Behind the Book: Why I wrote The Cabinet - #history #giveaway #GeorgeWashington @LMChervinsky

By Lindsay M. Chervinsky (Guest Blogger)

Most historians are inspired to write a book when they come across a question and don’t know the answer or can’t find it in an existing book. I’m no different!

I wanted to understand more about the origins of the president’s cabinet in the early years of the United States and I couldn’t find anything that answered my question. I read all of the books I could find about President George Washington, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. All of the books mentioned the cabinet and referred to the secretaries’ interactions, but no one explained where it came from, how it got started, or why.

So I decided to tell that story. From the very beginning, I was convinced that this tale was an important one to tell. The cabinet isn’t in the Constitution, yet we can all see that it still exists and wields an enormous amount of power. But as I completed my research and started to write, I discovered that the cabinet was even more central than even I had imagined. No legislation or constitutional amendment was ever passed to create the cabinet and there is very little public or congressional oversight over the president’s interactions with the department secretaries. As a result, Washington’s precedent governed his successors and continues to guide modern presidents.

I hope readers will take away a few lessons or concepts from reading The Cabinet. First, I want them to see the first cabinet as a group of intensely flawed, interesting humans. These guys weren’t marble busts! They had big personalities, opinions, passions, and quirks. That’s a much more interesting story than captured in your high school textbook.

Second, I hope readers will come away with a sense of the anxiety and intensity of the 1790s. In 2020, we know that the republic experiment worked, but they didn’t at the time. They were terrified that one misstep would lead to the downfall of the nation and they didn’t want to responsible for that fate. Similarly, there wasn’t a road map for Washington and the cabinet to follow; they were kind of making it up as they went along. They did their best and should be remembered as such, but they didn’t have all the answers.

Lastly, I hope readers will get a sense of just how much of our current political system is built on custom and norms. Most of what governs the daily activities of office holders isn’t written down, but instead is a bunch of commonly-accepted best practices established by previous politicians. That’s both an opportunity to advocate for change citizens don’t approve, but also doesn’t provide much legal protection against bad behavior. I hope that The Cabinet will provide some context for our current moment and offer some food for thought about what might be possible in the future.

Blurb

The US Constitution never established a presidential cabinet―the delegates to the Constitutional Convention explicitly rejected the idea. So how did George Washington create one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government?

On November 26, 1791, George Washington convened his department secretaries―Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph―for the first cabinet meeting. Why did he wait two and a half years into his presidency to call his cabinet? Because the US Constitution did not create or provide for such a body. Washington was on his own.

Faced with diplomatic crises, domestic insurrections, and constitutional challenges―and finding congressional help lacking―Washington decided he needed a group of advisors he could turn to. He modeled his new cabinet on the councils of war he had led as commander of the Continental Army. In the early days, the cabinet served at the president’s pleasure. Washington tinkered with its structure throughout his administration, at times calling regular meetings, at other times preferring written advice and individual discussions.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky reveals the far-reaching consequences of Washington’s choice. The tensions in the cabinet between Hamilton and Jefferson heightened partisanship and contributed to the development of the first party system. And as Washington faced an increasingly recalcitrant Congress, he came to treat the cabinet as a private advisory body to summon as needed, greatly expanding the role of the president and the executive branch.

Excerpt

At eleven thirty in the morning on August 22, 1789, a large cream-colored coach pulled up to the front door of Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street in New York City. Six matching, perfectly groomed horses pulled the elegant carriage with sparkling gold trim. The coachman, outfitted in crisp white- and red-trimmed livery, jumped down from the back of the carriage and opened the door. An elegantly dressed man with powdered hair stepped down with a portfolio of papers under his arm. He towered over his companion, Henry Knox, the acting secretary of war, and his slaves tending to his horses. His ornate coach and his imposing presence drew curious stares from strangers passing by on the street. He walked up to the front door of Federal Hall and was immediately announced to the Senate. George Washington, the first president of the United States, had arrived for his first visit to the United States Senate.

This was no ordinary meeting. Two years earlier, the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia had agreed that the Senate would “advise and consent” on treaties and other questions of foreign policy. But in practice, how the president and the Senate would interact remained for the first officeholders to work out….

About the Author

Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D. a historian of Early America, the presidency, and the government – especially the president’s cabinet. She shares her research by writing everything from op-eds to books, speaking on podcasts and other media, and teaching every kind of audience. She is Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and Senior Fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies. Previously, she worked as a historian at the White House Historical Association. She received her B.A. in history and political science from the George Washington University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis. She has been featured in the Law and History Review, the Journal of the Early Republic, TIME, and the Washington Post. Her new book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, was published by the Belknap Imprint of Harvard University Press on April 7, 2020.

The New Criterion recently said of her book, “Fantastic…Unlike many works of popular history, The Cabinet never feels like hagiography. It lacks the reverence of works like Joseph J. Ellis’ Founder Brothers or the revisionist obsequiousness that now greets Alexander Hamilton’s name on stage…Chervinsky exemplifies the public-history ethos in her new book. The writing is clear and concise…She takes what could have been a dry institutional and political history of the Early Republic and transforms it into a compelling story of people and places.”

When she isn’t writing, researching, or talking about history, she can be found hiking with her husband and American Foxhound, John Quincy Dog Adams (Quincy for short).

Readers can request a personalized book plate here: https://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/book-plate

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Washington-Creation-American-Institution/dp/0674986482/

Harvard link: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674986480

Author Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lmchervinsky

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lchervinsky/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lmchervinsky

Website: http://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/

Lindsay M. Chervinsky will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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Review Tuesday: The Angel Baby - #Horror #History #ReviewTuesday

The Angel Baby by Michael Swanson

2011, Renaissance E-books, Inc.

An elderly woman lying dead in a decrepit shotgun shack, an expression of utter terror frozen on her face. The battered and emaciated corpse of a four-year old girl, discovered floating in the bayou in a plastic storage crate. A Victorian era mansion owned by the ambitious, no-nonsense assistant DA Callie Giesler, haunted by the dark echoes from the past. A powerful, heart-searing apparition, terrifying, disgusting and seemingly unstoppable.

Enter the world of Michael Swanson’s awful, brilliant horror tale, The Angel Baby. Be prepared to shudder.

Horror isn’t one of my favorite genres, though I’m a fan of Clive Barker and Edgar Allen Poe. However, a friend read The Angel Baby, and raved about it, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m glad that I did. The Angel Baby is carefully plotted, with vivid, three-dimensional characters, cleverly managed suspense and a wonderful sense of place. I will admit that in my ignorance as a New Englander, I’ve always viewed Texas as a bit uniform and boring, but Mr. Swanson brings the history and distinctive atmosphere of his native city Houston to life. His gripping account of the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people in a matter of hours, made a fitting backdrop for his macabre tale of deathless evil.

Most of the novel takes place in present day Houston, which features both upscale mansions and decrepit slums. Bossy and abrasive Callie Giesler is the central character, but the most fascinating of Mr. Swanson’s creations is air-conditioning technician and ghost hunter Noel Guidry, a Hurricane Katerina refugee who has escaped with his wife and daughter from his devastated home city to settle in Houston. When we first meet him and his partner Ray, they’re conducting a highly scientific effort to evaluate, and probably debunk, reports of supernatural phenomena in Callie’s house. However, it soon becomes clear that there’s more to the glib, good-looking black man than meets the eye. Noel’s a seer. He’s had encounters with ghosts and other paranormal entities in the haunted city of his birth. He knows that evil spirits are real, and a real threat to the living.

I don’t want to share too much of the plot, since like most horror tales this one depends to some extent on the element of surprise. I will warn you, though, that there’s no happy ending – that, on the contrary, many of the characters are killed by the Angel Baby, the terrifying and convincing entity at the center of the story.

In fact, many of the most evil creatures in this tale are human beings – cruel, abusive, or heedless individuals who perpetrate terrible crimes, motivated by twisted desire or callous self-interest. In a sense, the Angel Baby is their creation – a reflection of the darkness in some human hearts. Or perhaps, as Noel believes, she is a demon attracted to evil, growing in power as she feeds on human cruelty and fear.

This book made me feel deeply uncomfortable, but I guess that’s why people read horror. I normally read before bed; I found I had to close the e-book file and pick up something lighter, to distract me, before going to sleep, or I’d have disturbing dreams. Nevertheless, despite the very real distress caused by this book, I felt compelled to read to the end – to discover whether evil actually triumphs.

If you’re curious, and brave, get yourself a copy of The Angel Baby, and find out just how dark things can get.

Review Tuesday: Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver - #ReviewTuesday #Politics #Family

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

Harper Collins, 2018

This is not supposed to happen in America. After working hard for decades, paying your taxes, bringing up your kids to be good citizens, you’re not supposed to find yourself destitute and close to homeless. Yet that’s the situation in which journalist Willa Knox and her professor husband Iano find themselves, when her magazine folds, the university where he’d finally got tenure closes, and they’re forced to move to a century-old house that’s literally crumbling around them. With no income and little savings, they’re only a few weeks away from living on the street.

The house, a legacy from Willa’s aunt, is part of the former Utopian community of Vineland, founded by a wealthy businessman who was either a visionary philanthropist or an egotistical despot, depending on who you believe. Its leaking roof, moldy walls and rotting floors also provide the shelter of last resort for Iano’s bigoted curmudgeon of a father, slowly expiring from multiple chronic diseases, and their radical socialist daughter Tig (Antigone). As if that were not enough, Willa also finds herself forced to take in a newborn baby boy when her son Zeke’s upper class girlfriend kills herself. Living hand to mouth, camping out on the ground floor of the old house as one room after another becomes unsafe, Willa wonders how the family is going to find their next meal, let alone deal with grandfather Nico’s health issues.

Meanwhile, more than a century earlier, another family struggles to make a life in Vineland. Thatcher Greenwood views himself as fortunate. Though he grew up in poverty and hardship, somehow he managed to snag the hand of lovely, elegant Rose. A self-educated scientist, he has been hired to teach in the Vineland school. He hopes he can support not only his beautiful and somewhat demanding wife, but also her mother and her teenage sister Polly, and make enough to repair their deteriorating dwelling. However, his ardent belief in the controversial evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin sets him on a collision course with the conservative powers in Vineland – a course that could easily lead to his dismissal. His growing friendship with his next door neighbor, amateur naturalist Mary Treat, is the only bright spot in his increasingly difficult existence.

As you might imagine from this brief description, Unsheltered is an ambitious novel with a broad scope. It touches upon many important themes: family ties and conflicts, man’s role in nature, social inequity, preserving history, physical and mental illness, and of course love. I say “of course” because ultimately that’s the only path that leads out of the morass: love for your partner, for your children, for your neighbors, for humanity.

Like all the Barbara Kingsolver books I’ve read, this one is rich with emotion, often painful. Life isn’t easy. Tragedies are to be expected. Yet somehow we manage to pull through.

The structure of the book is strongly parallel, to the extent that it felt somewhat contrived. The chapters alternate between the present (well – 2016, during the last presidential election in the U.S.) and the past. The last words in one chapter become the title of the following chapter. Other Kingsolver novels I’ve read felt much more relaxed and free-wheeling. In this book, it’s clear, the author has specific points she wants to make. Willa and Thatcher share many characteristics, as they inhabit the same space a century apart. In some ways the world has not changed; the same voices that excoriated Darwin in the nineteenth century condemn the warnings of the climate scientists in the twentieth.

I personally agree with most of Ms. Kingsolver’s positions, but I think I would have enjoyed Unsheltered more if it had been less blatantly political.

The characters in Unsheltered are wonderful, especially Tig, the dread-locked rebel who finds herself holding the family together, and the quietly self-directed Mary Treat. All of them grow and change, individually and in their relationships with the others. Meanwhile, as always, Ms. Kingsolver writes beautifully, the sort of prose where you find yourself going back to re-read a page just to savor its beauty. The book has a pleasingly unexpected ending, as long-nurtured hopes crumble but new possibilities appear. There’s not exactly a happily ever after, but you have the sense that Willa and her tribe will make it through. And after some of the more harrowing aspects of the book, that feels like a triumph.

Did Columbus really discover the clitoris? -- #sex #reference #history

About the Book

A Splendidly Smutty Dictionary of Sex explores the role of sex from the Etruscans to the modern day. Taking the form of a dictionary, it traverses the many forms of “hanky panky” in literature, music, words and the actions of the famous and not so famous.

Did you know that women never wore knickers until the late 18^th century? That Cleopatra reputedly invented the first vibrator? The rather odd history of the condom? What it means to give someone a green gown—and who was the first person to join the mile-high club?

Within this paean to the world’s favourite pastime, you will discover the “perils of self-pollution”, why Popes had to have their scrotums felt, what Buckinger’s boot and Omar the tent maker are, the whereabouts of John Dillinger’s dong and Rasputin’s rump splitter. What “to arrive at the end of a sentimental journey” means, how to restore your virginity, Medieval sex tips, the woman who had 130 orgasms in an hour, and what on earth the armadillo’s got to do with the missionary position.

The book covers an array of historical characters and their sex lives — from Chaucer to Wallis Simpson, from Rockefeller to a future king of England.  Together with the definitive histories of vibrators, the merkin and the word “fuck” amongst others, A Splendidly Smutty Dictionary of Sex is perhaps one of the most unusual books of the year!

Introduction

There have been countless books on the world’s favorite pastime. Indeed, if you Google sex books, you will find over 150 million results!

These books range from the biology and anatomy of sex, to how-to-do-it books. They range from the scholarly to the irreverent, and some with really rubbish pictures in them and some without.

But, there seems to be a glaring omission. No one has yet compiled a tongue-in-cheek dictionary of the words, thoughts and some of the very strange deeds associated with it.

But where would you start? Well, quite obviously, at the beginning.

Consider the prehistoric man, not only trying to contend with the Ice Age, living in a damp cave with no sports channels, very little food and with big scary animals trying to eat him. You would safely assume the last thing on his mind was sex.

Apparently not.

In between avoiding sabre toothed tigers and other hairy things that bite, he would spend some of his time carving things known as Venus figurines. These were Prehistoric Barbie dolls with huge breasts and with massive Kim Kardashian-like asses. These figurines, of which hundreds have survived, appear to have had no practical use whatsoever, other than be a sort of Stone-Age version of Playboy.

Much, much later, when the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were first being excavated, red-faced Victorian archaeologists with silly beards had to take continuous cold showers on discovering a treasure trove of erotic tableaux and other wonderfully smutty things.

So, despite our view that all previous generations were old-fashioned, prim and inhibited (well some were), the fact is that we as human beings have always been obsessed by sex. Wars won and lost because of it, people made rich by it and reputations ruined by it.

So join me if you will, on an alphabetical journey down the highways and byways of the world’s most popular pastime, discovering along the way such important nuggets as: life changing sexual advice from the Middle Ages, the somewhat disturbing history of the vibrator, the rather strange sex life of a future King of England and, most importantly of all, what on earth have armadillos got to do with the missionary position?

A for Aphrodisiac Users

Advice on starting your engine from the famous and infamous through the ages.

Aristotle (384 – 322 BC), Greek philosopher:

When not sitting still and philosophising, he would recommend the use of oil of peppermint to stimulate sexual desire. To reduce the libido, he also suggested walking long distances through the hills barefoot.

Pliny (23 – 79AD), Roman naturalist and author:

He came up with this rather obvious suggestion that in order to fan the flames of lust: Why not to eat a hyena’s eye with a dash of dill?

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527), Italian statesman:

Whilst taking a break from plotting, he swore by the aphrodisiac powers of the mandrake plant. He even wrote a not particularly amusing comedy, La Mandragola (1524), in its honor.

Giovanni Casanova (1725 – 1798), Italian libertine:

The patron saint of shagging attributed much of his spectacular sexual energy to the fact that he always ate 50 oysters for breakfast every morning.

Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779), English explorer:

Before being killed by angry Hawaiians, Cook feasted every morning on a special, aphrodisiac dish of fresh shrimp. He often boasted that he could take on ten native girls a day. Perhaps that was the reason for the angry Hawaiians.

Madame Du Barry (1743 – 1793), Mistress of Louis XV:

She tried to keep Louis XV in her thrall by feeding him foods that would make him weak with lust: sweetbreads, venison, pheasant cooked in white wine, truffles, capon in sherry broth, to name just a few.

Mae West (1892 – 1980), Actress:

The legendary sex queen recommended eating almonds to increase one’s sex drive.

Buy Links

Publisher:

http://www.deepdesirespress.com/a-splendidly-smutty-dictionary-of-sex/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L88JT46

Add on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43206166-a-splendidly-smutty-dictionary-of-sex

About the Author

http://www.deepdesirespress.com/simon-leyland/

Facts are not enough - #Research #VictorianErotica #ElectricPlay

Research is an integral part of writing, even in fiction. When you're an author, you've got to get it right. Some readers take insane glee in pointing out gaffes and discrepancies. Have your ancient Roman characters drinking tea, your Elizabethans using the word “clitoris”, your Dom swinging a cane made of bamboo (I've been pointedly informed that bamboo is too brittle for a cane and that rattan is the preferred material), and you may find yourself ridiculed throughout the blogosphere. Even a more forgiving reader can be distracted from your story by some detail that just doesn't fit. Every author's goal is to build a fictional world in which readers can happily lose themselves. To the extent that this world is inconsistent or unbelievable, the author will fail.

If you write only about characters who share your class, ethnicity and culture, or if you set your stories in a non-specific contemporary locale, you may not need to do much research. However, this can get pretty boring. Thinking about my own work, I find that there are four situations that dictate the need for research.

Geographic or location-oriented research: When I'm setting a story in a specific location (as I usually do), I often research landmarks, place names, or spatial relationships. I don't need to give my readers a map, but I may need one myself in order to write convincingly.

Cultural research: If my characters are something other than white, western, and well-educated, I need to check on things like vocabulary, slang and tone. I also need to understand the characters' assumptions, the way they look at the world and how that is different from my own perspective.

Sexual research: There are many sexual practices that I haven't personally tried (though you might not think that from some of my previous posts!). In erotica, it is especially important to research the details of the fetish or sexual subculture you are describing. I've read many BDSM stories that struck me as ridiculous rather than arousing because the practices described were inaccurate and reflected a lack of research on the part of the author.

Historical research: Writing in a period other than the present probably requires the most intensive research activity. Every aspect of life depends on the historical period, from costumes, food, transportation and economics to language and world view.

Some authors adore doing research. I gather that for some authors, research actually distracts them from the writing process. They get pulled deeper and deeper into the worlds they are exploring, searching for the next level of detail, putting off writing as they gather knowledge that they might not ever use.

Personally I view research as something of a necessary evil. I'll spend the time I need to answer my questions, but I am always eager to get back to the story itself. I have observed that too much research carries risks—the author feels compelled to use all the nifty information she has uncovered, and ultimately, this distracts from the story. Normally, I'll let the story itself drive my research activity. Before I begin, I'll spend some time reading about the period, the people or the practices on which I'm focusing, but then I'll stop, only returning to my search when I have a question.

Geographic research is fairly straightforward, given the resources on the Internet. I also have two shelves full of travel guidebooks which I use extensively. I'm fortunate in that I've traveled quite a lot. Frequently I'll set a story in a city or country that I've visited. Even so, I will often need to check on details. “Prey”, for example, is set in Prague, but I wrote it nearly ten years after I visited that wondrous city. I spent quite a lot of time poring over maps and trying to reconcile them with my recollections. Necessary Madness takes place in Worcester, Massachusetts and its environs. I lived in central Massachusetts for more than twenty years, but I still find that I need to jog my memory. Of course, if a tale is set somewhere that I've never visited, like Guatemala (Serpent's Kiss) or Assam, India (Monsoon Fever), I have to rely entirely on external information, supplemented by analogy with places I have been.

Cultural research is particularly tough for me. Not foreign cultures—if I've visited a place, I usually have at least a rudimentary sense of the people and how they communicate. But in capturing the subtleties of other western subcultures, I have problems. The American south, for instance, has a particular flavor of discourse. Likewise the American west. I've tried to write criminals and mafia and stuttered badly. One difficulty is the fact that you can't search directly for the kind of cultural markers that make a character seem genuine. The best way to pick them up is to actually meet an individual from that culture. The second best method is to read other people's work featuring characters from the same subculture.

Sexual research is always fun, and not too much of problem. The 'Net overflows with didactic material on various fetishes as well as content that can serve as exemplars. My story “Body Electric”, in D&S Duos 1, features electric play, which I've never personally experienced. I had no trouble finding information on electric toys and the effects that they produce. Even my BDSM critic (the one who chided me over the bamboo cane) did not find fault with the result!

Historical research, of course, can go on forever. About a third of my novel Miranda’s Masks takes place in Victorian Boston. The physical environment was fairly easy; I had lived in Beacon Hill, which actually hasn't changed much since that period. However, I spent considerable time, effort and money researching costumes (Victorian clothing was extremely complex, with lots of special vocabulary), transportation, and the differences between social classes. I also read up on Victorian erotica, which was the subject of my heroine Miranda's dissertation, using Steven Marcus' encyclopedic though annoying tome The Other Victorians.

Even a historical short story requires an inordinate amount of work. Shortest Night, set in Shakespeare's London, took me nearly twice as long to write as a normal story, because I was working so hard to be true to the period. After all that effort, my editor still picked up a variety of words that were too modern for Elizabethan times. (I was extremely impressed.)

It's tough to get the facts right. Unfortunately, even if you do, that may not be enough. To accomplish the objective of creating a compelling, believable fictional world, an author needs more than a raft of detail. It's critical to have what I can only call a “feel” for that world—an intuitive sense of how it works and how its denizens think, feel and behave.

It's never possible to answer every research question. Sometimes I have to rely on imagination. But this only works if I can understand the people and places I am trying to portray, at a gut level. How do you acquire this sort of intuition? You won't find it on Google. For me, building a rich, nuanced picture of the world where I'm setting my story requires more personal experience. Reading original sources, including fiction, from a period can help. Visiting a museum or the actual site is a possibility. Ultimately, though, I find the process a bit mysterious.

Sometimes no amount of research will help. Several years ago I visited the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. During the twelfth century, the city of Angkor had more than a million inhabitants. It was the largest settlement in the world. I was fascinated by the civilization that had built such impressive monuments, only to disintegrate back into a village culture, and I had an idea for a time-slip erotic romance set partially during that period.

I set about reading everything I could find about Cambodia and Angkor. I spent lots of money on books. I went to museums. I scoured the Web. Somehow, the intuitive sense of those people eluded me. I just couldn't picture them, understand who they were and how they thought. I could look up all the historical details in the many books I bought, but my imagination remained bone dry. I've shelved the project for the moment, hoping that at some point I'll have some experience that triggers the sort of comprehension and empathy that I need to be able to proceed.

Research the facts. That's the starting point, sure. But developing a sense of your world, to the point where you can trust your guesses—that's far more difficult. Ultimately, it's a kind of magic. Like creating stories in the first place.

:Ladies around the world, across the years - #Romance #DevelopingCountries #Women @AdamMannAuthor

By Mike Lord (Guest Blogger)

When I started to work in Pakistan, in the Swat valley, I was a bit dismayed that ladies were never seen, and were not to be seen. I mean that, even if we saw one by accident we had to physically turn our heads the other way! It is called “Purdah”.

Over three years I did meet a few women, very few, like the wives of several colleagues, two heavily veiled graduate students from Peshawar, and two Belgian tourists wearing boiler suits who came our way by accident. Bhakti, my driver, saw them first and invited them to “his” camp thinking they were two male hitchhikers.

I generously offered them a bathroom, and then they emerged they turned out to be ladies, with very short hair, who had disguised themselves as men. They stayed two days and then set off for Mingora, where Malala came from several years later.

That was a total of six females over three years!

My next posting was in Sri Lanka, with hundreds of beautiful ladies, two girls in my office operating word processors, several ladies as heads of departments, and several working in other government departments. But all untouchable to me.

But wait. I did meet a lady in Colombo who invited me to her brother’s house for dinner! Within ten minutes there was an electric power cut, and we all sat around a table with two candles – romantic? The timing was all wrong.

Then I went to Singiriya, near Anuradhapura, and in the early morning climbed the steel staircase to the Hall of Mirrors where about twenty frescoes remained from probably the several hundred painted on the walls of the cave about fifteen hundred years ago. No one knows who they were.

None of the ladies wore much clothing, as may have been the custom at that time, and they obviously came from different parts of the world.

I started to read the local history, and began to surmise that these ladies might have been ladies of the court. None of their names were recorded so I started to give them imaginary names, and places of origin.

The Rajah, we know was called Kasyapu, and he lived in the castle that he was building on the isolated rock nowadays called Singiriya. Rajah Kasyapu had, history related, four wives and many concubines. History related that in his rock top castle he was living a life of a recluse which means withdrawal from physical delights, in order words no sex.

I lived in Sri Lanka for three years and started to write my first novel. There was a lot of history recorded, and fortunately in English, and I used the names of the men and the imaginary names of the ladies in the Rajah’s court.

I did then sit down and write, but not publish, my first historical novel “Sinagiri”. It means Sina – a lion and Giri – a rock.

One day my boss in England rang me and asked if I’d like to work in a developing economy, which I thought I had been doing.

But he wanted me to go and work in Vietnam.

What a change! A different climate; different people; attractive ladies; no or very little traffic, in those days. That was February in 1997.

The traditional dress of the local ladies in Vietnam is the “au dai” which is designed to show the physical outline of their body, and has a high collar originally designed to stop the wearer looking around! Many offices and restaurants dress their female staff in these lovely garments.

But my mind was working overtime! I was slowly piecing together the history of the country in which I was working, and the methods used to propagate especially by the ruling families!

Often we know who married who, and history usually records the names of their sons and successors, and occasionally some of their daughters. But history doesn’t recall how they did that!

The first romantic novel I wrote is called Hanoi Heat about a girl who works in a model agency, who claims to have a French father, and a visiting European man. Their romance starts slowly, but then takes off like a bullet!

This prompted me write about a local princess who lived in the late eighteenth century. Her name was Le Thi Ngoc Han, and she was given in marriage at the age of sixteen to a military hero called Nguyen Hue, who later became Emperor Quang Trung. The trouble was that she fell in love with her husband, and then success became tragedy as they both died at an early age.

Please have a look at my books. If they sound interesting, leave me a comment and I’ll enter you in my drawing. The winner gets to choose his or her favorite of any one of my 33 romance eBooks.

https://www.amazon.com/author/adammannauthor.com

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/AdamtheMann

and

https://www.amazon.com/author/mikelord

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Lordmike

Readers can also find me on Twitter and FaceBook.

About the Author

Mike Lord has worked for over 50 years in what is called “developing economies”. Most of the time Mike’s work has been with the thousands of small scale farmers in remote areas, who have appreciated the benefits of sustainable livelihoods, so that they now have enough food to feed themselves, and also some to sell so that they have a cash income. That is why most of Mike’s novels are set in these countries and especially the remote locations.

Four years ago Mike finally retired and started writing, and has now produced 33 fantasy romance books ten of which have been published, and 23 self-published at Smashwords and Amazon KDP. Adam Mann is a pen name for Mike Lord.

Buoyed by DuBois #HistoricalRomance #BlackRomance #lera_rwa @mscottauthor1

By Michal Scott (Guest Blogger)

Hi Lisabet! Thanks for this chance to share how my love for history helps me research for my romances.

Many people are familiar with the old James Brown song “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” of the 1960’s. But not many know how old that sense of pride and accomplishment is. That’s why I love writing historicals that shed light on the varied lifestyles of African Americans, especially after the Civil War. Doing research to ground me in my characters’ backgrounds is like having a twenty- course meal, each course being one of my favorite desserts.

For Better To Marry Than To Burn I read The Philadelphia Negro, an amazing sociological study by W.E.B. DuBois to get a handle on the back story of my heroine, Queen Esther Payne. Published in 1899, The Philadelphia Negro documents the lives of ex-slave and freeborn African Americans in Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward. He chronicles everything from how they arrived there to the institutions and customs developed to regulate their lives. Although published almost 20 years after my story is set, Du Bois’ statistics and class-conscious conclusions helped me create the perfect heroine for my opposites-attract romance.

W.E.B. DuBois

Not every African American is “the dream and the hope of the slave” as Maya Angelou so eloquently wrote at the end of And Still I Rise. Whereas I am that dream and hope, I wanted to create Queen, a woman who not only wasn’t, but might not be welcoming of someone who is. I imagined her in what DuBois described as “the 277 families…who form the aristocracy of the Negro population in education, wealth and general social efficiency.” 

 Unidentified woman with curly hair

She has grown up in one of the 52 of these families who “keep servants regularly, live in well-appointed homes, which give evidence of taste and even luxury.” Her father is among one of the “learned professions.” Although you don’t meet him, I made him one of the Methodist ministers who DuBois characterized as “generally a wide-awake business man, with something of the politician in his makeup.” Someone who would definitely be horrified at his daughter’s woman-loving woman preferences and would insist she become a housewife despite her bisexuality. Although DuBois lists numerous ways someone like Queen could have made a living if shunned by her family -- caterer, trained nurse, and musician just to name three -- being a minister’s daughter, she would have been pressured to fit into the traditional role of wife and mother. Accepting my hero’s offer of marriage and coming West was her only refuge.

In the conclusion of his study, DuBois urges “the better class of Negroes to recognize their duty toward the masses.” His concept of the Talented Tenth runs strong through my heroine’s consciousness. But she would need to be paired with someone not of her class and who could shake her “Talented Tenth” suppositions. Thus I created Caesar, an ex-slave who refused to be cowed by the violence of Reconstruction in the South and the prejudice and restrictions of the North. Caesar went West and built a life for himself there. However, when the town’s married women demand all single men get hitched through their bridal lottery or get out of town, Caesar once again refuses to be cowed and goes his own way by placing an ad of his own.

Blurb

Freed Man seeking woman to partner in marriage for at least two years in the black township of Douglass, Texas. Must be willing and able to help establish a legacy. Marital relations as necessary. Love neither required nor sought.

Caesar King's ad for a mail-order bride is an answer to Queen Esther Payne’s prayer. Her family expects her to adhere to society's traditional conventions of submissive wife and mother, but Queen refuses. She is not the weaker sex and will not allow herself to be used, abused or turned into a baby-making machine under the sanctity of matrimony. Grateful that love is neither required nor sought, she accepts the ex-slave's offer and heads West for marriage on her terms. Her education and breeding will see to that. However, once she meets Caesar, his unexpected allure and intriguing wit makes it hard to keep love at bay. How can she hope to remain her own woman when victory may be synonymous with surrender? 

Excerpt

With thanks to God, he pushed past her flimsy drawers to the moist welcome of her center. Her vaginal walls gripped his fingers with surprising force. No amount of twisting or turning wrenched them free. God, to have that grip surrounding his shaft.

He pulled back and studied her face. Eyes still closed, a sly smile bowed her perfect lips. She enjoyed this battling as much as he.

“Was I too brutal for your enjoyment, Mrs. King?”

Her eyelids rose with the slow grace of sunrise. A gleam as sly as her
smile shone in her gaze. “You call that brutal, Mr. King?”

She unclenched her lower muscles, allowing his fingers momentary retreat. With great care, she grasped his hand then slid his fingers between her folds once more.

“Holy Christ, woman. What—?”

The gentle rubbing robbed him of his ability to think.

“Jesus, have mercy,” he wheezed.

She slid his fingers from her wet sex into his mouth. He moaned, lost in her delectable taste.

Without taking her gaze from his face, she raked her gloved hand down his chest, across his belly, to his groin. Anticipation tensed his muscles in the wake of her touch. He watched mesmerized as, with a practiced ease, she unbuttoned his fly, pushed past the fabric, sought, found and stroked his cock. Her woolen gloves imparted a delicious friction he couldn’t oppose, even if he’d wanted. Delight enlivened every muscle in his body, including his jaded heart.

Jesus. This couldn’t be more than arousal. Could it?

Her fingers squeezed and his body arched upward on the yes swelling his spirit with joy. He threw back his head, mouth open, ready to shout as he neared the point of release.

Then she let him go.

He doubled over, slain by the abandonment. His lungs constricted, bereft of air. Reason deserted him too.

She stood and smoothed down her skirts with the hand that had massaged his shaft more deftly than he ever had. Reseated, she grabbed the reins and snapped the leather against his horse’s rump.

“Get up there.”

The wagon jostled Caesar from side to side. Still unable to straighten up, he looked into eyes gleaming with triumph. Her lips curved in a regal smirk.

“Was I too brutal for your enjoyment, Mr. King?”

About Michal

My love of history is old. My love of romance is new. Writing historical romance has given me a chance to combine the two. I’ve been writing professionally since 2008 and belong to the inspirational, gothic and erotic romance chapters of Romance Writers of America. A surprising, but never boring combination of genres for a retired minister. You can learn more about me and my erotic romances on my website: www.michalscott.webs.com and connect with me on Twitter @mscottauthor1.

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