An Interview With Jacopo della Quercia

A few weeks ago I gave a brief review of License to Quill, by Jacopo della Quercia. No, not the 15th c sculptor ; Jacopo is the pen name of a respected academic who is also a novelist and writes for Cracked.com.

Jacopo's previous book was The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy, a steampunk/alternate history/humorous adventure. License to Quill was a fun read following after reading Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro which explored how political events (like the Gunpowder Plot) impacted the Bard's plays King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra.

I was contacted by Jacopo and was able to interview him.

Interviewer: How did you choose your pen name?
Jacopo: Since I was doing political work around the time I started writing for the comedy website, I had no choice but to publish under a pen name. 'Jacopo della Quercia' is one many nicknames I've been called my entire adult life due to my real name, Giacomo, being a bit of a novelty to most people. I love my real name, but I've lived my whole life with people having a hard time pronouncing it, never mind spelling it. 'Jacopo' is my name's Latin equivalent, and I love writing under it if only because it serves as a standard to what my writing is frequently about: history, with a sense of humor to it.

[I sure understand the problem of people not knowing how to pronounce your name; I grew up a Gochenour after all!]

Interviewer: What was the inspiration behind License to Quill?
Jacopo: I was still writing my previous novel The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy when Skyfall hit theaters and bombarded me with videos and articles celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise. This evidently rubbed off on my as I decided what book to write next! Once I learned that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around the same time that the Gunpowder Plot took place, I realized that I had all the characters and components I needed to write a James Bond-esque spy-thriller starring the most famous Englishman who ever lived!

Interviewer: Your writing is an unusual blend of genres. I would like to know more about your choice of style.
Jacopo: I try to keep  my novels faithful to their respective eras in history, no matter how outlandish it sounds. If there are science fiction aspects to my story, I consult experts, historians, and research everything I can on science from that particular moment in history. When writing dialogue I read contemporaneous works, including letters and diaries, and use an etymological dictionary to avoid anachronisms and make the language sound real. When creating my characters, I search for real figures from history to cast in my story, even if just for a cameo.

It's a wonderful experience because it lets you leap across genres, which I find somewhat amusing since, in my view of it, this is what history has always been like. World War II was an action movie, a science fiction movies, a comedy, a drama, a full-blown horror, and even a love story for tens of millions of people at the same time. Most writers choose to focus on only one aspect of history in their stories: the adventure, the drama, etc. I find it all fantastic, so I try to include all of it.

Interviewer: What writers influenced you? What writers do you enjoy now?
Jacopo: I think it all depends on whatever I'm writing at the moment. Alexandre Dumas, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe influenced The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy a lot more than License to Quill, which was ultimately more influenced by the life and works of William Shakespeare than by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. I imagine I'll go on a Jane Austen binge at some point and write a book starring her. The same could go for Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, or maybe Dante, whom I am probably most indebted to as a writer.

[Austen? Dickens? Twain? I'm all for that! But imagine what he could do with Dante!]

Interviewer: What would you like readers to know about your book?
Jacopo: The first thing I would like my readers to know is "thank you." Thank you for taking this moment to give my novel a chance. It's because of readers like you that I can write books designed to make people of all interests and backgrounds more excited about history. License to Quill is a James Bond-esque spy thriller starring William Shakespeare and Guy Fawkes during the Gunpowder Plot. It is the product of years of research and a lifetime of love for William Shakespeare and the Renaissance. It is a thriller, an adventure, a mystery, and much more. I like my stories filled with surprises and License to Quill is no exception! I hope you like it!

Jacopo della Quercia

I thank Jacopo for taking the time to talk to us!

Read my review of License to Quill here. It is available from St. Martin's Griffin.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend

"What lasts? What lingers? What is snagged by the brambles of time, and what slips through and disappears?..Maybe all we do in life is just a race against this idea of disappearing."

Susan Orlean's  book about her childhood hero is a surprisingly a deep consideration of the need to hold onto something bigger than ourselves and the desire to immortalize our heroes. Her story is about the real Rin Tin Tin, the man whose life Rinty 'gave meaning to', and the people who worked to share Rinty's story as an example of courage and valor and goodness.

It was Rinty's permanence that intrigued Orleans. Movies and films made Rin Tin Tin a shared legend that crossed generations over the world. Rinty had the ability to convey emotion and was nearly nominated for an Oscar. He was one of the earliest and most successfully merchandised media icons. With The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin came Apache fort play sets, lunch boxes, even the Beyer figurine that Orlean vividly remembers sitting on her grandfather's desk.

In France during World War I America soldier Lee Duncan was in a bombed out town when he discovered a German Shepard bitch and puppies left behind by the Germans. As a child Duncan's mother had to leave him in an orphanage which gave him stability and care, for which he was eternally grateful. Lee empathized with the dogs and saved them, keeping a male and a female pup for himself. He named them Nanette and  Rin Tin Tin after locally made dolls that were worn by soldiers as good luck charms.

With the end of the war Lee was determined to bring his pups back to the States. "I felt there was something about their lives that reminded me of my own life," Lee wrote. "They had crept right into a lonesome place in my life and became a part of me."

Back in America, Lee nursed Rinty through distemper. He could no longer face his old job selling guns; they brought back memories of the buddies who didn't come home. He couldn't stand being indoors and took Rinty into the Sierras. He taught Rinty commands and tricks.

In the 1920s the German Shepard Strongheart was appearing in movies. Lee wondered if he could 'make his hobby pay' and developed a story idea for a film starring Rinty. He walked the streets of 'Poverty Row' in Hollywood trying to sell his movie idea.  A small studio, Warner Brothers, liked his idea and they made the first Rin Tin Tin movie which made Lee's and the Warner's fortunes.

When Rinty's movie career faltered Lee sold the idea of a television program to Bert Leonard and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin was born. Bert later sold his rights to Naked City and Route 66, but held on to Rin Tin Tin still hoping he'd find another venue for the immortal dog.

Lee was megalomanial about his dog. His wife and daughter were second to Rinty. Bert turned down lucrative offers for productions he didn't think were worthy of the Rin Tin Tin image; he died impoverished. Lee's family packed up all the Rinty mementos and left them behind with friends. Daphne Herford who had bought several dogs from the Rin Tin Tin line tried to keep the legend alive. She and Bert waged a legal battle over the rights to Rin Tin Tin.

The book is a joy to read, at once a trip down memory land and an exploration of the human desire to create something lasting.

The Rin Tin Tin legacy was carried on by several dogs

Rin Tin Tin The Life and the Legend
Susan Orlean
Simon & Schuster

"I adored this book. It weaves history, war, show business, humanity, wit, and grace into an incredible story about America, the human-animal bond, and the countless ways we would be lost without dogs by our sides, on our screens, and in our books."  Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

New Hanky Finds: WWI Souvineers

At the Royal Oak Flea Market I found some hankies that had to come home with me.

 This souvenir handkerchief includes hand stenciled poppies and "Keep Smiling," "For Ever," and "Remember Me" slogans. It is silk with a machine attached lace edge.

 WWI soldiers sent these handkerchiefs home to sweethearts, mothers and sisters.

Remarkably fine embroidery of the flags of Great Britain, France, and Brussels grace this fine silk handkerchief.

I have a small collection of these hankies.

American Copper by Shann Ray

I won a copy of American Copper by Shann Ray from The Quivering Pen blog by David Abrams. When his review of the book posted, extolling the beauty of Ray's language, I set it on the To Be Read Next pile. Abrams wrote, "If I said just one book can, however briefly, change the way you look at both the natural world and human nature--if I said all that, you'd want to read this book, wouldn't you?"

American Copper is a story of racism and the evil in men, and it is a love story.

In the first decades of the 20th c, automobiles are seen in the Butte, Montana streets but rodeo competitions still run the circuit. Native Americans and Chinese are considered sub-human, and gangs are free to deal out punishments to those who step out of line. Copper has made immigrant Baron Josef Lowry not only rich but the most powerful man around, his arm reaching to Washington, D.C.  He is obsessed with wealth and controls everyone in his life, especially his son and daughter. After losing his wife he commands his children to never marry; he needs them he says, and he intends to pass his copper mines and wealth to their care.

His daughter Evelynne is given everything she physically needs. Her father teaches her about the natural world and gathers her poetry for publication back east. After her brother's death, Evelynne's grief turns her into a recluse. Reaching womanhood, Eve longs to escape her ivory tower and searches for a man strong enough, or audacious enough, to stand up to her father and take her away.

The evil that inhabits men, and the capacity for love is explored in eloquent prose.

I am glad to have read this book.

The book cover blurbs include the marvelous Andra Barrett, whose historical short stories in Ship Fever and Servants of the Map I adore, wrote, "This grave, unusual novel unfolds with a beautiful evenhandedness, balancing the outer world and inner life, Cheyenne and white experiences of early 20th-century Montana.  Ray's feel for the heart and soul of Montana and its people--all its people--graces every page."

And Dave Eggers, author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and  A Hologram for a King, called the book "Lyrical, prophetic, brutal, yet ultimately hopeful."

Others compared this first novel's writing to Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plains.

American Copper
Shann Ray
Unbridled Press
ISBN: 978-1-60953-121-8

1957: Men in Red

The December 1957 Good Housekeeping magazine featured fashions for men with a Christmas flare--all in bright red!

 Matching fashions for father and son.

 

Brothers love red

  My husband says the caption below is, "It was this big!" The fish, that is.

 One boy, five men. Who is that train set up for?

 Dad also needed a classic coat that wouldn't preclude money left for gifts.

 Women and men alike wanted those wool plaid shirts. Red, I am sure.

A Pink and Blue Christmas Circa 1957

The December 1957 Good Housekeeping magazine is full of Mamie Pink--and light blues. So perhaps Pantone's colors of the year for 2016, Serenity blue and Rose Quatz pink, represent a desire to return to the Eisenhower years! Consider their two page spread, "Our Christmas Table" featuring pink walls and curtains, and a pink table cloth and chair seat covers!

"We believe that a Christmas table is as important a part of the holiday season as the tree or the presents or the food. So each year we create a table setting to serve as a dramatic background for your loveliest silver, china, and glass. This year we chose a pink theme. For the cloth, we used two length of pink felt (72 inches wide), seamed together in the center and cut into a circle. We cut out green leaves and berries of green and red felt, glued them in a border around the skirt, and wreathed each plate with them. Then we made pink-felt seas covers for the chairs and tied the pale-green napkins as though they were gifts. A wreath of real holly and a tall mound of little gifts in an epergne form the center piece. On the sideboard, as a bright finishing touch, we used real fruit, colorfully wrapped."

Pink and blue show up in the ads.

Note the pink tree on the upper left of the ad, the pink bathroom on the lower left, and the pink drapes and couch on the lower right.

Pink dresses for little girls abound in the fashion ads and in product ads. Photo at right: (Left dress) :Daisies, velvet, and lace deck the pinafore that covers a sweet pink party dress of nylon; about $9, Youngland; (Right dress) Pleasantly Victorian, with its bell sleeves and lace ruffles, of washable bates cotton satin, also in blue; about $9, Sunny Lee. At Best & Co, New York." 

Photo below: (Left dress) "Blooming with bright flowers, this dress is festooned with a frill of lace, beading, and a black-velvet tie; of Pacific Mills polished cotton, also in champagne and blue, about $5, Tiny Town, New York. (Right Dress) A perfect bon-bon of a dress, attractively tucked at front and henline, is decked with dyed-to-match lace and has an attached organdy petticoat. Of Stevens wrinkle-resistant cotton. Also in lavender, about $8, Cinderella."

Photo below: "Girls and dolls are pretty little party-goers in matching dresses with gay side sashes in a contrasting color. Simplicity Pattern 2292. We used pink cotton organdy by William Lind." 

Photo below: Left dress: "An enchanting concoction of crisp pink, trimmed with creamy lace, has a gathered skirt and scoop neckline. Simplicity Pattern 2323. We used washable "Dacron" and silk by Mallinson." Right dress: "Richly garlanded with yards of dainty lace, this sentimental little dress has a Peter Pan collar, push-up sleeves, and a Bouffant skirt. Simplicity pattern 2322. We used pink cotton organdy by William Lind."

A lone blue dress!

A brighter pink dress, and blue, nearly turquoise in the table and chairs.

This pink kitchen is not as bright a pink, but it is paired with blue.

A blue vacuum.

This vacuum color is more turquoise. 

Bing Cosby has a pink and blue kitchen. Somehow I doubt he really spent any time in it.

Pink and blue, with brown and white, predominates this vintage fabric.

Mamie Eisenhower's inaugural ball gown, 1953, featured 2,000 rhinestones.

Breaker Boys to Break Your Heart: Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Author Ellen Marie Wiseman knew she had a story that needed to be told. Her new novel Coal River takes readers on a journey back a hundred years ago, revealing the brutal life of children who worked in the coal mines. It was before worker's rights, unionization, and the establishment of the Department of Labor in 1913. Read Coal River and see if your heart doesn't break over the life of the Breaker Boys.

For ten or twelve hours a day these lads sat on a wood plank over conveyor belts, With bare hands they reached down to pick the slate and impurities out from the passing coal. The coal was washed, creating sulphuric acid which burned their flesh. The boys' fingers bled, their backs ached, they breathed in the coal dust. And too often the children tired and caught body parts in the belt and lost a hand or an arm, a foot or a leg. Or maybe they fell in and were crushed.

Breaker Boys at work

The story is about Emma who at age nineteen is an orphan. She has come to Coal River to live with her maternal aunt and family. Her uncle works at the coal mine. The mine is a looming presence that is inescapable: mountains of slag, pervasive coal dust, the burning culm banks lighting the night. The workers' houses, company owned, are filled with impoverished and distraught families with children missing body parts. The women can't find enough money to feed the family. And when the breadwinner is killed in the mines the family loses their home.

Emma has citified, modern ideas and is used to nonconformity and independence; her parents worked in theater. She also has bad memories of her only other visit to Coal River, for her younger brother Albert drowned in the river after a run-in with the local kids. She disdains her relations' old fashioned values based on fitting in and their wealth made on the backs and blood of the workers.

Emma is moved by the injustice she sees and becomes a (figurative and literal) underground activist, culminating in entering the mines as a breaker boy to photograph the illegal conditions and underage workers. She sends the photos to the New York Times. She becomes involved with a pro-union mine worker and is courted by the local sheriff--who is in the mine owner's pocket but hankers for Emma's love. The climax involves a mine accident, a murder, and Emma's incarceration.

Most readers will be riveted by Emma's story and the descriptions of life in a coal mine before government oversight and unionization. I commend the author's bringing the breaker boys to attention. Readers learn about how the mine owners controlled every aspect of the workers lives, holding them in near slaver. The writing is competent, especially the visual descriptions.

Emma will appeal to modern readers who like their heroine feisty, headstrong, and fearless. Like most contemporary historical fiction, she is not a woman of her time (1912). But she does share traits with muckrackers like Ida Tarbell and Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman). Lewis B. Hines makes an appearance in the story. I wish he'd had a bigger role. Hine's photographs of working conditions for children spurred national interest and the establishment of laws to protect children. His work clearly informs the character of Emma.

Lewis Hines photograph of boy mine workers

The portrayal of the mine owner and bosses, and the good ole boys in the owner's pocket, was one sided: totally evil, despicable, and immoral. They take the law into their own hands, dealing out 'justice' that supports profits and the power structure. Emma's uncle is not only mean, a miser, abusive, and a drunk, he also goes after young girls. (Remarkably, the girl LIKES him. Must be his power.) The resolution was forced and too clever. Talk about deus ex machina. I was disappointed. But romantics will love it.

Read about the Breaker Boys and other children mine workers discussed in the novel, and see photographs by Lewis W. Hines, at the Department of Labor website Little Miners here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Coal River
Ellen Marie Wiseman
Kensington Books
Publication Date: November 24, 2015
$15 paperback
ISBN:9781617734472