If you thought obsession with exercise began in the late 20th century, think again. In the 1300s, Johannes de Mirfeld wrote a treatise, recommending, along with walking and riding, the following routines to strengthen the body:
(1) Keep a “stout rope” hanging in your chamber. Grasp the rope with both hands, raise yourself up , and remain in that position for as long as possible without touching the ground.
(2) Hold a 30 pound stone in your hands and carry it frequently “from one part of [your] dwelling to another.”
(3) Using the same stone, hold it in the air over your head for as long as possible, until your arms begin to tire. Also lift the stone to your shoulders and hold again until you tire.
(4) Hold a staff in your hand and let another fellow try to pull it away from you.
(5) Hold a penny in your hand, and let someone attempt to pry it out of your fingers.
Think these exercises would work today? A rope, a stone, a staff (or broomstick) and a penny would certainly save a lot of money at the gym!
Showing posts with label Joyce DiPastena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joyce DiPastena. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Adding a Touch of Suspense by Slipping Some Poison in the Cup
This blog was originally posted on my research blog, Medieval Research with Joyce, and hence deals with medieval poisons. Deadly Doses (or Howdunit: Book of Poisons) can also be used for other historical time periods, as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to up the suspense of your medieval novel or short story? There’s nothing like a drop or two of poison in a character’s wine to make a reader sit up and take notice.But where do we go to find information about medieval poisons?
An excellent starting point is Deadly Doses: A Writer’s Guide to Poisons, by Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne Klarner. Deadly Doses is part of the Howdunit Series published by Writers Digest Books.
Now, this book is not strictly about “medieval” poisons, so you must do a little searching to find an appropriate poison for your time period. But of the eleven chapters, several can be quickly eliminated from your search: “Houshold Poisons”, “Medical Poisons”, “Pesticides”, “Industrial Poisons”, and “Street Drugs” all belong to a more modern age.
That leaves “Poisonous Plants”, “Fragile Fungi”, and “Snakes, Spiders, and Other Living Things” as topics to explore if your focus is the Middle Ages.
For my novel, Loyalty’s Web, I found myself leaning towards some use of a poisonous plant. After a short chapter introduction, the chapter breaks down into the following poison subsections: “Quickly Fatal”; “Mistaken for Edible or Eaten by Mistake”; “Edible in Small Quantities, Certain Parts Edible, or Edible Certain Times of the Year”; “Flowering Plants”; and “Miscellaneous Plant Poisons”.
Each of these subsections is further broken down in the following super-sub categories:
“Name”, “Toxicity”, “Location”, “Deadly Parts”, “Effects and Symptoms”, “Reaction Time”, “Antidotes and Treatments”, and “Notes”.
The first thing I did was take a red pencil and mark the name of each plant under the “Location” category, that was listed as “native to Europe, Britain or England” or that may have been brought there by the Romans. The important thing is to be sure that whatever poison you choose was actually available to the people of the Middle Ages in the area of Europe that you are writing about.
Once you’ve whittled the possibilities down with a red pencil or other highlighter, you can focus your research on the additional information for each of the poisons you’ve marked, and gradually come to a decision about which poison will best serve the plot of your story.
Since I wanted to keep my readers guessing a bit about the poison angle at the beginning, I decided to go with a plant that could be “Mistaken for Edible or Eaten by Mistake”. I eventually settled on water hemlock, also known as cowbane. Although the “Location” information seemed to place water hemlock mostly in North America, a note in the first chapter to Deadly Doses, “A Short History of the Dreaded Art”, informed me that : “Water hemlock, foxglove, henbane, and the prussic acid of the almond tree were all found in the Parisian woods and meadows.” (Deadly Doses, p 6) This told me that the plant I wanted also grew in France (the location of Loyalty’s Web). It also taught me that it can be well worth your while to read “generalized” chapters about the background of your subject, before moving on to seemingly more pertinent “specialized” chapters. Valuable tips and facts are often “hidden” in Introductions and the like.
Once I’d settled on water hemlock, which I referred to by its nickname, cowbane, throughout my novel, I went on to glean the following information from its entry:
It had a toxicity level of 6, placing it in the “supertoxic” category, meaning that only a very, very small amount of the poison would cause death. I also learned that younger plants, growing in the springtime, are more poisonous, which again fit with the springtime setting of my novel.
Under “Deadly Parts”, I learned that although the entire plant is poisonous, most of the poison is contained in the roots and rootstock. So when I finally had a character uncover the “source” of the poison, I had her discover a portion of cowbane root that someone in the castle had been hiding. (Don’t want to give too much away here by telling you who!) The poison was also dissoluble in alcohol, which made it perfect for adding a few drops to a cup of wine.
Although it never went that far in my novel, if my hero had actually drunk his tainted cup of wine, this would have been the effect: “Restlessness and feelings of anxiety, pain in the stomach, nausea, violent vomiting, diarrhea, dilated pupils, labored breathing, sometimes frothing at the mouth, weak and rapid pulse, and violent convulsions terminated by death. Respiratory failure is the cause of death.” (Deadly Doses, p 61)
Death would occur between 20 minutes to an hour. (Given the process leading up to death, I think I’d rather go fast, than slow!)
There are antidotes and treatments, but most of them belong to a more modern age, and if the source of the poison had been concealed in something like wine, one would not have known what sort of antidote to try in the first place. Besides which, given the potentially fast-acting nature of the poison, a character would have to be very self-possessed, knoweldgable, and/or experienced to gather one’s wits quickly enough to act in time to save the victim.
This is just a single example of the kinds of valuable, detailed information available in Deadly Doses. As a starting point for authors of mystery, suspense, or who just like to throw in a bit of “surprise” to keep their readers guessing, I highly recommend Deadly Doses, by Serita Deborah Stevens and Anne Klarner.
Note: Deadly Doses is widely available in Used Books on Amazon.com. Writer’s Digest Books lists the title Howdunit: Book Of Poisons, by Serita Stevens and Anne Louise Bannon, which may well be the same as Deadly Doses with a new name, but not having a copy of my own, I can’t vouch for that. The description sounds very similar, and since my copy of Deadly Doses is 298 pages, and Book of Poisons lists at 368 pages, I’m guessing that Book of Poisons may merely be an updated version of Deadly Doses, with a new title. If so, this is definitely a book you will want to consider including in your library!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How to Visit a Castle Without Ever Leaving Your Living Room
I once attended a writing class where the instructor, a successful writer of medieval romances who was sharing her medieval research methods with us, ended the class by informing us all that she would soon be returning to England to research her next novel, because she “finds it difficult to write about things she hasn’t actually seen for herself”…such as castles.
There I sat, thinking to myself, “Hmm, does that mean I can’t write about the Middle Ages unless I go to England and ‘see for myself’?” A thought immediately followed by the dour recognition that a trip to England was in no way compatible with my current budget, or likely to become compatible anytime in the near future. (Much though I still dream of visiting England and its castles “someday”.)
I, too, am a very visually oriented person. It’s difficult for me to describe something I haven’t actually seen, hence my fondness for “picture books”, such as books on medieval clothing or even children's books on the Middle Ages. Once I have seen a picture or image, I can then store that in my imagination to use as a point of reference when studying more detailed, less visual texts.
For those of us who write about castle-dwelling characters, but who have never had the opportunity (and no immediate prospect) of seeing even so much as the ruins of a medieval castle in “real life”, how do we begin to imagine, much less transport our readers, back to this far-distant environment?
Modern technology is…well…marvelous. And thanks to a History Channel DVD called Modern Marvels: Castles & Dungeons, those of us with limited budgets can now enjoy a striking tour of medieval castles from the comfort of our own homes.
I remember reading for years about the “motte and bailey” model on which the earliest castles in England were built. And I remember straining for years and years to try to imagine exactly what these books were talking about. I didn’t want to “guess” at what a motte and bailey castle looked like. I wanted to know. Castles & Dungeons took away all my guesswork by showing me exactly how closely my imagination had and hadn’t matched “the facts”.
In addition to learning how castles were built, first of wood and later of stone, this DVD gives the viewer an up close and personal look at such castle features as: crennelation, glass windows, loop holes and arrow slits, the portcullis, murder holes, the oubliette, the great hall, and castle kitchens. The visuals and narration are so well done, that one comes away feeling reassured that an actual trip to England isn’t an absolute requirement for writing medieval fiction with some degree of authenticity and confidence.
Modern Marvels: Castles & Dungeons is currently only available from the History Channel, but you can get a copy by clicking on this link: http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=72080
There I sat, thinking to myself, “Hmm, does that mean I can’t write about the Middle Ages unless I go to England and ‘see for myself’?” A thought immediately followed by the dour recognition that a trip to England was in no way compatible with my current budget, or likely to become compatible anytime in the near future. (Much though I still dream of visiting England and its castles “someday”.)
I, too, am a very visually oriented person. It’s difficult for me to describe something I haven’t actually seen, hence my fondness for “picture books”, such as books on medieval clothing or even children's books on the Middle Ages. Once I have seen a picture or image, I can then store that in my imagination to use as a point of reference when studying more detailed, less visual texts.
For those of us who write about castle-dwelling characters, but who have never had the opportunity (and no immediate prospect) of seeing even so much as the ruins of a medieval castle in “real life”, how do we begin to imagine, much less transport our readers, back to this far-distant environment?
Modern technology is…well…marvelous. And thanks to a History Channel DVD called Modern Marvels: Castles & Dungeons, those of us with limited budgets can now enjoy a striking tour of medieval castles from the comfort of our own homes.
I remember reading for years about the “motte and bailey” model on which the earliest castles in England were built. And I remember straining for years and years to try to imagine exactly what these books were talking about. I didn’t want to “guess” at what a motte and bailey castle looked like. I wanted to know. Castles & Dungeons took away all my guesswork by showing me exactly how closely my imagination had and hadn’t matched “the facts”.
In addition to learning how castles were built, first of wood and later of stone, this DVD gives the viewer an up close and personal look at such castle features as: crennelation, glass windows, loop holes and arrow slits, the portcullis, murder holes, the oubliette, the great hall, and castle kitchens. The visuals and narration are so well done, that one comes away feeling reassured that an actual trip to England isn’t an absolute requirement for writing medieval fiction with some degree of authenticity and confidence.
Modern Marvels: Castles & Dungeons is currently only available from the History Channel, but you can get a copy by clicking on this link: http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=72080
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Interview with Historical Hussies Contributor, Joyce DiPastena
Historical Hussies would like to introduce to you, our readers, the authors who are and will be contributing to this blog. We kick off our introductions with a question/answer interview with Joyce DiPastena, author of the medieval romance, Loyalty’s Web.
Historical Hussies: When did you start to write and how long did it take you get published?
Joyce: I dabbled with writing as far back as high school, but I started my first novel in college. I didn’t think of it as a “novel” at first, just as another story that I was “dabbling” with. But the characters really captured my imagination, and unlike my earlier writing efforts, all of which had eventually fizzled out, these characters continued to propel me forward until six years later, I found myself with a full-fledged novel on my hands. (Yes, it took me four undergraduate years and two years of graduate school to finish my first book.) And yes, in case you’re wondering, my first book was a medieval novel. ☺
That novel was never published, and neither was its sequel (which took me another six yeas to write). Loyalty’s Web was the third book in my series. It was also the best written, since I’d learned tons more about good writing technique since those very early efforts. Still, it remained unpublished for probably a good fifteen years while I worked on other projects. It came close to being published by a national publisher once, but my potential publishing house merged with another house, my editor was let go and Loyalty’s Web was dropped. Throughout all those years, I continued to return to Loyalty’s Web and polished and repolished and polished it again. I always thought I had a good story, and I never completely gave up on it.
HH: How did you break into publishing?
Joyce: By the end of 2006, I’d pretty much given up on ever finding a publisher for my books. I’d never seriously considered self-publishing before, but technology was changing. With the new print-on-demand option, I no longer had to invest thousands of dollars to self-publish a garage-full of books that I knew I’d be too shy to ever try to sell. But now, for a relatively small investment, I learned that I could self-publish, get my book posted on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com, and my books would be printed only as orders were placed for them. I found myself thinking, “I’ve allowed all my books to (figuratively) sit tucked away in a drawer for all these years. I can either leave them there till the day I die, or I can take a chance on them, try a print-on-demand self-publishing program, and see if there really is an audience out there for my stories.” I figured I would never know if I never tried. So in 2007, I began by self-publishing Loyalty’s Web.
To my surprise, people actually started buying copies and seemed to be enjoying them! Later that year, I learned about a contest for published books that allowed self-published entries. I decided I had nothing to lose by entering, so I did. Early in 2008, I learned that Loyalty’s Web had been selected as one of five finalists for a Whitney Award. Loyalty’s Web didn’t win, but it caught the attention of a small publishing house called Leatherwood Press. Their editor contacted me and expressed interest in republishing Loyalty’s Web for a wider audience. And the rest, as they say, is history.
HH: What genre or sub-genre do you write?
Joyce: I write a sort of medieval cross-genre. Romance, with strong mystery, suspense and political elements…a drawback in the national market, according to the many editors who turned me down because they didn’t know how to “peg”, and therefore, market my writing. But Leatherwood Press has shown wonderful faith in me, and readers’ response has been extremely positive. Leatherwood has marketed Loyalty’s Web as a romance, and a romance is always at the heart of each of my stories, but there is usually much, much more going on alongside the romance. I like to play with lots of different plot threads, but in the end, my stories are ultimately about two people falling in love and living happily ever after.
HH: What difficulties does writing this genre present?
Joyce: I suppose the obvious answer to this question would be “research”, but I love researching my novels. I guess the greatest difficulty is finding specific bits and pieces of research that I need for my story. You’d think the internet would have made that aspect of writing easier, but I haven’t always found that to be the case. So much on the internet is “general” rather than “specific” oriented, plus a lot of it is simply splashed on a website without any clear authentication of where the site came up with their “facts”. I prefer to know I have a reliable source before I insert a bit of research into my novels. Two reliable sources confirming the same fact is even better. I continue to have my best research luck with good old fashioned books. Book sites like Amazon.com have made it much easier to track down research books dealing with delightfully arcane bits of medieval knowledge, so in that respect, that internet has truly been a blessing.
I have a blog called Medieval Research with Joyce, if your readers would like to take a look at some of the books I found particularly helpful in writing Loyalty’s Web. Some of those posts may be making guest appearances in future Historical Hussies blog posts. ☺
HH: What are you working on now?
Joyce: I’m just at the very beginnings of what I’m calling my “troubadour book”. The hero, a very young man, is torn between whether to become a knight, as his birth entitles him to, or follow his love of music and become a troubadour instead. Don’t ask me about the heroine. She’s still very much in flux! If you’d like to read something of my current wrestles to get this story off the ground, you can read my post on “Alligators and Me” on my JDP NEWS blog.
HH: What has surprised you about being a published author?
Joyce: What surprises me the most is that people will actually plunk down money to buy something that I’ve written. What thrills me the most is when they actually enjoy my book!
HH: What do you like to do when you aren't writing?
Joyce: Sleep, eat, watch TV…all that good lazy kind of stuff.
HH: What advice would you give aspiring writers today?
Joyce: Write because you love to write and never give up. It took me over twenty years to get my first book published. There were times I gave up on publishing, but I never gave up on writing. Of course I wanted to be published much earlier, but I simply wanted to write even more. Learn all you can about “good writing”, then write what you love and write from your heart. If you love what you’re writing about and it comes from your heart, that will come through to your readers. And have faith that you will have readers one day, no matter how long it takes. To paraphrase Saint Paul, “The race is not to the swift, but to he who endures to the end.”
HH: Can you give us a summary of Loyalty’s Web?
Joyce: Sure. Here’s the backcover blurb:
In twelfth century France, King Henry II of England has just finished quashing a rebellion by his power-hungry sons and now seeks to tame the lawless barons who supported them in this corner of his "Angevin empire." To this end, the king has sent the Earl of Gunthar as his royal representative to ensure that Prince Richard and his former cohorts faithfully adhere to the terms of the peace treaty.
Far from being welcomed with open arms, Gunthar no sooner steps foot in the county of Poitou than he is greeted by a series of assassination attempts. All appear to be linked to the former rebellious prince through the agents of the family and friends of young Heléne de Laurant. A clever, intrepid young woman, she realizes that the only way to prove her loved ones’ innocence is by exposing the true assassin. Heléne races against time—and dark secrets of the past—to unmask the killer before the kingdom plunges back into war.
Fierce determination gives way to mutual attraction as Heléne and Gunthar spar over the identity of the traitor. But their blinding magnetism almost causes them to overlook an even deadlier threat from an entirely unexpected direction.
HH: It sounds fascinating. Where can interested readers purchase a copy of Loyalty’s Web?
Joyce: Loyalty’s Web is available on Amazon.com, DeseretBook.com, or in Deseret Bookstores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington state.
HH: Thank you for joining us today, Joyce. We look forward to your future posts on Historical Hussies.
Joyce: Thank you for the interview. It’s been a delight to share some of my thoughts and reflections with your readers. I’m excited to be part of this group, and look forward to sharing some of my research with your readers in the future!
Historical Hussies: When did you start to write and how long did it take you get published?
Joyce: I dabbled with writing as far back as high school, but I started my first novel in college. I didn’t think of it as a “novel” at first, just as another story that I was “dabbling” with. But the characters really captured my imagination, and unlike my earlier writing efforts, all of which had eventually fizzled out, these characters continued to propel me forward until six years later, I found myself with a full-fledged novel on my hands. (Yes, it took me four undergraduate years and two years of graduate school to finish my first book.) And yes, in case you’re wondering, my first book was a medieval novel. ☺
That novel was never published, and neither was its sequel (which took me another six yeas to write). Loyalty’s Web was the third book in my series. It was also the best written, since I’d learned tons more about good writing technique since those very early efforts. Still, it remained unpublished for probably a good fifteen years while I worked on other projects. It came close to being published by a national publisher once, but my potential publishing house merged with another house, my editor was let go and Loyalty’s Web was dropped. Throughout all those years, I continued to return to Loyalty’s Web and polished and repolished and polished it again. I always thought I had a good story, and I never completely gave up on it.
HH: How did you break into publishing?
Joyce: By the end of 2006, I’d pretty much given up on ever finding a publisher for my books. I’d never seriously considered self-publishing before, but technology was changing. With the new print-on-demand option, I no longer had to invest thousands of dollars to self-publish a garage-full of books that I knew I’d be too shy to ever try to sell. But now, for a relatively small investment, I learned that I could self-publish, get my book posted on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com, and my books would be printed only as orders were placed for them. I found myself thinking, “I’ve allowed all my books to (figuratively) sit tucked away in a drawer for all these years. I can either leave them there till the day I die, or I can take a chance on them, try a print-on-demand self-publishing program, and see if there really is an audience out there for my stories.” I figured I would never know if I never tried. So in 2007, I began by self-publishing Loyalty’s Web.
To my surprise, people actually started buying copies and seemed to be enjoying them! Later that year, I learned about a contest for published books that allowed self-published entries. I decided I had nothing to lose by entering, so I did. Early in 2008, I learned that Loyalty’s Web had been selected as one of five finalists for a Whitney Award. Loyalty’s Web didn’t win, but it caught the attention of a small publishing house called Leatherwood Press. Their editor contacted me and expressed interest in republishing Loyalty’s Web for a wider audience. And the rest, as they say, is history.
HH: What genre or sub-genre do you write?
Joyce: I write a sort of medieval cross-genre. Romance, with strong mystery, suspense and political elements…a drawback in the national market, according to the many editors who turned me down because they didn’t know how to “peg”, and therefore, market my writing. But Leatherwood Press has shown wonderful faith in me, and readers’ response has been extremely positive. Leatherwood has marketed Loyalty’s Web as a romance, and a romance is always at the heart of each of my stories, but there is usually much, much more going on alongside the romance. I like to play with lots of different plot threads, but in the end, my stories are ultimately about two people falling in love and living happily ever after.
HH: What difficulties does writing this genre present?
Joyce: I suppose the obvious answer to this question would be “research”, but I love researching my novels. I guess the greatest difficulty is finding specific bits and pieces of research that I need for my story. You’d think the internet would have made that aspect of writing easier, but I haven’t always found that to be the case. So much on the internet is “general” rather than “specific” oriented, plus a lot of it is simply splashed on a website without any clear authentication of where the site came up with their “facts”. I prefer to know I have a reliable source before I insert a bit of research into my novels. Two reliable sources confirming the same fact is even better. I continue to have my best research luck with good old fashioned books. Book sites like Amazon.com have made it much easier to track down research books dealing with delightfully arcane bits of medieval knowledge, so in that respect, that internet has truly been a blessing.
I have a blog called Medieval Research with Joyce, if your readers would like to take a look at some of the books I found particularly helpful in writing Loyalty’s Web. Some of those posts may be making guest appearances in future Historical Hussies blog posts. ☺
HH: What are you working on now?
Joyce: I’m just at the very beginnings of what I’m calling my “troubadour book”. The hero, a very young man, is torn between whether to become a knight, as his birth entitles him to, or follow his love of music and become a troubadour instead. Don’t ask me about the heroine. She’s still very much in flux! If you’d like to read something of my current wrestles to get this story off the ground, you can read my post on “Alligators and Me” on my JDP NEWS blog.
HH: What has surprised you about being a published author?
Joyce: What surprises me the most is that people will actually plunk down money to buy something that I’ve written. What thrills me the most is when they actually enjoy my book!
HH: What do you like to do when you aren't writing?
Joyce: Sleep, eat, watch TV…all that good lazy kind of stuff.
HH: What advice would you give aspiring writers today?
Joyce: Write because you love to write and never give up. It took me over twenty years to get my first book published. There were times I gave up on publishing, but I never gave up on writing. Of course I wanted to be published much earlier, but I simply wanted to write even more. Learn all you can about “good writing”, then write what you love and write from your heart. If you love what you’re writing about and it comes from your heart, that will come through to your readers. And have faith that you will have readers one day, no matter how long it takes. To paraphrase Saint Paul, “The race is not to the swift, but to he who endures to the end.”
HH: Can you give us a summary of Loyalty’s Web?
Joyce: Sure. Here’s the backcover blurb:
In twelfth century France, King Henry II of England has just finished quashing a rebellion by his power-hungry sons and now seeks to tame the lawless barons who supported them in this corner of his "Angevin empire." To this end, the king has sent the Earl of Gunthar as his royal representative to ensure that Prince Richard and his former cohorts faithfully adhere to the terms of the peace treaty.
Far from being welcomed with open arms, Gunthar no sooner steps foot in the county of Poitou than he is greeted by a series of assassination attempts. All appear to be linked to the former rebellious prince through the agents of the family and friends of young Heléne de Laurant. A clever, intrepid young woman, she realizes that the only way to prove her loved ones’ innocence is by exposing the true assassin. Heléne races against time—and dark secrets of the past—to unmask the killer before the kingdom plunges back into war.
Fierce determination gives way to mutual attraction as Heléne and Gunthar spar over the identity of the traitor. But their blinding magnetism almost causes them to overlook an even deadlier threat from an entirely unexpected direction.
HH: It sounds fascinating. Where can interested readers purchase a copy of Loyalty’s Web?
Joyce: Loyalty’s Web is available on Amazon.com, DeseretBook.com, or in Deseret Bookstores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington state.
HH: Thank you for joining us today, Joyce. We look forward to your future posts on Historical Hussies.
Joyce: Thank you for the interview. It’s been a delight to share some of my thoughts and reflections with your readers. I’m excited to be part of this group, and look forward to sharing some of my research with your readers in the future!
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