A Hero with a Secret Identity

My newest digital release, Promise Me, features a hero with an interesting secret life. Everyone in Willow Creek Montana believes he’s a prosperous businessman, the owner of a successful sawmill.

But one other man, his partner – knows the truth. They’re in town to investigate a consortium of mine owners who are plotting to control the supply of silver and undermine the fragile post-Civil War economy.

Sam is a Secret Service agent, and that raises some questions from folks who have heard me talk about the book or read the excerpt on my website. Because most people know the Secret Service as the agency entrusted with one of the most important jobs in government, to keep the President, his family and other government leaders safe.

But on July 5, 1865, the first head of the agency, William P. Wood, was sworn in by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. The agency was given one main objective, to track down counterfeiters in order to help restore faith in the currency of the newly reunited United States of America.

 That’s right, as much as we value our political leaders, everyone in the country also values money. And protecting it has been the key mission of the Secret Service. Much like our financial problems today, the country faced a banking crisis. This one was due to the tremendous amount of counterfeit money circulating. Unlike today, with the Treasury responsible for printing all the money, at the time of the Civil War, state banks designed and printed their own currency. Imagine several thousands of currency printed and the opportunities for criminals to step in and print their own.

In 1862, Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, setting up a national currency system. The “coney” men, or counterfeiters, still found many ways to create and circulate fakes.

Wood recruited ex-soldiers, police officers, or detectives to serve as agents who were expected to on duty 24 hours a day, with no days off. They were required to maintain peak physical fitness and swear utter, unquestioning obedience to the agencies directives. In other words, if you were a Secret Service agent, your job was your life.

I loved the idea of putting a man devoted to his job and mission in circumstances that made him question those ideals when faced with a woman who melted his heart and made him wish for the comforts of a home and family.

Have you ever encountered a counterfeit bill? I’d love to hear about your experience!

 

Learn more about books by Deborah Schneider at www.debschneider.com and www.sibellestone.com

A Game of Hazard by Vivienne Westlake

In writing my recent novel, A Marquess for Christmas, I needed to find a game that the hero and heroine could play while the hero was mostly on bed rest. I wanted something that might surprise a jaded hero and increase the sexual tension in the story.

Games of chance and gambling were very popular during the Regency era. There were card games like whist, which was a game for two couples that is similar to spades, and faro, which involved a special machine to pop up cards. They also played black jack, but it was called vingt-et-un.

I decided not to use a card game because most games were so popular that everyone played them. I thought a dice game represented pure chance and likely appealed to those with a strong penchant for gambling. I figured it might also appeal more to men than to women, though I admit I took a bit of license in having the hero make that assumption.

Hazard - which is where we get the term for peril and the expression "hazarding a guess" - was a dice game very similar to craps. Players would choose a number and keep playing until they got that number, another winning number, or they lost.

In hazard, the main is a number between 5 and 9. If you roll a 2 or a 3, you are automatically out, no matter which number you chose. 11 and 12 can be a win or a loss, depending on what your main number is. Players basically keep rolling until they hit a winning or a losing number. I've heard that players should always chose 7 if they have a choice because that has the greatest statistical probability of winning. This may be the reason that hazard evolved into craps.

For the specific rules, try the Wikipedia article or see A Regency Primer on How to Play Hazard.

There is a fun online game that simulates hazard play. http://drakonlady.deviantart.com/art/Hazard-Dice-Game-Demo-187814264

Here is a snippet from my new release, A Marquess for Christmas:
*Edited to be suitable for a PG-13 audience*

 

When Violet popped open the box, he saw a plain wooden cup, four wooden dice, and two decks of cards. She took out the cup and dropped two dice inside.

“Shall we roll for the main or do you want to choose?” Kit asked.

“A lady always loves to have a choice.” She smiled. “I could be cordial and offer you the first pick, but since considerate players rarely prosper, I shan’t feel too poorly about it. I will play sevens.”

“Then I will play six.”

“Do you wish to go first?” She asked, shaking the cup. The mere sound of the dice rolling around in the holder was enough to get his blood pumping and his fingers tingling.

As he grabbed the cup, the tips of his fingers stroked hers. He let them linger as he eased the cup from her hand.

They were both quiet as he shook the dice. His gaze lingered over the exposed skin of her neck. The dressing gown was loose enough that he got a glimpse of her cleavage, but no more. He looked forward to peeling the fabric off of her and sliding his hands under her chemise.

Kit turned over the cup and let the dice fall. Seven. If he’d chosen seven as his main, he would have won, but now he had to roll again.

Do not pull a six. Do not pull a six. He slipped the dice back into the holder, saying his prayers for a win. A seven would guarantee a win.

After a strong shake of the cup, he threw the dice down. Two. He’d lost. Now it was Violet’s turn.

Her long, slender fingers took hold of the cup as her other hand grabbed the dice. She pressed them to her lips, closing her eyes, then plopping each one into the cup. Something about watching her mouth touch the die or perhaps the way she lowered her lashes in a silent prayer made his mouth water and his cock harden.

She loosed the dice . Eleven. How had she managed that? He had to blink a few times to be sure of what he saw. But sure enough, one die read five and the other six. Violet had won the first round.

“Should I have checked that the dice weren’t loaded?”

“Do not be a petulant loser.”

“Perhaps your fingers are magic?” he asked, taking hold of her hand and kissing the tip of each finger. He teethed her index finger. When he pulled her arm closer so that he could kiss her wrist, she stopped him.

“Do not attempt to distract me. You seek to throw off my guard so that you will win.”

“What I seek is another taste of your delectable skin.”

“Roll the dice. Do you wish to keep your main?” she asked.

“I think I shall switch to five,” he said before giving two fast shakes and tossing. Six. Like it or not, he was stuck with it again. He stared at the dice, wondering at the chances of that happening when he heard a tapping sound on the table.

“Do not give up so easily,” she said. “Though perhaps I should encourage you to acquiesce now.”

He rolled the dice. Eight. He neither won nor lost. The third time, he rolled a twelve. Two sixes, but not the one he needed.

As he picked up the dice and dropped them in the cup, he felt a firm pressure against his thigh. He groaned and dropped the cup when he felt it move to his groin.

A glance at Violet’s face revealed nothing, though there was a twinkle in her eye.

“God’s blood woman, what are you doing?”

“Hmmm?” She rested her head on her hand. “What do you mean?”

She massaged him, pressing her heel against his privates. Gripping the table, he closed his eyes, unable to move. How could he possibly concentrate when she did such devilish things to him?

A Marquess for Christmas is now available at Amazon, All Romance eBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.

Maria Fitzherbert - The Secret Wife of Prince George by Vivienne Westlake

It was well known during the Regency that Prince George and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, hated one another. He tried many times to accuse her of adultery and have the marriage dissolved. He also made it difficult for her to spend time with their daughter, Princess Charlotte.

What is not as well known is that the prince had a wife before Caroline. When George was 23, he married Maria Fitzherbert, a slightly older widow that he'd met the year before. He was so eager to marry her that he did so knowing that the marriage was illegal and it is said that he paid 500 pounds to get his chaplain out of debtor's prison so that the minister could conduct the ceremony.

In order to marry legally, the Prince had to receive permission from the king and the Privy Council. King George III refused to validate the marriage. One of the reasons that Maria was considered unsuitable as a wife is that she was Roman Catholic. Note that the Pope and Roman Catholic Church later upheld the marriage of George and Maria, though the Anglican Church did not.

The Prince of Wales was pressured to marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, though the Prince had never met her and immediately disliked her once he had. The main incentive for Prince George to re-marry was that he was in quite a bit of debt and Parliament would increase his annual income once he married legally.

George let Maria Fitzherbert keep her 3,000 pound annual pension and they had an on again-off again relationship for most of his life. Just after his wife gave birth to Princess Caroline in 1796, the Prince put Maria into his will, leaving her his property and calling her "the wife of my heart and soul". Some time later, the two reconciled and were happy for a few years until they parted for the last time in 1808.

On his deathbed George IV kept her get well letter under his pillow and wore a miniature of her around his neck. And after he passed, it was discovered that he'd kept all of Maria's letters over the years.


For more information:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/208924/Maria-Fitzherbert
http://www.catholicity.com/encyclopedia/f/fitzherbert,maria_anne.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Fitzherbert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom#Marriage_and_mistresses

Regency Hairstyles by Vivienne Westlake

                                           Painting by Robert Lefèvre. Circa 1810 (Wikimedia Commons)


In the late 18th century, hairstyles were dramatic. The higher the better. People wore wigs or powdered their hair and often added adornments such as feathers, flowers, ribbons, and fanciful hats. Hair styling went through a dramatic change in the Regency. Under the influence of Neoclassicism, hair styles became simple and modest as ladies tried to achieve the look of the Ancient Greek & Roman goddesses.

Hair was often swept up and worn in a bun or braided and pinned up. If a woman wore her hair long, it was usually not worn lose but put in a ponytail or twist and worn to one side. Curls were very popular during this period, so many women would have to artificially curl their hair to achieve the perfect look.

Here are a few wonderful resources that discuss Regency hairstyles in detail.


Jane Austen's World has a great article showing many images of Greco-Roman hairstyles and their Regency adaptations. http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/regency-hairstyles-and-their-accessories/

Mother Earth News shows how to curl your hair using curling papers, which was a popular method during the Regency (curling irons weren't as common as they are today). Women would apply a pomade and then use the curling papers to create the ringlets you often see in portraits and Jane Austen films. http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/curling-hair-zmaz71ndzgoe.aspx

Rapunzel's Resource, a website devoted to hairstyles for women with long hair, has fun tutorials showing how to re-create the hairstyles from Emma (she includes styles from the Kate Beckinsale, Romola Garai, and Gwyneth Paltrow films). http://rapunzelsresource.wordpress.com/?s=Emma
Note: posts usually include biblical quotes and religious references.

Jane Austen Today offers a 9 minute video tutorial on how to create an "up do" in Regency style. http://janitesonthejames.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-make-regency-outfit-regency.html

Timely Tresses offers patterns and materials to make bonnets suitable for Regency and Victorian ladies. They also have a page where you can order fashion plates to see what the gowns and hair styles of the period were like. (You can preview some of the plates directly on the website)

     Main Page: http://www.timelytresses.com/

     Fashion Plates: http://www.timelytresses.com/fashionplates/fashionplatebooks1800-1839.html

What is your favorite hairstyle for long hair?

Seeing Clearly in the Regency - Vivienne

If you ever wondered what people with poor eyesight used during the Regency and Georgian eras...

Since ladies and gentlemen did not wear spectacles out in public, many people used a quizzing glass. They were so fashionable that even those with good vision would carry them. A quizzing glass would be held up to the eye to see a person or object better (rather than directly holding it over an object or newspaper as you would a magnifying glass). A person would wear it by stringing a gold chain or ribbon through the smaller loop.

While I think it started out as a practical device for those with poor eyesight, it was also used at social gatherings to people watch or to indicate annoyance or interest in another guest. Historical Hussies mentions that Beau Brummel used the device to demonstrate his disapproval of people he didn't like. In a society where manners and good breeding were everything, a person could give an insult or  approval without saying a word.

Another popular viewing device was a lorgnette, which was basically a cross between a quizzing glass and spectacles. It is the precursor to modern opera glasses. The lorgnette was invented in 1770, while the quizzing glass was invented in 1727.

For more information, visit:
http://historicalhussies.blogspot.com/2010/08/regency-glasses-and-eyeware.html
http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/knowledge-centre/museyeum/online_exhibitions/spectacles/lorgnettes.cfm
http://www.rubylane.com/item/286086-2038/BEAU-BRUMMEL-Georgian-Quizzing-Glass
http://www.eyeglasseswarehouse.com/pages/quizzing.html
http://www.eyeglasseswarehouse.com/pages/lorgnette.html

"The Outlaw’s Secret Bride" and 19th Century Native American Education

L.G.C. Smith

This week marks the re-release of my first historical romance, originally published by Avon Books in 1990. Now titled The Outlaw’s Secret Bride, it’s available as an ebook from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Smashwords. TOSB, a classic western romance set in the Black Hills of Dakota Territory in 1880, is the story of an eastern schoolteacher who meets an outlaw she can’t resist. She tries hard, but he doesn’t give up. I chose the setting because my family is from South Dakota, and I made the heroine a teacher because both sides of the family are chock full of South Dakota teachers. I had just started my doctoral studies when I began writing The Outlaw's Secret Bride (originally titled Spellbound, and published under my pen name, Allison Hayes), so I wanted to be practical. I figured writing about a place I knew fairly well would help me manage the writing, the research it required, and a heavy course load.

Writing historical romance ended up shaping my academic work in language education more than I anticipated. The tensions between the Lakota people and the US government played out in many aspects of South Dakota history. Education was a particularly fraught endeavor, illustrated in The Outlaw’s Secret Bride when the hero, Drew, introduces Emily, the heroine, to Red Cloud, the famous Lakota leader. Red Cloud astutely identified how disastrous the wrong sort of education could be for his people. Thanks to the research for the novel, I began studying early attempts to educate Lakota children. Red Cloud was right: the education brought by white Americans relied heavily on coercion and the adamant rejection of Lakota language, culture and values.

Occasionally educators, usually missionaries, developed bilingual primers to help teach reading and writing to Native American children. I discovered some of these buried in the University of California library stacks and analyzed them for a research paper in the same year that TOSB was first published. This is from a section looking at a little primer called Model First Reader. Wayawa Tokaheya. Prepared in English-Dakota by S.R. Riggs, an Episcopal missionary to the Minnesota Sioux throughout most of the nineteenth century. It was published in 1873 for use in western Minnesota. My interest lay in exploring what Dakota and Lakota children might have been taught in schools using this book. It serves as a back drop for understanding the kinds of conflicts my teacher heroine encounters when she arrives in Dakota Territory and falls in love with a man who has embraced the Lakota people.

 “The content of the more advanced lessons introduces domestic animals (dogs, cats, geese, sheep, lambs, horses, and pigs) and several wild animals, including zebras, parrots, bears, and deer. The animals are often pictured as pets in cages, houses, or playing with children. These are not contexts in which Indian children would normally have interacted with animals. Page 64 has a drawing of three children, Howard, Della, and Gertrude riding in a miniature wagon drawn by two prancing goats. On the previous page the goats were pictured in a mountain scene with tall pine trees behind them. The message that even children can tame the wilds is not subtly conveyed in the sentences that tell us that these goats will not run away or hurt the children, that they are very gentle, and that they like Howard. Howard, of course, is equally fond of the goats.

 This sort of image may have struck the fancy of American middle-class children, but it must have seemed strange to Dakota children who very likely hadn’t ever seen goats, much less miniature wagons for children to play in. More significantly, animals are portrayed as playmates, means of entertainment, or as badges of membership in a stable, well-ordered agricultural society. There is little of the sense of respect for animals or an understanding of the roles they play in supporting human life and sharing an environment that is more characteristic of Dakota relationships with animals. It would not have been difficult to cast the relationships of people to farm animals in this sort of light (and in fact, many white farmers and ranchers probably held more Indian-like attitudes toward their animals than one would guess from Victorian school texts). If the images and values presented in this text were not directly related to the experience of Dakota children, it must also be kept in mind that they would have found little better match in the minds of large numbers of urban school children in the rest of the country. The Model First Reader taught an ideal, archetypical view of American culture based in rural gentility.

     An image of even more cultural dissonance for Indian children than Howard and his sisters with their pet goats appears a few pages later. On page 67 there is a drawing of a black bear chained to a tall pole. The sentences are as follows:

1. This is a black bear. De wahanksica heca.  (The normal gloss for bear is 'mato')

            2. It is not a lamb. He tahinca cinca heca.

            3. It looks ugly. He owanyang sica. ('Sica'  means bad, not ugly per se.)

            4. He is chained to the pole.   He can kin en iyakaskapi.

            5. Can he climb the pole? Can kin he adi okihi he.

            6. Yes, he can climb to the top. Han, oinkpa hehanyan adi okihi.

            7. I will not go near the bear. Wahanksica kin ikiyedan mde   kte sni.

Aside from the alien visual image of the chained bear, the words make it clear that the bear is to be regarded as wild, potentially dangerous, and to be avoided by children. The Dakota translation emphasizes that the bear is inherently bad and should be handled accordingly. If it cannot be completely controlled, it must be avoided.

This is in marked contrast to traditional Dakota perceptions of bears as the second member (the other being humans) of the two-legged category of animals. Bears were thought of as potential healers, teachers, and generally wise creatures. Dakota children would have had to have been foolish not to have known that bears could be dangerous (especially if unreasonably provoked by chaining them to a pole), but they were taught a respect for animals, rooted in knowledge about their behaviors, that is clearly lacking in this text. The image and the sentences about the chained bear were very likely confusing for Dakota children because they represented direct contradictions to traditional Dakota values.”

I have two nieces almost finished with Kindergarten this year. Both are making great strides as fledgling readers. It’s pretty easy for one of them, but not so much for the other. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to learn to read from books that had so little to do with their lives. A great teacher can work wonders with almost any materials, but I wonder what the students who used these books thought of them.

Reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures for many of us. What were some of the first books you read yourself? Were you one of the lucky people who just figured it out easily? (I wasn’t.) Did you have a special teacher who helped you learn to read? Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of The Outlaw’s Secret Bride. I’ll draw a winner on Saturday, June 2^nd and post it here. Open to US and Canadian residents.

P.S. If you post a review of The Outlaw’s Secret Bride to any of the ebook retailers, email me the link at lgsmith@lgcsmith.com, and I’ll send you a free copy of one of my other books.