Caddy Rowland - Making History, Bohemian Style

Please welcome back historical fiction author and artist, Caddy Rowland, our regular contributor here at Historical Fiction Connection.

Making History Bohemian Style (Part 2) 

By Caddy Rowland

Nineteenth Century Montmartre
Caddy Rowland
 

 Hi! It’s me again, that crazy bohemian. Since I’m going to be posting monthly about the bohemian era artists, I thought maybe I should explain how this whole crazy era came about. It’s funny, really. Two very different things were invented. That’s it. Two small inventions changed art forever. Who would have guessed at the time?

The first invention I have to mention is the camera. Oh, cameras had been around a little while, but they really weren’t used much. Now, in the last half of the 19th century, that began to change. Cameras were no longer considered a passing fad, and people who owned them were being hired to take—you guessed it—photos.

This was an ominous warning bell for artists. You see, artists had always been hired by the wealthy to paint their family member’s portraits and life events. The whole history of a family was painted. Many artists were hired on for life. They were provided room and board, supplies, and sometimes spending money. Some were treated only as servants, while others were embraced as almost a family member. It just depended on the family.

Now, with the camera doing exactly what artists had been hired for, it was obvious that they needed to reinvent themselves—and fast. It would only be a matter of time before those blasted cameras could take photos in color. Some of the more forward thinking artists decided they would show things in ways a camera couldn’t—because all a camera could do was duplicate what it was aimed at. 

Bedroom Arles  

Vincent van Gogh

That’s what had been expected of artists up to this point, too. Duplicate. They dreamed of the freedom to paint what they wanted and how they wanted it. There was no time to do that, though. They were kept busy with the family history of their patrons. Now, they finally had freedom to paint as they pleased. Unfortunately, it came at a high cost. No more would they be guaranteed a place to live, food to eat, or even supplies. They were going to be on their own.

The second item that was invented was to their advantage. Finally, for the first time in history paints were available for purchase in tubes! Yes, in tubes of color already mixed! That meant artists no longer had to spend time making paint. It also meant they could paint outside very easily. What a joy to have the ability to paint wherever they wanted, carrying those little tubes in their paint box.

The time was ripe for change. Artists knew it—at least the artists who understood that to stay the same would be to die off. With all of the possibilities presented to them now that they were mobile, no subject was off limits. Landscapes, still life, commoners, street scenes…a whole new world beckoned, begging to be captured on canvas.

Those artists answered the call. They grabbed their brushes, canvas and paints and headed out to make history. Yes, it really was a new world—where anything was possible.

Impressionism was born.

Once that happened, nothing would ever be the same again.

Le Moulin de la Galette
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I’ll say good-bye for now. Next month we’ll continue our leisurely exploration of these wonderful artists and their vision for the future. Until then, dream big and dream in color. 

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Guest Post: D.W. Bradbridge's The Winter Siege

Using Historical Figures

I first began to study Nantwich’s rich Civil War history a few years ago when I realised, through an interest in genealogy, that half my ancestors came from the town. It did not take me long to realise that the story surrounding the Siege of Nantwich was a tale worth telling. But I didn’t just want to write a local history book.

My aim was to take the Battle of Nantwich and use it as the accurate and detailed framework for a fictional murder mystery novel. The idea was to create a “what-if” scenario that challenged the reader to identify which parts of the story really happened and which were the figments of my imagination. The irony, of course, is that all history is recorded by eye-witnesses, who themselves may have been biased or had political agendas of their own.

This got me thinking about how I should portray the real historical figures within my novel. Should the author adhere to the recognised character image of well known historical figures or should he allow himself free reign to develop characters as he sees fit, especially when set against a background that is detailed and historically accurate? How far should the author go in portraying more obscure historical figures or common folk whose names also happen to be recorded in historical documents, and what impact does this have on the perceived authenticity of a work of fiction? These are some of the issues I wanted to explore when writing The Winter Siege.

In casting The Winter Siege I wanted to avoid falling into the trap of making my main protagonist one of the main historical figures involved in the battle. I wanted the reader to feel an empathy with the real common folk who were trapped in Nantwich during the siege, so I cast Daniel Cheswis as a middling sort of tradesman who gets caught up in the upheaval of the siege. I also wanted to make the best use of the environment created by the siege, which it seemed to me, provided me with the ideal kind of closed environment for a murder mystery in the best traditions of the genre. I therefore decided to write most of the book in the first person, but split up the text with third person narratives about what was going on outside the town at the time, with the aim of tying everything together at the end.

So what about the historical characters? The main historical figures involved in the Battle of Nantwich were Sir Thomas Fairfax, Sir William Brereton, John Lord Byron and Colonel George Booth. However, my main aim was to create a sense of history as Cheswis would have seen in, so, with the exception of Booth, who was the garrison commander and therefore in the same boat as Cheswis, I decided to use the prominent people involved in the battle as historical markers and relatively peripheral figures to the main story, who nonetheless had some small connection to the fictional storyline and therefore had some relevance to Daniel. I also did this with a number of less prominent military personnel such as Lothian, Sandford and Connaught, the last two’s exploits in particular being relatively well documented locally because of their respective roles in the daring capture of Beeston Castle and the bloodthirsty massacre at Barthomley, both real events which I decided needed to be weaved into the murder plot in some way.

To add authenticity to the murder storyline itself, I decided to include a number of prominent local people such as Thomas Maisterson, Randle Church, Lady Norton and the two Roger Wilbrahams and still closer to the action, I decided to use the names of some other real people as key characters within the plot – so the Davenport family really did exist as did a heroine called Brett, whilst the town bellman in 1643 really was called Alexander Clowes.

So there are your characters, but what of the action? How many of the events portrayed in The Winter Siege really happened and which storylines and sub plots are invented by me? That, I’m afraid, is the point of history. It’s for you, the reader, to decide.

About the book
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
Electric Reads
Paperback; 488p
ISBN-10: 1492795712

1643. The armies of King Charles I and Parliament clash in the streets and fields of England, threatening to tear the country apart, as winter closes in around the parliamentary stronghold of Nantwich. The royalists have pillaged the town before, and now, they are returning. But even with weeks to prepare before the Civil War is once more at its gates, that doesn’t mean the people of Nantwich are safe.

While the garrison of soldiers commanded by Colonel George Booth stand guard, the town’s residents wait, eyeing the outside world with unease, unaware that they face a deadly threat from within. Townspeople are being murdered – the red sashes of the royalists left on the bodies marking them as traitors to the parliamentary cause.

When the first dead man is found, his skull caved in with a rock, fingers start being pointed, and old hatreds rise to the surface. It falls to Constable Daniel Cheswis to contain the bloodshed, deputising his friend, Alexander Clowes, to help him in his investigations, carried out with the eyes of both armies on his back. And they are not the only ones watching him.

He is surrounded by enemies, and between preparing for the imminent battle, watching over his family, being reunited with his long-lost sweetheart, and trying, somehow, to stay in business, he barely has time to solve a murder.

With few clues and the constant distraction of war, can Cheswis protect the people of Nantwich? And which among them need protecting? Whether they are old friends or troubled family, in these treacherous times, everyone’s a traitor, in war, law, or love.

When the Winter Siege is through, who will be among the bodies?

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About the Author
D.W. Bradbridge was born in 1960 and grew up in Bolton. He has lived in Crewe, Cheshire since 2000, where he and his wife run a small magazine publishing business for the automotive industry.

“The inspiration for The Winter Siege came from a long-standing interest in genealogy and local history. My research led me to the realisation that the experience endured by the people of Nantwich during December and January 1643-44 was a story worth telling. I also realised that the closed, tension-filled environment of the month-long siege provided the ideal setting for a crime novel.

“History is a fascinating tool for the novelist. It consists only of what is remembered and written down, and contemporary accounts are often written by those who have their own stories to tell. But what about those stories which were forgotten and became lost in the mists of time?

“In writing The Winter Siege, my aim was to take the framework of real history and fill in the gaps with a story of what could, or might have happened. Is it history or fiction? It’s for the reader to decide.”

For more information please visit D.W. Bradbridge’s website. You can also find him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

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Carmela Cattuti's Between the Cracks - Guest Post and {Giveaway}

BETWEEN THE CRACKS

Life in the New World

by Carmela Cattuti

Many Italians immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century with little but the shirts on their back. They came without a marketable skill. Many were rural agricultural workers who had to perform manual labor in American urban centers. Most intended to return to Italy once they had accumulated enough money, but in many cases that never happened. The typical immigrant worker lived hand to mouth. Autonomy was extremely important to the immigrant population, but few achieved it.

Angela, the main character in BETWEEN THE CRACKS, has a unique talent in her sewing and design, as does her husband Frank. He has the ability to restore and build furniture, houses, and was an adept plumber. These abilities combined with a fiercely independent spirit was a formula for success in the new world. Angela and Frank saw an opportunity to express who they were and share this expression at a time when America enjoyed a new prosperity.

Angela received an education she never would have gotten had the eruption of Mt Etna in 1908 Sicily never happened. When her entire family perished in the earthquake, Angela was sent to a convent. The convent provided an oasis from the tumultuous life of the every day Sicilian woman. The astute and business-wise Mother Superior quickly saw Angela's talents and their potential for increasing the convent's revenue. She nurtured Angela's creative ability for sewing and design then capitalized on it. This is a key element to her story; many of the influences in her early life operated from extreme necessity.

Acts of God, war, poverty and coping with a volatile political situation all required women to use whatever means possible to survive and prosper. Her story deviates from the typical immigrant woman in that she acquired the skills necessary to succeed in the new world. She was strongly cultural and enjoyed sharing her spirituality and talents with family, the Italian community and dressmaker clients. She believed in family but was not blinded by it. Angela reached beyond the confines of her community and designed dresses for well-to-do women who would not have connected with a Sicilian immigrant. Whenever appropriate, she would beguile these women with stories about her country and her world. She was European and appeared exotic to the Americans she encountered. Word spread about her talents as a dressmaker, but clients came to her for more than a one-of-a kind garment: they came to be transported.

Even through tremendous adversity and loss, she thrived and continued to integrate her special brand of spirituality with every day existence. A rich and diverse inner-life was just as seminal in Angela's success in the new world as was her talents. At a time of great religious conservatism she held her inner-landscape close and followed her own path.

About the book
Publication Date: August 20, 2013
Three Towers Press/HenschelHAUS Publishing, Inc.
Paperback; 324p
ISBN-10: 1595982396

Join Angela Lanza as she experiences the tumultuous world of early 20th century Sicily and New York. Orphaned by the earthquake and powerful eruption of Mr. Etna in 1908, Angela is raised in the strict confines of an Italian convent. Through various twists of fate, she is married to a young Italian man whom she barely knows, then together with her spouse, immigrates to the U.S. This novel is an invitation to accompany the young Angela as she confronts the ephemeral nature of life on this planet and navigates the wide cultural gaps between pre-World War II Italy and the booming prosperity of dynamic young America. Join Angela Lanza as she traverses the tumultuous landscape of Sicily and New York.

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About the Author

Carmela Cattuti started her writing career as a journalist for the Somerville News in Boston, MA. After she finished her graduate work in English Literature from Boston College she began to write creatively and taught a journal writing course at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education As fate would have it, she felt compelled to write her great aunt’s story. “Between the Cracks” has gone through several incarnations and will now become a trilogy. This is the first installment. To connect with Carmela email her cattutic@gmail.com or leave a comment at betweenthecracksnovel.blogspot.com.

For more information please visit Carmela's website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Visit the Between the Cracks Facebook page.

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C.F. Yetmen's The Roses Underneath - Signed Paperback {Giveaway}

It is August 1945 in Wiesbaden, Germany. With the country in ruins, Anna Klein, displaced and separated from her beloved husband, struggles to support herself and her six-year old daughter Amalia. Her job typing forms at the Collecting Point for the US Army’s Monuments Men is the only thing keeping her afloat. Charged with securing Nazi-looted art and rebuilding Germany’s monuments, the Americans are on the hunt for stolen treasures. But after the horrors of the war, Anna wants only to hide from the truth and rebuild a life with her family. When the easy-going American Captain Henry Cooper recruits her as his reluctant translator, the two of them stumble on a mysterious stash of art in a villa outside of town. Cooper’s penchant for breaking the rules capsizes Anna’s tenuous security and propels her into a search for elusive truth and justice in a world where everyone is hiding something.

In her debut novel C.F. Yetmen tells a story of loss and reconciliation in a shattered world coming to terms with war and its aftermath.

About the author
An early job in Germany as Editorial Assistant for Prestel Books taught C.F. Yetmen how to layout a Kandinksy and write about architecture. In addition to writing for architects across America, C.F. Yetmen is co-author of The Owner’s Dilemma: Driving Success and Innovation in the Design and Construction Industry (2010). The Roses Underneath is her first novel. Visit C.F. at http://www.cfyetmen.com.

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Guest Post - George Steger's Sebastian's Way: The Pathfinder

Thanks for inviting me to scribble some thoughts to you about the writing of Sebastian’s Way. It’s an honor to share your website. In return, I offer a small essay on something I struggled with through the whole book: the problem of introducing some interesting women into the story.

The Trouble with the Women

Writers are always warned not to project onto the past the rationality, attitudes, and customs of the present. Writers who do so are disingenuous and at risk of exposure. Nevertheless, observing that rule can be a severe handicap. So it was for me.

You see, over my lifetime, I was lucky to have been close to some very strong women who wielded a great deal of influence and made a significant difference in my life, and I wanted to use my experience of them in the book. The problem, however, was the same that it has been throughout most of history up to the modern era: women do not show up so well or as often in history as men do. And the farther back in history one goes, the worse it gets. That seemed especially true when I began to write about the eighth-century world of Charlemagne.

A popular philosophical view of women in that era was that they were innately weak and soft, unable to learn complexities, reason well, or control their sexual urges. Therefore they were subordinate to men. What is commonly known is that prostitution and concubinage were common and the double standard prevailed in the household. Unions of limited duration were recognized, and a man could divorce his wife for bad conduct (the particulars of such accusation being provided by the husband.) As for education for women, there wasn’t much available outside of convents, and that life was largely for widows, women wanting to escape a dreaded marriage, or those who were being discarded by their husbands. At the convent, it was possible for a woman to learn, but the fruit of her learning rarely had impact outside the cloister.

Not much of that fit what I wanted the women of Sebastian’s Way to be.

In the story, there are four female characters who play a significant part. The first is Ermengard, Sebastian’s mother, who from his earliest years demands that her son be more than a well-trained dog in the king’s military kennel. She had always yearned to read but was given no opportunity. She therefore insists that her son will find not only the opportunity but the time it takes to learn. This has much to do with the man that Sebastian becomes.

The second female character is Adela, Sebastian’s inamorata. She, too, is frustrated in her ambition to think on her own and be allowed to choose her own destiny. But she is incredibly uncompromising and capable of great sacrifice in defense of her convictions. Her fervor is one of the leading causes for the struggle the pair must face.

The third woman is also strong but in a much different way. This is Adelaide, the daughter of a count, who refuses to be shunted into a sedentary role of breeding and domestication. She much prefers fornication. Sebastian is flummoxed by her and has a hard time resisting her charms and overwhelming personality.

The fourth female is Gersvind, a lovely peasant girl with no significant place in the community. What power she has is simply the courage to love a man who is above her station with all her heart. By doing so, she manages to insert herself into Sebastian’s life for a time.

My problem was how to justify the strength of these women while still remaining within the boundaries of the historical era.

Finding the solution turned up some surprising results. There was not much I could do about peasant women; they were as much engaged as ever before in the grim business of survival, and they worked from dawn to dusk alongside their husbands with little time to think about changing their role or status in life. That takes nothing away from the eternal role of such women in maintaining and shaping the family and its children. Unfortunately, few specifics from their lives are recorded.

Aristocratic women, however, are much more visible in surviving sources, and they represented significant change in the Carolingian age. One of the books I read in researchingthe women of the era was Valerie Garver’s fascinating scholarly work entitled Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World (Cornell University Press, 2009.) She maintains that such women significantly contributed to “the transformation . . . and development of European culture through their participation in the Carolingian renaissance.” Charlemagne was the architect of this window of light, the first breath of cultural and societal improvement since the fall of the Roman Empire almost three centuries earlier. In this flowering of learning and art, Frankish women from the landed class were often his partners, self-appointed agents in promoting Christian virtue and education. There was a limit, however, to how much they could do since church leaders insisted that women needed to focus on the domestic life.

What they could and did do was develop lasting social norms of hospitality, household and estate management, and proper behavior. They championed, for example, the establishment of the institution of marriage as a sacrament at a time when lingering pagan practices threatened lasting monogamous unions.

They did all this by creating standards—of both beauty and virtue. A woman of the Carolingian elite served her husband best if she made herself as beautiful as possible, dressed well, and behaved in a manner above reproach. She brought honor to her husband’s house and enhanced his reputation. Of course, such standards served the woman as well, enhancing her security and giving her no little power behind the scenes. It is this more subtle strength that I strove to establish in the characters of the women of Sebastian’s Way. The reader must be the judge of whether I succeeded. 

About Sebastian's Way
Publication Date: October 3, 2013
iUniverse
Paperback; 370p
ISBN-10: 1491708964

In a dark age of unending war and violence, one young warrior opposes a mighty king to forge a new path to peace…

During the savage Frankish-Saxon wars, the moving force of his age, Karl der Grosse, King Charlemagne, fights and rules like the pagan enemies he seeks to conquer. But in the long shadow of war and genocide, a spark of enlightenment grows, and the king turns to learned men to help him lead his empire to prosperity.

One of these men is the unlikely young warrior Sebastian. Raised in an isolated fortress on the wild Saxon border, Sebastian balances his time in the training yard with hours teaching himself to read, seeking answers to the great mysteries of life during an age when such pastimes were scorned by fighting men. Sebastian’s unique combination of skills endears him to Charlemagne and to the ladies of the king's court, though the only woman to hold his heart is forbidden to him. As the king determines to surround himself with men who can both fight and think beyond the fighting, Sebastian becomes one of the privileged few to hold the king’s ear.

But the favor of the king does not come without a cost. As Charlemagne's vassals grapple for power, there are some who will do anything to see Sebastian fall from grace, including his ruthless cousin Konrad, whose hatred and jealousy threaten to destroy everything Sebastian holds dear. And as Sebastian increasingly finds himself at odds with the king’s brutal methods of domination and vengeance, his ingrained sense of honor and integrity lead him to the edge of treason, perilously pitting himself against the most powerful man of his age.

This fast-paced adventure story brings Charlemagne's realm to life as the vicious Christian-pagan wars of the eighth century decide the fate of Europe. Filled with action, intrigue, and romance, Sebastian's Way is a riveting and colorful recreation of the world of Europe’s greatest medieval monarch.

About the Author
A native of Louisiana, the author followed a long tradition of young men from the Deep South by seeking to improve his prospects in the military. From a green second lieutenant in the famed 101st Airborne Division to battalion command in Vietnam, Colonel Steger spent most of the rest of his military career in four European tours as an intelligence officer and Russian foreign area specialist, working on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. He traded sword for plowshare in a second career in academia and is now Professor Emeritus of history and international affairs at the University of Saint Mary in Leavenworth, Kansas. The motivation to write Sebastian’s Way came from his experiences in both war and peace, from fourteen years in Germany and Eastern Europe, and from his love of teaching medieval and other European history courses.

Steger is an avid hiker and trail biker, and much of the story of Sebastian came out of time spent in the woods and fields of eastern Kansas. In memory of Mary Jo, his wife of many years, he and filmmaker son Ben spent a recent summer trekking across Spain on The Camino de Santiago, one of Europe’s oldest pilgrimage trails. He lives and writes in rural Kansas and has four other grown and gifted children.

For more information please visit George Steger’s website. You can also find him on Facebook.

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