and ink expensive. So how did children learn to read and write? I know I had the picture of a slate in my head but Noah Webster says slates were not in common use in schools prior to the Revolution. They came into common use in the late eighteenth century so Rees’s children might have had slates. Rees probably would have used birch bark and would have made his own ink. I can only imagine how pale and unreadable some of those concoctions might have been.
But what about the pencil? Well, although Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils in the early 1700s, they did not become common. First American manufacture of pencils with a graphite core was 1812.
So the frameless slates hung on a string were actually an advance for the early students.
Most of the students were, of course, boys. It was not thought important for girls to learn to read and write, let alone cipher (do arithmetic). Her household duties were far more important. As I have indicated in previous posts, the Shakers were far in advance of this thinking, as they education the girls as well as the boys.
I don’t know if this is true but I read that the shape of the Ipad is based on the slate. Cute.
Shakers andPets
Although the simple life is certainly a draw in this hectic over-scheduled modern life, I would find living as a Shaker difficult, if not impossible. For one thing, I am not obedient. But also the shakers do not have pets.
The Milennial Laws of 1821 and then again in 1845 laid out rules governing every aspect of Shaker lives. They were not allowed pets, primarily because their focus was supposed to be upon God.
For me, this is a deal breaker. I have had a dog since I was ten, with only a few years here and there without. Plus a few cats scattered among the dogs.
Shelby is my current dog, although she actually, emotionally, belongs to my husband. I wanted a dog for my birthday. When we went to the rescue, she raced to him. Once she’d chosen him, we couldn’t leave her behind. So, I got a dog for my husband for my birthday.
But I digress. Sandy was my previous dog. She looked similar to Shelby – a little lighter in color. Sandy was my best friend. She went everywhere with me. Although a medium dog (65 pounds) she lived to be 17 1/2. The vet was astonished she lived so long. by then she was blind, deaf, and had hip displasia. I was so heart broken I did not get another dog for a few years.
So, having a dog is one thing I could not surrender.
Cookery language in 1797
Cooking in 1797 was a much different affair than it became even a few years later. Benjamin Franklin had invented a stove but it was not yet commonly used, for cooking especially, so much cooking took place over an open fire. In a previous post I discussed leavening. Up to this point, yeast or beating to incorporate air were the methods to achieve lightness in baked goods. But sometimes in the 1790s an American cook discovered chemical leavening, i.e. pearlash. we now use baking powder, a combination of an acid (cream of tarter) and baking soda (a base) to make carbon dioxide and raise the dough. Failing baking powder, which had not been invented yet, cooks used buttermilk for the lactic acid.
But I digress. Besides the new foods with their own (usually American Indian names such as squash), some of the names for tools and methods are not familiar today. I’ve already mentioned Hannah Hill, the name for sea bass. And pearlash. What is that? Also called potash, it is potassium carbonate (lye) and is the result of soaking wood ashes in water. It is bitter beyond belief!
Other terms:
amber gun, probably ambergris, from the sperm whale. It is now used in perfumery but once was used as a cooking ingredient.
Bladder and leather – the items used to tie over jars of jelly. (Give me paraffin wax any day!)
calavance – an early variety of bean
calapash – the part of the turtle adjoining the upper shell
emptins – semi prepared liquid yeast.
gallipot – a small earthen pot
jump in the pan – a characteristic action of eels when cooked in a pan.
What it tells me is how difficult time travel would be, even a few hundred years in the past. Not just the clothing is different but even simple homey actions like cooking.
Goodreads Giveaway Ends
I am thrilled to announce that 941 people requested Cradle to Grave. (And here I was wondering if I would break 500!) I have received the names of the winners and will be sending copies of the books to them this weekend.
Goodreads Giveaway
The Giveaway ends tomorrow at midnight; two days left to add your name for the Giveaway.
Will and Lydia travel to New York just outside of Albany after a frantic plea for help from Shaker friend Mouse. There they find Mouse had been accused of kidnapping – and she admits it. Shortly after, the mother of the children is found dead and Mouse is the the primary suspect.
Goodreads Giveaway
I am so happy to announce that I have broken the 400 mark. I still have a week to go. Will I break 500 requests? Only time will tell.