Author Archives: Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

About Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Writer (as Amanda McCabe, Laurel McKee, Amanda Carmack), history geek, yoga enthusiast, pet owner!

Hildegard of Bingen Etc

Updated on September 20, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope you are having a great week. Mine is not so fun, since I just got back from a lovely vacation in Santa Fe (eating green chile enchiladas, drinking margaritas, laying by the pool, looking at art…) and now have to settle down to work again. But it’s nice to be diving into a new book and thinking about blogs again. 🙂

When I was trying to find subjects for today’s post, I found out St. Hildegard of Bingen died September 17 in 1179. I’ve always thought she was a fascinating woman, and I love listening to CDs of music, so I thought we could take a quick look at her life (even though she is waaaayy earlier than Regency!)

Hildegard was born in (probably) 1098, the 10th child of a noble German family. Overcome with children, they gave her to the Church when she was 8, which proved to be a blessing in her life. She was highly educated for the times, learing reading, writing, and music as a child. She grew up into a composer, philosopher, writer, healer, and visionary (she was plagued by ill health all her life, and had mystic visions during her sicknesses). She was elected abbess of her community in 1136, and founded at least one other nunnery.

70 to 80 of her compositions survive, along with some of her books (the best known is probably Know The Way), a morality play called Play of the Virtues), and books about the healing properties of herbs. She corresponded with popes, emperors, and people like Bernard of Clairvaux, and went on long preaching tours beyond her abbey. When she died, the nuns of her community claimed to see two bars of light appear in the sky and cross over her room.

Of her visions, she wrote:

But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. […] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘Cry out therefore, and write thus!

This is just a quick glimpse of her fascinating (and ahead of her time) life! I really like Fiona Maddocks’s biography Hildegard of Bingen: Woman of Her Age (2001). There are some great links to sources on this page and this one too…

Who are some of your heroines this week??

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Hildegard of Bingen, Jane Austen, vacations | 1 Reply

En Vacances (And Books!)

Updated on September 13, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Tuesday, everyone. I am off on vacation this week (the first time I could get away all summer!), and having a great time shopping, eating, swimming, and above all–reading! So this will be a short post–longer next week, I promise…

I’ve been reading Linda Urbach’s new historical novel Madame Bovary’s Daughter, about what happens to poor Bertha Bovary after the death of her parents. It’s a great concept, and I know there have been several novels out lately concerning minor characters from classics (especially Austen novels!). I think I would love to see what happened to Adele from Jane Eyre…

What character’s story would you like to read?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Bold New Frontiers in Reading, Jane Austen, Madame Bovary, Vacation | 6 Replies

Redux

Updated on September 6, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Eeek! I totally forgot it was Tuesday, I have been frantically trying to finish up these revisions to turn in before I leave on vacation next week. So I am taking a cue from Carolyn and revisting an oldie post–from June 28, 2008…..

I admit it, I had no idea what to write about today. It is summer, after all. I’ve been spending time dangling my feet in the kiddie pool I bought for my dogs, drinking lots of iced tea and writing, writing, writing! Reading, reading, reading! But what Janet said on Thursday was right–we Riskies do seem to love anniversaries. So, I did a search to see what was going on in the world a hundred or so years ago.

This is what I found: On this day in 1859, the first official dog show in the UK was held in Newcastle. The only breeds shown that day were Pointers and Setters. A show later in the year, in Birmingham, added Spaniels to the mix, and in 1860 hounds were added (thus paving the way for this year’s Westiminster winner, Uno the beagle). The first London dog show was in 1860, in Chelsea, with the official Kennel Club founded in 1873. (The Victorians did love their show dogs!).

I have 2 dogs of my own, a very bossy miniature Poodle mix (who loves to swim in her kiddie pool and bark a lot) and a much more laid-back Pug (that’s her in the pic!). Pugs were quite popular in the Georgian/Regency period, but their history goes much further back, to the Chinese Han and Tang Dynasty around 150 BC. Their path to Europe isn’t certain, but the earliest reference to them there comes around 1572, when a heroic little Pug woke his master, William of Orange, just in time to save him from Spanish raiders. In 1713, there was a portrait titled “Louis XIV and His Heirs,” with the appearance of a little fawn Pug (not named, and presumably not one of the heirs!)

English artist William Hogarth owned a series of Pugs and often painted them, especially his favorite “Trump.” In 1740, the sculptor Roubiliac modeled terracotta statues of Hogarth and Trump, which were later produced in porcelain by the Chelsea pottery factory.

Many famous historical figures have been owned by Pugs. Madame de Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, George III and Queen Charlotte, Empress Josephine, Voltaire, George Eliot, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Princess Grace, and Queen Victoria. Some of her Pugs included Venus, Olga, Fatima, Pedro, and Bosco (who has his own monument at Frogmore). My own dog is named Victoria in her honor.

And speaking of Queen Victoria, this is also the anniversary of her coronation! This happened in 1838. It is also the anniversary of Catherine the Great of Russia’s seizure of power from her crazy husband, in 1762. She might have owned Pugs, but I’m not sure. If not, she should have.

Do you have dogs (or pets of any sort?) Are they enjoying their summer?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Jane Austen | 2 Replies

World On Fire

Updated on August 30, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

Happy Tuesday, everyone! What a crazy week, right? Luckily here there have been no earthquakes or floods, just continuing heat and drought (two straight months of 105+ temps–I want autumn already!) and I am buried in trying to finish revisions before I go on vacation on the 12th. So this post will be short….

I’ve been reading Amanda Foreman’s fascinating new book, A World on Fire: Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War. It’s 900 pages so it’s taking me a while, but every time I sit down to read I find myself totally engrossed. I’m embarrassed to admit I know so much less about American history than European history, and very little about the Civil War (except what I learned as a kid touring some battlefields with my grandparents!), but almost nothing about European attitudes toward the war, but Foreman’s book reads like a novel about complex, fascinating, and very human characters of all sorts (both known and unknown). Their world, much like ours, was caught in the grip of profound uncertainty, and Britain was no exception despite their official neutrality. (British attitudes were especially complex, given how attitudes were overwhelmingly in favor of abolition but Northern mills were heavily dependent on Southern cotton–the blockade threw tens of thousands into unemployment…)

I highly recommend this book! And now I need to get offline and get back to work, so let’s look at some historical photos (which I love doing!). Have you read anything good lately? Gone on any good summer vacations?

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged Civil War, Jane Austen | 8 Replies

An Anniversary

Updated on August 23, 2011 by Amanda McCabe/Laurel McKee

I just realized something this weekend–I have been writing now for ten years. Ten Years!!! How is that even possible? The time has just flown by, and it’s hard now to remember which story came in which year, but my first came out in 2001.

I wrote Her Kind of Man (which had a different working title then, but now I can’t remember what it was!) when I was in college. It was mostly an escape from writing term papers, and a challenge to myself to see if I could actually write a whole book. I had been reading romances since I was ten years old (getting started with Barbara Cartlands, a few Heyers, the old Sunfire YA historicals, stuff like that), so naturally I thought of writing a romance. This story was my first (and only!) Western, and I had no expectations of it beyond something fun to try. But then I happened to go to an RT convention with another romance-reading friend (with no idea of what to expect there, since I did not read the magazine at the time!), sat in on a workshop about how to submit manuscripts, met some editors, and decided to give it a try. It was bought by Kensington’s now-defunct Precious Gems line…

And now I can’t believe it has been that long. I’ve never looked at the story again–I am too scared, since it was my “learning book” (plus I never re-read my stuff when it’s an actual book and can’t be changed–too frustrating!), but if you’re curious it is no available as an ebook from Belgrave House.

What was the first book you ever wrote, or the first romance you ever read? (I’m pretty sure my “first” was Cartland’s Elizabethan Lover, where the heroine disguises herself as a boy and stows away on the hero’s ship as he sails off the New World. It was quickly followed by a Viking romance whose title has been lost to the mists of time…))

Posted in Jane Austen | Tagged eBooks, First reads, Jane Austen | 12 Replies