I received an invitation...

Annie's Attic Mysteries.
I like the concept, but after FINALLY having finished Mary Kruger's painful knitting mystery I'm very wary about crafting related "mysteries".

BTW, let me tell you about Mary Kruger's Died In The Wool... OMG! It so very well pointed out that you really need to know your subject before you start writing... Now, I have to say that there might be some differences in the American way of doing things and the way I have learned, but I really find it hard to believe the differences would be that... big and obvious. Nevertheless, those details were easier to overlook, but the main point that made the book unenjoyable to me was the main character's behavior. She forces herself into the investigation, holds back information from the investigator, and then gets angry with him, because he arrests one of her friends. Mind you that she lives in a tiny town where everyone knows everyone and are practically "friends" with everyone - had he arrested ANYONE it would have been "her friend", and she would probably have pouted about it. Then this friend's wife, who is also the main character's best friend, gets angry with her, because... I really don't understand. Because her husband was arrested for a murder that happened in the friend's yarn shop? Or?
The main character is also supposed to be a knitting designer, and doesn't know anything about internet, selling patterns online, free patterns online - and this book was published 2005.

"Are you going to have any patterns available?"
"Of course I am. That's the whole point."
"I didn't mean that. I meant, sample patterns."
Ari stared at her. "Give them away, you mean? The whole point of this is to make money."
"A lot of people have put free patterns online", Barbara said.
"Really? Why would they do that?"
"Sometimes it's the only way for people to publish their ideas", Kaitlyn said quietly.
Ari turned to her. "Have you done that?"
"What, and lose my copyright? If I tried to publish it in print later, I wouldn't be able to because of that." She paused. "When I was first learning to make web pages, I did put a design on my own site, though, a simple one. A scarf in garter stitch."
"Well, anyone can make one of those, so that's okay."
"It was for beginners", Kaitlyn said defensively.
"And it was nice", Susan said firmly. "Of course, though, she's right. Why give something away for free?"
Barbara was leaning over Ari's shoulden. "Ari, haven't you ever looked at anything to do with knitting online?"
"No. I told you, I think the Internet is a waste of time..." 
blah blah blah
"Maybe." Ari was frowning at the screen. "people really put their patterns online without expecting payment?"
"I hate to say it, but I've gotten some good ones that way."
"Hmm. maybe that's an idea. What do you think?" She turned to ask Kaitlyn.
"Why?" Kaitlyn said.
"As samples. You know I do that every now and then in here. It gets people to see what I do, and I usually get customers from them."
Kaitlyn was frowning. "Well, if you want to."
"I'll think about it. I think I'll check out some other sites here tonight", she added.
blah blah blah


Free knitting patterns. Now who would put those on the web? 
blah blah blah
Typing some more, she st back, waiting for results. "Free knitting patterns", she read aloud, scanning one group of type. It had a web address highlighted at the bottom. Below, there was another grouping and then yet another. Shew glanced up to see the number of results for her search, and blinked. It numbered in the thousands. "That many?" she muttered, and clicked on the address for the first site.

Now, this is the results I get today... it wouldn't have been much different 2004. Knitty has been around since 2002, Knitting Pattern Central since 2004, I started my blog 2006 and Ravelry was launched 2007. In 2004 Magknits was around and Fibertrends' felted slipper clogs was a free pattern online... oh, that I didn't know that then... *sigh* Today the pattern has sold over 8000 copies. Think about that a little, miss Kruger. Who indeed puts their pattern online for free and loses the copyright? What?

Anyway, the knitwear designer in the book clicks the first link that appears, and gets someone's personal page where the owner provides free patterns, and among these she spots her own design. It seems that the owner of the site has been lifting patterns from books, leaflets and prints, and publishing in her site. Now, remember, this was the first result of the list, according to miss Kruger. The knit designer returns to the "main screen" and finds out that ALL the sites giving knitting patterns away are of the same quality.

"Some of the sites were for businesses that sold patterns, like hers. Others gave credit to the original publishers. A lot of them offered original designs, free of charge. Too many, though, had been pirated.
Ari was more than disturbed now. She was angry and appalled, as she leaned back in her chair. Kaitlyn had mentioned designers losing their copyrights if they published online, but this was far worse. This was direct infirngement, direct theft. She wondered if the publishers knew. She wondered if her own designs had been stolen."

It - naturally - turns out that that indeed had happened, and that plays a big part in the whole murder investigation.
But - the author of the book knows so painfully little about yarn, spinning, knitting, keeping shops, keeping sheep, designing... uh. Murder investigation, even how people behave, act, react... The main character uses a lot of time thinking about how everyone is going to be SO upset, but totally ignores her own 7-years-old daughter. She whines "running your own business is 24/7. So is being a mother. I have to find some time to work on new designs. And somewhere in there I have to get housework done", but she isn't doing any of this much in this book. I think she has 2-3 SHORT discussions with her daughter, PLANS sitting down to design, but, ah, cannot, because she is interrupted, and then she goes off to Internet to google her name again. Yap yap yap yip yap. Whine whine, yada yada, blah blah blah.
No. No more Mary Kruger for me.

If you want to read kntiting related murder mysteries, read Maggie Sefton. It's not the best mystery book I've ever read, but if I'd give Mary Kruger 1-2 on the scale 0-10 (Yes, I have had worse.) I'd give Maggie 7-8.

If you'd like a copy of Mary Kruger, pocket, bought from bookstore, but read by the dinner table, so it's full of stains, thrown discusted away several times, picked up again, after lots of sighing, being waved in the air during upset exclamations and explanations on how one actually spins, or that you can hardly garrot anyone with wool, because it's almost as elastic as rubber, and tends to break before it gets tight enough to actually stop anyone from breathing, and that you don't keep your sheep free on your front lawn. You just don't. If you know ANYTHING about sheep, that is. Anyway, if you want a copy which is in no way mint condition, but you get the second book, that IS in mint condition - I think I have opened it once - with it, just tell me and I'll send it to you. :-)

Anyway, back to attics. I love Elizabeth Enright's "Return to Gone-Away" and Villa Caprice! I DROOL over the piles of Edwardian clothes... I have dreams about places like that... table after table covered with interesting, beautiful, amazing things, shelves, cupboards, closets, cabinets, chairs, even floors, everything covered with colors, patterns, lovely things... *sigh*
One could wish Annie's Attic Mysteries are similar, though I'm not quite happy about the idea I get from looking at the homepage of the series.

So - there we are again. If I want to read something, I need to write it myself ;-)
I just hope I had the same selfconfidence I had 10 years ago :-D Now I'm not so sure I can anymore :-)

A couple of interesting articles I found

How creativity is an act of devotion

there are only seven stories in the world

The secret of creating a good story

I'm not saying much about that, I'm still tired and slightly confused, and pondering about how to market my Zazzle shop better. Yes, I have such a thing. I have had it a whole week right now, and I was being very sad, because no-one visited it... then my husband told me that it might be because no-one knows about it, and I went "but I have said it several times in my blog and facebook and tweeted too!", and then I remembered the guy who had tried "everything" - and meant writing one letter or something. I haven't tried everything. So, I'll go and try a bit more ;-)

Fascinating history

As a consequence of wanting to know a bit more about Wallis Simpson, I found a new blog - or it's very old, actually, as a blog considered, as the last post was made in last decade... And most of it is about Rome and Greece and such, and slightly uninteresting, but there are a couple of post that made me interested.

The Duchess of Argyll and the Headless Men

Here's a bit more about the affair


Count Fersen and Marie Antoinette - Count Fersen and Marie Antoinette revisited

Altered portrait - eyes made smaller, nose longer and fatter, Habsburg lip given and hair blonded (she had a very pretty golden hair, which would have looked quite white powdered). Frankly, I don't think the paintings of her are THAT beautified. The painters had to make the people look themselves. Even if the skin was smoothed, eyes perhaps made a bit bigger and proportions tweaked a little, the changes were so small one shouldn't even bother thinking about them.

I think about Princess Royal, Anne of England, whose is supposed to look like a horse...

A very pretty horse that is :-) But she too has long face and nose and sort of fleshy lower lip, and even though her eyes are by no means small, they can give that perception.

The paintings made of Marie Antoinette later make me think of Maggie Smith.

She isn't really beautiful either, with her rather long and narrow face, but... frankly... none of these women is ugly.

Mad, Bad and Dangerous To Know

The Secret Meaning of Elizabethan Salads
So fascinating... symbolical foods taken to the next level... that could be used in a book.

The Seductive Lady Hamilton
Emma, Lady Hamilton, as seen by Louise-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun
about Lady Hamilton
Lady Hamilton; a regency romance era heroine

Christine de Pisan

Napoleon and Pauline Bonaparte - Incest?
Famous Affinities of History
the Coincidental Dandy: Wayward Venus; the Life of Marie-Pauline Bonaparte Borghése

Olympe de Gouges

Lady Godiva, peeping Tom and taxes

Boudicca, revenge of a warrior queen


Messalina, the worst wife in history?

Valeria Messalina's statue colored

Nicola Pagett as Messalina in Granada's The Caesars

I think Messalina could well have looked very much like her...

I think she is very pretty... Nicola, that is. Probably Messalina as well.

Theodora, the whore who became an empress

History and women: Nefertiti
Unusual Historicals and Michelle Moran; Nefertiti

The Great Courtesans
Marquerite, Violetta and Marie
Vintage Powder Room and Deauville
La Païva - pickled and preserved

Scandalous Women - blog

The Hero Workshop
Why are scandalous people more intersting than heroes?

Historical warrior women
Jean d'Arc - the wrong hero

Quaintrelles:

Marguerite, Countess of Blessington
Cora Pearl
Marchesa Luisa Casati
Coco Chanel
and Marlene Dietrich

P.S: Once again, Fascinating People -

A couple of blog entries from Scarlett Gypsy

Writing: Physical character description

Those innovative, fun-loving Victorians...

and some others :-)

30 days of writing meme? I challenge anyone reading my blog :-)

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you’ve worked with and why.

When I was about 10 I created my own fantasy universe with horses as sacred animals and matriarchy. My Empress, my Mary Sue, did all the things I wanted to be able to do. I created characters and storylines as I needed them, told myself stories to fall asleep to, entertained myself when I was alone, or waited, or traveled, run the forests discussing with my imaginary friends... I still do, after 30 years :-)

750 words

A wonderful site!
I love the statistics part. It gives a much better idea of how quickly I write than all the others so far.
Right now it takes about an hour for me to write the 750 words, of which 1/2 is actual writing.
I write about 13 words a minute, which would take me about 2 hours and some to write the 1667 words needed for NaNoWriMo... Hmm...

Spinsters

In Susan Coolidge's last Katy book was mention about the unmarried sisters of hundreds of Englishmen who traveled with their brothers to keep their houses in the New World. Not a word of these sisters have ever been mentioned. It's time to make their lives and thoughts important.

Uta Northwood didn't have much talent in anything, nor was she beautiful, so she was deemed useless and unattractive. When it was time for her brother, Lionel, to make his to take over the world in the name of British Empire, it was considered self-evident that Uta would follow with him and make some use of herself.
Uta did have talents and gifts, but these were not of remarkable kind. Sure, her taste in clothes and homemaking was boring, as she didn't care about which colors went well together, or silly, frivolous details that made things unique and pretty. She used the clothes that were functional, stood against dirt and wore wearing well. Because of this her clothes were usually shiny wool of some ugly, dirty color and very old-fashioned. She chose furniture with the same thoughts, sturdy, ugly things that would last several lifetimes, and make her brother's great-grandchildren cry. Her talents were in organization, and never were cupboards and drawers as tidy as hers, her brother had never any problems with economy, and there always was bread in the basket and clean, fresh water in jug. She was not stingy and had always something to eat for everyone who asked for it. She did expect you to work for your bread, though, but she could clearly see one's limits and never expected too much. She was made to keep house, and as her brother's companion and housekeeper, she found her place.
Now, such life is not very pleasant. Her friends were those who weren't good or interesting enough for anyone else, like she herself was, but as a friend she was worth gold, always loyal, to a wise, always there, and she remembered all the important dates and preferences.

Her best friend was another sister. This woman was the sister of a Canadian doctor, and they lived in their old home. He had married and had six children with his wife, who then had gotten ill and died when the youngest was just a baby. Jenny had stepped in and was keeping the house and family, but she wasn't very motherly person and didn't much like children either. She kept them fed and well dressed, and saw that they did their duties, other needs they had to satisfy otherwhere.

Jenny and Uta lived in the same little town and used to visit each other rather frequently. They met first in market. They both had wanted the same thing, and complained, and it was ordered, and they both thought it was for them, and crabbed it the same time. Two almost identical leather glove covered, thin hands with long fingers, one glove grey, the other brown, landed on the thing, and the ladies looked up and for a second thought they were looking in the mirror.
Then they realized that the colors were wrong - one sepia, other black and white, both thin, dry women in boring and ugly but functional and sensible clothes, face not used to express feelings, which were considered mere waste of time anyway, and therefore surprisingly young and smooth, watery eyes, thin, colorless eyebrows and lashes, long nose, sharp, thin lips and remarkable chin line... and for the first time in their lives, Jenny and Uta felt kinship of souls, and they smiled.

Victorian girls' novels

I have been reading Susan Coolidge's Katy books, and I am struck, in the comparison with Louisa M. Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder, by how a middle-class Eastern coast family has very different living standards than a poor Western family. Clover has to keep a house for herself and her brother and she doesn't seem to know how to cook and bake.

"Fairly good soups could be bought in tins, which needed only to be seasoned and heated for use on table. Oysters were easily procurable there, as everywhere in the West; good brown-bread and rolls came from the bakery"

Also, the need of "help" in both Little Women and Katy books is surprising... In Little Women there are five (5) women (from age 9 and up) living in a little house, and they have a help! In  Montgomery's Anne books she is a good help for Marilla already when 12, and all they think is that Matthew would need a boy for some of the farm work. March women had only a house!
I can understand that sometimes help is needed with laundry and perhaps when the whole house needs to be cleaned thoroughly, but not all the time. Katy's father had a cook, a maid and a handyman, and still they "needed" a housekeeper. I really don't get it.

BTW, What Katy Did Next is horrible! I remember liking it when I read it as a girl, but now I'm disturbed by all kinds of things. The "lovely" Amy who's dumb and selfish as a girl can be, spoiled rotten, and yet Lily, who is what Amy is growing up to be, is considered horrible. That Englishmen didn't know who Jane Austen was. That an Italian woman would have thrown a sick child out from her house. How everyone not American was somewhat weird, evil, primitive, ugly, dirty and so on and so forth.

I'm getting back on writing :-)

After four months of no writing to speak of, I'm getting interested again :-)

Angels and demons, vampires, dragons, fairies... aliens. We describe all supernatural, paranormal creatures to come from the skies or beyond, "extraterrestials", aliens, space creatures, when in reality they are just as terrestial as the rest of us.

John Gray, a vampire, loves to read vampire stories, and discuss them with his human friend, Celine. Celine has a slight crush on John, and John knows this, and teases her about it, because he like having her as a friend. He's more than 300 years old, and the game of love, sex and blood has grown old and boring. It's all the time the same. Stupid teen-aged girls believe to be "The One" who changes you, whom you'll love and who will rescue and save your soul... and it never happens. Human are simple creatures, easily controlled, easily manipulated, especially when you were once one yourself. It takes only a lifetime to know man, and that all men - and women - are the same, and that's all it takes.

A young dragoness visited them every now and then, and she was foolish enough not to have learned the finer aspects of human control. When she first met Celine, she asked if she was John's pet, and he answered that she was his friend. Similar but better than pet.

People were always speaking of the coldness of vampires, the lack of feelings, but in reality it was lack of chemicals, good for nothing but disturbing the thinking process. His brain was still working as it always had been, but now the human needs and emotions weren't bothering him. Sure, it had been amusing to seduce girls, even older women who should have known better, for a while, but in the end it stole time from more interesting issues. Also, there is a saying of youth being wasted on young people. He was as good as youth, stronger, healthier, more handsome, perfect, so why would he behave as youth when he had the wisdom and experience of old age? No, sex and partying was for the young people, he wanted more of life. Friends, among other things. It was sad though that everyone was immature compared to him, but in time he learned to appreciate the quality of being unspoiled and fresh. It was also amusing to see young people have the insights anew he had had already so many lifetimes ago.

Now he was reading the new books about vampires being written by young women, and in everyone the vampires were presented as sexually desirable. Depending on what was considered exciting at the time, the vampires were given other qualities. Some 50 years ago danger was arousing, now it was romantic, eternal love. In a time when ethics and morals weren't so strict and limiting, old-fashioned values were seen as something exotic and interesting. Nevertheless, the mere idea of a vampire falling in love...

"Do they really think this story is believable?" he asked Celine.

"Yes, it's romantic!"

"I'm sorry but isn't this man supposed to be over hundred years old?"

"Yes"

"And he has never loved a woman in his life?"

"No..."

"But now he sees this girl and falls in love with her immediately, passionately and possessively?"

"Er... yes..."

"And she as all teenagers have no idea of what they actually want, like, think or prefer, but she decides the best thing for her is to become a vampire as well."

"Yes, because she couldn't live without him."

"It is surprising how well we actually can live without everyone and everything we have ever loved, Celine. I'm sure this girl would think differently in some 20 years. Most likely she won't understand what she ever saw in this man."

"But that's the thing, it's love! She will love him forever, and he will love her, and they will live forever, together, young and beautiful. It's a lovely story, John! I don't expect you to understand, as you have never loved anyone, but..."

"I see... so the author made her a vampire because it is impossible for a man and a woman to love each other for as long as they both shall live. Wouldn't it be lovelier, if she grew old as normal human beings do, and live being loved by him, and die in his arms, being loved by him, even as she is old and sick? I think it would be more romantic that way. Also, kinder to her surroundings. What about her parents? Are they never to see her again, because she will always be a teenager, and never to have children..."

"She will have children."

"With whom?"

"With the vampire."

"With the vampire?" John laughed. "I love this author. I have to have all her books. Though I suppose there won't be any more books about this couple after she has given them their happy ending, forever after, young and beautiful, frolicking in the forest together in eternal love..."