Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! We finished the season at the Piqua Historical Area for the second year with 'A Dickens of a Murder Mystery on the Farm'. Yours truly was arrested three times for murdering old Ebenezer Scrooge (who had gone back to his miserly ways). We had a great time and performed the play three times to a sold out audience. If I can figure out how to, I'll post a bit of video from it some time in the future.

As this year ends and another new one begins, I wish you all peace and contentment, and may the Light shine in your lives throughout the coming months.

Marla

Author and Book Center Opening

AUTHOR AND BOOK CENTER OPENING

This is a site dedicated to promoting authors and their books. Many of them are independently published as I am. Please check it out when you have time. Here's the welcome from the main page:

Today (December 1) is our opening day! Welcome to our brand new Website created especially for book lovers! Please look around.Here you’ll find up-to-date book reviews, upcoming author and book lover events, and the personal pages of numerous talented published authors!We also have an active chat room where you can mingle with the authors and discuss your favorite books with book lovers like yourself.New authors and book lovers are joining everyday and we’re all excited to be a part of this great new site! We look forward to meeting you and sharing some great books!

Check it out at: http://bookeventcenter.ning.com/

Book signing successful

Even though Judith proved shy (she decided lattes were not for her) and Marla attended instead, the books signing was successful. I had a great day and sold a fair amount of books. The best part of the sales were the ones to total strangers. I love my friends for buying, but when someone you have never met and have no contact with comes up to you and requests a certain book, you know that all those hours on Facebook and your writers' sites have meant something. Someone knows your books are out there, and knows your name.

What better perk could an independently published writer have on a chilly day in downtown Troy OH?

My group, Gallimaufry, is planning a Valentine's signing as well. I'll let everyone know about it here first.

Marla

Book Signing Saturday

Judith Kingsley, 18th century woman and fiance of William Foxwell of South Carolina, will be making an appearance at Around About Books this Saturday, November 29th, 2008. Though a bit confused by all of the horseless carriages and fireless torches, she intends to 'carry on' in the English tradition and speak to those in attendance regarding her fiance's daughter Miriam and her forbidden love, COPPERHEAD. Judith will most likely also be sipping lattes and handing out fliers advertising the event. Please come and join us if you are in the area.

PS I really just wanted to play around in the costume now that I have panniers to wear under it! As Miriam put it in COPPERHEAD, 'the wrath of God' should be called 'down upon the man who had decided that a ‘proper’ woman must wear soft leather shoes and skirts three feet wide.'

We're signing books! Come and join in.

The writers of Gallimaufry (including me) will be at Around About Books in Troy, Ohio on November 29th between 2:00 and 4:00. This is our first individual group book signing and we are excited.

Come visit historic downtown Troy and meet the writers including Beth Henderson, author of 25 titles with over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, Marla Fair, author of Goodnight Robinson and COPPERHEAD, Rebekah McCoy, author of Rockstar, and Nioma Stephan, author of Low Bridge. It's the busiest day of the Christmas shopping season, so come on out and join the madness! There will be books galore at great prices and, best of all, there's a coffee shop next door!

If you're curious, check out our sites and you'll see, the trip is worth it!

Marla Fair http://www.marlafair.com/

Beth Henderson http://www.romanceandmystery.com/

Rebekah McCoy http://www.rebekahmccoy.com/

The location: http://www.aroundaboutbooks.com/

The town: http://www.troyohio.gov/

Mea culpa

I have been absent from my blog for weeks. As the title says 'mea culpa'. My mother has been ill and between that and work shutting down, I haven't had time to blog. (Though I probably needed to!) Anyhow, I will post soon.

And for your enjoyment -

Another of my young men. (No, I don't own the second guy. Don't I wish? LOL I was just amazed by the resemblance of the man in the ferrotype to Viggo Mortenson.)

Walking backwards in time

Wow, it's been more than two weeks since I posted. A lot has happened in the world of this interpreter. My granddaughter started kindergarten, and at work we have passed through Heritage Festival to the closing months of our season.

Heritage Festival this year brought 89,000 people to the Piqua Historical Area over three days. The last day was one of the few in Ohio this year that topped 99 degrees. During that time we admitted nearly 2000 of those attendees into the Johnston farmhouse. It is a grueling weekend, but the hope is that a few of those thousands will return to enjoy the site for its own merits and bring others along. (The festival is a Piqua event we just host.) Due to the intensity of those three days it is often hard for us to get out into the 'field' where the vendors and exhibits are. There are many sutlers of varying types carrying anything and everything from modern-day goods to quality reproduction items. This year I discovered a new vendor that I wanted to give a 'plug'. In the photo at the head of this post I am wearing an 18th century gown - quite a walk backwards into the past for this lady who normally wears an 1830 high gown. I had two motives for buying this lovely item. One, I have a friend who tends to take me 'into' the 18th century with invitations to events and, two, I am working on a one woman presentation which will be used in conjunction with promoting my book COPPERHEAD.

But more about that later.

The clothier I purchased this very lovely gown from is called Briar Rose LLC. Jane Bonus is the president. I worked with Jane on choosing a gown and in the end picked this lovely brown/purple pattern with a lightly striped tan/yellow petticoat. It is truly beautiful, well made, and the price was more than reasonable. For anyone like me who needs an 18th century gown and is hunting one at a great price, I highly recommend Briar Rose. You can call them at 765-453-6357 or email hollyrenee95@hotmail.com

My Young Man - Mark Cummins

This week my 'guy' is a little different. Obviously this photo is not of someone who lived over 100 years ago, though you might notice a resemblance to the kind of men who are in the dags I buy. This is my brother, Mark Alan Cummins. Forty years ago, on September 8th, 1968, he was killed in a car accident. Though I am not one to set my emotions by days or dates, this year I seem to be thinking of him quite a lot. I thought I would share his picture and a little bit about him with everyone who views the blog.

Mark was born November 21, 1951. He was a big kid, over 6' 3" at seventeen. (He stole all that height, there was none left for me who topped out at 5' 3".) Mark was an unusual kid, and I don't say that just because he was my brother. At fourteen he was begging my mother to let him go march with Martin Luther King Jr. By 17 he had decided he wanted to enter the Peace Corp. and then go on to become a prison chaplain. Mark's faith was strong and he was ready, which was a good thing since God took him so soon. He was facing the draft as most young men were at that time, and was not willing to kill. He didn't know what he was going to do - go to prison, go to Canada, or something else - but he was preparing his defense for the Draft Board when he was killed. Mark was also busy applying for MENSA at that time. His IQ was somewhere up there around 190 (something else he took the lion's share of from his sister! ).

I remember him mostly as a beloved older brother who was ornery at times, and very funny. Though he tends to look very serious in his photos, I remember him laughing a lot. Unfortunately he lived in the age before video cameras were affordable for any but the rich, so there are no recordings of him speaking, no video of him moving. He lives now only in my memory.

When I was a teen, I wrote a lot of poetry (don't we all?) I don't have a copy of the one I wrote about Mark at hand, but remember a few lines. I'll end with them. In explanation, one of the few things I had left of Mark's was a model of an 18th century sailing ship.

'How can I explain the loss,

A brother's life buried in a box?

And how do I express the unspoken fear

That the music of his voice has left my ear?

See the ship with its tiny masts

It was meant to last.

Not so he, for all eternity

His ship has passed."

New YahooGroup for Historic Interpreters

I said in my post about Adena that I would get back to the idea of interpreters sharing with one another. Well, I am.

I have joined many lists online, but most historic ones are dedicated to reenactors. While these are wonderful people with their own range of interests and ideas, there is a difference between reenacting and interpreting. The problems you encounter when dealing with the public on a daily basis while working in a historic house or at a historic site are unique to the 'breed'. I have created a YahooGroup list where interpreters can 'virtually' hang out and share about just about anything.

Though the list has 19thc in its title, that can be regarded as only its main focus. Interpreting history - any century - has the same problems and joys: how do you handle the public, how do you communicate history in an interesting way to the thousands of school kids you see, and how do you keep people from LEANING on the artifacts???

Just a personal peeve there....

Anyhow, if you are interested, come and join us. The list has been in existence one day and already we have members from Colonial Williamsburg to Conner Prairie, from Ohio to Wisconsin and beyond.

I think we are going to have a very good time.

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Visit to Chillicothe and Adena Mansion and gardens Part II

After visiting Adena, I was treated to a walking tour of Paint and Water streets in downtown Chillicothe by interpreter Kevin Coleman. Kevin came to the Piqua Historical Area to visit the Johnston Farmhouse earlier this summer. After the tour we connected and he invited me to come see Chilicothe. It just so happened that Kevin also volunteers at Adena, so we linked up there and the rest is...

Well, history.

Chillicothe is a fascinating city, filled with mid-1800s architecture. A fire in 1851 devastated a few blocks and so there is a beautiful symmetry to the buildings which replaced the destroyed structures. Their courthouse is one of the most remarkable buildings I have ever seen. Magnificent would begin to describe it. (See first photo above for a glimpse.) The Carlisle building is also remarkable. The local historians have been fighting for years to save it. It is one of those remarkable gothic-looking Victorian structures. (See second photo above). Kevin is deeply committed to rescuing this unique bit of Chillicothe history.

To quote Kevin's brochure he is - 'a local historian, architectural historian and journalist. A native of Ross County, he has also been a schoolteacher and has spoken before many groups. ' Kevin does both walking and driving tours of the Chillicothe area. I was treated to both and can highly recommend both him and the sights you will see.

For more information contact Kevin as IHS@horizonview.net or by phone at 740/775-4036

And on top of all of this, he's a really nice guy!

Visit to Chillicothe and Adena Mansion and gardens Part I

About two weeks ago I took a busman's holiday to Chillicothe OH. I am working on period landscaping for the Johnston Farm house at the Piqua Historical Area and the boss wanted me to work 'in house' with the gardeners at Adena. I had been to Adena before as a tourist and greatly enjoyed the site and talking to everyone who works there. This time I spent less time looking and more time connecting. The interpreters were great (Hello, Jennifer and Angie - hope I got that right!), and the gardener I spoke with was very willing to help. (Hi, Ed!) We plotted and planned a bit and talked a lot. In the end we decided that getting together every once in a while would be a good thing.

But more about that later....

Here's the blurb about the site from the Ohio Historical Society website:

Adena was the 2000-acre estate of Thomas Worthington (1773-1827), sixth governor of Ohio and one of the state's first United States Senators. The mansion house, completed in 1806-1807, has been restored to look much as it did when the Worthington family lived there, including many original Worthington family furnishings. The house is one of only three houses designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe still standing in the U.S. Latrobe is considered the first professional American architect and served as architect of the US capitol under President Thomas Jefferson.

Situated on the 300 remaining acres of the original homeplace are five outbuildings and formal gardens. The gardens have undergone major renovation. Visitors may stroll through three terraces of flowers and vegetables, as well as the shrubs and trees in the Grove. Looking east from the north lawn of the mansion, one can see across the Scioto River Valley to the Logan Range. This view is depicted on the Great Seal of the State of Ohio.

A new Museum and Education Center features interactive exhibits that use the stories of people connected to Adena to give visitors a picture of life in Ohio in the early 1800s as well as classrooms, meeting and rental space.

It's worth a visit. Really. The house is spectacular and the interpreters well-informed. The museum has great displays on the Worthingtons as well as ones on pioneer life. There's plenty for kids and adults.

Take my word for it.

Reintroducing myself

It's been a few months since I created this blog and as new people are 'dropping in ' all the time, I thought I would post my intro again. Look for a new post on the trip I took to historic Chillicothe today soon!

Contradictions

A website and a blog to house the ramblings of a woman who wants to live in the past. Anyone see a contradiction here?

Yes, I have finally taken the step and set up a blog. (There has to be a better name for it, don't you think?) As a woman who spends her days laced in a corset and wearing way too many underpinnings (too much underwear for those of you unacquainted with the 19thc term), I find it amusing and not a bit ironic that I now have two modes of electronic and instant communication with the entire world. If wishes were horses and beggars rode bareback, I would find a time machine and vanish utterly from the face of the 21st century world. I detest wires and phone-lines and machines and noise and stale air laced with chemicals. I am one of those radical women who think women's lib went too far. I like to have doors opened for me. I would be delighted if a man cast his coat over a puddle so I could keep my silk shoes clean. I believe in nobility and chivalry and that all-too-unpopular word - sacrifice. Yes, I know the past was not perfect, but people gave a damn about things like honor and they understood that some things had to be earned. And that if they were not earned, but were given, then they simply did not mean as much.

I think you have in a nutshell in the paragraph above what this blog will be about. History. A woman in a corset. And a few rants about the modern world. Add a dose of art and shake it up with the fact that I write fiction about these themes, and there you have it!

Of course, I haven't mentioned yet my habit of collecting young men...well, their images. It's ok. They all died about 150 years ago. I love daguerreotypes and I will be sharing some of the images I have collected here. (And they are not all young men. Just most of them....) Daguerreotypes are a visual link to that past I was speaking of before. You can see it in their eyes - determination, intelligence, purpose.

There I go again.

Anyhow, for the history I will share some of my interests and research. As for the lady in the corset, she will tell you all about interpreting and just how it feels to walk around with a steel stay stuck in the pit of your arm. (And you know you want to know!) As for the rants, see all of the above. My art I will talk about. To see it, visit my website at http://www.marlafair.com/ And as for the writing. I do that. Write. Historicals and fantasy. I will use this blog to let my readers know some of my thoughts - to let them into the process - and to let them know when and where my books can be bought.

No great pearls of wisdom today. It's late and I'm tired. Father's Day at the historic site today. Four tours and four hundred steps. So since I am out of words, I will leave you with someone else's.'Night.

Sacrifice is nothing other than the production of sacred things. ATTRIBUTION:Georges Bataille

PS The books can be bought at http://www.lulu.com/ for now. Just put my name in the search engine.

Mea Culpa for being so long in posting. As the summer season winds down at the historic site so, it seems, do I. August always seems to be a hiatus month from writing & art, and I guess blogging falls in the same category.

That said, I thought I would post something. So, here is another of my young men.

This daguerreotype is an interesting example of what happens when you become intrigued with images of people from the past you don't - and can never know. I purchased this one due to the young man fitting my 'profile' (which is dark haired and slightly haunted looking. LOL) The dag arrived in the mail. I dutifully peeled it out of its ancient cradle of gutta percha and gold leaf and scanned the image. When the young man emerged from the solarized darkness of the copper sheet, it was pretty obvious to see he was not well when the photo was taken. Look at how thin and gaunt he is. At his upper arms. At the way he holds himself. It was common in the 19th c to have photos taken of the dead - and the soon to die. I think this young man is one of the latter. What was his story, do you think? Was this for a fiance who was soon to be left bereaved? For his mother, or family? Again, we will never know. But as intended, his image - and the fact that he lived - has been preserved.

My Young Men part five: Chin beards

My last entry was July 19th? Wow. Time does indeed fly. Between then and now has been a lot of heat, even more humidity and a whole passel (as we put it in SW Ohio) of tourists. I get asked daily - after I have made my appearance at the door of the 1810 farmhouse I work in - how I can stand wearing a heavy dress, stockings and a hat, along with that corset and all those petticoats in 90 degree weather? The obvious answer is 'not very well'. I won't get to take a breath until September. But that's ok. If the site is busy, we'll be there another year.

Now, on to today's topic. Chin beards. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? Sorry about that. Net-iquette says not to shout, but really.... Chin beards have to be one of the more...questionable...of history's fashion statements for men. A clean shaven look topped off with a growth of hair on the chin that is not easily disinguishable from a stock collar. Oh well, since women were running away with corsets and wasping their waists to 18 and counting down inches at the time, I guess there is little I (or any other female) can say.

A friend of mine suggested this young man looks Amish, or Quaker perhaps? He is, again, well dressed and fairly prosperous though his suit has a homespun look. He is obviously not a dandy, and has a nice serious look. Again, there is that confidence. Men seemed to know who they were in the past. Today there is so much confusion about the roles of males and females. I, for one, feel that men should be men, and women, women. We should be equal, but different. What good is there in being liberated if we are only liberated to pretend to be something we are not?

Look out, here come the PC police....

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this latest image. There are more to come....

My Young Men part four: The Wolf Man

Or so I think of him. Just look at those eyes. I'm betting they were ice blue.

This was one of the first dags I purchased. Quite the affluent fellow. Unlike the other images I have posted, this young man's clothing shows he came from wealth. He is also quite confident and completely at ease. His bearing is erect. Was he a soldier at one time, perhaps? Is he a lawyer? I would say that he is definitely well-educated. Like the other images I have posted, his story is unknown as is his name. One can only speculate (and be maddeningly frustrated by the lack of knowledge!)

I hope you are enjoying my gallery of guys. Another will post next week.

Outhouse poll

The results are in. The most often found occupant of an outhouse? A snake according to the responders. My experience runs more to spiders, but the snakes are there - usually eating the mice! Anyhow, thanks. A new poll will open soon.

The outhouse image is from the Sarah A. MooneyMemorial Museum 542 West 'D' Street Lemoore, California 93245. No copyright infringement is intended.

A Sense of the World

It's been a while since I have made an entry. We are at the height of the season at the Piqua Historical Area and, I can tell you with confidence, a corset, five petticoats, stockings and a cap do not mix well with a week of 90 degree heat! Anyhow, I finally found a minute to sit down and make a few entries. The first is a recommendation of a book.

Did you know that the most travelled individual in the 19th century was a blind man? Neither did I. While searching for an audio book to listen to on a long trip, I happened upon 'A Sense of the World' by Jason Roberts. Not only do I recommend it for the writer's wit and talent, but for the sheer wonder of the story. James Holman was a young twenty-something lieutenant in the British Navy when he went unexpectedly and completely blind. He also suffered from something the physicians of the age called 'flying gout', meaning he had severe debilitating pain in his limbs. Despite this, through the sheer will and wanderlust of the man, he managed to travel a quarter of a million miles in his life - BY HIMSELF - visiting and reporting on far-flung lands like Siberia and Ceylon. He was, in the 1830's, a celebrity. He was, also, a remarkably humorous, gentle and cheerful individual. I have been astonished, amused and stunned over and over in the reading of this book. Really, I cannot say enough. Go get a copy. You won't regret it. And please take a minute to visit the author's website. It's great too. http://www.jasonroberts.net/holman.html

My young men continued

Today's image is a bit of a change of pace. Not a daguerreotype, but a portrait on ivory. I bought it while I was in Williamsburg VA visiting a friend. It was the end of the day. We were at an antique show and came across this image, along with a couple of others, in one of the booths. As the show was ending, the lady who ran the booth made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I came home with what is my usual 'take' from an antique show - something unique but flawed.

I don't know about you, but I dislike 'perfect' antiques. To me, it says no one ever used or enjoyed the item. Life uses and abuses. It breaks and bends. Most often, it does not destroy, but it leaves all of us a little rough around the edges. So it is with this young man. The image is near perfect, but it has been broken in two. Was it carried by a young woman whose heart was also broken? There was a lock of hair caught between the shattered glass and the images' backing. If you know about images like this, hair is often an indication of separation - either temporary or permanent. Hair was considered everlasting and so represented eternity.

So far as I can tell, this portrait is of a young man around twenty from the eighteen-tens to eighteen-teens. My guess would be that it is English, though I have no reason to suspect that. It's just a 'gut' feeling. The artist's talent is apparent in the way his 'look' pulls you in. There it is again. What I am attracted to in these old images. Intelligence. Purpose. Determination.

Beats a 'kodak' moment any day....

Now, after all that talk about things not being perfect, you are probably wondering about the second image above. I didn't mend the portrait, I just manipulated it - in the computer. I had to see what he looked like, didn't I?

Constriction devices

Corset or constriction device? Padded petticoat or prison? In truth, 19thc underpinnings are a little bit of both. Coming from someone who wears these two items eight months a year, five days a week, I think this is one thing that I do qualify as an expert on. In truth, until women lost their minds and began shooting for 12 inch waists, a corset was nothing more than an elegant back brace. And if you consider the back-breaking labor, the cast iron kettles that weighed in at app. 10 lbs each empty, and the endless babies coming about every 18 months, bracing your back came in very handy! As to the corded petticoat (padded or quilted) rather than being a prison, it actually gives a woman a real good grip on those multiple layers of petticoats or slips they wore under their dresses in the mid 19thc, and makes stair climbing a safer venture (just grab a cord and lift!) So you see it's not so bad....if it wasn't for our 21st century steel stays. (Now those hurt!)

Ok. So the corset poll has ended. Lacing in the back and wanting to breathe came in at a dead heat. So we'll settle for both. Ladies, I lace mine in the back and still manage to draw a breath!

A new poll follows....

Copperhead

I promise to comment on the poll soon, and to start a new one, but I realized it is time for my next 'young man' to make his appearance. For those of you who have read my novel COPPERHEAD, you know that I mention a dag in my dedication. This is the one I am talking about. The remarkable thing about this 150-plus year old photo is that it reflects an image that formed in my mind and took shape on paper long before I found it. Here's the story -

I first created my character Copperhead for the Daniel Boone fan-fiction that I write. He appears in the novel Blood Was Only For Bleeding as a secondary character to Mingo, who was his childhood friend. Copperhead is full blood Cherokee, but he was raised by a white man - a British general - and in time fell in love with the general's granddaughter, Miriam. I did a series of drawings for the story including one in colored pencil of Copperhead. The story debuted online and I moved on to other things.

One of my past-times is surfing Ebay, looking at items from the 1800s. I particularly like the old photos - ambrotypes, ferrotypes (tin types) and dags. I love to look at the faces. One night I was engaged in that pursuit when what I found stopped me dead. I looked at the dag and became more and more convinced that the young man in it was native passing as white. He was dressed as a white man, but the bone structure and everything about him shouted native - which he must have been well aware of. The other thing that attracted me was the look out of his eyes. It declares - I belong here. I dare you to challenge that I belong. The look is strong, wary and defiant. Then, I realized he looked exactly like the man I had drawn.

He was Copperhead.

I put a bid and and won the auction. The dag is sitting by me on my desk as I write this. He challenges me daily to keep telling stories for there are many out there that need to be told.

Who raised their sons?

Women on the frontier. So, for how many of you does that conjure up images of Victoria Barclay (BigValley) and Rebecca Boone (The Daniel Boone Show)? We are the TV generation. Most of us don't realize how many of the concepts we have come from the Idiot's Lantern, as some call the TV in Britain. 'Idiot' is right. Case in point - conjure up this image. There's a sound outside the window. Rebecca Boone stiffens. Her man isn't home. Danger is threatening her children. What will she do? Rebecca turns and head for the hearth where her husband's extra flintlock rifle hangs just above the fire.... Get the picture? Gun. Fire. BOOM! It looked good on the show to have that flintlock hanging on the mantlepiece, but the truth is, the powder would have exploded and the rifle's wooden stock would have dried out. No rifles over the fire, Becky. No way.

There are other things, other concepts, which remain from the sixties TV shows my generation grew up on that are skewed. One of them is pioneer women, their strengths and weaknesses, and their roles. I shouldn't 'dis' the Daniel Boone show. If you watch the first season - the black and white one - they tried to get it right. Rebecca is a strong woman, sometimes driven to tears, but more than able to defend her children and herself. She is often left alone by Daniel (due to his long absences) and she takes over the role of protector along with her other roles of teacher, spiritual guide, and chief cook and jug washer. By the second season the prevailing thought of the modern-day era had intruded - suddenly Becky is spineless without her man and cries out 'Dan, where are you? SAVE me!" way too often.

But oh, that first season.... A hint of the real women of the frontier.

Women were often forced to fill their husband's shoes. Hunting, military obligations, jobs that involved travel; all of these took a man away from home for months or even years. The women of the frontier raised their children alone, planted and harvested their food by themselves, preserved and saved it against a hard winter. They grew the plants that became the thread that was woven into the cloth that covered their children's small forms. They were the hands and heart and head that kept their families alive - as well as keeping them together with their practical wisdom and deep abiding faith. Men had the showy jobs - soldiers, Indian agents, lawyers, doctors - they were the ones that history was written by and about - but without their women, they would have accomplished little. After all, who raised their sons in the first place?

Next time some thoughts on 18th century corsets, the old poll results and a new poll.

And back again

As Bilbo Baggins put it, I have been 'there' and back again from the Fort Boonesborough Women on the Frontier event. So far I have not had time to process my photos or my thoughts, but hope to soon. Along with being an interpreter and artist, I am a grandma, and sometimes that has to come first! The weekend was fun (I got to throw a few 'hawks') and educational (amazing how many female land-holders there were in KY in the late 1700's!). I took photos which I hope to translate into new art, and made contacts which will benefit our site in the future. All in all, a worthwhile adventure which I hope to address in detail here soon.

Trading in the corset

No, I haven't given up on my job (or corsets). I'm just trading them in for 18th century stays.

This weekend I am stepping back half a century to 1775. A friend and I will be attending Fort Boonesborough's Women on the Frontier event. As an interpreter I spend 5 days a week talking about the women of the past. But talking isn't doing or being. This weekend, in a small way, I will get to be a woman of the past. Boonesborough is offering reenactors and interpreters a chance to join in as the employees of the fort go about their business - making candles and lye soap, starting fires with flint and steel, cooking, etc. There will even be a chance to climb onto a horse in full gear. Along with this there will also be seminars and just some plain old fun (how many times do you get a chance to pluck a fake chicken?) And guess what, we get to do this with the public watching.

No one ever said a reenactor is shy.

So this post will be the last one for a few days. When I return I will share a little bit about my experience and perhaps a photo or two. Whatever those are.

Oh, by the way, thanks to those of you who have responded to the poll. So far breathing is running neck-a-neck with lacing in the back.

My Young Men

As an artist, I am fascinated by faces. As an historian, I am fascinated by historical faces. And as a woman, well...I have to admit I am fascinated by male faces. I think, like the heroine in my book Goodnight Robinson, that I come to these 100 plus year old images seeking something that I find lacking in a good many 21st century males - character. You can see it in their eyes. In the set of their jaw. In the line of the mouth, and simply the way they hold themselves. But mostly, it is in their eyes.

I was surprised to find that the old quote, 'The eyes are the windows of the soul', is Biblical in origin. Matthew 6:22,23 says "The lamp of the body is the eye. If, then, your eye is simple, your whole body will be bright; but if your eye is wicked, your whole body will be dark. If in reality the light the that is in you is darkness, how great that darkness is!"

At about the pace of one a week, I will share one of my 'men'. The first is the young man I used on the cover of Goodnight Robinson. This image is a daguerreotype. The gold mat (which has been removed here to allow a clearer scan) is more ornate than others that I have, dating the photo to the late 1840s or, more likely, the 1850s. It came with a scrap of paper on which these words were inscribed in pencil, 'Remember me when I am gone. Drew.' What is the story here? If the dag is late 1840s, was Drew heading off to the Mexican War? Was he leaving for the gold fields? Was he, perhaps, dying? I will never know for certain, but the mystery only enhances the image and its appeal.

Writing

I once had the husband of a friend ask me what drove a person to create fictional people and worlds. With a smile I answered 'control'. I realize now that was rather flippant, though in a way it is true. Most of us feel rather out of control in our lives. By writing fiction, by creating other lives and ordering them as we want, the writer gets to be a god with a little 'g'.


That sounds impressive, doesn't it? It would be if it was true.


Anyone who writes, at least those who write organically as I do (with no outline) will tell you that the author has very little control over the worlds he or she creates. More often than not the characters compel the action. In other words, they take over and do exactly what they want. I know that sounds crazy to anyone who doesn't write, but it is true. And most often my characters know far better where they are going than I do. Really.


A case in point - the characters of the MacKirdy brothers to be found in my fan fiction Blood Was Only For Bleeding housed on the Daniel Boone TV site (thanks to Karen!). You can find the story here: http://www.danielboonetv.com/index.php?page=blood_was_only_for_bleeding The MacKirdys appear in chapter three of the 683 page tale. The Scottish brothers come into Cincinnatus' tavern in all of their fop and finery (wearing kilts to boot!) and lurk in the corner with their heads together, whispering. They follow Becky Boone out of the tavern and accost her, seeming to take her hostage. As I wrote that part of the story, I intended the MacKirdys to be villains. They were there to do harm to the Boones. But when they opened their mouths, the brothers declared they were there for no such thing - they were instead there to warn Becky and her husband that they were in danger!' 'What, I asked them, do you think you are doing? You're bad guys.' If you have read the tale, you know Alec and Findlay both have killer smiles. In my head they flashed them and politely replied that I 'dinnae ken whot I was aboot.'


Writing often goes this way. It is exciting, but scary as well - especially when you love complicated plots and multiple characters as I do.

In the coming weeks, I hope to let those who visit here in on a little of my creative process. For those of you who like my work, I hope you will find it interesting. For those who don't, maybe it will tempt you to take a chance on one of my books. And maybe, just maybe, I can help other would-be writers out there as I go along.

Contradictions

A website and a blog to house the ramblings of a woman who wants to live in the past. Anyone see a contradiction here?

Yes, I have finally taken the step and set up a blog. (There has to be a better name for it, don't you think?) As a woman who spends her days laced in a corset and wearing way too many underpinnings (too much underwear for those of you unacquainted with the 19thc term), I find it amusing and not a bit ironic that I now have two modes of electronic and instant communication with the entire world. If wishes were horses and beggars rode bareback, I would find a time machine and vanish utterly from the face of the 21st century world. I detest wires and phone-lines and machines and noise and stale air laced with chemicals. I am one of those radical women who think women's lib went too far. I like to have doors opened for me. I would be delighted if a man cast his coat over a puddle so I could keep my silk shoes clean. I believe in nobility and chivalry and that all-too-unpopular word - sacrifice. Yes, I know the past was not perfect, but people gave a damn about things like honor and they understood that some things had to be earned. And that if they were not earned, but were given, then they simply did not mean as much.

I think you have in a nutshell in the paragraph above what this blog will be about. History. A woman in a corset. And a few rants about the modern world. Add a dose of art and shake it up with the fact that I write fiction about these themes, and there you have it!

Of course, I haven't mentioned yet my habit of collecting young men...well, their images. It's ok. They all died about 150 years ago. I love daguerreotypes and I will be sharing some of the images I have collected here. (And they are not all young men. Just most of them....) Daguerreotypes are a visual link to that past I was speaking of before. You can see it in their eyes - determination, intelligence, purpose.

There I go again.

Anyhow, for the history I will share some of my interests and research. As for the lady in the corset, she will tell you all about interpreting and just how it feels to walk around with a steel stay stuck in the pit of your arm. (And you know you want to know!) As for the rants, see all of the above. My art I will talk about. To see it, visit my website at http://www.marlafair.com/ And as for the writing. I do that. Write. Historicals and fantasy. I will use this blog to let my readers know some of my thoughts - to let them into the process - and to let them know when and where my books can be bought.

No great pearls of wisdom today. It's late and I'm tired. Father's Day at the historic site today. Four tours and four hundred steps. So since I am out of words, I will leave you with someone else's.

'Night.

Sacrifice is nothing other than the production of sacred things. ATTRIBUTION:Georges Bataille

PS The books can be bought at http://www.lulu.com/ for now. Just put my name in the search engine.