by Roseanna White | Jul 27, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Okay, metaphorically. 😉 And this isn’t my post. But fellow Colonial Quiller Jennifer Hudson Taylor posted such a fascinating look into early American taverns over at the Quill today that I just couldn’t resist sharing it with you:
If Colonial Tavern Walls Could Talk
That, and after being sick yesterday and just kind of tired today, but still writing and entertaining the wee ones, I have no brain power left, LOL.
So, hop over to the Colonial Quill and take a fresh look at these age-old establishments–I know you’ll find it as intriguing as I did!
by Roseanna White | Jul 20, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
Last week I got to visit our local(ish) colonial reenactment place,
Old Bedford Village. I can’t remember it if I’d been there before, so it was a blast for me to visit now, especially as I’m writing books set in the 18th century. (Would have been more fun had the 3-year-old not insisted on being held the entire time and the weather been 15 degrees cooler, but you know. We take what we can get, LOL.)
They have an entire village set up there, and different reenactors there throughout the week. When we went, there was a lady in one of the houses demonstrating spinning and explaining about how the kitchens worked, a blacksmith, and a woodworker. Gotta say–my favorite was our first stop, the Biddle House, where I got to learn more about the everyday workings of the home. =)
We watched her spin some wool onto a walking wheel (also called a great wheel and a wool wheel). This baby’s so big that you have to walk back and forth about six feet as you’re spinning–hence the name. The wool ends up on a spool, then you detach it from the big wheel and start spinning it onto the weasel, which puts it into skeins. It takes 150 rotations to equal one skein–and because the ingenius creators of this device knew well no one was going to sit there counting to 150 all day, the weasel pops after 150 revolutions. Sound familiar? Altogether now: “Here we go round the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel . . .” =)
The lovely lady, after explaining more about fabrics and dyes and how “ripe” urine was used to get the dye to set, moved over into her kitchen to show us how one crafted a meal in the day.
There’s a huge fire place taking up almost the entire wall of this house, divided into two sections that meet in a very wide V. The right side is a traditional fireplace, complete with a crane to swing a pot back and forth over the flame. But the left side has a stove top supported on the stone–a very thick piece of iron perfectly fitted to this side of the fireplace. On it you could put your pots, or cook food directly on the surface. Managing the fire underneath for the desired temperature, of course.
They had small, moveable ovens to show us too. A larger one for cooking meat, which onto a spit so you could rotate it within the metal box. The box was then set up against the fire. Not only would the heat cook the meat facing it, it circulated through the box to cook it all around. The lady showed us a smaller version of the same with a shelf inside it–on here they would bake biscuits and cookies. Three at a time, which means that a traditional recipe for about 2.5 dozen cookies took four hours to make.
So yep, a fun, educational morning in Pennsylvania. =) And boy was I glad in that 95 degree, humid heat that I wasn’t wearing the long sleeves and petticoats of the reenactors!
by Roseanna White | Jul 13, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I know, I know–you read that title and think, “You mean, like, always?” Yeah, pretty much. 😉 Which is why I volunteered to run an online session on research for writers 20 and under as part of the NextGen Online Writers Conference!
Have you heard about this? It’s pretty cool, and all you teens out there need to check it out–and all you older folks need to recommend it to the young writers you know. Registration is free, but you’ve gotta be registered to take advantage of the cool classes and contests.
You can find info on the event and register at
www.NextGenWriters.com. The presenters are all published authors there to chat about topics near and dear. Me, obviously, but also Stephanie Morrill, Melanie Dickerson, MaryLu Tyndall, Nicole O’Dell, Max Elliot Anderson, Caleb Breakey, Shellie Neumeier (who developed the event), Jill Williamson (who just won another Christy this week–Goooooooo, Jill!!), and Patti Shene. To find links to all their websites, check out the
presenter’s page at NextGen.
For my part, as you already know, I volunteered to talk about research. So in my post I cover why research is crucial, no matter your genre, and then dive into how to do it, touching on online searching, physical books, and experts.
PLUS–I’m doing a special giveaway for conference attendees and offering a free one-chapter (or 15 pages max) critique to one lucky winner!
The conference is August 2-3, so you’ve only got a couple weeks left to register! Don’t forget to check it out!!
by Roseanna White | Jun 29, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
(I cheated today and took part of a post I put up at Colonial Quills for this. 😉 Feel free to stop by the original post too!)
A couple weeks ago, I talked about the British counterfeiting scheme during the Revolution. Well, after that the dollar was pretty much destroyed. After the war, most people traded in silver coin, using the Spanish silver dollars, which equaled eight reales. And when they needed a smaller coin, they pieced them into half, quarters, etc.
Which meant that folks got so good at dividing these silver circles that they soon had eighths and tenths. But, um, have you ever tried to tell the difference between an eighth of a small circle and a tenth? Yeah. The people of the new United States weren’t all that fond of it either.
This was the point when independent gold and silver smiths became authorized to create their own money with the approval of the government. You could bring in your pieced silver, hand it over to the smith, and get in return a nice, easy-to-use shilling. Naturally, the smiths got the good end of this deal by coating a less-expensive metal in the silver and so keeping the difference.
One of the most prominent smiths of post-Revolution America was John Chalmers of
Annapolis. The Chalmers Shilling was brilliant, in part because of its marketing potential. The front of the coin had “I. Chalmers
Annapolis” emblazoned around it, which meant that everyone using the coin knew the name of this one smith.
What I find really interesting is the back of the coin. In case you can’t make it out, those are two birds fighting over a worm, with a snake in the background waiting to strike them.
Keep in mind that at the time there was a huge debate about how big or small the federal government should be, whether authority should remain mostly with the states or be given to the centralized government. Well, Chalmers made his politics known with this image. The birds represent the states, and the image is a cautionary tale–let not the states bicker among themselves. If they do, the federal government (the snake) will be ready to swallow them whole.
And there you have a second installment of the history of early American currency. That’ll be two shillings, please. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jun 22, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I’ve always loved getting mail. As a kid, having a letter come to me was right up there with new toys and macaroni. (Which is saying something indeed.) And a package?? Oh, that couldn’t be beat. I still remember when a friend of mine sent me a birthday present in the mail, filled with home-drawn stationery, stickers, and other fun stuff for a young girl. =)
These days, the mail brings the requisite bills, of course, and books. Lots and lots of books. So many books that this die-hard reader has started going, “Really? More books?” instead of “Yay, more books!” (Again, that’s saying something, LOL.) But once in a while, a different kind of package arrives. And sometimes it’s the treat of the year.
Do you remember when I talked about the torc bracelet in Jewel of Persia and the awesome jeweler from Athens who was gracious enough to let us use his images? (If not, Part 1 and Part 2) Well, Aris has outdone himself in generosity. With the release of JoP in paperback, I contacted him again to thank him and get his address so I could send him a book. He got mine too, and sent me this.
How amazing is that? How beautiful? How generous? It deserves an entire row of exclamation points, so indulge me: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, here’s a bit about this amazing design. Based on museum pieces that were discovered in archaeological finds in Greece, Aris Vaphiadis inherited the lion head design from earlier jewelers in his family, and they remain some of the shop’s most popular designs. They are so popular, in fact, that their lion collection is now in the gift shop of the Louvre. Historically, jewelry like this was loved and worn by both men and women.
In my story, Kasia receives the bracelet in the first chapter, and it’s throughout the book a symbol of love between her and her husband. When I originally wrote the book, this bracelet was gold. But when I found the pictures of it on the Greek Jewelery Shop’s site and Aris was so kind as to let us use them on the cover, I went through and changed all the descriptions to silver, to perfectly match his design, no digital altering required.
Greek Jewelry Shop has a ton of awesome designs in the ancient fashion, so I have to recommend you pay them a visit online and check out the amazing work displayed there. You won’t regret it!
Overall, this has been a really exciting week for me, and it was crowned by coming home from a weekend vacation to find this treasure awaiting me. So I must again extend my deepest thanks to the talented and generous Aris Vaphiadis.
by Roseanna White | Jun 15, 2011 | Remember When Wednesdays, Uncategorized
I’m such a geek. Yes, I admit it. I’m not just the type that will look up random histories of things as I go throughout my day (I mean, surely I’m not the only one who wants to know who in the world developed cotton candy, right? A dentist, by the way–figure that one out, LOL). I’m the type who looks forward to looking up history when I’m visiting a new place.
Examples? Sure, why not. We’ll start with a familiar place, like the Outer Banks of NC. I love those beaches. I’ve gone every year since I was about 12, so it feels like a second home to our families. Naturally, I’ve picked up a bit of the island’s history along the way. But lately I’ve been craving more. Imagining what awesome books about the Outer Banks of the past might be on a rental house’s coffee table this year. Knowing I could a few internet searches and answer some of my questions, but wanting rather to get the history while there. To feel it, see it, breathe it.
Example the second: hubby and I are planning a trip to Niagara Falls. I’ve never been, know very little about them. But I’m plotting how our romantic anniversary trip could be stretched to include a little history-taking. I mean, surely there’s a story to be told set there! And surely it’ll hit me while I’m there, absorbing the place and its past. Right? I mean, did you know that the caves behind the falls were built into them in the late 1800s? I’d assumed they were natural and man just added the convenience, but nope. Totally made for tourists. Fun, huh?
So yeah. There you have it. I may just have to join a History Lovers Anonymous. I can only imagine how fun those meetings might be! 😉
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.