WORD BY WORD: BITS AND BOBS FOR JUNE

Lorraine Norwood
Jun 2
6 min read

Hi ya’ll! It’s June and here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, everything is green, green, green. The mountain laurel is blooming a sweet pink and the garden shops are bursting. Woo hoo!

The British have a phrase “bits and bobs” meaning small things or jobs of different types, according to the Cambridge English Dictionary. For instance, I could say “this junk drawer contains a few bits and bobs”, meaning it could contain pins, pens, pencils, a screwdriver, etc. That’s what this newsletter contains today, bits and bobs of news about what’s coming up.

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The winner will be announced on Women’s Fiction Day, June 8th. The winner receives one copy of each of the seven books.

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Calendar page for June with a tournament scene, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours), workshop of Simon Bening, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1540. — Calendar page for June with a tournament scene, from the *Golf Book* (Book of Hours), workshop of Simon Bening, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1540.

WHAT DID MEDIEVAL FOLKS DO IN JUNE?

Well, people who could afford it participated in tournaments. Here, two knights on horseback are engaged in a swordfight. Behind them are players jousting in full armor while spectators watch from the stands. Some people are in the nose-bleed section on the roof of nearby

structures.

SO HOW IS BOOK TWO COMING?

Funny you should ask. I’ve had a hard time marketing the The Solitary Sparrow while trying to write A Pelican in the Wilderness. I’m doing all the marketing myself which is mildly frustrating at times since I’m not really good at marketing (but I’m learning). It’s rare for publishers to do all the public relations and marketing these days. Even the big guys in NY expect their authors to do the heavy lifting. Also, I’m your basic writer-introvert so thinking outside of the box – heck, climbing out of the box – is hard to do.

BUT I’M LEARNING! I’m crawling out of my comfort zone because I BELIEVE IN MY BOOK AND MYSELF.

Gerta is a big hit with 8-year-olds.

Notice the gargoyle nipping my feet.

A couple of weeks ago, I made my first school presentation. A teacher asked me to talk to her class of third-graders who were reading about the Vikings and their gods. Since I studied the Vikings in graduate school in England and participated in excavations that yielded Viking artifacts, I felt I could offer some views on Viking culture. I bought a costume and pretended I was Gerta the Healer who had just arrived on the Wayback Machine from a Viking village. entrance wearing a Viking horned helmet, explaining that no honest-to-goodness Viking would be caught dead wearing such a horrid hat. The horned helmet is nonsense. It was an invention of the Victorians. I was quite put out that I had to drink water instead of mead but I had brought some peas porridge that had been cooking for nine days so I could stave off hunger. They didn’t want to eat any, needless to say. The students were excited, but they paid attention to the PowerPoint, and asked some great questions. I discovered I was a great hit with 8-year-olds, especially since I ended on a fart joke. It was great fun!

I’m participating in a book fair on June 7 so if you find yourself in Hendersonville, NC, come by The Buzz and say hello (and buy a book—thank you). I’ve ordered a medieval coif which I’ll wear at the book fair along with reproduction medieval leather shoes. I’ve bought some swag, too.

And speaking of the long winding road to publication, I published an essay in the blog "Reading the Past" (linked HERE). I talked about how long I worked on the book and the happiest day in my writing career – when an agent signed me (and the saddest day when we parted ways).

So, between marketing, and a part-time job to pay my bills, my writing has slowed. This makes me very grumpy. So I’m trying to come up with an option that will slice and dice my 24 hours in the day. Currently, I’m thinking of getting up at 5 a.m. and putting in a couple of hours before I have to go to work. Since I’m not a morning person, I’m not sure how this will turn out. I tried this option years ago when my daughters were little and woke up with my head on the keyboard one morning, drool on my chin, and pages and pages of gobbledygook showing me that I fell asleep instead of writing. This time I’ll try more coffee.

I had the privilege recently of being a guest on the podcast, “Here Us Roar”, a celebration of debut authors in the women’s fiction genre. The podcast is hosted by Maggie Smith, author of Blindspot and Truth and Other Lies, fabulous interviewer, and member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA). You can find it on Spotify and on the WFWA website.

MY FAVORITE PODCAST THIS MONTH: SHERLOCK HOLMES SHORT STORIES

I love this podcast because I’m a Sherlock Holmes freak and love listening to the smooth voice of Hugh Bonneville – yes! Hugh of “Downton Abbey” fame – as he narrates these wonderful stories. The classic mysteries include ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’, ‘The Red-Headed League’, ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, and many more.

Here’s what Hugh Bonneville says of the podcast series:

"From the smoke-filled sitting room at 221B Baker Street to the foggy streets of London, the windswept moors and beyond, we’ll follow the master detective as he uses his unique powers of deduction to unravel baffling mysteries, set against the backdrop of Victorian England. All the classic Holmesian elements are here: locked room conundrums, cunning disguises, and twisted conspiracies.”

The podcast comes from the Noiser Network, an independent podcasting network from the UK which has over 600 history podcast episodes and 13 million downloads a month. I particularly like listening to John Hopkins, the host of Short History Of and Real Survival Stories. He has a lovely voice. And BTW, John Hopkins played Sgt. Dan Scott on Midsomer Murders.

A LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART

Sally, my 14-year-old yellow Lab has jumped the Rainbow Bridge. She and I had a good life together. Unfortunately cancer ended it. She had osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer that the vet warned me was aggressive and nasty. On the morning of her euthanasia, my daughter and I took her to Starbucks for a pup-cup, then to McDonald’s for chicken nuggets. We gave her hugs and kisses as she went to sleep. I told her she was the best dog in the whole wide world. And then it was done. But she’ll always be in my head as I write. I’ve left her dog bed where it was – near my desk.

Sally snuggles in the blanket after finishing her pup-cup.

She was my greatest friend and my best companion.

AND JUST FOR GIGGLES

Thanks for reading, ya’ll. I hope your June is full of the joys of summer . . . Here’s what gives me joy: the first rose of summer, a Zephirine Drouhin climbing heirloom rose that has frustrated me for three years – first year, grew 16 feet and no roses. Second year grew 16 feet and one rose. This year: hooray, five roses and growing.