Back to Top

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!

Discoveries

Updated on by

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Here we are now in Day 27 of 100+ temps, so I am staying in the AC and drinking lots and lots of iced tea. But I’m also on my “try new things” campaign, which meant I went out on a date with a new man last night (definitely something different!) and am going back to yoga class today for the first time since the surgery. Every day feels more and more “normal” again, and I love it. I’m also on a blog tour with authors Paula Quinn and Sue-Ellen Welfonder (look at my blog for dates–lots and lots of giveaways!)

While I’m trying to stay cool, I’m also making my way through a huge TBR pile of both fiction and non-fiction. One of the books I forgot I bought is Jonathan Downs’s Discovery at Rosetta: The Stone That Unlocked the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt. If you’re read some of my posts here, or my “Muses of Mayfair” series, you know I’m fascinated by archaeology and ancient myths, so I happily settled down to read this last week. And I found out July 19 is the anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone….

The Rosetta Stone is a pretty dull-looking black granite stele inscribed with a decree issued by Ptolemy V in 196 BC, but it’s inconspicuous appearance belies its enormous importance–since it’s inscribed with the decree in 3 different scripts (ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic script, and ancient Greek) it was the key to beginning to understand hieroglyphs, which had been a mystery before that.

Originally displayed in a temple, it eventually found itself part of the building materials of Fort Julien near Rashid (Rosetta), where it was discovered by a French soldier in 1799. Luckily Napoleon had taken not only military to Egypt, but a group of 167 scholars and experts known as the Comission des Sciences des Arts to study the history and culture of the region. (This group had a long and colorful experience in Egypt, but that’s another story…). The stone fell into British hands in 1801 and has been in the British Museum since 1802. The first translation of the Greek text appeared in 1803, but it was 20 years before Jean-Francois Champollion announced the initial decipherment of the hieroglyphs. Like many objects, it’s a source of conflict to this day…

For more information, you can visit the Britsh Museum’s site (but I warn you–this site can be a total time suck!)
What are some of your favorite things you’ve come across in museums? How are you staying out of the heat this summer??

Posted in Former Riskies, Jane Austen | Tagged , , | 6 Replies

The Nutcracker

Updated on by

Last weekend I got to do something I haven’t done in a few years–I went to see The Nutcracker! It was so much fun–when I was a kid we used to go every year, and I got a new Christmas party dress to wear to the performance. It was wonderful to see all the little girls in their pretty clothes, so excited to see the dancing and the sparkling lights.

It’s funny that something that’s become such an intrinsic part of the holiday season was a bit of a flop when it first opened! It started out promising. After the great success of The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, the director of the Imperial Theater in St. Petersburg asked Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa to collaborate on another production, one based on ETA Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It turned out to be not a very harmonious partnership–Petipa sent Tchaikovsky very detailed instructions for each number in the ballet, right down to tempo and number of bars, and Tchaikovsky didn’t like working under such restraints. The production was further delayed by Tchaikovsky’s visit to the US and Petipa’s illness, but it did open at the Mariinsky Theater on December 18, 1892 in a version much condensed from the original story (there are only two acts, the first act the Christmas party and battle of the Mouse King where Clara helps save the Nutcracker Prince, and act two at the Kingdom of Sweets where we meet chocolate, coffee, marzipan, snowflakes and Sugar Plum Fairies…)

The first production got decidedly mixed reviews in a town that was very, very picky when it came to their ballet. One reviewer called the Sugar Plum Fairy “pudgy” and one complained about how confusing the Mouse King battle was (“One cannot understand anything. Disorderly pushing about from corner to corner and running backwards and forwards–quite amateurish”). It didn’t take off, though Tchaikovsky did have some success with a suite of the music.

Its first complete performance outside Russia was in England in 1934, and the first US performance at the San Francisco Ballet on December 24, 1944. The New York City Ballet debuted their version in 1954, which is when it really started to become the big money-maker it is now and a cherished tradition for many families like mine (most ballet companies function all year from the proceeds from their Nutcracker performances!)

For more information on the history of the ballet, I really like J. Fisher’s book Nutcracker Nation: How An Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World (2003)
Do you go to see The Nutcracker? What are your favorite memories of the ballet??

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 10 Replies

Happy Birthday, Jane!

Updated on by

It’s always very easy for me to remember Jane Austen’s birthday, because it is also my mother’s! (Though luckily only one of them expects a present…). It’s also the birthday of Beethoven and Katherine of Aragon (among others), and it also tells me It’s Almost Christmas. But it’s not always easy to think of what to write about. There are so many things I love about Austen’s books, and so many gifts they’ve given me as I read them over the years. But since Janet and I got to meet Andrew Davies at the JASNA AGM back in October (and hear about his work on various adaptations), I decided to take a look at my DVD shelf and review my thoughts about some of the various films from Austen’s books.

What follows is a Highly Scientific Analysis:

Pride and Prejudice
1995–really, really love (probably my second favorite of all the adaptations!)
2005–love (a controversial opinion, I know, but I thought it very romantic…)
1980–I have the DVD but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt the urge to watch it. It’s a little…slow. But I like it, mostly for Elizabeth Garvie’s Elizabeth
1940–good for a laugh

Sense and Sensibility
1995–really liked
2008–also really liked (especially since the actors were more age-appropriate)

Persuasion
1995–really, really, really love (my number one favorite of all)
2007–the least said the better, I think

Northanger Abbey
2007–loved (so adorable!)
1986–I only saw it once; I think I might have liked it better if I hadn’t been overwhelmed by that music…

Mansfield Park
1999–sorta liked? (it was…interesting)
2007–another one where the least said the better
I really think MP is ripe for a Davies miniseries treatment…

Emma
1996 (the Paltrow version)–liked
1996 (the Beckinsale version)–also liked. I wish I could combine aspects of these two to make something better
2009–sorta liked, especially the beginning (until Romola Garai’s weird facial expressions started to get to me)

And there you have it! This is what I think about every Austen adaptation I have seen. What are your favorites?? Least favorites?? Which one would you like to see made again, with your own dream cast???

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged | 17 Replies

Tis A Few Weeks Til Christmas

Updated on by

So I heard on the radio this morning that we have 19 shopping days left until Christmas!! How did this happen?? The year slipped past while I was not watching. I had a, shall we say, challenging year, and have just started to feel pretty much completely normal again, but it does seem to me like it ought to just be time for Halloween. Not Christmas.

But Christmas will come whether we expect it or not. So how have I been getting ready for it? Well, I have to finish two books and a novella by the end of February (one of those books right after Christmas!) so that is the main way I am spending my holiday. Isn’t the Christmas spirit all about yelling at uncooperative characters and beating one’s head against the desk? Luckily there is online shopping for gifts, and also looking at Cake Wrecks and Go Fug Yourself.

I will get out some of my favorite holiday movies to watch (like Love Actually), decorate the tree, burn my new Marshmallow Peppermint and Dark Mint Chocolate candles from Bath & Body Works, and look at my pretty new party dress. I am also going to see The Nutcracker this weekend (haven’t been in years, so I am very excited!)–I love to see the little girls in their velvet dresses, so excited to be at their first ballet. I will get out some of my Christmas anthologies and re-read some novellas. And on Christmas Eve, there will be my family and my dad’s “famous” margaritas, guaranteed to make even the most frazzled writer feel much, much better…

Last weekend my mother and I made Christmas candy to give as gifts, which is time-consuming (and I usually end up sugar-sick) but is totally worth it. It reminds me of holidays when I was a little kid and would sit in the kitchen watching my grandmother do her holiday baking (she would let me stir the bowls and eat the samples). This Christmas especially I am grateful to be here and spending time with people I love, doing things I love. And that includes writing, which I love even when I hate it. 🙂

Here is one of the candy recipes we make. It could not be easier, and it’s very yummy:

Christmas Bonbons
1 stick butter
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 can Eagle Brand milk
1 can Angel Flake coconut
Tsp vanilla Chopped pecans
Chopped maraschino cherries

Mix these up, refrigerate until chilled. Then form into little balls.

1/4 pound paraffin
Large package chocolate chips (I use dark!)

Melt in double broiler, and dip coconut balls in. Let them harden, and you’re done! (The pecans and cherries are optional–you can really use anything that sounds yummy to you)

What are you doing to get ready for the holidays? What are you grateful for this winter season?? And what movies do you always get out to watch this time of year?

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged , | 8 Replies

Happy Anniversary Shakespeare!

Updated on by

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving?? Did you eat wonderful food and spend time with friends and relatives? Did you do any Black Friday shopping? (I did all my weekend shopping online…). Did you read any good books??? I have been writing, reading (The Night Circus, which is terrific), and getting out Christmas decorations. But today I’m taking time out to show you my new covers!! I am so excited about them.

They’re the first two books in my new Laurel McKee series for Grand Central, the Victorian-set “The Scandalous St. Claires,” about a notorious underworld family of gamesters, actors, and rakes, and their centuries-old feud with a ducal family (begun by a romance gone bad, and now ended by new romances):



They will be out in June and December of next year! You can pre-order One Naughty Night here…

I also wanted to say Happy Anniversary to William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, who were (possibly) married on November 28 in 1582. At the time Anne was 26 and Will was 18 (below the age of consent, scandal!), and Anne was pregnant (not uncommon–it’s estimated that 1/3 of Tudor era brides were pregnant before the wedding). On Nov. 28, two husbandmen of Stratford called Sandells and Richardson were sureties for 40 pounds in the consistory court of Worcester so the marriage of “William Shagspeare and Anne Hathwey” could go forward with only one publication of the banns. They were married at St. Andrew’s Church at Temple Grafton, about 5 miles from Stratford (possibly–see this link for more info…). The couple moved in with Shakespeare’s family and 6 months later their daughter Susanna was born. No details are known about the clothes or music, it was probably very quiet.

More wedding info can be found here

And some Elizabethan wedding customs here…

What historical wedding would you like to attend? What are some wedding customs you especially enjoy (or think we could so without)???

Posted in Former Riskies | Tagged , | 3 Replies