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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!

Empire Adrift

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! It’s been weird around here the last few days, what with ducking tornados (that luckily didn’t come too close to my town–it’s always exciting here in Oklahoma in the spring!), battling a cold, and writing. But I enjoyed the time to hole up at home with a new box of book bargains from the Edward r. Hamilton catalog.

One of the books I ordered this time was Patrick Wilcken’s Empire Adrift: The Portugese Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808-1821, and I loved reading more about this strange tale. I knew almost nothing about what happened to Portugal during the Peninsula Wars–it always gets overshadowed by Spain, and I don’t know much about the history of that country in general. One review quote called this “A brilliant account of a bizarre yet momentous event.” In 1807, the Portugese prince regent Dom Joao (regent for his mad elderly mother Queen Maria), with the French closing in on his country and the British bossing him around, decided to just pack up his entire court and government and go to his colony in Brazil to rule from there. Over 10,000 people hurriedly climbed aboard a fleet amid chaos and confusion, and after a dangerous, stormy voyage emerged in the tropics. They stayed there for 13 years, in a weird attempted recreation of their life in Lisbon amid the jungle. In addition to trying to rule an enemy-occupied country from across the ocean, they also contended with a highly disfunctional royal family (Dom Joao and his ambitious Spanish wife, Dona Carlotta, had long been bitterly estranged, even though they had 9 bickering kids, and their quarrels only got worse in the New World). 

I couldn’t help but imagine a story set amid characters like this! What would a European woman think of life in Brazil? How would she adjust? (the heir Dom Pedro’s bride, the Austrian archduchess Leopoldina, at first romanticized what life in the “innocent” new world would be like, but soon came to hate it, along with her husband, and long for her home). It was a fascinating story, one I enjoyed learning about.
What are some stories from history you were surprised to learn about? If you had lived in the Regency period would you have been brave enough to make a run for South America??
Posted in Former Riskies, Regency, Research | Tagged , | 3 Replies

Titanic Anniversary

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When I was about 8, I happened to catch the movie A Night To Remember on TV, and I was totally hooked on the story of the Titanic! I ran out to the library and started reading everything I could about the tragedy. And April 14-15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking. Here are just a few interesting little facts I found about the ship:

–The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 pm on April 14, and took about 2 hours and 40 minutes to sink (15 minutes to get to its resting place on the bottom of the ocean). There were no binoculars in the crow’s nest lookout, so time from sighting to impact was about 30 seconds

–Most passengers had to share bathrooms (the only rooms with private bathrooms were the two uber-expensive promenade suites in 1st class), but in 3rd class there were only 2 bathtubs for 700 people

–There were 9 dogs aboard–two survived (a Pom and a Peke)

–Though there were 4 funnels, only 3 were functional; the fourth was only for aesthetics

–The ship was approximately the same height and length as Tower Bridge

–The price of a ticket (in 1912 prices); 1st–$4350, 2nd–$1750, 3rd–$30

–There were 20 lifeboats, 14 with a capacity of 65, 2 with a capacity of 40, and 4 collapsibles that could hold 47. If the boats had all been launched to capacity (which almost none were), they would have held 1178 of the 2201 aboard. As it was 711 were rescued. (Luckily the ship had not sold out to its full capacity of 3547). This seems shockingly inadequate to us today, but it actually exceeded Board of Trade requirements. The thinking was a) they needed the deck space for passengers to stroll around, b) even the ship sank, it wouldn’t be very fast thanks to the watertight compartments and the boats would only be for ferrying passengers to rescuing ships.

–The first film version of the disaster was made about a month later, starring actress and survivor Dorothy Gibson. For her star turn in Saved From The Titanic, she wore the actual gown she was rescued in, but the prints were destroyed in a fire a few years later.

–It’s long been thought the last song the orchestra played was “Nearer My God To Thee,” but survivor Harold Bride stated that it was “Autumn”

–There were lots of famous names and robber baron types aboard, but two canceled their trips at the last minute–JP Morgan and Milton Hershey

–If you want to own some Titanic stuff for yourself (and have room for stuff like a deck chair, a part of the bulkhead, and a cherub from the staircase), there is an auction of Titanic items tomorrow in Richmond, Virginia

–I love these menus from last night on the ship (a local college is having a Titanic dinner this weekend–maybe someplace near you is as well)

Are you interested in the story of the Titanic? What are some of your favorite things about the disaster, or the whole Edwardian era??
And on a whole different note, be sure and enter my contest to win a copy of my may release, The Taming of the Rogue! It will be going on until the end of today…
Posted in Former Riskies, Research | Tagged | 7 Replies

Happy Endings

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I can’t believe it’s the weekend already!! (and many thanks to Megan for pitching in for me on Tuesday…hopefully now that deadlines are looking reasonable again, and warm weather is here, I won’t go down in my writing hole quite so often…). And Happy Easter to everyone, too.

I got an early spring present this week–author copies of the May Harlequin Historical release, The Taming of the Rogue! I am very excited about this book–it’s my Elizabethan theater/playwright/spy story. Plus it has a gorgeous gown on the cover. I covet it–deeply. If you would like a sneak peek at the story, I’m having a contest to win a copy until Tuesday. (or check back here at the end of this month when I chatter on about it some more…)
In the meantime, I’ve been catching up on my reading. I just finished Pamela Druckerman’s Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. (and no, I don’t have any kids–I just always seem compelled to read any book that tells me how to be more French). Among lots of other interesting (and practical) info, she has a great take on the difference between American and French children’s books:
In the American books, there’s usually a problem, a struggle to fix the problem, and then a cheerful resolution…Lessons are learned and life gets better.
Whereas in French stories, There’s a problem, and the characters struggle to overcome that problem but they seldom succeed for very long. Often the book ends with the protagonist having the same problem again. There is rarely a moment of personal transformation, when everyone learns and grows.
One of her daughter’s favorite books involves two little cousins, Eliette (who is bossy) and Alice (who is passive). One day Alice kicks Eliette to the curb, deciding she has had enough. Eliette begs her pardon, Alice takes her back–then Eliette jabs her with a needle again. The end.
Life is ambiguous and complicated. There aren’t bad guys and good guys. Each of us has a bit of both. Eliette is bossy, but she’s also lots of fun. Alice is the victim, but she also seems to ask for it, and she goes back for more. We’re to presume that Eliette and Alice keep up their little dysfunctional cycle, because, well, that’s what a friendship between two girls is like. I wish I had known that when I was four, instead of finally figuring it out in my thirties.
Also–there is a lot of nudity and love in French books for four-year-olds. She has a book about the romance between the boy who accidentally pees in his pants and the little girl who lends him her pants while fashioning her bandana into a skirt.
Now that is love.
I kinda like this idea of an ambiguous ending. It doesn’t mean everyone isn’t happy–it just means that this is life, and these people have learned to make a life together. Isn’t that what a romance novel ending is about? Two people who care enough about each other to stay the course no matter who pees in their pants? Why don’t we ever see that in the babies and bliss epilogues??
What are some of your favorite book endings? How did your favorite books turn out when you were four years old? (I had a picture book I loved about a princess with immensely long hair, who was always tripping up princes and courtiers and hapless hairdressers in those impractical tresses and finally had to trim it. I am not sure what that message is. Maybe my mom was just tired of making my French braids or something. I also loved Eloise, who dumped water down the mail chutes in the Plaza…)
Posted in Former Riskies, Reading | Tagged | 2 Replies

Domestic Matters

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TGIF, everyone! No, it’s not Elena today, it’s me, Amanda, popping in as a substitute (I was a bit catatonic on Tuesday after a deadline…)

Even though I’ve been in my writing hole a lot lately, I have managed to get out and enjoy the early spring weather (I’ve been wearing shorts! In March!) and also reading. One book I picked up is Lucy Worsley’s tremendously fun If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home. (Worsley is the chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, a job of which I am deeply, deeply envious). As a fan of historical domestic trivia, I gobbled it up, and I’m hoping the series that goes along with it comes out on DVD in the US soon). It’s similar to Bill Bryson’s equally fascinating At Home, but a little more fun and anecdotal. It follows the progression of 4 main living areas–bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen–from medieval times onward. (just a quick note–while there are lots of fun facts as well as wonderful illustrations and lists of references, this is mostly “upper and middle class” life, not a comprehensive look at all classes…)

A few fun facts I gathered:

–It was 1826 when coiled metal springs replaced the old rope bed cords that had to be tightened often (and cotton replaced itchy wool as mattress covers). And did you know it took over 50 pounds of feathers for a feather mattress??

–Men’s underwear (drawers) began to appear regularly in the 17th century (William III was very fond of garish colors like red and green!), while women’s fashions “simply precluded wearing knickers. So ladies went commando and squatted over a chamber pot when required.” Regency fashions, with thinner fabrics and slimmer silhouettes, required drawers, but they were still Not Talked About. Here’s an account of what happened when, on a walk with friends, the Duchess of Manchester went keester over teakettle over a fence in 1859: “The other ladies hardly knew whether to be thankful or not that a part of her underclothing consisted in a pair of scarelt tartan knickerbockers which were revealed to the view of the world in general”

–In Tudor times, a medicinal remedy for a frigid wife was to run “the grease of a goat” on her ladyparts. This seemed to help–though probably not for the reasons they thought (that a goat was lusty, therefore this would transfer the goat’s characteristic to the people). Enemas for constipation were administered via a pig’s bladder attached to a tube–one night Henry VIII used this remedy and it was reported he gave his velvet-covered toilet “a very fair siege.”

–In medieval times people actually bathed quite frequently, washing hands and faces frequently and taking soaking baths with various herbs (bathhouses became quite popular when knights brought the Middle Eastern custom back from the Crusades). But the “dirty centuries” began about 1550 and lasted to about 1750, “during which washing oneself all over was considered …to be weird, sexually arousing, or dangerous.” Also, to get stains out of linen, a great bleach was urine…

That’s just a small touch of what can be found in this book! There is stuff about dentistry, makeup, toilets/sewers/toilet paper (“stool ducketts” were squares of linens used in Renaissance bathrooms), cluttered living rooms, heat and light sources, food and drink (the once-rare luxury of tea; the constant state of at least mild drunkeness in the Middle Ages), and so much more. It’s such a fun book.
What have all of you been reading while I’ve been buried here at home???

Posted in Former Riskies, Research | Tagged | 8 Replies