Tag: research

research rabbit hole: historical lamps

As you know, I self-id as a complete and utter history nerd and I regularly get sucked down research rabbit holes. I find that I get stuck on how something would work so fixedly that I can’t move on with the story until I’ve worked it out in my own head. A lot of this doesn’t make it in to the book, because it’s simply not necessary for the plot for everyone else to know how corn was harvested in 1920, or what precise underwear working women wore in the mid-eighteenth century, or, in this particular case, what lanterns someone would have used to explore a cave system in the Himalayas in 1780.

This stuffed me for lighting solutions, because advances in oil lamp technology didn’t actually happen until 1780, with the invention of the Argand Lamp by, wait for it, Aime Argand.

Jones and Edith were therefore left with either a candle lantern or a more primitive oil lantern for their explorations. I have allowed them a few candles brought with them from home. But the lighting in the region was primarily from oil lamps, usually using clarified butter or vegetable oil. So I thought that Jones, being very well prepared, would probably have an oil lantern and a candle in her pocket for emergencies. Oil lanterns can have more than one wick for additional light – this YouTube video is a really worthwhile watch.

After watching that, I made myself a little lamp with olive oil and a bit of cotton string supported out of it with some wire, in a glass jar. It gave enough light to hang out and chat, but not really enough to read by unless you were right next to it. I guess more wicks in the jar would make a difference.

My next project is to take the cream off our fortnightly milk delivery, make butter, clarify the butter and see how I get on with that.

One thing that shouldn’t be underestimated is the very real risk of fire with all of these open light sources. There’s a reason that there were stiff penalties for having an open flame below decks on a ship. Horn lanterns, with scraped thin panels of animal horn to protect the flame, served a double purpose – to protect the flame from being blow out, but to also slow down fire if the lamp was dropped or toppled over.

Don’t try this at home without something close by to extinguish flames if something goes wrong!

 

reading round-up: June

I’ve read lots and lots of lovely books this month, including:

Detour by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

I go through phases where I don’t read contemporary romance at all; and when I do. they have to have *something* there to hold my interest. This did, all the way through. Two people with pretty severe issues, working them out with each other whilst driving across the US. Sweet, thoughtful, tender. It was lovely.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Second in the Interdependency series. Really interesting universe, fantastic plot, as always amazing characterisation. I particularly like the sweary bi morally-grey, unashamedly sexy Kiva Lagos.

5th Gender by G. L. Carriger

Really sweet gay tentacle-haired purple skinned chap in exile from his home planet falls for human detective on a space station. They solve a murder on a space ship. Lovely romance, but the draw is the world-building. Brilliant.

Secret Warriors by Taylor Downing

I read this as research for my post-WW1 work, looking for references to Trench Code. It didn’t have much in it about that, but it’s an absolutely fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes skullduggery of the First World War. I found the bits about propaganda most interesting.

Catalysts by Kris Ripper

I’m re-reading this whole series – it’s so GOOD. Poly, kinky, queer. Angst. Tenderness. People being people. I love it.

Hard recommend.

The Seventh of December by Garrick Jones

An astonishingly detailed and historically accurate love story between two men in WW2.

SOE, MI6, the Blitz, parachuting in to France, unarmed combat, virtuoso violin playing, blackmail involving Princes of the Realm, sexy Yanks and chaps dancing together in evening dress.

I understand it’s the first in a series and I am now biting my nails waiting for more.

That’s all for this month!

research rabbit-holes for june

The last few weeks’ research rabbit-holes have been pretty varied. I’m still flailing around in the Himalayas and in eighteenth century India for Flowers of Time and on top of that I’m still fact-checking for Inheritance of Shadows.  This is the stack of reading I took away on holiday last week.

It turns out that Rob in Inheritance needs to know about Trench Code, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I started researching codes used by the British in World War One. I’m reading Secret Warriors by Taylor Downing to get some background on Rob’s career in Signals. Or… was he involved with something more Intelligence-led? I’m also reading A Country Twelvemonth by Fred Archer to give me a chronological background to the farming year in the 1920s and I may give Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee another read – I haven’t touched it since it was one of the set texts for my O-levels in 1986. Although I enjoyed it before then, deconstructing it for an exam completely soured me to it.

The pile also includes a couple of books about Kew and Marian North, who was a Victorian plant collector and illustrator. Edie in Flowers of Time is inspired by her, although Edie predates Marian by a century.

Tabs open in my browser this morning include Keeping Clean in the Eighteenth Century, Ladakh, the index to Lady’s Magazine, a google search for images of deserted forts of the Himalayas, a page about the monastery of Phugtal Gompta, the abstract of an article about eighteenth century circulating libraries, and (still) the article about the eighteenth century seed trade, because I keep going back to it to absorb a bit more.

That’s it for this time!

works in progress: progressing, and that’s about all

I’ve done a load over the last month, but not much of it actual writing.

Because of the shenanigans with MailChimp pricing levels, I’ve ported my newsletter over to MailerLite, which I think will be a good thing long term, but was a pain in the neck to do at the time. And I’ve done the same for Mr AL, who has a much more complex set-up than I do, so it took ages. That done, I’ve also set myself up a proper Ko-fi page that will act as a sort of combination of things I blog here and exclusive content that first goes out to newsletter subscribers.

I’ve also committed to doing some posts for the Queeromance Ink Blog, about author-life in general rather than more bookish things. This involves me sitting down and actually writing them, but they’re coming together in my head.

Which brings me to actual writing! Inheritance of Shadows has another three thousand words, which went out yesterday – newsletter usually goes out on the first Tuesday of the month, barring disaster. If you’d like to get the monthly installments of Matty and Rob’s adventures, just hop on here. You will also be able to follow on Ko-fi as a supporter if you’d rather do it that way. I’m reading Secret Warriors: key scientists, code-breakers and propagandists of the great war by Taylor Downing as background, because Rob needs to know some stuff and I need to know the stuff before he can know the stuff. It’s fascinating.

Flowers of Time has had another few thousand words, but I’m still sidetracked by Katie Hickman’s She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen and feel like I need to get that under my belt before I write any more. I’m writing completely outside both my historical period and my geographical area and I don’t want to mess either up.

This month promises to be more of the same, hopefully with less opportunities for prevarication. Watch this space!

 

 

reading roundup: May

A quick round-up of some of my reads this month, in no particular order. These have mostly gone up on Instagram over the course of the month… you can find me there as CogentHippo.

Under the Radar by Lillian Francis

A slow burn love affair between submariners in WW2. Fantastic historical detail that helps give the the characters depth and breadth. Funny, touching and heart-wrenching with spy-stuff tension, set against the backdrop of life in a cramped submarine. I loved it.

Ashore by Isabelle Adler (Staying Afloat #2)

Poor Matt is so oblivious to his own feelings and those of his lover, Ryce. And there’s no time to discuss anything because Val has been kidnapped and the baddies are threatening to cut off bits of him to motivate everyone else. This is a well-paced space-romp with a background love story that is tender and believable. I’m looking forward to book three.

Finders by Melissa Scott

I love the normative queerness of all Melissa Scott’s writing and this is no exception. It features a three-way poly relationship between salvage operators scrounging the ruins of an inexplicable civilization for the bits and bobs that will keep their remnant tech working. The crew find that there is more going on than they know about and the suspense is set against the low-key renegotiating of their relationship. I really enjoyed it.

Ribbons Among the Rajahs by Patrick Wheeler

This one was a disappointment. I’m researching pre-Raj British women in India and the surrounds for my work in progress and I had high hopes that this would give me some decent background. However, although there’s lots of good detail and well researched, accurate history in there, it’s a) often from the point of view of the men that the women ‘belonged to’ and b) bloody hell, there’s some racist and sexist crap in there. Cosmic fail, have not finished.

She-Merchants, Buccaneers & Gentlewomen by Katie Hickman

Again, research for my WIP about British women in pre-Raj India. This one is much better written. Hickman’s usual meticulous research and women-centered narrative made this a much easier read for me. I also loved her Daughters of Britannia.

Deadline by Stephanie Ahn

Loved this. Lesbian, masochistic witch in New York, trying to sort her life out after a minor misjudgment (cough) that ruined her career and nearly killed her. Also with cute alligator-moles, demons and a sadistic succubus.

More to come next month!