Historical Romances Versus Romantic Historicals

Versailles helps to make Louis XIV a 'marquee' name.

By McKenna Darby

If you love writing historical romances but chafe at the conventions of the Romance genre (The hero and heroine must meet by the end of chapter one! The relationship is the plot! They must live happily ever after!), you may just be in the wrong genre.

As I discovered at the Historical Novel Society’s fourth U.S. conference, held June 17-19 in San Diego, Historical readers love romance just as much as Romance readers do. A quick glance at the titles advertised throughout the conference program and in the goodie bags proves it: Romance is the one word that comes up again and again in the descriptions of Clara and Mr. Tiffany, Rosedale in Love, The Gentleman Poet, In the Shadow of the Lamp, A Bride Most Begrudging, Pale Rose of England, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Captain Blackwell’s Prize and dozens of other titles.

What’s more, Diana Gabaldon, whom Romance readers think of as one of their own, was a presenter. Philippa Boyens’ name was everywhere. Sourcebooks and Avon, which RWA members know primarily as leading Romance publishers, were major conference sponsors. And many of the book covers are as sexy and provocative as anything you’ll find in the Romance section of your local bookstore.

So what sets romantic Historical novels apart from historical Romance novels?

LEGENDARY OUTLAW SAM BASS

Sam Bass, Outlaw

Born on a farm near Mitchell, Indiana on July 21, 1851, Sam Bass was the son of Elizabeth Jane (Sheeks) and Daniel Bass. He was orphaned, probably by age ten. He and his brother and sisters moved to a nearby farm to live with a reportedly abusive uncle and his nine children. He ran away in 1869 and—with no formal schooling—worked most of a year in a sawmill in Rosedale, Mississippi. In the summer of 1870, he left for cattle country and arrived in Denton, Texas in the fall. Cowboy life was not as he had pictured it, so he returned to Denton. He worked for a hotel, in the stables of Sheriff William Egan caring for livestock, cutting firewood, and spending much of his time as a freighter between Denton and the railroad towns of Dallas and Sherman.

Soon Bass became interested in horse racing. In 1874, he acquired a racing horse that became known as the Denton Mare. After winning most of his races in North Texas, he took this mare to San Antonio. When his racing played out in 1876, he and Joel Collins gathered a small herd of longhorn cattle for their several owners. The two drovers reached Dodge City and decided to trail the cattle further north where prices were higher. After selling the herd and paying the hands, they had $8,000 in their pockets. Instead of returning to Texas where they owed the money, they squandered it gambling in Ogallala, Nebraska and in Deadwood, South Dakota.

After Union Pacific
Robbery

In 1877, Bass and Collins tried freighting without success, so they recruited several hardened characters to rob stagecoaches. Collins and Bass with four others rode to Big Springs, Nebraska where they held up the Union Pacific passenger train. They took $60,000 in newly minted twenty-dollar gold pieces from the express car plus $1,300 and four gold watches from passengers. They divided the loot and went in different directions. Within a few weeks, Collins and two others were killed while resisting arrest. Bass made it back to Texas and formed a new gang.

Sam Bass, standing
at left, with his new gang

The new Bass gang held up two stagecoaches and robbed four trains within twenty-five miles of Dallas. They didn’t steal much money, but their activities enraged citizens. A special company of Texas Rangers headed by Junius Peak chased the gang across North Texas. In a sweep of all residents suspected of harboring the bandits, Jim Murphy and his father Henderson Murphy were arrested and Jim taken to Tyler to face charges of robbing the U.S. mails. Jim turned informer and agreed to rejoin the gang and betray Sam Bass to the Rangers.

On July 14, 1878 Sam, Frank Jackson, and Seaborn Barnes arrived in Round Rock to case the bank one final time while Jim waited at camp. They went into Kopperal’s General Store. Williamson County Deputy Sheriff Grimes decided to investigate the men’s actions, and was accompanied by Travis County Deputy Sheriff Morris Moore. Shooting broke out and Grimes was killed and Moore severely wounded. Barnes died, but an injured Bass was helped by Jackson and escaped. Texas Ranger Ware, who was getting a shave at the time, ran into the street and fired at the escaping bandits and believed he shot Bass. Ranger Harold believed he wounded Bass. Ranger Jones was at the telegraph office, heard the commotion, and he also fired at the bandits.


Who actually shot Sam Bass was never completely decided. The Rangers called off the search to avoid what they feared as an “outlaw war” of reprisal. But on July 20, two men discovered Bass leaning against a tree. He’d given Jackson his mount, guns, cash, and all his ammunition. When approached, he said, “I’m Sam Bass, the man that has been wanted so long.” He died the following day on his 27th birthday. Jim Murphy died the following year, but no one is certain whether he committed suicide or Frank Jackson killed him.

Original tombstone

Sam Bass’ original tombstone, erected by his sister, has been chipped away by souvenir hunters. It said “A brave man reposes in death here. Why was he not true?” A new stone, seen below, has been erected by Round Rock’s Historic Preservation Commission.  Seaborn Barnes' grave is beside that of Bass.

Rosston (twenty miles from Gainesville, Texas) where Bass reportedly lived, celebrates Sam Bass Day on the third Saturday in July. Round Rock has celebrated Frontier Days on July 4th since 1964.

The preceding material was taken from data available from Texas State Historical Society Handbook of History Online and the City of Round Rock information.
 
Caroline Clemmons writes western historical, time travel and contemporary romances. Her website is http://www.carolineclemmons.com/ and her blog is at http://carolineclemmons.blogspot.com/ She loves to hear from readers at caroline@carolineclemmons.com

Animals Can Be Anachronisms, Too!

Hello, I'm Caroline Clemmons. Recently, my eldest daughter, Stephanie, and I were discussing errors in historical novels. She had helped a friend determine the dog breed appropriate for our friend's 18th-century-set romance novel. Dogs led to horses, and the mistakes people make. I cajoled my daughter into writing this blog on using appropriate breeds of animals even when writing fiction. Here is Stephanie's post:

My neighbor leases the grazing on my land. He has a couple of horses, including a mare. I looked out of the study window and saw two extra horses, one of whom was being overly “friendly” to the mare. The horses had escaped from another neighbor’s pasture.


This incident reminded me of the books that have the macho hero riding a stallion only he can ride. No one else can touch the horse, but he rides quietly among a group of other horses, including mares. I have news for you. No one who knows anything about horses would ride a stallion near another group of horses. Stallions are dangerous and unpredictable and will mount a mare in season regardless of who is on the mare’s back or riding the stallion. They will fight with and even kill other males.

Just as it is important to have the right clothing and furnishings in your book, it is important to have the animals in your book behave correctly. To do otherwise damages your credibility and the willing suspension of disbelief that engages your readers. Authors should not have a horse do something horses just do not do any more than you would have a regency character dress in an Elizabethan manner.

In the same vein, you should make sure that a dog or cat is of the correct breed for the time and place you are writing about. A Scottish Highlander during the 1600s would not have a Labrador retriever. The breed did not yet exist. The Highlander would probably have a Scottish Elkhound instead, or something similar.

While highborn ladies had lap dogs in Regency Europe, they did not have Chihuahuas. They had dogs like the Bichon Frise, a French dog who was bred to be a lady’s companion. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, or their ancestors, appear in many paintings during the reign of King Charles I and II because both kings had them.

I am not a cat person so I cannot give you cat examples. However, the Cat Fanciers Association or The International Cat Association will answer questions about what breed would be in what place when. The American Kennel Club will answer such questions for dogs. For horses, you will have to query the individual breed registries to find out when the breed came into existence and whether it would be in the time and place you are writing about.

You may feel this is a lot of trouble for something most people will not pick up on. People who read historical romances know their time period. The wrath of fans against authors who make mistakes is legendary. Take care to place the appropriate animal in your books or reader’s wrath may be directed at you.

Bio: Stephanie Suesan Smith, Ph.D. is a dog person, has had horses, and does not own cats. She is also a nonfiction writer, photographer, master gardener, and, on occasion, the research department for her

The Pirate's House

On a recent trip to Savannah, GA, I had lunch at the Pirate's House Restaurant. The food was good and the atmosphere was even better. I love stepping back in time and walking, sitting (or eating and drinking) where people did hundreds of years ago. That was the case at the Pirate's House, which by the way did have a pirate in residence who was (almost) the spitting image of Captain Jack Sparrow. :)

The Pirate's House is divided up into 15 rooms for dining. We sat in the oldest section of the house, knows as the Herb House. It was built in 1734 and is said to be the oldest house in Georgia! It was originally used by the gardener of Trustees' Garden, an early Colonial experimental garden.

After the garden and Herb House were no longer needed, the building was added on to and turned into an inn for seamen since it is only a block from the Savannah River. Seamen and pirates gathered here to drink, party and tell outlandish tales.

Above is the view I was treated to during lunch... piked skulls sticking up from an old well. I have a feeling this courtyard is haunted! Many men were said to be "shanghaied" and forced to sail the seven seas. In order to complete their crews, captains would wait until the men at the inn passed out drunk... or sometimes they were drugged. They were then carried from the Pirate House in an underground tunnel to the ship. When the men woke up they'd be at sea. One Savannah police officer is said to have been shanghaied in this way and it took him two years to return from China.

The Pirate's House is supposed to be where some of the scenes in Treasure Island (by Robert Louis Stevenson) took place. It is said the house is still haunted by Captain Flint, who hid the treasure on Treasure Island and then died at the Pirate House.

It is a very popular resturant. We arrived at a good time and only had to wait a few minutes. As we left, dozens more people were waiting to be seated. Read a more detailed history.

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There is still time to enter my Under the Kilt Contest. I will choose a winner Sept. 10.

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And you can still register for my September Turn Up the Heat! Heightening Sexual Tension and sensuality writing workshop. It starts Sept. 6. To learn more or sign up please visit this workshop page.

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I recently received an awesome reader review for Beast in a Kilt!

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Do you like sexy Highlanders and erotic romance? Click here for a hot excerpt of Beast in a Kilt. (Adults only, please!) ;)

Thanks!!

Nicole

http://www.nicolenorth.com/

Texas Giant: Richard King of The King Ranch

Hello, Caroline Clemmons here filling in for Jeanmarie Hamilton, who has a home repair emergency today.

Because Jeanmarie and I each write Texas settings for our historical romances, I thught I'd include a post on Texas history. No groaning, please! I promise this will NOT be a pedantic treatise. Grades will not be taken nor test given. Probably. Okay, no tests. Let me tell you about Richard King, nicknamed The King of Texas.

In 1852, Steamboat captain Richard King embarked on one of the most profitable undertainkings of his life. He was a 27-year-old New Yorker riding the Texas prairie. He had fallen in love with the 17-year-old daughter of a Presbyterian minister and had begun contemplating other business ventures that might support a wife and family.  When King and a few companions reached Santa Gertrudis Creek about 45 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, King was impressed with what he saw.

He told his partner in the steamboat business that land and livestock had a way of increasing in value. Cattle, horses, sheep, and goats would reproduce themselves into value. Boats had a way of wrecking, decaying, falling apart, and decreasing in value and increasing in the cost of operation.

King met with his friend, Texas Ranger Gideon Lewis, and the two men hammered out a partnership to establish a small ranch on the banks of a creek in South Texas. King was to provide the capital while Lewis and his Ranger patrol would provide protection from rustlers and Indians. As his cattle operation grew, King located the Mexican owners of the original Spanish land grant to which he had staked his claim and purchased 15,500 acres from them for $300. Shortly afterwards he added 53,000 acres for which he paid $1,800. King was something of a visionary and dammed a small stream on the property. When drought hit the area--as it always does in any part of Texas--he was the only ranch with a good supply of water.

Over the next few years, the Santa Gertrudis ranch continued to grow, although King retained his share in the steamboat business.

 King and his foreman traveled across the Rio Grande to Mexico and bought cattle at low prices. On one occasion, after buying all the livestock in a particularly poor village, he offered to take the town's entire population back to the ranch and put them to work. This was the beginning of Los Kineros, the King People, progenitors of generations of intensely loyal Mexican tenant families who worked the King Ranch.

By the time the Civil War broke out, King was one of the largest landowners in Texas, if not the largest. With a wife and three children to care for, he had increased his holdings to support twenty thousand head of cattle and three thousand horses. He initiated a series of livestock breeding experiments that he hoped would result in better, more durable strains of horses and cattle.

After King's death in 1885, his son-in-law Robert Kleberg took over the operations of the ranch. Following in his mentor's steps, Kleberg and those family members who succeeded him turned the King Ranch into the world's largest livestock operation with branches in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Cuba, Brazil, and Australia. King's initial efforts lived up to his name, The King Of Texas.

Reference, IT HAPPENED IN TEXAS, by James A Crutchfield, Falcon Press, Helena, Montana, 1996.

Thanks,

History--yours, mine, or someone else's

I like to write historical info on this blog because it is titled Seduced by History, but I have just about exhausted my research info for the books I've written lately and don't have the time to look up something new. I'm in the middle of polishing up three projects and not quite ready to start on something new, so I haven't been researching history lately.

I attended a local writer’s group a few months ago. The title of the talk given by a member was “If not, who will”. It was of course about writing family stories or history. And that had me thinking about all the genres-not just memoir writing.

We writers put a little bit of our history in everything we write. It doesn’t matter what you write–romance, sci-fi, westerns, or YA. In each project somewhere, is a scene, a scenario, a phrase that happened to you, a family member, or a friend. Something that is a part of your history.

Granted my dad wasn’t born in the 1800’s, but as a child he lived in a rural area where some things hadn’t moved ahead into the 20th century. His stories on more than one occasion have given fodder for a story or a scene in one of my books. Same with my in-laws who immigrated to the United States in the 1950’s.

At a family reunion on my mom’s side of the family, there were stories told no one would believe except in fiction! Of course names are changed to protect the instigators!

Even things my children have done end up in a story. Our lives are our history. Incorporating the good times and the bad of our lives into our characters brings them to life for the reader.

Do you use people you know or have known, personal situations, or phrases you’ve heard in your books or stories? If not, why?

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net
www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Happy Hogmanay!

You read it right...Happy Hogmanay!
Only one nation in the world celebrates the New Year or Hogmanay with such revelry and passion – the Scots!

It is believed that many of the traditional Hogmanay celebrations were originally brought to Scotland by the invading Vikings in the early 8th and 9th centuries. These Norsemen, or men from an even more northerly latitude than Scotland, paid particular attention to the arrival of the Winter Solstice or the shortest day, and fully intended to celebrate its passing with some serious partying.

When the clock strike midnight on 31st December, fireworks explode in Scotland. Crowds gather and the party begins to the tune of Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne.






Traditions and superstitions related to Hogmanay:

One should clean the house on December 31st (this includes taking out the ashes from the fire).

One should clear all your debts before "the bells" ring at midnight.

One should welcome friends and strangers with warm hospitality and a kiss and to wish everyone a Guid New Year. It is verra important to clear out the vestiges of the old year before you welcome in a young, New Year.

"First footing" is still common in Scotland. To ensure good luck, the first person to enter your home should be male, dark (believed to be a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble) This male should bring coal, shortbread, salt, black buns and whisky.

"Handselling" is the custom of gift giving on the first Monday of the New Year. So be sure to present your loved ones with a Hogmanay gift this year.

Huzzah!
Kimberly