BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR PAMELA FORD

Today we sit down to interview award-winning historical and contemporary romance author Pamela Ford. Learn more about her and her books at her website.

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

I've always been a voracious reader and was an advertising copywriter, so you'd think I would have always wanted to write a novel. But in truth, the idea didn't cross my mind until I was almost thirty. And even then, once I sat down and wrote the beginning and ending, I had no idea what to put in the middle! It wasn't until many years later that I decided to give it another shot – and while I did finish that first book, it's up in the attic, never to see the light of day! I sold my third book...and credit RWA (Romance Writers of America) with helping me learn what I needed to know to craft a good novel.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

I've been writing for ad agencies and as a freelancer for a long time, but it probably took ten years to realize the dream of getting a novel published. During that ten years there were large spans of time during which I was having children (three!) and working and doing a lot of other life stuff which caused the twin goals of writing and publishing to often drop low on the priority list.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author? 

Hybrid author

Where do you write? 

I write at home at my desk or in our three-season porch (I love the breeze blowing through when it's nice out!) I also like to write in coffee shops. After years of writing at home alone, I've come to love the human connection and the hum of conversation around me when I write in coffee shops.

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

I can listen to music in coffee shops and it doesn't bother me at all. But if I put on music at home, it has to be instrumental only; if there is any singing, I end up singing along and it's just not very easy to write and sing at the same time! While writing To Ride a White Horse, I listened to a lot of haunting Irish music by Phil Coulter, particularly his Sea of Tranquility CD.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular? 

To Ride a White Horse is built around actual events in Ireland and America in the 1840s, but the main characters and their lives are completely my invention. I interwove Jack and Kathleen's stories with history, creating a love story during a tragic time period in Irish history. In general, with my contemporary books, I may get an idea for starting point or a cute meet from an event in real life, but that is just a kicking-off point from which I create the rest of the plot and story. As for characters, I've never yet based a character on someone I know, but there are a couple of people I'm thinking I may get some satisfaction from killing off in a book...so never say never!

Describe your process for naming your character? 

I don't have a real process. Baby name websites are helpful. I just go for what "feels" right for a particular character.

Real settings or fictional towns? 

I do both. To Ride a White Horse is set in real locations in both Ireland, Canada, and the U.S. But some of my contemporary books are set in fictional towns. It's fun to write using fictional towns because you aren't bound by reality – if you need a bookstore on the corner of Main and Vine, you can have one!

What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters has?  

I'm not sure this would be characterized as a quirk, but Kathleen's mother in To Ride a White Horse is always providing guidance by quoting Irish proverbs. Even when Kathleen is thousands of miles away from home, she still finds guidance in her mother's proverbs.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

I have an overactive imagination and am always coming up with wild scenarios for people and situations I encounter throughout the day.

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why? 

The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley). This is a long, complex novel, but from the first sentence to the last, I was captivated. She did such an incredible job with this story that at the end, I so wanted it all to be true. Oh, did I wish it all was true!! As soon as I finished reading it, I immediately read it again.

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours?  

I would have believed Joe Konrath several years ago when he was extolling the virtues of indie publishing, and I would have jumped into the indie market sooner.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

When I'm talking with someone and s/he starts answering text messages in the middle of the conversation.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

My husband, my dog, and a library!

What was the worst job you’ve ever held? 

I was working for an ad agency and had to ghost-write long articles for clients which were then placed in industry publications with the client's byline. The topics were often so complicated (and I wasn't allowed to ask the clients questions), that sometimes I put my head on my desk and cried.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?  

There are so many books I've loved, but if I have to choose just one, I'd have to go with The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Ocean or mountains? 

Ocean... waves, beaches, whitecaps, balmy breezes...oh, I think I need a vacation!

City girl/guy or country girl/guy? 

Country girl...casual, barefoot, and makeup-free

What’s on the horizon for you? 

I just finished writing a light contemporary novel that is the first is a new series I plan to launch in the next couple of months.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

To Ride a White Horse is a big departure from the type of books I had previously written – most obviously, it is a historical and my other books are all contemporaries. After all the blood, sweat and tears I put into this novel, it has been so rewarding to see how the story has resonated with readers and reviewers. I love hearing from readers. Reach me through my website at pamelaford.net, and follow on facebook.com/pamelafordauthor, or twitter @pamfordauthor.

To Ride a White Horse

Your feet will bring you to where your heart is. Set against the backdrop of 1840s Ireland and America, To Ride a White Horse is an epic historical saga of hope, loyalty, the strength of the human spirit, and the power of love.

With Ireland ravaged by famine, and England unsympathetic to its plight, Kathleen Deacey, a spirited and strong-willed young Irish woman faces a devastating choice—leave her country to find work or risk dying there. Despising the English for refusing to help Ireland, she sets sail for Canada, determined to save her family and find her missing fiancé.

But her voyage doesn't go as planned and she ends up in America, forced to accept the help of an English whaling captain, Jack Montgomery, to survive. As Jack helps her search for her fiancé and fight to save her family and country, she must make an impossible choice—remain loyal to Ireland or follow her heart.

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GUEST AUTHOR MARNI GRAFF ON MANHATTAN'S HIDDEN DELIGHTS

Broadway

Marni Graff is the award-wining author of The Nora Tierney Mysteries, set in England. Her new series debuts with Death Unscripted, a Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery. Graff also writes the crime review blog Auntie M Writes. Today she joins us to talk about little gems hidden away in The Big Apple. Learn more about Marni and her books at her website. 

Manhattan         

When people hear the name “Manhattan” they often think of the dazzling lights of Broadway and Times Square, the gaudy shops along Fifth Avenue, The Plaza Hotel and Central Park.

Growing up on Long Island, Manhattan was all that to me and so much more, only a train ride away. It’s also a place where there are smaller jewels to be discovered that most tourists miss.

The Morgan Library

One of my favorite places to stop is TheMorgan Library and Museum at 225 Madison Avenue and 36^th Street, which began as the private library of financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Designed by Charles Kim of the renowned architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, the Italian Renaissance-style structure holds three soaring elegant rooms in their original condition. A modern annex holds more of Morgan’s collections, and there’s a tea room and gift shop, too, but the original library was donated by son J.P. Morgan to the public in 1924 to allow them access to his father’s treasures.

And what treasures these are, from Medieval and Renaissance illustrated manuscripts, early books and historical manuscripts, to Old Master drawings and prints, including a massive Rembrandt etching collection and things like a journal written by Thoreau. These reside alongside ancient artifacts, and scholars can apply for access to the volumes. There are also special events, such as this summer’s Alice: 150 Years in Wonderland, through October 11^th. For the first time outside London’s British Library visitors can see the original Carroll manuscript, as well as original illustrations and drawings, rare editions, and vintage photographs. It’s a place I can visit over and over.

Another unusual stop is the Paley Center for Media (paleycenter.org), formerly the Museum for Television and Radio, renamed in 2007 for founder William Paley. The center’s collection features over 150,000 clips from television shows, radio programs and podcasts. Introduce children to vintage TV or watch a clip from a show you enjoyed. There are public events in their auditorium, too, like an upcoming discussion August 16^th of the show Homicide between its creators, Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson. Or stop by September 28^th for a talk by journalist Christiane Amanpour. 

Lincoln Center

The bustling energy and international flavor of Manhattan has always been attractive to me, one reason I decided to set my new mystery series there. Based on my medical consulting days working for a movie studio, most of my time was spent at the ABC Studio that taped “One Life to Live,” right down the street from Lincoln Center. I’d walk there at lunchtime to see what was on at the Met or the Ballet, or simply watch the play of its fountains. It’s a great plaza for people watching and collecting characters. Living in North Carolina now, I still yearn for the special vibe that is Manhattan’s own, and visit whenever I can.

Death Unscripted

Trudy Genova has the best job any nurse could want, working onset as a medical consultant for a movie studio. No more uniforms, bedpans or emergencies, until the actor whose overtures she’s refused dies suddenly while taping a hospital scene--but not before pointing his finger accusingly at Trudy. When detectives view Trudy as a suspect, she interferes with their investigation to clear her name. Then a second death occurs, and Trudy realizes she’s put herself in jeopardy.

Based on the author’s real life work experience, Death Unscripted takes readers behind the scenes of a Manhattan soap opera.

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AUTHOR JANIS SUSAN MAY/JANIS PATTERSON ON STOLEN ANTIQUITIES

Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson is a 7th-generation Texan who writes mystery, romance, and horror. She’s also an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist whose husband proposed to her in a moonlit garden near the Pyramids of Giza. Today she stops by to talk about her passion for antiquities. Learn more about Janis and her books at her two websites, www.JanisSusanMay.com and www.JanisPattersonMysteries.com.

Graves and Robbers

What is an antiquity? Generally accepted, it means an artifact from an ancient civilization – sort of like an antique antique. While in eras gone past, some governments gave away their antiquities for one reason or another, usually political – such as the Egyptian obelisks in New York and Paris, or the Elgin Marbles in London – or lost them as spoils of war, nowadays governments are very careful about what happens to these artifacts of their history.

Unfortunately, this does not make people stop wanting them. While in modern times antiquities as large as the obelisks or marble sculptures pretty much stay in their home countries, there is unfortunately a brisk illegal trade in smaller antiquities. Statues, boxes, pieces of pictures, even potsherds and parts of broken artifacts quietly vanish from their rightful place and disappear into a shadowy world of antiquities smuggling and black markets.

Earlier this year I went to Egypt to research A Killing at El Kab, my new mystery novel. One of the characters in this story lost his reputation and chances of ever getting another job in his field (Egyptology) simply because some of the men he worked with were caught smuggling antiquities. He was innocent, but no one believed him except one friend, a man who risked his own reputation to help him get his back.

A country’s artifacts are their history, and they belong to the country and its people. Unfortunately, though, some people don’t get the message. I’ll talk about Egypt, simply because I know the situation there the best, but this kind of history-theft is common all over the world – including in our own country which continues to see theft from our Southwestern Native American sites.

There is poverty in Egypt, and while most of the population reveres their heritage and abhors any kind of theft, there are those who are tempted by the huge sums some will pay for a true Egyptian antiquity, especially one in very good condition. I am not talking about a tiny, undistinguished potsherd, either. (My personal opinion is that the Egyptian government is missing a bet by not selling these chunks of broken pottery, as there are literally billions of them lying around, sometimes in hills the size of a football field and as high as a two story house.) I’m talking about beautiful, singular works of art. Statues. Jewelry. Votive objects. One-of-a-kind things. Even scenes painted on tomb walls, pictures cut from the living rock and as often as not broken, ruined and discarded in the process.

These works of art, these pieces of history, then vanish from the country by means both simple and arcane. Some are covered in plaster and sent out in the middle of a shipment of tourist souvenirs. Others are smuggled out across an unguarded strip of border. There are unscheduled, low-altitude flights of private planes over desolate wastes. Sometimes officials hired to protect these treasures succumb to the lure of bribery. Some brave souls simply tuck their booty into a roll of dirty socks and carry it out in a suitcase – though in these days of heightened security this way is quickly becoming both obsolete and dangerous. The truth is, though, if a buyer with enough money wants an artifact, a way will be found to get it. Then this treasured piece of the past will probably vanish, either never to be seen again, or for many, many years. People who buy smuggled antiquities usually don’t share them with the rest of the world.

The final tragedy is that if the antiquity is ever recovered, it is useless scientifically. Without a provenance – a record of where, when and how it was found in relation to what and by whom – the artifact becomes just a pretty thing lost in time.

And that isn’t the worst. Archaeologists have been apostrophized as being grave robbers and desecrators of the dead, but that’s not true. Real archaeologists treat human remains and ancient cultures with great respect. They are there to study the lives and civilization of the peoples whom they excavate and in a way make them live again. Not so the artifact seeking grave robbers whose only motive is profit.

Archaeology is a respectful science. Black market antiquities collectors respect nothing but their own wants. A country loses its heritage and for what? So that a criminal who thinks nothing of defiling not only his own heritage but his ancestors’ graves can earn a little money? Antiquities theft and smuggling are obscenities that must be stopped.

Curse of the Exile

Born in Italy the year Victoria ascended to the throne, then sent to a servants’ school in England by a vengeful aunt, Angelina Barstow has finally found what she thinks is her life’s calling – working as an assistant to her feckless librarian father.

Even as she longs for a home and love Angelina survives, dealing with life as it comes to her, enduring the deliberate cruelty of her aunt, the put-downs of their latest employer’s snobbish aunt, her rakish father’s addiction to women and the sudden, unwanted reappearance of the bounder who broke her heart years before. When the laird who has employed them appears to return her unspoken feelings Angelina is overjoyed even though she knows theirs is a love that cannot be. A poor laird cannot marry a penniless librarian’s assistant and Angelina can consider nothing less than marriage.

Hidden treasure, an ancient haunting, two tragic deaths and a curse from long ago all combine not only to threaten Angelina’s life but to give her a chance at unimagined happiness.

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--MEATBALLS & SAUCE WITH GUEST AUTHOR ELIZABETH JOHN

Elizabeth John writes sweet contemporary romances and cozy romantic suspense novels. She loves dogs, the beach, and books, of course! Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

In my book, Judging Joey, Madeline White rarely had a home cooked meal growing up. Her dad had his hands full taking care of her neglectful mother, so Madeline had to fend for herself unless he remembered she was too young to turn on the stove. Macaroni and cheese from a box became the closest thing to real cuisine until she moved in with her elderly aunt and uncle. Her aunt introduced her to a world filled with nutrition, recipes, and family time at the dinner table. Sadly, her aunt passed years later, and Madeline took over the kitchen duties. Uncle Mark could make toast and tea and that was all. His attempts at preparing meals became an inside joke to the two because Madeline had to beg him to let her do all the cooking after one of his ‘Tuna Surprise’ casseroles.

Madeline takes pride in her culinary talents. Just like she prepares her lesson plans for teaching her students, she preps her meals in advance too. Sometimes the meal is elaborate such as her stuffed roasted pork loin. No matter what, each morning she knows what she and her uncle will have for dinner. That is until Laura, her widowed next door neighbor, begins to frequently stop by with her famous hot chili or freshly baked apple pie to whet her uncle’s appetite. Madeline thinks their blossoming relationship is cute and appreciates the diversion from her uncomfortable reunion with Joey O’Neill. When Madeline comes home from a stressful day at work, she is thrilled to find Laura stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce and meatballs.

All the foods cooked in this book are recipes I’ve learned from my mother. My German mother learned how to cook Italian from my father’s sister, who of course, learned from my grandmother. However, my family never said spaghetti sauce. The red paste was called gravy. When the grandchildren were born, calling spaghetti sauce gravy was confusing. The kids insisted gravy was brown. Although, my mother still calls spaghetti sauce gravy, nobody cares since her dish tastes magnifico by any name. Enjoy!

Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs

Meatballs:

1/2 cup of each: ground beef, veal, pork (All beef or a combination is fine, too.)

1 small onion, minced

1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

1 egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Handful of chopped Italian parsley

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional)

olive oil

Mix together by hand. A large melon scooper will help keep the size of the mixture the same. Use hands to roll into golf-sized balls.

Coat frying pan with olive oil and allow to heat up. Brown meatballs lightly on all sides.

Sauce:

2-3 garlic cloves

olive oil

1 can crushed tomatoes

oregano

salt

pepper

fresh basil

Slice garlic. Sauté in olive oil. (Garlic can be removed before serving guests.) Add tomatoes.

Add oregano, salt and pepper to taste, plus several fresh basil leaves.

Let the sauce simmer with the meatballs and continually stir the sauce so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Be careful not to break up the meatballs. The sauce should simmer at least an hour, but the longer, the better.

Serve with al dente pasta.

Judging Joey

Madeline White must return to her hometown to help her uncle, her only family. She gets a job teaching and sees the man who broke her heart back in high school. Then she discovers he’s the school’s Safety Officer and his nephew is her student! Madeline’s determined to clear the air with him and hopes they can be civil to one another. When she builds up the courage for a painful reunion, she is shocked that he doesn’t remember her.

Officer Joey O’Neill is committed to his job, so after the beautiful redhead accuses him of the contrary, he takes offense. When Madeline informs him they’ve met before, he insists she’s mistaken. Although his family wants him to settle down and judges his carefree bachelorhood lifestyle, it doesn’t mean he forgets the people in his life. Past or present.

Like years before, people begin to whisper about her when things go missing in the school. Joey starts to wonder if what they say is true. As the past comes back to haunt Madeline, she struggles with a secret that jeopardizes her job and hopes she can trust Joey. Has he finally out grown being a wise-cracking jock?

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--FAIR TIME IN ARKANSAS WITH GUEST AUTHOR RADINE TREES NEHRING

The War Eagle Craft Fair

Award-winning author Radine Trees Nehring has been writing fiction and non-fiction about the Ozarks since 1985, and her work in English and other languages has been sold around the world. In 2002 her first Ozarks mystery novel appeared. The eighth novel in the series, A Portrait to Die For, is coming soon. Learn more about Radine and her books at her website.

The author at a book signing at the craft fair

"Heigh-ho, come to the (craft) fair." Come, one and all. Fun, and happy purchasing are guaranteed.

October and May are big-time craft fair months in Arkansas. I have often wondered if the Ozarks area of the state (generally--the northern third and north-western sections) doesn't sink a few inches under the weight of all the visitors who come here during fair times. We area in-dwellers know to avoid restaurants and some high-traffic places during fair season, and, if we attend a fair, we go on a weekday before high traffic hits. Even then, there will be large enough crowds to make the experience full of fair-time excitement and color, and tent and wagon food sellers will be open. 

The War Eagle Craft Fair, real setting for my mystery novel, A Fair to Die For, is (so far as I know) the longest continually running craft fair in the United States. First held in 1954 in a field next to the War Eagle River near Rogers, Arkansas, it now draws up to 200,000 visitors each year. They come to view and buy handmade items created and displayed by several hundred artisans from all over the United States, though the largest number of them live and work in the Ozarks. Other states represented include New York, Minnesota, Iowa, Virginia, Texas, California, New Mexico, Alaska, Montana--well, you get the idea.

One of the many craft exhibits

This is a juried fair. In addition to showing quality work, anyone applying for a booth must prove he or she has actually made the items to be displayed and sold, and include photos showing the seller making--whatever--anything from furniture to jewelry. No "Made in China" stickers here. www.wareaglefair.com for more information. (Many of the other area fairs have looser regulations governing what is sold.)

My husband and I have been to many War Eagle fairs, and our home displays items that prove the quality of work done by fair exhibitors. This fair is just one of dozens in the area during October, but its outstanding history of success and the known quality of the work sold there made it an easy choice as a site for much of the action in my novel. Just think of the possibilities for crime! Everything from slick-fingered pickpockets to drug sellers could, hypothetically, stalk the fair.

Carrie's favorite quilt, the cow munching grass

A Fair to Die For was a fairly easy novel to write. Of course, for research, I had to visit the fair one more time. I already had a focus character, Shirley Booth, an Ozarks native who is a quilter and a secondary character in my series, invites my protagonists, Carrie McCrite and Henry King to assist her in her booth at the fair. Add other series characters and a few mysterious and, perhaps, evil people, and you have it--mystery, suspense, horror, and the entertainment of attendance at a real craft fair and several other high-quality entertainment sites in Northwest Arkansas without having to endure any crowds!

See you at the fair?

A Fair to Die For

It’s October, craft fair season in the Ozarks, and Carrie and Henry are helping their friend Shirley sell her quilts and Baby Cuddlys at the War Eagle Craft Fair. After a mysterious cousin with ties to drug dealers appears, danger stalks the fair. When Carrie is abducted by killers following a breakfast at War Eagle Mill, she’s afraid she won’t escape, because—though her aim in life has always been to help others out of problems—no one who can help her knows where she is. “There is no me out there to help me.”

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR CHARMAINE GORDON

Romantic suspense author Charmaine Gordon sits for an interview today. Learn more about Charmaine and her books at her blog. 

When did you realize you wanted to write novels?

As an actor for many years, my last job was on Broadway in a new play. Toward the end of the run, I noticed my voice change. I had trouble speaking. The diagnosis--spasmodic dysphonia to be treated with botox injections forever into the larynx. Thus ended a fine career--a small fish in a big pond since I began in midlife. Creative juices still flowed so without training, I began a story and wrote a book. Amazing what one can do. Undaunted, I began again in my seventies.

How long did it take you to realize your dream of publication?

Call me lucky. It didn’t take too long before Vanilla Heart Publishing, a small company on the West coast, requested a few chapters and soon my first book, To be Continued, was published. What a kick.

Are you traditionally published, indie published, or a hybrid author?

For me, traditionally published works just fine.

Where do you write?

I have a small office and three cats, cluttered with books, a litter box and the cats take turns sitting on my lap. I often wonder if this is where the name laptop comes from?

Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by? What kind?

Golden silence is best for me.

How much of your plots and characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?

I noticed when first writing, I couldn’t help from dropping bits and pieces of my life into the story. My publisher reassured me. “You’re doing just fine,” she said.

Describe your process for naming your character?

Names float across my mind like on a ticker tape. When I need one, it’s right there. I have no explanation.

Real settings or fictional towns?

Some stories have real settings like St. Augustine beach, Florida in several books. More recently, I wrote a series about a fictional town, River’s Edge in upstate, NY where the motto is Kindness to Strangers. Readers have said they’d love to live in a town just like that.

What’s your quirkiest quirk?

A half glass of Chardonnay and I’m tap dancing on the table. True story and it’s happened many times on Broadway in clubs after a play or in a local restaurant.

If you could have written any book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?

To Kill A Mocking Bird. What a gorgeous story. The kind, intelligent father raising two chidren, a lawyer defending a black man at a terrible time in history and so much more.

Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s yours? 

He died too young, my high school sweetheart. We never argued, raised a batch of kids and suddenly gone. Do over, my heart screamed for a long time. I survived, married again but he’s still with me. Do over, I still scream.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

When people ignore needs of older folks at the super market, I get very angry. Wait ‘til they get old and need help.

You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?

Gluten-free everything, laptop and a really smart hunk.

What was the worst job you’ve ever held?

I raised a batch of kids and when the last one went off to kindergarten I helped my husband full time in our business. No time off for this lady.

What’s the best book you’ve ever read?

To Kill A Mocking Bird

Ocean or mountains?

Ocean

City girl/guy or country girl/guy?

Love the city, NYC and going home to peace in the country.

What’s on the horizon for you? 

I write The End and two days later I’m into a new book. Living a long healthy life is a good plan.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself and/or your books?

After years of being an Air Force wife, we became civilians and moved to NY. I did a lot of local theater until one day, a professional actor suggested I go to the city and seek an agent. Life changed. My first job was as leg model for Geraldine Ferraro with bodyguards protecting her and her two daughters. That got me my first Union Card. After that came Working Girl where I had fun sharing a hot dog with Harrison Ford after singing Happy Birthday to Melanie Griffith. Anthony Hopkins invited me to lunch in one movie and Michael Douglas shared a moment in Fatal Attraction. I was like a sponge soaking up everything I heard and saw. When I had to kiss the sweet time goodbye because my voice failed, I was ready to write.

Bridging the Gap

Anna Youngblood and James Chandler have problems. His little daughter overheard his ex say she never wanted kids; Anna must make amends for breaking rules of her tribe; he has a serious concussion and she’s pregnant. Can this couple find happiness in River’s Edge?

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WEDDING DRESS HISTORY WITH GUEST AUTHOR AILEEN HARDWOOD

The Wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Aileen Harkwood is a Readers’ Crown finalist who lives in the Southern Rockies. The Last Wedding at Drayhome is the prequel to two concurrent series of fantasy romances, Spell Touched and Wedding Spell, due out in September. Learn more about her and her books at her website. 

Queen Victoria

And the Bride Wore Brown?

Many assume the traditional wedding dress for a bride in the western world has always been white, but that’s because few of us alive today were born early enough to remember differently. Can you imagine a bride in red? Were you a young girl from a wealthy European family during the 19th century, you might have daydreamed about wearing a scarlet gown draped in fur to your nuptials. Historically brides have worn a variety of colors, gray, black, yellow, and yes, brown.

Many assume today’s wedding dresses are white because that is the only color one connects with purity, when in fact blue was originally the color to communicate that virtue and was a popular choice for wedding gowns through the 1800s.

So how did white weddings become the thing? We have Queen Victoria to thank for that. When she wed her beloved Prince Albert 175 years ago, she broke with the royal tradition of wearing a heavy brocade gown embroidered with silver thread and selected one of creamy white satin, trimmed in flounces of Honiton lace. Her goal was to support her country’s cottage lace industry, primarily housed in Honiton and Beer in Devon. Instead of a tiara, she chose a wreath of orange blossoms, a symbol of fertility. Her slippers were of white satin and her veil constructed of additional Honiton lace.

Queen Victoria's Wedding Slippers

Victoria also forever altered the cultural bias toward blue as a symbolic color for purity when a decade following her wedding Godey’s Lady’s Book championed the royal’s choice, “…white is the most fitting hue, whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one.”

While the ton might have been impressed by the Queen’s daring in selecting a color that until that time was often associated with mourning, (yes, white was the color of death!), it wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that white became de rigueur across the pond. Here in the U.S. other colors weren’t pushed out until WWII, a century after Victoria’s 1840 wedding to Prince Albert.

Why? Simple economics. White is difficult to keep clean and until modern laundering technologies came along, not to mention the burgeoning prosperity of the mid-20^th century, only the wealthiest women could afford to fork over a significant wad of cash for a dress easily ruined by the first wine spill. Instead, wedding dresses were more often a bride’s “best dress,” one she was expected to wear again, gussied up for the day with a bit of lace or a flower or two.

And the bride wore brown. 

MAGICAL WEDDINGS: 15 Enchanting Romances

If you love contemporary wedding romance, enjoy a touch of the paranormal--witches, psychic pets, ghosts--or if your favorite beach read is romantic comedy, historical or military romance, don't miss this engaging boxed set of all stand-alone stories (no cliffhangers) which includes 14 new releases written expressly for this set. Whether real or only in the hearts of the bride and groom, the magic of weddings is undeniable. And irresistible! As these 15 enchanting happily-ever-afters by bestselling and award-winning authors prove. From sweet to spicy, the romances bundled into this set cross time and unite hearts, cast spells of laughter, battle wedding jitters and fight back tears, while weaving love’s hopeful magic throughout 1400 pages.

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The story I’ve contributed to Magical Weddings is:

The Last Wedding at Drayhome (Breens Mist Witches)

Never underestimate the power of a witch and warlock in love who have nothing left to lose…

Every witch and warlock in Breens Mist, Oregon has one main talent that guides their destiny. Colleen McColly’s gift is to be caretaker and voice for Drayhome, a magical estate with a mind of its own. Sent under the guise of helping to prepare for a wedding, warlock Terry “Ax” Paxton has orders to evict Colleen, and end Drayhome’s century-plus-reign as the heart and soul of Breens Mist. It’s a duty against which Ax rebels, not just because it’s wrong, but because he and Colleen have a connection of their own, raw, passionate and too many years denied.