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I have reviewed a total of twenty-eight books on my blog this year, most of them for Rosie’s Book Review Team, and I hereby reveal my five favorites. These you won’t find on the New York Times or Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, but given my general dissatisfaction with what I did read off those lists this year, we clearly need a way to get the news out there about options. Rosie’s Reviews is the way to do it! At the top of the list is Fae or Foe by CA Deegan, a delightful surprise for someone who ordinarily doesn’t like books about fantastical/magical things (the exception being the Harry Potter series.) This book and its sequel was an eye-opener, a YA book of adventure at its highest in a world previously unimagined. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5928&action=edit Second on the list is Megacity by Terry Tyler. Terry is the queen of dystopian fiction, in my eyes, and a consummate world builder. This is a story of future and frightening governmental control that we might yet see. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5576&action=edit Third is The Ferryman and the Sea Witch by  D. Wallace Peach. She is another master of world creation. In The Ferryman and the Sea Witch, she blends a romping nautical adventure with a population of beautiful and deadly Merrows (think mer-people on steroids) and various greedy, powerful rulers and just plain nasty characters. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5568&action=edit Fourth is The Drowning Land by David M. Danachie, prehistorical fiction, set in northern Europe a little over eight thousand years ago. It combines adventure, a romance, and disaster against the setting of a land that literally is sinking beneath the sea and is based on a huge underwater slide that created a sudden and catastrophic tsunami that engulfed Doggerland, which connected Great Britain to the European continent and was a rich habitat for the Mesolithic populations. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5438&action And fifth is Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders by William Savage. In the eighth book in this series, Ashmole Foxe, a bookseller in Norwich, England, during the Georgian era who has acquired a solid reputation for solving murders, must solve the murder of the Honourable Henry Pryce-Perkins, the youngest son of a peer of the realm and a brilliant scholar at Oxford. A layered puzzle for the reader in a detailed historical setting. You can find my review here: https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5966&action=edit These are by far not the only books I read this past year. I only wish I had had time to review all of them! 0 0

I have read and reviewed all the books in this series, and it was so enjoyable to sit down and meet up with all the characters I’ve come to love and see the developments in their lives. That being said, anyone can pick up this book and enjoy the tale without having read the previous books. I will say for me this is the best in the series. The author seems to up his game with each new mystery. Ashmole Foxe is a bookseller in Norwich, England, during the Georgian era. He is well-to-do from the sales of his bookstore and also his ability to find and sell rare books for significant profit. All of this he finds mundane, and over the years he has acquired a solid reputation for solving murders, which has become his raison d’etre. This time he is called to visit the Bishop of St. Stephen’s Church, where the body of a young clergyman was discovered outside his home. The victim, the Honourable Henry Pryce-Perkins, was the warden of St. Stephen’s Hospital, a sort of retirement home for male servants and other people who worked for members of the cathedral clergy. He was also both the youngest son of a peer of the realm and a brilliant scholar at Oxford. How did he end up with a dead-end (pardon the pun) position as warden of the hospital, when he should have been moving on to a large and prestigious parish? Street children are favorites of Foxe, and he treats them with respect and gives them money to survive. So it is not surprising that soon after the Bishop’s call, street children lead him to the richly dressed body of a young woman in a house that its neighbors swear is haunted.  The house also sits strangely empty at the entrance to one of the notorious ‘yards’ of Norwich, wretched tenements housing the poorest of the poor in the city. The children also play a central role in helping Foxe solve this murder. For the first time, and complicating Foxe’s investigative work, the women in his life are creating problems. He has enjoyed the occasional company of various women, usually actresses or denizens of high-priced brothels, but he has now tied himself to a socially acceptable lady. How can he manage her increasing demands, especially when two former ‘close friends’ are returning to Norwich? In the process of Foxe’s investigation, we are introduced to more of the colorful characters that abound in this series: the occupants of St. Stephen’s hospital, the Bishop himself, and Oliver Lakenhurst, secretary to the Bishop and quite enamored with his perceived importance. In addition, we learn a great deal about the church, specifically its considerable library and the odd beliefs of the murdered warden.  The means and the opportunity for the murder were clear but Ashmole has difficulty figuring out the why. As usual, the author creates the world of Georgian Norwich with wonderful detail and an eye to the political and social lives of its inhabitants. I was particularly charmed by the street children, whose lives are a bleak reflection of the time. The atmosphere of this mystery is inspired, the city itself a character. The twists and turns in Foxe’s investigation of the two murders kept me guessing, and since I tend to figure things out before the denouement of a mystery, Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders was frustratingly good. The author is a superb writer, and I mean it as a compliment that his mysteries develop at a leisurely pace, as life was in those times. If the reader is wanting something speedy, they wouldn’t have enjoyed living then. I highly recommend Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders and all the other mysteries by this writer. About the author: William Savage grew up in Hereford, on the border with Wales and took his degree at Cambridge. After a working life largely spent teaching and coaching managers and leaders in Britain, Europe and the USA, he retired to Norfolk, where he volunteers at a National Trust property and started to write fiction as a way of keeping his mind active in retirement. He had read and enjoyed hundreds of detective stories and mystery novels and another of his loves was history, so it seemed natural to put the two together and try his hand at producing a historical mystery. To date, he has focused on two series of murder-mystery books, both set in Norfolk between 1760 and around 1800; a period of turmoil in Britain, with constant wars, the revolutions in America and France and finally the titanic, 22-year struggle with France and Napoleon. Norfolk is not only an inherently interesting county, it happens to be where the author lives, which makes the necessary research far easier. The Georgian period seemed natural choice for him as well, since he lives in a small Georgian town, close by several other towns that still bear the imprint of the eighteenth century on many of their streets and grander buildings. It also had the attraction of being a period he had never studied intensively, and so far he has not regretted his choice. The period has far exceeded his expectations in richness of incidents, rapidity of change and plentiful opportunities for anyone with a macabre interest in writing about crimes of every kind. He cannot see himself running out of plot material any time soon! You can also find William Savage On Twitter: @penandpension And on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009908836774 Foxe and the Moon-Shadowed Murders can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08HLZ2CBV/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5 0 0

I will be off my blog for the next two weeks – Christmas vacation! We are in Utah, where it’s been snowing off and on, something we hardly ever see in North Carolina. We came to Utah to visit my son, his wife, and the newest addition to our family, a granddaughter. Welcome to the world, Alexandra Rhea! There are outrageous Christmas light displays and we’ve enjoyed touring the neighborhoods at night. From our family to yours, Happy Christmas. May all your wishes for the season come true! 0 0

Although the Pilgrims didn’t celebrate Christmas, since they eschewed all holidays except for those decreed by God (Sunday), I thought I would continue with some of my research on how they lived. The Pilgrims’ (Separatists’) clothing was made of two types of cloth – wool and linen, which they wore year-round. They did not wear black or gray clothing, but clothes of many colors, according to probate records where the color of various clothing items was mentioned. These colors included violet, blue, and green. The color red was also listed; however, the reds that were used in the early 17th century were more of a brick red or a madder red. What was considered black in the early 17th century was very dark greys, greens, and blues and natural black sheep’s wool was also available. A deep, rich black was considered the opposite of demonstrating piety in the early 17th century. Thus, a true black would not have been worn by Separatists. ****** If you were a male colonist or a boy old enough to be ‘breeched’, what would you wear? Male children old enough to be ‘breeched’ would wear the same clothing as their fathers: Felt hat Linen shirt under A wool jacket or doublet Woolen breeches Wool stockings Latchet shoes If you were a Separatist woman or a girl older than five, what would you wear? The same as an adult woman: Coif on the head Smock or shift under everything – you would wear this to bed at night so no need to change Stays – called bodies, designed to give the woman a svelte figure but very uncomfortable Petticoats Pockets stitched to a band and knotted around the waist under the skirt Skirt, also called a petticoat Apron Waistcoat Neckerchief Knitted woolen stockings Felt or straw hat Latchet shoes I have an authentic costume made by the wardrobe mistress of the Raleigh Little Theater. Even without the stays and petticoats, I sweat profusely in the wool and linen. ****** The latchet shoe is made of sturdy leather.  Closed latchet shoes were more practical in bad weather. It is thought the open latchet shoes were made to show off rich stockings. These shoes were worn by both men and women. There were holes in the latchet (fastening strap) and in the tongue for laces of leather, cord or ribbon. Latchet shoes were not fitted for left or right feet but were made ‘straights’ or lasts. Wearers would rotate their shoes from left foot to right to even out the wear. Work shoes tended to have the “flesh” side of the leather turned out since they didn’t need to be waxed or polished. I have a pair of latchet shoes. They are very sturdy but hard on the feet, at least until I break them in! 1 0

Starvation continued beyond the first winter.  After the first year, the late spring through early fall was a time of plenty. Winters remained times of starvation, however, because ships containing new colonists continued to arrive, sent by the Merchant Adventurers in London – the Fortune (1621), and the Anne and the Little James (1623). These people arrived without any food supplies, clothes, or wherewithal for their life in the colony. They were distributed to live in the existing homes and during the winters, food had to be rationed so everyone could eat. A conjectural image of Bradford, produced as a postcard in 1904 by A.S. Burbank of Plymouth Bradford wrote of these newcomers there were “good members to the body”, some being the wives and children of men there already, some since the Fortune came over in 1621. But Bradford also related about those unfit for such a hardship settlement: “And some were so bad, as they were faine to be at charge to send them home again next year.” So the names of some of the people arriving on these ships disappeared from the colony’s rolls after 1623. Members of the Plymouth Colony began trading with fishermen and Native tribes in Maine within a few years of their arrival in 1620. In 1622 they dispatched a small expedition by boat to Damariscove Island, where they obtained supplies and food which carried them through a difficult summer until their crops could be harvested. They also had to bargain at various Native American villages for corn. ****** When starvation was not a problem, the colonists’ diet was a healthy one, helped by knowledge from the Pokanokets (Wampanaugs) who lived around them. Beans, squash, pumpkin Sunchokes – a tubular-shaped, thin-skinned root vegetable of the sunflower plant family that’s in season from late fall through early spring. Also called a Jerusalem artichokes. Corn bread and corn porridge Wild greens (watercress) Fowl (duck, swan, goose, turkey) Mishoons and hunting. Credit: Plimoth-Patuxet (a mishhoon the Wampanoag word for boat, using fire as a tool to hollow out a tree.) Venison Fish – The Separatists were not big fish eaters. Being farmers, they were meat and bread eaters. Lobsters, clams and eels. The Separatists loved eels but soon came to regard lobster as food for the poor because of their abundance and the fact they ate a lot of them early on. Nuts (walnuts, chestnuts, beechnuts) – some of the first food they harvest when they came ashore in Cape Cod Bay. Wild berries: Cranberries and currants – wild currants are closely related to gooseberries. Currants come in red, black, and gold colors when ripe. North America is host to more than 80 varieties Once gardens were established: many different kinds of herbs, onions, garlic, and vegetables like parsley, lettuce, spinach, carrots and turnips.  Also after a few years, they grew cowcumbers (cucumbers). Water and also beer made from corn ****** Cooking was done in the fireplace alcove our outside. Baking was done outside in communal ovens. Eventually, they built real fireplaces with ovens in the back and later to the side. How did they know the temperature to cook at? How did they know when their baking was done? The Separatists initially tried but failed to grow rye, barley and wheat. In the beginning, barley crops often failed, and the cost of importation was prohibitive. Hops were first introduced into this country from Europe by the Massachusetts Company in 1629. Food plays an important part in my book, The Last Pilgrim. 0 0

Leaves cling to trees Some, wind-ripped, leave imprints Of their short, sweet life 0 0

On 28 December 1620, house plots were assigned to family groups–each family was responsible for building their own house. Once warmer weather set in, their progress was impeded by a request from Captain Miles Standish to build a fort at the top of the hill to house the cannon and arms, followed by a request to erect a 6-9’ palisade around the settlement. This latter was a half-mile in length. Later, everyone was engaged in planting the corn crop and taking care of the new shoots as they came up. This took men away from working on their own houses. By December of 1621, seven houses had been built with four of them for common use. This is an aerial view of Plimoth-Patuxet, the village as it was circa 1622-23. Remember, the colonists were not skilled carpenters and lacked tools, so their first houses were fairly crude, just protection from wilds animals and the elements. They had one door, one window, dirt floors, fireplace, and a wooden chimney (also a fire hazard). In the 1600s and into the 1700s, the typical fireplace was a walk-in, a wide open recess, with only a semblance of a mantel or no mantel at all. The houses were lined inside with daub and wattle but had no insulation, so they were hot in the summer and cold in the winter. And smoky. They were crowded, sometimes with six or more people.  The windows usually had shutters and were covered over with oiled paper in the winter. Daub and wattle has been used for at least 6000 years. It is a woven lattice of wooden strips or twigs  called wattle, which is filled in with daub, a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. The women planted gardens as soon as possible beside or behind their houses, using seeds they brought with them from England. Some of the seeds did not do well, but onions, garlic, and vegetables like parsley, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and turnips did well.  Later they learned to cultivate squash and pumpkin. Separatists initially tried, but failed, to grow rye, barley, and wheat, so corn was their main crop. The Separatists drank water until they learned to use corn to make beer. Hops were first introduced from Europe by the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629. They didn’t have any livestock. Only chickens and maybe a pig or goat came on the Mayflower. The chickens ran free in the settlement and were fed worms because grain could not be spared for them. So the first two years were made more difficult. Three Red Devon milking cows came only in 1623 – so no milk, no butter, no cheese unless there was a goat or two – but this was not recorded.  The cows came on the Anne and were named Great Black Cow, Lesser Black Cow, and Great White-Backed Cow. That same year, 1623, it was reported that six goats, fifty pigs and many chickens populated the colony. Remember these early colonists were farmers. They did not like to fish and fish was not on the menu often.  Not that they could fish – the fish hooks sent with them were too large for the type of fish in the harbor! During the first two years, all of the crop growing was done communally. But not everyone contributed equally, so in 1623, men were then assigned an acre each family for their own farming, with any surplus food contributed to the common supply.  As the colony grew, more land was needed for farming and in 1628, the Plymouth court distributed land, about   20 acres per share, to the colonists. Livestock was also apportioned. The apportionment of larger farms meant the colonists moved further and further away from the settlement. In time, this led to the establishment of new towns. All of the plots assigned had at least some either ocean or riverfront. That was because there were no roads and the Pilgrims had to return to the settlement for Sunday services. They came by boat. And some maintained their original house in the settlement where they lived in the winter.  By 1624, there were 32 houses in the Plimoth settlement. All this is the background to my book, The Last Pilgrim. 0 0

As I mentioned in my last post, land was first sighted from the Mayflower on November 20, 1620, after a voyage of 66 days. Captain Jones determined it was Cape Cod and turned south to reach the land for which the Separatists had a patent – land which was located north of the Hudson River but was considered part of Virginia. After a few hours of sailing south, the Mayflower ran into turbulent shoals, so turbulent that Captain Joines had to consider whether continuing in that direction was wise. The ship was in poor shape and probably would not withstand the battering of the turbulence. There were now more than a few people aboard who were sick, and food and beer supplies (the water had long been fouled) were dwindling. He decided he had no choice but to turn north and sail around the arm of Cape Cod, coming to harborage in Cape Cod Bay early in the morning of the day after. Jones knew exactly where he was. After all, Cape Cod and what would become New England had been visited or exported by several men earlier in the century: Bartholomew Gosnold (1602); Martin Pring(1603); Samuel de Champlain (1605); George Waymouth (1605); Henry Hudson (16090 and John Smith (1614). This is John Smith’s map One very important event occurred while the Mayflower was anchored in Cape Cod Bay – the creation and signing of the Mayflower compact on November 11, 1620. The decision to settle outside the bounds of the Virginia Company patent caused some “mutinous speeches” by some of the passengers. The Mayflower Compact was an attempt to establish a temporary, legally binding form of self-government until such time as the Company could get formal permission from the Council of New England. This self-government was not tied to any religion and was based on English and Mosaic law. The Mayflower Compact was regarded as law until 1686 and is significant because it is one of the first examples of a colony self-governing itself. Many consider it to be the beginning of American democracy. While anchoring in the bay, a party went ashore to see if they could find a source of fresh water (they did) and to explore the coast for a possible settlement. The land around the Cape shore was too sandy for growing crops, so over the next weeks, groups of men explored north along the coast – first in the ship’s boat and then in the reconstructed shallop – looking for a likely site for their settlement.                                Cape Cod Skaket Beach Sunset by Bill Wakeley A storm blew nearly destroyed the shallop on their third trip and blew them ashore on what is now known as Clark’s Island, just outside of Plymouth Harbor. This is Samuel de Champlain’s fairly accurate map of the area, showing the three sites considered for their settlement. The first was Clark’s Island itself, rejected because although it was defensible, it had no source of water and limited trees for wood. The second was along a river entering the bay at its north end, rejected because it would be an arduous task to get wood there for building. The third (note the star) was at the southern end of the bay, marked by a huge granite rock, which would become known as Plymouth Rock. This site had a free-running brook (still there today), a high hill on which the colonists’ cannons could be placed, and best of all, cleared land. The land had been cleared by the Patuxet tribe, all of whom died of disease brought by previous explorers during a time called the Great Dying (1617-1619). This was the site chosen. Two rather fanciful paintings of the landing of passengers from the Mayflower. The women would not have been allowed to leave the ship. The colonists began building in December with a common house, which burned down and had to be replaced. For the rest of the winter and into the spring, the colonists remained living on the ship. There were still no fires for warmth or cooking allowed below deck. In the frigid, fetid environment, sicknesses, which began during the voyage, became prevalent, taking lives on a regular basis. Mary Norris Allerton, Mary Allerton Cushman’s mother, died in February not long after giving birth to a stillborn boy. Fewer healthy men were left to build homes, so the building was slow. Bad weather also hindered their efforts. It had been assumed winter weather would be similar to England’s since this site was on the same latitude, so the colonists were not prepared for the brutality of the winter in the New World.                Artists’ interpretations Come back to Plymouth with me when the Pilgrims’ first spring arrived.  How many survived? 0 0

Today I’m interviewing Geoff Le Pard (shown here with his dog Dog), who has a new book out called The Art of Spirit Capture. Geoff, occasionally called His Geoffleship, has a wonderfully funny and entertaining blog, TanGental (https://geofflepard.com), which is how I first got to know him. We met, finally, at a Blogger’s Bash in London a good many years ago, when he sported a pink beard. Before writing, Geoff was a lawyer, ending up at the London Olympics. He started writing to entertain in 2006 and hasn’t left his keyboard since. When he’s not churning out novels he writes some maudlin self-indulgent poetry, short fiction and blogs.  He writes in a range of genres so there is something for everyone. He also cooks with passion if not precision. Geoff has written ten books, not counting The Art of Spirit Capture, which are as eclectic as the workings of his mind. Just check these out to confirm my opinion: My Father and Other Liars, a thriller set in the near future Dead Flies and Sherry Trifle, a coming of age story, the first in the Harry Spittle saga The Last will of Sven Anderson is the secondi n the saga Booms and Busts,  the third. Not surprisingly, Harry Spittle is a lawyer, as Geoff was in his former life. Life in a Grain of Sand, a 30 story anthology covering many genres Salisbury Square, a dark thriller set in present day London Buster & Moo about two couples and a dog whose ownership passes from one to the other Life in a Flash, a set of super short fiction, flash and micro fiction Apprenticed To My Mother, a descriptioin of the period in Geoff’s life  after his father died when he thought he was to play the role of dutiful son Life in a Conversation, an anthology of short and super short fiction that explores connections through humour, speech and everything besides ****** A sort of long introduction, so let’s get on to his latest, The Art of Spirit Capture. Here’s the blurb. Jason Hales is at his lowest ebb: his brother is in a coma; his long-term partner has left him; he’s been sacked, and Christmas is around the corner to remind him how bad his life has become. After receiving an unexpected call telling him he’s a beneficiary of his Great Aunt Heather’s estate, he visits the town he vaguely recalls from his childhood, where his great aunt lived. Wanting to find out more, he’s soon sucked into local politics revolving around his great uncle’s extraordinary glass ornaments, his ‘Captures’, and their future. While trying to piece his life back together, he’ll have to confront a number of questions: What actually are these Captures, and what is the mystery of the old wartime huts where his uncle fashioned them? Why is his surly neighbor so antagonistic? Can he trust anyone, especially the local doctor Owen Marsh and Charlotte Taylor, once a childhood adversary, but now the lawyer dealing with the estate? His worries pile up, with his ex in trouble, his flat rendered uninhabitable and his brother’s condition worsening. Will Christmas bring him any joy? Set in the Sussex countryside, this is a modern novel with mystery, romance, and magic at its core, as well as a smattering of hope, redemption, and good cooking. ******* We agreed to have lunch together at Suffolk Barns in the real Mendlesham, on which he based his fictitious community for his book. A wonderfully renovated 400-year-old, dog-friendly barn, it is known for its barbecue.  He brought Dog with him, who stayed under the table but was rewarded for his good behavior with the occasional scrap of meat. The interview was remarkably short because of our devouring of the meal. NG (between bites): How did you come to create the community for your new book? GLP: Boy, do I struggle with settings. When I came to writing the novel I wanted to contrast my main protagonist, Jason’s London centric life with the rural isolation of where the spirit captures were made. I decided there was a better chance of creating a fictitious community in its relative isolation in this area – but based on Mendlesham, which sits a few miles to the east of the A23, where farmland becomes rolling in the lee of the South Downs. It was at the center of the affluent wool and wheat farms that surrounded the town for most of its history. The town comprises a mix of styles from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which still lends it a rustic charm. It has remained a secluded idyll, in part because of the booming growth of nearby Lewes. All I will say is the town itself is as much a character in the book as the people. NG: Your books are an eclectic bunch. Why do you write in different genres? GLP: I like to have something for everyone. Hopefully, I’ve accomplished that. NG: Where do you get the inspiration for your different books? GLP: As you know from my blog, I like to take long walks, sometimes with Dog. Here he bent under the table, patted Dog’s head and gave him a piece of meat.  I’ve shared some of those walks on my blog, and things I see along the way can inspire me or give me an idea. I also take in a variety of sporting events. You never know what you might see. Tea or coffee? NG: Coffee! ****** So there you have it, an intro to Geoff’s new book, The Art of Spirit Capture. You can find the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Spirit-Capture-geoff-Pard-ebook/dp/B09FWBKG66/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=The+Art+of+Spirit+Capture&qid=1634654345&s=books&sr=1-3 along with his other books. 0 0