I bought the book! (And it's all Carolyn's fault *g*)

Yesterday after lunch (why is it that when they're offering something really YUMMY at our university cafeteria, the queue is so long that you're forced to go and have the not-so yummy stuff after all? Duh.) and after our weekly team meeting, I went and bought that book I was talking about on Monday. And I bought the original, just as Carolyn advised. :)

So, what's the title of this mysterious book? It's THE BEETON BOOK OF GARDEN MANAGEMENT. You might have heard of MRS. BEETON'S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, one of the first cookbooks in Britain and a guide to running a large household in Victorian times. Apparently, Mrs. Beeton was married to a Mr. Beeton (hehe, took a genius to figure that one out, eh?), who was a publisher of books and popular magazines. She started to write articles for her hubby's publications, and in 1861 those articles were compiled and published as a book, said MRS. BEETON'S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT. Apart from umpteen pages of recipes, it also contains instructions for the mistress and the various servants, outlining their duties - thus making it a wonderful resource for writers! I for one, have never quite grasped in how far the duties of the butler differed from those of a footman; what kind of things the valet had to do in addition to helping his master dress; or what the difference was between a coachman and a groom. Mrs. Beeton, however, has enlightened me! :) (If you want to be enlightened, too, you can check out the online text at www.mrsbeeton.com )

The other wonderful thing about HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT are the recipes and the numerous colour plates, which show how the food was served, what it looked like, how it was decorated, etc. So I definitely want to get my hands on a copy of that book, too.

But what's so interesting about THE BEETON BOOK OF GARDEN MANAGEMENT? Again, the colour plates: they show all the different kinds of fruits and veggies the Victorians cultivated in their gardens. They had a much greater variety of vegetables & fruits than we have today, and many of the old varieties of, say, beans or peas are no longer grown on a large scale or even no longer available today. Did you, for example, know that there are yellow raspberries? I didn't! And I love raspberries! :)

In addition, it will be interesting to see what the 19th-century kitchen gardens could produce throughout the four seasons. And those big estates produced all their fruit and veggies themselves, which meant they had to come up with some clever ideas how to grow things during the autumn and winter months. Melons, for example, were all the rage during the 19th century, and the headgardeners of the different estates throughout Britain normally would grow their own varieties!

The Last of Monday

I completely forgot to tell you: at the beginning of last week I finished the last chapter of BEWITCHED!!! Yay! Yet at the moment I still got two different versions of the last sentence. Which do you like better?

And together they walked on, while behind them the robin told the reborn world of a new morn.

OR

And together they walk on, into the reborn world, while behind them the robin heralded a new morn.

And now ...

... I only have to finish those 150 pages in the middle of the book. :)

Dilemma

My greedy, little researcher's heart is currently yearning for a 19th-century book on garden management. There are basically two different versions available from abebooks: a facsimile from the 1980s or the real, 19th-century thing from either 1872 or 1890. And herein lies the dilemma: should I take the (cheaper, can-mark-with-pen-and-post-its) facsimile or the (real, but relatively expensive) original edition?

The facsimile would be the sensible solution, of course.

But -- ooooooooh -- imagine: getting your hands on an original edition! *sigh*

Now isn't this fitting?

The first review of CASTLE OF THE WOLF that goes online is a negative one. *headdesk*

Ah well, this morning I've got a sneak preview at yet another review -- and she really DID like it. So this has probably something to do with the cosmic balance of things. Or something. Who knows? *shrug*

Introducing Farrah Rochon

Farrah Rochon is one of the newest members of the Dorchester family. Her debut novel, DELIVER ME, will hit bookstores next Tuesday -- so this is a very exciting time for her! (Though judging from her blog, she seems a lot saner than I was in the weeks before my debut novel came out *g*) (Pssst, shall we tell her that her book is probably already out in New York?)

I've asked Farrah to answer a few questions for me, so please welcome her to Sandy's Chatterblog:

How did you get started writing romance?

There is an interesting twist to how I began writing romantic fiction. In early 2001, I began posting on an online message board for my favorite romance writer. In July of that year, I met a group of fellow message board members in New Orleans at a book signing associated with the Romance Writers of America (RWA) National Convention. At the time, I had not even heard of RWA, and had no aspirations of writing romance. But things drastically changed over the course of that year. My friends discovered that I was writing a novel, and encouraged me to try my hand at writing a romance novel. By the same time the next year, I had completed my first romance novel and was attending the RWA National Convention in Denver as a new member of the organization.


Tell me about DELIVER ME:

DELIVER ME is actually the fifth full manuscript I had completed before getting published. I'd written a magnificent suspense/thriller (that statement is dripping with sarcasm) while in college, and a three book series of category romances targeted to Silhouette's Intimate Moments line. I never though I could write one of those "big books". Then, one day as I was driving home from work, there was a commercial for a gynecology practice on the radio. A very crude, but funny, line popped into my head as I started thinking of what a typical conversation between guys would be after hearing such a commercial. It planted the seed for an Ob-gyn romance hero, who has friends (or, as the case turned out, brothers) who rib him about what he faces daily in his occupation. Don't worry, the crude line did not make it into the book.

The decision to set DELIVER ME in New Orleans was very easy since it is my home town. However, when Hurricane Katrina blew in, it caused a number of problems. You see, DELIVER ME was written about a year and a half before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. When I finally sold my novel, the landscape of the book's setting had been forever changed, and I had to make the decision to incorporate those changes into the book. My editor gave me the option of simply writing an Author's Note stating that the book predated Hurricane Katrina, but I'm happy I decided not to take the easy way out. I think the book is much better, and in a way, a tribute to the beautiful Crescent City and its current efforts to rebuild.

What are you working on right now?

I completed the second brother, Tobias's book, a few weeks ago. Tentatively titled, RELEASE ME, Toby's book turned out even better than I could have imagined. Toby is an ex-basketball pro turned music producer, and his newest client is picked to star in an American Idol-type reality television show. The book was an absolute blast to write.

I just started the last book in my Holmes Brothers series. This is the book I've been waiting to write. Over the course of the last three years, I've gotten to know this book's hero, Alexander Holmes, very well. He is definitely my kind of hero, a widower who is raising his six-year-old daughter on his own and had an extremely strong sense of family. Alex is tortured, to say the least, but its just going to make his Happy Ever After that much sweeter.

~*~

Thanks a lot, Farrah! An ob-gyn hero -- how cool is that? Unfortunately, I've never been to New Orleans myself, but have only ever "seen" it through Anne Rice's eyes (I loved, loved, loved the Vampire Chronicles before they turned, well, strange), so it will be very interesting to read your book and get all those new impressions of the town. Living through Katrina must have been very scary indeed.

Titanic in 30 Seconds

Starring bunnies. :)

Enjoy!

Click here.

More Carnival

Today is my blogging day on Unusual Historicals. I did a post on -- yes -- carnival in Germany. Enjoy!

And here are two short YouTube films of the Rose Monday parade in Mainz:

Mainz

I've just found this short film about Mainz on YouTube (the people in red with the scarves are soccer fans *g*). Enjoy!

Rosenmontag 2007 - Helau!

Last year I already told you a bit about carnival and the Rosenmontag parades, especially those in Mainz: here, here (with pics), and here (with even more pics). Today it's Rosenmontag again and here are a few pics of this year's parade (all of them snapshots from the ZDF or the SWR coverage). Enjoy & helau!

Gutenberg, too, likes carnival :O)

Wisdom of the Day

On some days, each word becomes an effort, and to write three sentences takes half an hour. Today was one of these days: I just stared dully at my AlphaSmart-mini-monitor-thingie and it stared dully back. *sigh*

Horrible Histories of Mayence Episode of the Day:

He read how the seven knights killed the seven dastardly giants, how valiant Catrina, formerly known as Kassian, rode to a necromancer's castle to save the Maid Gellna from a horrible fate.

The valiant knightess, when her enemy came unto her, struck him so terrible a blow upon the visor of his helmet, that with the fury thereof she made sparkles of fire to issue out with great abundance, and forced him to bow his head unto his breast. The necromancer returned her his salutation, and struck her such a blow upon the helmet that --

"Sebastian?"

Fox looked up.

His brother stood in the door.

My editor will get a good chuckle out of this one *g*

Remember when I whined about not wanting to write a love scene set in the forest for CASTLE OF THE WOLF when I was doing the last revisions? How I scandalized my poor colleagues during our lunch break one day, by asking if they could come up with reasons why it's not a good idea to have sex in the forest in early spring? How I put together this really impressive list (ranging from "too cold!!!" to "ants!!!!!!!!") to convince my editor?

Well, now, not only will BEWITCHED contain a love scene out in the middle of nowhere, no, it will also be a love scene out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter!!! *g* (Have patience: there's magic involved!)

Isn't it romantic?

Okay, after I've outed myself as a cynic a few posts down, here's something to show you that I'm not a complete cynic after all: at AAR they're hosting a Valentine Day's contest each year and the readers of AAR are asked to share their own (real life) love stories. This year's winner story can be found here.

There's still hope

Actually, the last 10 pages I wrote weren't so bad after all. Still, I'm not yet quite sure whether killing the eeeeeevuhl plant with a magical sword is a good idea or not. Perhaps it needs to be killed with a simple spade? What do you think: sword or spade?

Hissing, the plant shot forward as if to snap at Bourne. Yet he stood out of its reach and, unperturbed, slowly lifted the sword with both hands. Rays of the wintersun caught and sparkled on the grey steel, and it seemed as if a gleaming star was lodged at the tip of the blade. The next moment, the weapon swung downward in a graceful, deadly arch. Yet instead of chopping off the main stalk, Bourne cut deep into the earth, apparently in order to hit the main root.

A high-pitched wail made them all start.

Facts, facts, and even more facts

I saw this on Schrumpfkopf's blog -- well, he listed six things about himself, but I've never liked the number 6, and 7's my favourite number, thus:

Seven Facts about Sandy

1. Guess what: I love books. :) I love being surrounded by books, I love buying books, I love reading books, and I love writing books.
2. My favourite cookies: oat cookies with chocolate stripes from Ikea
3. I wrote my first story when I was four or five. Well, actually, I didn't write it myself as I couldn't yet write. Instead I dictated it to my Mum, who had to write it down on a tissue or napkin (we were on a plane).
4. The Lily Brand was the ninth novel I completed.
5. I hate it when my desk is messy.
6. Unfortunately, I've got a tendency towards messiness in times of stress.
7. My teeth are too big for my jaw (my Dad once remarked I had teeth like a horse -- thanks, Dad). As a result, eight of them (including all wisdom teeth) had to be removed. Ouch.

Instead of roses

In a very twisted sort of way, it is rather fitting that I'm killing off fictional plants today (I know, I know: I'm hopelessly bad). But it's an eeeeeevuhl plant, I swear. Look here:

And there, nestling between two withered bushes, they found it: black, with a glistening dark ball [or globe?] at its top, the plant had unfurled thick, meaty leaves with slithered close to the earth. One of them covered the rotting remains of a robin's wing; the stalk of another had curled around a long-dead mouse [poor mousie]. The stench of death and decay saturated the air.

Eeeeeevuhl, see?


Update, 5:40 p.m.: Thou Shalt Not Kill Plants on Valentine's Day

The last ten pages I wrote are utter, utter crap. Crap. Now I have to chuck it all out and try to find a different way to kill the "$$%$&!"!&=?$="( plant. Duh.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Have I already mentioned that I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to real-life love? *g* I saw this posted on the Whine Sisters' blog and just couldn't resist.

BOOOOOOOOOOKS!!!!! :O)

Today was my last day of teaching for this semester (yes!) and in order to celebrate I indulged in a book-shopping spree. The results can be admired here. For some reason or other, amazon doesn't have a cover image for the book on Astrid Lindgren yet -- which is a most beautiful book indeed! It's filled with loads of pictures and anecdotes from Lindgren's life.

Astrid Lindgren was wonderful writer; "Ronia, the Robber's Daughter" and "The Brothers Lionheart" are among all-time favourite books.

Views of the Black Forest

Today I put together an article about the Black Forest, and for that reason went through our old family pics (as you might know, I spent my early childhood years in the Black Forest). So here are a few pictures that didn't get used for the article. Enjoy!

Waldkirch, where my family used to live and which was the model for Kirchwalden in CASTLE OF THE WOLF, was once a famous centre of organ building. Here you see me, a stuffed bunny rabbit and a small fairground organ

Me & the Mouse: that mouse is the mascot of the Europa Park Rust, a large entertainment park

Trailer! :)

Finished & done with

Yay!

Nearly there, nearly there!

The novel explores the nature of love by contrasting mere infatuation with love based on friendship and affection.

742 words (and they're goooooood!), but I still need to insert a little something about the epilogue, which is a gentle dig at the romance convention of seeing the protagonists multiply in the epilogue. The chapter heading reads as follows:

Epilogue

In which Our Hero and Heroine

exhibit the industriousness

of which we knew they were capable

*g*

Or rather:

As a romance, the novel naturally explores the nature of love, namely by contrasting mere infatuation with love based on friendship and affection.

Four Hours Later ...

As a romance, the novel naturally explores the nature of love by contrasting mere infatuation with love based on friendship and affection.

Now I only need to explain this in less than 250 words.

One of these days ... again

Another morning spent at the vet's. And now I'm staring again at my 'puter monitor, now filled with the 292 words from yesterday.

One of the main themes the novel adresses is the question of what is love.

Right. So how do we proceed from there?

Stay tuned for more exciting news about Sandy's battle with the big, bad encyclopedia-entry. It could be worse. It could be a monster poodle. *g*

PS

Have you noticed? The layout has started to change! :)

What do you think of it? I tried doing a background pic, but, as you can see, it didn't work. However, I'm quite happy with this, too. Now I hope I'll figure out how to post a nicer header sometime soon.

One of these days again

Spent half of the day at the vet's and keeping an eye on my parents' cat. There's something wrong with the poor laddie's spine and keeps keeling over.

Spent the afternoon staring at the blank page on my monitor and trying to write an intelligent, insightful article on Julia Quinn's ON THE WAY TO THE WEDDING. 292 words took me about 2 1/2 hours. *head-desk*

Geez. I'm a snail!

Karen Scott's Survey

After a heated debate on her blog, Karen Scott decided to do a survey on "Racisim in publishing, how does it affect you?" Here are the details:

Are you an African American author who’s been published for at least one year? If so Karen Scott wants to hear from you.

She’s conducting a survey based on the racism within the publishing industry, and whether or not it’s as prevalent as some believe. She’s looking for black or African American authors who have been published for at least one year.

She would like to know about your specific experiences within the industry thus far. She wants to know how AA authors feel about the current shelving policies, and niche marketing. She wants to know who you feel is to blame for the problems that you face. She also wants your suggestions on how things can be improved upon.

In all, there are twenty questions in the survey, and all that she asks is that people be as honest as possible. Confidentiality is assured if requested, but for the findings to yield more weight, she would request that she be granted permission to directly quote from the answers given by the authors.

She’s hoping to poll at least 100 AA authors, in an effort to ensure that a fair representation is achieved.

If enough authors agree to partcipate, (and depending on the findings) the results may well be sent to representatives within media and press. No promises that Oprah will hear about it, but all efforts will be made to get the message out.

If there are AA authors out there interested in participating in this poll, please e-mail Karen at hairylemony @ gmail. com (without the spaces) with the subject header ‘Please send me the survey'.

The deadline for the survey to be completed and returned to Karen is March 1st 2007

More Horrible Mysteries

... or rather, Histories:

I renamed The Horrible Mysteries; they're now the Horrible Histories of the Rhine, and the seven students became seven knights.

For the next few hours, Fox read to Amy about how brave Heim Heinrik saved the girl princess Idonia from the clutches of the evil giant and how he continued to win the heart of Queen Christiana. But too soon, he had to leave her again: "This letter was very welcome to Queen Christiana, who now began to set such high esteem on Heim Heinrik, that she judged him worthy of the empire of the world. And now, he being the sole monarch of her heart, she could not but breathe forth some sighs to think upon his absence; but considering upon what an honourable account he was engaged, she could not but applaud his undertaking: yet to give him some clear demonstration of her affection to him, upon his marching away, she went in her chariot to speak to him, whom she found at the head of his troops, and kindly bade him farewell and bestowed upon him a scarf of her own with these words: 'Let me request you to wear this scarf for my sake, that by looking on the same, I may not be altogether out of your remembrance.'"

By now Fox's voice was hoarse. He had to clear his throat, before he could croak, "End of Part II of the Horrible Histories of the Rhine."

(The text he reads is actually from a 1824 edition of The Seven Champions of Christendom -- names have been altered.)

You might remember that I work in Mainz/Mayence ... Can you smell the smoke? *ggg*

New Look on MySpace

My MySpace page got a new look today. Check it out and tell me what you think of it:

Sandy on MySpace

Subtext, it's all about the subtext ...

Mix gothic novel with Goethe's Faust (sort of), throw in a bit of classical mythology and then you've got:

Fox turned the book between his hands. Dark, red leather, soft and smooth like silk. The flash of gilt letters and ornaments. He rubbed his thumb over the inscription on the spine - Mysteries of the Rhine.

He flicked the book open. The frontispiece showed a strapping young man in the shabby, dark clothes of a poor scholar, a fat book raised high over his head. In front of him crouched what looked like a cross between Cerberus and a sheep. "Worthy Markander and the three-headed monster poodle," the inscription read. And on the title page,

THE HORRIBLE MYSTERIES

OF THE RHINE

being the true story

of seven brave students

of Mayence

& what befell them.

More Library Cards :O)