by Molly Owen | Jul 28, 2011 | Barbara Scott, Blog
When I began participating on this blog, I was asked to pick a day for my entry each month. I picked the 28th because July 28th is my birthday. How could I forget the 28th? With this memory trigger and the several reminder alerts handily provided by the blog, remembering should be assured, right?
Not necessarily. Here I am at 10 AM CDT preparing my entry which should have been posted at midnight. This time, I blame procrastination more than forgetfulness, but the fact that today I am another year older might have contributed a tiny bit.
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| Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket |
In honor of the day, I thought I’d research the origin of birthday celebrations to share with you. With the importance we attach to the date in our culture (I know two relationships that shattered when he forgot her birthday–is it ever the other way around?) it’s not as long a history as I expected.
Before the invention of calendars, ancient people marked time by the moon and the changing seasons. Birthdays, if they were noted at all, were commemorated for religious figures like the Greek gods, Buddah, or Christ, dignitaries like Pharoah, or rich people. Who else had the motivation or means to recall the actual day?
Among the common people an exact date might not have been as notable. However, a time was set aside to ward off evil spirits that were thought to gather closer at significant changes in life like turning a year older. Visiting guests, burning candles, the giving of gifts, noisemakers, even spankings were all believed to discourage demons from coming near at these vulnerable times. Group celebrations often occurred on common days associated with the lunar cycle. Alternately, the day chosen was associated with the god or protective spirit thought to have attended the birth.
The pagan and superstitious aspects of such celebrations presented other challenges to the early Christian Church which condemned them. They encouraged celebrating Name day on the feast day of the saint for whom the child was named.
When calendars came into regular use and it became possible to track specific dates annually, the “pagan” practices coalesced into the birthday customs we cherish today. Historians cite a European origin and Western birthdays have similarities in many countries of Europe and North America. The Germans receive the credit for children’s birthday parties. (kinderfeste) Birthday cakes came down from the Greek lunar cakes decorated with candles to simulate the moon’s light. These two customs came together when the Germans put candles on their birthday cakes (Geburtstagorten) to represent the light of life and made wishes on them. The smoke was thought to carry the wishes to Heaven. Blowing all the candles out at once brought good luck.
The wearing of paper crowns came from the tradition of honoring royal birthdays. The sending of cards started in England about a hundred years ago. Of course, they are a vehicle for carrying the greetings and good wishes of earlier times. Pinning the Tail on the Donkey and breaking the Pinata both involve blindfolds said to be a nod to the notion that the celebrant is blind to the events of the year to come. The birthday spanking with a whack for each year with one to grow on, be happy on etc. was said to chase away bad luck and “soften the body for the grave.” An American pair, Mildred and Patty Hill contributed the melody for the Happy Birthday to You” in 1893. The original lyrics were “good morning to all.” The song with the birthday lyrics appeared in print together in 1924. (Interesting information on the controversial copyrights of the song appears in its Wikipedia entry)
So whether you are young enough to look forward to each birthday or old enough to dread and deny them, birthdays come to you each year. Here’s hoping yours is a happy one whenever it occurs.
BIO: Barbara Scott is the author of several romances including Cast a Pale Shadow, Haunts of the Heart, and Listen with Your Heart. Her most recent West of Heaven earned the following quote from Romancing the Book: “Barbara Scott blends the perfect amount of suspense, romance, history, and humor into a wonderfully engaging novel. I definitely recommend this novel with 4 stars (Lovely Rose!) and two thumbs up! “
by Molly Owen | Jun 28, 2011 | Barbara Scott, Blog
An army travels on its stomach. Whether or not Napoleon was the first to say this, it is a long accepted truth. A truth that could be justifiably applied to the cowboy on the cattle trail. The wise cattle owner recognized this and gave just as much consideration to the hiring of the cook as he did his trail boss. In fact, next to the owner and the trail boss, the cook usually got the highest salary often as a share of the herd’s sale price.
For that pay, the cook generally came with his own chuck wagon. This vehicle, an invention attributed to Charles Goodnight, was specially built on a standard wagon base with room for supplies in the front and a trail kitchen in the back. Equipped with a fold down table, drawers and shelves for utensils, cook pots, plates and the all-important Dutch oven, the chuck wagon was the center of the cowboys’ life while on the trail. Many cooks served as not only the creator of meals, but as first aid doc, postal clerk, and steward of the campgrounds.
The cook was responsible for acquiring supplies. He started with a list which included beans, flour, rice, salt pork, syrup, spices, prunes and dried apples, “skunk eggs” (onions), and coffee served hot, strong, and always. He kept a supply of dry wood and cow chips for fuel slung in a cowhide tarp (called a possum belly) under the wagon. Cowboys were told to be on the lookout for fire wood to add to the store. As the season wore on, the prairie was scoured of fuel sources, so cow chips became the fire maker of necessary choice.
With so much meat on the hoof, beef would be a staple of the trail diet. Or so you would think. However, many an owner and trail boss balked at depleting the moneymaker. Consequently, the steers were relatively safe from slaughter on the trail unless one proved troublesome or a straggler. Then he was ripe for the picking.
Even then, the cook would waste no portion of the animal. A popular or infamous recipe of the trail was “sumbitch” stew with ingredients including heart, liver, kidneys, brain, sweetbreads and everything except the moo. Seasoned with salt, pepper, and chili flakes and cooked as long as practical, the stew was better than it might seem from its contents.
The best cooks were known for their sourdough biscuits. Sourdough starter was carefuly restocked and guarded. On cold nights the prudent cook took his starter to bed with him to be sure it stayed warm enough to raise his biscuits. Biscuits. beans, and Arbuckle’s coffee made up the bulk of the cowboy’s trail diet.
In my cattle trail historical, West of Heaven, Marcella McGovern unexpectedly inherits the cattle of her ranch owner father and the bawdy house of her mother. To get the cattle to market, she is forced to recruit the women who formerly worked at the bawdy house. With a crew like that, how could I resist creating a cook as unusual.
Hans Weiss wants to become cook for Marcella’s crew to practice his recipes for the restaurant he plans to open in Kansas when he gets there. Beans, biscuits and the occasional stew are not enough for Hans. To facilitate his success he even devises traveling chicken coops so he has a fresh supply of eggs on the trail.
Here’s an excerpt describing Hans’s preferred bill of fare:
Last night after hearing Jean Luc’s reasoning and instructions for slowing the herd, Marcella had recruited Nell and the two of them went out to collect cow chips. Hans stored them in the possum belly, a basket that hung under the wagon, to use for fuel on the treeless prairie. But this chore did not keep her away from camp long enough. She returned in time to hear the question that had already become a habit with Jean Luc,“Hans, what’s for supper? — or dinner? — or breakfast?” depending on the time of day.
To which Hans would reply Shinken mit rotkohl ” — or “Linsensuppe” — or “Biernebrod.“
And Jean Luc would throw his head back and walk off laughing.
Yet, when meal times rolled around, she noticed he ate the ham with red cabbage, the lentil soup, or the dried apple bread with gusto, all compliments to the chef, just like the rest of them…
Later after the successful slowing of the herd:
Too soon, it seemed, the signal was passed to break for the night. The herd was put to pasture and first watch began. The rest of the crew gathered to wash up and wait for supper.
When most were assembled, Jean Luc sauntered up. He rocked back on his heels and stroked his stubbly chin. Jake mirrored his actions in almost comical style, though no one dared laugh.
“Hans, what’s for supper?”
“Geffulte.” Hans replied.
Instead of his customary laugh, Jean Luc nodded his head. “Ahh, large noodles filled with meat, onions and parsley then boiled in beef broth. Very good.”
Then it was Jake’s turn. “Herr Weiss, what’s for dessert?”
“Pfefferkuchen mit honig.”
“Ahh, gingerbread cake with honey. Very, very good.”
This time no one could suppress their good-natured laughter. Not even Marcella.
After a moment, Jean Luc gestured them to silence. “Hans has made us a gingerbread cake to celebrate. Congratulations, wranglers, you have successfully guided the herd past the first milestone. You are no longer tenderfoots. If I have earned the right to say it with my late start, I am proud of every one of you.”
West of Heaven by Barbara Scott is available at Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Sony, Kobo and Apple’s iBookstore or
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-150/Barbara-Scott-West-of/Detail.bok
For a review of West of Heaven at Love Western Romances:
by Molly Owen | May 28, 2011 | Barbara Scott, Blog
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http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/
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The historic cattle trail from Texas to the railheads in Missouri and Kansas served as the core of much Western fiction and several epic movies. During TV’s Golden Age, when Westerns reigned, Clint Eastwood followed the herd for more than seven years as trail ramrod Rowdy Yates in Rawhide. The cattle drive is still a popular background in fiction today, yet few of these creations involve women in a major way,
When the idea came to me to write a cattle trail book, I researched the role of women on these adventures. As in many all-male professions in the nineteenth century, women occasionally disguised themselves as men in order to participate. Newspaper reports of the era told rare stories of females passing as males and working as cowhands and cattle dealers. At least two women were reported working undiscovered as drovers. Some women ran cattle ranches either in their husband’s absence or on their own arranging for the trailing of the herd as needed. One woman was reputed to be a daring rustler who then drove the stolen herds to market. Other reports say she was only the paper owner of the herds her husband rustled.
However, no cattle drive that I discovered was ever accomplished with a crew of nearly all women. But that’s precisely the situation I needed for my historical Western, West of Heaven. For what’s Marcella McGovern to do when she unexpectedly inherits her father’s marketable cattle and her mother’s bawdy? She has all the cattle eating up her profit and the women unable to make a living now that she’s closed up their house. Top that with the cattle baron’s scorned widow who issues Marcella an ultimatum to get the cattle off her land and local cowboys a warning that if they work Marcella’s drive, they’ll never work another in Texas. Marcella’s only recourse is to train the woman as cowboys.
West of Heaven has all the standards you’d want in a trail book, the rivers, the stampede, the singing to keep the cows calm at night, Because it is a romance and tells women’s stories, there’s a secret baby, a husband seeking a wayward wife, an abandoned fiance, a triangle or two, a German cook who is using the journey to perfect the gourmet recipes he’ll need when he opens his restaurant in Kansas. And, of course, romance.
The era of the great cattle drive was short. The railroads gradually built their way into Texas and other western lands making the journey to the railheads ever shorter,. Yet, that brief time period etched into history the image of the cowboy we carry today. I figured, why not give the women a chance. It/s 1871, women are already voting in Wyoming.
Here’s a clip:
Tom brought up a hardy mousey brown horse that should suit her. He had a sleekness to him and a wise look. He stood solid while Jean Luc saddled him. Marcella came up to take his reins, stroking the horse’s nose and talking to him in soft reassuring tones.
“Does this one have a name, Tom?” Marcella asked.
“Redemption they called him.”
“Redemption.” From her mouth, the name whispered through the morning air like a word of endearment. The critter ate it up like sugar lumps.
“You got a way with horses.” Jean Luc pulled the cinches tight. “Sweet-talking might be all you need to keep you seated. Maybe he won’t buck at all. He ain’t puttin’ up a fight now, but, just in case, try to sit back and catch his rhythm and ride with it.”
“Until I land in the dirt with the best of them.” She whispered something else to the horse as Jean Luc came around to give her a leg up.
“Have a good ride.” He stepped back to clear the way.
Marcella steered Redemption toward the center of the corral, taking an easy pace, showing a confidence that let the horse know he was in good hands. He responded with a cooperation that thrilled Jean Luc. They walked the boundary of the corral without a bump or a bother. A mumble of appreciation rippled through the townsfolk who’d been attracted by the unusual Sunday morning goings-on.
When she looked up, Jean Luc signaled his encouragement by snatching off his hat and waving it in the air. Ezra and Tom nodded enthusiastically. She urged Redemption into a post trot, raising herself in her stirrups so she was half-sitting and half standing, her body bobbing up and down in perfect rhythm to the horse’s gait. On this go round she beamed at Polly’s barely contained excitement and at Glory with her hands on her hips, no doubt puzzling out why she hadn’t drawn Marcella’s horse instead of the one she’d chosen.
In truth, Jean Luc suspected it was Tom’s horse sense that had reserved this mount for her. Not too shy to show off, Marcella directed Redemption into some quick turns and stops before taking him one more time around. She brought him to a smooth stop in front of Jean Luc and dismounted.
Tilting back her hat, Marcella took off her bandana and used it to dab at the sweat on her brow. “I don’t know, Jean Luc, do you really think I had to change clothes for that ride?”
Jean Luc rubbed his chin. “Well, how else do you think that horse knew you meant business? Now, ready for some breakfast? Or should we start right in on ropin’ and tyin’?”
Barbara Scott is the author of West of Heaven, Listen With Your Heart, Haunts of the Heart, and EPIC Award winner, Cast a Pale Shadow. Visit her at www.barbarascottink.com
by Molly Owen | Apr 28, 2011 | Barbara Scott, Blog
How many of these rules do you think William and Katherine will be following?
Rules for Husbands and Wives
from A Primary Source
written by
Matthew Carey
(1830)
Having seen various sets of maxims for the conduct of married life, which have appeared to me to contain some very injudicious items, degrading to wives, sinking them below the rank they ought to occupy, and reducing them in some degree to the level of mere housekeepers, and believing them radically erroneous, I annex a set which appear more rational and just than most of those which I have seen:
Husbands
1. A good husband will always regard his wife as his equal; treat her with kindness, respect and attention; and never address her with an air of authority, as if she were, as some husbands appear to regard their wives, a mere housekeeper.
2. He will never interfere in her domestic concerns, hiring servants, &c.
3. He will always keep her liberally supplied with money for furnishing his table in a style proportioned to his means, and for the purchase of dress suitable to her station in life.
4. He will cheerfully and promptly comply with all her reasonable requests, when it can be done, without loss, or great inconvenience.
5. He will never allow himself to lose his temper towards her, by indifferent cookery, or irregularity in the hours of meals, or any other mismanagement of her servants, knowing the difficulty of making them do their duty.
Wives
1. A good wife will always receive her husband with smiles,—leave nothing undone to render home agreeable—and gratefully reciprocate his kindness and attention.
2. She will study to discover means to gratify his inclinations, in regard to food and cookery; in the management of her family; in her dress, manners and deportment.
3. She will never attempt to rule, or appear to rule her husband. Such conduct degrades husbands.
4. She will, in every thing reasonable, comply with his wishes—and, as far as possible, anticipate them.
5. She will avoid all altercations or arguments leading to ill-humour—and more especially before company.
Posted by Barbara Scott, author of West of Heaven, sort of “lonesome soiled doves”
Available at Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Sony, Kobo and Apple’s iBookstore”.
or at DBP http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-150/Barbara-Scott-West-of/Detail.bok
by Molly Owen | May 28, 2009 | Barbara Scott
Is it just me, or have historical romances gone anorexic?
Think, when was the last time you reveled in a glorious meal enjoyed by the hero and heroine where the steaming dishes brought to the table reflect the steamy looks exchanged by the two? Is there a ban on food scenes circulating the critique groups? Are they on the editors’ no-no list?
In the interest of moving forward, are authors condemning their heroines to near starvation as they go on the run with the hero? Will the reader learn what comforting menu will be presented when they are forced to leave the storm-lashed road for the shelter of a wayside inn? When those proper Regency belles dither over which eligible potential beau will escort them to dinner, do they ever get to enjoy the meal? Does the reader ever get to see what is on the lavishly spread table? Must we go all the way back to medieval times before we’re ever allowed to sit down and feast?
If you think I’m making too much of this missing element, I’d like to remind you of some of the memorable food-related scenes in classic fiction. From the first page of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, we learn that the author should accept the obligation of providing a “bill of fare” for the reading to come. Fielding fulfills this duty throughout the book with sensual descriptions of all of Tom’s bad boy antics including an eating scene that is hilariously rendered in the Albert Finney film of the book. In this one scene, we learn about characters, plot points, and setting. What more can you ask a scene to show?
Moving further down literary lane, remember the sensuous strawberry-eating done in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles? The picnic Scarlett prepared herself not to eat by the snack Mammy forced her to gobble? The cow’s brains and eyeball Leslie Benedict was presented with as an honor for her to eat at her first Texas barbecue in Edna Ferber’s Giant.
Of course, the top chef emeritus of the literary world has to be Charles Dickens. In his novels, rich and poor alike are delineated by the food they eat, serve or crave. Cookbooks, restaurants, and London shopping districts are dedicated to the menus in his books. What’s Christmas without the fond retelling of the Cratchits’ meager but appreciated meal, Scrooge’s nephew’s party fare, and the giant turkey the reformed Scrooge sends to amaze and nourish Tiny Tim?
Remember when Mrs. Cratchit serves the plum pudding?
“She entered the room, flushed but smiling proudly; with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in a half-a-quartern of ignited brandy and bedecked with Christmas holly stuck into the top.”
Husband Bob immediately deems it “the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage.”
And who can forget the Miss Haversham’s abandoned wedding feast entombed in spider webs and mice from Great Expectations?
Are there any such unforgettable food scenes in modern historical romances? Am I missing them somehow? Aside from medievals where there is often a focus on food as the new heroine takes over the management of the manor, have you read or written one lately? Tell me about them.
For a few recipes reminiscent of Dickens, try www.thebrasssisters.com where you can find a Hearty English Meat Pie. Shepard’s Pie, an easy Irish Sponge Cake or Currant Creme Scones. Each recipe includes a brief description of the role of that food in Victorian times.
Two of my recent releases contain food scenes: Listen with Your Heart (www.desertbreezepublishing.com) and Cast a Pale Shadow (thewildrosepress.com) Haunts of the Heart‘s (www.aspenmountainpress.com) food scenes don’t involve eating. The characters are ghosts. But food is still an issue to heroine Deanna Butterworth as described in this excerpt:
Deanna shoved her feet out from under the covers and made up her mind. Now that she was going to live, she might as well eat.
The kitchen had no windows, but opened up into a small greenhouse. She was used to the sun speckling through the plants onto the kitchen floor and walls. Now, of course, there were no plants. No sun either. The boards on the greenhouse walls were sealed nearly tight. She had an urge to go out and rip them off, but she was not exactly dressed for that, so she suppressed it and turned on a light instead.
“Looks like Old Mother Hubbard’s,” she said as she opened the pantry door. Nothing but dust and mouse droppings. “Yuk!” Her empty stomach turned over.
“I know,” she muttered to it, “I shouldn’t resurrect you for this.” She stepped back and closed the door. Without enthusiasm, she opened and closed each of the cupboards over the sink. She found a canister in one and thinking popcorn, she opened it. It was buggy flour. Her stomach protested once again.
“Foraging?” Anthony’s voice right behind her ear startled her.
The canister slipped from her grasp, its contents spilling to the floor, the bugs skittering for cover. Her stomach heaved its emptiness into her mouth as she stumbled for the nearest chair.
“Really,” said Anthony as he crouched to examine the flour, flicking through it with his finger, “there’s entirely too much starch here and very little protein. Not at all good for your uh…,” he appraised her, hunched in a ball in the chair, “figure.”
“It’s all right,” she managed, “the sight of you kills my appetite anyway.”
You can learn more about my books at www.barbarascottink.com
by Molly Owen | Apr 28, 2009 | Barbara Scott
After ten years of study, biliotherapists at prestigious Dever University in Knob Knoster, MO have discovered a startling correlation in readers’ choice of historical era romance preference and their personalities. “The stronger the preference, the more consistent the predictions we can make,” says Alice Fleming, PHD, BMA, the initiator of the study. “We have been contacted by the FBI on the possibility of adding our findings to their ongoing study of profiling. Of course, that would violate the privacy of our study participants and is completely against University policy.”
What does this study reveal about your personality? Check the descriptions below.
Medieval, Scottish: Devotees of this sub-genre are marked by their desire for family connections and their preference for plaid. They tend to be fearless, bold, and youthful in their attitudes toward life. Intensely loyal and magnanimous with their friends and family, they are equally as distrusting of strangers. They usually live in large houses with straw colored carpets.
Regency: Refined and orderly can describe the personality of the Regency lover. They prefer a structured life and can be somewhat rigid in their attitudes and choices. Well-mannered, they are an asset to any rout. On the downside, they can be subject to excessive pride and prejudices and, if single, have an overwhelming obsession with getting married.
Colonial, North American: Independent and ambitious, Colonial readers will fight for their rights and place in the world. They crave democracy and may cherish ideals that seem impossible to achieve by others. They can be somewhat stalwart in their approach to religion and are ambivalent in their attitudes toward indigenous peoples. However, they are always ready to invite you over to share turkey, pemmican, and pumpkin pie.
Civil War, American: Despite where they actually reside, readers in this sub-genre, speak with Southern accents and tend to choose lovers and spouses with the opposite political leanings to their own. Lovers of gentility and a slow-paced life, but also quick to judge others and take sides, they can sometimes be seen as stubborn and backwards. You can usually find this reader relaxing on her porch with mint tea or, alternately, volunteering to roll bandages and read at her local veterans hospital.
Victorian: Prim, proper, and virginal (actually or pretended) are the words you might choose to describe the Victorian era reader. Self-control, rules, and modesty in appearance are the hallmarks of their day. Their nights, however, can be an entirely different matter. It is then, they will find a delight in the risque or even hotter aspects of the romance genre. Statistics show they are the most frequent consumers of naughty lingeree and satin sheets. By contrast, they also consume extraordinary amounts of Activia.
Western: Rugged, courageous, strong willed, but also quiet, non-communicative, and quick to anger, the Western lover has a personality filled with contrast. Happy on their own, they can be surprisingly willing to be tamed and domesticated. In fact, when settled, they often prove to be uncomplicated individuals with a lovable zest for life. They prefer country music, pick-up trucks, and wide open spaces and can chafe at the restrictions of an urban lifestyle.
Historical Time Travel: Not surprisingly, time travel readers yearn for a simpler life. While outwardly adventurous and, some might say, gullible, inwardly, they want life’s decisions to be already made and recorded. They can be clear thinkers with intellectual tendencies, but they also take on personality traits of the particular historical era they chose as their time travel destination. Thus, they can be a jumble of the personalities cited above in other eras. If they have no particular preference of time travel destination, then, watch out, they are a mess and possibly dangerous.
Whatever your personality or historical reading preference, Barbara Scott hopes you will ch
ose to read one of her Spring releases: Listen With Your Heart, a Victorian, Haunts of the Heart, a Civil War ghost story, or Cast a Pale Shadow, a contemporary romantic suspense. You can learn more about them at her website, www.barbarascottink.com
She does not guarantee that the profiles given above are in any way true or accurate and they do not necessarily express the opinion of this blog or its bloggers. She cannot verify the existence of this university or Dr. Fleming. In fact, their names sound suspiciously like the street she grew up on and her Grandma’s maiden name.
Virginia is the winner of a teddy bear for commenting on my blog last month. You will have a chance to win this month just by leaving a comment.
